Podcasts

Meditation - An Overview by Lenorë Lambert

Confused by all the different approaches to meditation? Think that you're no good at it, or can't do it? Think again! This podcast gives an overview of the different types of practices that can be found in the two meditation "buckets": serenity practices and insight practices. There is no one right practice, technique or formula for increasing your awareness of your own experience.

From Plato to NATO by Winton Higgins

Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana….what the??? Newcomers to the dharma will hear these terms and can often flounder around wondering what these common ‘schools’ of Buddhism are, which one they’ve found and what that means. If you’re spending your cyber-time on this web site (or those of our sibling sites) you haven’t found any of them – they are the major lines of development that Gotama’s teachings took as they wove their way through and into Asian cultures in the centuries after his death. These ‘schools’ are still very common today and encompass the well known traditions of Tibet and Japanese Zen so it’s worth understanding the big picture. This talk gives a great overview of where they came from and how they relate to each other - and a bit of a history lesson while we’re at it.

The last 3 folds of the 8-fold path by Winton Higgins
The eightfold path is the fourth important thing (commonly called the fourth noble truth) as taught by Gotama. The 8 folds are elements of our lives to attend to – things to observe in our lives to see the cause and effect of our choices. He describes certain choices as being more helpful than others. The last three of these ‘folds’ are effort, mindfulness and what is often called ‘concentration’ – only it doesn’t really mean concentration as we think of it. This talk was requested of Winton initially to clarify this issue.