Human beings are not meant to be ‘happy’. We are compelled to keep chasing pleasure and to avoid pain. The Buddha presented a view of our existence as being a fragile process, ever changing, impermanent, inconstant, uncertain, subject to unavoidable pain and completely impersonal.And, he also offered us insights and tools that encourage and facilitate...

Our practice and our recovery are often about recognizing our struggles and where we are stuck. Although it's necessary that we do this, sometimes we miss the joy that is also present in our lives. Joy is one of the Seven Awakening Factors and an important experience on the path to liberation. In this talk...

The teaching is an introduction of the Fire sermon from the teachings of the Buddha and how it is relating to these current times.

The Buddha revealed to us an eight-fold path as a way to work with and move beyond suffering, a way to be in recovery from the three poisons in all their many forms.  How do we embrace this middle way of being with curiosity, awareness and engagement, and what does it reveal to us along...

As the New Year starts, we renew our commitment to recovery and practice. This talk will focus on the importance of persistence and continuity in practice and recovery. The importance of finding joy in the simple experiences of life, in breathing, in walking, in being with others. 

In our world it seems that hate and anger are so prevalent it can feel overwhelming at times. In our own lives, it's also quite easy for us to slip into aversion and othering while finding it fully justified. In this talk Mary discusses the need to name love as a foundation of our practice....

So many of us come into sobriety with a really poor relationship with ourselves and so heavily burdened with resentments towards ourselves and others. By practicing forgiveness, not in a theistic Christian outside ourselves way, but as self empowering and self healing way to start to let go, to change our relationship with, and to...

Recovery and dharma practice go through many ups and downs. How do we sustain our spiritual lives through the seasons of life?