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

Search Sangha Live

Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of January 15, 2024

Ulla Koenig

We’re fortunate that Ulla Koenig has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Ulla, and to view her other contributions to Sangha Live, click here. Recordings will be posted by the end of the day of the live session.

 

This week’s theme is “Tending to Fire – An Exploration of the Third Noble Truth“

 

The third of the four noble truths, which the Buddha offered as a framework, invites us to reflect on ways to tend to the inner fires or urges, which we all experience. ‘Nirodha’ is a concept which invites us to explore ways to handle that fire: to contain it, to create safe space around it and not to fuel it further, so that it eventually expires. This week, we explore concepts like ‘freedom of/from/to’ as well as letting go and letting be.

Aware of the Fire

January 15, 2024

Taking Refuge in Awareness

January 16, 2024

Needs, Wishes and Desires

January 17, 2024

Ulla’s translation of the 3rd noble truth: “There is a noble truth concerning the cessation of suffering. It is the complete fading away and cessation of this craving; its abandonment and relinquishment; getting free from and being independent of it.”

The above quote is taken from here: https://suttacentral.net/

Freedom to Respond

January 18, 2024

The Myth of Letting Go

January 19, 2024

Ulla talked about ways to limit clinging and craving and brought seven ways the Buddha mentioned in MN 2:

  • Pay attention to what you pay attention to – what might I pay attention to, which is more likely to create craving
  • Protecting the sense doors
  • Reflect what we really need
  • Practice resilience with unpleasant experience
  • Avoid experience which might unbalance the heart-mind
  • Willpower: Consciously decide what you do not want to engage with
  • Develop supportive qualities which nourish and stabilize the heart-mind

(From MN 2 – https://suttacentral.net/mn2/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin)

 

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Leslie Booker

    The Paramis of Generosity + Morality: A Movement Towards a Shared World

    Recorded : March 20, 2022

    In a world riddled with addiction, violence and loneliness, it can feel challenging to figure out how to reclaim our humanity. We can begin by remembering that we belong to each other. On this Sunday Sangha, we’ll be exploring Generosity and Morality: the first two of the Paramis, the 10 perfections or attainments which show…

    Read More

  • Tuere Sala

    The Supramundane Nature of Emptiness

    Recorded : September 15, 2024

    Emptiness can be a loaded word for lay practitioners. It can bring up a sense of isolation and annihilation. The dharma of emptiness, however, is a fundamental part of practice. Even in the most mundane tasks of our ordinary lives, we can access emptiness and feel the freedom that comes with it. It’s not about…

    Read More

  • Nicola Redfern

    Not Knowing is Most Intimate

    Recorded : November 19, 2023

    The Buddha spoke often about the danger of clinging to views and opinions. He recommended we avoid clinging, even to the dharma and to “right view.” In a world increasingly torn apart by our adherence to differing viewpoints, how do we navigate the tension between knowing and not knowing? Our exploration will draw from the…

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    The Wisdom of No Escape

    Recorded : February 16, 2020

    Our lives include facing things we didn’t choose, and often cannot change; such as getting ill or injured, or loosing something or someone that we love. Dharma teachings invite us to turn towards these, instead of turning away from them. What is the wisdom that is available to us when we meet our experience with…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of Sept 25, 2023

    This week’s topic is “Getting A Feel For Feeling”. As we perceive, we add a feeling (vedanā) to our experience. When we are unaware of this process and react to the projected feeling, it causes unnecessary suffering (dukkha). However, understanding this process and responding skilfully leads to one of the deepest senses of freedom available. Let’s explore this freedom through our daily meditations this week.

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 8, 2021

    This week’s topic is The Freedom of an Unassuming Mind.

    The Buddha used the image of a tangled and knotted thread to represent the complex roots of human suffering and distress. It takes sensitivity, persistence, and care to disentangle the tangle of ‘dukkha’. A tricky part of this is that our assumptions about the world radically shape the way the world appears, while remaining quite hidden to us. Fortunately, wisdom teachings and practices bring assumptions into view and support the untying of these unseen knots, opening us into a wide and free existence.

    Read More