Undefended Dharma with Mary Stancavage

The invitation to relax, observe and allow is a wonderful meditation instruction, but it's also a way we can bring mindfulness to our everyday lives. It's a practice of equanimity, awareness and libe…

 Continuing last week's theme of experiencing liberation in this moment, Mary looks at Stephen Batchelor's teachings on embracing our existence and opening to the everyday sublime which is available …

In this podcast, Mary reflects on the teachings of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and his concept of "everyday nirvana". If we can follow the Buddha's direction to not cling to anything as I or mine, we will hav…

The Paramis are 10 qualities of the heart that it is said we need to develop for awakening. Sylvia Boorstein says they are the natural inclination of the heart and are gifts that we give to each othe…

One of the heart practices - or brahma viharas - is Mudita, or appreciative joy. This challenging practice invites us to be happy for the wholesome good fortune of others, even those people we may no…

Samsara is the cycle of birth and death that we experience before enlightenment and it is also considered the suffering in this world. In this brief talk, Mary reflects on the reality of our lives an…

In Buddhist teachings there are the ideas of conventional and ultimate reality. In Mahayana tradition they're known as the two truths of relative and absolute. These two ideas enable us to move throu…

We have all been hurt in our lives, to a greater or lesser extent. This hurt often brings up challenging emotions which we can run from or make space for. Healing happens when we become willing to tu…

The idea of an undefended heart seems counterintuitive right now especially with all the suffering in the world.  We think that putting up walls will keep us safe but instead the armor just isolates …

In the Buddha's wisdom he invited us to reflect regularly on our mortality which flies in the face of a society which tells us we can be immortal if we just do it all right.  The denial of reality an…

The Buddha's teaching on Wise Speech serves us well in these days of great polarization. We have our sides and spew our rhetoric, often without thinking about how we communicate can make a bad situat…

Bhikkhu Analayo suggests that the Buddha's teachings can be summed up in two words, "Let go." Ah, but if it were only so easy. Mary reflects on how the act of letting go gets more and more subtle and…

Grief seems to be a constant companion these days and making space for it is an important part of our practice. Grief can be scary and we're tempted to push it away instead of inviting it in. When we…

The teaching of impermanence is a core tenet of Buddhism and our ability to recognize the impermanence we meet each day is so important for us in order to be free. How we relate to shifting and chang…

Mary discusses this famous teaching of the Buddha. When we experience pain or something uncomfortable the tendency is to react it a way that mitigates the discomfort. The reactivity often just intens…

Building on last week's talk about overwhelm, Mary discusses how vital it is to make the effort to come back from those places and stories that are not helpful an to make the effort to stay where we …

When life gets busy, we can become overwhelmed by everything. Both our lives and the world can be too much. However, the invitation of practice is to be right where we are -- overwhelm occurs when we…

In this talk Mary discusses how important being grounded is in the present moment is to be open to gratitude. When we're stuck in thoughts about I, me and mine, it's a challenge to recognize how conn…

When we practice for extended periods of time we find that our hearts become tender. But often we don't have the time to practice so intensely. The question becomes how can we cultivate a loving and …

There is no dharma talk this week so Mary offers a few reflections on the benefits of residential retreat and the invitation to make peace with the way things are.
Recorded March 4, 2024 in the virtua…