We live in challenging times. Biologists speak of micro-systems where species sequester during times of crisis. They are called refugia. In times of uncertainty and fear, we too need refugia, places of spiritual safety where we can put down roots, grow and thrive. In this Sunday teaching, Willa invites us to explore the concept of refugia, and how it can help expand our conventional understanding of what “refuge” means in the Buddhist context. Refuge, an ancient Buddhist practice of finding sanctuary in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, is not a ritual or initiation. It involves a deep exploration of the role of safety in spiritual life. Refuge is an ongoing inquiry into what refugia looks like for each of us, into our crisis-sanctuaries and how they become a catalyst for our spiritual evolution.
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Endarkenment: Embracing the Medicine of Light and Dark
Recorded :
November 29, 2020 As we enter the darker months of the year, consider the profound restoration and healing that darkness offers us— both physically and symbolically. Darkness is often considered the absence of light, but it is actually a vital and regenerative essence of nature and consciousness. This session is an experiential exploration of the interplay of light…
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Trust and Surrender: Meeting Life Fully
Recorded :
November 5, 2023 As we move through life, we meet change, obstacles and beauty, hardships and love, praise and blame, and all the rest of the winds of life. Our question is then how to meet life with a sense of trust in the unknown and find a place where we can meet it all with more ease and…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 06 October, 2025
We’re honored to have Martin Aylward offering our Daily Meditation sessions this week. We hope they are nourishing for your practice.
This week’s theme is: Embracing Complexity and Contradiction
A week of exploring and cultivating a life and practice of radical open-heartedness
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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Sustaining Ourselves with Joy
Recorded :
May 16, 2021 The Buddha taught about many forms of joy as both the path of practice and its fruit. In this session, we’ll explore the practice and discipline of cultivating and savoring joy in our life and our practice. Joy is an important balancing factor as we honestly face the suffering of the world and commit to…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of Feb 28, 2022
Daily meditations with Martin Aylward.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of 13 October, 2025
We’re delighted to have Ulla Koenig guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these gatherings enrich your practice.
This week’s theme is: Metta in Action
To be met with metta is to be received with basic respect and a sense of intrinsic worth-simply because we exist. It’s not something we earn or measure; it’s a fundamental recognition of our being. This week, we explore how to extend such warmth toward ourselves. And we’ll look at how metta supports accountability, nurtures integrity, and helps us respond to criticism with clarity and compassion-opening the door to deeper self-understanding and genuine growth.
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 Jaya Rudgard – Week of November 16, 2020
We’re fortunate that Jaya Rudgard has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Jaya, click here.
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Resting in Love, as Love
Recorded :
July 9, 2023 Consciousness itself is not disturbed by a busy mind. In practice, the ego takes this truth and says, “I will transcend mind.” But the “I” that experiences itself as separate from life cannot and will not ever know liberation. There is no such thing as an enlightened ego. What else is possible? Resting in Love,…
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