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Dharma Sundays with Natural Dharma Fellowship include teachings, meditation, and discussions led by NDF Dharma and guest teachers. A wide range of topics are offered.
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Tonglen, or the practice of Taking and Sending, is one of the seven points of mind training that was developed by the Tibetan Kadampa master Chekhawa Yeshe Dorje in the 12th century.
The purpose of this practice is two-fold. It gives us practical means to take on our experiences on the path so our suffering can become a source of compassion, wisdom, patience, and understanding for ourselves and others. This is relative bodhicitta. And In doing so, we can recognize the nature of our minds, or ultimate bodhicitta.
Relative bodhicitta is how we learn to love ourselves and each other. Ultimate bodhicitta is the fundamental pristine awareness, or non judgmental, naturally open, loving spaciousness undivided by self and other.
Through the practice of tonglen, we are cultivating relative bodhicitta, and in doing so, we cultivate the ability to recognize the very awareness that allows us to love and hold space infinitely—which is Ultimate Bodhicitta.
Initially a guided meditation that turns formless, loosening the bonds of the “ghost cave” of discursive thought. And then exploring an ancient Zen skit: stopping, looking, tasting the cake of what some call “just this.” No longer running about looking for what is our “birthright.” Free to act as we are. “I sleep when I’m tired and I eat when I am hungry.” “Our struggle becomes our pleasure.”
Dharma Sundays with Natural Dharma Fellowship take place most Sundays. These sessions, led by highly trained NDF Dharma and guest teachers, include guided meditation, teachings, and time for discussions. A wide range of topics are offered at the discretion of the teacher.
Dharma Sundays with Natural Dharma Fellowship take place most Sundays. These sessions, led by highly trained NDF Dharma and guest teachers, include guided meditation, teachings, and time for discussions. A wide range of topics are offered at the discretion of the teacher.
Within each of us resides “an ancient wilderness that does not change.” Occasionally, we wander into this untrammeled brilliance of our being, amazed with wonder, humbled with love. Join Lama Liz as we explore how cultivating this bright field of inner being can bring us into contact with who we really are and why we are here. Another way to describe this journey is “manifesting our mandala.” What would it mean to discover the radiating energies of yourself as a ceaseless manifestation of generosity, care, and boundless ease?
Dharma Sundays with Natural Dharma Fellowship take place most Sundays. These sessions, led by highly trained NDF Dharma and guest teachers, include guided meditation, teachings, and time for discussions. A wide range of topics are offered at the discretion of the teacher.
There is no doubt that we are living in turbulent times and that we’ll continue to see rapid change and heightened uncertainty in the world. We may be experiencing moments of anxiety, dread, or fearall part of our humanness — but the question is how to respond to these unsettling influences that threaten our equanimity.
The emphasis of our time today will be on finding inspiration for our practice and cultivating the resilience that leads to a fearless heart. We live in challenging times, yet we’re given the opportunity to use these challenges to inspire us along the path to awakening.
Calm abiding practice is the foundation of the path of meditation. It is beneficial for the health of our minds and our bodies. In this session, we will study and practice calm abiding, and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions to clarify their practice.
We practice calm abiding on a daily basis to connect more deeply with ourselves and reduce our experience of stress and disturbing emotions. Calm abiding practice increases our experiences of bliss, clarity, and non-thought, thereby promoting freedom from restlessness in our mind. In this session, we will study and practice calm abiding, and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions to clarify their practice.
Join us for meditation as we explore the dynamic interfusion of “radiance” and “receptivity.” These profound and essential qualities are at play in a myriad of illuminating meditation practices within the Vajrayana and Dzogchen traditions.
Blending mindfulness, bodhichitta, refuge, dedication, and the three bodies of enlightened body, speech, and mind, the practices of radiant receptivity can inspire our journey of awakening to our True Nature and Highest Potentials. Please join us to explore these profound themes together.
Our lives are often dominated by rumination, distraction, and overwhelm. Technology further distances us from the present moment, leading to a loss of connection, embodied awareness, and the richness of the present.
Meditation teaches us that presence is not automatic, but a cultivated skill. Returning to our senses, embracing the present, and attuning to ourselves and others are key aspects of this practice.
Cultivating presence connects us to the vibrant possibilities of the present and grounds us in the powerful humility of reality.
Facing the unknown is a fundamental task in the spiritual path. How can we harness the power of doubt as a doorway to deep realization?
“Great doubt, great enlightenment. Small doubt, small enlightenment. No doubt, no enlightenment.” this Zen quote, usually attributed to master Hakuin Ekaku, highlights the importance of not knowing as a transformative force on the path to enlightenment. Through this force we can break free from the subtle prisons of our thinking minds and realize the timeless/boundless nature of our True Self.
This workshop will be a co-creation – featuring an innovative form of collective interactive meditation, designed to bring a direct glimpse of our timeless/boundless nature.
Bodhichitta, or the wish to awaken the Buddha Nature of oneself and all beings, is the foundation of Mahayana Buddhist theory and practice. How does this translate into the context of Buddhist Yoga, and how can we discover the body as bodhichitta itself? We will explore the various dimensions of bodhichitta as presented in the Mahayana context, and experience through various gentle breath and movement practices how bodhichitta is known in the Vajrayana context of inner yoga.
What can we do when it feels as if not only our personal sense of opening on the path but also the circumstances unfolding in the seemingly outer world have brought us to a place of anxiety, depression, rage, or another challenging emotional experience? How do we find a way forward into clarity, openness, trust, and liberation? On this Dharma Sunday, we will explore the notion of an “open question” and the state of not-knowing as a productive process of inquiry that invites the energies of curiosity, clarity, and insight into the larger context of wakefulness that encompasses our day-to-day experiences.
Darkness practice is one of the most powerful methods for stripping away the conceptual veils covering our luminous buddha nature. Practiced in many spiritual traditions across the world, dark retreat is a deeply cherished tradition in a number of Tibetan Buddhist lineages surviving today. We will introduce some aspects of darkness practice, with an eye towards personal practice in the future. Please bring a sleep mask, blindfold, or prepare a space of relative darkness.
This Dharma Sunday will explore Rupa-Bhavana, the cultivation of embodiment. This practice, one of the five cultivation categories taught by the Buddha, focuses on techniques to develop greater discernment, capacity, and balanced sensitivity regarding our felt experience.
Join Lama Willa Baker and the online sangha of Natural Dharma Fellowship for a morning of teaching, prayer, contemplation, meditation practice, and community. Not by the book, Willa’s Dharma Sundays reflect what is most immediately and spontaneously on her heartmind. Time is allotted at the end of every Sunday session for audience participation, questions and reflections. Bring your curiosity, questions and insights.
On this hybrid Dharma Sunday, we will continue exploring what it means to cultivate our innate capacity to relax into beingness with the energies of the phenomenal world. How we approach a renewed engagement with the more-than-human world can have a significant effect on our recognition and embodiment of innate inseparability. Through what kinds of skillful means can we invite the kind of connection that transforms, awakens, and reminds us of who we really are? Join Lama Liz as we investigate transformative approaches to practicing into wholeness.
In his sublime meditation manual Mahamudra the Ocean of Definitive Meaning, the Ninth Karmapa briefly describes a four-step analysis for cutting through the illusion of a separate external reality presenting itself to sense perception. This session will examine the four steps and draw on insights from current cognitive philosophy and physics to offer a simple but powerful approach to challenge the basic mistake that incites mental afflictions.
Join Lama Willa Baker and the online sangha of Natural Dharma Fellowship for a morning of teaching, prayer, contemplation, meditation practice, and community. Not by the book, Willa’s Dharma Sundays reflect what is most immediately and spontaneously on her heartmind. Time is allotted at the end of every Sunday session for audience participation, questions and reflections. Bring your curiosity, questions and insights.
In this Dharma Sunday, we’ll learn strategies for meditating so that our practice doesn’t reactivate trauma symptoms, based on David Trelevean’s groundbreaking book Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness. This session will be helpful both for trauma survivors and for anyone experiencing dysregulation, overwhelm, disorientation, or a loss of agency. The instructor will cover the Window of Tolerance and Polyvagal Theory, with some review of Somatic Experiencing and nervous system resets. The workshop includes practicing techniques together to support stability and healing.
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