Mindfulness Series wk9 with Noah Levine

Mindfulness is the seventh aspect of the Buddha's eightfold path. The eight Aspects of practice that will lead to freedom from suffering. Alleviating the unnecessary levels of suffering that we experience. There are four foundations of mindfulness.

What do you think enlightenment is? What does it mean to be enlightened? What do you think that would be like? Does it seem desirable? Is that your goal?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk8 with Noah Levine

The section tonight is mindfulness of the six sense doors, mindfulness of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling bodily sensations, and mindfulness of thoughts of the mind.

Do you use the sense doors as a mindfulness practice? Which sense is the most challenging for you to remain present with? Is it pleasant? Is it unpleasant? What's happening at the eye awareness? What's happening at the ears, at the nose, at the tongue? What's happening in your body, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant or neutral?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk7 with Noah Levine

The topic for tonight's aspect of the mindfulness teaching is the five aggregates or five Sconda. The five aggregates, probably the best translation, it's the five aspects of our experience that we tend to be identified with as self. The aggregates, sometimes this term sconda or aggregate, is also like a heap.

The different heaps of our or piles the, uh, different, um, piles of experience that we tend to consider “that's who I am”. The, the first one is our bodies. The aggregate of a physical form. We have a body. The second one is our mind. We have a mind that thinks and plans and remembers. The third one is perception of feeling tone, of feeling pleasant, unpleasant, neutral.

What percentage of the time do you believe your thoughts? How much of the time is it true?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk6 with Noah Levine

Tonight's topic is the Buddha's teachings on how to train the mind to see clearly and to to free ourselves from suffering. We're on the fourth section tonight, which I think I'm going to spend three or four weeks on this fourth section, mindfulness of the Dhammas. Dhamma translates as Dharma, as what's true. But it starts with the five hindrances. So tonight we're going to meditate, discuss and look at the text on the mindfulness of the five hindrances.

Why would I ever move my body? What motivates you to take action? When you look at the suffering in your life, do you feel that there’s more suffering caused by clinging to pleasure or avoiding pain? Which of the 5 hindrances do you experience the most?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk5 with Noah Levine

Tonight's topic is the third foundation, which is the mind, our brains, how to bring mindfulness to what your brain is doing, what kind of thoughts are arising, what kind of attitude the mind has. Whether the mind is experiencing wisdom or ignorance. For many people it's one of the things that really sets Buddhist meditation apart and mindfulness apart from a lot of other meditations.

How much do you believe your thoughts? What’s your relationship with your mind? If your mind played music, what kind of music would it play? What’s your mind like? What’s the tendency of your mind?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk4 with Noah Levine

So for a topic tonight: your relationship to pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. Just thinking about these three feeling tones. Maybe there's somebody here who you know, joining us tonight, who feels like actually pleasance is quite hard to tolerate…

What’s your relationship to positive, negative and neutral experiences? What are you drawn to, pleasure, pain or neutrality? What's more difficult for you?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk3 with Noah Levine

Tonight I'm going to do a little bit on this mindfulness of the body, becoming mindful of the four elements in the body and then we're going to do a meditation. It's called a charnel ground meditation or a corpse meditation, where we reflect on the impermanent nature of the body. Then we'll have some discussion about death.

What’s your relationship like with death? When’s the last time you experienced death? How do you relate to the fact that your body is only going to live so long?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk2 with Noah Levine

Tonight I'm going to continue what I started last week and probably will do the next few weeks. It's the Satipatthana, the four foundations of mindfulness the way they chant it, as they practice it in the monastery.

What’s your favorite part of your body? What’s the part of your body that you have the most difficulty with? What are the parts that you don’t really want to be mindful of? What’s your favorite part and why?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Mindfulness Series wk1 with Noah Levine

Tonight I'm going to start what will turn into several weeks series on mindfulness, the seventh factor of the Eightfold Path and the primary meditation technique that the Buddha taught and encouraged for freeing ourselves.

Freeing ourselves from the causes of suffering. Mindfulness, present time inquiring with an attitude of friendliness or kindness, meta loving kindness attitude.

What is your direct experience right now?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
MLK Day with Noah Levine

I’ve gotten some sh*t for saying this in the past, but I haven't learned.

Some of Martin Luther King's views and politics, I believe, are inspired by Buddhism. One time I gave a Dharma talk that MLK was a Buddhist, and then I got a whole bunch of sh*t about it, because he was very much a Christian. But a lot of his politics in civil rights and in fighting ignorance and oppression were influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent approach to creating change.

What’s some of the craziest sh*t your mind does? What does your mind tell you?

Read More
Sorrow with Noah Levine

I'm going to talk a bit about the Buddha's first noble truth, that the beginning of the path to freedom starts by acknowledging and turning towards becoming fully aware and breaking any shred of denial that we might have about our suffering, about the dukkha, about the sorrow, the grief, the sadness, the loneliness, the afflictive emotions that we experience as humans. As well as all of the loss and the sadness and difficulty, the difficult situation that we're all born into.

What kind of sorrow have you experienced in your life? In the world? About yourself?

Read More
Sangha with Noah Levine

I feel like the core of what I'm going to talk about tonight is Sangha, it's community and the importance of drawing near and sustaining connections with Sangha. With people who are wise, or at least trying, attempting to be wise and have the intention to be wise.

Read More
Reflections with Noah Levine

So I don't have a have a Dharma talk really for tonight. I'll share a couple of reflections. Last week I was in Thailand for the second time in a month, just a short trip. I went out there with my friend Russ, who's here in the room tonight, to interview Ajahn Amaro who's been one of my core teachers. He's a Buddhist monk, he's an English guy who's a Buddhist monk for like 40 something years…

What comes up for you around the holidays? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you bring your practice into it?

Read More
Suffering Of Existence with Noah Levine

Tonight I'm going to talk about the reality of the suffering in the world and the suffering of existence. Why life is not easy and pleasant and why people aren't wise and compassionate.

What is it that you find most difficult of existence? Why aren’t you happy all the time? Why aren’t you at peace? What gets in your way of joy?

Read More
Maladaptive Strategy with Noah Levine

Tonight I'm going to talk about maladaptive strategies. It's that strategy that's like, well, it feels really good when I do it, but I know it's creating negative karma for me because I'm lying or stealing or cheating. I love lying and stealing and cheating. It feels so good.  But I know that in the long run, it's an unhealthy behavior. In the long run, it destroys my fucking life.

What’s something that you do that brings you temporary relief but is bad for you in the long run? Some things that you do that feel good but you know aren’t good for you? 

Read More
Practice In Every Aspect Of Our Lives with Noah Levine

I'm going to talk about how  Buddhism, the Buddhist teachings and this path that we call the middle path, is meant to be practiced in every aspect of our life. Our mindful awareness, intention to be kind, sexuality, our relationships, our relationship to money, our relationship to work, responsibility,  our relationship to the world, politics, all the intention is that we bring this practice and these wisdom perspectives to every single aspect of our life. 

Read More
Q&A with Noah Levine

I don't really have a topic topic tonight. I'm just going to do a Q and A. I'm not going to do a full Dharma talk, but we’ll be reflecting on what you understand of Buddhism so far.  Maybe some people are pretty new to Buddhism, but reflecting on what you do know of Buddhism.  Is there anything that you know about Buddhism that doesn't quite  fit or that you kind of have questions about?  Like, the common one is, “is reincarnation really true?”

What do you know about Buddhism so far? Is reincarnation really true? What do you find challenging to believe?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Letting Go with Noah Levine

Living with impermanent experiences

I'm gonna to focus on the Buddhist teaching on non attachment, letting go. The teaching of accepting the impermanent nature of all things and trying to see how much suffering we create for ourselves when we cling or get attached. Also, the antidotes to the suffering that is based in attachment is letting go or letting things be impermanent rather than trying to create permanent structures out of that which is constantly changing.

What is something you’d like to let go of? 

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More
Death with Noah Levine

Death with Noah Levine

Impermanence Of This Body

So tonight the topic for exploration, meditation, and, discussion is death. We talk a lot about impermanence and the Buddha had a lot of teachings about death. So we're gonna talk about death tonight, our relationship to death and the importance of having a relationship with the reality of these temporary nests of our lives and of the lives of everyone that we know and care about. The reality on this planet that we don't last all that long.

What is this body? How do you feel about dying? Do you talk about death? Is it on your radar? 

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

Read More