Appamada

2026-10-6 I Inquiry I Befriending Your Mind I Josh Gifford by Appamada

What if the Buddha’s first teaching wasn’t something to believe, but something to enact? Before the “noble truths” hardened into doctrine, the Buddha handed five skeptical friends four tasks: embrace life as it is, let the grasping be, notice when it falls quiet, and act from there. This talk, drawing on Stephen Batchelor, opens our practice-period series on the Eightfold Path. Each week, Appamada’s teachers will take up a different strand. What happens when you stop believing in the path and start walking it?

In a Way-Seeking Mind talk, a sangha member shares their personal narrative, key turning points, and how the Dharma has moved in their life. Susan will reflect on the experiences that brought her to Zen practice and how it continues to shape her path.

2026-09-29 I Inquiry I The Authenticity Trap I Nate Smalley by Appamada

Flint shares quotes from Roshi Joan Halifax's essays "Zazen: The Intimacy of the Infinite" and "Only One Lamp: The Single Reality of Shikantaza and Ekō Henshō."

Flint also explores the Four Practice Principles with the following words:

Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering;

(Ordinary thinking and feeling, enchanted by constructs; ordinary suffering)

holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream.

(Determined to work it out within ordinary enchantment; a repeating dream)

Each moment, life as it is, the only teacher;

(Big Mind is on your side, always with you, always showing you What Is)

being just this moment, compassion’s way.

(Silent, illuminated, wise and compassionate, each moment unfolds as a gift)