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Day of Practice

Saturday, November 19th

Meeting Tara:
Mother of all Buddhas,
Heart of Awakening

with Martin Aylward

7-10am PT / 10am-1pm ET / 3-6pm GMT / 4-7pm CET

Learn how ancient symbolism can powerfully inspire your practice.

What beautiful, liberating qualities of heart and mind can be cultivated in every moment?

This day of practice will introduce and explore the qualities of the popular Himalayan deity, Tara. Tara can be seen as both a symbolic representation of the Original Ground of Awakened Awareness, and as the affectionately named Mother of All Buddhas.

Sangha Live’s founding teacher, Martin Aylward, will help us to explore the symbolism of Tara, and invite us to recognise, invoke and cultivate the qualities she represents: clarity and wisdom, playfulness and spontaneity, confidence and skilfulness, tenderness and compassion. Martin will also decode what can sometimes seem like an overly complex or esoteric relationship to deity symbolism.

Our session will include sitting meditation practice and chanting of the Tara Mantra.

Our exploration of Tara will help you to:

  • Dissolve and integrate ideas about inner and outer, the psychologic/symbolic and the real/ontological
  • Consider a love that is neither given nor received, yet which can permeate experience and consciousness
  • Appreciate how symbolism and imagery can go beyond orthodox or traditional interpretations, and can deepen our practice and its qualities

What is Day of Practice?

Sangha Live’s 3-hour, LIVE Day of Practice allows for you to drop in deeper, develop your meditation skills, and reset your intentions through sustained sitting.

Days of Practice includes longer periods of meditation, interspersed with wise teachings, an interactive Q&A with our teacher, and more.

Replay access will be available to all registrants within 48 hours of the live session.

How is Day of Practice different from Sangha Live’s Daily/Sunday classes?

Our shorter Daily Meditation (60 mins) and Sunday Sangha (90 mins) programs emphasize dharma teachings, while our longer Days of Practice (3 hours) emphasize development of meditation practice.

Daily practice is crucial for watering seeds of mindfulness, but extended periods of deep attention such as these, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, can be uniquely fruitful.

Cost

Day of Practice is offered on a sliding scale basis, with a suggested rate of $35. We wholeheartedly welcome all to practice with us; no one turned away for lack of funds.

Questions?

Please email us at info@sangha.live.

About Martin Aylward

photo of Martin Aylward smiling

Martin Aylward is the founding teacher of Sangha Live. After spending his early adult years in Asian monasteries and with Himalayan hermits, Martin settled in Southern France with his wife Gail and their 2 children, co-founding the Moulin de Chaves retreat centre where he lives and teaches.

Martin teaches meditation, guides students and leads retreats internationally, emphasising the integration of the deepest wisdom teachings into the midst of the lives we live. He is also a director of the Mindfulness Training Institute. Martin’s book Awake Where You Are: The Art of Embodied Awareness (2021) is now available via Wisdom Publications

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