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.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of July 4, 2022
This week’s topic is “Generosity at the Heart of One of Life’s Greatest Mysteries”. What meaning does generosity embody when we open our minds to accepting one of life’s greatest realities – that in fact we know and master very little. Let us explore the different ways in which facing our experiences with generosity allows us to let go of our preconceptions and taste all of life’s flavours and feel fully alive.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Shireen Jilla – Week of 10 March, 2025
We’re delighted to have Shireen Jilla guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May her teachings support and enrich your practice.
This week’s theme is: The Ease And Simplicity Of Letting Go
The invitation this week is to explore Wise Intention. When we lean into letting go, we experience the simple clarity it brings. Every moment we drop fussing, fretting and freaking out over our experience deepens our practice in our daily lives. The intention of opening our hearts and harmlessness leads us beautifully towards the bliss of blamelessness.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
Untangling the Tangle
Recorded :
July 3, 2022 The Buddha often described our practice in terms of untangling the tangles we find ourselves caught in. Together, let us uncover the primary tangles we get tangled in and how we can use our Buddhist practices to become free from these tangles. “A tangle within, a tangle without, people are entangled in a tangle. Gotama,…
-
Practicing with Varying Viewpoints
Recorded :
November 2, 2025 Because today’s world appears to be reflecting times of great polarization and divisiveness, you probably have felt disturbed after hearing varying viewpoints that do not align with your priorities and values. In fact if you’re like most people, you have most likely felt rather emotionally triggered and incredulous when faced with radically different views. Join…
-
The Gratification, The Danger and The Escape
Recorded :
September 23, 2018 The triad of gratification, danger, and escape is one of the Buddha’s most concise and simple teachings for investigating everyday lived experience. This formula can be applied to every single aspect of our experience. Many Buddhist scholars point out that this teaching contains the earliest roots of what we have come to know as the…
-
What Does it Mean to be Free?
Recorded :
December 14, 2025 Awakening, freedom, liberation … these are the premise and promise of the Buddhist Path. This session will explore the theme of awakening and liberation, and reflect on how practice can support us to find freedom right where we are.
-
Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices to Support Resilience
Recorded :
December 12, 2021 In this session, we’ll explore how to practice mindfulness and meditation in a trauma-sensitive way. We’ll learn experiential mindfulness practices designed to support empowerment, as well as how to recognize trauma and work with it skillfully.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of Oct 25, 2021
This week’s theme is Making Sense of Self.
Although the Buddha encourages us to not indulgently ponder whether the self is real or not, he did offer us a way to explore how the sense of self appears. This methodology, called the khandhas (aggregates: the heap of heaps), exposes all aspects we gather together to create and hold to our sense of self: form (body); vedanā (subtle preference); perception; saṅkhāra (mental formations – like intention, attention…); and consciousness (knowing).
Discussion