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

Natural awareness: practicing in daily life.

With Alexis Santos recorded on July 10, 2016.

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

Meditation is often viewed as something restricted to a certain posture or time of day. For most of us, the majority of our life will not be on retreat or even spent in a formal sitting posture. If we want to make best use of our daily life, it’s important to know that being aware is neither difficult, nor hard work….it just takes correct understanding and the willingness to continue practicing!

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • The Wisdom of Equanimity

    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?…

    Read More

  • Miles Kessler

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of July 29, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Cutting Through To Ultimate Reality”. The word “Dhamma” means ultimate reality, the absolute, or universal principles. This refers to the 3 universal characteristics of conditioned phenomena, and to Nibbana, the unconditioned. In this week of practice we will explore how insight into the Dhamma arises in meditation, and get practical instructions to cultivate the conditions for “Cutting Through To Ultimate Reality”.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of September 18, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Understanding Suffering”. Dukkha, often translated as suffering, is a central concept in the Buddha’s teachings. This has led some to view Buddhism as adopting a negative outlook on life. But is this true? Why did the Buddha emphasise suffering (dukkha) and what does he mean by this concept? This week of practice we will take an in-depth look into the first noble truth around dukkha. This exploration can help us cultivate compassion, as well as extending it to the larger community. It can free us from feelings of shame and a sense of failure, and bring a fresh perspective on our practice.

    Read More

  • Dave Smith

    Genuine Happiness: An Alternative Perspective

    So much of what we hear and learn about within Dharma practice places an arguably unnecessary emphasis on suffering (dukkha). While the acceptance of suffering (dukkha) is an important and essential aspect of the path, it is by no means the end of the story. In one of the Buddha’s oldest descriptions of what it…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    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.

    Read More

  • The Path of the Bodhisattva: Choosing a Life of Kindness

    The path of the Bodhisattva asks us to dedicate ourselves to the well-being of all sentient beings – to show up as best as we can for ourselves, each other, and the natural world with a quality of no-matter-whatness. It’s an impossible though necessary task. Yet the teachings and practices of everyday dharma offer accessible,…

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of April 6

    We’re fortunate that Martin Aywlard has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Martin, and to view his other contributions to Sangha Live, click here. View the text for the daily chants Martin offers this week Monday, April 6 Wednesday, April 8 Demands, defences…

    Read More

  • Vimalasara Mason-John

    When did you stop breathing?

    We could say that the Buddha was teaching us to breath again. It’s said that the prince Siddhartha was sitting under a Bodhi tree, practicing the anapanasati (the mindfulness of breathing) when he gained enlightenment and became awake, a Buddha. He was aware of the whole experience of breathing. Through breathing he trained the mind…

    Read More