Showing results by author "Joan Halifax" in All Categories

Joan Halifax has enriched thousands of lives around the world through her work as a humanitarian, a social activist, and an anthropologist and as a Buddhist teacher. Over many decades, she has also collaborated with neuroscientists, clinicians, and psychologists to understand how contemplative practice can be a vehicle for social transformation. Through her unusual background, she developed an understanding of how our greatest challenges can become the most valuable source of our wisdom.

In this masterwork of an authentic spirit person (Thomas Berry), Buddhist teacher and anthropologist Joan Halifax Roshi delves into the fruitful darkness - the shadow side of being, found in the root truths of Native religions, the fecundity of nature, and the stillness of meditation. In this highly personal and insightful odyssey of the heart and mind, she encounters Tibetan Buddhist meditators, Mexican shamans, and Native American elders, among others.

The Buddhist approach to death can be of great benefit to people of all backgrounds - as has been demonstrated time and again in Joan Halifax's decades of work with the dying and their caregivers. Inspired by traditional Buddhist teachings, her work is a source of wisdom for all those who are charged with a dying person's care, facing their own death, or wishing to explore and contemplate the transformative power of the dying process.

On his deathbed Plato was asked to summarize his life's work. He replied, "Practice dying." In the 2,000 years since Plato offered this wise admonition, we have developed many practices associated with living. But what of the practices associated with dying? Being with Dying is a response to this question: an approach to death that is kind, open, and dignified and that allows us to explore the meaning of death in the experience of our own lives and through the lives of others.

In this lecture from 1975 "Stages of a Journey", Ram Dass discusses our journey through plains of consciousness and degrees of fate towards simplicity and quietness - to a kind of joy that is beyond time - a journey where we leave behind all our models of who we are. It is a journey that involves the transformation of our beings such that our thinking mind becomes our servant rather than master.

If you missed the Love Serve Remember Retreat last spring with Ram Dass and friends in Hawaii, this is your opportunity to listen to the almost eight hours of dharma talks from the wonderful event. BetterListen! is quite proud to offer the complete set of these recordings. The BetterListen! version has been digitally edited and remastered - for your listening pleasure!

The weekly Upaya Dharma Podcast features Wednesday evening Dharma Talks and recordings from Upaya's diverse array of programs. Our podcasts exemplify Upaya’s focus on socially engaged Buddhism, including prison work, end-of-life care, serving the homeless, training in socially engaged practices, peace & nonviolence, compassionate care training, and delivering healthcare in the Himalayas.