Dharma Talks and Sangha Shares

Most of us meditate to find some peace — so why does stepping off the cushion still feel so hard?

In this Sangha Share, board member Nick Burlin reflects on that gap between stillness on the cushion and the persistent friction of modern life, and finds some unexpected help in the work of philosopher Alain de Botton.

Nick walks through five themes from de Botton’s writing — self-knowledge and anxiety, status and meritocracy, love as a learnable skill, attention in a noisy digital world, and the value of shared ritual — and traces how each one connects directly...

Joy isn't something we have to manufacture — it's something we can learn to recognize and receive.

In this talk, Ginger Clarkson guides the group through mudita, or sympathetic joy, drawing on teachings from Sylvia Boorstein, the late Cambodian Buddhist patriarch Maha Gosananda, and a newly trained Spirit Rock teacher named devon hase.

Ginger explores why sympathetic joy may be the hardest of the four heart practices — envy and the fear that there isn't enough happiness to go around are its natural obstacles — and why the antidote is simply remembering that joy and sorrow visit everyone, and th...

People come to meditation for many different reasons, but the destination is often left unclear. What does this practice actually lead to?

In this talk, Travis Hicks traces the arc of a deepening practice — from the small early benefits of slowing down and feeling a little more at ease, through the gradual clearing of the mind's clutter, to the flashes of insight that begin to change how we see reality.

Using a few simple images — a dim light slowly brightening in a dark room, lightning flashes revealing a mountain on a dark trail — Travis describes how pr...

A 30 minute guided meditation on Metta by Travis Hicks

Wisdom and compassion are sometimes called the two wings of awakening — and a practice built on only one of them will eventually veer off course.

In this talk, Travis Hicks introduces the four heart practices — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity — and makes the case for weaving them into a meditation practice that might otherwise lean heavily toward insight and awareness.

Travis walks through each of the four brahmaviharas, including both their far enemies (hatred, cruelty, envy, indifference) and their subtler near enemies (sentimental attachment, pity, forced cheerfulness, aloof detachment). He offers practical guidance on how to...

Whether you're new to meditation or have been practicing for years, coming back to the basics is always worthwhile.

In this introductory talk, Travis Hicks lays out the essential qualities of mindfulness — presence, non-judgment, awareness, acceptance, and returning — and explains simply what we're actually doing when we sit down to practice.

The talk covers why the body is such a reliable anchor for presence, what it means to observe the mind without trying to change it, and how the classic simile of the two arrows points to where our real suffering comes from. Travis also touc...

Dependent origination is one of the deepest teachings in Buddhism — and also one of the most misunderstood.

In this talk, Travis Hicks works through the Buddha's teaching on dependent co-arising, the framework that answers a question the Four Noble Truths point to but don't fully explain: how exactly does suffering arise, and where can we actually intervene?

Moving through the chain — from aging and death back through birth, becoming, clinging, craving, feeling, contact, and consciousness — Travis shows how each link conditions the next, and why most of them aren't places where we have much practical levera...

The four elements practice — earth, water, fire, and air — is one of the less commonly taught objects of mindfulness, but for some practitioners it opens something that sitting practice alone doesn't.

In this talk, Travis Hicks shares why he finds the elements practice particularly valuable, especially when taken outside, and walks through what it actually feels like when it's working well.

Rather than experiencing the body as a contained self with arms and legs, the practice gradually dissolves that boundary — sensations inside and outside the body begin to feel continuous, and the usual sense of separa...

Even a dedicated meditation practice can quietly become a routine — and that's exactly when renewal matters most.

In this talk, Rafi Rahman reflects on what it means to bring freshness back to practice, not by starting over, but by loosening the grip of what we think we already know.

About Rafi Rahman

Rafi was born and raised in Bangladesh and has been practicing Insight meditation since 2015. He has been part of the Insight Meditation Houston (IMH) community since 2018 and currently serves as Chair of the IMH Board. He is passionate about he...

What would it mean to move through daily life with genuine generosity — not as a transaction, but as a way of being?

In this talk, Ginger Clarkson reflects on the Zen precept "Do not be stingy," exploring generosity through small moments of kindness, unexpected gestures, and the simple act of paying attention to others.

Drawing on Buddhist teachings on dana, a Zen meal chant, the image of Indra's net, and a vivid poem by Rumi, Ginger weaves together personal stories — from smiling at airport workers to her hospice visits with her service dog Amanda — to show h...

Most of us sit down to meditate and jump straight into watching the breath — but what if a few minutes of preparation made the whole practice easier? In this talk, Travis Hicks explores the idea of preliminary practices, drawing on Mahasi Sayadaw's recommendation of six things worth doing before formal meditation begins.

The six include reflecting on your own virtuous conduct, recalling the benefits of practice, cultivating confidence in the teachings, bringing to mind the qualities of the Buddha, practicing a little loving-kindness, and recollecting death as a nudge toward urgency. Travis shares honestly how he has be...

Every year on the full moon of May, Buddhists around the world celebrate Vesak — the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha, all said to have occurred on the same day. In this talk, Travis Hicks marks the occasion with a walk through the life of Siddhartha Gautama, from his sheltered upbringing in a noble household to his eventual enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

Travis traces the familiar arc — the Four Heavenly Messengers, the failed ascetic practices, the decision to simply sit and not move until he found the answer — but tells it in a grounded, unhurried way th...

Joy isn't a distraction from the spiritual path — according to the Buddha, it's an essential part of it. In this talk, Ginger Clarkson guides the group through mudita, or sympathetic joy, the third of the four brahmaviharas, exploring why it may be the most challenging of the heart practices to cultivate.

Ginger reflects honestly on how easy it is to feel genuine warmth toward strangers while still harboring judgment toward others, and how mudita asks us to celebrate the good fortune of others even when we ourselves are struggling. The talk includes a guided meditation sending appreciative jo...

Alexander technique is a body awareness and reeducation method from the 19th century that embodies many principles that overlap with mindfulness meditation and insight through observation. In this talk Tom connects to define practical application while sitting walking and standing as well as meditating.

About Tom Lev

Tom Lev is a teacher and community builder who has evolved from air traffic control to dance to meditation, guided by the conviction that wisdom must be lived rather than understood. His background in dance taught him that presence and empathy transcend words, a principle he...

In this second talk on mindfulness of the body, Travis Hicks picks up where he left off, covering three more practices from the Satipatthana Sutta: working with postures and energy, mindfulness of the four elements, and contemplation of the body's decay.

Travis explores how the choice of posture — sitting, standing, walking, or lying down — relates directly to the energy of the mind, and offers practical ways to bring awareness into everyday movement. He then walks through the elements practice, recategorizing bodily sensations as earth, water, fire, and air — a method he finds particularly alive when practiced outdoors. Finall...

The body is always here which makes it one of the most reliable anchors for meditation practice.

In this first of two talks on mindfulness of the body, Travis Hicks introduces the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and walks through several of its core practices: mindfulness of the breath, awareness of postures, and the body scan.

Drawing on the Satipatthana Sutta, Travis explores how the breath makes impermanence tangible, why standing and walking deserve as much attention as sitting, and how bringing awareness to everyday movement, walking to get a glass of water...

Our phones are designed to capture our attention and they're very good at it.

In this talk, Travis Hicks reflects on his annual Lenten practice of giving up social media, and what it reveals about how digital habits shape the mind.

Drawing on his own experience with Reddit, a remote monastery retreat, and some statistics about phone use, Travis connects the pull of apps and notifications directly to what we're trying to cultivate in meditation practice: the ability to notice where our attention goes and choose it more intentionally. He looks at how algorithms are...

Travis Hicks explores how the Buddha's teachings on reincarnation and samsara show up throughout the suttas, and what they ask of us in daily life.

Drawing on vivid similes from the Pali Canon, Travis looks at how these teachings are meant to spark samvega — a sense of spiritual urgency — alongside a deep recognition that in an endless cycle of rebirth, every being has at some point been our mother, our child, our closest friend. He doesn't ask anyone to accept reincarnation as fact, but invites an open mind about what it might mean for how we practice and...

Is there actual evidence for reincarnation — or is it just a matter of belief?

In this second of two talks, Mark Ryan picks up where he left off, moving from past life regression therapy to what many consider more compelling ground: children who spontaneously remember previous lives.

The centerpiece of this talk is the work of University of Virginia psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, who spent four decades systematically investigating over 2,500 cases worldwide. Mark walks through what these cases have in common — children speaking of past lives between ages two and six, memories that could often be veri...

The Noble Eightfold Path is one of Buddhism's most essential teachings — but what does it actually look like in daily life?

In this talk, Travis Hicks walks through the Eightfold Path in a practical, grounded way, drawing on his year of Upasaka training with Birken Forest Monastery and two books he has returned to again and again: Bhikkhu Bodhi's The Noble Eightfold Path and Bhante Gunaratana's Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.

Rather than going factor by factor, Travis groups the path into its three main areas — ethical conduct, meditative concentration, and wisdom — and shows how they s...

Do our lives continue after death — and is there any real evidence for it?

In this first of a two-part sangha share, Mark Ryan takes look at reincarnation, tracing its presence across cultures from ancient Greek philosophy and early Christianity to Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous traditions worldwide.

Drawing on his background facilitating Holotropic Breathwork, Mark shares compelling case stories — including one man whose vivid visions of a 16th-century Irish fortress turned out to match an obscure historical battle he had never knowingly encountered. He also explores the work of psychiatrist Brian Weiss, whose skepticism about past...

Your brain is literally divided in two — and according to one neuroscientist, the wrong half has been running the show. In this fascinating and wide-ranging sangha share, Nick Burlin brings together cutting-edge neuroscience and 2,500-year-old Buddhist wisdom to reveal why we suffer — and why our meditation practice may be the most powerful antidote we have.

Drawing on Iain McGilchrist's landmark book The Master and His Emissary, Nick explores how the brain's two hemispheres don't just divide tasks — they create fundamentally different worlds. The left hemisphere narrows, analyzes, labels, and grasps for control. The right hemisphere opens wide, percei...

What are you really leaning on when life feels shaky — and is it actually helping?

In this warm and deeply personal talk, teacher Lisa Murphy invites us to look honestly at where we seek refuge, and whether those refuges are truly setting us free.

Drawing on her own experience of a moving retreat ritual — a red string tied with three knots, one for each of the Three Refuges — Lisa explores what it means to consciously take shelter in the Triple Gem: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. This isn't a scholarly lecture; it's an intima...

What if the secret to a fearless, open heart isn't one practice — but four, working together? In this deeply nourishing talk, Ginger Clarkson explores the Buddha's four Brahma Viharas — the Divine Abodes of the heart — and shows how loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity don't just stand alone, but actively protect and strengthen each other.

Drawing on the wisdom of Nyanaponika Thera, the Dalai Lama, and the archetypal compassion of Kuan Yin, this episode guides you through each of the four sublime states with brief, accessible meditation practices — and reveals why the Buddha taught that we need all four...