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

Receptivity: Deep Listening as an Antidote to Reactivity and Violence

With Deborah Eden Tull recorded on October 14, 2018.

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

In these hyped up divisive times, there is an ever-greater need for tools to de-condition ourselves from reactivity. The practice of listening – within ourselves and with others – is much more significant than we often acknowledge. The contrast of receptivity against the backdrop of a world conditioned to impose, label, judge, and solve, is the contrast between non-violence and violence. By learning to take life in from a place of compassionate neutrality, we shift from spectator to engaged participant. We shift from judgment to clear seeing. And from separation to interconnection.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Jaya Julienne Ashmore

    When Less is More

    Gautam Buddha said he gained nothing from complete awakening. What are our everyday experiences of the magic of less? Trying less does not mean less energy, connection or insight. How little effort is needed to hear a sound or to feel the ground? Simply listening to a friend with ease and no answers can leave…

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 4 March, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Wide and Deep: an Integrated Practice in Meditation and in Life”. This week at Sangha live, the morning meditations with Martin will draw each day on elements of dharma practice and understanding that can be both cultivated in meditation, and applied in daily activity. We’ll encourage a steady participation in the mornings through the week, and reflect on using the daily themes to explore our habits, beliefs and reactions throughout each day.

    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 16 June, 2025

    We’re grateful to have Nathan Glyde leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and enrich your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Stillness Dancing

    Meditation cultivates vibrant tranquillity, not frozen silence. Like a stirred pond settling into clarity, we release agitation. Like an owl gliding soundlessly at dusk, we quiet ourselves – not to mute, but to listen deeply. In flowing stillness, we find wisdom and care, opening to a practice that is wholesome and inclusive.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    Overcoming obstacles.

    Worldwide Insight talk from Shaila Catherine: “Overcoming Obstacles”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Wise Acceptance

    What is the importance of acceptance and allowing in developing a wise relationship to our practice and our lives? We often try to find a one size fits all approach but like all dynamic things in life we need to be selective about when we use these approaches and understand when they are effective. This…

    Read More