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

Search Sangha Live

From conditioned perception to true and free seeing

With Christelle Bonneau recorded on September 2, 2018.

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

What do we call reality? How can we free ourselves from conditioned vision and taste life more fully and truly?

Acknowledging that our perception of what we call reality is completely subjective, Christine explores the world of perception to find out what is conditioning our vision. Each one of us has been often surprised, deceived or hurt by people, events or situations which were not as imagined, perceived, projected or expected. Memories, greed, fear, attachment (to what is known or to a special plan) are really active components in our seeing and sometimes don’t allow us to really see and experience what is.

By bringing more consciousness into our body, senses, emotions, memories and thoughts, we can free our mind from expectations and narrowing projections to create a clearer vision, a closer relationship and a better communication with our inside and outside world in everyday life. By becoming free from conditioned vision, we can taste better the unique nature of the “here and now”, and become more sensitive to ourself and what is around us. We can enjoy true and authentic relationships, become intimate with life… delight and wonder.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Pamela Weiss

    The Human Face of the Buddha

    Recorded : February 28, 2021

    Most of us know the Buddha as a revered spiritual sage. Less is known about the person, Siddhartha Gautama, who was also a social revolutionary. In this talk, we will explore how Gautama upended the caste system in India and examine his problematic relationship to women. We’ll see how understanding the Buddha as a human…

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    Refugia: Finding Sanctuary in Times of Crisis

    Recorded : September 1, 2024

    We live in challenging times. Biologists speak of micro-systems where species sequester during times of crisis. They are called refugia. In times of uncertainty and fear, we too need refugia, places of spiritual safety where we can put down roots, grow and thrive. In this Sunday teaching, Willa invites us to explore the concept of…

    Read More

  • Justine Dawson

    Dharma, Desire and Eros

    Recorded : May 9, 2021

    Eros is life force, the energy that animates our being. Eros fills our spiritual life with vitality, our minds with creativity, our ideas with embodiment and our relating with rich intimacy. To live full lives we need access to eros; without it we become dry, rigid, flacid and withholding. Yet what place does it have…

    Read More

  • Ayya Santussika

    Choices – The Ones that Matter and the Ones that Don’t

    Recorded : July 28, 2019

    How many choices will you make today? Which ones are likely to lead to happiness and which to suffering? Often we have many more options than we think we do. The Buddha’s teachings offer clear guidance on how to make choices that help us develop our habits, our character, and our karma in a way…

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of Apr 29 – 3 May, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Mindfulness of the nervous system: transforming fear, struggle and separation into love and connection”. We humans are social animals and need each other to feel safe and secure, to grow and to nourish ourselves. How can we live with a sense of connection, loving-kindness, and inner family? Our meditation practice allows us to take a break between stimulus and response. When we come into contact with our loved ones, we all too easily lose the inner freedom we think we have achieved and avoid our difficulties, also called spiritual bypassing. This week we explore what supports us to react flexibly to the internal and external world, to relax and to allow closeness and real intimacy. We will look into the first foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of the body, including harmonizing the body formations and nervous system to meet our difficulties with gentleness.

    Read More

  • Sophie Boyer

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of 18 November, 2024

    We’re delighted to have Sophie Boyer guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they bring peace and depth to your practice.

    This week’s theme is: The Fruits of Attention

    What difference does a simple reorientation of attention do to this moment? How will it condition what comes next? Every day this week there will be an opportunity for the fruits of attention to be revealed such as care, generosity, and morality. Let’s explore this together.

    Read More

  • Vimalasara Mason-John

    The Four Sights

    Recorded : December 21, 2025

    What truly inspires us to change our lives? Are aging, sickness, and death enough to make us turn things around? Today, we’ll explore the inspiration that drove the Prince on his journey, and ask whether it holds the same power for us. (Please note that unfortunately the guided meditation and start of the dharma talk…

    Read More