DharmaMind Buddhist Group

After practicing the Dharma for some years, it's easy to forgot why it's important to practice and how it can benefit your life. In this talk, one practitioner reflects on what got him started in the first place, and why he continues to do so. He reminds himself, in this deliberate act of reflection, that he practices to be fully human, embodied best by being able to dance freely. In the process he rediscovers what an immensely positive impact the Dharma has had on his life.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.