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 in contact with experience? It is an invitation to explore what it means to awaken a belly presence that makes us truly embodied and that potentially embraces and integrates our instinctual nature: our social, sexual and survival drive.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
When in doubt breathe out: the power of the breath to ease pain and other contracted states.
Recorded :
April 16, 2017 In this talk Vidyamala discusses how most of us hold the breath whenever we are in pain or other difficult states. She leads a ‘whole body’ breathing meditation followed by input on how to rest in the flow of the breath as a way to learn to rest in the flow of life and let…
-
The Wisdom of No Escape
Recorded :
February 16, 2020 Our lives include facing things we didn’t choose, and often cannot change; such as getting ill or injured, or loosing something or someone that we love. Dharma teachings invite us to turn towards these, instead of turning away from them. What is the wisdom that is available to us when we meet our experience with…
-
-
Surrendering to awareness.
Recorded :
April 10, 2016 Often in spiritual practice there is the encouragement to observe. From that place of observation we attempt to “be with” what arises. When does that intention get colonized by the ego? Who is it that is “being with”? What is it that is “being with”? What shifts in our practice when we surrender what is…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Milla Gregor – Week of 11 November, 2024
This week’s theme is: Warm Solitude, Beautiful Nature
There are many ways to be solitary, whether alone or in company. How might we cultivate a warm, friendly solitude? Nature is beautiful, both ‘out there’ and ‘in here’. How might we appreciate and support nature’s beauty? This week we’ll explore these questions together through practice, reflection and experiment.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christopher Titmuss – Week of 17 November, 2025
We’re delighted that Christopher Titmuss is guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. We hope you find them enriching for your practice.
This week’s theme is: Going Beyond the World
Dharma practitioners tend to spend much time giving attention to practise. This is a worthwhile endeavour but it seems to go on and on until death. We can conclude that practice means improving the quality of our life, reducing suffering in our lives and showing kindness and compassion to others. Yes, this is significant. It is a credit to dedicated practitioners committed to exploration of such experiences as a way of life. This is not the core purpose of the Dharma but an important preparation for Going Beyond the World.
We have to understand what we mean by the world and going beyond the world.
In these five sessions, we will explore the core purpose in diverse ways. Talks, guided meditations and Q&A form the backbone of the inquiry. Every session will offer everyday examples of the theme of the session to enable seeing the world and confirming going beyond the world.Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ayala Gill – Week of 02 June, 2025
We’re delighted to have Ayala Gill guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: The Body is a Doorway to Love
Through relating to the elements of the body, we cultivate a presence that is grounded, awake, open, relaxed and spacious.
As the body becomes a more stable home for the heart and mind, everything settles and softens back to its natural state of aliveness and love.Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
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.
Discussion