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

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of 20 January, 2025

    We’re grateful to have Zohar Lavie guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and enrich your practice.

    This week’s theme is: The Power of Refuge: Dharma for our Times

    Refuge is a practice of intimacy. Coming closer to the present moment experience, we open to it as a gateway to wisdom and compassion.
    During this week we will explore the breadth and depth of refuge practice; from taking refuge in the teachings as a place of rejuvenation and rest, to transforming suffering and its causes for all beings

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Norman Blair

    Settling Into Your Body In Meditation – December 2023

    Finding a comfortable body posture when meditating is a crucial element in our practice. We can use our bodies as a way of experiencing change and impermanence. Each time is different. In this session we will be looking at ways to make our bodies comfortable for meditation – both standing (if appropriate for your body)…

    Read More

  • Kaira Jewel Lingo

    Staying Open Through Change, Loss and Disruption

    When we are faced with suffering and uncertainty or life becomes overwhelming we can tense up, resist or try to control. But when we open and let go in the midst of change and release expectations we get in touch with enormous possibility and a powerful freedom.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Love for the world

    In our last class of 2017, our guiding teacher Martin offers reflections on life, love and liberation, looking particularly at some of the challenging events and elements of worldly life, and pointing towards a skilful, loving and courageous engagement with the world and everyone in it.

    Read More

  • Expanding our Understanding of Loving Kindness Practice

    Many of us have habitual ways of practicing loving kindness (metta), Some of us love loving kindness practice, and others find kindness practice difficult, or merely routine. Join Diana to explore a more expansive approach to loving kindness where we learn at least three different types of kindness practice. We’ll discover the roots of these…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Caverly Morgan – Week of April 20

    We’re very grateful to have Caverly Morgan hosting our Daily Meditation Series for North America. To find out more about Caverly, and to view her past recordings and contributions to Sangha Live, click here. Monday, April 20 Freeing the body from perceived limitation Wednesday, April 22 Welcoming what is Friday, April 24 Acceptance as a…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of May 23, 2022

    This week’s topic is An Enigma Inside A Mystery. We typically freeze in amazement or feverishly search for causes when we suffer dukkha (life’s tension). We’ve probably all experienced how these reactions exacerbate the problem. The Buddha taught that dukkha is a puzzle that can be solved: it doesn’t have to be a mystery. We can learn the resolution that brings us from bewilderment to marvellous release by paying quiet attention to the pattern of the difficulty.

    Read More