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

When Less is More

With Jaya Julienne Ashmore recorded on April 8, 2018.

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

Gautam Buddha said he gained nothing from complete awakening. What are our everyday experiences of the magic of less? Trying less does not mean less energy, connection or insight. How little effort is needed to hear a sound or to feel the ground? Simply listening to a friend with ease and no answers can leave room for profound breakthrough. Enjoying moments when “it’s not about me,” moments of silence, or living close to the land…. Perhaps “less” does not need to trigger a sense of lack. We might just be tasting an open mind and our path towards awakening.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Sophie Boyer

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of Nov 13, 2023

    This week’s topic is “Entering Fall”. The autumn season can be a challenging (transitional) time of the year with darkness, rain, wind, mist, and a sense that the cycle of life is coming slowly to an end. Paradoxically, nature also offers intense scents and colors before heading into the coldness and barrenness of winter. This week is an invitation to experience autumn within us. A time to bring the mind momentarily to a stop and explore what can nurture and provide a refuge for the heart. Let’s explore the sparkling colors of autumn’s heart and mind together.

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Awakening Joy: Practice as a Path of Happiness

    Joy is both a Factor of Enlightenment and one of the four Divine Abodes. Today, as we are bombarded with news that heightens our fear and sadness about the world, more than ever it’s vital to understand the importance of joy as a central aspect of spiritual practice. We need to remember how to stay…

    Read More

  • Emily Horn

    The Phases of Insight

    Similar to the phases of the moon, our spiritual practice is full of natural rhythms and seasons. In this session we will learn a simple chart, called the phases of insight, that supports recognizing what can unfold at various points in meditation. By learning these patterns we can open our hearts with more confidence, and attune to…

    Read More

  • Eugene Cash

    Not Clinging to Anything in the World

    These words, spoken by the Buddha in the Satipatthana Sutta, point us to the potential for awakening inherent in mindfulness practice. Even now, in the midst of the pandemic of Covid-19, we can explore what it means to live a life of love, commitment and authenticity as we discover the freedom of not clinging to…

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    The Wisdom of the Body

    While we might think of the body as flesh and blood, there is so much more to this mortal coil. The body in fact may be our deepest teacher. In this session, we explore how to listen to the wisdom of the body and realize its potential to guide us to groundedness, self-honesty, presence and wisdom.

    Read More

  • Justine Dawson

    Dharma, Desire and Eros

    Eros is life force, the energy that animates our being. Eros fills our spiritual life with vitality, our minds with creativity, our ideas with embodiment and our relating with rich intimacy. To live full lives we need access to eros; without it we become dry, rigid, flacid and withholding. Yet what place does it have…

    Read More

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    The Wisdom of the Body

    If you seek to deepen in your meditation practice, there is no better friend than the body. Like a venerable teacher, the body has the power to draw you into the present moment, show you how to find stillness and even—if you listen closely—wake you up.

    Read More