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.
With Shaila Catherine recorded on April 20, 2025.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christopher Titmuss – Week of 09 December, 2024
We’re delighted to have Christopher Titmuss guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: Liberation Of The Heart
Join Christopher Titmuss for a week exploring the Brahma Viharas – the Immeasurable Ways of Being.
The Brahma Viharas, traditionally known as Divine Abidings, point to something boundless in our human experience. While Brahma literally means “God,” its deeper root meaning is “Immeasurable.” The Buddha taught four specific ways to dwell in this immeasurable space: through radical love, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.
Over five morning sessions, Christopher will offer an overview of these teachings and explore each of these profound ways of abiding. By radical, we mean getting to the very root of what matters most.
Whether you come with an open heart or a closed one, whether you’re new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner – all are welcome to join these transformative sessions.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Kaira Jewel Lingo – Week of July 20
We’re fortunate that Kaira Jewel Lingo 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 Kaira Jewel, and view her other recordings on the platform, click here. Monday, July…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of Nov 15, 2022
This week’s topic is Kindle the Flame. Metta practice, which nourishes the heart’s capacity for friendliness, brings many benefits. It softens our relationship to ourselves, nourishes us with a sense of connection, puts challenges into perspective and offers a safe ground from which we can meet life with a sense of care. We dedicate this week to (re)ignite the flame of metta, using as an inspiration the Karaṇīyamettā Sutta, a famous discourses of the Buddha.
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Refuge and Resilience for Our Times
Recorded :
December 8, 2019 In this session, Kittisaro looks at some essential ways the Dharma can help us find refuge and resilience in our fast-changing world.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of March 14, 2022
This week’s theme is: Gathering in the Goodness. ‘Drop by drop the pot of goodness is filled.’ -Buddha. Gathering in community we become more than the sum of our parts. We are each supported by, and supporting others — meditating alone is far less easy. Just so, in each moment of mindfulness we gather body-heart-mind from distraction into presence and open possibilities for greater and greater well-being; not just for ourselves, but for all beings.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of 20 October, 2025
This week, we’re delighted to have Miles Kessler guiding our Daily Meditation sessions. May they enrich your practice.
This week’s theme is: Meditation And The Dark Night Of The Soul
The “Dark Night Of The Soul” is nothing less than an ego death, and rebirth process that everyone goes through from time to time in life. As it happens, the “Dark Night Of The Soul” is also beautifully “coded” into insight meditation practices through a series of advanced stages know as the “Dukkha Nanas”. The “Dark Night” stages are awaiting everyone who is walking the path of meditative insight.
In this week of Daily Meditations with Sangha Live, you are invited to join in a teaching of “Meditation And The Dark Night Of The Soul.” Throughout this week, you will explore how the “Dark Night Of The Soul” process unfolds in the stages of insight meditation. And more importantly, how the insights of these stages inform us in our lives.Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of Jan 16, 2023
This week’s theme is “Change, Loss and Dying: Meeting the Common Denominator”. When we come in touch with the fragility of our existence, it is only natural that fear or sadness might well up. The constant inward and outward change contrasts with our lack of control. To experience change, loss and death, is a substantial challenge for all of us. The Buddha did not shy away from these common human denominators, but offered perspectives and practices which allow us to meet them with compassion, while enabling the heart to rest in love and peacefulness.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 20 April, 2026
This week’s theme is: Awake Where You Are.
A week of meeting the world of experience just as it is, with receptivity and responsiveness, with wisdom and care.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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