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

Freedom without Expectations

With Vince Cullen recorded on October 1, 2023.

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

One of the Buddha’s primary realisations was ‘Life is painful and then you die.’ If this is true, then how do we respond to the difficulties of life? This session will explore how we are conditioned to protect, promote and satisfy a ‘self’ which can never be satisfied because ‘we are the slaves of craving.’ There will be a guided meditation cultivating an appropriate attitude to the vicissitudes of life.

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

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Your Most Expensive Resource

    There is a substance we need for every meaningful part of our life. We only have a small amount of it, it’s being spent constantly, we can’t get more, and we’re surrounded by predators hungry for it. Attention: every moment we give it to something, and if we don’t choose wisely, a salesperson or an…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of June 14, 2021

    This week’s theme is: Contentment Blockers

    The Buddha named five key ways access to contentment is blocked, and gave clear and profound teachings that break through to the peace, joy, and freedom they obscure.

    Our hearts and minds can be pulled into a mission of greed, or sucked into aversion and rejection. We often swing between restlessness and sluggishness. It is normal to doubt the possibility of developing our experience in more free and delightful ways.

    This week we will explore the possibilities available to us to calm habitual patterns and invite vibrant-tranquility.

    Read More

  • Miles Kessler

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of July 29, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Cutting Through To Ultimate Reality”. The word “Dhamma” means ultimate reality, the absolute, or universal principles. This refers to the 3 universal characteristics of conditioned phenomena, and to Nibbana, the unconditioned. In this week of practice we will explore how insight into the Dhamma arises in meditation, and get practical instructions to cultivate the conditions for “Cutting Through To Ultimate Reality”.

    Read More

  • Dharma Practice as Play, or, There is no Path until you Walk It!

    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.

    Read More

  • Pamela Weiss

    True Refuge

    This talk will explore the Three Refuges — Buddha, Dharma and Sangha — as sources of true refuge in difficult times. The teaching of the Refuges is found within all schools of Buddhism and offers clear guidance for responding to our beautiful, aching world with skill and kindness.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of September 18, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Understanding Suffering”. Dukkha, often translated as suffering, is a central concept in the Buddha’s teachings. This has led some to view Buddhism as adopting a negative outlook on life. But is this true? Why did the Buddha emphasise suffering (dukkha) and what does he mean by this concept? This week of practice we will take an in-depth look into the first noble truth around dukkha. This exploration can help us cultivate compassion, as well as extending it to the larger community. It can free us from feelings of shame and a sense of failure, and bring a fresh perspective on our practice.

    Read More