Dharma Talks
given at Refuge of Belonging
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2025-03-08
Letting Go in These Times
26:19
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Nico Hase
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Letting Go in These Times explores letting go without giving up. Drawing from personal stories, guided reflections, and Buddhist teachings, this talk examines how we can navigate difficult times with presence rather than panic.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2025-03-08
Refuge and Love: A Path of Renunciation
29:45
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Yong Oh
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This talk explores renunciation as a practice of "letting in" rather than "letting go." Yong shares personal experiences with caregiving and grief, emphasizing that true liberation comes through refuge and love. He suggests that renunciation isn't about forcing ourselves to release attachments, but about creating safety through refuge so that letting go happens naturally.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2025-02-08
Sīla as a Path of Meaningful Connection
30:37
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Devon Hase
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This talk explores sīla (moral conduct) as both foundation and ongoing practice in Buddhism. Devon emphasizes the paradox of sīla—it's both a starting point and something continuously cultivated in each moment. She discusses how integrity requires balancing self-compassion with engagement in the world, using the metaphor of mountain wildflowers that are both tender and strong. The talk highlights how sīla provides resilience during difficult times, allowing practitioners to remain connected to goodness while confronting suffering without bypassing or burning out.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2025-02-08
Integrity in Difficult Times
31:28
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Aishah Shahidah Simmons
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This talk explores sīla (moral conduct/virtue) as the foundation of Buddhist practice. Aishah shares how the five precepts guide ethical living through daily intention-setting, connecting personal accountability with responding to global suffering. Drawing from both traditional Buddhist texts and contemporary interpretations, she emphasizes maintaining integrity while engaging with injustice, preventing reactivity, and responding with discernment, compassion, and equanimity in challenging times.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2025-01-11
Making Our Home in Dana
29:10
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Devon Hase
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This talk explores dāna (generosity) as both a foundational practice and natural expression of awakening. Devon describes how generosity creates conditions for happiness while requiring wisdom about our boundaries and capacities. Using personal examples about balancing family obligations with self-care, she illustrates how true generosity requires knowing ourselves well. The talk emphasizes that generosity is already present in awareness itself—in our natural capacity to receive and release each moment. It concludes that belonging and interconnection are our true nature, and that letting go paradoxically requires feeling held in the refuge of community.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2025-01-11
Recognizing Nibbana through Dana Parami
29:56
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Nico Hase
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A talk on Dana Parami (the Perfection of Generosity) and its significance in recognizing Nibbana. The discussion covered the importance of Paramis, personal anecdotes, and the luminous nature of the mind. Participants learned about softening the obscurations that block awareness and recognizing the inherent clarity of the unborn mind. The talk also highlighted practical teachings and research-back
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Refuge of Belonging
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2024-10-12
Four Ways to Cultivate Equanimity
29:25
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Nico Hase
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A talk that outlines four practices to cultivate equanimity: Basic Mindfulness, which brings awareness to break the cycle of rumination; Right View, understanding impermanence and insubstantiality; embracing one's Kuleana, or responsibilities, with wholeheartedness; and the use of Transformative Phrases to maintain balance and peace. These practical insights and contemplative practices were integrated into daily lives for greater harmony.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2024-09-14
Toward a Refuge of Belonging
33:25
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Devon Hase
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In this talk, devon offers reflections on the importance of refuge in the Buddhist tradition and how deepening into refuge opens us to a stable sense of belonging, as well as building metta parami, the cultivation of love on the path.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2024-08-11
The Path of Most Resilience
29:47
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Nico Hase
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In this talk, nico speaks about adhitthana parami as resilience. He defines resilience as the ability to bounce back from adversity and offers some pointers from contemporary psychology research on how to build resilience.
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Refuge of Belonging
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