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.
With Martin Aylward recorded on March 18, 2018.
Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Monastic Practice, The Inner Way, and Contemporary Culture
Recorded :
July 12, 2026 Monasticism and the practice of the Inner Way are being transformed by contemporary culture. What is the ‘Way’ today? Is there such a thing as a ‘Natural-Way-of-Being’? And what is ‘Enlightenment’? In this talk, we will explore these questions, and how to…
-
Liberation Now: From the Progressive Path to Direct Experience
Recorded :
December 1, 2019 In a progressive path approach to practice, we sometimes fall for the idea that liberation is in the future. We are conditioned to believe that we must end thinking, master practices, meditate for years, and purify our minds. Without realizing it, our beliefs can maintain the conditioning that stands in the way of our direct…
-
Getting Free: The Infinite Middle of the MiddleWay
Recorded :
September 26, 2021 Dharma teachings are sublime, subtle, and onward leading: they are always going deeper and wider than we may first presume. Yet, they also meet us where we are, in the midst of our life. In this session we’ll explore two expressions of the middle-way we can cultivate and develop in our practice and in our…
-
Right view – a path to liberation.
Recorded :
November 6, 2016 The practice and realizaton of Right View is the first of the eightfold path. Holding to views and opinions is a sure way to suffering, says the Buddha. But can we live with no views at all? To realize Right View we have to look deeply into life, in order to free ourselves from wrong…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of Mar 11, 2024
This week’s topic is “To Be on the Road Without Leaving Home”. Zen Master Hakuin reveals an apparent tension between movement and stillness in this statement. What may the road refer to? What is called home? Sophie Boyer will lead our Daily Meditations this week, inviting us to engage with this paradoxical dynamic. We’ll discover that stability and ground can become more spacious in every situation, every experience, and every condition. How it is possible to discover, or re-discover, home … endlessly.
-
Intuitive Wisdom and Embodied Love
Recorded :
September 28, 2025 “From my own experience, there is no difference between mindfulness and loving kindness. When you are fully loving, aren’t you also mindful? When you are mindful, is this not also the essence of love?” – Dipa Ma This session will invite us to reconnect with our inner compass by cultivating intuitive mindfulness-the blend of present-moment…
-
Mud and Radiance: a Whole Life Individual and Relational Detox Program
Recorded :
January 19, 2020 The world is on fire, internally and externally; we can no longer look away, but in order to deal with it we need to be awake.The mind is often muddy, but it is also radiant at the same time.The asava (intoxicants) keep us in the hazy state, but there is a detox program of relinquishment,…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Leela Sarti – Week of 08 December, 2025
This week’s theme is: Heart Ground
Can we awaken an awareness that does not contract in contact with experience? Stabilized embodied awareness, heart presence, invites us to a territory that is often underappreciated: sacred neutrality. The ground of the heart.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
Discussion