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

Search Sangha Live

The Beauty of Being

With Leela Sarti recorded on May 27, 2018.

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

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, and being yourself in peace with others.

A human life infused with natural beauty, a fulfilling life, means to develop a taste for certain values; a taste for truth, dignity, depth and simply being. These qualities are present all the time, you don’t have to achieve them, you just need to appreciate them and orient yourself towards them so that you allow yourself the time and opportunity for them to emerge.”

The poem Leela reads out is “Having loved enough” by Mark Nepo.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Pamela Weiss

    An Appropriate Response

    Recorded : July 9, 2017

    What does it take to respond rather than react to the increasing complexity and divisiveness of our world? This talk will explore Buddhist teachings that illuminate the sources of our fundamental reactivity, and reveal ways to help us see and see through it.

    Read More

  • Dave Smith

    Genuine Happiness: An Alternative Perspective

    Recorded : July 14, 2019

    So much of what we hear and learn about within Dharma practice places an arguably unnecessary emphasis on suffering (dukkha). While the acceptance of suffering (dukkha) is an important and essential aspect of the path, it is by no means the end of the story. In one of the Buddha’s oldest descriptions of what it…

    Read More

  •

    Moving Beyond the Myth of Loneliness

    Recorded : June 23, 2019

    What changes as we consciously turn toward our suffering, rather than away? We are conditioned to experience ourselves as separate from life, but in that outward gaze, we often overlook an experience of belonging that is inherent. How does our habit of seeking shift when we recognize that what we long for can never actually…

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christopher Titmuss – Week of 17 February, 2025

    We’re delighted to have Christopher Titmuss guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and deepen your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Deep Psychology Of Karma

    Join us as we explore the Buddha’s profound teachings on karma (kamma in Pali), a central aspect of Buddhist teaching that’s often misunderstood or overlooked. Christopher will guide us in examining karma not through abstract theory, but through our own direct experience and practice.

    Together, we’ll investigate the intimate connection between our intentions, actions, and their results – both in meditation and daily life. We’ll look deeply into what creates binding patterns of karma, both wholesome and unwholesome, and discover what actions can free us from these patterns altogether.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 16 February, 2026

    This week’s theme is: Going Gently Through the Dark

    A week of practice together, navigating both the darkness of winter and the inner states that can also feel dark, barren, wintry. A week of meditation and of community, of teachings and practice, or reminding ourselves of the preciousness and the possibilities of a flourishing human life.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  •

    Embodying Presence – the Deep Current

    Recorded : January 27, 2019

    A river of presence flows through all of life, connecting us with ourselves and each other and the essence of living. In this session, let’s open to a direct experience of this clear, wakeful presence. The practice of embodied, mindful meditation opens the possibility to understand and transform our habits of dissatisfaction and distraction and…

    Read More

  •

    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.

    Read More