In his signature honest and humorous style, Kevin Griffin enriches this powerful and practical talk with numerous examples and approaches to making the dharma real in our everyday lives.

He shares that living the dharma is not about doing activities that are Buddhist, but instead making every activity we engage with Buddhist in our own way.

Kevin also shares his framework for living out the dharma:

1. Following the precepts
2. Being mindful and present
3. Viewing life through the lens of the dharma

He reminds us that as humans we will always fall short in some ways, so he shares many ways we can apply compassion and forgiveness to ourselves.
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Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author of 9 books known for his innovative work connecting dharma and recovery, especially through his 2004 book "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps." He has been a Buddhist practitioner since the 1980s and a teacher for three decades. He reaches a broad range of audiences in dharma centers, wellness centers, and secular mindfulness settings. His latest book is "Living Kindness: Metta Practice for the Whole of Our Lives" published in 2022. To learn more and to see his teaching schedule, visit www.kevingriffin.net.

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To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/

To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.
There you can:

• Donate
• Learn how to participate live
• Find our schedule of upcoming speakers
• Join our mailing list or discussion forum
• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

What does it mean to go beyond separation as described in the Heart Sutra?

Prasadachitta prefaces this rich talk by asking us to consider all the ways we are steeped in separation. This is evidenced by our language's practice of adding -ism to a tradition or condition to define ourselves or others -- a practice that can serve as a judgment that fosters separation.

He goes on to state that the word dharma can have multiple meanings:

1. Realizing the nature of reality as sentient beings experience it.
2. The teachings of the Buddha
3. The lifestyle that a practitioner follows after taking precepts.

He describes 'taking on' precepts as accepting a challenge, an ethical code that is often uncomfortable, but changes how we move through the world.

He then recites and expands upon the Heart Sutra. It describes attaining release from suffering and attachment by letting go of duality. He frames it as a conversation between a fully realized being, the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara with 1,000 arms), and Sariputra - a wise student who intellectually knows all the teachings yet is still not free.
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Prasadachitta was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 and he became the Chair of the San Francisco Buddhist Center in April 2022. He was born on a “back to the land” commune in rural Northern California and that background has inspired his engagement with others in building the SFBC’s rural meditation center called Dharmadhara. He also helped to establish a community of sangha members who support the retreats there. He supports himself as a documentary filmmaker and photographer but his real life’s work is training others who want to practice Buddhism within the Triratna Buddhist Community.

Support the Show.

______________
To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/

To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.
There you can:

• Donate
• Learn how to participate live
• Find our schedule of upcoming speakers
• Join our mailing list or discussion forum
• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Do we trust our thoughts more than the wisdom of our own experience?

In this talk, David Lewis helps us see that our reliance on thinking and studying can be an obstacle to gaining a true understanding of reality.

He outlines that Sangha can help us gain wisdom in three ways, through:

1. Direct experience - meditating in silence
2. Listening to Dharma talks
3. Discussions with each other

Having polled his audiences for many years, David shares that Westerners tend to prefer talks and discussions over direct experience because we are conditioned to learn by doing, thinking and studying. We gravitate toward thoughts even as we try to quiet our mind. Yet meditation is not about silencing the mind, but developing a different relationship with our thoughts.

He contrasts thinking with abiding in our own experience, quoting Thich Nhat Hahn that 'understanding does not arise from thinking.' And while studying and learning the Buddha's teachings is a satisfying and worthwhile activity, it is not the same as experiencing reality for ourselves in the present moment.
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David Lewis has been following the dharma path for 50 years and has a degree in comparative religious studies. He teaches at several Buddhist sanghas around the Bay Area and offers a weekly meditation group for seniors (currently on Zoom) at OpenHouse, a nonprofit serving LGBTQI+ seniors. He’s always happy to return to the Gay Buddhist Fellowship, where he gave his first dharma talk in 2008.

Support the Show.

______________
To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/

To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.
There you can:

• Donate
• Learn how to participate live
• Find our schedule of upcoming speakers
• Join our mailing list or discussion forum
• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter