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

Meditating and speaking: simultaneously practicing Sila, Samadhi and Panna

With Gregory Kramer recorded on February 11, 2018.

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

The communicative loop of listening and speaking forms a powerful karmic workshop. Language taps into our karmic archive, sankhara. It reaches other people and, if they are listening, there is mind-to-mind contact. Relational contact is intrinsically powerful because humans are intrinsically relational: when we engage together, our mutual responsiveness amplifies our efforts. Speaking and listening together empowers us to do good works, or drives us towards anger and fear. Sila. It empowers our development of mindfulness and calm concentration, or it is a channel for distraction. Samadhi. It carries wisdom and deep inquiry or driveling trivia. Panna. All of these are enfolded in meditation in which the doorway to speech is opened.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Love in the Time of Extinction: Dharma Practice and the Climate Emergency

    This was a special Worldwide Insight session in which Martin Aylward and Yanai Postelnik were in conversation about the climate emergency and how to engage with it from a Dharma perspective. Prior to the session, Yanai wrote: “I know there are many in our worldwide sangha, who like myself have engaged with, or are considering…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of 23 June, 2025

    We’re fortunate that Ulla Koenig has generously offered to lead our Daily Meditation sessions for this week. May they be of benefit to your practice.

    This week’s theme is: The Myth and Reality of Interconnection

    According to the Buddha’s teachings, nothing exists in isolation – everything is part of a constantly shifting web of relationships. This week, we’ll explore the deeper, and sometimes challenging reality of interconnection beyond spiritual clichés. Through reflection and practice, we’ll develop a grounded, practical approach to living this insight in everyday life.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Juha Penttilä

    Exploring Vastness of Awareness Practice

    In this session we’ll explore opening to the practices of vastness of awareness. Through listening and sensing we will open up to a sense of spaciousness and explore letting go within it.

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of 07 September, 2026

    This week’s theme is: Awakening Confidence . Doubt in freedom’s possibility, and in our capacity to embody it, is one of the stickiest hindrances on this path – it doesn’t just cloud the mind but hollows out our willingness to practice at all. Yet by meeting each hindrance with wisdom and skill, we build the confidence to dissolve doubt. Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of December 13, 2021

    This week’s theme is: A Bright Presence.

    Making an effort isn’t always easy; yet, how we show up really matters. Dharma teachings can help to enliven our sense of enthusiasm and energy on the path of practice. This week we’ll dive into different ways of engaging with our life, on the meditation seat and off. From soft delight to sustained dedication, let’s wake up fully with life — in life, and for life.

    Read More

  • Leslie Booker

    Faith in the Three Jewels

    Booker writes: “Growing up in the Baptist faith, I was taught to believe what I was taught, and to not have my own experience or exploration; to not know for myself. This didn’t sit well with me as a child! During this teaching, I will share my spiritual journey from Bright Faith to Verified Faith….

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of 06 April, 2026

    This week’s theme is: The Spiral Path

    Practice often unfolds in spirals rather than straight lines. The path includes phases of clarity and confusion, opening and contraction. Again and again it turns and circles back. This week, we will explore how trust in the path can grow through these cycles, as we keep returning to awareness, patience, and the unfolding of the Dharma.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Sophie Boyer

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of 18 May, 2026

    This week’s theme is: The Unfolding of Presence

    This week, Sophie Boyer invites us back to the heart of daily meditation: just practice. It’s a practice where no effort is needed to be present, for presence is already here. Let us simply return to it.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More