Dharma explorations by Stephanie Noble

From over fifteen years of sharing her understanding of Buddhist concepts

  • Holding Your Life in an Open Embrace

    This was a speech with visual aids. I will try to get permission to use the photos I shared in person, but until I do, imagine:(A black & white photo of a little girl holding on tight to her three dolls, with a distrustful scowl on her face.)Here’s a photo of a little girl with…

  • Nature: Honoring Our Wisest Dharma Teacher

    Like all animals we are programmed to go toward what is pleasant and to back away from what is unpleasant. Our chemistry is set up to flush our brains with a sense of pleasure when see something valuable for our survival – a brightly colored vegetable that will nourish our bodies or an attractive potential…

  • Mirror, mirror

    ‘Okay,’ I thought as I began writing this talk, ‘This will be the big one. This will be the dharma talk where I teach myself to make friends with the mirror, to make friends with the wrinkles that arise and don’t fall away.’ The First Noble Truth identifies that there is suffering in life and…

  • Coming into relationship with what is

    Coming into relationship with what is – that’s what we are doing in our practice. We can stop running around pretending, covering up, or reframing the truth. Instead we open to whatever arises in our experience in this moment. Whether it is pain or beauty. We acknowledge it. We let it all in. No extra…

  • Second Noble Truth: Insight

    With the First Noble Truth we recognize the fact that there is suffering in life. Though it sounds harsh, this recognition to a degree relieves us of the anxiety about why we aren’t always perfectly happy. Once we have this recognition, once we sit with it awhile and mull it over in our minds, we…