This site is for the Berkeley Dharma and Recovery Group led by Walt Opie. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month from 7:30 - 9 pm at the Northbrae Community Church (941 The Alameda, Berkeley, CA) in Room #1 upstairs. Walt is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders program and the Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy program. He has been mentored by Kevin Griffin (author of "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps").
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Why Meditate?
The effort and commitment needed to pursue meditation is so demanding that it is appropriate to ask what value it has and where it is leading. Meditation has to do with opening what is closed in us, balancing what is reactive, and exploring and investigating what is hidden. We practice to open, to balance, and to explore.
~Joseph Goldstein, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom
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Photos by Walt Opie (Burma/Myanmar 2015) |
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
2015 Monthly Schedule
PLEASE NOTE: We now meet on the second Tuesday of each month in Room #1 at the Northbrae Community Church in Berkeley, CA. The group facilitator listed below is subject to change with short notice.
Tuesday, September 8: Kevin Griffin
Tuesday, October 13: Walt Opie
Tuesday, November 10: Walt Opie
Tuesday, December 8: Walt Opie
Friday, February 13, 2015
Quote on Craving from Dhamma Everywhere by Sayadaw U Tejaniya
Craving
is very tricky; it’s always pushing you. Whatever you think, whatever you say,
whatever you do, craving is pushing you, motivating you. There are many ways
for craving to come in or arise in your mind. What do you want? Sometimes you
should ask yourself: What do I want? Do I want something? There’s always
wanting. Because of this wanting, desire, craving, expectation (same meaning),
the mind is suffering, tense, and dissatisfied.
If the mind doesn’t
want anything, it is free.
You
cannot get what you want. If you understand the principle that you cannot get
something because you want it and that you only get what comes from conditions,
cause and effect, then desire gets weaker and weaker. Craving will be less and
less. Everything happens because of cause and effect, not because you want it
to happen.
Actually,
you only get suffering if you want something with craving.
Peace, liberation, freedom comes
because you don’t want anything.
If
craving disappears, this is liberation.
Monday, January 5, 2015
2015 Monthly Schedule
PLEASE NOTE: We now meet on the second Tuesday of each month in Room #1 at the Northbrae Community Church in Berkeley, CA. The group facilitator listed below is subject to change with short notice.
Tuesday, January 13: Walt Opie
Tuesday, January 13: Walt Opie
Tuesday, February 10: Walt Opie
Tuesday, March 10: Walt Opie
Tuesday, April 14: Walt Opie
Tuesday, May 12: Walt Opie
Tuesday, June 9: Walt Opie
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The Four Principles of Mindful Transformation (taken from The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield)
RAIN (technique for looking at our
difficulties):
1 – Recognize
(pause & step out of denial for true freedom from suffering—name and
inwardly bow to our experience—“ah, the judging mind…”)
2 – Accept
(relax & open to the facts before us, not passive; Say, “This too.”)
3 - Investigate
[body, feeling tone, mind & dharma] (also called "seeing deeply"; Jack Kornfield says,
“Whenever we are stuck, it is because we have not looked deeply enough into the
nature of the experience.”)
4 - Non-Identify
(notice how we identify it as “me” or “mine” + awareness)
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