Spirit Rock Meditation Center is dedicated to the teachings of the Buddha. We provide silent meditation retreats, as well as classes, trainings, and Dharma study.
Mindfulness |
-
13 comments
Buddhist Teachers on Facebook
A 10-second history of the internet: First, there was a Big Bang (millions of individual little websites spewing out randomly into a vast virtual cosmos) followed by a Big Crunch (everybody slamming together onto social networking sites) then evolution (various websites fighting for survival and the top spot in a brutal Darwinian mess). In recent years, Facebook, having all but slain its feebler and shallower rival MySpace, has emerged the victor in this evolutionary struggle and now boasts over over 500,000,000 active users, about one eighth of the entire planet's population. Certainly, there are both benefits as well as dangers that come with the internet and social networking. Among the benefits is that we can now instantly share information and ideas and stay connected with vast numbers of people like never before, but this goes hand-in-hand with one the site's biggest dangers: It is a highly discursive place. More » -
1 comment
Watch: Bhikkhu Bodhi on Buddhism for the Post-Modern Mind
"I've come to an understanding that the dharma, to be really living, vitally important, and to be a dharma that is alive and blows open the mind, has to be applied against the background of the period of history we're living in and directed not only to the great universal problems that all humans face but also to the special over-arching problems of this historical period in which we are living." -Bhikkhu Bodhi More » -
1 comment
Acharya Judy Lief on Gratitude
Every Friday, Acharya Judy Lief, a senior teacher in the Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, comments on one of Atisha’s 59 mind-training (Tib. lojong) slogans, which serve as the basis for a complete practice. Atisha (980-1052 CE) was an Indian adept who brought to Tibet a systematized approach to bodhicitta (the desire to awaken for the sake of all sentient beings) and loving-kindness, through working with these slogans. Judy edited Chogyam Trungpa’s Training the Mind (Shambhala, 1993), which contains Trungpa Rinpoche’s commentaries on the lojong teachings. Each entry includes a practice. See the previous slogans and commentaries here. 13. More » -
0 comments
The Hardest Precept
Today’s Daily Dharma: For most of us, the hardest precept to honor is to speak the truth. I’m not talking about staying clear of bald-faced whoppers that cover up sordid affairs or some headline-grabbing misdeeds, but about our everyday exaggerations, self-aggrandizements, and self-image facelifts. In other words, what usually happens when we talk uninterrupted for more than a few minutes. Besides, even when we do speak the truth, are we able to listen to whoever is talking without an agenda or obsessing about what we’re going to say next? And how comfortable are we if there is nothing to say? Like surfing, staying present is always a challenge, but doing it while interacting with others tends to be like managing in choppy, cross-current seas. We have not only our own thoughts and impulses to contend with but also those of our conversational partners. More » -
4 comments
Eastern vs. Western conceptions of "mindfulness"
As a student on the Antioch Education Abroad Buddhist Studies program in India, in 2005, I recall the director of the program, Robert Pryor, telling me during an afternoon tea break that he believed that scientists would one day be able to measure a person’s “presence.” In the five years that have passed since that conversation there have been an increasing number of studies seeking to do just that. More » -
1 comment
"Buddhism, Reconciliation And Auschwitz: An Interview With Zen Master Bernie Glassman" VIA HuffPost
There are few people in the world who have done as much for the advancement of Socially Engaged Buddhism as Bernie Glassman. As a teenager I had the privilege of working for a summer at the Greyston Foundation, a fantastic community development/outreach network in Yonkers, NY that Mr.There are few people in the world who have done as much for the advancement of socially engaged Buddhism as Bernie Glassman. As a teenager I had the privilege of working for a summer at the Greyston Foundation, a fantastic community development/outreach network in Yonkers, NY that Mr. More »
