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

  • Being a Bodhisattva

    What is this incredible archetype? How does it show up in Buddhist history and teachings? How is it relevant to our current times? This talk will explore the idea of beings who commit to waking up in order to respond to the suffering of the world. And might we be one? Or want to?

    Read More

  • Jill Satterfield

    Of Two Minds: The Mind of the Body, the Mind of the Mind

    Awareness opens doors to discovery – the Buddha emphasized it, and science is proving it. We have two minds that work together, yet the body knows before the mind cognizes. The Buddha’s teaching of Nāmarūpa – mind and body as two forms of consciousness – honors the body’s deep wisdom. How the mind elaborates on…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 21, 2022

    This week’s topic is: Harmonising Our Life. The Buddha’s wisdom highlights how we often live entangled in stress and distress. The earliest mentions of this disharmonious state called it being in an argument with life. Dharma teachings invite us away from habitual rigidity and reactivity into a responsive and harmonising release. This week we will uncover deeper and more creative ways of attuning to life that support inner and outer freedom and well-being.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of 26 January, 2026

    This week’s theme is: The Tender Edge of Awareness: Befriending the Unwanted Within

    We all encounter emotions we’d rather not admit to ourselves and others. Self-righteousness, rage, ill will, revenge, vanity or greed are just a few of the dynamics the Buddha encouraged us to have a good eye on. In the upcoming week, we will practice how to meet such dynamics with the necessary clarity rather than self-judgement or denial.

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

    Read More

  • Antonia Sumbundu

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Antonia Sumbundu – Week of 24 February, 2025

    We are delighted to have Antonia Sumbundu leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and enrich your practice.

    This week’s theme is:

    Compassion in Action, Wisdom in Practice – Living the Six Paramitas

    This week we will be exploring how the Six Paramitas offer a pathway to living with more awareness, wisdom, and compassion by nourishing the qualities of generosity, integrity, patience, diligence, collectedness, and wisdom. Each day focuses on one or two paramitas, combining instructions for our sitting practice and reflections on how to integrate these qualities into daily life.

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

    Read More

  • Ralph Steele

    A Skilful Dance: The Three Characteristics Of Life and The Winds of Dharma

    (Please note that, due to problems with the video streaming platform on the day of this session, this talk was unfortunately not recorded in its entirety.) In this session Ralph explores using the Winds of Dharma to gain insight into the Three Characteristics of Life. The ocean of consciousness can be equated to life’s characteristics…

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Gladness of the Wholesome: The Buddha’s Teaching on Awakening Joy

    The Buddha was known as The Happy One. Though Joy is one of the Seven Factors of Awakening, with so much emphasis on working with suffering, joy can sometimes seem frivolous or unspiritual. His teaching on attending to the ‘Gladness Connected with the Wholesome’ is a key aspect of Wise Effort and developing a loving heart. We will practice and explore together this foundation for awakening joy.

    Read More