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.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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When the Path Becomes Natural
Recorded :
January 12, 2025 Much of the time, the path of meditation and awareness must be worked with intention, realigning ourselves with the teachings, with practice, lovingkindness and compassion. Other times, the path may become an effortless, natural part of our lives. We will explore the ways our practice feels easeful and our intentions metabolized and also how we…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of 09 June, 2025
We’re delighted to have Zohar Lavie guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: Steadiness, Clarity and Care in Challenging Times
During this week of practice, we will explore and practice the boundless qualities of compassion and equanimity. Compassion as the heart’s capacity to open and attend to suffering, and equanimity as the heart’s ability to face life in all its aspects with clarity and steadiness.
These two beautiful qualities complement and nourish each other. They support us to meet experience and act within it in beneficial ways, even in difficult times.Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of July 19, 2021
This week’s theme is: Identifying the Many Masks of the Inner Critic
Often we think of the inner critic as the constant nagging inner discourse which dismisses our good qualities, questions our lovability, and our potential for goodness. Being a master/mistress of disguise, the inner critic takes on many forms; it wraps our decision making process in veils of doubt, pushes us into compulsive activity, traps us in paralysis, and distorts our views on others.
Luckily, the Dharma path offers us tools to meet this painful heart-mind dynamic. This week we will practice summoning qualities like wisdom, kindness, equanimity, concentration, appreciation, compassion and inquiry, in order to meet our inner critic in a skilful way.
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The Power of Self-Compassion
Recorded :
June 11, 2023 Most people are more compassionate toward others than themselves when things go wrong. However, burgeoning research shows that self-compassion is good for everybody. Fortunately, it can be learned. How can we seamlessly bring self-compassion into meditation practice and daily life? What are two secrets about self-compassion practice that make all the difference?
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Refuge, resilience and response in uncertain times
Recorded :
October 15, 2017 By now, we can consciously acknowledge that our planetary state of emergency and ineffectual political response is impacting and fast changing our Dharma curriculum. We are being mercilessly shaken awake while at the same time facing overwhelming uncertainties. In this session, Thanissara explores how the Dharma, its practices and guidelines, can come to our aid…
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On Teachings and Teachers
Recorded :
March 17, 2018 People often ask about the importance (or not) of working closely with a teacher. One can benefit greatly from general meditation instruction, but personalised guidance from someone who knows you and your practice well can be deeply helpful. In this session, Martin speaks about approaching teachers for guidance and about the dynamics of the teacher-student…
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The Wisdom of Equanimity
Recorded :
June 4, 2023 The dominant culture treats unpleasant feelings as problems, and pleasant feelings as if we should experience them all the time. This is neither possible nor wise. How can we fully feel the beautiful and painful aspects of our lives so that we are strengthened and enriched by the depth and breadth of this human experience?…
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Mindfulness and the Addiction Economy
Recorded :
June 1, 2025 Our devices have become weapons of mass distraction, we have lost the attention economy and now we are living in the addiction economy. Everyone is addicted, we all know it, few will admit it, yet we all seem to accept it. Turning inward and taking an honest look at our dissatisfaction and facing what fuels…
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