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

Search Sangha Live

Beyond the Self-Improvement Project

With Oren Jay Sofer recorded on April 25, 2021.

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

It’s common to come to the spiritual path seeking relief from psychological suffering or emotional pain. The modern wellness industry presents mindfulness and meditation as the ultimate antidote to stress and personal foibles. Yet the Buddhist path is about something far deeper than stress reduction or having an agreeable personality. In this session, we’ll explore the value of seeking relief from personal stress, the pitfalls of approaching meditation as a self-improvement project, and the true promise of the Buddha’s freedom.

(Poem read by Oren during the session: Free and Easy: A Spontaneous Vajra Song, by Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche)

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

Tags: awareness and presence impermanence self and non-self wisdom

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of May 8, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Shedding Light on Darkness”. In the Buddhist tradition, we find three psycho-physical dynamics which bring together suffering, stress and dissatisfaction. Beside aggression and wanting, the root of moha, often translated as ignorance, delusion or blindness, can be tricky to understand and practice. What are we blind to? What do we need to see and understand? How can we potentially see our blind spots? How can we prepare ourselves for that which we might discover? We dedicate this week of practice to discovering the different aspects of ignorance and learn practical steps to look deeply yet with kind eyes.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    With a generous spirit: your money and your life.

    Recorded : March 26, 2017

    We often hear about Dana, or generosity, only when being asked for donations! Yet Buddha taught that “the practice of generosity is a foundation for happiness”. This session with Worldwide Insight guiding teacher Martin Aylward explores the depth and beauty of generosity, and how its practice can transform our own hearts and minds.

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Shireen Jilla – Week of 04 May, 2026

    This week’s theme is: Why Are We Here?

    To gain relief from mental or physical suffering, seeking enlightenment, sangha? As we practice with our teachers, insight can flood our hearts. Still we can feel untethered in daily life. We will explore what part our expectations, inspirations and intentions play. And what actually opens us to the naturalness of meeting this moment with simple, direct wisdom: the ordinarily extraordinary.

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

    Read More

  • Ronya Banks

    Inner Peace – Even in a Chaotic World

    Recorded : July 21, 2019

    “Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught that that is not our real home. Our real home is inner peace.” – Ajahn Chah How can you possibly experience inner peace at a time when human-kind and our planet appears to be tumbling deeper into “chaos”? Can inner peace even…

    Read More

  • Fleet Maull

    Targeting Five Neural Networks for Embodiment, Healing and Awakening: An Integration of Network Neuroscience, Yogic Science, & Contemplative Wisdom

    Recorded : May 25, 2025

    Roshi Fleet will describe five neural networks that play an essential role in our path of healing and liberation and how to strengthen these networks through a deeply embodied approach to mindfulness and awareness meditation. Roshi will guide participants in a set of practices designed to optimize neural function for enhanced attention stabilization, awareness, and…

    Read More