Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Meditating and speaking: simultaneously practicing Sila, Samadhi and Panna

With Gregory Kramer recorded on February 11, 2018.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

The communicative loop of listening and speaking forms a powerful karmic workshop. Language taps into our karmic archive, sankhara. It reaches other people and, if they are listening, there is mind-to-mind contact. Relational contact is intrinsically powerful because humans are intrinsically relational: when we engage together, our mutual responsiveness amplifies our efforts. Speaking and listening together empowers us to do good works, or drives us towards anger and fear. Sila. It empowers our development of mindfulness and calm concentration, or it is a channel for distraction. Samadhi. It carries wisdom and deep inquiry or driveling trivia. Panna. All of these are enfolded in meditation in which the doorway to speech is opened.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Simplicity: The Heart of the Dharma

    Simplicity underlies Dharma practice. It’s common that when people begin to meditate, even if they have a full life with a job and family, they begin to realize that simplicity is a deep value. Pursuing conventional goals feels less meaningful or satisfying than finding ease and straightforwardness in our approach to life. Simplicity cuts across…

    Read More

  • Leigh Brasington

    The Fruits of the Spiritual Life

    2 Kings. Palace Intrigue. A Murder. 500 Elephants. A nighttime visit to see the Buddha. And that’s just the backstory to one of the Buddha’s deepest teachings: his curriculum for spiritual advancement. Join us as we explore the lessons from the 2nd of the Long Discourses and gain a deeper understanding of how morality, concentration,…

    Read More

  • Christelle Bonneau

    Fluidity and spontaneity.

    Worldwide Insight talk from Christelle Bonneau: “Fluidity and Spontaneity”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.

    Read More

  • Love & Boundaries

    Our practice cultivates qualities of boundless love, whether through loving kindness practice, or opening to the love inherent in deep states of awareness. But can we really love everyone boundlessly? What about political leaders who may be causing tremendous suffering? Or when our boundaries get crossed in any way—personally, at work, in our families, or…

    Read More

  • Chris Willard

    The Joy of Letting Go: Simplicity and Renunciation

    In our consumer culture, we fall for the illusion that more choice-in things, work, people, even spiritual paths-leads to more freedom, when often the opposite is true. As Jack Kornfield says, we live “in an era of unlimited desires but limited resources, when we think it’s the opposite.” More mindful awareness of our consumption isn’t…

    Read More

  • Stephen Fulder

    Welcoming the Beyond

    What is beyond the ordinary mind? What is beyond thought? How can we access a consciousness that is open, free and limitless? How can we dive into the ocean instead of being tossed by the waves? The dharma is in its essence a spiritual journey and the character of the path is to meet, engage…

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of Apr 29 – 3 May, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Mindfulness of the nervous system: transforming fear, struggle and separation into love and connection”. We humans are social animals and need each other to feel safe and secure, to grow and to nourish ourselves. How can we live with a sense of connection, loving-kindness, and inner family? Our meditation practice allows us to take a break between stimulus and response. When we come into contact with our loved ones, we all too easily lose the inner freedom we think we have achieved and avoid our difficulties, also called spiritual bypassing. This week we explore what supports us to react flexibly to the internal and external world, to relax and to allow closeness and real intimacy. We will look into the first foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of the body, including harmonizing the body formations and nervous system to meet our difficulties with gentleness.

    Read More