Awakening to Life means harmonizing our values and our actions. Many of us merely go through the motions, sleepwalking through the hours, without actually feeling alive. Cultivating courage and joy entails slowing down, paying close attention, and practicing being fully engaged with what each moment has to offer. Koshin Sensei will share Zen teachings and down to earth contemplative practices designed to bring freshness, vitality, and curiosity to everyday life. Whether you are familiar with Zen Buddhism or simply open-minded, you can wake up to your life.
With Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison recorded on March 23, 2025.
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Embracing the First Noble Truth: Dukkha and Destructive Emotions
Recorded :
January 24, 2021 Coming to terms with the teaching and implications of the first noble truth can be challenging, confusing and ongoing. When we are unable to do the hard work of completing the task of the first truth, to embrace Dukkha, we become vulnerable to destructive emotions.
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Not Knowing is Most Intimate
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November 19, 2023 The Buddha spoke often about the danger of clinging to views and opinions. He recommended we avoid clinging, even to the dharma and to “right view.” In a world increasingly torn apart by our adherence to differing viewpoints, how do we navigate the tension between knowing and not knowing? Our exploration will draw from the…
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Working with Stress and Fear
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July 17, 2022 Not all stress is bad. Yet without mindful awareness, anticipatory stress may spiral into reactivity, paralyzing fear and suffering. How do we meet this stress mindfully, use it skilfully, then let go?
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Leela Sarti – Week of Nov 8, 2021
This week’s theme is “Deepening Heart Presence: Life, Dukkha, and Beyond”. We need heart presence in order to digest life experience. It takes a lot of heart to live with integrity, sensitivity and openness. Awakening compassion, courage, and kindness helps us embrace the challenges and the sorrow of life. This week we explore the possibility of being grounded in the depth of timeless presence in the midst of daily life. We will inquire how to live and love from silence and emptiness, being yourself in peace with others, and doing what needs to be done.
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Refuge and Resilience for Our Times
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December 8, 2019 In this session, Kittisaro looks at some essential ways the Dharma can help us find refuge and resilience in our fast-changing world.
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The Spectrum of Awareness Practices
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February 2, 2020 This session will explore different ways in which attention works and associated meditation practices: from focused awareness, to flexible awareness, to natural awareness. We’ll do a number of fun experiential practices in hopes of understanding a variety of ways to meditate and how we can refine our own practice. Diana draws from her latest…
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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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The beauty of the spontaneous movement of life
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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…
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