The great Black American singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder once sang, “Love’s in need of love today.” His words couldn’t be more true as we face a global community struggling with war, poverty, illness, climate instability, and the rise of political authorities and governments who do not seem to be grounded in compassion or kindness. We speak about love and attempt to practice love but some of us are losing faith in the transformative power of the wish for ourselves and others to be happy. Our practice of love is in need of our renewed faith in love. In this talk, we explore the question of how practicing love can become a strategy that resists and undoes our experiences of fear, apathy, and numbness as we attempt to live and love in a challenging world.
With Lama Rod Owens recorded on July 1, 2017.
Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Listening with an awakened heart.
Recorded :
February 15, 2015 Worldwide Insight talk from JoAnna Harper: “Listening with an Awakened Heart”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.
-
Understanding Our Mind: Healing Blocks of Suffering in the Individual and Collective Consciousness
Recorded :
January 12, 2020 Drawing on Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching on the different layers of consciousness, we will explore the nature of the seeds that sleep in the depths of our mind. We can each learn to be skillful gardeners of our own and others’ minds, watering the wholesome seeds and skillfully caring for the unwholesome ones. As we…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of 07 July, 2025
We are delighted to have Nathan Glyde leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they bring depth and ease to your practice.
This week’s theme is: Caring Resolve
Relieving suffering is the essential task of Buddha-Dharma, applicable to our inner and outer world. This calls for a spacious intimacy that is neither distant and indifferent, nor enmeshed and overwhelmed. Meeting pain with caring resolve loosens distress into ease, transforms reactivity into response, and liberates the limited heart into boundless connection.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
Embracing the First Noble Truth: Dukkha and Destructive Emotions
Recorded :
January 24, 2021 Coming to terms with the teaching and implications of the first noble truth can be challenging, confusing and ongoing. When we are unable to do the hard work of completing the task of the first truth, to embrace Dukkha, we become vulnerable to destructive emotions.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of Sept 26 – 30, 2022
Daily meditations with Martin Aylward.
-
From Dukkha to Freedom: Dharma in Times of War and Crisis
Recorded :
January 28, 2024 Intense times of war and crisis can and does often lead to intense Dukkha. But a crisis can also serve as a bedrock to spiritual breakthrough, deepening of liberating insights and openness of the heart. The Upanisa Sutta talks about the possibility of stepping out of Samsara: that Dukkha can lead to Sadha, i.e faith and trust,…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of May 6, 2024
This week’s topic is “Finding Balance in the Midst of Uncertainty”. Dharma teachings support us in meeting the wholeness of our lives with interest, gentleness and creativity. Acknowledging the inconstancy and flux of our experience, both joys and sorrows, with sensitivity and care nourishes a deep wellbeing. Through the week we will cultivate a nurturing environment through which to connect with challenging aspects of the human condition. By prioritising spacious tenderness over contraction and demand, we can find the liberation of the true heart’s release.
-
Meditation and Attachment Theory
Recorded :
April 14, 2024 We will discuss Attachment Theory in the context of Buddhist Theravada Practice, exploring the traditional Buddhist path to liberation using descriptions of Attachment conditioning as a way to understand obstacles to practice. We will learn skillful ways of assembling an inner circle of close people to support your path to enlightenment.
Discussion