Eros is life force, the energy that animates our being. Eros fills our spiritual life with vitality, our minds with creativity, our ideas with embodiment and our relating with rich intimacy. To live full lives we need access to eros; without it we become dry, rigid, flacid and withholding. Yet what place does it have in dharma practice? Traditional teachings caution us when it comes to desire, and the erotic is rarely mentioned in a positive light. This Sunday we’ll explore how to engage eros and desire in a deepening practice of insight and understanding, one that is rooted in the body and in service to life.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of May 22 – 27, 2023
This week’s topic is “The Steam of a Cup of Tea: Teachings on Generosity, Gratitude and Renunciation”. Can we achieve happiness and wealth by giving? Can we experience abundance through simplicity? In this exploration, we’ll examine how such concepts are possible in today’s world by delving into certain aspects of the 10 Perfections (Paramis), all while embracing our perfectly imperfect nature.
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The end of fear: conscious living, conscious dying.
Recorded :
March 19, 2017 Until we are free there is a fundamental fear of the spaciousness that is our true nature. Can we become intimately familiar with the urge to run away from the love, the spaciousness, that is the essence of this moment? All fear is fear of death, fear based on our identification only with that which…
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This Dharma I Have Reached
Recorded :
March 4, 2018 Without a doubt, Buddhism is recognized as one of the world’s great religions. For almost three millennia these ancient teachings have spread rapidly around the globe influencing humanity in a variety of ways. Needless to say, the historic Buddha, (Siddharta Gotama) did not teach Buddhism, he taught the Dharma as a means to overcome suffering…
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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…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of October 19, 2020
We’re fortunate that Martin Aylward has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK this week. To find out more about Martin, and view his other recordings on the platform, click here.
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Faith and confidence: the first spiritual faculty.
Recorded :
September 4, 2016 Faith, confidence, and trust are English translations for the Pali term saddhā. In this talk, Shaila Catherine explores the cultivation of saddhā as an aid to awakening and as the first in the list of spiritual faculties that include faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
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When the Path Becomes Natural
Recorded :
January 12, 2025 Much of the time, the path of meditation and awareness must be worked with intention, realigning ourselves with the teachings, with practice, lovingkindness and compassion. Other times, the path may become an effortless, natural part of our lives. We will explore the ways our practice feels easeful and our intentions metabolized and also how we…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of October 18, 2021
This week’s theme is: The Abundant Middle-Way.
The Buddha in his last steps of awakening turned away from austerities and the practiced hardships he had endured. He did not turn back to the indulgences of his youth, but uncovered a kind and sensitive middle-way between a sense of self-importance and self-negation. The awakened one then invited others to a way of living between common extremes of views, states, and habitual actions.
This week we will walk the path of peace supporting the deep well-being and boundless heart of the middle-way.
