Dharma Sunday

Written (or discovered) in 1968, the Sadhana of Mahamudra is more relevant now than it has ever been. This long prayer, which includes some of the most poetic descriptions of devotion, longing and awakening in English, is available to meditation students both new and old.

Combining the realization of the Kagyu and the Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the Sadhana of Mahamudra emerged at a time of revolution and tumult. The autho...

In the rapidly, ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence, humanity is faced with a myriad of views about what constitutes “intelligence,” consciousness, and the risks of AI. How can the Dharma inform this conversation, and how might mindfulness, insight, and wisdom help us cultivate “right understanding” in the face of these technologies? In the rapidly, ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence,...

Awakening is not something we achieve; it is something we recognize. Yet subtle patterns of mind and identity obscure what is already present. In this experiential workshop, we explore what stands in the way of direct recognition and how it can naturally fall away.

Many traditions describe awakening as a kind of remembering, recognizing what has always been here. If this is true, what prevents us from seeing it?

In this workshop, w...

In just four lines, the Seven Branch Prayer contains the condensed essence of the Buddhist path. Please see the Seven Branch Prayer file attached to the confirmation email you will receive after you submit your registration. 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...

Prison Dharma: Buddhist perspectives and practices for developing inner peace independent from outer context.

In the Buddha’s first teaching, he named the forms of suffering that define the human condition, two of which are the pain of being separated from what we love and the stress of being forced to associate with what we loathe. This talk draws from years of experience working within the correcti...

On this Dharma Sunday, we explore how our inner expression of innate creativity is mirrored everywhere in the natural world. Asking if creative expression is the fundamental movement of life itself, we can develop our path of awakening, of remembering who we really are, as a growing sensitivity to how we inhabit each and every moment. Can we discover how to step aside from constructing a fabricated life out of a desire to control a...

What if imagination isn’t mere fantasy, but a doorway into profound spiritual reality? Join us for an exploration of how three great wisdom traditions—Jungian depth psychology, Sufi mysticism, and Vajrayana Buddhism—understand the transformative power of visionary experience.

We’ll journey through Carl Jung’s discovery of archetypes of the collective unconscious during his personal crisis, Ibn al-Arabi...

What does it mean to learn from a teacher, and how does that relationship support awakening? In this hour-long dharma talk, we’ll explore the role of the teacher–student relationship in spiritual practice—its possibilities, challenges and ethical foundations. 

Drawing on traditional teachings and contemporary perspectives, the talk will reflect on the role of discernment, trust, inner wisdom, responsibility a...

This special meditation session will focus on weaving together a profound blend of practices inspired by Longchenpa’s three excellences, along with other potent methods for awakening the special kind of courage, compassion, and spiritual strength needed in these challenging times.

These perilous times challenge us all to source new depths of spiritual strength, wisdom, compassion, inspiration, and courage.

This special medita...

The terms “Awakening” and “Realization” are used in many different ways and are often interchangeable. Join us to explore all the angles, all the while striving to maintain plausible deniability.

Beyond the embarrassment that “Enlightenment” is something we in fact can have no idea about, the terms “Awakening” and “Realization” are used in many different ways in many diffe...

This class 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 med...

What does it mean to become truly present and why does it matter? In this midday Sunday session, we will explore radical presence, a state of being that understands that there is only–and only ever will be–the here and now. To enter radical presence means to grapple with how we self-exile: all the ways we absence our body, parts of our world, and even our life itself. 

We will consider how returning to the bod...