Our current situation is giving us great practice with discomfort. whether we’re experiencing small inconveniences or significant disruption. Dharma teaches us that this very discomfort is a gateway to realization. Once our efforts to soothe or transcend run dry, we gain the opportunity to develop insight, freedom, and true bodhisattva compassion. Compassion that is at ease with entering and engaging in even the most uncomfortable realms. This Sunday, Justine will take us on a tour of the ancient sutras of Vimalakirti, exploring how we can stay open and even playful with the uncertainty and discomfort of this time. And how that just may make us better bodhisattvas.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Milla Gregor – Week of 11 November, 2024
This week’s theme is: Warm Solitude, Beautiful Nature
There are many ways to be solitary, whether alone or in company. How might we cultivate a warm, friendly solitude? Nature is beautiful, both ‘out there’ and ‘in here’. How might we appreciate and support nature’s beauty? This week we’ll explore these questions together through practice, reflection and experiment.
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Time and Timelessness: Finding Refuge, Finding Inspiration
Recorded :
October 30, 2022 Certain moments, events and experiences open our awareness beyond the everyday to a sense of something more eternally present. Meditation points our attention to just this place, which the poet TS Eliot called ‘the point of intersection of the timeless with time’. Contemplating life from such a perspective we can often find fresh resources of…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 5 February, 2024
This week’s topic is “Fear and Fearlessness”. A week of exploring how our mind gets gripped, and how our practice frees us. We’ll explore causes and conditions of fear, and the ways fear can dissolve, and the radical possibility of a fearless life.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of January 15, 2024
This week’s theme is “Tending to Fire – An Exploration of the Third Noble Truth”. The third of the four noble truths, which the Buddha offered as a framework, invites us to reflect on ways to tend to the inner fires or urges, which we all experience. ‘Nirodha’ is a concept which invites us to explore ways to handle that fire: to contain it, to create safe space around it and not to fuel it further, so that it eventually expires. This week, we explore concepts like ‘freedom of/from/to’ as well as letting go and letting be.
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The Fruits of the Spiritual Life
Recorded :
April 17, 2022 2 Kings. Palace Intrigue. A Murder. 500 Elephants. A nighttime visit to see the Buddha. And that’s just the backstory to one of the Buddha’s deepest teachings: his curriculum for spiritual advancement. Join us as we explore the lessons from the 2nd of the Long Discourses and gain a deeper understanding of how morality, concentration,…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 4 March, 2024
This week’s topic is “Wide and Deep: an Integrated Practice in Meditation and in Life”. This week at Sangha live, the morning meditations with Martin will draw each day on elements of dharma practice and understanding that can be both cultivated in meditation, and applied in daily activity. We’ll encourage a steady participation in the mornings through the week, and reflect on using the daily themes to explore our habits, beliefs and reactions throughout each day.
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Embodied Wisdom: The Self-Preservation of Activism
Recorded :
July 8, 2017 Yes, the world is on fire. And, how do we respond to the rage, anger, and fear that can engulf us? How do we utilize these emotions as catalysts that can move us into action that doesn’t burn us up and destroy us? We investigate the Self-Preservation of Activism by feeling into our body wisdom…
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Love’s in Need of Love: The Practice of Love as Social Resistance
Recorded :
July 1, 2017 The great Black American singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder once sang, “Love’s in need of love today.” His words couldn’t be more true as we face a global community struggling with war, poverty, illness, climate instability, and the rise of political authorities and governments who do not seem to be grounded in compassion or kindness….
