We’re fortunate that Zohar Lavie has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Zohar, 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 theme is: Nourished by the Breath: A Path of Deepening Calm . We will dedicate this week of practice to meditation with the in and out breath, following the Buddha’s careful guidance. In the discourses on practice with the in and out breath, the Buddha offers guidance on important aspects of the path: bringing a kind sensitivity to the body and the breath; developing skill in relation to pleasure and pain; finding nourishment and well-being in the body; discerning helpful and unhelpful mental activity and learning how to calm body and mind; and cultivating liberating insight. These different dimensions of practice unfold organically, deepening and supporting one another, while allowing each practitioner to find their own pace. We will practise lightly and with curiosity around the first steps of this path: from establishing ourselves and finding nourishment in the body, towards calming mental activity. These steps can provide a clear and steady foundation for collectedness and deepening. Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
This week’s theme is “The Practice of Courage in Everyday Life”
Courage is an essential quality in life and on the spiritual path and it comes in many guises. Anything that challenges our unhelpful habits requires a capacity for determination and the stretching of our comfort zones. This week’s morning meetings will reflect on some of the ways we can cultivate courage in meditation and daily life and resource ourselves to meet the challenges of living in these times.
This week’s topic is “Awaken Self-Compassion”. For many of us it is easier to be friendly and compassionate with others than with ourselves. Old conditioning, limiting beliefs of not being worthy of love and are confining our hearts. Compassion is an essential part of our true nature. We all know how to be gentle and compassionate with ourselves – this is how we survived situations of suffering and loss in our lives. This week we will be exploring how to awaken Self-Compassion, allowing our hearts to soften and open with care. With a tender heart we begin naturally to respond to the world around us with clarity and compassion.
This week’s theme is: Warm Solitude, Beautiful Nature
There are many ways to be solitary, whether alone or in company. How might we cultivate a warm, friendly solitude? Nature is beautiful, both ‘out there’ and ‘in here’. How might we appreciate and support nature’s beauty? This week we’ll explore these questions together through practice, reflection and experiment.
Recorded :
This session will explore different ways in which attention works and associated meditation practices: from focused awareness, to flexible awareness, to natural awareness. We’ll do a number of fun experiential practices in hopes of understanding a variety of ways to meditate and how we can refine our own practice. Diana draws from her latest…
Recorded :
The path of the Bodhisattva asks us to dedicate ourselves to the well-being of all sentient beings – to show up as best as we can for ourselves, each other, and the natural world with a quality of no-matter-whatness. It’s an impossible though necessary task. Yet the teachings and practices of everyday dharma offer accessible,…
Recorded :
The pandemic has highlighted now, more than ever, how interconnected we are with life on this planet, and also the importance of human connection for us as social animals. The preciousness of relationship is at the heart of Buddhist teachings. How can our meditation practice help us to remain connected and integrated with ourselves, others,…
This week’s theme is: Before Reactivity
Desire and ill-will very often drive our experience without being noticed. Learning to stay in the space before it arises, no matter how uncomfortable it can be is the entry point that leads to resilience. This week Sophie Boyer invites us to explore some ways to become more familiar with that space and experience the freedom that emerge from it. Resilience as a space of non-reactivity.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.