Scientists have documented some significant and measurable changes that occur as a result of meditation. But Buddhist practice is not limited to calm, pleasant, relaxing states of meditation. The liberating path includes a broad range of practices that produce a wide variety of benefits. We learn how we encounter the world of the senses; we unravel distortions of perception. We weaken defilements. We learn to let go. In this talk, Shaila Catherine points to the liberating potential of the path.
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Post-election trauma: embracing fear, extending love.
Recorded :
November 27, 2016 It has been a distressing and disorienting time for many of us, and to different degrees. Following recent political events in the US and Western Europe our practice is being challenged in new ways. Spurred by a Trump victory, violent attacks on individuals in marginalized groups are on the rise. The three poisons of Greed,…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ayala Gill – Week of 09 February, 2026
This week’s theme is: Embodied Release, Effortless Renewal
The universe is endlessly generative. We resist its creative flow through contraction and collapse in the body, breath, mind and heart. With truly embodied release, renewal becomes effortless.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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How to be an Earthling
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March 14, 2021 During this session we will use mindfulness meditation to explore our nature as nature, helping us to become more at ease and accepting of our lives and our place in the scheme of things.
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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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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Jaya Rudgard – Week of October 3, 2022
This week’s theme is “The Practice of Courage in Everyday Life”
Courage is an essential quality in life and on the spiritual path and it comes in many guises. Anything that challenges our unhelpful habits requires a capacity for determination and the stretching of our comfort zones. This week’s morning meetings will reflect on some of the ways we can cultivate courage in meditation and daily life and resource ourselves to meet the challenges of living in these times.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ayala Gill – Week of 02 June, 2025
We’re delighted to have Ayala Gill guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: The Body is a Doorway to Love
Through relating to the elements of the body, we cultivate a presence that is grounded, awake, open, relaxed and spacious.
As the body becomes a more stable home for the heart and mind, everything settles and softens back to its natural state of aliveness and love.Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind
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April 24, 2022 Shaila will be sharing teachings from her new book, Beyond Distraction. This talk will introduce five pragmatic strategies to help you overcome distraction in meditation and develop clarity in relationships, work, and daily life. The strategies are: replacing, examining, ignoring, investigating, and resolving. You can learn to unlock the incredible capacities of your mind to think…
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Return to Oneness – Resting in Luminous Being
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February 9, 2025 Who is it that suffers? And why is asking that question valuable in our spiritual practice? In this Sunday session, we’ll explore these questions, and more. Following a guided meditation and teaching from Caverly’s book, The Heart of Who We Are, there will be plenty of time for discussion. All welcome.
