This page contains an archive of dharma talks by James Baraz and guest teachers at our Thursday evening meetings recorded during 2009. Scroll down or click on a topic for more information:
Verses on the Faith Mind by Seng-T'san (3rd Zen Patriarch of China)
This is a three part series on James' favorite piece of dharma wisdom: Verses on the Faith Mind by Sengstan, otherwise known as the 3rd Zen Patriarch of China. This is one of the best treatises on the non-dual approach to practice. A few choice lines:
“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.”
"Stop talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know."
"The burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness."
“To live in the realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.”
During this series, James reads through the text and discusses how we can apply it in our lives. You can read the text of this sutra here.
A Meditative Instruction: Relaxed, Interested, Kind Awareness
This is a three part series of talks on James’ basic meditation instructions: “Receive the moment with a relaxed, interested and kind awareness. Note: The Relaxed Awarenss talk was recorded at the February 2009 month-long retreat at Spirit Rock.
The first talk is an introduction in preparation for part two with guest Paul Ekman, psychologist, leading expert on human emotions and facial expressions and co-author with the Dalai Lama on the recent book Emotional Awareness.
In the second talk, Paul plays excerpts of his discussions with the Dalai Lama on forgiveness and compassion and lays out his current theory about the origins and nature of compassion.
