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 class Worldwide Insight founding teacher Martin Aylward contrasts the realistic and the real, inviting reflection and discussion to point us towards freedom, awakening and wise engagement with the world.
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Embodying the dharma: contact, curiosity and care.
Recorded :
February 1, 2015 Worldwide Insight talk from Martin Aylward: “Embodying the Dharma: Contact, Curiosity and Care”. Worldwide Insight inaugural session. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of Nov 15, 2022
This week’s topic is Kindle the Flame. Metta practice, which nourishes the heart’s capacity for friendliness, brings many benefits. It softens our relationship to ourselves, nourishes us with a sense of connection, puts challenges into perspective and offers a safe ground from which we can meet life with a sense of care. We dedicate this week to (re)ignite the flame of metta, using as an inspiration the Karaṇīyamettā Sutta, a famous discourses of the Buddha.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of September 5, 2022
This week’s topic is “Awakening into Experience Here and Now”. “You shouldn’t chase after the past
or place expectations on the future.
What is past
is left behind.
The future
is as yet unreached.
Whatever quality is present
you clearly see right there,
right there.
Not taken in,
unshaken,
that’s how you develop the heart.” (MN 131)The essence of the Buddha’s teachings lies in these words. Unshakability and freedom are at the heart of awakening, they are what we cultivate in our practice. This week we will practice turning to our experience in ways that wake us up, right here and now.
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Equanimity: Dancing with the Unexpected
Recorded :
July 8, 2018 Equanimity is a key spiritual faculty which allows us to face the known and the unknown, the ecstasies and the despairs, with steadiness and lightness. Equanimity helps us engage with life from an unlimited and interconnected perspective. The Buddhist image is of an island in the stormy seas – remembering that all islands are connected…
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Moving Beyond the Myth of Loneliness
Recorded :
June 23, 2019 What changes as we consciously turn toward our suffering, rather than away? We are conditioned to experience ourselves as separate from life, but in that outward gaze, we often overlook an experience of belonging that is inherent. How does our habit of seeking shift when we recognize that what we long for can never actually…
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Clear Presence, Sweet Absence
Recorded :
March 1, 2020 Dharma practice encourages us to see the present moment clearly – to meet and respond to it well. What is here in this moment? Another dimension of practice is to learn to appreciate absence: What is this moment free from? Having skill in both these dimensions brings us closer to the joy and peace that…
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Discovering Diamonds in Darkness: Racism & Cultural Diversity
Recorded :
March 19, 2023 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.
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Lucid Dreaming: Awakening While We Sleep
Recorded :
February 8, 2026 A lucid dream is a dream in which we are actively aware that we are dreaming as the dream is happening. Once we are lucid we gain access to the deepest depths of the unconscious mind which allows us to engage in psychological healing at a level often unattainable in the waking state. And beyond…
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