Florida Community of Mindfulness

Responding to sangha questions on the nature and function of self

In this Dharma talk, Fred contrasts the self-limiting qualities of the "fragile Western ego" concerned only about self with the Buddhist teachings and practices of No Self.   

 

Emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and learning to be "other-centered," the talk suggests ways of retraining the mind to develop an intelligent, loving, compassionate self.

 

Q&A with Fred: July 17, 2022

During this Sunday at the Florida Community of Mindfulness, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner answers questions from students.

A Mother’s Love and the Inner Critic

Today on Mother's Day, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner shares with us Thich That Hanh’s “A Flower for You” also called “A Rose for your Pocket”; Thay’s appreciation of motherhood. Thay reveals our deep interconnectedness with our mothers.

 

Fred teaches us ways we can develop a true loving, kind, and compassionate heart. He also teaches about working with the “inner critic”, the subject for the upcoming retreat. 

Shakyamuni and the Birth of the Enlightened Mind

Today on Vesak, the celebration of the birth of the Buddha, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner shares with us the life and birth of the Buddha and the significance of the Buddha’s Enlightened Mind; that which made the Buddha a Buddha. We celebrate today because the Buddha opened the path to Awakening. He pointed out directly that all of us have this Awakened Nature.

Creating The Basis for a Happy Life

In this talk, Dharma Teacher Fred Eppsteiner shares with us a Buddhist prayer; "May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness. May all beings be free of suffering and the cause of suffering. May they never be disassociated from supreme happiness which is without suffering. May they remain in boundless equanimity free from both attachment to close ones and rejections of others."

 

Fred teaches us the personal implications of this prayer so it may have relevance for our own life.

Community as Family and Family as Community

In this talk, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner shares with us Thich Nhat Hanh’s vision of community, and how a community can manifest as a family and a family as a community. Thay states "I continue to feel that sangha building is the most precious work that we can do as practitioners. The sangha is our community of practice. It is also our refuge. We rely on it and trust it to support our deepest aspirations, give us energy and inspiration on the path of practice."

Transforming Stress and Anxiety

Fred describes why he feels this topic is so important in today's world and how the class will be structured. Please visit floridamindfulness.org for more information and to register.

Healing and Transformation: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

6-5-22

The teachings of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness were the foundation of the Buddha’s meditation system and are the basis for living a wholesome and happy life. Learning to be aware and present to both the experiences of one’s body and to the experiences of one's mind is the practice of full awareness.

A Buddhist Response to Endless Wars (2022)

4-10-22

In this talk, Dharma Teacher Fred Eppsteiner share with us teachings on love and compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us "It is my conviction that we cannot change the world, if we are not capable of changing our way of thinking, our consciousness. That is why awakening, collective awakening, collective change in our way of thinking, our way of seeing things is very crucial. And all of us can help to promote that. Our task is to come together and to produce, to try to produce a kind of collective awakening.

And there are many ways in order to bring about that kind of collective awakening and change. And that is why to learn to change our way of daily life, so that there is more mindfulness, more peace, more love, is a very urgent thing. And we can do that – beginning now, today."

Peace begins with me. If we want a peaceful world, we have to become peaceful people; free of anger and hatred. We have to uproot the seeds of anger and hatred within ourselves through mindfulness, love, and compassion.

Pith of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Meditation: The Fourteen Verses (2022)

03-20-22

In this talk from our four-day silent retreat, Fred shares teachings and practices from a practice text that Thay wrote to summarize the meditative path, "Fourteen Verses on Meditation." It presents the practices of Stopping (samatha), Deep Looking (Vipasyana) and the non-intellectual experience of Emptiness and Non-self as the means of liberation from suffering (Breakthrough).