This talk will explore the Three Refuges — Buddha, Dharma and Sangha — as sources of true refuge in difficult times. The teaching of the Refuges is found within all schools of Buddhism and offers clear guidance for responding to our beautiful, aching world with skill and kindness.
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The Nonduality of Good and Evil? Buddhist Reflections on War
Recorded :
April 19, 2026 Ukraine…Gaza…Iran… Can Buddhist teachings help us understand and respond to these modern conflicts? Quotation: If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil…
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Unshakeable Peace
Recorded :
March 29, 2026 The whole reason to study and practice the Dhamma is to find peace from suffering. Unshakeable peace is not found in agreeable external conditions. It is cultivated as an internal ground. It is the resilience needed to fully show up in the world in the midst of agreeable and disagreeable external conditions.
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Embracing Uncertainty – Practice During Crisis
Recorded :
April 19, 2020 “The truth is that you will never be absolutely safe. All things change constantly, even what is most precious. This is the angst of life, the price of being a conscious human being.” – Phillip Moffitt As a spiritual practitioner, you learn to see and accept “uncertainty” as a fact of life – even during…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with James Rafael – Week of January 8, 2024
This week’s topic is “New Year Habits and Hindrances”. In this week’s sessions we’ll explore how engaging with the Buddha’s teachings on the ‘5 Hindrances’ can help establish or deepen the habit of a daily meditation practice.
If you’re new to meditation, this framework offers ways to engage with common challenges we may face; “I can’t sit still’, “My mind is just too busy”, “I’m just not sure if this is working”.
If you have a consistent, established practice, revisiting the hindrances can be a gateway to access deeper levels of concentration (samatha), and the subsequent, often profound, insight (vipassana) which follows.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Jaya Rudgard – Week of Jan 31, 2022
Embodied and Awake: Meditations for Body, Heart and Mind.
Mind, body and emotion form a constant feedback loop. As the traditional teachings on mindfulness make clear, all three equally deserve our interested, caring attention. When mindfulness is balanced in this way our whole being benefits. Our practice this week will include some gentle movements and mindful breathing practices as a prelude to each day’s meditation. These can be done seated or standing, or adapted for lying down, according to your ability and levels of energy.
Each morning this week we’ll dive into one of the images from the natural world and daily life that the Buddha used to explain his teachings. Let’s see how how these similes and metaphors from the Buddhist texts can support our understanding and enrich our practice. We may also discover how practising with them can enhance our appreciation of the world around us.
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The freeing of human consciousness: from seeing the world ‘out there’, separate and alien, to directly knowing, feeling, and living the intimacy of all things
Recorded :
February 18, 2018 The Shurangama Sutra, which points out the foundations of Zen practice, discusses the essential nature of mind as the “primal essence of consciousness that brings forth all conditions.” Implied is the heart-mind (citta) both profoundly intimate with all things while at the same time free and independent of all things. How is it to live…
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Self and Not-Self: Who (What) are You?
Recorded :
October 25, 2020 This talk explores classic Buddhist teachings about anatta: self and not-self as well highlighting how other traditions and modalities recognized self and what it means to be free from self. We investigate self and not-self through spiritual, poetic cultural and personal perspectives.
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