The Power of Choice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bkltSUmaaA Choices guide the manner in which we walk the path of Dharma. Can we use suffering to build joy? Can we turn the obstacles in our lives into good medicine for our growth? Prayer Nama Butsu, Nama Hou, Nama Sou We honor our teachers, our teachings, and our communities, Knowing that as we do...

Rev Christy Bates – Purification or Harmony?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0ed9F_YE3g Topic of the teaching: “Purification or Harmony?” We typically encounter the Teachings through the lens of a guilty self. Meanwhile, our English translations tend to skew in that direction, too. And we know that the suffering of greed, hatred and delusion first-hand. What might it be like to encounter the Dhamma with an intent...

Reaching Out and Connecting

https://youtu.be/XdQlcr-J1xc   When things are difficult, it is all too easy to retreat into our own small worlds and lose connection with the bigger picture. Buddhist psychology suggests that as life takes its toll on us, we tend to reduce our personal spheres. We trap ourselves in loops of thought and behaviour. These can be...

Equanimity and Compassion for Precarious Times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCLrVTjH71I Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living. He teaches and writes about how unconditional love and self-compassion are the ultimate gateways to honoring and understanding others; thus, healing our communities and our planet. Read...

December 2024 BRN Academy Teaching – Great Compassion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsoVswV3EIY Opportunity! MBAR (Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery) Course December 9, 2024 - January 4, 2025 28 days of support during xmas and new year - one 15 minute coaching video sent  a day - and meet Vimalasara on a webinar if you have extra time to support your recovery Special Price for BRN ($90) www.eventbrite.com/e/906074642647/?discount=VSMailingList Teacher Bio Vimalasara...

Meeting the moment with a Clear Heart with Carol Cano

BRN Academy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz1zDTXg99s Meeting the moment of high stress with a clear heart involves embracing the challenge with a sense of calm and purpose. It’s about grounding yourself in the present, acknowledging the pressure without letting it overwhelm you. A clear heart means letting go of unnecessary tension, judgment, or fear, and instead responding with clarity, focus,...

How Buddhist Wisdom Helps Us Stay in Recovery – March Teaching with Walt Opie

BRN Academy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0pwyr3uysg The first two path factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, namely Right View and Right Intention, combine to be the wisdom factors. When we understand and develop these to a certain point, we start to see how they can help aim us in the right direction and guide our thinking. This leads to healthier,...

Returning to Our Luminosity: The Aggañña Sutta & Breaking Free from Binding Ways

BRN Academy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITJne0NH4fQMeditation and Dharma Talk with time for Q & A The Aggañña Sutta offers a striking lens through which we can understand how systems of power, craving, and division take root—both in the world and within ourselves. This teaching traces the movement from a time of luminosity and ease into a world shaped by grasping,...

Who Is Myself?

BRN Academy

Exploring identity in the context of Dharma and recovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0aofOnrzls Meditation and Dharma Talk with time for Q & A

Building a Foundation for Freedom

BRN Academy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMJ0EZVG0Uk When we are caught in addictive behaviors, we’re often acting from habits that have been strengthened over the years, and which can be difficult to break. The Buddha’s teaching on liberation and awakening, the Eightfold Path, also offers us a path to freedom from these habits.  When we intentionally use this path as a roadmap...