To care for our lives, the lives of all beings and the earth is all at the heart of what it means to be a human being. Yet, speculating about the future, and tensing up in fearful anticipation of days to come, are not skillful expressions of care and wisdom. There is a better way.
Let’s ground into the depth of timeless presence, of stillness and emptiness, in order to fully inhabit this living moment with our tender human heart. Through this practice, the next steps will reveal themselves.
This week’s theme is: Peeking Through the Windows of History . The meditation practices we love today have roots in an array of Buddhisms, in India and around the world. How did these travel and develop? What ideas got kept, dropped, combined or invented along the way? Join us to explore this flow of history, to deepen your understanding and pay respect to our ancestors. There may be surprises. Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
This week’s theme is “The Compassionate Heart”. Karuna, usually translated as compassion, is our hearts’ ability to relate with care towards ourselves, others and experience in general. Living in a complex world with imperfect others and self, an attitude and practice of compassion can be an immense support. But when misunderstood, it can equally turn into pity, generate overwhelm, make us lose balance and create friction with the concept of responsibility. We will therefore dedicate this upcoming week to an indepth exploration into the concept of compassion.
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New year’s resolutions are often unrealistically ambitious and doomed to failure. In this first Sangha Live class of the year, our founding teacher Martin Aylward explores the art of wise commitment; how to refine what one is committing to in a way that is useful, precise, realistic and time-boundaried; elements that allow us to align…
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Before the session Martin wrote: “A Burmese teacher once told a friend of mine to always enjoy his practice. We love meditation in theory, and we want to grow and transform, and we certainly would like to be liberated from our suffering. And yet! We easily turn meditation into a chore, and feel discouraged by…
Daily meditations with Martin Aylward.
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.
This week’s theme is: The Unfolding of Presence
This week, Sophie Boyer invites us back to the heart of daily meditation: just practice. It’s a practice where no effort is needed to be present, for presence is already here. Let us simply return to it.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
We’re delighted to have Nathan Glyde guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and enrich your practice.
This week’s theme is: It’s Like This, Right Now
Acceptance must be applied wisely to lead to liberating awakening. We accept “it’s like this, right now”, but we don’t stop there. We also acknowledge that “this” is subject to changeable conditions, and we accept the opportunity to contribute to freedom.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.