Florida Community of Mindfulness

Mind Training: How to Use The Thinking Mind to Support Your Transformation (2 of 4) (2019)

Five Day Retreat | Jan 2019

In this four part series, Dharma Teacher Fred Eppsteiner elucidates key Buddhist teachings on how to work skillfully with unwholesome thinking which gives rise to much of our suffering, while cultivating wholesome thoughts that promote well-being and joy. Using primary Buddhist teachings, Fred explained that when we learn how to train our mind, our thinking can become a great support on this path of awakening, rather than an obstacle or something we need to get rid of. These teachings occurred during the 2019 Winter Retreat with the Florida Community of Mindfulness.

Mind Training: How to Use The Thinking Mind to Support Your Transformation (1 of 4) (2019)

Five Day Retreat | Jan 2019

In this four part series, Dharma Teacher Fred Eppsteiner elucidates key Buddhist teachings on how to work skillfully with unwholesome thinking which gives rise to much of our suffering, while cultivating wholesome thoughts that promote well-being and joy. Using primary Buddhist teachings, Fred explained that when we learn how to train our mind, our thinking can become a great support on this path of awakening, rather than an obstacle or something we need to get rid of. These teachings occurred during the 2019 Winter Retreat with the Florida Community of Mindfulness.

A Buddhist Understanding of Our Times: The Six Realms of Existence (2 of 2) (2019)

February, 2019 

In these talks, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner explains the Buddhist teaching on the Six Realms of Existence and how we can use them as a sophisticated psychological model to help use understand what is happening in the world today. The six realms, which consist of The God Realm, Titan Realm, Human Realm, Animal Realm, Hungry Ghost Realm and the Hell Realms, can each be understood as suffering mind-states people find themselves in throughout their lives.

While some people are stuck in one of these states, many of us move between them throughout our lives. Understanding these realms, we can also look outward and l see that people in our lives, people in the world, all reside in one of these realms and their actions are motivated by the undercurrents that dominate each of these mind-states. This understanding can help us have compassion for people we encounter in this life while also motivating us to find another way to live.

Fred also touches on the teachers that show up in these various states of suffering to lead the way to more enlightened states of living.

A Buddhist Understanding of Our Times: The Six Realms of Existence (1 of 2) (2019)

February, 2019 

In these talks, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner explains the Buddhist teaching on the Six Realms of Existence and how we can use them as a sophisticated psychological model to help use understand what is happening in the world today. The six realms, which consist of The God Realm, Titan Realm, Human Realm, Animal Realm, Hungry Ghost Realm and the Hell Realms, can each be understood as suffering mind-states people find themselves in throughout their lives.

While some people are stuck in one of these states, many of us move between them throughout our lives. Understanding these realms, we can also look outward and l see that people in our lives, people in the world, all reside in one of these realms and their actions are motivated by the undercurrents that dominate each of these mind-states. This understanding can help us have compassion for people we encounter in this life while also motivating us to find another way to live.

Fred also touches on the teachers that show up in these various states of suffering to lead the way to more enlightened states of living.

Dogen's Pith Teaching for Becoming a Buddha (2019)

January 12, 2019 

In this talk, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner comments on Zen Master Dogen's writings on becoming a Buddha in this lifetime. Fred elaborated on Dogen's teachings which say that the following simple practices will lead one to Buddhahood. The practices enumerated include to refrain from unwholesome acts, to not be attached to birth and death, and to be compassionate to all sentient beings. By practicing these fundamental teachings we all have the capacity to become Buddhas in this lifetime.

Zen Master Bankei and the Unborn Buddha Mind (2019)

January 20, 2019

In this talk, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner comments on the teachings of Zen master Bankei. He explains how each of us were born with what Bankei calls the unborn Buddha Mind, which is a pure, untainted mind. Then, over time, we become deluded through conditioning by those around us. However, because we have, as our nature, this Unborn Buddha Mind, each of us has the capacity to see through this delusion and transform our minds. It is because we don't realize the preciousness of this Buddha Mind that we continually indulge in self-centeredness and mistake our thinking mind for our true mind. This attachment to thoughts and self is what makes it difficult to transform our lives and our mind. However, Bankei gives us simple, direct instructions to help us break free of this delusion.

The Dharma of Scrooge (2018)

December 16, 2018

In this Dharma talk Fred Eppsteiner relates the story of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge from Dickens', "A Christmas Carol." Through this story, Fred explains how we can all transform the suffering we experience from living a life devoted to self into a happy, meaningful life filled with love and compassion for others.

The Meaning of Reciting the Names of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (2018)

December 8, 2018 

In this talk, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner discusses the meaning behind reciting the names of and bowing to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the Touching the Earth Chant from the Plum Village tradition. He explained how each of the qualities of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are qualities that we can cultivate within our own minds and lives, and that when we bow to them, we are also bowing to that aspect within ourselves.

The Three Doors of Liberation (2018)

November 18, 2018

In this talk, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner shares the teaching on The Three Doors of Liberation: Emptiness, Signlessness and Aimlessness. Fred explains that although everything we encounter in life appears solid and permanent, if we look deeply, we find that all phenomena are inherently empty of any solidity or permanence. He explains that nothing has any inherent selfness to it, and that everything is made up of parts. When we come to this understanding in our practice, it will liberate us from so much of the suffering that comes from attaching to people and things as solid separate selves. Once we realize the emptiness of phenomena, Fred explained that we can then begin to experience the world without all of our labels and signs. Rather, we simply experience life directly, as it truly is, unfolding in its signless nature. When we are able to touch life deeply in this way, we can then truly be at ease, being happy with things just as they are in aimlessness.

Stablizing the Restless Mind (2018) (4 of 4)

October 2018

 

In this third part of a 4 part series, Dharma Teacher Fred Eppsteiner explains the Buddhist teachings on stabilizing the restless mind and the practices of mindfulness and calm abiding. This talk was given during the Fall Retreat of the Florida Community of Mindfulness in October, 2018.