Daily Meditation Recordings, with Leela Sarti – Week of 16 March, 2026

The freedom of not knowing

March 16, 2026

In this session Leela mentions a retreat talk she gave recently on Not Knowing. As of mid March 2026, that talk isn’t up on Dharma Seed yet, but there is a similar one available here . If you are watching this at a later date you may be able to find the more recent talk by searching Dharma Seed directly.

Emptying out

March 17, 2026

Poem read by Leela:

All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other—
Only the mountain and I.

The birds have vanished in the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

– Li Po

Book mentioned by Leela:

“The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning”, by Margareta Magnusson

Just Being

March 18, 2026

The ground of understanding

March 19, 2026

The poem by Ryokan Leela read this morning:

Like The Little Stream 

Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent.

– Taigu Ryokan 

The Mystery of being

March 20, 2026

The mystery of ordinary life

Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives
Such striving may seem admirable
But is in the way of foolishness
Help them instead to find the wonder and marvel of an ordinary life
Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears
Show them how to cry when pets and people die
Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand
And make the ordinary come alive for them
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

-William Martin

The Laughing Heart

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvellous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

– Charles Bukowski