DharmaMind Buddhist Group

Keep Yourself Centred

In this talk on the seventh anniversary of the beginning of this group it is an appropriate time to reflect on what it has to offer. The importance of keeping yourself focused and to resist making the commitment to the dharma complicated and confusing is at its heart. The essence of the group is to provide an environment of trust and support so that the student has the opportunity to let go of what they dearly hold on to and discover the freedom that comes from non-attachment.. We never lose focus of this fundamental opportunity.

Shunyata in Daily Life

Shunyata is a Sanskrit word with many interpretations and a word found extensively in buddhism. A word with deep philosophical and profound spiritual depths. Yet it is also accessible for our everyday ordinary practice to encourage us not to attach to our familiar habits but instead see them as insubstantial and ungraspable.

The Importance of Pondering

We pursue a silent mind during meditation and we work with our habits during our daily life . But we also need to find time between these two opposite so as to bridge the gap to help pull them together. To find the space in your daily life to be still and to ponder your relationship with yourself, life and touch your inner guru is also an essential part of practise.

The Need for Inspiration

By its very nature the spiritual path has many highs and lows. When we feel good and in balance we need little support, but when we enter a trough the training can get tough. We have to learn to bear with at these times, but some external support in the form of inspiration can be invaluable. Inspiration from your teachers words. Words of dharma through stories and inspiration from your sangha can be very helpful. But also be inspired by your own commitment to practice and your own efforts against all difficulties to become a true human being.

The Fear of Self-Consciousness

Does self-consciousness affect your life? Such a common impediment experienced by many of us, but what can we do to address this condition that can so diminish our lives. This talk attempts to look at the issue and suggests it is caused by an overbearing self-view that we feel a need to shore up and protect. When looked at we see the driving emotion is a deep seated fear and one we have to learn to face up to and become familiar with its nature.

The Endless Flow of Thoughts

Most of us would admit to be continually distracted by thoughts. They just never give up, do they? Given that trying to stop them by force doesn't work, how do we go about dealing with that which never lets up and so enjoy some peace? This talk offers the path that tempers and ultimately stops the chattering mind, and the way to cultivate the ability to return over and over again from thoughts to rest with our own innate silent thoughtless awareness; both on the cushion and off it.

Day 3 of 6 - The Restlessness of Mind

Anyone who has tried meditation will know the major challenge to concentration is the restlessness of the chattering mind. Although this the biggest single challenge there are other aspects of our makeup that are also difficult to bringing stillness to meditation: namely the body and the emotions. Why is conquering these restless characteristics so important to meditation and practice? Simple. It is only when you have tamed restlessness throughout your entire being will your innate wisdom rise up and transform your life in an authentic way.

Day 2 of 6 - Trusting Silence

I believe the teachings that are on offer to this group will be all you need to find authentic liberation. At the heart of the teachings is the need to discover the stillness and silence that lives in us all through skilful meditation. This newly cultivated experience brings the discovery of who you really are just beyond the turmoil of your created samsara. Learning to trust this expansive space becomes a true taste of your commitment as you make yourself open and vulnerable. But to learn to trust stillness evermore willingly is to open the door to your full potential and your complete and full liberation.

Day 1 of 6 - The Meaning of 'Refuge'

Beyond ritual and ceremony 'Going for Refuge' is an expression of your training. To understand what the word 'refuge' means is to touch the very heart and spirit of what training means. Learning to give yourself and surrender your attachments to your precious opinions and habits is always going to be a big challenge, but to understand this importance and the way we cultivate this act of giving is to discover the true spirit of this ancient ritual.

Own Your Samsara

To own and take responsibility for all of your thoughts speech and actions is one of the great challenge of training, and so until you manage to pull this off authentic dharmic change will not take place. The way to learn to enter this challenge is to realise that the world that you involve yourself with and form attachments to are in essence your own creation manufactured by these very thoughts, speech and actions. The more you become aware of this the more you can begin to take charge of that world and cease to be its victim through attachments and reactions. When you get to this realisation you can start to dismantle what you attach to and taste the space and freedom that is your true nature.