Dharma Seed - Dharma Talks given at Common Ground Meditation Center

2016-10-17 Buddhist Studies Course - Understanding Sensuality - Week 5 1:28:22

Mark Nunberg

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We have now completed half of our course examining our experience of sensuality. As we have begun to reflect on the limitation of sense experience we want to specifically look into the limitations of what we might consider wholesome experience. What danger, if any, is associated with wholesome experiences? At the end of MN 13, The Discourse on the Great Mass of Stress the Buddha uses the example of meditative peace as a sense experience with the allure of gratification, with drawbacks and with an escape. So if even the deepest states of meditative peace have drawbacks what about the pleasant wholesome states that our minds are still dependent on? Are these experiences a set up for disappointment, stress and suffering? What has our experience taught us? Let's notice the ephemeral quality of our wholesome moments. Are they stable enough to provide lasting satisfaction?

Common Ground Meditation Center : Buddhist Studies Course - Understanding Sensuality

2016-10-16 Investigating The Five Hindrances Week 1 55:07
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Common Ground Meditation Center : Weekly Dharma Series

2016-10-11 Course - Introduction to Mindfulness - Week 4 1:33:05

Mark Nunberg

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Common Ground Meditation Center : Course - Introduction to Mindfulness

Attached Files:

Strategies for Working with Obstacles to Mindfulness by Mark Nunberg (Google Doc)

2016-10-10 Buddhist Studies Course - Understanding Sensuality - Week 4 56:14

Mark Nunberg

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Please take this week to more clearly discern the gratification & allure of sense experience and the drawbacks & limitations of sense experience. Remember, the practice is to collect honest data. The purification of view that the mind has toward sensuality does happen because we want to shift our view, rather, it happens because the data that the mind collects through being mindful overwhelms older views/beliefs about sensuality and allows for a newer, more refined, wiser view to arise in its place. One theme you might use for your small group sharing is, what if any data has this mind or heart, collected in the recent past that demonstrates the limitations and drawbacks of sense experience? Some Additional Readings for Week 4:

Common Ground Meditation Center : Buddhist Studies Course - Understanding Sensuality

Attached Files:

Placeholder (File)
Mind Like Fire Unbound Chapter III 'Forty cartloads of timber.' by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Link)
What You Take Home With You by Ajahn Sucitto (Google Doc)

2016-10-05 Mindfulness of Breathing Week 4 55:34
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Common Ground Meditation Center : Weekly Dharma Series

2016-10-04 Course - Introduction to Mindfulness - Week 3 1:26:48

Mark Nunberg

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Common Ground Meditation Center : Course - Introduction to Mindfulness

Attached Files:

Instructions for Walking Meditation by Gil Fronsdal (Google Doc)
What is the Right Attitude for Meditation? by Sayadaw U Tejaniya (Google Doc)

2016-10-03 Buddhist Studies Course - Understanding Sensuality - Week 3 1:27:31

Mark Nunberg

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After spending the first several weeks looking more closely at the experience of gratification of sense experiences, starting with week 3 we will bring into view a more honest reflection on the drawbacks and limitations of sense experience. Below are study materials for Week 3:

Common Ground Meditation Center : Buddhist Studies Course - Understanding Sensuality

Attached Files:

Drawbacks (The Buddha's teachings on the drawbacks of sensuality), Translated by Thanissaro Bikkhu (Google Doc)
Sallatha Sutta: The Arrow (The Dart), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Google Doc)
Five Remembrances (Google Doc)
Placeholder (File)

2016-09-27 Course - Introduction to Mindfulness - Week 2 1:28:02

Mark Nunberg

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Common Ground Meditation Center : Course - Introduction to Mindfulness

Attached Files:

Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation, Weeks Two and Three: by Mark Nunberg (Google Doc)

2016-09-25 Mindfulness of Breathing Week 3 55:52
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Common Ground Meditation Center : Weekly Dharma Series

2016-09-24 Understanding Joy as the Means for the Fruit of the Path 1:11:55
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Common Ground Meditation Center