Freedom is a central concern of all our lives, yet has many different manifestations, some of which run completely contrary to others. This class will explores the importance of social freedoms, inner freedom, personal and collective freedoms. We explore how different perspectives on free-ness shape how we practice; and how we understand life and our own unfolding awakening in the midst of the complex world we inhabit and share.
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Who Knows Best?: Exploring the Judging Mind
Recorded :
July 14, 2024 In this Sunday Sangha session, we will address the common tendencies to judge and compare. Wise discernment is useful, but excessive comparing and compulsive judging can harm relationships, obscure the clarity of perception, and thwart spiritual development. This session includes practical suggestions for calming a harsh inner critic, while encouraging critical and thoughtful inquiry. (Please…
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Waking down
Recorded :
November 26, 2017 Rather than waking up it seems that most of us need to wake down. How can our insights and the awakening process move from being primarily experiential to becoming functional, relational, and lived? In this session Leela explores spiritual practice as a fundamentally earthly practice. How do we awake a presence that does not contract…
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Samadhi: The Reliable Path to Wisdom, Joy and Happiness
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June 9, 2024 Samadhi is the art of nourishing, gathering, and collecting the heart. Highly regarded by the Buddha, this practice relies on honesty and wisdom, reliably leading to joy and happiness, and inclines the heart towards the depth of the path. In this session, we will open a door to cultivating this skill.
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Understanding and developing Citta (heart-mind)
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January 28, 2018 All schools of Buddhism acknowledge that the development of Citta is an essential aspect of the awakening process. Within classical Mindfulness teachings, it encompasses the entirely of the third foundation of practice. At its core, it encourages us to recognize the presence and absence of greed, hatred and delusion. In its fruition it points to…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of February 20, 2023
This week’s topic is Subtilising Experience. The Dharma is a path to awakening. Our experience becomes more liberated as we awaken. Similarly, we can notice that our life progresses from the gross to the more subtle in awakening. A path of awakening freedom, then, is a path of subtilising: from perceptions of self and things in the world to space-time and even awareness, all phenomena transition from rigid and gross to fluid and refined, all the way to barely here at all.
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The Power of Self-Compassion
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June 11, 2023 Most people are more compassionate toward others than themselves when things go wrong. However, burgeoning research shows that self-compassion is good for everybody. Fortunately, it can be learned. How can we seamlessly bring self-compassion into meditation practice and daily life? What are two secrets about self-compassion practice that make all the difference?
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On Meeting Conflict and the Incompatible
Recorded :
December 11, 2023 “When you can’t go forward, when you can’t go back, and when you can’t stand still – where do you go? This is your place of non-abiding. The things you love and the things you hate: these are your teachers.” – Ajahn Chah How do we perceive conflict? We often see it as disturbing, but…
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Embodying cultural diversity: dancing with the basket of virtue
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July 2, 2017 Our Sangha has been predominately white since it branched off from the Asian countries. This Dharma talk offers a path for deeper inquiry and greater insight into how we can embody cultural diversity. The Eight Noble Truths will guide us toward a healthier way of conducting ourselves in the arena of cultural diversity, taking a…
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