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.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of March 23
We’re fortunate that Martin Aywlard has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Martin, and to view his other contributions to Sangha Live, click here. Monday, March 23 The immediacy of experience Wednesday, March 25 Receptivity and responsiveness Friday, March 27 Real time Tuesday,…
-
Dharma, Desire and Eros
Recorded :
May 9, 2021 Eros is life force, the energy that animates our being. Eros fills our spiritual life with vitality, our minds with creativity, our ideas with embodiment and our relating with rich intimacy. To live full lives we need access to eros; without it we become dry, rigid, flacid and withholding. Yet what place does it have…
-
Using the five aggregates as a strategy.
Recorded :
April 9, 2017 The aggregates are a reference to our sense of self. Working with form, feeling, perception, identification, and consciousness as we go through our daily lives will support equanimity. Most importantly, it will help us work with emotions with greater efficiency.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 3 – 7 July, 2023
Daily meditations with Martin Aylward.
-
The nature of experience. Part 2: Emptiness.
Recorded :
January 22, 2017 Today’s session is the second in a special run of three consecutive sessions with Martin, where he looks deeply at the nature of experience through Buddha’s profound descriptions of reality – Impermanence, Emptiness, Non self-existence. The classes point directly to how these themes can come alive in our practice and understanding, looking at the personal,…
-
The Path of the Bodhisattva: Choosing a Life of Kindness
Recorded :
November 12, 2023 The path of the Bodhisattva asks us to dedicate ourselves to the well-being of all sentient beings – to show up as best as we can for ourselves, each other, and the natural world with a quality of no-matter-whatness. It’s an impossible though necessary task. Yet the teachings and practices of everyday dharma offer accessible,…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of November 23, 2020
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.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of May 23, 2022
This week’s topic is An Enigma Inside A Mystery. We typically freeze in amazement or feverishly search for causes when we suffer dukkha (life’s tension). We’ve probably all experienced how these reactions exacerbate the problem. The Buddha taught that dukkha is a puzzle that can be solved: it doesn’t have to be a mystery. We can learn the resolution that brings us from bewilderment to marvellous release by paying quiet attention to the pattern of the difficulty.
Discussion