Deep listening goes beyond merely using our ears; it encompasses engaging our eyes, hearts, and bodies as well. As practitioners of meditation, we can also learn to listen with mindful awareness. In this session, we will explore how call and response, a musical concept, also applies to meditation and our daily interactions. Join us, and learn to approach life with more curiosity, openness, and empathy.
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Leaning Into Collapse
Recorded :
September 5, 2021 The fires and floods of this summer, and the ongoing pandemic and its complexities, can weigh heavy on the heart, along with the shocking but unsurprising new IPCC report confirming the ‘inevitable and irreversible’ worsening effects of the climate disruption, ecological collapse and existential emergency we are already living through. This class, led by Sangha…
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The Power of Change
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June 21, 2020 We wish for change. The time of the old is up. Its structures, habits and perspectives have lost their appeal. We sense the potential for something fresh to start. We can witness change. Feel victimized or beaten by it. Or find ways of empowerment and respond with wisdom. Meditation, mindfulness and reflection provide the tools…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Leela Sarti – Week of Nov 8, 2021
This week’s theme is “Deepening Heart Presence: Life, Dukkha, and Beyond”. We need heart presence in order to digest life experience. It takes a lot of heart to live with integrity, sensitivity and openness. Awakening compassion, courage, and kindness helps us embrace the challenges and the sorrow of life. This week we explore the possibility of being grounded in the depth of timeless presence in the midst of daily life. We will inquire how to live and love from silence and emptiness, being yourself in peace with others, and doing what needs to be done.
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Including Diversity and Differences in the Space of Awareness
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March 8, 2026 Diversity is a challenging concept today. Yet our equanimity is developed through meeting the great range of our inner experiences, as well as staying steady in the cacophony of the marketplace. There is enough space in our hearts to welcome the wonderful richness and diversity of life and of each other. Our open awareness makes…
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Loving Awareness: Finding Freedom Within
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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.
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S.A.L.S.A.: Using Buddhist practice to Respond to “Spicy” Emotions
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June 9, 2019 Life presents plenty of opportunities to react unconsciously, often creating harm for ourselves and others. How might we apply our Buddhist practice to “Spicy” situations and emotions, in order to respond wisely? In this session, Brian will draw on Stephen Batchelor’s work and propose a working acronym of “S.A.L.S.A.” to navigate life’s spiciness and act…
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The practice of pleasure and delight (or the spiritual art of having fun).
Recorded :
April 22, 2018 Dharma teachings importantly emphasise suffering, compassion, renunciation, desire, non-reactivity, peacefulness. All these are potent themes, yet ones which can make our practice feel overly heavy, unnecessarily serious, maybe even uptight! Dharma practice equally points us towards a playful nature, light-heartedness and ease, delight and the capacity to really enjoy life. Especially when we can get…
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Time and Timelessness: Finding Refuge, Finding Inspiration
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October 30, 2022 Certain moments, events and experiences open our awareness beyond the everyday to a sense of something more eternally present. Meditation points our attention to just this place, which the poet TS Eliot called ‘the point of intersection of the timeless with time’. Contemplating life from such a perspective we can often find fresh resources of…
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