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

Why we practice: reclaiming authority, ending dissatisfaction, and engaging wholeheartedly

With Deborah Eden Tull recorded on February 25, 2018.

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

So many people are asking the potent question, How can I make an impact in a time of such adversity? How can I contribute to positive change in our world? How can I stay rooted in presence and well-being during such tumultuous times?

Presence itself is enough. Just to have a practice and affirm the authority of the heart is a subversive act. Compassionate awareness makes us available for the clear seeing and skilful action that allows us to respond consciously, rather than react habitually, to the challenges we face – individually and collectively. During an age of so much fear and reactivity, let us remember why we practice, and the profound impact that practice can have in our world.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Kittisaro

    Exploring dukkha.

    Worldwide Insight talk from Kittisaro: “Exploring Dukkha”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.

    Read More

  • The spectrum of awareness practices

    This session explores different ways in which attention works and associated meditation practices: from focused awareness, to flexible awareness, to natural awareness. We 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.

    Read More

  • Bart van Melik

    What Feeds your Craving?

    The Buddha discovered that craving is the cause by which stress comes into play. Letting go of this constant pursuing of our desires is possible. Befriending this human and natural craving needs the power of kind awareness and an ongoing reflection: What feeds my craving? And: What feeds letting go?

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of September 19, 2022

    This week’s topic is “Compose Yourself”. Dharma teachings appear to pull ‘us’ in two directions: on the one hand we pacify, renouncing and let go of everything, even of ourselves; on the other we energise, expanding our being into interconnection, to extend a limitless, inclusive welcome to all everywhere. But in actuality, we discover that there is no contradiction with this mismatch. For the well-composed practitioner, expanding goodwill and liberating release harmoniously and melodically intertwine.

    Read More

  • 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.

    Read More

  • Forgiveness: The Practice of Returning to Love

    A heart rooted in compassion longs to uplift and free all beings. Yet holding such a heart is not always easy. We stumble, we protect, we carry wounds. In our time together, we’ll explore forgiveness as an act of self-compassion-a way to meet our own suffering with kindness, and to restore the dignity that pain…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Caverly Morgan – Week of May 18

    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, May 18 The unconditional embrace of “yes” Wednesday, May 20 Seeing the inner critic from the refuge of being. Friday,…

    Read More