Gay Buddhist Forum GBF

In this talk, Bob Stahl speaks about his experience with reconciling, making peace, or making amends as we progress through life. 

He shares his thoughts on reconciling ourselves to four aspects of life: 
The times I've been too hard on myself.The others I have hurt.Those that have hurt me.The condition of the life that I actually have and now experience.______________
Bob Stahl, Ph.D., has founded eight Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs in medical centers in the SF Bay Area and is currently offering programs at El Camino Hospital in Mt. View, California.

He serves as an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health at Brown University Mindfulness Center and formerly at the Oasis Institute for Mindfulness-Based Professional Education and Training at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Bob teaches MBSR Teacher Trainings and Insight Mindfulness Meditation retreats worldwide and is the former guiding teacher at Insight Santa Cruz and a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. He is the co-author of five books: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook (1st & 2nd editions), Living With Your Heart Wide Open, Calming the Rush of Panic, A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook for Anxiety, and MBSR Everyday.
Find him at www.mindfulnessprograms.com
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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

How do we make space for natural human emotions, including those we avoid such as shame? Can we not be afraid of them, and hold our experience with more acceptance and compassion?

Shame has a very visceral component that hijacks our emotions, much like encountering a dangerous animal.

In this rich talk, Ian explores the various aspects of shame that cross our minds and how we can examine these despite the pain they invoke. We are conditioned to feel shame based on societal norms, even if we don't share them, which is why it is particularly prevalent among non-conforming individuals such as LGBTQ persons. He discusses how we can avoid internalizing these feelings and not feel isolated as a result.

He makes the distinction between remorse or ethical responsibility, which connect us to the world, and shame which isolates us. Shame withdraws us into our own emotional pain, whereas remorse centers on the pain we have caused others and opens us to reconciliation. 
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Ian Challis is a student and teacher in the Insight Tradition of Buddhism. He is a teacher, founding member, and past guiding teacher of Insight Community of the Desert in Palm Springs.

Ayya Khema, Leigh Brasington, Narayan Liebenson, Larry Yang, and Arinna Weisman are key teachers who have inspired and illuminated his practice.

Serving Queer community is a passion. 2023 marks his co-teaching of the 7th annual Queer retreat at Dhamma Dena Retreat Center with Leslie Booker.

Ian teaches regular drop-in classes as well as retreats. He is a qualified teacher of MBSR, a graduate of Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leader teacher training, and was formally invited by Arinna Weisman to teach in the lineage of U Ba Khin and Ruth Denison.
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There you can:
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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Many of us come to our practice with some degree of suffering. Our regular ways of dealing with life may be creating stress, or we feel a wanting, that something is missing as we engage in our capitalistic society. 

While yearning for something is not in itself bad, we need to examine where we are looking for it. Rather than trying to just get from here to there or to become something we are not, can our practice help us become more genuine and experience our essential self?  

In this talk, Pamela shares that delusion is at the heart of our grasping and aversion, because we still believe something we get or attain will alleviate our dissatisfaction. It is the falling away of this fantasy that is the gift of spiritual practice because it can lead us to being at peace in our lives. 
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Pamela Weiss is a dual-lineage Buddhist teacher in Soto Zen and Theravada, and the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism." She sits on the Spirit Rock Teacher Council, and teaches through San Francisco Insight, San Francisco Zen Center and Brooklyn Zen Center. Pamela lives in San Francisco with her husband and little dog, Grover.
Support the show______________
To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/

To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.
There you can:
* Donate * Learn how to participate live * Find our schedule of upcoming speakers * Join our mailing list or discussion forum * Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

In the Buddhist understanding of the universe, we are not separate individuals, but impersonal streams of cause-and-effect that have been unfolding since beginningless time. This is a radical interruption of the idea we have been trained to believe: that we are fundamentally human, with an individual essence and identity. The teaching on the “six realms” proposes that the stream of action (karma) we conventionally called “me, myself, my story” can take a variety of forms depending on our own actions and the conditions of our birth. One of these forms is called “human,” but we also take the form of animals, ghosts, spirit beings, and even powerful gods depending on conditions. Whether you take this teaching as myth, psychological metaphor, or material reality, it offers a powerful antidote to the self-centered, consumerist, isolated self of our modern condition.
An accessible doorway to this ancient, visionary aspect of the Dharma is to practice relating to the entire living world as sentient. When we address the earth, sky, trees, animals, and plants, as well as energetic cultural and emotional stories that are larger than us as individuals, like hatred, lust, or fear, as friends and relatives, we find ourselves living in a far more complex community of beings. This is the world described in the discourses of the Buddha, where spirit beings, animals, and ghosts regularly interacted with the Buddha and his community, revealing a universe where our actions create our own and others’ futures far more expansively than our current materialistic worldview can see.
This talk is an introduction to Dr. Oakes's upcoming sutta study series at Spirit Rock: Animal, Spirit, Human, God: Karma and the Cycle of Saṁsāra, Mar 9 - Apr 6.
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Sean Feit Oakes, PhD (he/him, queer, Puerto Rican & English ancestry, living on unceded Pomo land in NorCal), teaches Buddhism and somatic practice focusing on the integration of meditation, trauma resolution, and social justice. He received teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, and wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance. He teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Insight Timer, and locally. See SeanFeitOakes.com


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There you can:
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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

How do we have a response in keeping with loving-kindness when people hate us or hurt our feelings?
In this talk, Dave defines hatred as "malicious rage with ill-will and an insatiable desire to hurt you or get back at you."
He shares three possible types of responses, taken from his book, "Triggers: How We Can Stop Reacting and Start Living."

Find his handout here: https://gaybuddhist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Hate-or-Hurt-Dave-Richo.pdf
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David Richo, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, writer, and workshop leader. He shares his time between Santa Barbara and San Francisco, California. Dave combines psychological and spiritual perspectives in his work. His latest book is "Ready: How to Know When to Go and When to Stay." (Shambhala, 2022). The website for books, talks, and events is www.davericho.com.
Support the show______________
To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/

To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.
There you can:
* Donate * Learn how to participate live * Find our schedule of upcoming speakers * Join our mailing list or discussion forum * Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

What roles do reverence and veneration play in our practice? 
These may be in the form of 'taking refuge' in the 3 Jewels (the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha), bowing, chanting, or other ceremonial actions that lead us to a deeper connection with the dharma. Although the Buddha warned of not becoming attached to rites and rituals, when approached skillfully they can have a beneficial role often missing from Buddhist traditions in the West.
In this talk, Trip speaks about being mindful in pursuing the bodhisattva ideal so that we do not seek a reward for performing rituals, as this might lead to disappointment and more suffering. Rather, rituals can be a mysterious doorway to freedom that inclines the mind to wisdom and compassion. 
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Trip Weil has been practicing in the Theravadan tradition since 2004. He is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader and Dedicated Practitioner programs. Trip serves on the board of San Francisco Insight, where he also leads sitting groups and teaches meditation classes. He is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and a former attorney.
Support the show______________
To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/

To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.
There you can:
* Donate * Learn how to participate live * Find our schedule of upcoming speakers * Join our mailing list or discussion forum * Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter