There is a substance we need for every meaningful part of our life. We only have a small amount of it, it’s being spent constantly, we can’t get more, and we’re surrounded by predators hungry for it. Attention: every moment we give it to something, and if we don’t choose wisely, a salesperson or an old trauma will. As we learn to protect and train our attention, every part of our life and path improves.
With Sean Oakes recorded on September 3, 2023.
Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
The nature and practice of right view.
Recorded :
January 3, 2016 If there is one practice that defines the quality of the Buddha’s teachings, it is right view. This is a wisdom path. Right view is the beginning and ending of the path. Right view comes first among the eight path factors because it is needed for the entire path. Right view can be described as…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 14 April, 2025
We’re honored to have Martin Aylward offering our Daily Meditation sessions this week. We hope they are nourishing for your practice.
This week’s theme is: This is it: Every Moment Practice
-
How Conduct Bears Fruit: Training in Not-Killing
Recorded :
February 21, 2021 In this session Shaila Catherine explores the fruits of karma and the consequences of action through a detailed consideration of why and how we practice ethical precepts. The focus for this talk is the commitment to not kill.
-
Faith: Cultivating an Undivided Life
Recorded :
May 22, 2022 The divisiveness we see around us begins in the binary mind: self and other, me and you, us and them. In each moment, we like and don’t like, pick and choose, evaluate and judge. How can we untangle this tangle? This talk will explore how practice helps liberate us from our views and opinions, and…
-
Feeling Tone as a Door to Awareness, Compassion and Wisdom
Recorded :
November 24, 2024 In this practice related talk, we will explore the profound concept of “Feeling Tone or Vedena” and how it serves as a gateway to deeper awareness, compassion, and wisdom in our lives. Feeling Tone, often referred to as the raw and immediate tonality of our experiences, holds the key to unlocking a more profound connection…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of 22 September, 2025
We’re grateful to have Nirmala Werner guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and deepen your practice.
This week’s theme is: The Still Heart: Cultivating Equanimity in an Unsteady World
In a world marked by constant change, uncertainty, and emotional intensity, equanimity can seem like a distant ideal-or even a form of indifference. But in the Buddhist tradition, equanimity (upekkhā) is not cold or passive. It is the spacious, steady heart that knows how to stay open, grounded, and present with whatever life brings.
In this week we will explore equanimity as a deep source of inner freedom-neither detached nor reactive, but wise, loving, and awake.
Through daily reflection and embodied practice, we will ask:
What is true equanimity, and what is it not?
How can we meet change without losing our ground?
How do we love and let go-at the same time?
And how can we live with a still heart in a restless world?
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
Two Wings to Fly – Cultivating Both Wisdom and Compassion
Recorded :
July 25, 2021 In traditional Theravada Buddhism it’s said that for one to truly experience freedom one needs to engage in the practices of both wisdom and compassion. Like a bird that needs two wings to fly, wisdom and compassion are two necessary parts on the path to a well-rounded enlightenment. At first glance, practices that cultivate loving-kindness…
-
Glimpse of Being
Recorded :
July 11, 2021 There are many ways to practice mindfulness, from the focused and deliberate to the expansive and relaxed. In this session, Diana teaches about natural awareness, which is a wide open, spacious, effortless awareness of awareness. Learn simple meditative shifts and ‘Glimpse Practices’ to connect with our radiant awareness and the innate capacity we all have…
Discussion