Many people have encountered the Buddha’s teachings when learning to meditate. Many more people in the world, however, have learned about the Buddha through stories imparting lessons about how to live wisely. Why is there so much emphasis on meditation? What else is there in the teachings to support wise and ethical living?
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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Trusting Impermanence
Recorded :
April 16, 2023 ‘All things fall apart’ was the Buddha’s last teaching before passing away. How can we live peacefully with this universal and challenging truth? In this session, we’ll practice how attuning to change supports letting go.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Milla Gregor – Week of 26 May, 2025
We’re delighted to have Milla Gregor leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: Being Grounded: Five+ Ways
What is it, to feel grounded, for you? Contact with the earth, with fundamental interrelatedness, your body, values or lineage; with the histories of the land? What’s the opposite of being grounded? We’ll explore such ideas, grounding our reflections in embodied meditation practice.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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The dangers of selfie mindfulness.
Recorded :
March 13, 2016 There is a growing tendency to imply or assume that all suffering is self-created. This is a naïve, even dangerous, view, removed from the middle way. The view ignores the teachings of non-self and the emptiness of self. Does self-inquiry, self-acceptance, self-compassion, self-interest and promotion of the Self promote self-indulgence? Is it any wonder that…
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Monastic Practice, The Inner Way, and Contemporary Culture
Recorded :
July 12, 2026 Monasticism and the practice of the Inner Way are being transformed by contemporary culture. What is the ‘Way’ today? Is there such a thing as a ‘Natural-Way-of-Being’? And what is ‘Enlightenment’? In this talk, we will explore these questions, and how to…
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Simplicity: The Heart of the Dharma
Recorded :
July 21, 2024 Simplicity underlies Dharma practice. It’s common that when people begin to meditate, even if they have a full life with a job and family, they begin to realize that simplicity is a deep value. Pursuing conventional goals feels less meaningful or satisfying than finding ease and straightforwardness in our approach to life. Simplicity cuts across…
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Body and Heart: Qigong and Meditation for Harmony and Ease
Recorded :
November 3, 2024 Our heart’s experiences do not only affect our mental and emotional states. They also impact bodily experience, creating tension, tightness, spaciousness or ease. Likewise, our bodily experiences do not only generate physical sensations, but also inform and determine the energies of our heart. In this Sunday Sangha session, we will use qigong and meditation to…
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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 beingsOur Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with James Rafael – Week of January 8, 2024
This week’s topic is “New Year Habits and Hindrances”. In this week’s sessions we’ll explore how engaging with the Buddha’s teachings on the ‘5 Hindrances’ can help establish or deepen the habit of a daily meditation practice.
If you’re new to meditation, this framework offers ways to engage with common challenges we may face; “I can’t sit still’, “My mind is just too busy”, “I’m just not sure if this is working”.
If you have a consistent, established practice, revisiting the hindrances can be a gateway to access deeper levels of concentration (samatha), and the subsequent, often profound, insight (vipassana) which follows.
Discussion