Dharma Talks
given at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
2021-12-12
Emptiness and Form: Fiction and the Dharma
1:29:59
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Ruth Ozeki and Francisca Cho
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Buddhist traditions have sometimes characterized the dharma—the teachings of the Buddha—as beyond the realm of language and thought. If this is so, then why have so many Buddhists articulated their understanding of the dharma through literature, in poetry, discourses, plays, and fiction? Might the transformed modes of perception described in doctrinal texts be experienced through literature, through deeply engaging literary texts that blur boundaries between the imaginary, the representational, and the real? Join Ruth Ozeki, Zen Buddhist priest and novelist, and Francisca Cho, professor and one of the most prominent contemporary scholars on Buddhism and literature, as together, they explore emptiness and form, and the many ways that reading and writing literature can teach the dharma. |
Emptiness and Form: Fiction and the Dharma
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2021-08-15
Entering the Sacred
38:43
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Ajahn Sucitto
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The quality of the sacred is missing from our lives, that which is totally true and is always there. We can open to it every day, from that stable place of embodiment. From that open center, we form a relational entity that can carry our values and virtues forward. |
The Sacred Cosmos
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2021-08-15
Q&A 3
32:36
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Impact of other people; over-reliance on others; staying open with the unknown; responding to others’ sense of entitlement; innate truth of the cosmos; citta and the sense world; fear and constriction in the energy body. |
The Sacred Cosmos
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2021-08-15
It’s the Wholeness that Does the Work
31:41
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Mostly we operate from a fragment, excluding the whole of experience because it doesn’t fit our model of what should be. Return to wholeness, first in your own heart and mind, then extending it to society. Maintain a wide focus and receptivity, an open state where citta remains attuned, and you’ll find your inner security, having plugged into the life force as it manifests in this body. |
The Sacred Cosmos
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