The Pāli word uposatha means “observance,” and refers to the ancient Buddhist tradition of devoting a day to our practice, much like the Christian sabbath, which is a fine translation of the word. The Buddha strongly encouraged lay practitioners to keep the uposatha, as the texts at the bottom of this page indicate. Observing the uposatha day might be as […]
Observing the Uposatha (Sabbath) 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/20181009-satsang-rage-anger-injustice.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreReevaluating anger and rage on a week where writing about rage, and especially women’s rage at injustice, is hitting threshold in my community. A simple promo post for this talk initiated a lovely, spread out conversation with folks on FB, including Rebecca Solnit, who has written eloquently (as always) on this. There’s a bunch of good links
Toward an Enraged Buddhism, Part 1 Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181002-meditation-sounds-listening.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreLike so many folks, I was troubled by the Senate hearings on Brett Kavanaugh’s fitness for the Supreme Court. Besides the disgusting display of male privilege and delusion the entire thing displayed, AND the heartbreakingly familiar ritual of powerful men completely dismissing a woman’s fully respectable testimony, there was the lying, plain and simple. And of course
Reflections on Right Speech After the Kavanaugh Hearings Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180529-Satsang-vesak-Buddha-heavenly-messengers.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreVesak is the celebration of the Buddha’s birth, liberation, and death, falling this year on the late May full moon. We took a break from the social justice series we’re in the middle of to chant and hear stories remembering the life and insight of Siddhartha Gotama (mostly from the Lalitavistara Sūtra), who became the Buddha of
Seeking the Deathless: chanting & stories of the Buddha for Vesak 2018 Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20160623-satsang-precept3-sexuality.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreBuddhism as a liberation path is a gradual purification of the heart that takes root as we see more clearly, stop clinging so much, and grow out of confusion about who we are into the maturity called wisdom. Wisdom is expressed partly as understanding: everything changes, and many things hurt, but there’s an openness, a clear space,
The 5 Ethical Precepts (sīla) Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20160707-satsang-6realms-privilege-racism-forgetting.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreThe Buddhist cosmological framework of the “6 Realms” can be read both as a map of where beings go from lifetime to lifetime, and/or a map of the psychological-emotional-relational states we pass through in the course of this life. Both are valuable. Here’s a discussion of the map in relation to the social justice work around privilege.
The teaching of the 6 Realms as a metaphor for privilege Read More »
https://audio.seanfeitoakes.stream/2020/20200403-Chant-RefugePreceptsPuja-solo.mp3Subscribe: RSS | MoreEvery week at Satsang, we do a short chanting ceremony called a pūjā, or devotional ritual. We chant a few ancient verses in Pāli, the language of the early Buddhist texts. These verses are excerpts from a longer sequence of chants done daily in Theravāda monasteries, emphasizing the basic lay (non-monastic) practices of going for refuge and the
Theravada Refuge & Precepts Pūjā Read More »
May the forces of delusion
not take hold, nor
weaken my resolve.
(Sharing of Merit)