We often come to meditation practice with an aspiration to alleviate and transform our pain.

Yet for many, sitting in silence with awareness of the breath may actually be quite stimulating rather than calming.

In this talk, Monica Kingsbury will explore how Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness helps us better understand how our brain and nervous system function as we practice, allowing us to maintain safety and emotional regulation.

This talk was offered at Radiant Light Zen's Interbeing of Suffering and Liberation retreat.

We all suffer. And we suffer because we create a war between how things are and how we want them to be.

Jonathan Prescott shares the story of his own suffering and how the Buddha's example inspired him to end the war with his life.

This is the first talk given by Jonathan Prescott at Radiant Light Zen's Interbeing of Suffering and Liberation retreat and focuses on suffering. The second talk, Take Down Your Wall, focuses on liberation.

In an effort to protect ourselves, we wall ourselves off. But this very wall becomes the source of our suffering.

In this talk from Radiant Light Zen's Interbeing of Suffering and Liberation retreat, Jonathan Prescott offers practices to liberate us and shows how love and surrender are powerful tools for dissolving our protective walls.

We’re not alone in our suffering and are not the first to yearn for liberation. Discover a Zen elder who teaches us how to work with suffering as a path to freedom. This talk was offered by Karla Johnston during Radiant Light Zen's Suffering and Liberation Retreat, October 12, 2023.

Sources:

Cambodia Oral Tradition, captured by Trent Walker

First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening by Susan Murcott, Pamela Weiss article: https://tricycle.org/article/mahapajapati/

The First Free Women by Matty Weingast

Jonathan Prescott describes how the precepts arose from the Buddha's awakened mind. All these centuries later, the precepts still call us home to our own awakened minds.

We spend our lives looking for love. But love has been in our hearts all along. Join Jonathan Prescott as he explores how you can feel the joy of meeting life with love.

In this talk, Tim Motley takes a closer look at the true nature of our existence. We walk this path, each of us a collection of mostly empty atomic particles, pulsed out of a quasar, condensed into this time and space, with the extraordinarily rare opportunity to embrace life and consciousness held by mindfulness.

Karla Johnston shares lessons of Spring in 50+ feet of Tahoe mega-snow: active patience and acceptance. Two questions are provided to deepen our practice.

Morning Light Sangha celebrates its 3rd anniversary. Join us as Jonathan Prescott shares MLS history, Michael Melancon describes our Zoomdo practice form, and the Sangha offers words about what MLS means in their lives.

Jonathan Prescott describes our Zen practice forms and how we use them to unearth the freedom that lies just beneath our veneer of suffering.