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

Search Sangha Live

Inner Peace in a Chaotic World

With Ronya Banks recorded on November 25, 2018.

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

In this session Ronya leads us on a journey of exploring the Buddhist principles and practices specifically designed to promote “inner peace” – even amidst a chaotic world.

“Everybody wants a happy life. This goal is entirely dependent on our inner peace… We are trying to seek a joyful, happy life from the outside — that is a mistake.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Many fellow humans find themselves stuck in seeking happiness and peace by attempting to create the conditions for the “perfect life”. This often becomes a very painful, disappointing, and futile endeavor as we realize that not only is it impossible to fully control our outer world, but that life is inherently imperfect.

Thankfully, ancient Buddhist teachings and practices help us cultivate a profound “inner peace” independent of external conditions.

During this “Inner Peace” session, Ronya covers:

The value in practicing Mindfulness to form an intimate connection with present personal experience.
Implementing counterforce measures to purify negative mental forces that rob us of inner peace.
Transmitting our newly cultivated inner peace and wisdom to the outer world.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Catherine McGee – Week of April 25, 2022

    This week’s theme is “Exploring and Developing the Power of a Light Touch”. A light touch can allow our practice to unfold more easefully, make the depths of our hearts more available and create a greater agility in our relationships with the world. With our body as the primary ground for our practice we will explore different ways to cultivate this kind of attention, enjoy the fruits of our efforts and attend to what might hinder this natural capacity

    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

  • Ralph Steele

    The noble jewel of Right Effort

    Recorded : March 11, 2018

    Right Effort is a jewel within a jewel. We investigate the Four Right Exertions that fuel Right Effort and the Hindrances that attempt to derail our intention. You will gain insight into why the Buddha referenced Right Effort as one of his eight precious disciples, which is a daily chant in the monasteries.

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    Loving Awareness: Finding Freedom Within

    Recorded : February 26, 2023

    “This thing person called “me”, the one who is sensing, thinking and perceiving right now….who or what is it? This is an age old question that the traditions of the East, especially Buddhism and Hinduism, have held as the heart of their traditions. The answer to that question, in some scriptures, is “awareness”, a part of us that is already wakeful, attentive, open, free and loving. In this Sunday teaching, we consider what it means to encounter awareness, and why it might be important, not only for our practice of meditation, but for the fulfilment of our life’s purpose.

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of March 28, 2022

    This week’s topic is Shelter from the Storm. Whether it is restlessness, worry, anxiety, panic, worry or rumination, all aspects of fear have one thing in common: they rob us of our peace of mind. If fear governs our perspective, we are focused on that which is potentially problematic. Unable to settle down and rest, we often feel exhausted by the relentless activity of our mind. The Buddha invited us to find in our practice ‘a Shelter, a Harbour, a Refuge’. In this week together, we’ll explore the underlying dynamics of fear, learn ways to soothe our minds and gain access to a sense of safety and peacefulness right here and right now.

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    The Art of Savoring

    Recorded : November 23, 2025

    In the practice of meditation, we are often focused on the task of getting to the cushion and paying attention, but how much of this task are we actually enjoying? To really enjoy ourselves in meditation, we need a practice that goes beyond attention and mindfulness alone. We need to find joy in the micro…

    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

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of September 5, 2022

    This week’s topic is “Awakening into Experience Here and Now”. “You shouldn’t chase after the past
    or place expectations on the future.
    What is past
    is left behind.
    The future
    is as yet unreached.
    Whatever quality is present
    you clearly see right there,
    right there.
    Not taken in,
    unshaken,
    that’s how you develop the heart.” (MN 131)

    The essence of the Buddha’s teachings lies in these words. Unshakability and freedom are at the heart of awakening, they are what we cultivate in our practice. This week we will practice turning to our experience in ways that wake us up, right here and now.

    Read More