The pandemic has highlighted now, more than ever, how interconnected we are with life on this planet, and also the importance of human connection for us as social animals. The preciousness of relationship is at the heart of Buddhist teachings.
How can our meditation practice help us to remain connected and integrated with ourselves, others, and nature during these challenging times?
Link to poem by Joy Harjo that Brian reads at the start of the session.
This week’s topic is “Awakening into Experience Here and Now”. “You shouldn’t chase after the past
or place expectations on the future.
What is past
is left behind.
The future
is as yet unreached.
Whatever quality is present
you clearly see right there,
right there.
Not taken in,
unshaken,
that’s how you develop the heart.” (MN 131)
The essence of the Buddha’s teachings lies in these words. Unshakability and freedom are at the heart of awakening, they are what we cultivate in our practice. This week we will practice turning to our experience in ways that wake us up, right here and now.
Recorded :
In the best of circumstances the path of life is a bumpy road. The practice of embodied presence opens the possibility to understand and transform our habits of dissatisfaction and distraction, and invites spaciousness and openness in our day-to-day lives. Becoming intimate, moment by moment, with living reality may expand our life-perspective and attune us…
We’re delighted to have Christopher Titmuss guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: Liberation Of The Heart
Join Christopher Titmuss for a week exploring the Brahma Viharas – the Immeasurable Ways of Being.
The Brahma Viharas, traditionally known as Divine Abidings, point to something boundless in our human experience. While Brahma literally means “God,” its deeper root meaning is “Immeasurable.” The Buddha taught four specific ways to dwell in this immeasurable space: through radical love, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.
Over five morning sessions, Christopher will offer an overview of these teachings and explore each of these profound ways of abiding. By radical, we mean getting to the very root of what matters most.
Whether you come with an open heart or a closed one, whether you’re new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner – all are welcome to join these transformative sessions.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
This week’s theme is: Less Stuck Than We Think
When we find ourselves feeling stuck, it may be that we are less so than we think. Even in circumstances beyond our control, there is some possibility of agency and freedom. These daily sessions will support us to find the ground under our feet and investigate ways we stick to experiences and they to us, and what we can do to set ourselves free.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
Recorded :
When a monk asked the 10th Century Zen master Yunmen, “What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?” Yunmen replied, “An appropriate response.” What is this appropriate response and how do we know we’ve got it right? Beyond linear formulas, Dharma teachings point to a natural intelligence that guides us in a spontaneous responsiveness to life….
This week’s theme is “Embodied Metta – The Body as a Pathway to Freedom”.
The Buddha’s teachings invite us to be with things as they are. This week, we’ll learn embodiment practices to help us cultivate true love, compassion and care for ourselves and for others. We’ll practice staying intimate with our body, mind and heart in daily life, in sexuality, and with (often unwanted) thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Recorded :
Becoming quiet allows for deeper listening – to the whispers of the body, heart and mind as parts of a whole and as harmonic convergence. How we tune our instruments depends on what we hear. Skillful means provide a variety of tools to self prescribe and address what is needed in the moment. We’ll practice…
This week’s theme is: Identifying the Many Masks of the Inner Critic
Often we think of the inner critic as the constant nagging inner discourse which dismisses our good qualities, questions our lovability, and our potential for goodness. Being a master/mistress of disguise, the inner critic takes on many forms; it wraps our decision making process in veils of doubt, pushes us into compulsive activity, traps us in paralysis, and distorts our views on others.
Luckily, the Dharma path offers us tools to meet this painful heart-mind dynamic. This week we will practice summoning qualities like wisdom, kindness, equanimity, concentration, appreciation, compassion and inquiry, in order to meet our inner critic in a skilful way.