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

Mindful Intentions: From Pressure to Growth

With Ulla Koenig recorded on July 18, 2021.

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

What effect does it have if we practice mindfulness and meditation motivated by the fundamental assumption that there is something wrong with us? Perspectives such as ‘not being good enough’ or being ‘damaged goods’ can turn our practice into a painstaking attempt to improve ourselves. During this session we will inquire into our motivations for practice and suggest some alternative perspectives which can offer a sense of freedom, peace of mind and acceptance.

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

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • The Compass of Wise Intention

    In times marked socially by uncertainty, injustice, polarization, and sometimes overwhelm, in the midst of the typical personal joys and sorrows of our day to day experiences, it can be difficult to know how to act-or even how to keep the heart steady. The Buddha’s teaching on Wise Intention (sammā saṅkappa) offers a compass, a…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Milla Gregor – Week of 13 January, 2025

    We’re delighted to have Milla Gregor guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and enrich your practice.

    This week’s theme is: How to respond to an unjust burning world (without losing your mind)

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

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    Becoming Content with Emptiness and Voidness

    Shaila Catherine asks “Will nothing be enough?” as she explores how identification with our experience can create discontent with the basic fact that matter and mind is empty of self. Mindfulness will not demolish ego; instead, we mindfully recognize…

    Read More

  • Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison

    Wake up to your Life: Cultivating Courage & Compassion in the Everyday

    Awakening to Life means harmonizing our values and our actions. Many of us merely go through the motions, sleepwalking through the hours, without actually feeling alive. Cultivating courage and joy entails slowing down, paying close attention, and practicing being fully engaged with what each moment has to offer. Koshin Sensei will share Zen teachings and…

    Read More

  • Love & Boundaries

    Our practice cultivates qualities of boundless love, whether through loving kindness practice, or opening to the love inherent in deep states of awareness. But can we really love everyone boundlessly? What about political leaders who may be causing tremendous suffering? Or when our boundaries get crossed in any way—personally, at work, in our families, or…

    Read More