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Dharma Talks given at Refuge of Belonging
Publicly available talks can be browsed here in the order indicated by the "Sort Order" selection. Talk titles and discriptions can also be searched by typing in a search word (or words) in the search box and clicking "Search Titles and Descriptions". With multiple words, only those talks containing all the given words are displayed.

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2025-03-08 Letting Go in These Times 26:19
Nico Hase
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.
Refuge of Belonging

2025-03-08 Refuge and Love: A Path of Renunciation 29:45
Yong Oh
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.
Refuge of Belonging

2025-02-08 Sīla as a Path of Meaningful Connection 30:37
Devon Hase
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.
Refuge of Belonging

2025-02-08 Integrity in Difficult Times 31:28
Aishah Shahidah Simmons
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.
Refuge of Belonging

2025-01-11 Making Our Home in Dana 29:10
Devon Hase
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.
Refuge of Belonging

2025-01-11 Recognizing Nibbana through Dana Parami 29:56
Nico Hase
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
Refuge of Belonging

2024-10-12 Four Ways to Cultivate Equanimity 29:25
Nico Hase
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.
Refuge of Belonging

2024-09-14 Beyond Toxic Altruism 27:39
Nico Hase
In this talk, nico challenges our culture of hyper-individualism and hyper-competition, while offering a middle way that balances individual needs with collective needs.
Refuge of Belonging

2024-09-14 Toward a Refuge of Belonging 33:25
Devon Hase
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.
Refuge of Belonging

2024-08-11 The Path of Most Resilience 29:47
Nico Hase
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.
Refuge of Belonging

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