We’re fortunate that Martin Aylward has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. Click here to find out more about Martin and to view his other contributions to Sangha Live. Recordings will be posted by the end of the day of the live session.
This week’s topic is Subtilising Experience. The Dharma is a path to awakening. Our experience becomes more liberated as we awaken. Similarly, we can notice that our life progresses from the gross to the more subtle in awakening. A path of awakening freedom, then, is a path of subtilising: from perceptions of self and things in the world to space-time and even awareness, all phenomena transition from rigid and gross to fluid and refined, all the way to barely here at all.
Recorded :
Vince writes: “In 2003 I took a one-month temporary ordination at Wat Thamkrabok, a unique monastery in central Thailand. My intention was to explore Buddhism and meditation, but what I got was not what I expected. I was given a ‘Sajja’ or a ‘truth’ to practice for 4-hours per day for the next 2-years. My…
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.
Recorded :
In times marked socially by uncertainty, injustice, polarization, and sometimes overwhelm, in the midst of the typical personal joys and sorrows of our day to day experiences, it can be difficult to know how to act-or even how to keep the heart steady. The Buddha’s teaching on Wise Intention (sammā saṅkappa) offers a compass, a…
Recorded :
Everything that we write matters. Everything that comes out of our mouth matters. Important communications require calm and insightful reflection afterwards. Wisdom and Liberation of the voice support each other. Clear communication with another (spoken or written) expresses itself freely from the extremes of positivity and negativity. The middle way shows itself in exploration of…
Recorded :
Spiritual bypassing is a superficial way of glossing over problems in a way that might make us feel better in the short term, but ultimately solves nothing and just leaves the problem to linger on. This session is an opportunity to begin to understand the concept of Spiritual Bypass (as coined by John Welwood in his book “Toward a Psychology of Awakening”) and how to practice with it.
This week’s topic is “Imagine That”. Edgar Allan Poe wondered, “Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” According to naive realism, we do not perceive things as they are, yet think we do. The Dharma exists to wake us from delimiting dreams, so we may live lives of profound awakening.
With Martin Aylward and Zohar Lavie