Gregory writes: “Obviously our Dhamma practices infuse our lives (if not, something is amiss). We don’t usually talk about how this flows the other direction: the qualities we develop in our personal and professional lives strongly impact our Buddhist path. That’s what I’ll be speaking about, drawing examples from my own life in music, inventing, science, building renovation, marriage, and parenting.”
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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Dharma Practice as Play, or, There is no Path until you Walk It!
Recorded :
September 13, 2020 In our troubled world dharma practitioners sometimes become earnest. But beings learn and develop through play, and to play we have to be fluid in mind, heart and body. Play fertilizes the human spirit and makes us feel a sense of belonging. Welcome to a session exploring dharma practice as original play and creativity.
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The Wisdom of No Escape
Recorded :
February 16, 2020 Our lives include facing things we didn’t choose, and often cannot change; such as getting ill or injured, or loosing something or someone that we love. Dharma teachings invite us to turn towards these, instead of turning away from them. What is the wisdom that is available to us when we meet our experience with…
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Trust and Faith (Saddha) – The World is Not Against Us
Recorded :
March 7, 2021 How can we develop trust, steadiness and inner freedom, qualities which contribute to our well-being and resilience, and help us to help others? Trust (saddha in Pali) is the first of the Five Spiritual Powers, which are Trust, Energy, Mindfulness, Calm, and Wisdom. Trust is the primary means to dissolve and transform our anxieties, fears,…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of October 24, 2022
This week’s topic is Subtilising Experience. The Dharma is a path to awakening. Our experience becomes more liberated as we awaken. Similarly, we can notice that our life progresses from the gross to the more subtle in awakening. A path of awakening freedom, then, is a path of subtilising: from perceptions of self and things in the world to space-time and even awareness, all phenomena transition from rigid and gross to fluid and refined, all the way to barely here at all.
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Leaning Into Collapse
Recorded :
September 5, 2021 The fires and floods of this summer, and the ongoing pandemic and its complexities, can weigh heavy on the heart, along with the shocking but unsurprising new IPCC report confirming the ‘inevitable and irreversible’ worsening effects of the climate disruption, ecological collapse and existential emergency we are already living through. This class, led by Sangha…
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Our Struggles Are the Path
Recorded :
December 15, 2024 This session will explore how our struggles can become stepping stones on our path to growth. By learning to meet difficulties with openness and compassion, we can transform obstacles into opportunities. The session will draw upon Buddhist teachings and include guided meditation, a dharma talk, and some time for Q&A. Participants are encouraged to bring…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of May 2, 2022
This week’s theme is: Opportunities for Deepening Compassion and Wisdom. Dharma teachings and practices invite us to use our difficulties and problems to awaken our hearts. Rather than seeing the unwanted aspects of life as obstacles, we can relate to them as the raw material necessary for awakening genuine wisdom and compassion.
The cultivation of wisdom and compassion for ourselves leads naturally to compassion for others. True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings. -
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.
