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

The Paradox of Being: Alive & Aware

With Eugene Cash recorded on February 17, 2019.

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

“The World is its Own Magic” – Suzuki Roshi

As we practice and our understanding deepens, we’re often surprised by paradox. We begin to discover what the Laṅkāvatāra Sutra pointed to: Things are not what they seem… Nor are they otherwise. We intuitively know that there is more to life/reality then the usual, the familiar and the ordinary. Part of what draws us to spirituality is an inherent understand that this ordinary reality is true and it is the ground of the extraordinary. We’ll look, examine, and see what we experience and what’s experiencing our experience as we practice together. It might be possible to see if when we’re present and aware, life is its own magic.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Pamela Weiss

    The Human Face of the Buddha

    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…

    Read More

  • Breathe! Delight in Meditation

    How can we delight in our meditation? Learning to bring loving awareness to the breath, feeling the ebb and flow in real time as we sit quietly, is an art. The key is in our approach. Sometimes in practicing mindfulness of breathing, there can be an over-emphasis or insistence on focusing attention that drives delight…

    Read More

  • 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

  • JD Doyle

    Practicing the Middle Way: Navigating Between Extremes

    The Buddha invites us to travel the Middle Path, between extremes. How do we navigate this path that leads to knowledge, understanding and liberation? We practice with mindfulness and kindness to meet our day to day experiences and our conditioning: societal, familial, cultural, and historical. Inviting in curiosity and diligence, we learn to practice to…

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of 06 April, 2026

    This week’s theme is: The Spiral Path

    Practice often unfolds in spirals rather than straight lines. The path includes phases of clarity and confusion, opening and contraction. Again and again it turns and circles back. This week, we will explore how trust in the path can grow through these cycles, as we keep returning to awareness, patience, and the unfolding of the Dharma.

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

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    Overcoming obstacles.

    Worldwide Insight talk from Shaila Catherine: “Overcoming Obstacles”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.

    Read More