Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia has been offering instruction in Theravada Buddhist teachings and practices since 1990. She is a student of the Western forest sangha, the disciples of Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Chah, and is a Lay Buddhist Minister in association with Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California. She has served as resident teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, taught many months at IMS's Forest Refuge, and served as a Core Faculty member at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. She co-authored Older and Wiser: Classical Buddhist Teachings on Aging, Sickness, and Death and has written numerous articles for the Insight Journal of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
This talk examines the nature of the sense realm and considers how we give rise to craving in relation to sensory experience. It also examines the distortions that self-view sets up and the relationship between craving and the wrong-view of self.
This talk examines generosity, the quality of heart that takes us from self-absorption to open-heartedness. Generosity is one of the principle antidotes for the suffering states of greed, hatred and delusion.
This talk describes the use of contemplation and reflection in the meditation practice and explains the difference between reflective and discursive thought.
As meditators, we develop the capacity to relate anew to sensory input so that we are less and less preoccupied with the content of sensations, feelings and thoughts. From this new vantage point we are more able to see the clinging that leads to suffering.