The extremes of addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self-mortification are not the path to happiness. The spectrum of human sensuality spans from pleasure to pain, pleasant to unpleasant, from hedonic excesses to self-harm, encompassing a vast range that is likely different for everyone. What is considered the Middle Way for a monastic might be different and some distance, as it were, from the Middle Way practised by a layperson.
With Vince Cullen recorded on October 13, 2024.
Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
- 
                            
  Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of December 13, 2021This week’s theme is: A Bright Presence. Making an effort isn’t always easy; yet, how we show up really matters. Dharma teachings can help to enliven our sense of enthusiasm and energy on the path of practice. This week we’ll dive into different ways of engaging with our life, on the meditation seat and off. From soft delight to sustained dedication, let’s wake up fully with life — in life, and for life. 
- 
                            
  Daily Meditation Recordings with Christopher Titmuss- Week of February 12, 2024Why can’t we always overcome fear by being bold? The mind sees fear as feelings, emotions and sensations. Such experiences do not confirm fear. 
 Experts tell us we cannot live without fear as we need fear to protect us. Dharma teachings remind us we cannot truly live with fear.
- 
                            
  How Conduct Bears Fruit: Training in Not-KillingRecorded : February 21, 2021 In this session Shaila Catherine explores the fruits of karma and the consequences of action through a detailed consideration of why and how we practice ethical precepts. The focus for this talk is the commitment to not kill. 
- 
                            
  Daily Meditation Recordings, with Wiebke Pausch – Week of December 4, 2023This week’s topic is “Exploring the Art of Radical Rest”. Conditioned and surrounded by a restless culture, we are constantly driven towards self-optimisation and self-improvement. Our practice is often affected by the striving and the effort to become a perfect meditator. We will explore together how to rest in the midst of all that is unfinished and imperfect. When we allow ourselves to rest deeply, experience can unfold naturally and we come into contact with the very essence of being alive. 
- 
                            
  Daily Meditation Recordings, with Kaira Jewel Lingo – Week of July 13We’re fortunate that Kaira Jewel Lingo has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK this week. Links mentioned during these sessions can be found at the bottom of this page. To find out more about Kaira Jewel, and view her other recordings on the platform, click here. Monday, July… 
- 
                            
  Compassion and equanimity – facing challenges in difficult timesRecorded : September 4, 2017 Worldwide Insight talk from Joseph Goldstein: “Compassion and Equanimity – Facing Challenges in Difficult Times”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A. 
- 
                            
  Who Am I?Recorded : March 10, 2019 “Who Am I?” is a fundamental question. You have to live the question, day in and day out. You cannot think through an answer. The self (‘I’ and ‘my’) lands on objects, voluntarily or involuntarily. Primary objects of interest include forms, feelings, perceptions, formations of mind/speech/body and consciousness (mindfulness, awareness, concentration and meditation). The self… 
- 
                            
  Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of July 12, 2021This week’s theme is: Equally Close to All Things: Explorations in Equanimity. Life includes both pleasant and unpleasant experiences, ups and down, joys and sorrows. Equanimity invites us to meet all of these with tenderness and poise and to nurture the capacity to be equally close to all things. Can we cultivate more spaciousness, intimacy and calm in the midst of life? This week we will explore finding a deeper, more stable wellbeing, a wellbeing that is not dependant on the external circumstances of our lives. 
 
				
														
					 
				
														
					 
				
														
					 
				
														
					 
				
														
					 
				
														
					
Discussion