In honor of Vesak, coming up this year on May 19, a series of talks on the Buddha themself, interwoven with some discussion of the traditional verses of praise we chant in our Refuge & Precepts Pūja. We’ll use as a framework this month a strange and beautiful sutta known as “Wonderful and Marvelous,” (Acchariya-abbhūta Sutta, MN 123, here in […]
Wonderful & Marvelous: Recollection of the Buddha Read More »
One of the most prolific and brilliant Buddhist scholars of our generation is the German Theravāda monastic, Ven. Anālayo. His vast research on the texts and doctrines of Early Buddhism has transformed both the academic study of Early Buddhism and the practice of meditation and mindfulness in lineages connected to it, especially Insight Meditation. His dissertation on Satipaṭṭhāna is the
The Radical Inquiry of Buddhist Mindfulness Read More »
We begin 2019 with a series on foundational practices: what the Buddha often taught as the beginning of a series of “progressive instructions.” This is a style of teaching that presents the path to awakening step by step, often given to folks who are not yet believers, who have not yet taken refuge or who have just done so. It
5 Foundations of Practice: Giving, Ethics, Heavens, Dangers, Renunciation Read More »
A series of talks on the difficult descriptions of liberation in the Theravāda system: the Four Paths and Fruits. We talked mostly about Stream-entry, emphasizing some of the most mysterious aspects of this idea. Finality. Completion. Perfection. To engage or not? Is that even the right question? We’ll talk about “enlightenment” all month at Satsang, using a text called “The
Liberation and Finality: Does this Path have an end? Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181023-satsang-toward-an-enraged-buddhism-2.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreContinuing from Part 1, I talk here more about the value of anger, and differentiating types of strong aversive emotion. Anger, rage, critique, and tone. What’s skillful or unskillful for individual or communal liberation? Self-protective nervous system responses, tone-policing, who gets to decide who speaks and how, and how a classical Buddhist approach might not actually be
Toward an Enraged Buddhism, Part 2 Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180911-meditation-center-body-relax-center-mind.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreTwo talks on the complex current discourse known as “positionality”, which basically means that the social roles and conditioned state we experience the world through determine how and what we can perceive and know. I propose that the practice of inquiry into positionality is both a foundation for the insight into the emptiness of the sense of
Positionality is Ancestral Karma Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180615-meditation-posture.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreA series of talks on “Mindfulness,” the great universal self-improvement practice. Ok, not quite. But mindfulness is awesome. Just not in the way the magazines want you to think. We’ll start with the basics of Buddhist Mindfulness. What it is and may not be, how we can discern its presence or absence as an embodied state, why it’s
Mindfulness and its Discontents Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180609-Namaste-OI-TSY-1-approach-avoidance.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreFour talks on the basics of Organic Intelligence (OI) as it might be applied to yoga and meditation practice. These talks were given in the context of a “Trauma-Sensitive Yoga” weekend at Namaste (June 2018), and look at the building blocks of OI using the common practice of yoga class and posture work as the main examples.
Organic Intelligence basics for yoga & meditation practice Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180501-Satsang-5-circles-racism-inquiry.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreBased in our recent exploration of the Diamond Sūtra and the ideal of the Bodhisattva, we begin a series of discussions of what I’ll call the Great Demons, the systemic ills we struggle with and which so clearly are conditions for global suffering right now. We’ll work with three core models for understanding systemic ill, all of
The Great Demons: Systemic trauma & social action Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180320-diamond-sutra-incomplete.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreComing out of a few weeks of conversation about foundational themes in the Buddhist systems called Mahāyāna, or “Great Vehicle,” we look at one of the most important and beloved texts of the Mahāyāna school known as the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā), the Diamond Sutra (vajracchedikā sūtra). I’m reading through it slowly, in Red Pine’s ch’an/zen-oriented translation, and
Vastness & Engagement: Exploring the Diamond Sutra Read More »
May the forces of delusion
not take hold, nor
weaken my resolve.
(Sharing of Merit)