Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of July 6
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.
We know that Freedom is possible, yet many of us do not feel free. In this session we will explore Freedom. What do we mean by it? What is inhibiting us from experiencing it? What can we do to heal and empower our Being to open to deeper levels of liberation. Using sitting, talks, inquiry…
This week’s topic is “Exploring the Art of Radical Rest”. Conditioned and surrounded by a restless culture, we are constantly driven towards self-optimisation and self-improvement. Our practice is often affected by the striving and the effort to become a perfect meditator. We will explore together how to rest in the midst of all that is unfinished and imperfect. When we allow ourselves to rest deeply, experience can unfold naturally and we come into contact with the very essence of being alive.
Nowadays, for most of us, life is so full, so fast and dispersed in so many directions: jobs, partners, children, family, house, everyday duties, mobile phone, internet, responsibility, stress, tiredness, worries … and when we find a small space, we fill it with hobbies, friends, sports, TV and every other little thing we usually don’t…
The encounter with sensory experiences can lead to insight and calm, or reactivity and suffering. How do you guard your mind in the midst of a daily barrage of sensory input? How do you protect your mind so that tranquility and wisdom will be well established? The Buddha encouraged restraint of the senses, but this…
Dualities are endless. Why? Because when we look through the lens of duality, everything seen appears to be dualistic. Join Caverly for a Dharma talk revolving around a reading from her new book The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together, published by Sounds True. This session also includes a practice from the book that supports us in returning to unity.
This week’s topic is “Living in Sacredness”. Meditation is more than a practice of being present. The way in which we are present determines whether we reinforce habits of separation, or re-weave the fabric of sacredness. During this week we will explore the sacredness of body, breath, consciousness, emotions and beliefs. Returned to the embrace of sacredness, we plant seeds of Love in a world of separation.
If we start with the understanding that everyone is living by vow, how can we examine what vows we are following and change to follow the ones that lead to liberation?
Through the cultures within family, education and work, we are constantly orientated towards ‘realistic’ expectations and visions for our lives. Dharma practice asks us to abandon the realistic in favour of the real; listening deeply to life and to how things actually are, so as to respond wisely and lovingly, fully and freely. In this…