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

Sitting with Pointlessness – Living with Potentiality

With Vince Cullen recorded on October 16, 2022.

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

During a recent retreat, the teachers’ instruction was to hold the question ‘What is this?’ in mind. While sitting on the cushion, the thought struck me that my life is futile! I am genetically programmed for survival and sex; everything else is just distracting window-dressing. This talk will explore the journey from the apparent ‘futility’ of human existence to the ‘fertility’ of human experience; the crossing from pointlessness to potentiality.

Click here to access a PDF with quotes and references that may be of further interest.

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

Tags: liberation

Discussion

5 thoughts on “Sitting with Pointlessness – Living with Potentiality

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • The Beauty of Being

    Leela says: “Over the years my interest in awakening has be reformulated as how to be a real human being. In this session I invite you to explore, with me, the possibility of being grounded in the natural goodness of being. We will inquire how to live a full life from the ground of presence,…

    Read More

  • The Path of the Bodhisattva: Choosing a Life of Kindness

    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,…

    Read More

  • Befriending the emotions.

    So often we struggle because we’re resisting, fixing, changing, or even “transcending” our experiences. What shifts when instead of pushing our emotions away, we invite them closer in? What changes when we learn to relate to our emotions like a welcoming friend? And, what changes when we are able to access the place in which…

    Read More

  • Jill Satterfield

    Apply as Needed; the Benefits of Skillful Means

    Becoming quiet allows for deeper listening – to the whispers of the body, heart and mind as parts of a whole and as harmonic convergence. How we tune our instruments depends on what we hear. Skillful means provide a variety of tools to self prescribe and address what is needed in the moment. We’ll practice…

    Read More

  • Vimalasara Mason-John

    Emptied Inside Out

    Vimalasara takes a look at some of the teachings that point to the insanity in life. Join her in taking a look at form, feelings, perception, mental formation and consciousness, and discovering every day that we can be reminded of the meaninglessness of these mental constructions.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of April 6

    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. View the text for the daily chants Martin offers this week Monday, April 6 Wednesday, April 8 Demands, defences…

    Read More

  • Bringing the world into the heart.

    What does it mean to bring the world into the heart? In these divided times, for those of us practicing peace, for those of us dedicated to liberation, we’ve been offered a grand opportunity to accept what we haven’t been willing to accept. To give what we haven’t been able to give. To love what…

    Read More