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The one-disc MP3 chronicales the weekend retreat held in September 2010 at Santa Barbara's historical Old Mission. The Heart Sutra is perhaps the most popular text in the Buddhist world. Known both for its profundity and brevity, this work quickly made its way from India to China, Japan, Korea and Tibet. It is recited daily in an array of languages around the world. The principle theme of the Heart Sutra is "sunyata" or emptiness. This retreat, led by Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, focuses on the study and practices that emerge from this profound discourse on sunyata delivered by the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara to Venerable Shariputra at Vulture Peak. What insights rise from this text? How can this text help us to transform our minds and hearts, recognize our potential for enlightenment, and help us liberate ourselves from samsara? In this retreat, goddess Prajnaparamita beckons us to engage on these reflections. The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi is the founding director of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has a graduate degree in Comparative Philosophy of Religion from Harvard University and is an Integral Honors Scholar in Philosophy and Science. At the age of ten, he entered a Buddhist Monastery in Rajgir and was subsequently ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is his spiritual Mentor. Venerable Tenzin lectures internationally and is also President of The Prajnopaya Foundation, a worldwide humanitarian organization. For more information on him and his work, vist www.iMonk.org.
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This retreat provides an overview of the central themes of the 42-hour training program called "Cultivating Emotional Balance" devised by the eminent psychologist Paul Ekman, Ph.D. and B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D. at the request of HH the Dalai Lama. Focusing on both theory and practice, Alan Wallace explains four aspects of mental balance: conative, attentional, cognitive, and emotional. Conative balance has to do with cultivating meaningful desires and aspirations that truly contribute to one's own and others' wellbeing. Attentional balance focuses on overcoming attention deficit and hyperactivity, replacing these imbalances with a sense of inner calm, centeredness, and clarity. Cognitive balance is achieved through the cultivation of mindfulness so that we can experience the world without cognitive distortions. Finally, emotional balance maybe achieved through enhancing the positive emotions of loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity while bringing afflictive emotional states under control through understanding and meditation. The weekend included guided meditations, lectures and open discussion. This audio stream/download via Dropbox (no account is needed), chronicles the weekend retreat held in Santa Barba's historical Old Mission from Feb 3rd-5th, 2012. Available on DVD, or Audio Stream/download. Select the type of media that you want. The DVD will be shipped via the US Postal Service. The audio files will be downloadable - you will receive an email with details.
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This audio stream and download contains 26 meditations from retreats with Alan Wallace in Santa Barbara, CA in 2009 . You will receive a Dropbox link to listen to these guided meditations.