Not all stress is bad. In fact, anticipatory stress can be a life saver at times. Yet without mindful awareness, anticipatory stress may spiral into reactivity, paralyzing fear and suffering. How do we meet this stress mindfully, use it skilfully, then let go? We will explore practices and approaches to help us awaken to our patterns around anticipatory stress and meet them with compassion and clarity of action.
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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.
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Flesh, blood and bones. It is here we awaken.
Recorded :
February 22, 2015 Worldwide Insight talk from Catherine McGee: “Flesh, Blood and Bones. It is Here we Awaken”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of February 7, 2022
This week’s theme is: Finding Happiness and Wellbeing on the Path
The understanding of how dukkha is conditioned and constructed lies at the heart of Dharma teachings. Dukkha and wellbeing are in relationship with each other; the abandonment of the causes of dukkha leads to wellbeing. The nourishment of the causes for wellbeing decreases dukkha. During this week we will explore our capacity to uncover and develop wellbeing through our practice, in ways that enrich our lives.
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Natural Wisdom
Recorded :
July 5, 2020 In the modern world, it’s easy to forget our intimate connection with all of life. But with recent global events and movements, we’ve been both confronted and inspired by the deep impact our actions have on one another. From a Buddhist perspective, being aware is our true nature. What role might the natural world play…
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Showing up Fully in the Full Catastrophe
Recorded :
November 6, 2022 As a new parent, working full time, facing the daily news of global conflict and environment crisis, liberation can sometimes seem far off to me. And yet, every day is a new opportunity to use the Buddha’s teachings to stay present, soft hearted, and courageous. In this Sunday session, we’ll explore practical dharma insights and…
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The Beauty of Impermanence, a Doorway to Freedom
Recorded :
March 15, 2026 “If we were never to fade away…how things would lose their power to move us. Because we will fade away, we are moved, because we are moved, we realise more deeply that we will fade away.”– Keith Dowman If I had to sum up Buddhism in one word, it might be impermanence. Often, it’s impermanence…
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From conditioned perception to true and free seeing
Recorded :
September 2, 2018 What do we call reality? How can we free ourselves from conditioned vision and taste life more fully and truly? Acknowledging that our perception of what we call reality is completely subjective, Christine explores the world of perception to find out what is conditioning our vision. Each one of us has been often surprised, deceived…
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Refuge: The Heart’s Own Knowing
Recorded :
September 29, 2019 It’s important to recognize that we are living in extremely challenging times, and because of this, we are going to experience some very painful and disturbing bodily feelings, emotions, and mind states. As profound uncertainty deepens and intensifies within and all around, our Dharma practice becomes ever more vital. The ground and heart of this…
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