Loving The Enemy by Anushka Fernandopulle

Anushka Fernandopulle teaches Vipassana meditation in the San Francisco Bay Area and
around the US. Anushka has trained in the Theravada Buddhist tradition for over 20 years in monasteries in Sri Lanka & India as well as urban US settings, and is a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher's Council. Anushka has an MBA from Yale School of Management and works with organizations as a consultant and with individuals as an executive/leadership coach. More about her dharma teaching and work can be found at www.anushkaf.org



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Contentment With Voidness by Shaila Catherine

Shaila Catherine has been practicing meditation since 1980, with more than eight years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has taught since 1996 in the USA, and internationally. Shaila has dedicated several years to studying with masters in India, Nepal and Thailand, completed a one year intensive meditation retreat with the focus on concentration and jhana, and authored Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity. Shaila Catherine has been practicing under the guidance of Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw since 2006, and authored Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana to help make this traditional approach to meditative training accessible to western practitioners. She is the founder of Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation centre in Silicon Valley (www.imsb.org).



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Freeing Yourself From The Inner Critic by Mark Coleman

Here's a series of three talks by Mark Coleman on the subject of our "inner critic".


Mark Coleman has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1984. He is a Spirit Rock Meditation Teacher and has been teaching Insight Meditation retreats since 1997. He also leads wilderness meditation retreats from Alaska to Peru, integrating mindfulness meditation with nature. He is author of Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery. Mark is a psychotherapist, life-coach and mindfulness consultant to corporations. He is an avid outdoor enthusiast and passionate about combining the forces of meditation, silence and nature.

Talk One


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Talk Two


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Talk Three


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The Buddha's World View by Bhante Bodhidhamma

This is another talk by Bhante Bodhidhamma who recently visited us here at the West Wight Sangha.

The talk discusses the process of Dependent Origination and how we perceive the "World". It is one of the best explainations of the complex subject of Dependent Origination that I have heard.




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The Five Hindrances To Enlightenment by Ayya Anandabodhi

Ayya Anandabodhi first encountered the Buddha's teaching in her early teens, which ignited a deep interest in the Buddha’s Path of Awakening. She has practiced meditation since 1989, and lived in Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries in the UK from 1992 for 18 years.

In 2009 she moved to the U.S. on invitation of the Saranaloka Foundation, to help establish Aloka Vihara, a training monastery for women, where she now resides. She took leave of the Ajahn Chah lineage in 2011, in order to take full bhikkhuni ordination. The teachings and example of Ajahn Chah continue to be an influence and inspiration in her practice and teaching.



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The Way Goes Nowhere by Will Kabat-Zinn

This talk by Will Kabat-Zinn proved somewhat controversial with half the listeners disliking the speaker's style and thinking the content lightweight while the other half of the audience feeling that Kabat-Zinn was making some deep points in an engaging way.

The only thing is to hear for yourself (it is slow to get going).

Will Kabat-Zinn has practiced Vipassana meditation intensively in the U.S. and in Burma for over ten years. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches regularly at SF Insight, Spirit Rock, and at meditation centres around the country. For eight years Will taught meditation and awareness practices to incarcerated youth in New York City and Oakland. He is the son of Jon Kabat-Zinn who is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.



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Simplicity & Sympathy by Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. He began his training after graduating from Dartmouth College in Asian Studies in 1967. Then he joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to the Public Health Service in northeast Thailand, which is home to several of the world’s oldest Buddhist forest monasteries. He met and studied under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. After returning to the United States, Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. He is also a founding teacher of the Spirit Rock Centre in Woodacre, California, where he currently lives and teaches. Over the years, Jack has taught in centers and universities worldwide, led International Buddhist Teacher meetings with the Dalai Lama and worked with many of the great teachers of our time. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a father and activist.

His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. They include, A Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology, A Path with Heart; After the Ecstasy, the Laundry; Teachings of the Buddha; Seeking the Heart of Wisdom; Living Dharma; A Still Forest Pool; Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart; Buddha’s Little Instruction Book; The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness and Peace and his most recent book, Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are.



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The Promise Of Awakening by Howard Cohn

Howard Cohn, has led the Mission Dharma sitting group in San Francisco for over 25 years. He has practised meditation since 1972, has led vipassana retreats since 1985, and is a senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Centre.

In this talk he describes  the "fruits" of practise and how it engages us with the entirety of reality.



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Freedom From Opposites by Martin Aylward

In this talk Martin Aylward examines the link between holding opinions and the tightening of the mind around the extreme ends of the spectrum of experience and how we can gain freedom from these opposites.



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No Self by Anam Thubten

This talk is actual the one I took along for the monthly Friday retreat day held by the Newport

Soto Zen group. It is by Anam Thubten and is about how Nirvana is reached by the abandoning of identities.

Born in 1968 and raised in the remote Golok region of Amdo, in north­east­ern Tibet, Anam Thubten was rec­og­nized at an early age as the incar­na­tion of the great yogi Anam Lama Choying Phuntsok (also known as Anam Tsetsampa). The young tulku began his for­mal Buddhist stud­ies at the age of 10. In the course of his stud­ies, in the Nyingma tra­di­tion, he devel­oped a spe­cial affin­ity towards a very inspir­ing teacher and her­mit named Lama Tsurlo. Lama Tsurlo’s kind­ness and wis­dom gave him the firm base to advance in his Dharma prac­tice. In 1991, Anam Thubten Rinpoche escaped Tibet and fled to India.



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Natural Insight by Winnie Nazarko

Winnie Nazarko has been a student and practitioner of Buddhism since 1981. She has a background in community organizing and human services leadership, and has a special interest in how meditative practices can strengthen human capacity to address social, political, and environmental issues. She was the project director for Insight Meditation Society’s development of the Forest Refuge, a retreat centre for experienced meditators doing extended self-retreat.



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Clearly Visible but Hard to See by Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. In particular, he regards the doctrines of karma and rebirth to be features of ancient Indian civilisation and not intrinsic to what the Buddha taught. Buddhism has survived for the past 2,500 years because of its capacity to reinvent itself in accord with the needs of the different Asian societies with which it has creatively interacted throughout its history. As Buddhism encounters modernity, it enters a vital new phase of its development. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism's role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer.



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Not Stealing, Lying and the Pabhassara Citta by Trudy Goodman

Trudy Goodman is Executive Director and Founder of InsightLA, a non-profit organization for Vipassana
meditation training and secular mindfulness education. She teaches extensively in the field of meditation and psychotherapy at conferences and retreats nationwide. In 1995, she co-founded the very first Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy in Cambridge, MA, where she lived and taught at the Cambridge Buddhist Association from 1991-98. Trudy has studied Buddhist meditation for 35 years, with Asian and Western teachers, and is a contributing author of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy (Guilford Press, 2005) and Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness (Springer, 2008).

Part 1



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Part 2



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How to Be an Earthling... by Wes Nisker

Wes “Scoop” Nisker is an author, radio commentator, Buddhist meditation teacher, and performer.

His most recent book is entitled Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! (Stonebridge Press).
Other titles include The Big Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom (Harper San Francisco, 2003), the newly edited version of his national bestseller, Essential Crazy Wisdom (Ten Speed Press, 2001), and Buddha’s Nature (Bantam, 1999).

Mr. Nisker is also the founder and co-editor of the international Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind.



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Perception, Agitation, Stillness, and the Second Foundation of Mindfulness by Carol Perry

Carol Perry leads retreats, weeklong bush yatras (mindfulness walks) & dharma workshops. She has 30 years of Insight meditation experience. She works the process of transformation on many levels and is rooted in a practice of bringing insight into all facets of life.

Carol is the co-founder of Dharmananda a sustainable community in northern NSW. She has lived in community for 40 years. Her commitment to community led to her work as a dispute mediator and teacher of mindful communication workshops. In addition Carol has a mindfulness-based psychotherapy (Hakomi) practice.



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Two Talks by Akincano Marc Weber

Akincano Marc Weber was born in Berne (Switzerland) and is a Buddhist teacher and contemplative psychotherapist. He learned to sit still in the early eighties as a Zen practitioner and later became a monk in Ajahn Chah’s tradition where he studied and practiced for 20 years in the Forest monasteries of Thailand and Europe. He has studied Pali and scriptures, holds a degree in Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy and lives with his wife in Cologne, Germany from where he teaches Dhamma and meditation internationally.

The following are two short talks offered as morning reflections during an Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge retreat.

Attuning to the signless (animitta)



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Orientation: attention and intention as factors of practice



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Concentration by Marcia Rose

Marcia Rose lives in Taos, New Mexico, USA. She is the founding and guiding teacher of The Mountain Hermitage and founding teacher of Taos Mountain Sangha. She has been studying and practicing Buddhist teachings and meditation with Asian and Western teachers since 1970, primarily in the Theravada-Vipassana (Path of the Elders) tradition. Her own teaching reflects a clear influence from the Burmese Pa-Auk Forest Monastery and Mahasi Vipassana lineages. She has also studied and practiced in the Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhist tradition with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Marcia was resident teacher for staff at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, MA from 1991-1995. She continues teaching at IMS as an occasional visiting teacher and is also a regular visiting teacher at The Forest Refuge in Barre, MA. Marcia also teaches Concentration, Vipassana and Brahma Vihara retreats in other U.S. and international venues, and is dedicated to offering these ancient and timeless teachings in ways that make them accessible and authentic for contemporary culture.



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Dependent Origination by Gil Fronsdal

Gil Fronsdal is the primary teacher for the Insight Meditation Centre in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practised Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Centre where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Centre in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Centre . He is currently serving on the SF Zen Centre Elders’ Council.



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This talk is from a 7 day retreat on the subject of "Emptiness". You can access all of the retreat talks HERE.

What is Non-Duality by Charles Genoud

This is a series of talks by Charles Genoud on the subject of non-duality. The language is heavily accented but the talks are well worth the effort. Monsieur Genoud approaches the subject from some unusual and illuminating angles.

Charles Genoud is the cofoundeur of the Vimalakirti Centre in Geneva and has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since 1970. He was, for several years, student of the Venerable Geshe Rabten and then of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. His unique approach, Gesture of Awareness, is the result of the Buddhist Madhyamika point of view applied to meditation techniques and complementary work in the field of sensory awareness under the guidance of Michael Tophoff. Charles Genoud teaches Buddhist meditation and leads workshops in France, the USA, and Switzerland.

What is non-duality



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Non-duality of object and subject



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Where are we when we are absent



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Right view



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