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

Comfortable with Discomfort: How to be a Bodhisattva

With Justine Dawson recorded on May 10, 2020.

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

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.

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

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Nothing is reliable outside liberation.

    Practice places emphasis on seeing impermanence. Such a practice easily becomes habitual to the degree we miss the point. There is nothing reliable owing to impermanence. There is nothing we can depend upon in this world of mentality and materiality, inner and outer. If we abide deeply clear about this, the stress and fears fade…

    Read More

  • Whole body breathing to regulate your mind and body

    In this session Vidyamala introduces key areas of body awareness where mindful breathing can help to bring about regulation and calm in the body/heart/mind. She calls these the 5 B’s of the breath: Buttocks, Belly, Back, Back of the throat and Brain. She introduces the physiology of these areas and then leads a guided meditation….

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Practice and Prejudice: Waking up to our reality blinkers

    Martin writes: “Do you remember that Youtube video ‘Awareness test’ from a few years ago, where you’re asked to pay attention to one thing (passes made by the team in white) and you end up completely missing something else? (check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4 – it only takes 30 seconds) We perceive reality in accordance with…

    Read More

  • Nina la Rosa

    A Pathway to Freedom Through Connecting with the Body

    Where’s your body? Can you feel it? Is it still there?! Life is full. There’s so much to plan and think about. We can go hours without feeling a single breath or footstep. Can you relate? By getting lost in our thoughts we over-identify with a limited sense of “self” and therefore suffer. We will…

    Read More

  • Sophie Boyer

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of 28 April, 2025

    We’re delighted to have Sophie Boyer guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they bring peace and depth to your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Groundedness to Groundlessness

    Grounding oneself in this very moment to realise that what we are looking for has never left us. It has always been here and is not bound to anything. It is an invitation to let life inform every moment without a “me” being in charge – a groundless home.
    Sophie Boyer will lead our Daily Meditations this week, inviting us to engage with this paradoxical dynamic.

    Grounding ourselves in this very moment to discover that what we’re searching for has always been here. It has always been here and is not bound to anything. Sophie Boyer leads our Daily Meditations this week, inviting us to explore this beautiful paradox: finding a groundless home where life informs every moment without a separate “me” being in charge. Join us as we practice together in this space of gentle revelation and discovery.

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

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    The Wisdom of the Body

    If you seek to deepen in your meditation practice, there is no better friend than the body. Like a venerable teacher, the body has the power to draw you into the present moment, show you how to find stillness and even—if you listen closely—wake you up.

    Read More