Life is never only good or only bad, pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable, just or unjust. Cultivating a wide spacious perspective within the reality of uncertainty gives rise to a bigger capacity to meet our lives more gently, kindly, and clearly, with more stability and more love. Join us as we explore perspectives and practices to help integrate the everyday experience of impermanence with steadiness, balance, and equanimity.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of May 8, 2023
This week’s theme is “Shedding Light on Darkness”. In the Buddhist tradition, we find three psycho-physical dynamics which bring together suffering, stress and dissatisfaction. Beside aggression and wanting, the root of moha, often translated as ignorance, delusion or blindness, can be tricky to understand and practice. What are we blind to? What do we need to see and understand? How can we potentially see our blind spots? How can we prepare ourselves for that which we might discover? We dedicate this week of practice to discovering the different aspects of ignorance and learn practical steps to look deeply yet with kind eyes.
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How Does Meditation Support the Path of Awakening?
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December 15, 2019 Scientists have documented some significant and measurable changes that occur as a result of meditation. But Buddhist practice is not limited to calm, pleasant, relaxing states of meditation. The liberating path includes a broad range of practices that produce a wide variety of benefits. We learn how we encounter the world of the senses; we…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of June 12, 2023
This week’s topic is “All We All Need”. Meditation can be compared to an artist’s studio or an experimenter’s laboratory where we create what is necessary for well-being: connection, kindness, peace… What a wonderful blessing! Moreover, this is not just a gift we give to ourselves. Because of interdependence, we also provide what is essential for all beings.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of January 15, 2024
This week’s theme is “Tending to Fire – An Exploration of the Third Noble Truth”. The third of the four noble truths, which the Buddha offered as a framework, invites us to reflect on ways to tend to the inner fires or urges, which we all experience. ‘Nirodha’ is a concept which invites us to explore ways to handle that fire: to contain it, to create safe space around it and not to fuel it further, so that it eventually expires. This week, we explore concepts like ‘freedom of/from/to’ as well as letting go and letting be.
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Soften the hard places: opening our hearts to those we find difficult
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May 5, 2019 The teacher Neem Karoli Baba said, “Don’t throw anyone out of your heart.” What about people who have hurt us, or are currently hurting us or others? In this session we explore together practices that help us to transform our resentment, fear and anger toward these difficult people, and learn to open our hearts to…
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Transforming the poisons.
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October 4, 2015 Buddha points out the three main ways we get pulled into activity and self-contraction – Greed, Hatred and Delusion – which Martin often translates as Desire, Defense and Distraction. This class explores creative ways of meeting these forces in everyday life, and explores powerful reflections for each of the three.
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Fierce & Tender: The Dance of Self-Compassion
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July 5, 2026 True Self-Compassion is more than just gentle comfort; it is a dynamic balance of nurturing care and protective, motivating strength. While the tender side soothes our pain, the fierce dimension provides the courage to stand up for our needs and take…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of Nov 15, 2022
This week’s topic is Kindle the Flame. Metta practice, which nourishes the heart’s capacity for friendliness, brings many benefits. It softens our relationship to ourselves, nourishes us with a sense of connection, puts challenges into perspective and offers a safe ground from which we can meet life with a sense of care. We dedicate this week to (re)ignite the flame of metta, using as an inspiration the Karaṇīyamettā Sutta, a famous discourses of the Buddha.
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