Most of us know the Buddha as a revered spiritual sage. Less is known about the person, Siddhartha Gautama, who was also a social revolutionary. In this talk, we will explore how Gautama upended the caste system in India and examine his problematic relationship to women. We’ll see how understanding the Buddha as a human being can help us illuminate and transform ourselves and current systems of racism, misogyny and oppression.
With Pamela Weiss recorded on February 28, 2021.
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Discover more from the Dharma Library
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The Power of Change
Recorded :
June 21, 2020 We wish for change. The time of the old is up. Its structures, habits and perspectives have lost their appeal. We sense the potential for something fresh to start. We can witness change. Feel victimized or beaten by it. Or find ways of empowerment and respond with wisdom. Meditation, mindfulness and reflection provide the tools…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of March 13 – 17, 2023
Daily meditations with Martin Aylward.
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Sunday Session with Yanai Postelnik
Recorded :
May 3, 2015 Worldwide Insight talk from Yanai Postelnik. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.
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Refuge, resilience and response in uncertain times
Recorded :
October 15, 2017 By now, we can consciously acknowledge that our planetary state of emergency and ineffectual political response is impacting and fast changing our Dharma curriculum. We are being mercilessly shaken awake while at the same time facing overwhelming uncertainties. In this session, Thanissara explores how the Dharma, its practices and guidelines, can come to our aid…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of 21 July, 2025
We’re grateful to have Miles Kessler guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and enrich your practice. This week’s theme is: Dharma Practice in a Polarized World: Moving from Dissonance to Resonance and Coherence. In this week of Daily Meditations, you are invited to join Miles in an exploration into how our inner conflicts mirror our relational conflicts, and how our relational conflicts mirror the conflicts we see in the world. You will learn how your practice evolving on the cushion is the same process for healing conflicts in the world.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of 28 October, 2024
We’re grateful to have Miles Kessler leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and enrich your practice.
This week’s theme is: Practicing Insight In Daily Life
The practice of mindfulness meditation automatically triggers off a series of developmental insights that gradually develop over time. But how do these “insights” appear in your daily life? In this week of daily meditation practice, Miles Kessler will lead you through an exploration of how the path of insight meditation unfolds on the cushion, but also in your daily life. Join Miles in this week of daily meditations and integrating the “Practicing Insight In Daily Life”.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of Jan 3, 2022
This week’s topic is: Beginning to See More Possibilities.
The Zen master, Shunryu Suzuki, said: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” With a beginner’s possibilities we can release our heart’s wholesome aspirations. Let’s engender a beginners spirit, and manifest our innate potential for freedom and well-being: embodying a saint’s patience to start again; an adventurer’s openness to step out of constricted views; and a creative’s zeal to reimagine ourselves and our world”
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The Individual-Relational Dharma Paradox and Why it Matters to Your Life
Recorded :
February 16, 2025 Biologically, psychologically, and in common sense there is no doubt that the human experience is both intrinsically individual and intrinsically relational. Our bodies are separate. You will never directly know my inner universe. Also, our bodies evolved to relate. The brain is a relational organ. Our sense of safety and joy, suffering and inquiry, has…