Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Dharma Sunday

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.

This Dharma Sunday teaching combines body-oriented meditation practice with a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lesson, the brilliant sensory-motor approach to gently and wisely re-educating the neuro-muscular system. Alternating meditation, a Feldenkrais movement lesson and discussion will allow the techniques to complement and empower each other and to enhance mind-body connections and general well-being.

Many new and long-time meditators discover that Feldenkrais practices can help them feel greater physical ease and less pain, both in meditation and in everyday activities, by freeing up habitual patterns embedded in the neuromuscular system. This can also help incorporate the body’s natural intelligence into the process of spiritual inquiry and more fully embodied presence.

In this Dharma Sunday teaching we will be exploring the ways that our personalities and styles of interaction

By recognizing our own patterns of behavior and styles of manifesting in the world, we can use that awareness to go beyond judgment which keep us bound to cycles and limited perspective in our lives; and thus touch the insight of loving pervasive awareness.

In this Dharma Sunday teaching, the Second of Four teachings on "Mycelial Wisdom", Lama Willa Blythe Baker, founder of Natural Dharma Fellowship, explores the profound concept of "Anatman" (no-self).

The central teaching expands on "mycelial wisdom," drawing parallels between extensive, hidden mycelial networks (described as "the neurological network of nature") and the Buddhist principle of interdependent connection. Lama Willa explains that the Buddha's teaching of "Anatman" (no-self) challenges the deeply held belief in a solid, independent self. Instead, it posits that the self is a conceptual construction and a fluid "node in a communicative web," much like a mushroom is merely the "fruiting body" of a larger, interconnected mycelial matrix.

Natural Dharma Fellowship’s Dharma Sundays are donation-based gatherings open to all, offering a wide range of topics. Led by highly trained NDF Dharma and guest teachers, these live, interactive sessions include guided meditation, teachings, and time for questions and discussion. Please join us to settle into the support of sangha and the joy of practicing together.

In this two-part class, participants will be invited to study and reflect on a short teaching by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu entitled “The Prison of Life” (free download).

Just as prisons are rationalized as necessary containment for those whose criminal convictions make them untrustworthy or undeserving of freedom, we rationalize our self-created imprisonment as a necessary means of avoiding unforgivable mistakes on our spiritual journey. Buddhadasa asks us to look at the prisons we make for ourselves out of desire for purity and goodness, our instincts, and even our teachers. This is a subtle and challenging inquiry, but necessary when your discipline brings you to a frustrated and joyless state. Kyira, also known as Acharya Abhaya, will offer contemplative and meditative tools to support engaging with the text, developed with the insight of all that she has learned about prison journeys in her years as a correctional chaplain.

n this two-part class, participants will be invited to study and reflect on a short teaching by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu entitled “The Prison of Life” (free download).

Just as prisons are rationalized as necessary containment for those whose criminal convictions make them untrustworthy or undeserving of freedom, we rationalize our self-created imprisonment as a necessary means of avoiding unforgivable mistakes on our spiritual journey. Buddhadasa asks us to look at the prisons we make for ourselves out of desire for purity and goodness, our instincts, and even our teachers. This is a subtle and challenging inquiry, but necessary when your discipline brings you to a frustrated and joyless state. Kyira, also known as Acharya Abhaya, will offer contemplative and meditative tools to support engaging with the text, developed with the insight of all that she has learned about prison journeys in her years as a correctional chaplain.

We will explore how remembering who we really are expands us beyond the experiences of fragmentation, distress, overwhelm, and fear that may threaten to overwhelm us. What would it mean to realize that this “self” can hold the fullness of our human experience, from the most challenging encounters to the most beautiful? When we remember our innate connection to source at the same time as we stand strong in our individual manifestation of care in the world, we discover a source of resilience capable of carrying us deeper and deeper along the path.

In this Dharma Sunday teaching, the First of Four teachings on "Mycelial Wisdom", Lama Willa Blythe Baker, founder of Natural Dharma Fellowship, explores the profound concept of interdependence (Pratitya Samudpada).

Lama Willa discusses her multi-year exploration of the plant world as a source of wisdom, highlighting how mycelial networks serve as a powerful metaphor for interconnectedness. The teaching emphasizes that the idea of a separate, individual self is an illusion, and that true understanding arises from recognizing our non-separation from the world.

Instead of chasing the future, or dwelling in the past; on the Buddhist path, we are given the opportunity, through meditation, to work with what’s here right now. There is no path apart from our very own footsteps, no rhythm to strive for apart from our natural breath and heartbeat. While things might not always be going our way, the path of meditation offers us respite amidst the eye of the storm, in the sacred open space of the present moment as it is.    

Drawing inspiration from the great yogi Shabkar and the “holy book of nature” this session will expand our heart-mind into the vastness of interbeing through the dynamic interfusion of Refuge, Bodhichitta, & Tonglen.

The profound practices of Refuge, Bodhichitta, and Tonglen open our hearts and expand our view to glimpse and access boundless resourcefulness, fearlessness, and selfless wisdom and responsive compassion. Exploring the synergy and skillful interfusion of Refuge, Bodhichitta, and Tonglen, we’ll reflect upon profound teachings from Shabkar, a wise yogi who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, who drew deep inspiration from the holy book of nature.

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.

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 fear – all 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.

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.

Amid waves of personal and collective suffering and heartbreak, peace can feel far away for so many of us.  Yogis, saints, ancestors, sages through millennia have given voice to their understanding of peace.  But how can we find genuine peace?  How can we find it for real in our own life?  After all, if we merely repeat the words of others, how can we ever realize genuine peace for the benefit of others as well as ourselves?

This morning we’ll begin to explore experientially the timeless wisdom, compassion, beauty, and unconditional love to be found in Nyoshul Khenpo’s pithy spontaneous song of realization, Natural Great Peace.  

Each of the 21,600 breaths you breathe each day can be an affirmation of our interbeing, a source of spiritual inspiration and engagement as we receive and radiate boundless blessings for ourselves and all beings.

This session will explore the profound interfusion of refuge and mentor practice with the radical transformational practice of Tonglen. We’ll experience how each breath can become a vehicle for receiving and radiating spiritual strength and compassionate blessings. Such awareness and engagement can strengthen our courage and confidence, inspiring us to deepen the clear presence and great compassion we bring to every precious moment and encounter of our lives.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

This Dharma Sunday session begins with a Refuge Prayer and a guided meditation that grounds the body and expands into open awareness. Lama Liz then dives into the core question: How do we return to our true nature? She challenges the modern materialist mentality and explores how to move beyond the contracted "self" to access a vaster field of interbeing—the ancient, interconnected source that redefines our relationship with the living world.

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.

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.

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.

The “Four Empowerments” characterize the essence of the tantric Buddhist path. We will explore the internal structure of these four initiations and how we can relate with them as practitioners. Central to this exploration is the idea that initiation is an organic part of human experience. What seems esoteric, foreign, and unknown, is from another perspective natural and genuine. We will explore these tensions and also discuss initiation as a perennial human rite of passage. 

The Dharma Sunday session begins with guided meditation practices followed by a teaching on eco-Dharma and the concept of becoming a disciple of Gaia. Lama Willa explores how environmental issues have become a critical focus in the present moment and proposed expanding the traditional Buddhist concept of taking refuge to include Gaia as a teacher. The session concludes with discussions on deep listening to nature, the importance of slowing down in a fast-paced world, and the need for dialogue between activists and spiritual practitioners to address ecological and spiritual crises.

This Dharma Sunday teaching combines body-oriented meditation practice with a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lesson, the brilliant sensory-motor approach to gently and wisely re-educating the neuro-muscular system. Alternating meditation, a Feldenkrais movement lesson and discussion will allow the techniques to complement and empower each other and to enhance mind-body connections and general well-being.

This session features a deep dive into the meaning of Refuge—understanding our own awakened heart as the ultimate source of peace. Lama Liz then guides a powerful meditation practice, moving from grounding the body to cultivating open awareness and interconnectedness. Following the meditation, she introduces her "Forest Teachings" series, exploring the universal truth of Dharma and answering the profound question: How do we return to our true nature? Discover the ease and wholeness that emerge when we release the tension of the separate self.

This creative and inspirational Dharma Sunday will begin with an introduction to Buddhist art that locates Buddhist images within a contemplative practice. The teachings will seek to move artists and practitioners towards basic visual literacy. This will be followed by a guided tour – both online and onsite – of an exhibition of earth-based Buddhist art created by Latin American Buddhists. We will conclude with a meditation inspired by a prize-winning painting of Tara by a young Mexican artist as our focus, as an example of how art can open pathways in our spiritual practice. 

In this Dharma Sunday teaching, the Third of Four teachings on "Mycelial Wisdom", Lama Willa Blythe Baker, founder of Natural Dharma Fellowship, and visiting teacher, Zoe Logan Morris, discuss The Myth of Transcendence.

Using the metaphor of a mycelial network—the "wood wide web"—the teaching suggests that spiritual awakening isn't a "vertical exit" from suffering but a process of grounded engagement with the world. True enlightenment, or Bodhi, is about recognizing our profound interconnectedness with all life. The path is not about changing who you are or escaping the present moment, but about coming home to your innate nature and embracing your place in the web of life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Freedom is part of our practice. We cultivate the roots of our practice to remind ourselves and each other that this is the best time to practice.

Roots are the foundation that ground plants in the soil. So too, as we ground ourselves with the source of freedom that our Buddhist practice offers, we embody the underlying support that allows us to be a refuge in these turbulent times for ourselves and for each other.

This Dharma Sunday explores part IV of Forest Teachings. Join us as we explore the intersection between meditation on the nature of mind through the lens of deep ecology in practice. Such a merging invites us to recover our forgotten intimacy with the living world. Deep ecology has long called for a shift in consciousness, while meditation enacts such a shift through recognition of who we really are, revealing that the luminous self and world are one. To awaken our innate nature is to remember who we truly are — the earth aware of itself, the cosmos knowing itself through the human form.

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 Dharma Sunday, and as we prepare to step into the New Year, we will explore the power of light to remind us of who we really are, and to return us to an immersion in loving awareness as a source for renewed activity and care in the world. Join Lama Liz for this fifth installation of the Forest Teachings, a series of offerings exploring different avenues through which we can transform our lives into compassionate, fierce, and wise expressions of our interconnectedness with the living world and the cosmos from which we come.

Natural Dharma Fellowship’s Dharma Sundays are donation-based gatherings open to all, offering a wide range of topics. Led by highly trained NDF Dharma and guest teachers, these live, interactive sessions include guided meditation, teachings, and time for questions and discussion. Please join us to settle into the support of sangha and the joy of practicing together.

Natural Dharma Fellowship’s Dharma Sundays are donation-based gatherings open to all, offering a wide range of topics. Led by highly trained NDF Dharma and guest teachers, these live, interactive sessions include guided meditation, teachings, and time for questions and discussion. Please join us to settle into the support of sangha and the joy of practicing together.