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

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of Jan 3, 2022

    This week’s topic is: Beginning to See More Possibilities.

    The Zen master, Shunryu Suzuki, said: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” With a beginner’s possibilities we can release our heart’s wholesome aspirations. Let’s engender a beginners spirit, and manifest our innate potential for freedom and well-being: embodying a saint’s patience to start again; an adventurer’s openness to step out of constricted views; and a creative’s zeal to reimagine ourselves and our world”

    Read More

  • Jessica Morey

    Sustaining Ourselves with Joy

    The Buddha taught about many forms of joy as both the path of practice and its fruit. In this session, we’ll explore the practice and discipline of cultivating and savoring joy in our life and our practice. Joy is an important balancing factor as we honestly face the suffering of the world and commit to…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Caverly Morgan – Week of April 6

    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 6 Becoming the ocean of awareness and acceptance Wednesday, April 8 Resting together in our shared being Tuesday, April…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 21, 2022

    This week’s topic is: Harmonising Our Life. The Buddha’s wisdom highlights how we often live entangled in stress and distress. The earliest mentions of this disharmonious state called it being in an argument with life. Dharma teachings invite us away from habitual rigidity and reactivity into a responsive and harmonising release. This week we will uncover deeper and more creative ways of attuning to life that support inner and outer freedom and well-being.

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Equanimity: Finding Balance in Uncertain Times

    Equanimity is a highly-valued quality in Buddhist teachings. But what is it, and how do we cultivate it in our meditation practice? How can we access equanimity in daily life, especially in the midst of uncertainty, fear, and sadness over the suffering in the world? Howard Zinn from “The Optimism of Uncertainty”To be hopeful in…

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Insight and practices for difficult times

    We are in a race between fear and consciousness. Never before have forces of greed hatred and ignorance enjoyed such a platform of populist divisiveness that instills fear and separation throughout society, endangering our very civilization. And never before has there been as much caring and worldwide commitment to making this a better world. In…

    Read More

  • Stephen Fulder

    Welcoming the Beyond

    What is beyond the ordinary mind? Can thought be background music, not a distraction? How can we access a consciousness that is open, free and limitless? How can we dive into the ocean instead of being tossed by the waves? The Buddha was an unparalleled non-dual teacher who taught the formless as well as form….

    Read More

  • Toby Sola

    The Out Breath: Unlocking Concentration

    Shodo Harada Roshi is known as a “teacher of teachers”, with masters from various lineages coming to sit with him in Japan. If you went to Harada’s monastery, the main meditation technique you’d learn involves slowing the out breath to last one minute. This drastically slows down your physiology, which in turn settles the mind.

    Read More