The encounter with sensory experiences can lead to insight and calm, or reactivity and suffering. How do you guard your mind in the midst of a daily barrage of sensory input? How do you protect your mind so that tranquility and wisdom will be well established? The Buddha encouraged restraint of the senses, but this restraint does not require avoidance of sensory contacts or control of the external environment. In this talk, Shaila Catherine will describe how mindfulness allows us to meet the experiences of sensory contact – of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking with a mind free of reactivity. Mindfulness protects the mind so that it does not come under the sway of defilements. Mindfulness is a special quality of attention that is balanced in the moment of observing experience. Before looking, before reaching, before speaking, before any activity, we can establish the intention of mindfully meeting the experience without giving rise to anger, irritation, lust, fear, or any defilement. The practice of sensory restraint leads to a life of happiness and joy, and lays the foundation for experiences of deep concentration and awakening.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christopher Titmuss – Week of 06 January, 2025
We are grateful to have Christopher Titmuss guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: Each Moment, New Moment
A week of practice to begin the year, with reflections on beginnings, commitments and a free attitude to life.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
The Spectrum of Sensuality – Where do I stand?
Recorded :
October 13, 2024 The extremes of addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self-mortification are not the path to happiness. The spectrum of human sensuality spans from pleasure to pain, pleasant to unpleasant, from hedonic excesses to self-harm, encompassing a vast range that is likely different for everyone. What is considered the Middle Way for a monastic might…
-
Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices to Support Resilience
Recorded :
December 12, 2021 In this session, we’ll explore how to practice mindfulness and meditation in a trauma-sensitive way. We’ll learn experiential mindfulness practices designed to support empowerment, as well as how to recognize trauma and work with it skillfully.
-
Faith and confidence: the first spiritual faculty.
Recorded :
September 4, 2016 Faith, confidence, and trust are English translations for the Pali term saddhā. In this talk, Shaila Catherine explores the cultivation of saddhā as an aid to awakening and as the first in the list of spiritual faculties that include faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Shireen Jilla – Week of 29 September, 2025
We’re delighted to have Shireen Jilla guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May her teachings enrich your practice.
This week’s theme is: Equanimity: Balancing at the Centre of the Seesaw of Life
Every morning we will explore a different aspect of equanimity, this inner steadiness, and how we nurture it in our practice. What is this felt sense of spacious ease and how is it a wise check to overwhelming compassion? Actively engaging with our experience, how do we deeply let go? And finally, potently, we will explore equanimity as the gift of grace.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Caverly Morgan – Week of June 8
We’re very grateful to have Caverly Morgan hosting our Daily Meditation Series for North America. To find out more about Caverly, and to view her past recordings and contributions to Sangha Live, click here. Monday, June 8 Hope is the light of possibility, part 1 Wednesday, June 10 Remembrance: light becomes what it touches Friday,…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of June 29
We’re fortunate that Martin Aylward has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK this week. To find out more about Martin, and view his other recordings on the platform, click here. Monday, June 29 Wednesday, July 1 Friday, July 3 Tuesday, June 30 Thursday, July 2
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ayala Gill – Week of 10 November, 2025
We are delighted to have Ayala Gill guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and enrich your practice.
This week’s theme is: Three Jewels: Love, Truth, Belonging
We will explore the “Three Jewels” of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha through the immediate, embodied experience of love. By diving into the felt sense of this moment, we discover the precious refuge of love, truth and belonging.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
Discussion