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

The Human Face of the Buddha

With Pamela Weiss recorded on February 28, 2021.

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

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.

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

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Kaira Jewel Lingo

    There is no Way to Peace, Peace is the Way

    As the planet heats up, and hostilities flare between groups and nations, how do we touch and embody the possibility of peace, right here and now? Peace in the future is founded on peace in the present moment. The same is true of justice, and liberation. These are not things we have to wait for…

    Read More

  • Stephen Fulder

    What Exists Beyond Our Boundaries?

    Spiritual practice is often a journey to discover spaciousness, openness and absorption into everything else. From form to formless. From more spaciousness in the mind to subtle and beautiful limitless states that are clearly described in the Buddhist tradition such as the four formless jhanas or realms. We will explore and practice these states and…

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Light on the path: pleasure, joy, fulfilment and free-ness.

    Our founding and guiding teacher Martin Aylward reflects on the importance of being nourished and uplifted by our practice. He looks at the nature of happiness and our sometimes difficult relationship with pleasure; explore opening up to joy, and point to ways in which dharma practice is fulfilling and freeing.

    Read More

  • Juha Penttilä

    Exploring Vastness of Awareness Practice

    In this session we’ll explore opening to the practices of vastness of awareness. Through listening and sensing we will open up to a sense of spaciousness and explore letting go within it.

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    The Power of Surrender

    The spiritual path requires our surrender – again and again. We surrender story, striving, preoccupation, and the illusion of separate self. We surrender all that is not Love. How do we remember the power of surrender alongside resistance? How do we recognize the emergent ground of Trust while navigating the unknown? How can the liminality…

    Read More

  • Scott Tusa

    Living From a Sense of Call and Response

    Deep listening goes beyond merely using our ears; it encompasses engaging our eyes, hearts, and bodies as well. As practitioners of meditation, we can also learn to listen with mindful awareness. In this session, we will explore how call and response, a musical concept, also applies to meditation and our daily interactions. Join us, and…

    Read More

  • Jessica Morey

    The seven factors of awakening.

    Jessica discusses the seven factors of awakening (mindfulness, tranquility/relaxation, piti/joy, concentration, investigation, viriya/courageous energy, equanimity) and how to work with them in meditation practice to balance the mind and support insight through specific meditative techniques.

    Read More