AUDIO
Dharma Talk Samples and Excerpts
Note: Please report any problems with sound files to sound@moonmountainsangha.org.
© Talks by Dorothy Hunt, copyright 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020: Moon Mountain Sangha, Inc. All rights reserved.
Vajrapani Retreat May 2020
Dorothy sent this recorded guided meditation to those who would have been on Moon Mountain Sangha’s Vajrapani Retreat, 2020, canceled due to the pandemic. In it she invites the listener into the Heart that is the Self—simultaneously empty of definition, yet lovingly embracing the totality of Life.
Ukiah June 2019
Overview of a Kashmiri Shaivism text and Guided Meditation on the Breath.
Letting the mind go as a way to non-grasping, not refusing what comes up.
All opposites meet and co-exist in the heart.
Samsara and Nirvana Are One
In this dialogue, Dorothy is asked about the wheel of suffering and to comment on a statement about the body being a "bridge between heaven and earth." What follows is a teaching about samsara and nirvana being two sides of the same coin. But what notices which side is up?
Practices to evoke love and to deal with fear, pain, and disappointment.
In this talk, Dorothy shares some practices that can help evoke the Love that is already present within us, as well as practices gleaned from The Radiance Sutras for dealing with fear, disappointment, and pain. She invites us to relate to our personal demons by accepting them as experiences of felt energy rather than as obstacles. Being at “one” with the energy of a feeling, rather than its story, can be transformative.
July 2018
Erik Zimmer interviews Dorothy for The One You Feed, a podcast now available here:
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Dorothy Hunt on The Heart of Awareness (43 minutes)
June 2018
David Newell interviews Dorothy for Inner Truth, a podcast now available here:
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Ending Your Search For Enlightenment with Dorothy Hunt (103 minutes)
June 2018
Richard Brendan interviews Dorothy for Bringing Love to Life, a podcast now available here:
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A Conversation with Dorothy Hunt (59 minutes)
May 2018
Paul Samual Dolman interviews Dorothy, a podcast now available here:
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What Matters Most: A Conversation with Dorothy Hunt (47 minutes)
March 2018
Bliss and Grit interviews Dorothy, a podcast now available here:
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Ending the Search: A Conversation with Dorothy Hunt (61 minutes)
February 2018
Tami Simon interviews Dorothy for Sounds True's Insights at the Edge, a podcast now available here:
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Dorothy Hunt: Entering the Hearts Cave (67 minutes)
Tami Simon speaks with Dorothy about the modern search for spiritual awakening and the process of serious self-inquiry. Dorothy leads a guided practice for dropping into heartful awareness in order to clarify who and what we are seeking. Tami and Dorothy also discuss what it means to be both a woman and modern spiritual seeker, and what roles gender plays in nondual thought. Finally, Dorothy shares a heartfelt excerpt from her poem titled "The Invitation."
New Year's Retreat Day 2018
Dorothy speaks about giving and receiving being “one” movement, and invites a deeper opening to the Sun of our own Awareness, through which a flower (or any expression of Life) sees itself through us. She also comments on the “mud” of our lives being required for the “lotus” of our being to bloom.
Our life is Now; can we let past experiences die and open to what is here now?
Dialogue inviting suffering and grief into the true Heart; turning for help toward the Mystery that contains our deeper wisdom.
January 2017
A short dialogue that goes to the heart of whether one can change oneself or others - and how allowing people "to be" is a gift that creates the possibility for transformation.
An examination of that part of us which does not come and go.
Vajrapani Retreat 2017
Our expectation is that the mind awakens. But the truth is the mind of thought is not what awakens.
Being open invites unresolved aspects of ourselves to show up, including traumas from the past that want to be resolved.
Can we discover what does not come and go in the midst of all that does?
The light of emptiness holds the key to an uncaused happiness, a quiet joy and contentment deeper than the temporary "if only" happinesses we chase. Highly recommended.
A short dialogue that goes to the heart of whether one can change oneself or others - and how allowing people "to be" is a gift that creates the possibility for transformation.
Dorothy discusses what it means to touch that which is always here and is waiting to to be noticed by us.
Gay Buddhist Fellowship December 2016
In this engaging talk, Dorothy describes the story of the Buddha's enlightenment, and invites us to investigate the nature of the "ridgepole" that holds up our separate identity. We are then asked to see what remains if, even temporarily, the ridgepole comes down.
Gay Buddhist Fellowship May 2016
In this talk and Satsang Dorothy explores the characteristics of thought and 'self,' questioning the idea of personhood. The 'egoic trance' isn't a thing or a person but a movement of mind. If we focus on improving a self that doesn't exist as something separate, we may miss the Ground of our Being. When we are awake to the 'love that transforms,' we can welcome and allow all of our experiences.
Sonoma Satsang March 2015
What Notices Our Thoughts?
In this dialogue Dorothy directs our attention to what it is that notices our thoughts, irritations--indeed, all experiences. What Sees, and what is it that takes credit or blame? An invitation to trust and surrender to Spirit's unfolding within each of us.
An Invitation to the Source of Love
In this preparation for meditation, Dorothy asks, "What do you love?" and invites us to feel into the experience of love, then follow love back to its Source.
Called to Love
In this satsang talk, Dorothy speaks about the impulse or calling to the spiritual life that takes the form of longing-the longing for love, God, truth, or the end of suffering, and describes this movement as our true nature longing for itself. What is awake is our birthright, and is available for the moment, whatever it may be. She asks us to consider that our ideas, memories, interpretations and judgments are simply what they are and are not descriptions of a separate self-because there isn't one.
Sonoma Satsang September 2014
Upon the death of her husband, Dorothy reflects on the appearance of birth and death as transformation, and on surrendering to Life's movements.
San Francisco Satsang January 2014
In this moving satsang, which occurred on the same night as the President's State of the Union Address, Dorothy asks: "What is the state of your union?" Is anything actually separate? What if this moment, JUST AS IT IS, is already an expression of the Wholeness of Being?
In this dialogue with Dorothy, a student reports on a great "aha" moment, hearing "Everything is the path." With seeking ending, Love seems to replace old hatreds, and there is a liberating intimacy with what is right here, right now.
Sonoma Satsang September 2013
In this teaching Dorothy invites a powerful exercise and exploration of simple awareness without the mind's filters, naming and judgments. What is aware in each of us reflects the moment as it is and is our ticket to awakening and to the freedom of being here Now.
Vajrapani 2013
Dialogue with Dorothy on the topic of fear, being intimate with its energy, wanting to know the truth of our "demons."
In this retreat dialogue, Dorothy responds to a retreatant's question, "Is there anything I need to do to abide as awareness?"
When we see the innocent misunderstandings at the core of suffering, we can't help but feel compassion; but we may need to thaw layers of our own frozen pain to discover the truth about whether love can ever truly be harmed. A touching dialogue revealing how intimacy with pain can open the heart.
In this retreat invitation to deeply observe and learn from Nature, Dorothy invites us to consider sitting as a rock in the midst of all weather, being a "walking tree" rooted in stillness, having flexible branches, learning about surrender watching a leaf be birthed in Spring and "let go" in Autumn without questioning the movement of the Wind. When our mind seems to be "squawking" like a bluejay, can we receive the moments of our humanness with both humility and humor.
New Year's Retreat Day 2013
In this invitation to Return Home, Dorothy encourages us to heed the calling of the Sacred within us, and using Adyashanti's words from The Way of Liberation, to "stand alone--in the unknown, with no reference to the known or the past or any of one's conditioning."
Dorothy reads one of her poems, which ends with these words:
"Silence alone reveals
What thought cannot think
What knowing cannot know,
What listening cannot hear,
What seeing cannot see."
Sharing poetry and moments from Zen, Sufi, Jewish and Christian traditions, Dorothy ultimately invites us to find our own way Home.
Talk on Identity at Buddhist Gay Fellowship
After inviting a "Meditation Without Memory", Dorothy speaks to the Gay Buddhist Fellowship in San Francisco on the theme of Identity. She talks about personality, conditioning, ego, addictions, identities and attachment, as well as describing the transformative power of clear seeing from what is awake in us all.
Satsang May 2011
In this talk, Dorothy encourages us to relax and to know ourselves as the awareness in which all movement occurs.
Satsang April 2011
Dorothy invites us to allow our thoughts to be pulled home to their source.
Berkeley February 2011
This talk investigates how the small self can be surrendered through love, leading to acceptance of ourselves as we are and the end of judgment.
Harmony Lake August 2010
Numerous participants at the 2010 Harmony Lake retreat asked that this talk be made available. It explores numerous topics, including Wholeness, self-consciousness and intimacy with life. The title comes from the end of the talk, which was especially moving.
Vajrapani June 2010
This talk investigates working with habits and emotions from a place of deep acceptance. The end is a short guided meditation where we remain deeply at home while doing this work.
Satsang April 2010
In this satsang, Dorothy discusses "wholeness in motion" and "identifying with identification" as part of a dharma talk on the theme of Impermanence. It includes delightful observations on holding a sleeping baby. Several attendees requested that this talk be made publicly available.
What is the Treasure? IONS 2010
Satsang with Dorothy Hunt, including a Welcoming of Shabbat by Rabbi Daniel Isaacson reading a story by the Baal Shem Tov.
Dwelling in the Unborn January 2010
This lovely guided meditation was Dorothy's introduction to the New Year's 2010 retreat day, titled "Dwelling in the Unborn."
Grace and Gratitude November 2008
In this excerpt from the Grace and Gratitude intensive, Dorothy discusses how god, guru and self are all aspects of the same divine presence. She explains how the true teacher will never withhold your own divinity from you.
Satsang November 2008
This satsang begins with a poem by a sangha member and goes on to explore how we can be tipped out of our boat of habits and conditioning.
Satsang September 2008
In this excerpt from satsang, Dorothy invites us to look deeper than current events and ask ourselves what we are buying into with our consciousness.
Harmony Lake Ranch August 2008
In this excerpt, Dorothy discusses ego and personality in a way far deeper than the conventional thinking of the ego as the enemy of spirituality.
Vajrapani March 2007
In this powerful excerpt from 2007, Dorothy asks "Are you available for awakening?"