Undefended Dharma with Mary Stancavage

Everything is changing practically minute by minute and we're dealing with all the emotions that dealing with the unknown and uncertainty brings up. Why wouldn't fear show up right now? Acknowledging…

Ajahn Chah was a monk in the Thai Forest Tradition and a wise teacher to many. His wisdom resonates as much today and is as relevant as it was in the last century. In this talk Mary cites many of his…

With gratitude to Tina Turner, Larry Yang, and the Metta Sutta, Mary discusses the importance of love as the foundation for our relationship to ourselves and to all others. Cultivation of kindness an…

Life can be so fragile but we can easily lose sight of that. The Five Remembrances give us a way to attune to this fragility yet not be overwhelmed by it. These reflections on aging, sickness and dea…

All of us feel discomfort at some point and to greater and lesser degrees. We may call it fear, anxiety, something else or simply dukkha. How we deal with it is what is important and the practice of …

One of the basic teachings of Buddhism, the Eightfold Path is not only the path to awakening and the end of suffering, but it also provides a foundation in this world of constant change and impermane…

In this first class of 2020 Mary revisits the Buddha's teaching on intention and how powerful it is in shaping our lives on a path towards freedom. Additionally she speaks about the book My Grandmoth…

Taking time away from our daily activities is an important way to take care of ourselves. When we couple this with meditation practice, it can support the cultivation of wisdom and seeing clearly our…

The Satipatthana Sutta is the Buddha's teaching on mindfulness and is called the direct path of realization. In this brief overview, Mary discusses each of the foundations and how they flow so beauti…

Along with wisdom, compassion is considered to be one of the Wings of Awakening. Although offering compassion for ourselves and others can be an extremely difficult undertaking, it is so necessary fo…

Gratitude can be considered a heart practice and worthy of cultivation. We often let the judging, comparing mind take over and we leave gratitude behind, but it is one of the most powerful ways to st…

Renunciation is a fancy way to say 'let go'. In this talk Mary uses Phillip Moffitt's teaching on self-restraint to show how it's a different way to practice renunciation and letting go. Stop being t…

Taking care of ourselves means paying attention to where we ignore ourselves or gloss over our discomfort and dissatisfaction. Lovingkindness, compassion and being willing to change our perspective o…

It's often said that we experience 10,000 joys and sorrows throughout our lifetime. How do we stay balanced as our lives unfold and not be taken over by the sorrows or miss the joys?
Recorded Oct 26, …

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Based on Stephen Batchelor's writings in After Buddhism, Mary investigates and discusses what emptiness means and how we can relate to the concept in our lives.
Recorded in Los Ange…

The Buddha taught not to chase after the past or place expectations on the future but that's often where we end up when we're trapped in an unexamined mind. He says to nourish the present in order to…

Mary discusses Rick Hanson's chapter in Buddha's Brain on Letting in the Good. This is how we can discover and cultivate beneficial qualities while letting go of the non-beneficial qualities that do …

Greed, hatred, delusion, the hindrances and so many other unskillful and harmful behaviors can be grouped under ignorance. Inspired by Arinna Weisman, Mary talks about the beautiful qualities the Bud…

This is a set of phrases we commonly use, especially when doing walking meditation or to build our concentration. In this talk, Mary takes a closer look at these phrases and what they mean in our dai…

"Hatred never ceases through hatred, only through love. This is the eternal law." The Buddha offered us this teaching thousands of years ago and it is as timely now as it ever was. Leading with the h…