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Undefended Dharma with Mary Stancavage
Dharma talks from meditation teacher Mary Stancavage. These focus primarily on the pragmatic aspects of Buddhist teachings and philosophy drawing strongly on wisdom and heart practices. All are viewed through the lens of learning to live with an Undefended Heart. (photo by @kimanhuynh)
Episodes
377 episodes
The Intimacy of Now
Dogen said that enlightenment is an intimacy with all things. Mary reflects on this thought and it's similarity to equanimity and an undefended heart. How do we show up for the reality of the moment with complete openness. It is a journey and a...
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Do Not Take What is Not Freely Offered
In this talk, recorded at Insight Community of the Desert, Mary discusses the Second Precept. It's often just referred to as not stealing, but this precept is about recognizing all the different places that craving and greed show up and how to ...
Finding Freedom with the Way it Is
The Buddha taught the Five Remembrances as a way to normalize our relationship to the human condition. We we all grow old, get sick and die, yet some of us fight tooth and nail against, especially in our Western culture. But when we truly greet...
The Importance of Joy
Oftentimes when things are especially awful, we think that joy may be inappropriate and that we must stay focused on the difficulties. But this is not the case. Bhikkhu Bodhi says that cultivation of joy is important to regulate despair. In thi...
The Dhammapada and the Lizard
Our practice is really about developing a different relationship with our mind - one that is wise and kind. In this talk Mary reflects on how the Buddha talks about the mind using the Dhammapada, and how Rick Hanson explains the mind from a sci...
It's Not Personal
The Buddha's wise teaching on the Eight Worldly Winds reminds us that the ups and downs of life (pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute) are common to all humanity. It is a teaching on equanimity - the capacity t...
It's Like This
We spend so much time in the future and the past entangled in experiences that do not actually exist. In this talk, Mary discusses what we get stuck on and how to let go. There is no other place to be but right here, so working towards being th...
The Shambala Warrior
The Shambala Warrior is a 1200 year old Tibetan prophecy that is relevant to our world today. The weapons of this warrior are wisdom and compassion. Mary talks about each of these as tools to liberation for ourselves, others and to aid in heali...
Grief 2026
Grief is an emotion that all humans experience although many of us have a difficult time turning towards and being with it. Right now so many folk are grieving a multitude of losses and in this talk Mary reflects on the invitation to meet our g...
Persistence and Patience
Effort and persistence are an important part of the path to liberation and awakening, but sometimes we get caught in thinking we should be there by now and ask when it's enough. This is when the practice of patience is necessary. Patience is ne...
Aspire to Awakening
In this talk Mary reflects on the Mahayana idea of bodhicitta. At it's heart, it is the idea of an awakened mind and an aspiration to awaken and experience an end of suffering both for ourselves and for all. And why not?Recorded March 7,...
Practicing the Pause
So much of what we think, say and do is habitual - we react without thinking. The Buddha taught that our reactivity is also impacted by whether we experience something as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. In this talk Mary discusses how this col...
Collectedness of Mind
The word Samadhi is usually translated as concentration, but it's also thought of as collectedness of mind and steadiness. This important teaching - the 8th factor on the Eightfold Path is necessary for awakening and liberation. Mary d...
A Foundation of Love
In this time of great dukkha, it's imperative to remember the importance of love and how we ground ourselves and our practice in it. Mary reflects on the wisdom of bell hooks and others to find a way to make this a foundation of our pr...
The One You Feed
The old story about a good wolf and bad wolf that live in our minds aligns beautifully with the Buddha's teachings on cultivating what's beneficial and letting go of what isn't. Mary reflects on how we often feed the ideas that don't serve us a...
Living the Four Noble Truths
In this important teaching, the Buddha invites us to become intimate with the human condition and to see how we create levels of suffering for ourselves. There is also the recognition that there is a way out - the Eightfold Path. Mary also refl...
What Now - How Do We Hold This?
Every day we're inundated with stories and images of violence, and the three poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance that the Buddha spoke of centuries ago. How do we greet this moment in time? How do we handle the emotions we experience with wi...
Communicating with Clarity
The Buddha's teaching on Wise Speech remains as important and necessary today as it did over 2,500 years ago. It may be even more important to be grounded in wisdom and clarity because there are so many more ways to interact with each other and...
The Difficult Practice
Mary answers the question, "How do we offer Loving Kindness to those that commit atrocities?" This is a common question, and is especially relevant right now. The heart practices do not ask us to ignore feelings or emotions that arise whe...
Understanding What it Means
There are a lot of misconceptions of basic Buddhist teachings and in this talk Mary reflects on a few. The Buddha did not say that "Life is Suffering", but instead that there is suffering, and there is a way out. Additionally, equanimity and be...
Clarity and Delusion
Delusion is one of the greatest impediments to freedom and in this talk, Mary discusses how being embodied and whole allows for clear seeing. When we're stuck in the habit energies of our minds, we're often disconnected from reality and our jou...
Mindfulness All the Time
Using an article by Sayadaw U Tejaniya as a jumping off point, Mary discusses what being mindful all the t...