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.
With Willa Blythe Baker recorded on September 1, 2024.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 15 December, 2025
This week’s theme is: Season of Goodwill: A Week of Love, Friendship and Steadiness
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of 08 September, 2025
We’re delighted to have Nathan Glyde leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: Radiant Non-Reactivity
Disentangling from the web of stress and distress is like meeting life with an open palm. This liberation shines with unequalled radiance and unfolds into the profound peace that our hearts and the world deeply long for.
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Forgiveness: The Practice of Returning to Love
Recorded :
September 14, 2025 A heart rooted in compassion longs to uplift and free all beings. Yet holding such a heart is not always easy. We stumble, we protect, we carry wounds. In our time together, we’ll explore forgiveness as an act of self-compassion-a way to meet our own suffering with kindness, and to restore the dignity that pain…
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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,…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Milla Gregor – Week of September 4, 2023
This week’s theme is “Which comes first, your practice or your life?” Does your life support your practice, or your practice your life? For me, things have been shifting recently, leaving me with lots to contemplate, particularly around the overlap between practice and systemic change. I’ll share some ideas and embodied relational techniques for working at these interesting edges, whilst giving you lots of open quiet meditation time, over our five mornings together.
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Attachment Inquiry and Classical Enlightenment
Recorded :
June 24, 2018 Energizing your householder’s meditation practice often requires some immediate benefit be available to you, even if the long goal is enlightenment. Developing a dynamic social network to support your practice is vital to keep on practicing. Finding a meaningful way to be in the world helps create the time, energy and resources necessary to devote…
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Courage to Love
Recorded :
April 9, 2023 I cannot be fully me if you are not fully who you are destined to be. I AM Because We Are.
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