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

Search Sangha Live

Insight and practices for difficult times

With James Baraz recorded on February 4, 2018.

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

We are in a race between fear and consciousness. Never before have forces of greed hatred and ignorance enjoyed such a platform of populist divisiveness that instills fear and separation throughout society, endangering our very civilization. And never before has there been as much caring and worldwide commitment to making this a better world.

In these times we’re called upon to bring as much consciousness, love and skillful action as we can into the world. How can we use our practice to stay sane, positive and motivated while keeping our hearts open? How can we use Buddhist practices to not only help us through these challenging times but to give us the energy and aliveness that can help awaken all the goodness inside and in those around us?

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Who Am I?

    Recorded : March 10, 2019

    “Who Am I?” is a fundamental question. You have to live the question, day in and day out. You cannot think through an answer. The self (‘I’ and ‘my’) lands on objects, voluntarily or involuntarily. Primary objects of interest include forms, feelings, perceptions, formations of mind/speech/body and consciousness (mindfulness, awareness, concentration and meditation). The self…

    Read More

  • Toby Sola

    The Out Breath: Unlocking Concentration

    Recorded : June 16, 2024

    Shodo Harada Roshi is known as a “teacher of teachers”, with masters from various lineages coming to sit with him in Japan. If you went to Harada’s monastery, the main meditation technique you’d learn involves slowing the out breath to last one minute. This drastically slows down your physiology, which in turn settles the mind.

    Read More

  • Tuere Sala

    The Supramundane Nature of Emptiness

    Recorded : September 15, 2024

    Emptiness can be a loaded word for lay practitioners. It can bring up a sense of isolation and annihilation. The dharma of emptiness, however, is a fundamental part of practice. Even in the most mundane tasks of our ordinary lives, we can access emptiness and feel the freedom that comes with it. It’s not about…

    Read More

  • Shinzen Young

    How to structure your practice in life

    Recorded : March 25, 2018

    Shinzen guides you through his “See, Hear, Feel” focus technique. This technique is designed to be applicable in any life situation — driving a car, having a conversation, working out, puttering around the house…. After that he gives a dharma talk describing a systematic procedure for “monasticizing” daily life. The goal of this program is…

    Read More

  • Dave Smith

    The Gratification, The Danger and The Escape

    Recorded : September 23, 2018

    The triad of gratification, danger, and escape is one of the Buddha’s most concise and simple teachings for investigating everyday lived experience. This formula can be applied to every single aspect of our experience. Many Buddhist scholars point out that this teaching contains the earliest roots of what we have come to know as the…

    Read More

  •

    Becoming a Bodhisattva

    Recorded : November 9, 2025

    This talk will explore the archetype of the Bodhisattva— a being dedicated to waking up and cultivating wisdom and compassion for the sake of all beings. We will first see how it manifests itself in Buddhist history and teachings, and then tackle important questions: How is it relevant to the suffering in our current times?…

    Read More

  •

    Faith, Hope and Love on the Dharma Path

    Recorded : April 4, 2021

    “Join me and the sangha for meditation, reflections and conversation to resource, encourage and uplift the heart as we engage with the challenges of our lives. Everyone is welcome.” – Jaya

    Read More