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

Search Sangha Live

As wide as life and as open as space: practicing inclusivity.

With Martin Aylward recorded on March 22, 2015.

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

As we get familiar with the practice of meditation and the language of Dharma teachings, we can find ourselves getting comfortable, even complacent. Yet our practice in many ways is designed to make us uncomfortable! Designed to keep us open to ambiguity and uncertainty, to invite us to question and explore rather than to settle for answers or beliefs.

Martin explores different ways to keep our practice fresh, to stay open to what is actually happening, to maintain our curiosity about this remarkable and mysterious business of being human. We explore what it means to practice being inclusive in different realms – meditative, relational, social and cultural.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of 22 September, 2025

    We’re grateful to have Nirmala Werner guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and deepen your practice.

    This week’s theme is: The Still Heart: Cultivating Equanimity in an Unsteady World

    In a world marked by constant change, uncertainty, and emotional intensity, equanimity can seem like a distant ideal-or even a form of indifference. But in the Buddhist tradition, equanimity (upekkhā) is not cold or passive. It is the spacious, steady heart that knows how to stay open, grounded, and present with whatever life brings.

    In this week we will explore equanimity as a deep source of inner freedom-neither detached nor reactive, but wise, loving, and awake.

    Through daily reflection and embodied practice, we will ask:

    What is true equanimity, and what is it not?

    How can we meet change without losing our ground?

    How do we love and let go-at the same time?

    And how can we live with a still heart in a restless world?

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  •

    Settled Form, Steady Heart: Qigong for Mindful Presence

    Recorded : October 26, 2025

    When our physical energy feels restless or flat, it becomes harder to meet our inner experience with care and attention. This is why embodied practices such as qigong and mindful breathing are valuable: they help settle our body, making it far easier for our heart to find a steadier, more skillful unfolding. Please join this…

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    Compassion, Emergence and Climate Change

    Recorded : September 19, 2021

    This year, humanity has witnessed the alarming acceleration of climate change… the loss of forests and rivers, animal and plant species… and the potential annihilation of our species. Alongside our profound grief for what is changing globally, however, we are also experiencing Emergence.  Emergence, the organizing principle of Gaia, can help us to stay present as…

    Read More

  • Chris Germer

    The Power of Self-Compassion

    Recorded : June 11, 2023

    Most people are more compassionate toward others than themselves when things go wrong. However, burgeoning research shows that self-compassion is good for everybody. Fortunately, it can be learned.  How can we seamlessly bring self-compassion into meditation practice and daily life?  What are two secrets about self-compassion practice that make all the difference?

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    The Wisdom of the Body

    Recorded : November 28, 2021

    While we might think of the body as flesh and blood, there is so much more to this mortal coil. The body in fact may be our deepest teacher. In this session, we explore how to listen to the wisdom of the body and realize its potential to guide us to groundedness, self-honesty, presence and wisdom.

    Read More

  • Stephen Fulder

    Equanimity: Dancing with the Unexpected

    Recorded : July 8, 2018

    Equanimity is a key spiritual faculty which allows us to face the known and the unknown, the ecstasies and the despairs, with steadiness and lightness. Equanimity helps us engage with life from an unlimited and interconnected perspective. The Buddhist image is of an island in the stormy seas – remembering that all islands are connected…

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Staying In, Going Inwards: Inner Resources for Indoor Life

    Recorded : April 5, 2020

    Martin, the founding and guiding teacher of Sangha Live, leads our regular Sunday session, looking at skilful ways to meet this time of confinement and ‘forced retreat’. He offers various reflections on caring for ourselves and others, and makes plenty of time to share and explore together as a Sangha, as we lean into this…

    Read More