Devon Hase's most recent Dharma talks (Dharma Seed)

(Insight Meditation Community of Richmond) Drawing from their new book "This Messy, Gorgeous Love: A Buddhist Guide to Lasting Partnership", devon and nico share practical insights on bringing mindfulness and compassion into the beautiful complexity of intimate relationships. A guided meditation is followed by a teaching.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) A progressive release into emptiness, and a return through the four brahmaviharās

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) A talk on MN 121: Culasaññata sutta exploring the meaning and experience of emptiness in the Theravada tradition.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Guided meditation on noticing what isn't here, and thus becoming acquainted with emptiness.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Guided meditation on gladdening the mind and seeing the good.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Short reflection and poem on how to recognize dukkha and its capacity to grow trust in the moment.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) The Buddha's Upanisā Sutta offers one of his most quietly radical teachings: that liberation doesn't begin with getting comfortable, but with honestly meeting what hurts. Drawing on this "proximate cause" discourse from SN 12.23, this talk traces the transcendent sequence of dependent origination — from dukkha through faith, joy, tranquility, and insight, all the way to freedom. We'll explore what it means to stop treating difficulty as an obstacle to practice and start recognizing it as the practice's first gate — on the cushion, in daily life, and in our closest relationships.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Guided meditation on loving all parts of ourselves and the world.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Guided practice for contemplating the parts of the body, leading to an attitude to nonattachment and letting go.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Drawing on the wisdom of rivers, forests, and the four elements, this talk explores how the natural world mirrors our own deepest nature - and how turning toward impermanence, non-clinging, and the wildness of our own hearts can become a path to freedom.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Stories and humor from beloved teacher Ajahn Brahm.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Stories and humor from beloved teacher Ajahn Brahm.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Guided practice for directly experiencing the four elements in the body, followed by reading of Mary Oliver's "Humpbacks."

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) The Buddha's contemplation of the four elements — earth, water, fire, and air — offers a gentle but radical path: from the conceit of "my body" to the felt sense of being nature itself. A guided exploration of elemental awareness, grounded in retreat experience, Satipatthana practice, and the luminous body-wisdom of beloved poets.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Deep Welcome, Reflections on Retreat and Metta Practice

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) How does loving-kindness infuse every dimension of the path? Drawing from a sweat-drenched pilgrimage around Shikoku's 88 temples, Devon explores metta not as a single technique but as a way of life woven through the Eightfold Path — from wise intention and ethical attunement, through generosity and letting go, to the boundless radiance of the brahmaviharas. Along the way, we discover how metta practice can open into concentration, healing, and even emptiness itself, and how the original instructions invite us simply to fill our bodies and the whole world with a field of care.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Moving from body to choiceless attention to awarenenss of awareness, we consider the Bahiya Sutta and how it points to the not-self nature of things.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Drawing from the Culasunyatta Sutta and the teaching to Bahiya, this talk explores how the entire Buddhist path unfolds within the immediacy of our sensory experience. Emptiness is revealed not as a metaphysical abstraction but as the progressive letting go of what distracts us from what is peaceful—a movement from palace to forest to space to freedom itself. The whole world exists within this fathom-long body and its six sense doors. Liberation happens here, in the seen, heard, sensed, and cognized—not through traveling to some distant realm, but through radical presence with what is. When...

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Teachings and Guidance on RAIN meditation.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) What if aging, illness, and death aren't enemies to avoid, but teachers bowing at our feet? This talk explores the Buddha's radical invitation to turn toward life's inevitable difficulties—not with morbidity, but with the clear-eyed realism that sets us free. Through poetry, contemporary dharma voices, and the ancient practice of death awareness, we discover how contemplating our mortality doesn't diminish joy—it ignites it. When we stop living heedlessly and wake up to the preciousness of this breath, this moment, this life, we find the courage to love completely and let go gracefully. A New Year...

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Teachings and guided meditation on mindfulness of the body using sensations, sounds, and breath.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Teachings and guided meditation on receiving care.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Reflections on Solstice, How to Meditate, Wise Attitude, and guided RAIN practice

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) A Winter Solstice reflection on faith (saddha) as heartfelt confidence rather than blind belief. Drawing on personal stories of religious transitions and crisis, this talk explores how suffering can become the ground for genuine spiritual trust—the kind that arises from direct experience and opens us to the possibility of awakening exactly as we are. Through poetry, Buddhist teachings, and the paradox of being already free while still practicing, we examine how verified faith allows us to meet life with both acceptance and wise action.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Guided meditation on Caring Figure practice and receiving unconditional love.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) This talk explores how spiritual friendship encompasses the entirety of Buddhist practice, examining how we become intimate with ourselves, others, and the world through connection and accompaniment. Drawing on suttas, poetry, and personal stories, it reveals how talking about the dharma, offering presence to one another, and cultivating tenderness through difficulty are essential paths to awakening.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Silent sit followed by teachings on clear understanding: Sampajañña.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Equanimity is the final quality in many Buddhist lists: awakening factors, paramis, brahma viharas, and jhana factors. And, it's the starting point for skillful action in the world.

(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center) Through study of the Meghiya Sutta, we’ll explore why the Buddha insisted that awakening happens in community, not in isolation. Through personal stories of transformation, Devon will describe the five essential conditions Buddha outlined for waking up. This talk weaves together ancient wisdom with modern pilgrimage, showing how our most challenging moments can become our greatest sources of strength when we practice accompaniment rather than abandonment. Come explore how the gradual path unfolds like a sacred journey, one step at a time, with fellow travelers by our side.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Teachings on Dependent Co-Arising (Paticca-Sammupadda).

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Reflections and guided practice on cultivating karuna (compassion) for a friend and a stranger.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Poems, stories, and reflections on taking refuge in the truth of the dharma.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Forty-five minute silent meditation followed by the story of Philippe Petit, a high wire artist that trained intensively to master his art.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Teachings on wise discernment and how to skillfully respond to what arises in retreat practice.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The Buddha emphasized the importance of seeing impermanence in many of his teachings. Reflections on the three wisdoms and how they relate to insight into change.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Teachings and Guided Practice on working with Intention

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Reflections on working with our "beautiful monsters" and guided meditation on RAINN

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Stories and Teachings on Wise Attitude and Devotion on the Path.

(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Instructions and Guided Meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing