Recorded: September 26, 2007
Speaker: Roshi Joan Halifax

Roshi Joan Halifax gives this dharma talk on the subject of karma. She distinguishes among the antiquated idea of karma as a system based on causality versus the reality of a huge net of interacting factors both knowable and never to be discovered. She compares her experiences with the political and civil unrest of the 60’s to the unfolding of current events in Burma.

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Recorded: September 19, 2007
Speakers: Natalie Goldberg and Wendy Johnson

Natalie Goldberg and Wendy Johnson share this talk about being awake in the natural world and the role of structure in the awakening process.

Natalie discusses the essential relationship of the individual to structure in two beneficial ways: we need to either break open the structure to awaken or becoming completely intimate with the structure such that any separation dissolves.

Wendy then speaks about the interplay in the natural world of light and dark; of the earth being laid open at harvest time in order to rest and renew, of destruction and laying waste in the world and our imperative to rebuild upon a damaged surface. Works of literature and art are used to illustrate these themes and the audience is invited to a question and answer ending.

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Recorded: September 5, 2007
Speaker: Vice Abbot of Upaya, Beate Stolte-Overtheil

Vice Abbot of Upaya, Beate Stolte-Overtheil reviews the history of philosophical views of human happiness starting with the Greeks, through the Middle Ages, and into modern philosophers and even neuroscience research . She describes several experimental studies to illustrate the influence of expectation upon the sense of happiness and then distinguishes between pleasure and true serenity or contentment.

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