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

  • The nature and practice of right view.

    If there is one practice that defines the quality of the Buddha’s teachings, it is right view. This is a wisdom path. Right view is the beginning and ending of the path. Right view comes first among the eight path factors because it is needed for the entire path. Right view can be described as…

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    Lovingkindness in the Little Things

    In this session Shaila Catherine explored the practice and purpose of lovingkindness (mettā) meditation. She clarified what mettā is, and what mettā is not. Mettā is more than merely an antidote to apply on occasions when fear and ill will arise. Mettā can become a skillful and liberating way to experience all moments of life.

    Read More

  • Surrendering to awareness.

    Often in spiritual practice there is the encouragement to observe. From that place of observation we attempt to “be with” what arises. When does that intention get colonized by the ego? Who is it that is “being with”? What is it that is “being with”? What shifts in our practice when we surrender what is…

    Read More

  • Ralph Steele

    Being your own physician.

    Worldwide Insight talk from Ralph Steele: “Being Your Own Physician: Using the Four Noble Truths for Diagnosing, Cleansing and to support Embodiment”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    The Unguarded Heart: Meeting Anger and Resentment with Love and Forgiveness

    In this talk, we explore anger, resentment, jealousy, and other difficult emotions – learning how to see clearly and meet anger with true love and acceptance. We explore our misunderstandings about anger and learn how to cultivate the compassionate presence that offers a vast and courageous expression of love. Compassion’s perception of anger is more…

    Read More

  • Tenku Ruff Osho

    Not Knowing as an Active Practice

    We sometimes think of not knowing as something negative, but is it really? Truly not-knowing allows spaciousness, openness, and much greater intimacy. When we make not-knowing an intentional action, the barriers that hold us back from true intimacy begin to dissolve, offering much deeper connection with each other, and with the entire universe.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Leela Sarti – Week of 08 December, 2025

    This week’s theme is: Heart Ground

    Can we awaken an awareness that does not contract in contact with experience? Stabilized embodied awareness, heart presence, invites us to a territory that is often underappreciated: sacred neutrality. The ground of the heart.

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

    Read More