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

Search Sangha Live

Embracing Ambiguity: In What we Believe, How we Love and Who we Think we Are

With Martin Aylward recorded on July 7, 2019.

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

“Things are not as they seem, and nor are they otherwise” – Lankavatara Sutra.

We easily get seduced by certainty – thinking we really know what we want, what we believe, and who we think we are.

Yet Dharma teachings invite us to hold experience lightly, without reducing our knowing to narrow certainty; retaining a genuinely open mind. Today’s session with Worldwide Insight Founding teacher Martin Aylward will explore how dharma practice can help us stay with this sacred ’not-knowing’. Martin will discuss how we can be both looser and freer in relating to self, other and world, and how a nuanced and flexible mind helps navigate a world where the seeming certainties of ‘right and wrong’ easily divide us from each other.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Leigh Brasington

    The Fruits of the Spiritual Life

    Recorded : April 17, 2022

    2 Kings. Palace Intrigue. A Murder. 500 Elephants. A nighttime visit to see the Buddha. And that’s just the backstory to one of the Buddha’s deepest teachings: his curriculum for spiritual advancement. Join us as we explore the lessons from the 2nd of the Long Discourses and gain a deeper understanding of how morality, concentration,…

    Read More

  • Ralph Steele

    What Am I Doing In Here

    Recorded : April 3, 2022

    The practice of Mindfulness from breath to breath is essential.  If you have knowledge of the Four Noble Truths then you have the foundation; only practice is needed to gain insight into the Dharma.  As we go through our daily activities, working with the masculine and feminine elements within us, it takes the Right View…

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christopher Titmuss – Week of 13 July, 2026

    This week’s theme is: Resting in Being. A Major Step towards full Awakening. . What distracts us from resting in being? Is your daily life so preoccupied that you have no time for 20 minutes of silence? It means that the self, in the form of the thinker, the talker and the doer, dominates your mind. Twenty minutes of silence means resting in being. These sessions offer practical skills revealing signposts to a depth of experience and insight. Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  •

    Working with difficult emotions.

    Recorded : December 4, 2016

    Feelings have the power to motivate one toward wise action when facing a challenge. They can also cause intense suffering, drive and distort behavior, and lead to regret. Being able to work with emotions, both intense and subtle, is a skill that can be developed through mindfulness meditation. We explore the Unified Mindfulness technique of…

    Read More

  •

    The First Teaching: Radical Medicine for a Painful World

    Recorded : July 19, 2026

    The July full moon marks Dhamma Day (Āsāḷha Pūjā), the anniversary of the Buddha’s very first teaching, given to five friends in a deer park 2,614 years ago. This one ancient talk is said to contain the entire path. And it still asks something…

    Read More

  • Lisa Ernst

    Skillful Ways to Work with Difficult Thoughts in Meditation

    Recorded : November 21, 2021

    There’s a misconception that thoughts are a hindrance to deep meditation and tranquility. Especially during this ongoing challenging time, certain thoughts may be persistent and difficult to release. Yet, thoughts themselves are not the problem; it’s our relationship to them that determines whether or not they impede our meditation. In this session, we will explore a number of skillful ways to work with difficult or persistent thoughts in meditation to support inner well-being and clarity.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of April 6

    We’re fortunate that Martin Aywlard has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Martin, and to view his other contributions to Sangha Live, click here. View the text for the daily chants Martin offers this week Monday, April 6 Wednesday, April 8 Demands, defences…

    Read More