The greatest gift is the
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Dharma Talks given at Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
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2015-09-12 The four truths 1:16:26
Patrick Kearney
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Having opened the hearts of his five companions with his teaching of the middle way, the Buddha now teaches the four truths of the noble ones (cattāro ariya-saccāni). These are: dukkha; its arising; its cessation; and the path leading to its cessation. This discourse centres on dukkha and craving (taṇhā), because the Buddha is concerned here with what coloured his own practice before his awakening – his sense of drivenness, of trying to get in the future something missing now.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-11 The middle way 63:58
Patrick Kearney
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After his awakening at Bodh Gayā, the Buddha walks to Isipatana, north of Bārāṇasī, where he finds his five former companions and delivers his first teaching, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Turning the dharma wheel), on the full moon of Āsāḷha (July). Here he introduces the principle of the middle way (majjhima paṭipadā), the dynamic centre between extremes, or the place of no fixed position.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-09 Mindfulness immersed in body - Kāyagatā sati 1:27:48
Patrick Kearney
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We explore the role of the body in our meditation practice, using the Buddha’s practice of kāyagatā sati (mindfulness immersed in body) as our guide. We forget we are bodies, fooled by our mind’s ability to create realities that are separate from the bodies we are. We explore the practice of mindfulness immersed in body using the Buddha’s instructions to Mahā Kassapa as our guide: “You should train yourself in this way: “I will not abandon mindfulness immersed in body associated with joy.”
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-08 The fourth satipatthana 69:05
Patrick Kearney
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Tonight we explore the fourth satipaṭṭhāna, that of tracking dharma or dharmas (dhammānupassanā). Tracking dharma (singular) involves learning the conceptual framework that gives meaning to the experiences we undergo. We learn to read our experience. When experience means something, then it can transform our life. Tracking the dharmas (plural) entails learning to perceive our experienced world as no more than a flow of phenomena, that arise and cease dependent on conditions. This represents the maturity of insight into not-self (anattā).
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-07 The three satipatthanas 1:18:37
Patrick Kearney
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We survey the first three of the four satipaṭṭhānas, here translated as “foundations of mindfulness” or “domains of mindfulness” – the places where we station our mindfulness. These are body (kāya), feeling (vedanā) and heart/mind (citta). We see these domains represent a linear progression from less to greater ethical sensitivity; and we also see how feeling holds the practice together.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-06 Restraining the senses 69:59
Patrick Kearney
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We continue our exploration of how we can structure attention by practising indriya saṃvāra, or sense restraint. This practice represents a radical relaxation in which we rest our awareness and simply receive sense data without doing anything, without getting entangled in the data. This practice makes us sensitive to how difficult it is to stop “doing.”
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-06 The insight chorus - Part 2 - Independence 57:09
Patrick Kearney
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This evening we unpack the sentence in which the Buddha presents the maturity of the practice: “And she lives independently, not clinging to anything in the world.” What does it mean to “live independently?” And where does clinging (upādāna) fit into this?
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-05 The insight chorus - Part 1 - Impermanence & emptiness 67:17
Patrick Kearney
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We look at the first three sentences of the chorus of Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, where the Buddha explains the arising of insight (vipassanā). We examine “tracking body as body internally and externally,” where the assumed boundary between self and other begins to dissolve. Then we look at how the practitioner opens into the perception of impermanence – “tracking the nature of arising and ceasing as body.” Finally, we examine the entry into emptiness, where the practitioner is mindful that “body is,” for understanding (ñāṇa) and continuous mindfulness (paṭisati).
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-05 Awareing 1:15:12
Patrick Kearney
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Here we learn to structure our attention more loosely, to enable us to see the object of awareness within the broader context of our attentional field. When we hold an object too closely we may miss the context within which it is held, including the one who is attending to it. When we learn to hold the object more loosely, we can appreciate the context within which it is held, and understanding (sampajañña, paññā) emerges within this context.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-04 Mindfulness, memory & wisdom 62:33
Patrick Kearney
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Tonight we return to the fundamental meaning of sati as indicating memory, and look at the relationship of memory to wisdom. Our connection with the past allows us to learn from the patterns of experience as they flow over time. Mindfulness allows access to an experienced present that includes everything we have learned through the course of our lives.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

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