Dharma Teachings

In this session, spiritual director John Bruna continues to teach from the text “How to Meditate on the Stages of the Path” focusing this week on how we can engage in this precious human birth with meaning and purpose. He describes the essential practice of cultivating our motivation when engaging in our daily actions which…

In this session, spiritual director John Bruna begins the new year with a new text titled “How to Meditate on the Stages of the Path” by Kathleen McDonald. John describes the benefit of this style of Lam Rim text and gives guidance on how we can effectively engage with these teachings from week to week….

In this episode, spiritual director John Bruna gives his final Dharma talk of 2024 and concludes his commentary on the book Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Venerable Thubten Chodron. John expands on the Buddhist teaching that our ultimate nature is pure and how that purity is covered over…

In this episode, spiritual director John Bruna gives guidance and a powerful perspective on how liberation is possible through understanding the clear light nature of the mind. He discusses how the afflictions of our mind can be removed and how they don’t taint the nature of the mind which is always pure and virtuous.

In this episode, spiritual director John Bruna teaches how we can engage with the teachings on Emptiness in a practical and transformative way. He describes various strategies for focusing on reality-based living that will lead to less suffering in our experience. John’s guidance is rooted in the buddhist teachings on Nirvana by way of the…

In this session, spiritual director John Bruna gives commentary on the stages of practice leading to liberation with a focus on mindfully engaging in wholesome actions in our daily lives. He talks about the essential practices of cultivating merit and purifying negativities which both clarify our minds and nurture the conditions for realizations to arise…

In this session, spiritual director John Bruna highlights a variety of ways that we create our own suffering through our misperceived reality. He offers valuable suggestions of behaviors and ways of engaging with reality that can act as antidotes to samsara and lead us on a journey of gradual Enlightenment.

In this session, spiritual director John Bruna offers a powerful talk on cultivating the antidotes to a form of laziness that manifests as discouragement and self-criticism. He suggests finding a balanced perspective where we continually develop a sense of self-worth but avoid a self-centered attitude that thinks about “me” as more important than others.

In this Session, spiritual director John Bruna offers commentary on invigorating a dry dharma practice by maintaining a balance of being responsible for our practice but not pushing too hard. John describes and offers a way forward through integrating our dharma practice into our daily activities and engaging in accurate evaluation by observing changes in…

In this session, John gives a dharma talk on the Buddhist notion of feelings which are the pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings that occur in relation with physical stimulus or mental phenomena. Different than our modern understanding of emotions, this mode of feeling is an important link in the 12 links of dependent origination.