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
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Love for the world
Recorded :
December 17, 2017 In our last class of 2017, our guiding teacher Martin offers reflections on life, love and liberation, looking particularly at some of the challenging events and elements of worldly life, and pointing towards a skilful, loving and courageous engagement with the world and everyone in it.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of June 3, 2024
This week’s topic is “Letting Go, Cultivating Deep Peace”. The Buddha’s teachings offer a profoundly pragmatic, compassionate and wise response to the human condition. During this week we will explore the art of pausing, looking deeply into our own lived experience and letting go of clinging, as foundations for developing a peaceful heart. This supports the possibilities for both our own well-being, as well as peace in the external world.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of June 21, 2021
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.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of July 5, 2021
This week’s theme is: The Power of Compassion.
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. – Dalai Lama
During this week we will explore how compassion informs and supports meditation practice and the deepening of understanding and wisdom. We will practice and inquire into different aspects of this powerful attitude and intention and taste for ourselves the impact it has on ourselves and the world.
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Insight and practices for difficult times
Recorded :
February 4, 2018 We are in a race between fear and consciousness. Never before have forces of greed hatred and ignorance enjoyed such a platform of populist divisiveness that instills fear and separation throughout society, endangering our very civilization. And never before has there been as much caring and worldwide commitment to making this a better world. In…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of October 30, 2023
This week’s topic is “Meditation In A Time Of Crisis”. As the world spirals into yet another all too frequent crisis, we are once again confronted with our basic human fragility. At times like these, it is not uncommon to be overcome by insecurity, anxiety, and fear with the recognition of your own human vulnerability. Now more than ever, it’s helpful to rely on your Dharma practice as a refuge. Not as a practice of liberation that gives you refuge FROM the world, but rather as one that gives you refuge IN the world. Join Miles in this week of Meditation In A Time Of Crisis and cultivate your greatest spiritual resource.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of 21 October, 2024
This week’s theme: The Joy of Simplicity
Simplicity, joy and deep rest are profound qualities which support our spiritual journey. During this week we will explore the simple depth of Buddhist practice and listen to the enchanting morning talks of abbot Linji from 875 from his monastery at the river Huoduo.
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How We Grow Through What We Go Through
Recorded :
January 29, 2023 How can we, and our communities, not just survive but thrive during challenging, post-traumatic times? Spirituality, positive psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, mindfulness and more have boosted human resilience in the face of adversity for generations. Through this session will explore meditation practices that can help us to transform challenges into creative opportunities for growth.
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