Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christine Kupfer – Week of April 10, 2022
Christine Kupfer
We’re fortunate that Christine Kupfer has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Christine, and to view her other contributions to Sangha Live, click here.
Recordings are posted 24 – 36 hours after the live session runs.
This week’s topic is “Body like a temple“.
We often refer to the body as if it were a functional tool. We talk about my body, as if it were supposed to be at our service. Sometimes all it takes is one breath for everything to change, and in a dazzle, we experience body as a temple, a sanctuary for life. What is a temple? It is a sacred place, a place whose spiritual reality goes beyond the physical plane. In our daily meditations this week, we will bow to the miracle of the body that we are, honoring the presence of life unfolding in all its realities.
We’re fortunate that Jaya Rudgard has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Jaya, click here.
This week’s theme is Making Sense of Self.
Although the Buddha encourages us to not indulgently ponder whether the self is real or not, he did offer us a way to explore how the sense of self appears. This methodology, called the khandhas (aggregates: the heap of heaps), exposes all aspects we gather together to create and hold to our sense of self: form (body); vedanā (subtle preference); perception; saṅkhāra (mental formations – like intention, attention…); and consciousness (knowing).
This week’s topic is “Letting Go, Cultivating Deep Peace”. The Buddha’s teachings offer a profoundly pragmatic, compassionate and wise response to the human condition. During this week we will explore the art of pausing, looking deeply into our own lived experience and letting go of clinging, as foundations for developing a peaceful heart. This supports the possibilities for both our own well-being, as well as peace in the external world.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has shared that compassion is not a luxury but a necessity for human beings to survive. There is no more important time to understand and strengthen compassion than right now.
We’re fortunate that Zohar Lavie has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Zohar, and to view her other contributions to Sangha Live, click here.
In our troubled world dharma practitioners sometimes become earnest. But beings learn and develop through play, and to play we have to be fluid in mind, heart and body. Play fertilizes the human spirit and makes us feel a sense of belonging. Welcome to a session exploring dharma practice as original play and creativity.
In times of struggle we can always call on the ancestors. Our affinity ones are just as important as our biological ones. The Buddhist path is full of affinity beings who inspire us. Join me in remembering those who have gone before us, and paved the path of freedom and liberation.
This week’s topic is “All We All Need”. Meditation can be compared to an artist’s studio or an experimenter’s laboratory where we create what is necessary for well-being: connection, kindness, peace… What a wonderful blessing! Moreover, this is not just a gift we give to ourselves. Because of interdependence, we also provide what is essential for all beings.