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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Dharma, Sex, Intimacy and Covid
Recorded :
September 6, 2020 We are more physically isolated during these days of Covid. Less physical contact, less access even to each others smiles beneath the masks we wear to care for each others’ health. Contact and intimacy are deeply important to humans, and in this session Sangha Live founding and guiding teacher Martin Aylward explores different forms of…
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Lucid Dreaming: Awakening While We Sleep
Recorded :
February 8, 2026 A lucid dream is a dream in which we are actively aware that we are dreaming as the dream is happening. Once we are lucid we gain access to the deepest depths of the unconscious mind which allows us to engage in psychological healing at a level often unattainable in the waking state. And beyond…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of March 20 – 24, 2023
This week’s topic is “The Art of Embodied Listening”. This week is an invitation to explore the skill of true, deep and embodied listening. Living in a culture where people are mainly self-focused, wanting to express themselves, we can look into our capacity to listen. Rather than talking to ourselves we can learn listening with our whole body to others, ourselves and to silence in which all phenomena arises. Creating space to express, really tuning into “what’s going on here?“ enables our stress, worries, fear and insecurities to be unveiled and liberated and is a powerful tool for cultivating insights.
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Being Real Together
Recorded :
June 14, 2020 Let’s pause. How are you doing in this time as all is showing up for reckoning at the same moment? Take some kind breaths, and have a moment of compassion for your self, others, and for it all. In today’s session let’s pause quietly, recalibrate, and check in.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of Feb 14, 2022
Daily meditations with Martin Aylward.
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Deep Ground Living
Recorded :
November 10, 2024 How can we live from the ground of presence, being ourselves in peace with others, while doing what needs to be done? This Sunday we’ll explore what is essential for living in the midst of life with both peace of mind and peace of heart.
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An Appropriate Response
Recorded :
July 9, 2017 What does it take to respond rather than react to the increasing complexity and divisiveness of our world? This talk will explore Buddhist teachings that illuminate the sources of our fundamental reactivity, and reveal ways to help us see and see through it.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of June 8
We’re fortunate that Martin Aylward has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK this week. Links mentioned during these sessions can be found at the bottom of this page. To find out more about Martin, and view his other recordings on the platform, click here. Due to temporary circumstances…
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