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.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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Cabbages & Condoms
Recorded :
October 24, 2021 During this session we be explore life’s basic necessities and drives, and the critical difference between ‘getting along’ and ‘getting ahead.’ Our meditation practice will be based on the Wise-Heartedness Bhavana to help us cultivate skilful response to distractions in daily life. A transcript of this session is available here.
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Mindful Inquiry: A Path of Freedom and Joyful Responsibility
Recorded :
January 20, 2019 Mindful Inquiry is the path of asking the question that points to freedom. This practice can support even long-time practitioners to find more relief from suffering and clarity about the ever-present wholeness of True Nature. A good teacher can point the way, but it is up to each of us to take responsibility for our…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of October 18, 2021
This week’s theme is: The Abundant Middle-Way.
The Buddha in his last steps of awakening turned away from austerities and the practiced hardships he had endured. He did not turn back to the indulgences of his youth, but uncovered a kind and sensitive middle-way between a sense of self-importance and self-negation. The awakened one then invited others to a way of living between common extremes of views, states, and habitual actions.
This week we will walk the path of peace supporting the deep well-being and boundless heart of the middle-way.
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The Dharma of Displacement: Finding Sacred Ground Amidst Groundlessness
Recorded :
June 29, 2025 We live in a time when so many beings – human and more-than-human – are being physically displaced – by climate events, wars, aggressive deportations, and more. This mirrors an internal collective experience of disorientation and displacement. To find ground in the midst of accelerated change is our practice. In this Sunday insight gathering we…
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This Dharma I Have Reached
Recorded :
March 4, 2018 Without a doubt, Buddhism is recognized as one of the world’s great religions. For almost three millennia these ancient teachings have spread rapidly around the globe influencing humanity in a variety of ways. Needless to say, the historic Buddha, (Siddharta Gotama) did not teach Buddhism, he taught the Dharma as a means to overcome suffering…
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Danna / Generosity: It’s More than Just the Talk at the end of the Retreat
Recorded :
November 17, 2024 Generosity, be it material or spiritual is universal across cultures and spiritual practices. In today’s talk we explore Buddhist and other teachings, as well as deeper neuroscience behind why generosity makes us happier and more resilient, even touching on whether science can validate karma as it relates to kindness and generosity. We’ll take the time…
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An Open Heart in Hell
Recorded :
September 4, 2022 After a summer of extreme heat, drought and fire, we may well enter the autumn wondering how to manage the grief at our fragile and collapsing ecology. Taking the title An Open Heart in Hell from Nick Mulvey’s recent song “Prayer of my Own“, we’ll use this session to honour the pains of the heart without getting…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ayala Gill – Week of March 18, 2024
This week’s topic is “Love’s Flavours and Flow”. Love never leaves us. It’s already here in each thought, sight, taste, smell, sound, sensation and movement. Love is already here, resting beside each pain, celebrating each delight and expanding into the great unknown with infinite patience and warmth. Love effortlessly flows into giving and receiving, and mysteriously radiates in wordless Being. Love’s presence is known in the moment we choose to recognise, allow and participate in the dance of its ongoing flavours and flow.
