During this session we be explore life’s basic necessities and drives, and the critical difference between ‘getting along’ and ‘getting ahead.’ Our meditation practice will be based on the Wise-Heartedness Bhavana to help us cultivate skilful response to distractions in daily life.
A transcript of this session is available here.
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Recorded :
Leela says: “Over the years my interest in awakening has be reformulated as how to be a real human being. In this session I invite you to explore, with me, the possibility of being grounded in the natural goodness of being. We will inquire how to live a full life from the ground of presence,…
Recorded :
I reflect this Sunday on the profound Surangama Sutra teaching of the Two Fundamental Roots: The root of “beginningless birth and death,” and the “primal bright essence of consciousness.” The Buddha warns that not knowing these two essential principles renders one’s spiritual efforts into a doomed futility, like “cooking sand in the hope of creating…
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.
Recorded :
These pandemic times with isolation, suffering, social and political divisiveness and an uncertain future our lives are filled with even more challenges than usual. At the same time many hearts are opening with increased compassion, connection and possibilities on the horizon. The mind can easily get contracted by the stress or grasping at hope. But…
This week’s topic is “Getting A Feel For Feeling”. As we perceive, we add a feeling (vedanā) to our experience. When we are unaware of this process and react to the projected feeling, it causes unnecessary suffering (dukkha). However, understanding this process and responding skilfully leads to one of the deepest senses of freedom available. Let’s explore this freedom through our daily meditations this week.
Recorded :
Our lives include facing things we didn’t choose, and often cannot change; such as getting ill or injured, or loosing something or someone that we love. Dharma teachings invite us to turn towards these, instead of turning away from them. What is the wisdom that is available to us when we meet our experience with…
Recorded :
Now is the time to strengthen the heart, to commit every day to doing more good and less harm. Fully engaging life with its inherent joys and sorrows, opportunities and limitations, successes and failures is no small task, and the Dharma offers timeless wisdom and practical guidance for these times. Join us as we take…
This week’s theme is “Samadhi – Doors of Harmony”. The Buddha encouraged us to nourish, calm, gladden and liberate our heart-mind (citta). To know ways to inner harmony, stillness and contentment independently of outer circumstances is a precious resource. It contributes to resilience, allows steadiness in challenging situations with others and brings confidence into our lives. Yet the path towards samadhi can be easily misunderstood and contribute to more pressure and self-doubt. We dedicate this week to exploring kind and nourishing ways to practice.
Thank you so much for making known the work of the onastery in Thailand.
I especially appreciate your emphasis on the certainty of our own death and how that informs your intentions to ‘get along’ with life and all its manifestations.
I also appreciate your clarity, the guided meditation and the ordinariness of your application of mindfulness as ‘remembering to remember’ among other things the old part of the brains’s job of keeping us alive at all cost and our heart’s inclusivity and capacity for ease and contentment.