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

  • Wise Resolve: Finding Inner Strength

    Recorded : June 26, 2022

    In an effort to counter tendencies towards striving and over-achieving, many Western approaches to meditation and spirituality emphasize relaxation. While relaxation and ease are essential ingredients on the meditative path, they must be integrated with whole-hearted effort. How do we find inner strength and make a clear resolve that is informed by wisdom and balanced…

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    Refugia: Finding Sanctuary in Times of Crisis

    Recorded : September 1, 2024

    We live in challenging times. Biologists speak of micro-systems where species sequester during times of crisis. They are called refugia. In times of uncertainty and fear, we too need refugia, places of spiritual safety where we can put down roots, grow and thrive. In this Sunday teaching, Willa invites us to explore the concept of…

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of 06 April, 2026

    This week’s theme is: The Spiral Path

    Practice often unfolds in spirals rather than straight lines. The path includes phases of clarity and confusion, opening and contraction. Again and again it turns and circles back. This week, we will explore how trust in the path can grow through these cycles, as we keep returning to awareness, patience, and the unfolding of the Dharma.

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

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Awakening Joy: Practice as a Path of Happiness

    Recorded : January 13, 2019

    Joy is both a Factor of Enlightenment and one of the four Divine Abodes. Today, as we are bombarded with news that heightens our fear and sadness about the world, more than ever it’s vital to understand the importance of joy as a central aspect of spiritual practice. We need to remember how to stay…

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    How Conduct Bears Fruit: Training in Not-Killing

    Recorded : February 21, 2021

    In this session Shaila Catherine explores the fruits of karma and the consequences of action through a detailed consideration of why and how we practice ethical precepts. The focus for this talk is the commitment to not kill.

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Jaya Rudgard – Week of November 7, 2022

    This week’s theme is A Gentle and Playful Heart”. A week of morning meditations orienting to the qualities of playfulness and gentleness. When we neither meet ourselves or each other with harshness nor take ourselves too seriously, we find a genuine inner strength. Whether we feel we have lots of energy and motivation for practice, or little, exploring these qualities will refresh the heart and mind and support us in meeting the challenges of our week.

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings with Nathan Glyde – Week of September 16, 2024

    This week’s topic is “That Changes Everything”. The Buddha instructed us to “notice how all conditioned things change”. How we understand this instruction changes depending on which words we emphasise. If we emphasise ‘change’ it sounds like “that’s simply how it is”. If we emphasise ‘how’ and ‘conditioned’, it invites us to question and play a part.

    Read More