The Mind is an Interpretation Machine by Grove Burnett

Grove T. Burnett is founder of the Western Environmental Law Center, a public interest environmental law firm and has had a distinguished career representing environmental organizations and Indian Tribes across the West.

Grove has litigated many of the most important environmental cases in the Southwest, including the reintroduction of the endangered Mexican Wolf (the Lobo) back into the wild. He has been named four times to The Best Lawyers in America, which lists the top 1% of the nation's lawyers, and has received national recognition and many awards for his pathbreaking work in public interest environmental law, including the prestigious Kerry Rydberg Award for Environmental Activism and the E-chievement Award from the nationally syndicated radio show E-Town. Grove is also co-founder, along with Linda Velarde, of the Vallecitos Mountain Refuge, a wilderness ranch and contemplative center for the nonprofit and activist community, located 45 miles west of Taos.

Grove has trained extensively in the Buddhist traditions for over 25 years with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. In addition to teaching meditation retreats at Vallecitos, he teaches retreats with Steven Smith, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein, including meditation retreats for the Yale Law School and the Insight Meditation Society.



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How Do We Become Wise by Sylvia Boorstein

Sylvia Boorstein is a co-founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, where she leads a popular weekly class on Wednesday mornings. She is also a Senior Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She lectures nationally on Buddhism and mindfulness; she teaches vipassana and metta meditation. She emphasizes seeing daily life as practice and has a special ability to illustrate how we can be mindful standing in a grocery store checkout line as well as sitting on a meditation cushion.



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Engaged Buddhism by David Loy

In this fascinating talk David Loy examines the ethical approaches of the West, based on the Abrahamic faiths and that of the East, based on Buddhism. The full title of the talk is "Engaged Buddhism; Personal Transformation and Social Justice".

David R. Loy (born July 27, 1947) is a Buddhist philosopher who writes on the interaction between Buddhism and modernity. He has been practicing Zen since 1971 and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo-Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. David has taught at the National University of Singapore and Bunkyo University in Japan. From 2006 to 2010 he was the Besl Family Chair Professor of ethics/religion and society at Xavier University in Cincinnati.



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Retreat Talks

Yesterday some of us from the West Wight Sangha travelled into Newport to join the Soto Zen group for a day's meditation retreat, the following two talks were used.

The first, "Wisdom and Compassion", is by Swiss dharma teacher Ursula Flückiger.



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The second is by Jeffrey Schneider and is entitled "There is No God and No Soul". Unfortunately the sound quality is not great but the talk is well worth listening to.



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Dependent Origination by Leigh Brasington

This is another series of talks, this time by Leigh Brasington on the subject of Dependent Origination. Only the second talk was short enough to be suitable for the evening meeting with the Soto Zen group in Newport. However, the complete series is available here.

Dependent Origination Part 1



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Dependent Origination Part 2



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Dependent Origination Part 3



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Dependent Origination Part 4



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Applying The Four Foundations by Rodney Smith

The principles of the Four Nobel Truths, we are all familiar with, but the application of the principles lie within the integrated understanding of the Four Foundations. In this fascinating talk Rodney Smith goes deep into the Dharma and the nature of perceptual reality. One of the best talks that I have heard in a long time.

This is the first of a collection of five talks; we will feature the whole series as they are given. The talks were delivered at the Forest Refuge at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts U.S.A.



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This is the second talk in this series, "Second Foundation; Dissolving Form".



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This is the third talk, "Third Foundation; Just This".



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The fourth talk is "Exploring The Third Foundation".



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This is the final talk, "Application Of The Four Foundations".



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Beauty of Energy by Steve Armstrong

In this dharma talk, part of a non-residential retreat series on "Qualities of a Beautiful Mind," Steve
Armstrong focuses on one of the ten paramis: beauty. Steve discusses how an awakened mind is marked by energy, used to benefit one's own life and the lives of others.




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Dharma Talk at Cambridge Insight Meditation Centre by Jack Engler

Jack Engler is one of the pioneers of transpersonal theory, a relatively new way of thinking about human development in which Western psychological theory meets Eastern enlightenment philosophy. He is a practicing psychotherapist who also teaches Theravada Buddhist "mindfulness" meditation and Buddhist psychology. He is also the man who made the by-now famous declaration: "You have to be somebody before you can be nobody." His statement has become a catchphrase in much of the Western Buddhist world and almost a commandment among transpersonal psychologists and theorists.



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Its About Time by Wes Nisker

Wes Nisker has studied Buddhist meditation for over three decades with teachers in Asia and America, and for the past 20 years has been leading his own retreats and workshops in Buddhist insight meditation and philosophy at venues internationally. He is an affiliate teacher at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, and does regular workshops at Esalen Institute and other venues.

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



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Neuro Dharma by Dr. Cliff Saron

Dr. Cliff Saron speaks with us about the limits of science, our paradigms, and the relation between statements made at the population level and what is meaningful for the individual in Buddhist training.
Our meditation is, by its very nature, in our own body and mind. It’s internal, there’s very little for someone to watch on the outside, they can’t do a fly through of our minds to see what’s going on. As it is so very subjective, there is a challenge when science does a study about that practice.



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