In an effort to counter tendencies towards striving and over-achieving, many Western approaches to meditation and spirituality emphasize relaxation. While relaxation and ease are essential ingredients on the meditative path, they must be integrated with whole-hearted effort. How do we find inner strength and make a clear resolve that is informed by wisdom and balanced with love? We will explore the power of determination in meditation and daily life.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ayala Gill – Week of 04 November, 2024
This week’s theme is: Love’s Fullness
Mindfulness is a practice of remaining present, open and loving to the deepest truth of this moment as it arises and dissolves. It invites us into an intimate, warm and embodied relationship with life, where each moment is sensed, felt and known with love. The four foundations of mindfulness return us to love’s fullness.
-
The Happiness of a Liberated Heart
Recorded :
June 16, 2019 What is pleasure and what is happiness? Why is my pursuit of happiness not working? Is there any lasting happiness? Together we inquire into the nature of happiness. We reflect on different attempts in our lives to find happiness and what stops us from being contented. Inspired by the Buddha’s own quest for a genuine…
-
Dharma practice as a path of happiness.
Recorded :
March 1, 2015 Worldwide Insight talk from James Baraz: “Dharma Practice as a Path of Happiness”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.
-
Relational Dharma: Awakening is a Collective Path of Compassion and Wisdom
Recorded :
June 14, 2026 This talk explores how awakening is fundamentally a relational experience, whether through individual practice or interactions with others and the world. Drawing from Buddhist wisdom and modern science in an accessible and practical way, we’ll reflect on…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of May 27 – 31, 2024
This week’s topic is “Mindfulness of the nervous system: transforming fear, struggle and separation into love and connection”. We humans are social animals and need each other to feel safe and secure, to grow and to nourish ourselves. How can we live with a sense of connection, loving-kindness, and inner family? Our meditation practice allows us to take a break between stimulus and response. When we come into contact with our loved ones, we all too easily lose the inner freedom we think we have achieved and avoid our difficulties, also called spiritual bypassing. This week we explore what supports us to react flexibly to the internal and external world, to relax and to allow closeness and real intimacy. We will look into the first foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of the body, including harmonizing the body formations and nervous system to meet our difficulties with gentleness.
-
Precepts as Orientation
Recorded :
March 27, 2022 The 5 precepts often given to lay practitioners are (with positive instructions in parenthesis): I vow not to kill (Love and support all beings)I vow not to steal (generosity)I vow not to misuse sexuality (contentment)I vow not to lie (compassionate truthfulness)I vow not to intoxicate self or other (staying mindful) We can think of precepts…
-
Abandoning the Future – Caring for All Days to Come
Recorded :
December 6, 2020 To care for our lives, the lives of all beings and the earth is all at the heart of what it means to be a human being. Yet, speculating about the future, and tensing up in fearful anticipation of days to come, are not skillful expressions of care and wisdom. There is a better way….
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of February 13, 2023
This week’s topic is “Awakening in the Midst of Life”. Our relationship with life is revealed through our words, thoughts and actions. Reflecting on these in the light of the Dharma opens up possibilities of transformation and wellbeing. During this week we’ll explore ways of perceiving and engaging with experience that can help us to deepen our understanding and awaken to a fuller way of being in the world.
