Simplicity underlies Dharma practice. It’s common that when people begin to meditate, even if they have a full life with a job and family, they begin to realize that simplicity is a deep value. Pursuing conventional goals feels less meaningful or satisfying than finding ease and straightforwardness in our approach to life. Simplicity cuts across the physical, verbal, and mental realms, and enables the deep seeing that can free the mind. In our session, we’ll explore simplicity as an act of kindness and wisdom, and also an expression of liberation, so needed in today’s world.
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Dismantling Racism in Our Minds and Hearts
Recorded :
July 15, 2017 If one lives as a human on this earth one is affected by racism. Power and privilege have been unfairly awarded throughout history to certain groups of people based on race while disempowering others. These systems function on a systemic and cultural level, but also within each of us individually when we unconsciously internalize messages…
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Natural awareness: practicing in daily life.
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July 10, 2016 Meditation is often viewed as something restricted to a certain posture or time of day. For most of us, the majority of our life will not be on retreat or even spent in a formal sitting posture. If we want to make best use of our daily life, it’s important to know that being aware…
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Vesak 2568: The Radical Message of Siddhattha Gotama
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May 18, 2025 On the Theravāda holiday of Vesak, 2568 years after the Buddha’s death, we honor the ancient ascetic named Siddhattha Gotama, whose insights into the nature of suffering and freedom have inspired fierce disciplines, soaring poetry, subtle psychological and philosophical investigations, and social movements for nonviolence, and social justice. We’ll meditate, learn traditional verses celebrating the…
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Integrity and Clarity: Foundations for Awakening
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March 30, 2025 Everything in Buddhist practice builds on ethics and morality. With this basis, meditation and insight unfold naturally. This talk will explore the connection between living a life of integrity and developing spiritual awakening
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The Jewel of Sangha: We all need Community, Support and Love
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September 15, 2019 Martin writes: “Sangha is about community, support and love; it is one of the 3 jewels (Buddha-Dharma-Sangha) of our practice. But in the individualistic cultures and atomised structures in which many of us live, sangha too often gets inadequate attention. This is especially true in the Vipassana / Insight meditation tradition, because while silent meditation…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of December 12, 2022
This week’s topic is “Interwoven and Free”
The Buddha invited us to investigate our experience moment by moment. One of the key things we uncover as we do this is that separation is an illusion, and that we are deeply interwoven and interconnected with all beings and all things. This week we will disentangle the habitual knots of isolation and ignorance and open to the freedom available as we open our exploration of inter-being.
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The Power of Self-Compassion
Recorded :
June 11, 2023 Most people are more compassionate toward others than themselves when things go wrong. However, burgeoning research shows that self-compassion is good for everybody. Fortunately, it can be learned. How can we seamlessly bring self-compassion into meditation practice and daily life? What are two secrets about self-compassion practice that make all the difference?
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What is this?
Recorded :
October 11, 2015 In this session Martine leads a guided meditation on the question “What is this?”, and then explores this questioning practice as a means to encounter each moment with awareness and as a means of developing a stable and open heart.
Discussion