In this session Shaila Catherine explores the fruits of karma and the consequences of action through a detailed consideration of why and how we practice ethical precepts. The focus for this talk is the commitment to not kill.
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Letting your heart break … open.
Recorded :
December 13, 2015 Martin looks at current events with an eye on the suffering of refugees, the climate emergency and growing Islamophobia, exploring how we can both empathize with and respond to human suffering, while also cultivating joy, gratitude and ease of heart.
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Practice and Prejudice: Waking up to our reality blinkers
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January 6, 2019 Martin writes: “Do you remember that Youtube video ‘Awareness test’ from a few years ago, where you’re asked to pay attention to one thing (passes made by the team in white) and you end up completely missing something else? (check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4 – it only takes 30 seconds) We perceive reality in accordance with…
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The freeing of human consciousness: from seeing the world ‘out there’, separate and alien, to directly knowing, feeling, and living the intimacy of all things
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February 18, 2018 The Shurangama Sutra, which points out the foundations of Zen practice, discusses the essential nature of mind as the “primal essence of consciousness that brings forth all conditions.” Implied is the heart-mind (citta) both profoundly intimate with all things while at the same time free and independent of all things. How is it to live…
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Practicing Belonging in a Divisive World
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October 20, 2024 The precepts are often shared on the first night of retreat to kind of go into a social contract of how we’re going to care for one another on retreat, while holding the nobility of silence. And out in the world, without the protection of silence and this commitment, we often forget how deeply we…
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Staying Open Through Change, Loss and Disruption
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October 31, 2021 When we are faced with suffering and uncertainty or life becomes overwhelming we can tense up, resist or try to control. But when we open and let go in the midst of change and release expectations we get in touch with enormous possibility and a powerful freedom.
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Two Wings to Fly – Cultivating Both Wisdom and Compassion
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July 25, 2021 In traditional Theravada Buddhism it’s said that for one to truly experience freedom one needs to engage in the practices of both wisdom and compassion. Like a bird that needs two wings to fly, wisdom and compassion are two necessary parts on the path to a well-rounded enlightenment. At first glance, practices that cultivate loving-kindness…
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When did you stop breathing?
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June 4, 2017 We could say that the Buddha was teaching us to breath again. It’s said that the prince Siddhartha was sitting under a Bodhi tree, practicing the anapanasati (the mindfulness of breathing) when he gained enlightenment and became awake, a Buddha. He was aware of the whole experience of breathing. Through breathing he trained the mind…
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The Unshakeable Heart: Liberation as the Ultimate Resilience
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November 15, 2020 Is it possible to live and love freely amidst the greed, aggression and dysfunction of the world?Amidst so much suffering, can you nourish joy, lightness and laughter?When it feels as if you’re drowning, might it be that you are floating in an ocean of blessings?In times of political polarisation and dysfunction, broken societal modelling, a…
