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Retreat Dharma Talks

Ever Present Refuge

We are in the field of awareness here and now - our ever present refuge from which we stray and to which we can always return. This is the heart of our practice.

2021-01-03 (1 day) Portland Friends of the Dhamma

  
2021-01-03 The Basis for Our Happiness 4:41
Ayya Medhanandi
Take refuge and commit to ethical precepts to deepen the purification of virtue within us. This is the basis for true happiness. We take refuge in enlightened wisdom, and in our ability to awaken. We have faith that we can realize that Truth by ourselves – in this life; and we trust in this timeless teaching, worthy of our effort, worthy of our attention, worthy of our faith, and worthy of our refuge.
2021-01-03 The Nimitta of Suffering 31:53
Ayya Medhanandi
When we’re out of balance, it's due to the worldly winds. Even if you call them Dhamma winds, they end up being worldly - as soon as we grasp them, we’re back in samsara and we’re circling. The ending of circling always begins within us. It doesn’t end out there. Even if the balance of Dhamma out there is perfect, that moment of perfection is impermanent. Once we truly see what we could not see before, balance is restored.
2021-01-03 The Value of Death 25:53
Ayya Medhanandi
This path takes us to our true home through cultivating sanctity, and understanding the value of death: the death of greed, hatred and delusion. When we see all things as impermanent, death gives definition to our life. It delimits our experience. That’s how we learn how to love – because if things were permanent, we wouldn’t know the meaning of love. We would not know how to love. And that would be a terrible loss – not to know, not to learn, how to love.
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