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

Discovering Diamonds in Darkness: Racism & Cultural Diversity

With Ralph Steele recorded on March 19, 2023.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

Racism and cultural identity have indiscriminately been seeded into human consciousness since the beginning of humanity. The health of any community begins with the Sense of Self. This Dharma assembly will focus on our sense of self as we investigate consciousness using the Noble Truths for Awakening. Millions have followed this path of practice for millennia.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 8 July, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Love and Letting Go: Meeting Life Spaciously and Graciously”. Join us for a series of Daily Meditations where we’ll discover how to meet life with openness and grace. Together, we will explore the profound dance between love and letting go, and cultivate a spacious presence that embraces our experiences with tenderness and wisdom.

    Read More

  • The Importance of the Uplifting Experience

    The Buddha taught about life’s suffering—known as ‘dukkha’—and how our personal, social and global issues can weigh us down. Yet dukkha does not have the inherent power to stop ‘sukkha,’ or happiness, from breaking through. In this session, we will explore ‘upliftment’, and the joys that keep our spirit alive. Upliftment of the human spirit…

    Read More

  • Nicola Redfern

    Not Knowing is Most Intimate

    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

  • James Rafael

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with James Rafael – Week of April 24, 2023

    This week’s topic is “Fluidity and Flux: Gateways to a Kinder, More Inclusive World”. The Buddha’s teachings on impermanence and compassion offer us gateways to cultivate a kinder, more inclusive world for all. Impermanence connects us to a sense of fluidity and flux, where we can see through the illusion of solid binaries and fixed identities. This can inspire us toward action that includes, appreciates and holds others with kindness.

    Read More

  • Waking down

    Rather than waking up it seems that most of us need to wake down. How can our insights and the awakening process move from being primarily experiential to becoming functional, relational, and lived? In this session Leela explores spiritual practice as a fundamentally earthly practice. How do we awake a presence that does not contract…

    Read More

  • Eugene Cash

    The Paradox of Being: Alive & Aware

    “The World is its Own Magic” – Suzuki Roshi As we practice and our understanding deepens, we’re often surprised by paradox. We begin to discover what the Laṅkāvatāra Sutra pointed to: Things are not what they seem… Nor are they otherwise. We intuitively know that there is more to life/reality then the usual, the familiar…

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    Live wholeheartedly and leave not a trace

    During the meditation and dharma talk Eden explores this Zen teaching by Suzuki Roshi: “When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.” How wholeheartedly are you showing up to life? What most helps you to remember that THIS IS IT? What helps you to see…

    Read More

  • Sophie Boyer

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of 01 December, 2025

    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.

    Read More