Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of May 25
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.
Appreciation, surrender and generosity
May 25, 2020
The ten paramis: generosity, conduct and letting go
This week’s topic is “Awakening in the Midst of Life”. Our relationship with life is revealed through our words, thoughts and actions. Reflecting on these in the light of the Dharma opens up possibilities of transformation and wellbeing. During this week we’ll explore ways of perceiving and engaging with experience that can help us to deepen our understanding and awaken to a fuller way of being in the world.
Who is not anxious these days? Whether faced with the daily stresses of finances, jobs, responsibilities, parenting, family, or the ongoing anxiety of political events and ecological crisis, most of us are anxious. In the US, anxiety rates have risen to 18% of the population, and 25% in Europe for those struggling with depression and…
What if the concept of time is part of our suffering? In this talk, we’ll look at the impact of our attachment to schedules and productivity and explore the ways that Buddhist teachings challenge these conventional understandings. By investigating our relationship to time, we learn ways to practice and to cultivate liberation from suffering for…
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has shared that compassion is not a luxury but a necessity for human beings to survive. There is no more important time to understand and strengthen compassion than right now.
This week’s topic is “Samadhi: A Path of Reliable Joy”. One of the central lines in the teachings of the Buddha, the practice of Samadhi is the skill of harmonized, gathered presence. It is based on mindfulness and discernment, leading to deepening wisdom. In this week of practice, we will cultivate a set of meditative skills that lead to such reliable joy.
We live in a time when so many beings – human and more-than-human – are being physically displaced – by climate events, wars, aggressive deportations, and more. This mirrors an internal collective experience of disorientation and displacement. To find ground in the midst of accelerated change is our practice. In this Sunday insight gathering we…
In traditional Theravada Buddhism it’s said that for one to truly experience freedom one needs to engage in the practices of both wisdom and compassion. Like a bird that needs two wings to fly, wisdom and compassion are two necessary parts on the path to a well-rounded enlightenment. At first glance, practices that cultivate loving-kindness…
Buddha points out the three main ways we get pulled into activity and self-contraction – Greed, Hatred and Delusion – which Martin often translates as Desire, Defense and Distraction. This class explores creative ways of meeting these forces in everyday life, and explores powerful reflections for each of the three.