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

Search Sangha Live

Two Wings to Fly – Cultivating Both Wisdom and Compassion

With Nina La Rosa recorded on July 25, 2021.

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

In traditional Theravada Buddhism it’s said that for one to truly experience freedom one needs to engage in the practices of both wisdom and compassion. Like a bird that needs two wings to fly, wisdom and compassion are two necessary parts on the path to a well-rounded enlightenment.

At first glance, practices that cultivate loving-kindness might seem quite different from those that develop insight. In this session we’ll explore a powerful practice that nurtures goodness in both the mind and heart.

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

Tags: compassion equanimity wisdom

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Sitting with Pointlessness – Living with Potentiality

    Recorded : October 16, 2022

    During a recent retreat, the teachers’ instruction was to hold the question ‘What is this?’ in mind. While sitting on the cushion, the thought struck me that my life is futile! I am genetically programmed for survival and sex; everything else is just distracting window-dressing. This talk will explore the journey from the apparent ‘futility’…

    Read More

  • Miles Kessler

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of 21 July, 2025

    We’re grateful to have Miles Kessler guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and enrich your practice. This week’s theme is: Dharma Practice in a Polarized World: Moving from Dissonance to Resonance and Coherence. In this week of Daily Meditations, you are invited to join Miles in an exploration into how our inner conflicts mirror our relational conflicts, and how our relational conflicts mirror the conflicts we see in the world. You will learn how your practice evolving on the cushion is the same process for healing conflicts in the world.

    Read More

  •

    How Family and Work Shape Our Character and so Influence Our Path

    Recorded : May 24, 2020

    Gregory writes: “Obviously our Dhamma practices infuse our lives (if not, something is amiss). We don’t usually talk about how this flows the other direction: the qualities we develop in our personal and professional lives strongly impact our Buddhist path. That’s what I’ll be speaking about, drawing examples from my own life in music, inventing,…

    Read More

  • Brian Dean Williams

    The Power of Connection

    Recorded : October 10, 2021

    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,…

    Read More

  • Stephen Fulder

    The Dharma on the front lines: how to work with conflict.

    Recorded : February 26, 2017

    Peace sometimes feels impossible to find. It is there for a while then something happens and conflict or friction returns. It may be conflict with ourselves, in relationships to people close to us, at our work place, or between social groups. Often we can feel despaired that despite much dharma practice and meditation, conflict keeps…

    Read More

  • Daigan Gaither

    Exploring Practice: What it is, and Why we do it

    Recorded : September 17, 2023

    What does it mean to practice? The term carries many interpretations and meanings. In this session, we won’t offer what practice should or shouldn’t mean for you; instead, we’ll embark on a journey of exploration. We’ll discover how each of us can find our practice in every moment.

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of May 1, 2023

    This week’s topic is “A Path of Wisdom and Compassion”. Practicing Insight Meditation supports an understanding of how wellbeing is nourished, and how ill-being is conditioned. Attending to our own heart and mind with compassion and wisdom opens possibilities of freedom. Over this week of practice, we’ll develop wisdom and compassion, exploring creative responses to habits that appear to obscure these beautiful qualities.

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Groundlessness: Letting Go Into the Unknown

    Recorded : January 26, 2025

    Pema Chödrön writes, “It’s not impermanence per se, or knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation.” The truth of impermanence means that ultimately there is nothing we can rely on for lasting happiness. We will investigate the underlying feeling…

    Read More