Talks with Led Practices

Mostly delivered on retreats, these are longer recordings that include both input and guided practices.

Please forgive background noise, as these are recorded live and minimally edited.

The pleasure principle - a thirty min talk followed by a 25 minute led practice exploring the role of pleasure and joy in our practice. What is the connection between liberation and feeling good? How might opening to joy support us in our search for individual and collective freedom?

The Buddha’s pith instructions for waking up - An hour long talk followed by a 20 min led practice on Anapanasati (mindfulness of in and out breathing). Explore the simplicity and richness of this teaching that takes us from breath awareness all the way to total freedom.

The art of tonglen - a 25 minute talk on the practice of tonglen - the art of giving and taking - followed by a 20 minute guided meditation. In the open space of awareness we gently turn towards our own and others’ suffering, taking it in on the in-breath, allowing it to transform and liberate, and offering freedom and relief on the out-breath.

What is actually going on? - a full teaching with input, a led practice, and a bit more input on the Buddha's teaching on Dhammas in the Satipattana Sutta. Here we explore how the mind works, how awakening happens and how we can apply a deeper understanding of reality and our own conditioning to gain freedom from suffering. 

Grounding in direct experience - a short introduction and led practice to support bringing awareness to our experience of the body and the breath.

Introduction to the dhyana factors - a short introduction and led practice that helps us to learn to notice and dwell in pleasant experiences in meditation.

The taste of freedom - a brief introduction to the seven enlightenment factors followed by a 20 minute led practice supporting us to drop into more liberating mental states.

Breaking the spell of delusion - a short introduction and led practice that invites us to begin to get intrested in our habitual patterns of thinking and feeling, and how we can begin to liberate these through mindfulness of the body.

Opening to what's possible - a short introduction and led practice that helps us open to what else is possible in our moment by moment experience when we are not lost in habitual patterns of thinking and feeling.

Samatha and Vipassana - 15 mins of input on how to work creatively with the mind, paying particular attention to the quality of awareness and what is arising within it, followed by a 25 min led practice that supports grounding in energetic releasing in the body as a way to open us to a more spacious, clear awareness.

On time and energy - a 20 min led practice feeling into the energy of the body, followed by a 45 min talk on time and energy, drawing on Buddhist cosmology and reflections from my early life and practice.

Flipping the script - a 45 min session beginning with a led practice followed by a short talk on the most essential teachings of the Buddha - the four noble truths. If you want to skip ahead to the talk, go to 26 mins.

The benefits of embodiment - a 45 min talk followed by a led practice on the benefits of coming into a more intimate relationship with our bodies and the inherent wisdom there. Meditation starts around 17:45 mins.