Bringing the Five Realms of Existence Onto the Path
Date: 2025-10-02 Thursday
For this Thursday, Oct. 2 sit we’ll be exploring the five realms of existence, as laid out in Theravada Buddhist cosmology, and what these may mean to your practice lives.
The five realms are the human, animal, deva, hungry ghost and hell realms. We can take these five as truths or as metaphors, but in either case they’re useful as tools or understandings on the path.
To be sure, these are closely tied to the idea of rebirth, which the Buddha very much taught, but which is much harder for most Westerners to digest. Let’s explore this idea of rebirth a bit together, tied to these five realms, and see what range of understanding may emerge for each of us.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Bringing Thoughting Onto the Path of Insight
Date: 2025-09-18 Thursday
For this Sept. 18 sit we’ll be exploring the journey of thoughts arising during our meditation practice.
Teacher Joseph Goldstein once famously said that in meditation, "There's nothing worth thinking about," while we meditators often feel that "Thoughts are bad," when thinking seems to be cluttering our practice. So what to do with thoughts that arise?
We'll explore this question of thoughts on the cushion and otherwise, plus ways in which mindfulness of thinking brings insight, and is a valid part of the path toward awakening.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
How the Absence of a Substantial Self Makes Liberation Possible
Date: 2025-09-04 Thursday
For this Sept. 4 sit we’ll be exploring the link between our lack of an inherent self – the understanding called not-self or anatta - and the possibility of awakening.
While the concept of not-self can be puzzling for people, the truth is that there would be no possibility of liberation, or awakening, were it not for the fact that we have no inherent self. We'll explore why this is so, and how to bring this understanding onto the path.
A goal will be to share this in a way that will be useful on the path for you, bringing greater freedom and ease, despite internal and external conditions.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
What is Not Clinging, and Why Do We Care?
Date: 2025-06-19 Thursday
For this June 19 sit we’ll be exploring the phrase "not clinging" in Buddhist practice, and why we care.
This simple phrase – not clinging - reaches far more deeply, with much greater import, than might seem at first. When we don't cling we're free, and in practice we slowly discover how much of our life is dedicated to clinging in ways we don't see.
Over time, we see how profound is this freedom from clinging, both to things outside us, and to our sticky sense of self. In a way not clinging is at the core of what the Buddha taught, at the core of the awakening he directed us toward.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
How the Story of Me Arises, and What to Do About It
Date: 2025-06-05 Thursday
For this June 5 sit we’ll be exploring a question central to our spiritual journey: How the "story of me" arises, and what to do about it.
As we all discover in our practice, our attachment to “I“ drives our most compulsive behaviors, and complicates our lives when we confuse mental and physical arisings with a sense of ultimate self. Learning to discern between ultimate not-self, and our conventional sense of self-identity, is at the root of how we progress on the path, finding more peace, freedom and lightness on the way.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Contact With Great Masters
Date: 2025-05-01 Thursday
Often in teachings we explore the importance of contact with highly awakened beings, in honing our inner spiritual compass. There is almost magic there, the way in which contact with a highly awakened being helps us attune to our own way forward on the path, to our own potential for realization. With all that in mind, for the upcoming Thursday, May 1 sit, I am planning to share some of my experience with great masters over the decades, in Asia and the United States. I’ve sought out contact with such contacts as a core part of the spiritual path, and I’ll be honored to share some of that transmission with you.
I’ll be doing my best to share what they gave, therefore not so much about my own journey, because ultimately this isn’t about “me.”
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Buddha’s Compassion Teachings with Perspectives from Hopi Elders
Date: 2025-04-17 Thursday
The broader our compassion toward all beings, to include all beings seen and unseen, beings we agree with or not, beings we're close to or not, the bigger are our hearts and the better we can survive the vagaries of human existence.
For this upcoming Thursday, April 16 meeting of Eastside Insight Meditation, we’ll be exploring great compassion in Buddhist tradition. We’ll see how great compassion directs us toward freedom, and not suffering, no matter the outward conditions.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Sila: Avoiding Sexual Misconduct, Abuse of Intoxicants, as a Path to Nibanna
Date: 2025-03-06 Thursday
As many of you know, Buddhist ethics - sila in Pali – isn’t exactly a moral code but rather a way of cultivating healthy actions of body, speech and mind that support us and others in life. Also, it’s not a crisp boundary of right and wrong, but rather a training, a core part of our Dharma practice.
For the first session we explored the three most straightforward of the five: training in not killing, training in not lying, training in not stealing. We saw how subtle these three can be, and how much these become a diamond edge in our practice.
For this second session, we’re going to be exploring the far more ambiguous last two – training in not abusing intoxicants and cloud the mind, and training in avoiding sexual misconduct. These are more ambiguous because they’re so connected to activities that to some of us, some of the time, are acceptable, because these are conditioned by cultural standards, and because they have so much to do with intent.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Sila—Not Killing, Stealing, Lying—as a Path to Nibbana
Date: 2025-02-20 Thursday
As many of you know, Buddhist ethics - sila in Pali – isn’t exactly a moral code but rather a way of cultivating healthy actions of body, speech and mind that support us and others in life. Also it’s not a crisp boundary of right and wrong, but rather a training, a core part of our Dharma practice.
For this first session will be exploring the three most straightforward of the five: training in not killing, training in not lying, training in not stealing. We’ll see how subtle these three can be, and how much these become a diamond edge in our practice.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
How the Third and Fourth Noble Truths Move Us Toward Freedom
Date: 2025-01-16 Thursday
For the first month of 2025 we’re going to the root of the Buddha’s teaching: the four noble truths.
As many of you know these four – the unsatisfactoriness of un-awakened existence, the cause of this unsatisfactoriness or suffering, the possibility of freedom, and how to achieve that freedom – are shared by all Buddhist traditions.
Thus these four aren’t basic but core, meaning that if we truly realize these four, we will awaken. With this in mind we’ll be exploring these four in ways that you can bring into your practice, into your daily lives. This is fruitful material!
The third and fourth noble truth are in away even more important, because they offer the way out, freedom from dukkha. The third explores the nature of that freedom – nibanna – while the fourth is step-by-step directions – the noble eightfold path - to take us to that freedom.
The four noble truths are so central to the Buddha’s teachings – in fact among the first things he taught - they seem a good way to start the year. Also people have asked for more core teachings, and it doesn’t get more core than this. And third, Seattle Insight will be exploring the four noble truths over the entirety of 2025, so this is in a small way paralleling that.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
The Possibilities of the First and Second Noble Truths
Date: 2025-01-02 Thursday
For the first month of 2025 we’re going to the root of the Buddha’s teaching: the four noble truths.
As many of you know these four – the unsatisfactoriness of unawakened existence, the cause of this unsatisfactoriness or suffering, the possibility of freedom, and how to achieve that freedom – are shared by all Buddhist traditions.
Thus these four aren’t basic but core, meaning that if we truly realize these four, we will awaken. With this in mind we’ll be exploring these four in ways that you can bring into your practice, into your daily lives. This is fruitful material!
We will explore these four over two weeks, Jan. 2 and Jan. 16. For this upcoming 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 2 sit we’ll explore the problem – what does unsatisfactoriness or suffering mean, and what causes it? (Dukkha is the proper Pali word, which helps us get direct to the heart of the matter.)
Then on Jan. 16 we’ll explore the solution – what is freedom from dukkha, and how do we get there?
The four noble truths are so central to the Buddha’s teachings – in fact among the first things he taught - they seem a good way to start the year. Also people have asked for more core teachings, and it doesn’t get more core than this. And third, Seattle Insight will be exploring the four noble truths over the entirety of 2025, so this is in a small way paralleling that
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Learnings from the Buddha’s Life After Awakening
Date: 2024-12-19 Thursday
As we enter the sacredness of the Christmas season, it’s also a time to explore the inner qualities of the Buddha.
Our Eastside Insight tradition is to explore some aspect of the Buddha’s life, or that of his chief disciples, before Christmas. This year we’re going to break this into two sections, the first about the Buddha’s life before awakening, and the second about the time after.
On Dec. 5 we explored the Buddha's life before awakening, and what we can learn from the situations he faced, and the choices he made, which support and inform our own spiritual journeys.
For this Dec. 19 sit we’ll be exploring who the Buddha was after he awakened, some of the choices he made and avenues he offered, and what they mean in our lives. A tentative title is: Lessons from the Buddha after Enlightenment
The enlightened Buddha can seem so beyond our lives, that it can be hard to know how to relate. But there are many touch points or parallels between his life and our own, helpful for our own life journeys. We will explore these together.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Learning From the Buddha’s Choices Before Awakening
Date: 2024-12-05 Thursday
As we enter the sacredness of the Christmas season, it’s also a time to explore the inner qualities of the Buddha.
Our Eastside Insight tradition is to explore some aspect of the Buddha’s life, or that of his chief disciples, before Christmas. This year we’re going to break this into two sections, the first about the Buddha’s life before awakening, and the second about the time after.
Thus for this 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 session we will explore the Buddha's life before awakening, and what we can learn from the situations he faced, and the choices he made, which support and inform our own spiritual journeys.
Remember the Buddha before he awakened perhaps wasn’t that much different from anyone in our sangha. He was living a life of sensory pleasures and comfortable conditions, although he also was increasingly nagged by questions about the meaning of life, and the transience of everything he was doing.
Let’s see what we can learn from his journey forward 2,600 years ago, and what we can apply to our journey forward into 2025.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Finding Equanimity Within the Polarization of These Times
Date: 2024-11-21 Thursday
As we move into potentially difficult times, mindfulness of our internal feelings (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral - called vedanas), and mind states, can be powerful tools. Just through this mindfulness we can navigate difficulties with more equanimity, and thus be more able to support others.
For the upcoming Nov. 21 sit we’ll be exploring these two – vedanas and mind states – as a pair, with a particular focus on utilizing them to stay present and on keel when we’re being buffeted. Some of us may be feeling anxiety these days, and we can authentically feel what arises without being incapacitated, without losing the moment-by-moment joy of life itself.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Pilgrimage Thailand-Nepal Slideshow & Talk
Date: 2024-11-07 Thursday
Some of you know I’ve been on pilgrimage for three weeks, and I’m planning to share that with you, with photographs, at the sit. It will be hybrid, so we’ll have photos up on the big video screen at Northlake Church in Kirkland, or on your own screens via Zoom, wherever you are.
As some of you know I’ve been traveling with Jason Bartlett as pilgrim partners, and we’ve basically done three things. We spent two weeks living and practicing in three Theravada monasteries in Thailand, with quick side visits to two others.
Then we went to Kathmandu, Nepal, to experience some key elements of Mahayana Buddhism, in particular the Boudhanath Stupa, the Swayambhu Stupa, and last the Asura Cave, where Padmasambhava practiced.
Finally we went to Lumbini, also in Nepal, where the Buddha was born. In addition to the Maha Devi Temple, which marks exactly where he was born, Lumbini includes a quite-amazing array of Buddhist monasteries and temples, some of which we visited and practiced in
The entire trip brought the path alive in some profound ways, including encounters with amazing masters. My aspiration is to share that with you all, to bring it alive for you, to support you in your dharma journeys.
How the King’s Bull Elephant Sutta Encourages Us on the Path
Date: 2024-10-03 Thursday
You might have wondered about the four ways that a person on the path, can be compared to a “king’s bull elephant.”
OK, maybe you haven’t thought about that but the Buddha did, and the result is one of his most stirring suttas – Bull Elephant - number 114 in the Book of Fours of the Numerical Discourses.
This sutta brings a powerful sense of what it means to continue on the path despite obstacles. It infers that obstacles are inevitable, as they are in all of life, but that dharma obstacles can be uniquely overcome.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
How the Truth of Dhamma is Reflected in NDEs (Near-Death Experiences)
Date: 2024-09-05 Thursday
Given that a key question of our lives on the path is that of life and death, and what happens to us after death, I’ve for years been investigating different aspects of this core question.
This last week I took a big leap and attended the annual conference of the International Association of Near Death Studies, which this year was at a hotel on tribal land south of Phoenix. This four-day immersion among people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs), many of whom are leading peer-reviewed research on the subject, was mind opening. Profound were exchanges I had with multiple NDE “experiencers,” as well as with several Buddhist practitioners and leaders at the conference, many of them are exploring these questions on paths similar to my own.
I emerged from the event, after hearing from multiple people who have had NDEs, concluding that NDEs are indeed real and authentic phenomena. It’s of course up to any of us what we’ll make of them, but I’ll offer some wisdom I heard, and how it may support and even complement our Buddhist practice and view.
Just to point us in a similar direction, the title of what I’ll be offering this Thursday, Sept. 5, is: “Aligning the truth of Dharma and NDEs.”
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Bringing the Word “Buddho” Into Daily Practice
Date: 2024-08-01 Thursday
Sometimes on the path we need some help turning toward the potential of awakened mind, away from distractions.
Thai forest tradition offers us tools we in the West don’t often encounter or use. Paramount among these is the word “buddho,” a mantra if you will, that we can use as part of sitting meditation, and also in daily life.
Here’s a quote from the great Thai master Ajahan Boowa, a contemporary of Ajahn Chah:
“Regardless of whether I was seated in meditation, walking meditation, or simply doing my daily chores, the word buddho resonated deeply within my mind at all times.”
For this upcoming Aug. 1 sit we’ll be exploring the word buddho, and how you can use it during formal meditation, and during other parts of your day. This is an area I’ve been cultivating quietly for a long time, and it seemed time to share what I’m learning.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Cultivating Lovingkindness and Compassion Toward Even the Most Difficult
Date: 2024-07-18 Thursday
For this sit we will be exploring loving-kindness for all beings
Here in contentious times, cultivating loving-kindness is a key to a happier life, and to bringing happiness to others. Here we will explore the "not-sticky" aspect of loving kindness...how this deep sense of goodwill toward others includes those with whom we have heart connections, those we hardly know, and those with whom we strongly disagree.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.
Navigating Death and the Question of Rebirth
Date: 2024-06-20 Thursday
For those of you interested in near-death experiences, and the evidence they offer about continuity of consciousness after this life, I'm happy to share that near-death experiencer Eben Alexander joined with the two monks of Clear Mountain Monastery for an unusual online Q & A. The two monks of Clear Mountain Monastery - Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho - are amazing beings in their own right, so this should be a fascination conversation.
Watch the conversation here on YouTube
What he shares will mesh with the June 20 session of Eastside Insight Meditation, when we will be exploring multiple aspects of the fact of death. In particular we’ll be exploring these two seemingly contradictory poles: On the one hand the urgency to progress on the path as much as possible in this lifetime, and on the other hand the seeming boundlessness of many lifetimes ahead.
Eben is a former neurosurgeon who had a very deep near death experience after several days in a coma when his brain was, according to medical instruments, offline.
Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.