How Brains Meditate: Neuroscience Meets Contemplative Spirituality
with Peter Grossenbacher, Ph.D.
7:00 PM Wednesday, July 8
12South Dharma Center
2301 12th Avenue So., Suite 202
How do the capacities of the human brain enable people to meditate? What lasting effects does meditation have on the brain? How do these anatomical and physiological changes impact the lives of meditators? Recent scientific investigation has begun to discover helpful answers to these compelling questions.
This talk presents exciting findings from recent studies of brain function and meditation, and offers a simple framework for understanding human nature revealed by these studies. Guided meditation will be offered to connect this emerging understanding with actual lived experience.
Dr. Grossenbacher is an international speaker on meditation and the brain, whose own research has been covered in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine and Discover Magazine. Associate Professor in the Contemplative Psychology Department at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, he teaches psychological courses on perception, cognition, statistics and research. Peter regularly provides meditation instruction, and also directs a program of research on meditation and contemplative spirituality.
This talk is open to anyone, whether a meditator in Shambhala or other traditions, or simply interested in exploring the nature of meditation in any way. There is no fee for this talk, but donations will be accepted. Please invite any friends you think would be intrigued by this subject.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Be Who You Want to Be
June 11, 2009
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Be Who You Want to Be
Happiness is possible when you are capable of doing the things and being the things you want to do and to be. When we walk for the sake of walking, when we sit for the sake of sitting, when we drink for the sake of drinking tea, we don’t do it for something or someone else. Awakening means to see that truth—that you want to know how to enjoy, how to live deeply, in a very simple way. You don’t want to waste your time anymore. Cherish the time that you are given.
–Thich Nhat Hanh, from Answers from the Heart (Parallax Press)
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Be Who You Want to Be
Happiness is possible when you are capable of doing the things and being the things you want to do and to be. When we walk for the sake of walking, when we sit for the sake of sitting, when we drink for the sake of drinking tea, we don’t do it for something or someone else. Awakening means to see that truth—that you want to know how to enjoy, how to live deeply, in a very simple way. You don’t want to waste your time anymore. Cherish the time that you are given.
–Thich Nhat Hanh, from Answers from the Heart (Parallax Press)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Changing the Flow of Karma
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week
May 29, 2009
CHANGING THE FLOW OF KARMA
Although currently you have ended up with a very bad situation, you can suddenly change the karmic flow with a tremendous, quite sudden and forceful effort. You may have ended up in a tremendous depression, but you are able to make a jump in your life and overcome that. You are able to change the flow of your particular lifestyle. You might be used to being very lazy and sloppy, but the sitting practice of meditation could tighten up your lifestyle so that suddenly you become a tidy, vigorous and uplifting person. There are second thoughts happening each time you act. There is hesitation, and from that hesitation or gap, you can go backward or forward. Changing the flow of karma happens in that gap. So the gap is very useful. It is in the gap that you give birth to a new life.
From Chapter Five, "Perpetually Re-creating Suffering," in THE TRUTH OF SUFFERING AND THE PATH OF LIBERATION, page 56.
May 29, 2009
CHANGING THE FLOW OF KARMA
Although currently you have ended up with a very bad situation, you can suddenly change the karmic flow with a tremendous, quite sudden and forceful effort. You may have ended up in a tremendous depression, but you are able to make a jump in your life and overcome that. You are able to change the flow of your particular lifestyle. You might be used to being very lazy and sloppy, but the sitting practice of meditation could tighten up your lifestyle so that suddenly you become a tidy, vigorous and uplifting person. There are second thoughts happening each time you act. There is hesitation, and from that hesitation or gap, you can go backward or forward. Changing the flow of karma happens in that gap. So the gap is very useful. It is in the gap that you give birth to a new life.
From Chapter Five, "Perpetually Re-creating Suffering," in THE TRUTH OF SUFFERING AND THE PATH OF LIBERATION, page 56.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Willing to Make Mistakes
This teaching has really been a friend for the last couple of days:
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week
May 15, 2009
WILLING TO MAKE MISTAKES
The notion of being willing to make mistakes is just the general sense that you are no longer hopeful, that you are no longer hoping to achieve complete perfection. You are confronted with all kinds of factors -- poverty, biasedness, aggression, passion, and trying to measure yourself -- and all those situations are the opposite of being willing to make mistakes. You don't want to make mistakes; therefore you want to stick with you biasedness; you want to stick with your poverty. You want to make sure that everything goes right. ...You don't want to make mistakes; you are hoping for something good. Whereas if you abandon hope, you have no idea what you are going to get in your life. Still, whatever comes is within the context of warriorship in any case.
From "Outrageousness," a talk given to the Directors of Shambhala Training, July 1978.
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week
May 15, 2009
WILLING TO MAKE MISTAKES
The notion of being willing to make mistakes is just the general sense that you are no longer hopeful, that you are no longer hoping to achieve complete perfection. You are confronted with all kinds of factors -- poverty, biasedness, aggression, passion, and trying to measure yourself -- and all those situations are the opposite of being willing to make mistakes. You don't want to make mistakes; therefore you want to stick with you biasedness; you want to stick with your poverty. You want to make sure that everything goes right. ...You don't want to make mistakes; you are hoping for something good. Whereas if you abandon hope, you have no idea what you are going to get in your life. Still, whatever comes is within the context of warriorship in any case.
From "Outrageousness," a talk given to the Directors of Shambhala Training, July 1978.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Our Connection with the Natural World
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week
May 3 2009
OUR CONNECTION WITH THE NATURAL WORLD
There seems to be a need for us to realize that the cosmic world -- the sky and mountains and trees and rivers and oceans and jungles and everything -- can be woven into those persons who are interested. Those who are willing students and warriors can draw in that world and work with it. The natural situation provides us with the whole phenomenal world, and we should learn to assoicate with that....Basically there is cultivated presence and then there is naturally existing presence. When we cultivate an authentic presence, we develop a sense of what is naturally existing. So we begin to make our connection to the world in that way.
From The Golden Key Sourcebook.
May 3 2009
OUR CONNECTION WITH THE NATURAL WORLD
There seems to be a need for us to realize that the cosmic world -- the sky and mountains and trees and rivers and oceans and jungles and everything -- can be woven into those persons who are interested. Those who are willing students and warriors can draw in that world and work with it. The natural situation provides us with the whole phenomenal world, and we should learn to assoicate with that....Basically there is cultivated presence and then there is naturally existing presence. When we cultivate an authentic presence, we develop a sense of what is naturally existing. So we begin to make our connection to the world in that way.
From The Golden Key Sourcebook.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Level 1 in May
The Nashville Shambhala Meditation Group will be offering:
SHAMBHALA LEVEL I
The Art of Being Human
May 1-3 (Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday)
Friday evening talk open to members, guests, and visitors
Shambhala Training is organized into weekend workshops that include meditation training and practice, talks by senior instructors, personal interviews and group discussions. Levels I-V provide a strong foundation in mindfulness-awareness meditation practice, emphasizing the development of genuineness, confidence, humor, and dignity within the complexity of daily life.
Level I: The Art of being Human Through the practice of meditation, we glimpse unconditional goodness as the ground of our existence. Opening to ourselves with gentleness and appreciation, we begin to see our potential as genuine and compassionate human beings.
This program is directed by Rachel Faro, founder and director of the Miami Shambhala Center. Rachel has been practicing and teaching Shambhala and Tibetan Buddhism for over thirty years. As a senior student she had an opportunity to study directly with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. the founder of Shambhala International. Rachel is also a professional singer/songwriter (with three albums released on major labels), a record producer who has produced over thirty albums (three of which have received Grammy nominations), and the president of Ashe Records, a world/latin music record label. She feels that her musical life and her spiritual life are mutually enriching and that her meditation practice and the principles of Shambhala are of natural benefit in her work and daily life.
Level I is open to all meditators, new or experienced. The suggested tuition for the weekend is $100 for adults, $150 for couples, and $75 for students and dues-paying members. No one will be turned away for financial reasons. Class size is limited, so advance registration is recommended. Contact us at nashville.sangha@comcast.net, or phone 262-2895
Schedule: 7-9 PM Friday, 10-5 Saturday, 9-4 Sunday
90 minute lunch break on Saturday and Sunday
SHAMBHALA LEVEL I
The Art of Being Human
May 1-3 (Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday)
Friday evening talk open to members, guests, and visitors
Shambhala Training is organized into weekend workshops that include meditation training and practice, talks by senior instructors, personal interviews and group discussions. Levels I-V provide a strong foundation in mindfulness-awareness meditation practice, emphasizing the development of genuineness, confidence, humor, and dignity within the complexity of daily life.
Level I: The Art of being Human Through the practice of meditation, we glimpse unconditional goodness as the ground of our existence. Opening to ourselves with gentleness and appreciation, we begin to see our potential as genuine and compassionate human beings.
This program is directed by Rachel Faro, founder and director of the Miami Shambhala Center. Rachel has been practicing and teaching Shambhala and Tibetan Buddhism for over thirty years. As a senior student she had an opportunity to study directly with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. the founder of Shambhala International. Rachel is also a professional singer/songwriter (with three albums released on major labels), a record producer who has produced over thirty albums (three of which have received Grammy nominations), and the president of Ashe Records, a world/latin music record label. She feels that her musical life and her spiritual life are mutually enriching and that her meditation practice and the principles of Shambhala are of natural benefit in her work and daily life.
Level I is open to all meditators, new or experienced. The suggested tuition for the weekend is $100 for adults, $150 for couples, and $75 for students and dues-paying members. No one will be turned away for financial reasons. Class size is limited, so advance registration is recommended. Contact us at nashville.sangha@comcast.net, or phone 262-2895
Schedule: 7-9 PM Friday, 10-5 Saturday, 9-4 Sunday
90 minute lunch break on Saturday and Sunday
Monday, April 6, 2009
Give Yourself a Break
I was delighted to read this Daily Dharma quotation and see who it was from. Ah!
April 2, 2009
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Give Yourself a Break
Give yourself a break. That doesn’t mean to say that you should drive to the closest bar and have lots to drink or go to a movie. Just enjoy the day, your normal existence. Allow yourself to sit in your home or take a drive into the mountains. Park your car somewhere; just sit; just be. It sounds very simplistic, but it has a lot of magic. You begin to pick up on clouds, sunshine, and weather; the mountains, your past, your chatter with your grandmother and your grandfather, your own mother, your own father. You begin to pick up on a lot of things. Just let them pass like the chatter of a brook as it hits the rocks. We have to give ourselves some time to be.
–Chogyam Trungpa, Ocean of Dharma (Shambhala Publications)
April 2, 2009
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Give Yourself a Break
Give yourself a break. That doesn’t mean to say that you should drive to the closest bar and have lots to drink or go to a movie. Just enjoy the day, your normal existence. Allow yourself to sit in your home or take a drive into the mountains. Park your car somewhere; just sit; just be. It sounds very simplistic, but it has a lot of magic. You begin to pick up on clouds, sunshine, and weather; the mountains, your past, your chatter with your grandmother and your grandfather, your own mother, your own father. You begin to pick up on a lot of things. Just let them pass like the chatter of a brook as it hits the rocks. We have to give ourselves some time to be.
–Chogyam Trungpa, Ocean of Dharma (Shambhala Publications)
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