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

  • Ronya Banks

    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…

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Leela Sarti – Week of 16 March, 2026

    This week’s theme is: The Mystery of Being

    We often live entangled in memories, stories, and fixed images of ourselves and the world. We’re running behind, trying to catch up. We’re reacting rather than responding to life. Surely there is more to this earthly journey?
    The practice of sacred attention, of embodied awareness and presence, leads us to the mysterious ground of our nature.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Ralph Steele

    Using the five aggregates as a strategy.

    Recorded : April 9, 2017

    The aggregates are a reference to our sense of self. Working with form, feeling, perception, identification, and consciousness as we go through our daily lives will support equanimity. Most importantly, it will help us work with emotions with greater efficiency.

    Read More

  • Lisa Ernst

    Working with Stress and Fear

    Recorded : July 17, 2022

    Not all stress is bad. Yet without mindful awareness, anticipatory stress may spiral into reactivity, paralyzing fear and suffering. How do we meet this stress mindfully, use it skilfully, then let go?

    Read More

  • Miles Kessler

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of 19 January, 2026

    This week’s theme is: The Seven Stages of Purification in Insight Meditation

    The Seven Stages of Purification in Insight Meditation is a 5-day exploration of how insight naturally unfolds through practice, as described in the classical Theravāda map of purification. Each day will combine a short teaching with guided meditation, helping practitioners-whether new or experienced-recognize how challenge, insight, clarity, and release arise as part of a single, coherent developmental process. Rather than presenting the stages as goals to attain, this series offers them as an orienting framework: a way to understand what is already happening in your practice, normalize both ease and challenge, and cultivate confidence, patience, and continuity on the path of awakening.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Justine Dawson

    The Appropriate Response

    Recorded : May 8, 2022

    When a monk asked the 10th Century Zen master Yunmen, “What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?” Yunmen replied, “An appropriate response.”  What is this appropriate response and how do we know we’ve got it right? Beyond linear formulas, Dharma teachings point to a natural intelligence that guides us in a spontaneous responsiveness to life….

    Read More

  • Stephen Fulder

    Welcoming the Beyond

    Recorded : October 15, 2023

    What is beyond the ordinary mind? Can thought be background music, not a distraction? How can we access a consciousness that is open, free and limitless? How can we dive into the ocean instead of being tossed by the waves? The Buddha was an unparalleled non-dual teacher who taught the formless as well as form….

    Read More