The extremes of addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self-mortification are not the path to happiness. The spectrum of human sensuality spans from pleasure to pain, pleasant to unpleasant, from hedonic excesses to self-harm, encompassing a vast range that is likely different for everyone. What is considered the Middle Way for a monastic might be different and some distance, as it were, from the Middle Way practised by a layperson.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 8, 2021
This week’s topic is The Freedom of an Unassuming Mind.
The Buddha used the image of a tangled and knotted thread to represent the complex roots of human suffering and distress. It takes sensitivity, persistence, and care to disentangle the tangle of ‘dukkha’. A tricky part of this is that our assumptions about the world radically shape the way the world appears, while remaining quite hidden to us. Fortunately, wisdom teachings and practices bring assumptions into view and support the untying of these unseen knots, opening us into a wide and free existence.
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The Energy of Presence
Recorded :
March 12, 2023 This session explores ways that qigong, a Chinese energy cultivation practice, can deepen our embodied presence. There is discussion, intention-led movement and meditation to help ground our awareness, free up blockages and discover ways to open to our natural vitality. All levels of experience and abilities welcome, and options for limited mobility and seated qigong are shared.
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When Life Throws Curve Balls: Exploring Groundlessness and Freedom
Recorded :
February 13, 2022 Right now, holding certainty about many aspects of life is impossible. Together we explore how our practice can support us when not knowing feels groundless and how we can find freedom even when the rug is pulled out from under our feet.
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This Is What We Are: Foam, Bubbles, Mirage, Banana Tree Trunks and Magical Shows
Recorded :
January 22, 2023 In this session, we will explore the Buddha’s wise use of images in the Phena Sutta. We will see how these are representations of the deepest teachings of Insight Meditation and how they can be relevant for us today in our quest to free the mind and heart from constriction. There will be time to practice together guided by Pascal and time for questions and beginning of answers.
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Warrior heart: transforming anger into strength, dynamism and creativity
Recorded :
October 8, 2017 Dharma teachings point to how dangerous and destructive anger is, and how words and actions can cause great suffering. This class looks at skilful means for meeting and exploring anger, and for understanding and transforming it. Martin leads a specially oriented meditation, and his talk explores the inner strength and confidence which can arise from…
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How can I Sink when I am the Ocean?
Recorded :
June 10, 2018 In this session we explore more precisely the different individuals we think we are through the days. We will try to recognize them better, with their own feelings, sensations, emotions, thoughts and states of mind. We’ll also try to hear more clearly all the different judgemental voices that take place in us, about the way…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 8 July, 2024
This week’s topic is “Love and Letting Go: Meeting Life Spaciously and Graciously”. Join us for a series of Daily Meditations where we’ll discover how to meet life with openness and grace. Together, we will explore the profound dance between love and letting go, and cultivate a spacious presence that embraces our experiences with tenderness and wisdom.
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A Global Crisis. The Wisdom of Action while Living with Uncertainty
Recorded :
May 31, 2020 The Mind/Body Crisis provides an opportunity to wake up or live in fear and despair. Are our politicians, billionaires, pharmaceutical industry, food industry, and scientists fit for purpose?Change is required. Inner and Outer. Radical. Unprecedented.Are we fit for purpose?What do we have to offer?
Discussion