June 26, 2024

Monthly Dharma: All is Burning

Sean Oakes

When the Buddha looked for an image to describe the force of grasping and the intensity of suffering, he chose fire. In our moment of accelerating planetary warming and a climate crisis brought on by the burning of fossil fuels, fire as a metaphor for greed, endless consumption, and the cycle of pain they create feels all too apt. As we explore the Buddha’s teachings on fire, we find the core insight of the first two Noble Truths—that grasping is the cause of suffering—relevant both for personal healing and awakening, and the collective challenge we face as a culture trying to rein in the ancient forces of greed, hatred, and delusion in ourselves.

In this month’s Dharma study, we look at the famous “Fire Sermon” of the Buddha, and explore craving in personal and collective practice with talks by Amana Brembry Johnson, DaRa Williams, Rick Hanson, Thanissara, Heather Sundberg, and more.

Articles

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Articles

June 26, 2024

Monthly Dharma: All is Burning

Sean Oakes

When the Buddha looked for an image to describe the force of grasping and the intensity of suffering, he chose fire. In our moment of accelerating planetary warming and a climate crisis brought on by the burning of fossil fuels, fire as a metaphor for greed, endless consumption, and the cycle of pain they create feels all too apt. As we explore the Buddha’s teachings on fire, we find the core insight of the first two Noble Truths—that grasping is the cause of suffering—relevant both for personal healing and awakening, and the collective challenge we face as a culture trying to rein in the ancient forces of greed, hatred, and delusion in ourselves.

In this month’s Dharma study, we look at the famous “Fire Sermon” of the Buddha, and explore craving in personal and collective practice with talks by Amana Brembry Johnson, DaRa Williams, Rick Hanson, Thanissara, Heather Sundberg, and more.

June 3, 2024 | 1 hr. 52 min.

Nonviolence and Wise View in Relation to the War in Gaza

Sean Oakes

The war in Palestine/Israel is profoundly painful for everyone involved, including those of us witnessing the conflict and feeling it impact our communities. How might the Buddha’s teachings support us as we engage in bearing witness and participating in the larger conversation unfolding around this war and other violent conflicts? Non-violence, understood as arising from wise view and expressing as wise action, is a radical Buddhist approach to social engagement, and challenges views we may hold around right and wrong, guilt and victimhood, identity, ancestry, and land ownership. Conversation about politically-charged situations can be difficult in Dharma spaces, but the profound implications of the Buddha’s teaching can also become a real support for us in negotiating complex social and political realities.

Talks

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Talks

June 3, 2024 | 1 hr. 52 min.

Nonviolence and Wise View in Relation to the War in Gaza

Sean Oakes

The war in Palestine/Israel is profoundly painful for everyone involved, including those of us witnessing the conflict and feeling it impact our communities. How might the Buddha’s teachings support us as we engage in bearing witness and participating in the larger conversation unfolding around this war and other violent conflicts? Non-violence, understood as arising from wise view and expressing as wise action, is a radical Buddhist approach to social engagement, and challenges views we may hold around right and wrong, guilt and victimhood, identity, ancestry, and land ownership. Conversation about politically-charged situations can be difficult in Dharma spaces, but the profound implications of the Buddha’s teaching can also become a real support for us in negotiating complex social and political realities.

April 29, 2024 | 2 hr. 4 min.

Five Methods for Stopping Distracting Thought

Sean Oakes

Talk recorded at Monday Night Dharma Talk & Meditation

Talks

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Talks

April 29, 2024 | 2 hr. 4 min.

Five Methods for Stopping Distracting Thought

Sean Oakes

Talk recorded at Monday Night Dharma Talk & Meditation

February 20, 2024

The Four Absorptions

Sean Oakes

The Buddha’s path to happiness and freedom is a training of the heart. With wise action and meditation we interrupt the cycles of craving and reactivity, and grow in clarity about ourselves and the world. Craving manifests in the body as emotion and impulse, and in the mind as thinking: the wandering mind, judgment, worry, and all the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what is important. Meditation trains us to interrupt these stressful mental habits and cultivate in their place states of presence, focus, and agency through the practice of samādhi, the final limb of the Eightfold Path. Samādhi refers specifically to a series of four states of deep focus and stillness known as jhāna, or meditative absorption. While the jhānas take time and perseverance to cultivate, they are among the most transformational of all Buddhist practices.

Practice Guides

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Practice Guides

February 20, 2024

The Four Absorptions

Sean Oakes

The Buddha’s path to happiness and freedom is a training of the heart. With wise action and meditation we interrupt the cycles of craving and reactivity, and grow in clarity about ourselves and the world. Craving manifests in the body as emotion and impulse, and in the mind as thinking: the wandering mind, judgment, worry, and all the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what is important. Meditation trains us to interrupt these stressful mental habits and cultivate in their place states of presence, focus, and agency through the practice of samādhi, the final limb of the Eightfold Path. Samādhi refers specifically to a series of four states of deep focus and stillness known as jhāna, or meditative absorption. While the jhānas take time and perseverance to cultivate, they are among the most transformational of all Buddhist practices.

January 25, 2024

Grounding into the Full Body Through the Six Senses

Sean Oakes

Meditations

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Meditations

January 25, 2024

Grounding into the Full Body Through the Six Senses

Sean Oakes

August 14, 2023 | 28 min.

Introduction to the Pāli Canon

Sean Oakes

In this introductory presentation, Sean Oakes lays out the basic history and organization of the body of Buddhist texts known as the Pāli Canon, named after the language they use. Preserved by the Theravāda cultures of Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand, the Pāli Canon is—along with the Chinese Āgamas—the earliest full record of the Buddha's teachings, and is the body of texts primarily used in the Theravāda, Insight Meditation, and Early Buddhist traditions.

Talks

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Talks

August 14, 2023 | 28 min.

Introduction to the Pāli Canon

Sean Oakes

In this introductory presentation, Sean Oakes lays out the basic history and organization of the body of Buddhist texts known as the Pāli Canon, named after the language they use. Preserved by the Theravāda cultures of Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand, the Pāli Canon is—along with the Chinese Āgamas—the earliest full record of the Buddha's teachings, and is the body of texts primarily used in the Theravāda, Insight Meditation, and Early Buddhist traditions.

July 3, 2023 | 2 hours

Independence and Liberation

Sean Oakes

When the heart understands that grasping is pointless, it lets go. Based on that insight alone, one becomes independent of others, and what we land in is a way of being that doesn't take from or demand anything of the world around us. Once we are independent, and all the way along the path toward this independence, there's a kind of power and deep maturity that comes when we can be with the culture, people, and dramas around us without being pulled under by them. And that means that our participation is cleaner, more creative, more compassionate, and more choiceful.

Talks

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Talks

July 3, 2023 | 2 hours

Independence and Liberation

Sean Oakes

When the heart understands that grasping is pointless, it lets go. Based on that insight alone, one becomes independent of others, and what we land in is a way of being that doesn't take from or demand anything of the world around us. Once we are independent, and all the way along the path toward this independence, there's a kind of power and deep maturity that comes when we can be with the culture, people, and dramas around us without being pulled under by them. And that means that our participation is cleaner, more creative, more compassionate, and more choiceful.

July 3, 2023 | 2 hr.

Independence and Liberation

Sean Oakes

This meditation and talk was recorded at Monday Night Meditation and Talk on Monday, July 3, 2023.

Talks

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Talks

July 3, 2023 | 2 hr.

Independence and Liberation

Sean Oakes

This meditation and talk was recorded at Monday Night Meditation and Talk on Monday, July 3, 2023.

June 1, 2023

The Four Stages of Enlightenment

Sean Oakes

At the very heart of the Buddha’s life, teaching, and building of spiritual community is enlightenment, also called awakening or liberation. Enlightenment is what makes a person a Buddha, literally “one who is awake,” and it is what we cultivate as we practice. The teachings on enlightenment insist that it is possible to uproot the causes of suffering fully from our own hearts and to live from a place of wisdom and compassion rather than delusion and reactivity. This is where the path leads, and no matter how far from “enlightenment” we may feel, if we are practicing sincerely, we are moving toward it.

Practice Guides

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Practice Guides

June 1, 2023

The Four Stages of Enlightenment

Sean Oakes

At the very heart of the Buddha’s life, teaching, and building of spiritual community is enlightenment, also called awakening or liberation. Enlightenment is what makes a person a Buddha, literally “one who is awake,” and it is what we cultivate as we practice. The teachings on enlightenment insist that it is possible to uproot the causes of suffering fully from our own hearts and to live from a place of wisdom and compassion rather than delusion and reactivity. This is where the path leads, and no matter how far from “enlightenment” we may feel, if we are practicing sincerely, we are moving toward it.

January 1, 2023

Dependent Origination

Sean Oakes

In the core teaching of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha taught that there is a cause for the dissatisfaction and suffering we so commonly experience. From ordinary discomfort to illness, mortality, the loss of those we love, and the fleeting nature of life’s pleasures, the distress we feel is rooted in craving—wanting things to be different than they are. This fundamental insight depends on the natural law of cause and effect, called “conditionality” in Buddhist philosophy.

Practice Guides

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Practice Guides

January 1, 2023

Dependent Origination

Sean Oakes

In the core teaching of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha taught that there is a cause for the dissatisfaction and suffering we so commonly experience. From ordinary discomfort to illness, mortality, the loss of those we love, and the fleeting nature of life’s pleasures, the distress we feel is rooted in craving—wanting things to be different than they are. This fundamental insight depends on the natural law of cause and effect, called “conditionality” in Buddhist philosophy.