Dharma Talks

Video teachings with contemporary Buddhist teachers

2019 Archive

Pilgrimage Unbound

Lama Elizabeth Monson

Pilgrimage is often thought of as a transformative journey to a far away place with trials and tribulations along the way, but this doesn’t always have to be the case. Learn how Himalayan Buddhist ways of relating to sacred spaces can inform a sense of pilgrimage grounded in the routines of our everyday lives.

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Good Question! The Art of Meditative Inquiry

Narayan Helen Liebenson

narayan helen libenson teaching meditative inquiry

The Buddha encouraged us to investigate our experiences, but some ways of questioning mire us in confusion while others are liberating. Dharma and Insight Meditation teacher Narayan Helen Liebenson helps us distinguish skillful from unskillful types of inquiry and approach life’s deepest questions with a spirit of wholesome curiosity.

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Mindful Parenting: Nurturing an Intentional, Compassionate Family

Sumi Loundon Kim

To raise mindful, compassionate children, parents must first establish a strong foundation in their own practice to serve as a model. Sumi Loundon Kim, a Buddhist chaplain and author of the Sitting Together parenting curriculum, provides immediately applicable practices for your family’s daily routines and shows how to recognize and address harmful family patterns.

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The Buddha’s Communication Toolbox

Oren Jay Sofer

Oren Jay Sofer giving right speech dharma talk

Explore the Buddha’s ancient guidelines for right speech with tools to translate those teachings into the fast-paced conversations of a digital world. Insight meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer shares three foundations of mindful communication to bring your deeper values and intentions into every interaction.

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Nagarjuna’s Wisdom: The Middle Way

Barry Kerzin

In his masterwork Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, the ancient Indian philosopher Nagarjuna offered enduring lessons on the core Buddhist concepts of emptiness and dependent arising. In this series, Barry Kerzin, the Dalai Lama’s personal physician, guides us through Nagarjuna’s teachings that would eventually come to define the Mahayana tradition.

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The Dharmic Life

Gesshin Claire Greenwood

photograph of gesshin greenwood teaching on the buddha's life

The Buddha’s journey from upper-class royalty to no-class enlightenment had enough twists and turns to fill a saga. Each stage of his life contains lessons on freeing ourselves from suffering applicable to our own lives here and now. Zen Buddhist priest Gesshin Greenwood shows us how the characters in the Buddha’s story illuminate aspects of our psychological lives: from the Buddha’s father’s attempts to shield his son from life’s suffering, to Mara’s efforts to sabotage the Buddha with delusion, to Ananda’s dedication to convince the Buddha to accept women into his community.

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Compassion in Polarizing Times

Dungse Jampal Norbu

Dungse Jampal Norbu

Today’s divisive political culture can bring out our worst impulses, but with Tibetan Buddhist methods of fostering compassion, we can clear the mind of negativity and connect with our intrinsic qualities of clarity and warmth. Dungse Jampal Norbu, a teacher in the Mangala Shri Bhuti sangha and the son of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, guides us through practices to cool off anger and take a walk in other’s shoes. 

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Finding Meaning in Mortality

Reverend Marvin Harada

photograph of reverend marvin harada in front of shin buddhist shrine

Accepting death is the key to a meaningful life. But doing so isn’t easy. Buddhist teachings can help us transcend a dualistic view of life and death, helping us to treasure each day we have. Shin Buddhist Reverend Marvin Harada shares inspiring examples from the Shin tradition of people and practices that will help us face mortality.

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Buddhism’s Alchemy of Emotion

Lama Kathy Wesley

Learn concrete methods from Tibetan Buddhism for turning mental turbulence into the seeds of a brighter future. Lama Kathy Wesley shares teachings from the lojong (mind training) tradition to help us understand and transform our emotions.

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