Dawn Neal's Dharma Talks
at Insight Santa Cruz
Dawn Neal
Dawn is a Buddhist teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition. She serves as the Guiding Teacher for Insight Santa Cruz, and also teaches regularly for Insight Meditation Center. She teaches and assists residential meditation retreats in North America.
Dawn has accumulated several years of silent meditation retreat practice since beginning Buddhist practice. She began teaching in 2010.
She holds an MA from the Institute of Buddhist Studies and Graduate Theological Union, specializing in Buddhism and Pastoral Care and Counseling. After her degree, she worked as a professional Interfaith Spiritual Care professional (Chaplain) at Stanford Medicine. She currently serves core faculty for the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies Online Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program.
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Select from Dawn Neal's
167
talks
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2024-05-04
Breath as a Barometer and the Wisdom of Vedana
2023-10-25
Class 1: Intro to Mindfulness Meditation-Breathing
2023-11-01
Class 2: Intro to Mindfulness Meditation-Body and Feeling Tone
2023-11-08
Class 3: Intro to Mindfulness Meditation- Emotions
2023-11-15
Class 4: Intro to Mindfulness Meditation -Thinking
2024-09-07
Closing Reflection and Guided Mettā
2024-11-09
Compassion (Karuṇā) Practice
2024-12-04
Conditionality and Contentment
2024-10-02
Confidence and Energy (Spiritual Faculties 1 & 2)
2024-10-16
Cultivating Wisdom
2024-04-27
Daylong Dharmette 1: Mindfulness and Settling
2024-04-27
Daylong Dharmette 2: Investigation in Meditation
2024-04-27
Daylong Dharmette 3: Trust and Conditionality
2024-10-29
Dharma Talk: Ask Me Anything
2024-11-05
Dharma Talk: Equanimity in Your Natural Homeland
2024-06-26
Dharma Talk: Full Awareness in Daily Life and Meditation
2024-10-30
Dharma Talk: The First 2 Ennobling Truths: Kitten Simile
2024-07-03
Dharma Talk: The Four Foundations in Relationship
2024-06-20
Dharma Talk: We are Nature: Elemental Meditation
2024-10-23
Dharma talk:The Seven Factors of Awakening
2024-09-03
Dharmette
2024-10-27
Dharmette and Refuges: Shelter from the Storm
2024-06-26
Dharmette: A Good Spiritual Friend
2025-02-25
Dharmette: Beautiful Action
2024-12-10
Dharmette: Contentment as Condition and Resource
2024-08-24
Dharmette: Dharma is Nature
2025-01-21
Dharmette: Don't Make Things Worse
2024-04-16
Dharmette: Energy (Spiritual Faculties, 2 of 5)
2024-07-23
Dharmette: Ethical Behavior and Consistency Support Harmony
2024-10-15
Dharmette: Everything is Inviting Awareness
2025-01-28
Dharmette: Get Curious and Stay Interested
2024-04-24
Dharmette: Mindfulness (Spiritual Faculties, 3 of 5)
2024-06-18
Dharmette: Nature Reveals Anicca
2024-03-19
Dharmette: Notice! The Awakening Factors in Daily Life
2024-11-12
Dharmette: On Monkeys and Mindfulness (Be Kind To Your Heart And Mind)
2024-10-22
Dharmette: Practicing with Emotions
2024-04-28
Dharmette: Refuge and Precepts as Joy (includes chanting refuges and precepts)
2024-03-24
Dharmette: Refuge and the one Overarching Precept
2025-02-11
Dharmette: Respect and Strength
2024-09-07
Dharmette: Rhythms and Seasons of Practice
2024-04-30
Dharmette: Settledness and Concentration (Spiritual Faculties, 4 of 5)
2024-03-26
Dharmette: The Acrobats (On Mindfulness and Wise Boundaries)
2024-08-27
Dharmette: The Mind's Magic Show
2024-07-30
Dharmette: The Zen Master and the Psychic
2024-04-09
Dharmette: Trust, Confidence, and Faith (Spiritual Faculties, 1 of 5)
2024-05-07
Dharmette: Wisdom (Spiritual Faculties, 5 of 5).
2025-03-18
Dharmette: Working with Worry
2025-02-01
Embodying Peace Part 1
2025-02-01
Embodying Peace part 2
2024-11-09
Empathetic Joy (Muditā) Practice
2024-11-09
Equanimity (Upekkhā) Practice
2024-05-04
Every Glimpse Is Onward Leading
2024-11-09
Exploring the Four Immeasurables and Mindfulness Guided Meditation
2024-07-31
Full Awareness: Purpose and Suitability
2025-01-01
Generosity and Virtue Increase Happiness
2024-09-03
Guided Meditation
2025-01-22
Guided Meditation
2024-05-04
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Anapanasati, a Movement Towards Letting Go, Si…
2023-11-07
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Are you Aware?
2024-01-16
Guided meditation and Dharmette: Attention!
2023-11-21
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Coming Home to the Breath
2023-10-31
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Getting Unstuck
2023-12-12
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Inner Wellbeing
2023-11-14
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Interest is a Superpower
2023-10-17
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Levels of Anicca
2023-12-19
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Mindfulness of the Body
2024-01-30
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Practicing with the Elements
2024-01-09
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Trusting the Path
2023-10-24
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Wise Attention to Views
2024-02-13
Guided Meditation and Dharmette: Wise Effort in Meditation
2024-10-29
Guided meditation: All of Embodied Awareness
2025-01-29
Guided Meditation: Allowing
2025-01-07
Guided Meditation: Allowing Everything to Flow Through
2024-08-24
Guided Meditation: Allowing Simple Presence
2024-11-26
Guided Meditation: Appreciating Awareness
2025-02-05
Guided Meditation: Aware from the Inside Out
2024-11-05
Guided Meditation: Balance
2024-06-18
Guided Meditation: Being with Change in the Breath
2024-12-04
Guided Meditation: Being with the Breath
2025-03-25
Guided Meditation: Breathing for Energy or Relaxation
2024-10-23
Guided Meditation: Embodied Experience of This
2024-04-16
Guided Meditation: Embodied Vibrancy
2025-03-26
Guided Meditation: Everything Included
2024-07-03
Guided Meditation: Full Awareness
2024-08-07
Guided Meditation: Full Awareness
2025-01-01
Guided Meditation: Gathering Attention Here
2024-06-26
Guided Meditation: Grounded in the Body and Internal Posture
2025-02-12
Guided Meditation: Including All of Experience
2024-07-23
Guided Meditation: Integrity of the Body
2024-07-31
Guided Meditation: Intention and Awareness
2024-09-07
Guided Meditation: Intention and Interest
2024-10-30
Guided Meditation: Just This
2024-06-26
Guided Meditation: Kind Awareness
2024-04-24
Guided Meditation: Kind Mindfulness
2025-01-08
Guided Meditation: Letting Go Into This
2024-11-06
Guided Meditation: Mindfulness and Compassion
2024-06-20
Guided meditation: Mindfulness of the Body
2025-03-04
Guided Meditation: Noticing Balance or Leaning
2024-10-08
Guided Meditation: Noticing the Silence Between
2024-03-19
Guided Meditation: Noticing the Skillful
2024-08-27
Guided Meditation: Opening to All that Arises
2024-10-16
Guided meditation: Opening up to Awareness
2024-12-24
Guided Meditation: Relaxation and Ease
2025-03-05
Guided Meditation: Relaxation and Softening
2024-10-09
Guided Meditation: Returning to Awareness
2024-10-22
Guided Meditation: Returning to the Center Point
2024-07-30
Guided Meditation: Returning to, Resting in, Awareness
2025-01-28
Guided Meditation: Returning with Interest
2024-07-24
Guided Meditation: Riding the Flow of Sensory Experience
2024-04-30
Guided Meditation: Settling into Mindfulness
2025-02-25
Guided Meditation: Sitting in Integrity
2025-01-26
Guided Meditation: Sitting in Your Integrity
2024-08-24
Guided Meditation: Spacious, Kind Awareness
2025-01-21
Guided Meditation: Stabilizing Here
2024-12-10
Guided Meditation: Staying with the Breath
2024-10-02
Guided Meditation: Taking Your Place
2025-03-23
Guided Meditation: Taking Your Seat
2024-04-09
Guided Meditation: Trust
2024-11-12
Guided Meditation: Welcoming All Experience
2024-09-07
Guided Meditation: Welcoming the Moment
2024-09-04
Guided Meditation: Welcoming Yourself Here
2024-10-27
Guided Meditation: Welcoming Yourself to the Moment
2024-09-07
Guided Meditation: Wholehearted Engagement and Relaxation
2025-02-11
Guided Meditation: With Kindness
2024-11-13
Guided Meditation: Your Internal Posture
2024-05-14
How the Buddha’s Story relates to our Lives (Vesak talk)
2025-02-26
Internal and External Beauty (part 1)
2025-03-05
Internal and External Beauty (part 2)
2025-02-20
Intro to Lovingkindness class 1
2025-02-28
Intro to Lovingkindness class 2
2025-03-06
Intro to Lovingkindness class 3
2025-03-13
Intro to Lovingkindness class 4: Metta Can Transform Difficulty
2025-01-17
Intro to Mindfulness Week 1: Breathing
2025-01-30
Intro to Mindfulness Week 3: Emotions
2025-02-06
Intro to Mindfulness Week 4: Thinking
2025-02-06
Intro to Mindfulness, week 4: Thinking
2025-01-29
Kindness and Equanimity
2025-03-25
Learning from Lethargy, Resistance & Freeze (Sloth & Torpor)
2024-11-09
Loving Kindness (Mettā) Practice
2025-03-04
Meeting Hindrances with Wisdom
2024-10-08
Mind the Gap!
2024-10-09
Mindful Awareness and Samadhi (Spiritual Faculties 3 & 4)
2025-02-05
Mindful Awareness the Threefold Way
2024-09-04
Mindfulness of Mind: The Core of Practice is How We Relate to Experience
2025-03-23
More Beautiful Than Beautiful (includes Refuges and Precepts)
2024-10-15
Opening to the Flow of Now
2025-03-26
Our Filters and Emotions (3rd & 4th Foundations of Mindfulness)
2024-11-09
Self-Compassion Practice
2025-01-08
Simplicity and Wisdom
2025-01-26
Taking Refuge in Beauty
2024-12-24
Talk: A Sacred Pause
2024-11-06
Talk: Refuge, Balance, and Resilience
2024-07-24
The Buddha’s teachings on the 6 Senses
2024-01-13
The Four Noble Truths: First Noble Truth -- Suffering Exists
2024-04-13
The Four Noble Truths: Fourth Noble Truth -- The Path to the End of Suffering
2024-02-10
The Four Noble Truths: Second Truth - Origin/Arising of Suffering
2024-03-09
The Four Noble Truths: Third Noble Truth -- The Cessation of Suffering
2025-01-07
The Obstacles are the Path
2024-08-07
The Quail and the Hawk: Fields of Full Awareness
2025-03-19
The Third Foundation of Mindfulness: Seeing Our Own Filters
2025-02-12
The Threefold way of Wisdom includes Kindness and Ethical Action
2024-01-03
Three Roots of Wellbeing: Class 1 (non-greed)
2024-01-10
Three Roots of Wellbeing: Class 2 (non-hatred)
2024-01-17
Three Roots of Wellbeing: Class 3 (non-delusion)
2025-01-22
Truthfulness and Resolve
2024-11-26
What Supports Gratitude & What Gratitude Supports
2024-11-13
Wisely Attention to Stories and Thoughts
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Select one of Dawn Neal's 7 retreats
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2023-10-25
Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation (four part series)
2024-01-13
Buddhism in a Nutshell: A Series on the Four Noble Truths
2024-10-02
Five Spiritual Faculties Supporting Freedom (A 3-part Series)
2024-11-09
Cultivating a Loving and Courageous Heart
2025-01-17
Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation
2025-02-01
Embodying Peace: A Daylong Retreat on the 6 Principles of Cordiality
2025-02-19
Introduction to Mettā (lovingkindness) meditation
2025-03-13
Intro to Lovingkindness class 4: Metta Can Transform Difficulty
1:11:50
Introduction to Metta (lovingkindness) - Week Four Homework:
Daily meditation:
Offer kindness/goodwill to an easy being (or benefactor) & self, then someone or some part of you that you find difficult. Please practice 20 minutes or more a day. Remember, it is always okay to return to a being that is easy.
It can also be very skillful to switch to mindfulness.
Integrating mindfulness into metta practice can increase wisdom. This can be done by noticing what is and isn’t metta, without judging –or buying into–other emotions or experiences.
In daily life, notice when Metta is present and when it isn’t. What are conditions that help it arise? Decrease?
Appreciating the wish for metta, being interested in it, attending to it, helps to strengthen it.
Insight Santa Cruz
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Introduction to Mettā (lovingkindness) meditation
2025-03-06
Intro to Lovingkindness class 3
1:20:52
Week Three Homework:
1. Daily meditation: 15-30 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced.
At least 2/3 to easy being or benefactor and self, then someone neutral.
Experiment with single words/short phrases or gestures to build stability/concentration
Always okay to return to where it’s easy, or switch to mindfulness.
2. Micro-practice: offer pulses of kindness, privately, to strangers or neutral persons in the course of each day
Insight Santa Cruz
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Introduction to Mettā (lovingkindness) meditation
