Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of September 14, 2020
Martin Aylward
We’re fortunate that Martin Aywlard has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Martin, and to view his other contributions to Sangha Live, click here.
In these hyped up divisive times, there is an ever-greater need for tools to de-condition ourselves from reactivity. The practice of listening – within ourselves and with others – is much more significant than we often acknowledge. The contrast of receptivity against the backdrop of a world conditioned to impose, label, judge, and solve, is…
The connection between wisdom (paññā) and the heart qualities, such as goodwill (mettā) and compassion (karunā), can be a delightful discovery in Buddhist practice. The clear, nonjudgmental awareness of wisdom can feel like warmth, inclusion, and safety when fully received. In turn, the truly open heart is free of the distortions of ill will and…
So often we struggle because we’re resisting, fixing, changing, or even “transcending” our experiences. What shifts when instead of pushing our emotions away, we invite them closer in? What changes when we learn to relate to our emotions like a welcoming friend? And, what changes when we are able to access the place in which…
Teachings of liberation expand our range of possibilities. They encourage us to discover a broader capacity of what we can contact, sense, and do. The teachings of the pāramīs are a key part of this journey. They act like a map and compass for the heart’s wish to be free of habitual limitations, to be a heart unbound. This week we’ll take a deeper dive into the illimitable qualities of the heart.
How can we delight in our meditation? Learning to bring loving awareness to the breath, feeling the ebb and flow in real time as we sit quietly, is an art. The key is in our approach. Sometimes in practicing mindfulness of breathing, there can be an over-emphasis or insistence on focusing attention that drives delight…
This week’s topic is “Longing for Belonging; Becoming Intimate with Expansion and Contraction”. Although people are more connected than ever through technology, there seems to be a global trance of “not belonging”. In this week’s sessions we will explore how we separate from our own selves and from others, and above all how we can come home to all our parts and sink back into a sense of belonging.
We’re very grateful to have Caverly Morgan hosting our Daily Meditation Series for North America. To find out more about Caverly, and to view her past recordings and contributions to Sangha Live, click here. Monday, April 13 The refuge of presence Wednesday, April 15 Clear seeing: recognizing ourselves as that which doesn’t reject and doesn’t…
This week’s topic is “Rediscovering Simplicity: Renunciation and the Art of Letting Go”. Renunciation is one of the ten paramis or ‘spiritual perfections’ considered most conducive to happiness and wellbeing, and yet we tend to understand it in ways that are not helpful. How in the age of peak stuff and peak busyness can we recover the wisdom of “less is more” in a way that re-energises us, lightens our burdens and helps us rediscover creativity and flow? This week we’ll look at this question from different angles with some suggestions for taking the exploration from our morning practice into the activities of our day.