Exploration of the Kalama Sutta by Andrea Fella

In this talk Andrea Fella explores what is one of the most popular Suttas, the Kalama Sutta, a discourse of the Buddha contained in the Aṅguttara Nikaya. It is often described as the Buddha's "charter of free inquiry."

In it the Buddha says, only when one personally knows that a certain teaching is skillful, blameless, praiseworthy, and conducive to happiness, and that it is praised by the wise, should one then accept it as true and practice it.



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Attachment by Ajahn Brahmali

Ajahn Brahmali was born in Norway in 1964, first became interested in Buddhism and meditation in his early 20s after a visit to Japan.

He ordained as a monk with Ajahn Brahm as his preceptor in 1996. For the past 4 years he has been teaching Pali and the Vinaya ( monastic discipline) to the monks at Bodhinyana Monaster.



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Differentiating Right Effort from Wise Effort by Rodney Smith

Nature, death and spontaneous freedom continually interweave themselves into my teaching. From the forest of Thailand, where I spent several years, I bring a deep awareness of the healing quality of nature into my teachings. Relaxing into our true nature allows us to realize what it means to be a human being. It is here we find a resting point, a counterbalance to the speed and turbulence of our culture.

My work in hospice brings a sense of urgency into my teaching. Working with the theme of death and dying reveals the here and now of life to us, how important it is to open to each loss, change and transition that marks our path. Life is precious. We need to awaken without hesitation.

Many of us crave to be more calm and centred. We know that life has more to offer than this fleeting material world. For each of us, the Dharma offers an immediacy of freedom for which we do not have to strive or wait. In practice, we can learn to relax deeply into the moment and rediscover spontaneous freedom.



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The Art of Inquiry by Martin Aylward

Martin Aylward began practising Dharma at the age of 19, spending several years in Asian Buddhist monasteries and with Himalayan hermits. Martin is Co-Founder and Resident Teacher of Moulin de Chaves Meditation Centre in South West France, and reflecting his interest in engaged Dharma practice, has a new website, and is beginning to offer retreats, called Work Sex Money Dharma. He has been teaching internationally since 1999.




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Got Freedom by Vinny Ferraro

Vinny Ferraro has been practicing meditation since 1993. He has studied with several renowned spiritual teachers including Jack Kornfield, Ajahn Sumedho and the Dalai Lama. In 1998, he spent a year sitting bedside with the dying through the San Francisco Zen Center Hospice Program. Since 2000 Vinny has led workshops for youth in schools internationally for a non-profit organization called Challenge Day, which led him to facilitate a group of teens and their families for the Oprah show. He has taught meditation to incarcerated youth and adults and is currently training dharma teachers to do the same for MBA, The Mind Body Awareness Project. He is a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader and has been teaching the weekly Friday night insight meditation group, Dharma Punx, in San Francisco since 2004.



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A Special Monk & Monastic Memories by Steve Armstrong

This Thursday featured a double bill of two shorter talks by Steve Armstrong. In both he talks of his time as a monk in Burma and of some of the inspirational monks that he met there.

A Special Monk



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Monastic Memories



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Renunciation by Ayya Anandabodhi

This seemed an appropriate choice of talk following our recent visit to the Buddhist Monastery at Chithurst. The nuns community there has been steadily diminishing in the wake of the controversy over Bhikkhuni ordination.

Some of the nuns left to form the Aloka Vihara in San Francisco, which is supported by the Saranaloka Foundation. This was established in 2004 to support nuns from Chithurst and Amaravati monasteries to come to the United States to teach. After numerous visits, enthusiasm for the presence of women monastics allowed Saranaloka to extend an invitation to the nuns' community to set up a permanent monastery in the United States.

The decision of the nuns to take bhikkhuni ordination was followed by a decision of the Saranaloka Foundation to allow the evolution of Aloka Vihara to include ordained bhikkhunis. It is the intention of the Board of Directors to offer support to both the siladhara (10-precept nuns) in England, when they come to America to teach or visit and to the Aloka Vihara and its resident nuns who take bhikkhuni ordination.

The Aloka Vihara is well supported and both Ayya Anandabodhi and Ayya Santacitta are in residence there.



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Mindfulness in the Buddhist Context by Gil Frosdal

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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I am of the Nature to Age by Anna Douglas

Anna Douglas, PhD. is a Buddhist Dharma Teacher, one of the founders of Spirit Rock Meditation Centre.

Her focus is on helping students of the Dharma mature in their practice, taking the practice off the cushion into their daily lives.

This talk examines Anicca, impermanence and the fact that we all age, grow older and die, and how realising this leads to liberation.




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The Buddha's Personality by Vishvapani

The third in a major new series of talks by Vishvapani to mark the launch of his new book: 'Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One' (Quercus, 2011). Vishvapani is a well known figure in the Triratna Buddhist Community and is a regular contributor on the BBC's 'Thought for the Day'.

Great artists have tried and failed to grasp the essence of the Buddha's character. Beyond the narrative and the drama, what was the Buddha actually like? And what can be gleaned from the diverse sources that tell us about him? In this reflective talk Vishavapani looks behind the veils of history, legend and the texts themselves to conjure a vivid, felt image of the Buddha's personality. In a series of beautifully observed close-up drawings from the Pali Canon we are left with a portrait of spiritual genius that is both enigmatically distant and thoroughly human. Talk given at the London Buddhist Centre, February 2011. This talk is part of the series Gautama Buddha.



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