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

Belonging: The Dharma as a Journey to Connectedness

With Willa Blythe Baker recorded on July 10, 2022.

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

Behavioral scientists have long known that human beings are wired for connection. But recent studies show that in the wake of the social isolation imposed by the Covid crisis, the world is experiencing a spike in loneliness.

In such times of isolation — physical or felt — how can meditation help? What do the Buddha’s teachings have to offer with respect to developing and strengthening a sense of belonging?

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • The nature and practice of right view.

    If there is one practice that defines the quality of the Buddha’s teachings, it is right view. This is a wisdom path. Right view is the beginning and ending of the path. Right view comes first among the eight path factors because it is needed for the entire path. Right view can be described as…

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of February 7, 2022

    This week’s theme is: Finding Happiness and Wellbeing on the Path

    The understanding of how dukkha is conditioned and constructed lies at the heart of Dharma teachings. Dukkha and wellbeing are in relationship with each other; the abandonment of the causes of dukkha leads to wellbeing. The nourishment of the causes for wellbeing decreases dukkha. During this week we will explore our capacity to uncover and develop wellbeing through our practice, in ways that enrich our lives.

    Read More

  • Leigh Brasington

    Impermanence

    Anicca, usually translated as “Impermanence” or “Inconstancy,” is one of the three characteristics of all worldly experience. It’s the one of those characteristics we can usually get some understanding of right away. But the deeper implications of anicca are quite profound and that’s what we will explore together.

    Read More

  • The Beauty of Impermanence, a Doorway to Freedom

    “If we were never to fade away…how things would lose their power to move us. Because we will fade away, we are moved, because we are moved, we realise more deeply that we will fade away.”– Keith Dowman If I had to sum up Buddhism in one word, it might be impermanence. Often, it’s impermanence…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of June 14, 2021

    This week’s theme is: Contentment Blockers

    The Buddha named five key ways access to contentment is blocked, and gave clear and profound teachings that break through to the peace, joy, and freedom they obscure.

    Our hearts and minds can be pulled into a mission of greed, or sucked into aversion and rejection. We often swing between restlessness and sluggishness. It is normal to doubt the possibility of developing our experience in more free and delightful ways.

    This week we will explore the possibilities available to us to calm habitual patterns and invite vibrant-tranquility.

    Read More

  • The dangers of selfie mindfulness.

    There is a growing tendency to imply or assume that all suffering is self-created. This is a naïve, even dangerous, view, removed from the middle way. The view ignores the teachings of non-self and the emptiness of self. Does self-inquiry, self-acceptance, self-compassion, self-interest and promotion of the Self promote self-indulgence? Is it any wonder that…

    Read More

  • Jill Satterfield

    The Kindness of Softness and Space

    Softness and spaciousness can be cultivated and called upon when needed.The sensations of softness are reflective of ease and equanimity – the feeling of spaciousness, reflective of non-clinging. Both create a natural letting go, flow and arising of love, kindness and tenderness.Embodiment offers a broad range of skillful means. We’ll invite these qualities and directly…

    Read More

  • Sophie Boyer

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of Nov 13, 2023

    This week’s topic is “Entering Fall”. The autumn season can be a challenging (transitional) time of the year with darkness, rain, wind, mist, and a sense that the cycle of life is coming slowly to an end. Paradoxically, nature also offers intense scents and colors before heading into the coldness and barrenness of winter. This week is an invitation to experience autumn within us. A time to bring the mind momentarily to a stop and explore what can nurture and provide a refuge for the heart. Let’s explore the sparkling colors of autumn’s heart and mind together.

    Read More