Based on a talk given at the IMS Forest Refuge in Barre, MA, last winter. ‘‘Look how he abused me and beat me, How he threw me down and robbed me.” Live with such thoughts and you live in hate... Abandon such thoughts and live in love. In this world Hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible. (Dhammapada 3-5) Hatred, indeed, has never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. Hatred just leads to revenge, and revenge … [Read more...]
Sarah Doering
The Five Spiritual Powers
Sarah Doering has had a long association with the Insight Meditation Society and with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. On both boards for many years, she has been a devoted practitioner of insight meditation, and has been teaching at IMS for the past several years. Sarah is currently one of the resident teachers at the newly opened Forest Refuge. Three Month Retreat October 1999 For forty-five years after his enlightenment, the Buddha wandered about northern India teaching. … [Read more...]
Simply Rest in Knowing
I would like to begin tonight by telling a story from the Zen tradition. One day, about 600 years ago, a so-called “man of the people” made his way up a steep path to the top of the mountain. A “man of the people” means an ordinary person, someone like you or me. When he'd reached the top of the mountain, he approached the wise old man who lived there, bowed, and said, “Please, sir, will you write down for me the first principles of wisdom?” The wise old man picked up a brush and wrote down one … [Read more...]
