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

The Dharma of Homecoming in Times of Fear

With Lama Rod Owens recorded on July 26, 2020.

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

Maya Angelou once wrote: “The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” James Baldwin reflected: “Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” In The Wiz, Stephanie Mills sang: “When I think of home I think of place where there’s love overflowing.”

No matter how we think of home, it is a place that many of us need. The needing of a place called home is the needing to be in a place where we are safe and taken care of. Home is the experience of taking refuge in something that restores us through love. Homecoming is opening to how home is calling us into being held and cared for.

In this teaching, we will be moving through mindfulness practice, heart based practices, pranayama (energy breath practice), and benefactor practice to explore the profound path of homecoming in these times of fear and uncertainty.

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

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Wiebke Pausch

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Wiebke Pausch – Week of December 4, 2023

    This week’s topic is “Exploring the Art of Radical Rest”. Conditioned and surrounded by a restless culture, we are constantly driven towards self-optimisation and self-improvement. Our practice is often affected by the striving and the effort to become a perfect meditator. We will explore together how to rest in the midst of all that is unfinished and imperfect. When we allow ourselves to rest deeply, experience can unfold naturally and we come into contact with the very essence of being alive. 

    Read More

  • Martine Batchelor

    Mindfulness of sympathetic joy.

    Sympathetic Joy (mudita) is one of the four noble qualities recommended by the Buddha on the path of awakening. Such joy arises from appreciating the good fortune of self and others.

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    Belonging: The Dharma as a Journey to Connectedness

    Behavioral scientists have long known that human beings are wired for connection. But recent studies show that in the wake of the social isolation imposed by the Covid crisis, the world is experiencing a spike in loneliness. In such times of isolation — physical or felt — how can meditation help? What do the Buddha’s…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of June 12, 2023

    This week’s topic is “All We All Need”. Meditation can be compared to an artist’s studio or an experimenter’s laboratory where we create what is necessary for well-being: connection, kindness, peace… What a wonderful blessing! Moreover, this is not just a gift we give to ourselves. Because of interdependence, we also provide what is essential for all beings.

    Read More

  • Nina la Rosa

    Dismantling Racism in Our Minds and Hearts

    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…

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    Who Knows Best?: Exploring the Judging Mind

    In this Sunday Sangha session, we will address the common tendencies to judge and compare. Wise discernment is useful, but excessive comparing and compulsive judging can harm relationships, obscure the clarity of perception, and thwart spiritual development. This session includes practical suggestions for calming a harsh inner critic, while encouraging critical and thoughtful inquiry. (Please…

    Read More

  • Cultivating self-compassion

    So many of us struggle with self-hatred and self-judgment. Self-compassion is so deeply needed in these times, and brings together mindfulness, loving kindness practices, and a recognition of our shared humanity. This session explores the cultivation of this core set of practices.

    Read More