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Dharma Talks given at Insight Meditation Community of Richmond
Publicly available talks can be browsed here in the order indicated by the "Sort Order" selection. Talk titles and discriptions can also be searched by typing in a search word (or words) in the search box and clicking "Search Titles and Descriptions". With multiple words, only those talks containing all the given words are displayed.

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2026-09-01 Befriending the Thinking Mind 20:13
Marjolein Janssen
We often have the idea that thoughts are our enemy during meditation. If only we could get rid of all those thoughts, then we would be good meditators. But actually, this is a misconception, since thinking is part of being a human being. In this talk we learn how to befriend the thinking mind, so it can be a companion, instead of an enemy.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond

2026-08-18 The Breath as a Refuge in Meditation and Daily Life 18:19
Marjolein Janssen
Explore mindfulness of breathing as a foundation for vipassana, as well as a practical tool we can bring into daily life.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond

2026-06-02 The Spectrum of Desire 33:49
Kim Allen
The human tendency to want can range from highly unskillful or harmful forms of grasping and compulsion, through ordinary desires of life, into beautiful forms of aspiration and care. Buddhist teachings show how we can develop the more skillful forms of desire, such as wanting to be ethical, to practice meditation, or to awaken. Interestingly, moving into skillful wanting is an act of letting go.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond

2026-05-30 The Four Noble Truths and Freedom from Conceptual Limitation 52:27
Kim Allen
In the Simile of the Cloth sutta, the Buddha describes liberation as going beyond mere "purity" to an inner freedom from mental limitation.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond Awakening the Pure Heart

2026-05-29 The Work Only You Can Do: Wisdom and Purifying the Heart 54:54
Marjolein Janssen
We often hope something outside us will do the purifying for us. The Buddha gently redirects: we need to do the inner work. This talk is based in the Simile of the Cloth sutta (MN7) and explores what that inner purification actually requires, and how wisdom makes it possible.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond Awakening the Pure Heart

2026-05-28 Beautiful Mind 45:42
Kim Allen
Recognizing and Cultivating the Wholesome
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond Awakening the Pure Heart

2026-05-27 The Stained Mind and the Path to Clarity 43:24
Marjolein Janssen
Drawing on the Buddha's Simile of the Cloth (MN7), this talk explores how greed, aversion, and delusion stain the mind and obscure clear seeing. We look at how these defilements manifest in meditation and everyday experience, and how to meet them with awareness rather than resistance.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond Awakening the Pure Heart

2026-05-26 The Simile of the Cloth 11:50
Kim Allen
An introduction to the retreat theme of Awakening the Pure Heart.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond Awakening the Pure Heart

2026-05-19 Subtracting the Suffering: What Happens When We Stop Adding 21:56
Marjolein Janssen
Every moment of experience arrives simple and bare, but the mind rarely leaves it that way. This talk explores SN 35.95, the Māluṅkyaputta Sutta, and Māluṅkyaputta's insight that suffering is not in what we experience, but in what we add to it.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond

2026-05-05 The Buddha's Life After Awakening 22:41
Marjolein Janssen
This talk explores the Buddha’s life after his awakening, his first teachings, and the wisdom he shared near the end of his life.
Insight Meditation Community of Richmond

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