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

Search Sangha Live

The practice of pleasure and delight (or the spiritual art of having fun).

With Martin Aylward recorded on April 22, 2018.

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

Dharma teachings importantly emphasise suffering, compassion, renunciation, desire, non-reactivity, peacefulness. All these are potent themes, yet ones which can make our practice feel overly heavy, unnecessarily serious, maybe even uptight!

Dharma practice equally points us towards a playful nature, light-heartedness and ease, delight and the capacity to really enjoy life. Especially when we can get bogged down in the circumstantial reality of both our personal struggles and of world affairs, we need uplift for the heart. Joy as resilience. A buoyant heart, that though it may get pushed under, cannot be sunk.

In this class, our founding teacher Martin reflects on ways to cultivate that buoyancy, to explore our capacity for pleasure, to enjoy the gift of life.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Cultivating self-compassion

    Recorded : May 21, 2017

    So many of us struggle with self-hatred and self-judgment. Self-compassion is so deeply needed in these times, and brings together mindfulness, loving kindness practices, and a recognition of our shared humanity. This session explores the cultivation of this core set of practices.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 10 February, 2025

    We’re honored to have Martin Aylward offering our Daily Meditation sessions this week. We hope they are nourishing for your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Loving What Is (Whether You Like It Or Not)

    A week of exploring different dimensions of loving awareness, and how we can bring our heart to transforming our experience and understanding

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

    Read More

  • Christelle Bonneau

    The beauty of the spontaneous movement of life

    Recorded : July 23, 2017

    Nowadays, for most of us, life is so full, so fast and dispersed in so many directions: jobs, partners, children, family, house, everyday duties, mobile phone, internet, responsibility, stress, tiredness, worries … and when we find a small space, we fill it with hobbies, friends, sports, TV and every other little thing we usually don’t…

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of 23 June, 2025

    We’re fortunate that Ulla Koenig has generously offered to lead our Daily Meditation sessions for this week. May they be of benefit to your practice.

    This week’s theme is: The Myth and Reality of Interconnection

    According to the Buddha’s teachings, nothing exists in isolation – everything is part of a constantly shifting web of relationships. This week, we’ll explore the deeper, and sometimes challenging reality of interconnection beyond spiritual clichés. Through reflection and practice, we’ll develop a grounded, practical approach to living this insight in everyday life.

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

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings with Nathan Glyde – Week of January 29, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Getting A Feel For Feeling”. As we perceive, we add a feeling (vedanā) to our experience. When we are unaware of this process and react to the projected feeling, it causes unnecessary suffering (dukkha). However, understanding this process and responding skilfully leads to one of the deepest senses of freedom available. Let’s explore this freedom through our daily meditations this week.

    Read More

  •

    Climate Code Red

    Recorded : November 7, 2021

    However challenging, we are in these times because we need to be here. We are here to release from what no longer serves and to infuse a new story with clear, wise, conscious intention; a story about building our collective resilience as we rise, with compassion, to save what we can.

    Read More