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

Search Sangha Live

Inner Peace – Even in a Chaotic World

With Ronya Banks recorded on July 21, 2019.

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

“Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught that that is not our real home. Our real home is inner peace.” – Ajahn Chah

How can you possibly experience inner peace at a time when human-kind and our planet appears to be tumbling deeper into “chaos”? Can inner peace even co-exist with chaos? Yes. In fact, the Buddhist path teaches us how to cultivate inner peace in any situation.

Since the only time you have is the present and tomorrow is not guaranteed, this is the perfect time to seek the freedom of inner peace. Inner peace, or equanimity in Buddhism cannot be found in the outside world, but can only be found in the minds and hearts of each aspirant. Luckily, the Buddha laid out a definable process with specific strategies you can implement to create these inner conditions for lasting peace.

Join Buddhist teacher Ronya Banks as she provides us with the foundation and steps you can take to experience inner peace, or equanimity even amongst chaos.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Jill Satterfield

    The Kindness of Softness and Space

    Recorded : December 1, 2024

    Softness and spaciousness can be cultivated and called upon when needed.The sensations of softness are reflective of ease and equanimity – the feeling of spaciousness, reflective of non-clinging. Both create a natural letting go, flow and arising of love, kindness and tenderness.Embodiment offers a broad range of skillful means. We’ll invite these qualities and directly…

    Read More

  •

    The Beauty of Impermanence, a Doorway to Freedom

    Recorded : March 15, 2026

    “If we were never to fade away…how things would lose their power to move us. Because we will fade away, we are moved, because we are moved, we realise more deeply that we will fade away.”– Keith Dowman If I had to sum up Buddhism in one word, it might be impermanence. Often, it’s impermanence…

    Read More

  • Norman Blair

    Settling Into Your Body In Meditation

    Recorded : December 8, 2024

    Finding a comfortable body posture when meditating is a crucial element in our practice. We can use our bodies as a way of experiencing change and impermanence. In this session, we will be looking at ways to make our bodies comfortable for meditation – both standing (if appropriate for your body) and sitting. We will…

    Read More

  •

    Practice as a Way of Remembrance

    Recorded : October 18, 2020

    Many are referring to this time as apocalyptic. Fair enough. It can seem as though everywhere we turn a dismantling of some sort is in the works. While we might intellectually feel able to embrace the change upon us, for many it can be easy to fall into overwhelm, hopelessness, even despair. What do the…

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Equanimity: Finding Balance in Uncertain Times

    Recorded : January 4, 2026

    Equanimity is a highly-valued quality in Buddhist teachings. But what is it, and how do we cultivate it in our meditation practice? How can we access equanimity in daily life, especially in the midst of uncertainty, fear, and sadness over the suffering in the world? Howard Zinn from “The Optimism of Uncertainty”To be hopeful in…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of Jan 3, 2022

    This week’s topic is: Beginning to See More Possibilities.

    The Zen master, Shunryu Suzuki, said: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” With a beginner’s possibilities we can release our heart’s wholesome aspirations. Let’s engender a beginners spirit, and manifest our innate potential for freedom and well-being: embodying a saint’s patience to start again; an adventurer’s openness to step out of constricted views; and a creative’s zeal to reimagine ourselves and our world”

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of Jan 16, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Change, Loss and Dying: Meeting the Common Denominator”. When we come in touch with the fragility of our existence, it is only natural that fear or sadness might well up. The constant inward and outward change contrasts with our lack of control. To experience change, loss and death, is a substantial challenge for all of us. The Buddha did not shy away from these common human denominators, but offered perspectives and practices which allow us to meet them with compassion, while enabling the heart to rest in love and peacefulness.

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Milla Gregor – Week of 27 April, 2026

    This week’s theme is: Resources for the Path of Engaged Practice.

    Engaged practice combines dharma wisdom with justice and liberation movement wisdom, allowing us to fly with the wings of compassion and wisdom towards the better world we know is possible.

    This week we’ll dive into ideas, practices and poems from those on the engaged practice path, strengthening our ability to participate in building justice, liberation and joy both within and beyond our individual lives.

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

    Read More