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

Search Sangha Live

Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of Nov 1, 2021

Nirmala Werner

Nirmala Werner

We’re fortunate that Nirmala Werner has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Nirmala, 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 Embodied Metta – The Body as a Pathway to Freedom.

 

The Buddha’s teachings invite us to be with things as they are. This week, we’ll learn embodiment practices to help us cultivate true love, compassion and care for ourselves and for others. We’ll practice staying intimate with our body, mind and heart in daily life, in sexuality, and with (often unwanted) thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Coming home to our body

November 1, 2021

Links to poems:

Mary Oliver – Wild Geese

Hafiz – If God Invited You to a Party 

Appreciation of the body

November 2, 2021

Links and quotes:

Quote from Rumi: “I have come to drag you out of yourself and take you into my heart. I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had and lift you like a prayer to the sky.”

Hafiz: Why Abstain from Love? Available in this collection of poems

Meeting difficult emotions with body, breath and voice

November 3, 2021

Links

A gentle embrace of sexuality

November 4, 2021

Links and quotes:

Galway Kinnell: Saint Francis and the Sow

Quote from Sri Ramakrishna: Oh longing mind, dwell within the depth of your own pure nature, do not seek your home elsewhere…your naked awareness alone, o mind, is the inexhaustible abundance for which you long so desperately. 

Heart connection and reaching out

November 5, 2021

Links:

Antonio Machado: Last Night As I Was Sleeping

 

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Ronya Banks

    Practicing with Varying Viewpoints

    Recorded : November 2, 2025

    Because today’s world appears to be reflecting times of great polarization and divisiveness, you probably have felt disturbed after hearing varying viewpoints that do not align with your priorities and values. In fact if you’re like most people, you have most likely felt rather emotionally triggered and incredulous when faced with radically different views. Join…

    Read More

  •

    The Radical Heart

    Recorded : May 19, 2019

    It’s hard to find the words that do justice to the enormity of the heartbreak we are in. As we wake up to our new reality, we feel grief, fear, outrage, and a daily kaleidoscope of reactions as we witness the dying of our beautiful planet. Our Dharma practice is for this, to meet reality….

    Read More

  •

    Beyond the Self-Improvement Project

    Recorded : April 25, 2021

    It’s common to come to the spiritual path seeking relief from psychological suffering or emotional pain. The modern wellness industry presents mindfulness and meditation as the ultimate antidote to stress and personal foibles. Yet the Buddhist path is about something far deeper than stress reduction or having an agreeable personality. In this session, we’ll explore…

    Read More

  •

    How to Find Balance in Difficult Times

    Recorded : June 2, 2019

    Equanimity is balance that comes from wisdom; it’s our heart and mind’s capacity to roll with the inevitable challenges and changes of life without taking it personally, without falling into despair or hopeless. Rather than a bland state of neutrality, or a cold state of indifference, equanimity gives us a wide space to feel the…

    Read More

  •

    Finding Wholeness & Healing Within Heartbreak

    Recorded : March 1, 2026

    Heartbreak is inevitable, yet reconciliation isn’t always possible. Rashid’s session offers a path toward healing when face-to-face forms of reconciliation fall short or aren’t accessible. Through one of Rashid’s new practices, with guided visualization and contemplative work, participants explore how to tend internal wounds, honor grief, and reclaim wholeness—even without external resolution. Within a loving…

    Read More

  • Justine Dawson

    Comfortable with Discomfort: How to be a Bodhisattva

    Recorded : May 10, 2020

    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…

    Read More

  •

    Let Your Heart Grow Fat With Friendliness: Metta Matters

    Recorded : May 17, 2026

    Now is the time to strengthen the heart, to commit every day to doing more good and less harm. Fully engaging life with its inherent joys and sorrows, opportunities and limitations, successes and failures is no small task, and the Dharma offers timeless wisdom and practical guidance for these times. Join us as we take…

    Read More