Suburban Dharma

In this Dharma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on May 25, 2025, Subodha shares his thoughts on how we use Buddhism to help others, especially those going through a time of crisis. He shares stories from the Pali Canon and the commentaries while also reflecting on his education in psychotherapy and chaplaincy.

In this Dharma talk given at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on May 11, 2025, Subodha talks about the importance of being a person of integrity and teaching others by example and how that is the way the Buddha says we truly repay our parents for bringing us into the world as he reflects on Mother's Day.

In this Dhamma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on April 20, 2025, Subodha contrasts the Buddhism on display in a recent season of a popular TV show with the Buddhism that exists in real life and leads to the end of all stress and suffering.

In this Dhamma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on March 16, 2025, Subodha discusses some of the common ways that we grasp the Dhamma incorrectly in the West and what it means to confidently practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma.

In this Dhamma talk given on February 16, 2025, at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles, Subodha talks about love and hate in the Pali Canon and how goodwill, metta, transcends both. He also shares the work of John O'Donohue to articulate the importance of knowing ourselves well to achieve true intimacy with ourselves and others.

In this Dhamma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on December 15, 2024, Subodha shares his thoughts on people out in the world celebrating and approving of taking a life. He shares the Buddha's instructions on having goodwill for even the smallest of lifeforms and even the worst of people no matter the circumstances. Peace on Earth begins with the peace we have in our hearts.

In this Dhamma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on November 17, 2024, Subodha shares his thoughts on a world that often seems to make little sense and the pain and stress that comes with living in it. He shares the story of Christopher Thomas Knight, who, seeking seclusion, lived in the woods of North Pond, Maine for 27 years without human contact. Living in the woods, on the periphery, he survived through burglary, as he regularly broke into the cabins nearby, taking what he needed to survive. This story is contrasted with the skillful seclusion of the Buddhist path, which steals from no one.

In this Dhamma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on October 20, 2024, Subodha discusses the unskillful qualities and skillful qualities inside us. Attention is given to how the Buddha talked about the unwholesome qualities and how important it is to abandon them in Itivuttaka 88 of the Pali Canon.

On this talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on September 15, 2024, Subodha shares about his ongoing recovery from Bell's Palsy and his reflections on the bases of power as a means of cultivating consistency in cultivating the Dhamma.

In this Dhamma talk at IBMC on 6/16/24, Subodha discusses the Buddha's fear and discontent that made him leave his home and become a renunciant. There is a brief summary of the Buddha's lesson to his son, Rahula, and how this lesson aligns with the factors for becoming a stream-enterer.

In this Dhamma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on May 12, 2024, Subodha talks about how all Buddhist traditions train in developing goodwill and compassion for all beings. He also elaborates on why we must protect our goodwill and our hearts if we want to ensure we are skillful in our interactions with others.

A Dharma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on April 21, 2024. In this Dharma talk, Subodha discusses Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood as well as how Buddhist karma differs from Jain karma. The Kumara Sutta, Udana 5:4 in the Khuddaka Nikaya is also shared in this talk.

In this Dhamma talk at IBMC on March 17, 2024, Subodha talks about a bad movie he watched in 2002 and uses it to have a larger discussion on knowledge and vision on the path as outlined in the Kimattha Sutta (AN 11:1).

In this Dhamma talk at the international Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on February 25, 2024, Subodha discusses Samma Sankappa, Right Resolve, and how we are encouraged live purposeful lives of renunciation, non ill-will, and harmlessness.

In this Dhamma talk on January 21, 2024, Subodha discusses right view and right resolve and their importance on the path. An example of the importance of right view comes in the form of a commonly shared story in American Buddhist circles and the lessons we might take from it.

In this Dhamma talk at IBMC on December 17, 2023, Subodha talks about the Alagaddūpama Sutta (MN 22) and how unskillful views can be a detriment to our path and an obstacle to unbinding. In this, there is a discussion about things that might be allowable for laypeople but defeat a monastic, making them no longer a member of the sangha.

In this Dhamma talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on November 19, 2023, Subodha talks about some questions he came across by lay Buddhists in regard to their spouses and romantic partners and attachment. Subodha touches upon the theme of letting go while being a layperson married and living in society.

In this Dhamma talk at IBMC on October 15, 2023, Subodha shares a concern that a friend of his shared that the Dhamma is harder to practice today in contemporary life than it was in the time of the Buddha and his disciples. Subodha gives an answer to this concern based on the conditions of the world and human nature today.

In this Dhamma talk at the IBMC Los Angeles on September 17, 2023, Subodha discusses how, once we are well established in the Dhamma and the Buddha's categorical truths, we are able to confidently derive Dhamma lessons from unlikely sources. Subodha then illustrates this by looking at The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and relating the teachings there to the Dhamma.

In this talk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center Los Angeles on August 20, 2023, Subodha discusses the growing dichotomy between religion and science in our current discourse and how that has led to some Buddhists distancing themselves from Buddhism as a religion and turning to science to explain and prove Buddhist belief and practice with sometimes disastrous results. Subodha proposes a way to avoid the whole thicket of views entirely by not placing any limits on the Dhamma.