Archive - Sean Feit Oakeshttps://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/Fri, 03 Jul 2026 23:32:48 +0000en-USSite-Server v@build.version@ (http://www.squarespace.com)AMA: Sangha Questions and TopicsaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 01 Jul 2026 03:00:27 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/ama-sangha-questions-and-topics677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a48459b6255cd272dfcb34bWe did an "Ask Me Anything," and the questions were about acceptance vs discernment, wise action in relation to desires and outcomes, and ended with reflections on caregiving and grief.

AMA: Sangha Questions and Topics Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 30, 2026

]]>Equanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep AlivenessMeditation: Awareness With DiscernmentaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 01 Jul 2026 02:00:11 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-awareness-with-discernment677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a4844d7ced1c6648662200e Meditation: Awareness With Discernment Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 23, 2026

]]>Meditation: Awareness in the Sensory FieldThe Middle Way as Non-DoingaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 24 Jun 2026 03:00:48 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/kamma-kamma-kamma-kamma-kamma-s4anr677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a418ff4e4bbe82de366edadThe "Middle Way" between sensual indulgence and mortification as a way to think about stillness, non-doing, and the end of kamma. How attention gets caught by sensory stimuli, both pleasurable and painful, and how resting in awareness can be an expression of the middle way between extremes, and the entire path.

The Middle Way as Non-Doing Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 23, 2026

]]>Equanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep AlivenessMeditation: Awareness in the Sensory FieldaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 24 Jun 2026 02:00:11 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-awareness-in-the-sensory-field677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a418d3b32e61d4c30cbfa2f Meditation: Awareness in the Sensory Field Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 23, 2026

]]>Meditation: Awareness in the Sensory FieldKamma Kamma Kamma Kamma Kamma...audiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 17 Jun 2026 03:00:54 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/kamma-kamma-kamma-kamma-kamma677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a381d3aa6515150259c924aActions and their impacts, the spectrum of trauma and privilege, resolution vs healing vs forgiveness vs cessation.

Kamma Kamma Kamma Kamma Kamma... Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 16, 2026

]]>Equanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep AlivenessMeditation: Stillness as Equanimity PracticeaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 17 Jun 2026 02:00:16 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-stillness-as-equanimity-practice677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a381c605f060a490029d7ac Meditation: Stillness as Equanimity Practice Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 16, 2026

]]>Meditation: Stillness as Equanimity PracticeIt's Not Your Fault (Or Is It?)audiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 10 Jun 2026 03:00:50 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/its-not-your-fault-or-is-it677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a2c9cfe439df10b339a2413Formal equanimity practice hinges on the teaching of kamma, which means action, but more precisely "action that has ethical weight and has an impact for the doer." This is why the phrase emphasizes how we are the owners of our own actions and that our actions are what we inherit, or carry forward through time. We do have agency—we make choices, and we form intentions to act differently than our impulses and reactivity try to demand of us.

At the same time, our choices are conditioned, arising out of the available material of the past, other people's actions, the environment, and all the choices we've made up to this point. The thing that makes this not determinism is that conditions are not causes. If the past were a cause, our choices would be caused by what has already happened, inevitable, not malleable. Because the past is only a condition, there is this strange gap where we can resist the momentum of conditions and do something new.

The heart of wise effort in all its forms is learning to resist conditions and impulses that might lead us into habitual bad choices, coming up with actions that are not our nervous system's first choice. Understood in this way, the entirety of our practice is a kind of renunciation. Moment by moment we resist impulses that we know don't lead to peace, and by acting on wiser intentions, create the possibility that future better conditions will make future choices easier. To whatever degree you've managed to make a habit of kindness, focus, wise choices around eating, speaking, thinking, and all the rest, you can know that your practice is growing stronger.

Tonight we'll look at the teachings on kamma, and what they suggest for how we think about our own agency, choices, and intentions..

It's Not Your Fault (Or Is It?) Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 9, 2026

]]>Equanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep AlivenessYou Are the Owner of Your Actions: Equanimity and KammaaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 03 Jun 2026 03:00:40 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/you-are-the-owner-of-your-actions-equanimity-and-kamma677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a25c488e62a177a7e945723We continue with the investigation of equanimity, looking at the classical phrase for equanimity practice, which is a teaching on kamma, or action and its fruits.

You Are the Owner of Your Actions: Equanimity and Kamma Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 2, 2026

]]>Equanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep AlivenessMeditation: Equanimity With KammaaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 03 Jun 2026 02:00:04 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-equanimity-with-kamma677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a25c338d854ca3d1041ec0e Meditation: Equanimity With Kamma Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, June 2, 2026

]]>Meditation: Equanimity With KammaEquanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep AlivenessaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 27 May 2026 03:00:10 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/jequanimity-balance-eros-responsivity-and-deep-aliveness677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a25c28a68d55c321a2bc00eWe often gloss equanimity (upekkhā) as something like "the balanced heart," or in various ways try to talk about this quality that is less reactive to pleasure and pain, friend and enemy, success and failure. But as anyone who has tried to walk on a slack line, or stand on one foot, or ride a bike, or just stand with your feet together and your eyes closed knows, balance is never stable. The thing we call balance is more properly "balancing," a constant dance of falling and righting.

The sign of skill is that the falls and the corrections become more and more slight, so the system isn't startled, but relaxes into a sort of vibration away from, back toward, and through an abstract center line that never becomes a permanent resting place. To be alive to to be not at rest.

Then the Buddha (and all rebirth-recognizing cultures) comes along and says that death also is no final rest. Equanimity is the dance of becoming more skilled at balancing, so that as long as we are upright in this world, we live less and less startled. Our falling away from center is less dramatic and more like a little sway of the hips. But of course the thing balancing requires of us is non-distraction. Because when the mind falls away from center it often goes far, and the body quickly follows.

Equanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep Aliveness Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 26, 2026

]]>Equanimity ≠ Balance: Eros, Responsivity, and Deep AlivenessMeditation: Equanimity in the BodyaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 27 May 2026 02:00:03 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-equanimity-in-the-body677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a25c1cf2e72c325036d5b6d Meditation: Equanimity in the Body Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 19, 2026

]]>Meditation: Equanimity in the BodyJoy to the Fishes in the Deep Blue SeaaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 20 May 2026 03:00:06 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/joy-to-the-fishes-in-the-deep-blue-sea677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a14b5fe5f1ef3437619c1dcMuditā! The undersung hero/ine/x of the brahmavihāras. Joy at the wellbeing of others. The most radically anti-capitalist thing to cultivate—maybe even more than compassion. It's easy to see how it makes the world a better place to want folks' suffering to end, but to actively celebrate their good fortune??

Before we can do this, we have to overcome negativity bias and actually admit that good fortune even exists.

Do you focus so much on suffering and oppression that you minimize people's experience of things going well?

Muditā is outward-focused gratitude. The kinky folks call it "compersion" (delighting in someone else's pleasure). It's the actual opposite of jealousy.

Not. Easy.

But divine! Let's explore the strange world of positivity tonight, people. (You know it's my weak suit... but I'll do my best.)

Joy to the Fishes in the Deep Blue Sea Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 19, 2026

]]>Joy to the Fishes in the Deep Blue SeaMeditation: Muditā: Celebrating the GoodaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 20 May 2026 02:00:44 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-mudit-celebrating-the-good677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a14b5ac19da0313f52626e4 Meditation: Muditā: Celebrating the Good Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 19, 2026

]]>Meditation: Muditā: Celebrating the GoodTranspersonal CompassionaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 13 May 2026 03:00:58 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/transpersonal-compassion677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a14b506f69f200b553f2445Continuing with the exploration of the transpersonal aspect of the brahmavihāras, we'll look at compassion (karuṇā), the natural expression of mettā when we encounter suffering in ourselves or others.

Transpersonal Compassion Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 12, 2026

]]>Transpersonal CompassionMeditation: Mettā Becomes CompassionaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 13 May 2026 02:00:19 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/mett-becomes-compassion677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a14b42b9b0ea301a8d22fc4 Meditation: Mettā Becomes Compassion Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 12, 2026

]]>Meditation: Mettā Becomes CompassionMoving from Personal to Transpersonal LoveaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 06 May 2026 00:00:25 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/moving-from-personal-to-transpersonal-love677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a04982125c5d539184af177Let's think of the brahmavihāras (the divine abodes of friendliness, compassion, joy, and equanimity) as aspects of "unconditional positive regard"—the phrase coined by psychologist Carl Rogers to describe the judgement-free supportive environment most conducive for healing.

The heart of the brahmavihāras is to make this feeling universal, beyond liking and disliking, personal or group relatedness, or other affinities. So let's call it "transpersonal."

Seen in this way, the BVs are less about healing our individual attachment patterns or our preferential ego states as regards other people, but transcending our ego preferences and states entirely. In a not-spiritually-bypassing way, of course.

How do we do this?

Moving from Personal to Transpersonal Love Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 5, 2026

]]>Moving from Personal to Transpersonal LoveMeditation: Breathe the Ember of Mettā into FlameaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesTue, 05 May 2026 23:00:00 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-breathe-the-ember-of-mett-into-flame677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:6a01f1489d0f1216d2ffc550 Meditation: Breathe the Ember of Mettā into Flame Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, May 5, 2026

]]>Meditation: Breathe the Ember of Mettā into FlameExpressions of the Wise Heart: Intro to the BrahmavihārasaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 22 Apr 2026 03:00:57 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/expressions-of-the-wise-heart-intro-to-the-brahmaviharas677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:69ec297df0125302cb8bf587Intro to the four divine abodes, or brahmavihāras: friendliness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), empathic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekkhā). Talked about how they're all expressions of the basic quality of mettā, and how they all point toward a transpersonal or boundless love, which is by its nature an expression of wisdom.

Expressions of the Wise Heart: Intro to the Brahmavihāras Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, April 21, 2026

]]>Expressions of the Wise Heart: Intro to the BrahmavihārasMeditation: Simple Mettā Without PhrasesaudiomeditationvideoSean OakesWed, 22 Apr 2026 02:00:48 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/meditation-simple-metta-without-phrases677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:69ec2884bbad736f063bf140 Meditation: Simple Mettā Without Phrases Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, April 21, 2026

]]>Meditation: Simple Mettā Without PhrasesHealing Cultural Saṇkhāras: Part 3, short reviewaudiotalkvideoSean OakesWed, 15 Apr 2026 03:00:42 +0000https://www.seanfeitoakes.com/archive/healing-cultural-sakhras-part-3-short-review677ef541008f8d092faa5bdc:677efe7208cacd61bf007211:69ec2752c793c279a2c4173aI review the idea of fractal selves or entities: body, family, community, culture, species, ecosystem.

Healing Cultural Saṇkhāras: Part 3, short review Sean Oakes

Recorded at Insight Meditation Satsang
Online, April 14, 2026

]]>Healing Cultural Saṇkhāras: Part 3, short review