Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Search Sangha Live

A Relational Dhamma

With Gregory Kramer recorded on October 17, 2021.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

If humans are intrinsically relational creatures, how do we integrate this understanding with the Buddha’s teachings on suffering and its cessation? Relational suffering and craving? Dependent origination?

In this session, we explore the power and necessity of a relational understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. We discuss and practice relational aspects of the path, including the relational Vipassana practice of Insight Dialogue, and living a Dhamma-infused life of relatedness, through friendship and community.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Tags: community intimacy and connection wisdom

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Blunt Suffering

    Recorded : April 29, 2018

    Let’s not flinch when we look at the lived experiences of illness, confusion, and relational pain. Let’s allow the texture of hurt to be known. Awareness remains brilliant, for sure. Any of us can experience this. Maybe the more we allow the blunt pain of the body-mind, the more we can sit squarely in awareness….

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    The Sacred No: Setting Conscious Boundaries Alongside Boundlessness

    Recorded : February 15, 2026

    To truly embody our Yes to life, we must equally honor our No. Liberating our minds and hearts and taking responsibility for our contribution to collective consciousness requires setting loving boundaries around authentic being. Sometimes, through spiritual bypass; concepts/ideas about mindfulness; or lack of distinction between being nice and being kind, we devalue the sacred…

    Read More

  •

    Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out

    Recorded : May 20, 2018

    Racism remains one of the most rooted and painful impasses of our time. Why is this so? And what does this have to do with you? In her talk, drawing from her recent publication, Ruth explores an understanding of our individual and collective racial conditioning and its social proliferation, and how mindfulness provides a foundation…

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    Courageous Conversations, and Speaking from the Heart

    Recorded : July 28, 2024

    Join us for an experiential practice and embodied inquiry into speaking from the heart and engaging in courageous conversations. Our challenges are gateways to relational presence. By bringing compassionate awareness to habits of mind that can obscure clarity within the relational field, we can perceive more clearly from the heart. Through deep listening — to…

    Read More

  •

    Soothing Anxiety

    Recorded : October 20, 2019

    Anxiety is a completely normal, natural human emotion. Anxiety can be rooted in circumstances related to one’s personal life, relationships, or larger issues affecting our society and planet. Regardless of the source, many suffer from intense, frequent or chronic forms of anxiety. What does spirituality and contemplative practice have to teach us about how to…

    Read More

  •

    The Compass of Wise Intention

    Recorded : September 21, 2025

    In times marked socially by uncertainty, injustice, polarization, and sometimes overwhelm, in the midst of the typical personal joys and sorrows of our day to day experiences, it can be difficult to know how to act-or even how to keep the heart steady. The Buddha’s teaching on Wise Intention (sammā saṅkappa) offers a compass, a…

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Equanimity: Finding Balance in Uncertain Times

    Recorded : January 4, 2026

    Equanimity is a highly-valued quality in Buddhist teachings. But what is it, and how do we cultivate it in our meditation practice? How can we access equanimity in daily life, especially in the midst of uncertainty, fear, and sadness over the suffering in the world? Howard Zinn from “The Optimism of Uncertainty”To be hopeful in…

    Read More