Practice Library

Work and daily life

26 teachings in the library are about this.

• Session Two - The Laziness of Busyness David Oromith · 78 minutes · recorded May 29, 2026

  The second laziness, too busy for practice, the one David calls the most disguised because it sounds so reasonable. The energy of busyness fills every gap: participants in one study chose an electric shock over fifteen minutes alone with their thoughts. David offers renunciation, not giving things up but not being fooled by the promise, and Oliver Burkeman's question of what gets your time. It closes with an experiment, noticing what the mind grabs when a gap appears.

• Overcoming Distraction in Daily Life David Oromith · 35 minutes · recorded February 8, 2026

  In the shamatha meditation on the breath at the nostrils we use counting and the image of a cat watching a mouse hole to find the balance between alertness and ease. David talks about distraction as a strategy for avoiding discomfort, why phones offer a quick dopamine hit, and how training attention builds a tolerance for stillness and simple pleasures.

• Session One - Not Debating the Insult David Oromith · 76 minutes · recorded January 21, 2026

  The evening opens with a guided meditation on feeling tones in which we notice sensations as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, before David turns to the Insult Sutta, where the Buddha refuses an insult hurled at him, letting it hang in the air rather than debating it. David draws out why retaliation only escalates and what it means to stay calm without suppressing feeling. The group discusses whether restraint reads as weakness, and why anger flares more easily at family than at work.

• Sitting with Emotion David Oromith · 33 minutes · recorded October 26, 2025

  In the meditation we turn towards recent difficult emotions and moods, meeting them with a loving, non-judgmental presence rather than trying to fix them. Inspired by Sogyal Rinpoche's handshake practice, David talks about why suppressing feelings causes physical and emotional strain, and connects this to the recognise, allow, investigate and nurture of RAIN practice.

• D7S1 - The Whole Sequence in One Session, and Carrying It Home David Oromith · 128 minutes · recorded August 25, 2025

  The closing session, and the longest of the week: the whole sequence run through in one unbroken practice, from the breath through the movements of the mind to awareness itself. David draws on a teaching Lama Alan and Eva Natanya gave in June on the four modes of mindfulness, and on why observing the mind and observing awareness can be understood as one practice. He ends on lojong, and on the person at work who need not cost you the patience you came here to build.

• Session 3 - The Eight Verses of Training the Mind David Oromith · 83 minutes · recorded June 26, 2025

  Loving kindness and compassion are extended from self to a loved one, a neutral person, a difficult person and finally a wide group, guided throughout as preparation for next week's tonglen practice. David works through verses five and six of the Eight Verses: offering the victory rather than retaliating, and viewing someone who wrongs us as a teacher, illustrated with the story of the borrowed baby. Members share how they tried the practice at home and at work.

• Day 7 - Closing Discussion David Oromith · 92 minutes · recorded January 6, 2025

  The final morning revisits the fourfold vision quest meditation, held with loving kindness: what would bring true happiness, what is needed from others, how to transform, and what to offer the world. The group recites all 37 verses together as a closing contemplation, then breaks into small groups on which practice has landed most and what gets in the way, from workplace frustration to a longing for solitary practice. David closes with long life prayers and Shantideva's dedication.

• D4S3 - Responding to Disgrace, Disparagement and Betrayal David Oromith · 90 minutes · recorded December 2, 2024

  After a meditation on affectionate love and compassion for all beings, David works through three verses of the text: meeting disgrace with kindness rather than argument, responding to public disparagement by offering the victory instead of escalating, and continuing to care for someone who turns on us after we have helped them. He explains cognitive fusion, treating bad behaviour as a person's whole identity, and takes questions on living this out at work.

• D4S2 - Everyone's Kindness, and Hard Questions About Rebirth David Oromith · 88 minutes · recorded December 2, 2024

  The session opens with a guided contemplation, continuing the previous one, in which we dwell on the care shown to us since birth, through learning to walk and talk, to the ordinary kindnesses that sustain daily life. A long discussion follows on the evidence and doubts around rebirth, including a mathematical objection to universal motherhood. David then turns to using suffering on the path, the image of the two arrows, and the RAIN practice for working with rising anger.

• Guided Meditation - Starting Your Day Right David Oromith · 20 minutes · recorded September 15, 2024

  This is a guided meditation designed to help you start your day with mindfulness, a sense of grounded presence, and by thinking ahead and reflecting on how you wish to show up for yourself and others in the day ahead. Prepare yourself to move through the day with purpose and positivity.

• Session 5 - Purifying Negative Karma - The Four Opponent Powers David Oromith · 94 minutes · recorded July 31, 2024

  After a settling meditation, David introduces collective karma and gives a concise summary of the course before turning to purification. He explains the four opponent powers, regret, reliance, remedy and resolve, distinguishing healthy regret from corrosive guilt, then leads a guided loving kindness meditation in which we apply all four steps. Questions cover a run of bad luck at work, whether places or mindsets carry negative karma, and how effective Vajrayana purification practice is alone.

• D5S1 - Building a Circle of Inspiration Michael Lobsang Tenpa · 61 minutes · recorded January 5, 2024

  How to keep the practice alive. Michael Lobsang Tenpa suggests a eudaimonic journal, a book of the antidotes that work for you personally, and a mandala of inspiration made of images, scents, music, quotes and inspiring practitioners. He tells of Sharon Salzberg asking the Dalai Lama whether to teach loving kindness for oneself first, since so many people suffer from self-hatred, which he did not understand. The closing practice runs from oneself to a benefactor, a friend, a neutral person and all beings.

• Guided Meditation - Harvesting Joy, Finding Delight in the Ordinary David Oromith · 10 minutes · recorded November 6, 2023

  The body first, searched for anything pleasant in it, comfort in the seat, clothes against the skin, the soothing rhythm of the breath. The eyes then open at least partly, for whatever is delightful to see, and after that whatever is delightful to hear, birds, wind chimes, or the relative silence. We let awareness roam the five senses, harvesting the small and trivial and multiplying it. It closes on gratitude for this precious human life and a dedication.

• Turning Everyday Life into Dharma Practice David Oromith · 53 minutes · recorded November 6, 2023

  No formal meditation until the close, a ten minute practice in which we harvest joy through the five senses and gratitude for this life. The talk is on turning everyday life into practice: difficult people become opportunities for patience and compassion, chores are done with mindful awareness rather than boredom, and pleasant experience is enjoyed with gratitude rather than craving more. Listeners share their own struggles, including a difficult mother and mindful eating with the television on.

• Transforming Adversity: Navigating Through Difficult Times David Oromith · 82 minutes · recorded October 12, 2023

  The session opens with a brief settling of breath and body, before David works through the Buddha's story of the farmer's seventy seven problems and the hidden seventy eighth, expecting to have none at all. He covers acceptance, the stories that fuel our reactions to triggers, and ways to reframe a difficulty, drawing on the group's own examples of corporate pressure and a distressing house sale, then closes with SOS practices for calming the body.

• Our Need to Be Liked & Approved Of David Oromith · 34 minutes · recorded September 17, 2023

  In the meditation on the sky-like nature of mind we watch thoughts arise and pass like clouds while resting in the clear, spacious awareness beneath them. David talks about our need to be liked and approved of, seen in social media validation, peer pressure and people-pleasing at work, and why tying self-worth to others' opinions is such shaky ground. He offers loving kindness towards ourselves, reflecting on impermanence and the Dalai Lama's reminder that we carry Buddha nature.

• Week 3: Empathetic Joy (Mudita): Sharing in the joy and happiness of others David Oromith · 86 minutes · recorded June 22, 2023

  After checking in on the week's practice of loving kindness and compassion, David turns to mudita, joy at others' happiness, naming its near enemies, envy and cynicism, and using the image of a monkey stuck in tar for how comparison and judgement trap us. He describes noticing joy in daily life and on social media rather than resenting it. Questions move into acceptance and childhood hurt before a closing meditation in which we recall loved ones' joy and everyday kindness seen out in the world.

• Week 2: Compassion (Karuna): Cultivating a genuine concern for the sufferings of others and compassionate action David Oromith · 86 minutes · recorded June 15, 2023

  The session opens with a short breathing meditation to settle the group, before David turns to compassion, karuna, the wish for others to be free of suffering. He names its near enemy, despair, drawing on his own past depression while working on mental health wards, and its far enemy, cruelty, and why compassion must lead to action rather than pity or anger. Questions cover rudeness at work and a wedding venue caught in protests. The session closes with a meditation in which we extend the wish through self, loved one, neutral and difficult person.

• Being 'Intelligently Selfish' & Tonglen David Oromith · 29 minutes · recorded May 9, 2023

  In the tonglen practice of sending and receiving we breathe in a loved one's pain as dark smoke that dissolves at a point of light in the heart, then breathe out comfort and good qualities in return, before extending the same practice to crowds of strangers and the wider world. David explains the Dalai Lama's idea of intelligent selfishness, that working for others' welfare is what actually brings happiness, and describes using tonglen in the face of grief, illness and everyday conflict.

• Guided Meditation - Cultivating Generosity David Oromith · 21 minutes · recorded January 15, 2023

  You sharpen the mind with twenty one rounds of breath, three lots of seven, and then its creativity is put to work. David asks for a picture of a typical day, where you go, the shops or errands, the people you meet, and for generosity imagined into it: something material, your time, your expertise, a kind word. Their response is imagined too, and the warmth of giving with nothing wanted back. It closes on an intention to carry that into ordinary days.

• How to Preserve Our Inner Peace and Calm in Daily Life David Oromith · 13 minutes · recorded January 7, 2022

  In this episode, David responds to a question that came through our Facebook Group about how to preserve the calm and peace we find over the holidays when normal life starts again. Responding in the context of The Five Obscurations, which obscure our natural peace and clarity of mind, David stresses the importance of keeping a watchful eye over our mind at every moment and averting afflictions as they arise.

• Guided Meditation - Starting Your Day With Gratitude David Oromith · 24 minutes · recorded August 1, 2021

  This is a guided meditation on gratitude. It is best listened to in the morning, to start your day with a clean slate and an intention to express appreciation for all the things in your life, from the small day-to-day enjoyments to your health, and the bigger challenges that help you grow and make you who you are.

• The Gifts of Mindfulness - In Conversation with Neil Seligman David Oromith · 39 minutes · recorded April 7, 2021

  Neil Seligman, a mindfulness teacher and former barrister, tells David how a remark in a car park ended an eight year legal career and set him on the work he does now. He names three gifts of mindfulness: a map of our own inner experience, a well of stillness that becomes a resource and not only a refuge, and creativity. The conversation closes on his favourite line from Rumi, to live as if everything is rigged in your favour.

• The Keys to Happiness in Daily Life David Oromith · 13 minutes · recorded March 31, 2021

  In this episode, David talks about the keys to happiness in daily life. By taking the time to understand and cultivate the three pillars of genuine wellbeing identified by contemplatives for generations, we can simplify our daily practice and make progress every day towards a happy and meaningful life.

• Developing a Daily Meditation Practice David Oromith · 11 minutes · recorded December 1, 2020

  Meditation as cultivating the heart-mind, rather than a tranquiliser taken when stress gets too much. David explains why a formal practice is a support and not the path itself, and why the real work is watching the mind when it is angry, craving or in conflict, not only when it is calm. He uses losing your keys in the house to make the point that the mind is where you look. Teaching only, with no guided practice.

• Establishing a Daily Practice, the Three Food Groups Lama Alan · 9 minutes

  Lama Alan Wallace sets out a workable shape for daily practice: a morning session that opens with motivation, makes the mind serviceable through shamatha, then moves into the four immeasurables or tonglen, and an evening session that gathers the day back in. He describes the three food groups of a balanced practice, shamatha, something for the heart and something for wisdom, and encourages you to season the whole day with brief returns rather than sinking into routine.

More by subject

• Anger and aversion 140
• Attachment and craving 116
• The nature of mind 92
• Emptiness 84
• The bodhisattva path 80
• Anxiety and fear 78
• Death and dying 76
• Distraction and attention 70
• Sleep and rest 66
• Buddhist psychology 59
• Illness and pain 57
• Karma 56
• Teacher and student 56
• Habits and change 50
• Genuine happiness and wellbeing 48
• Patience, forbearance and acceptance 46
• Relaxation 41
• Impermanence 40
• Gratitude and appreciation 38
• Tantra and Vajrayana 37
• Relationships and family 35
• Depression and low mood 32
• Dream yoga 32
• Motivation and intention 32
• Dreams and sleep 31
• Comparison and self-cherishing 27
• Guilt and regret 27
• Rebirth and continuity 25
• Self-criticism and shame 24
• Lineage and tradition 23
• The four noble truths 22
• Stress and burnout 21
• Buddha nature 20
• Ethics and precepts 20
• Emotional balance 19
• Forgiveness 17
• Generosity and dana 16
• Consciousness and science 15
• Sangha and community 14
• Enthusiastic effort (virya) 13
• Dependent origination 12
• Grief and loss 11
• Perception and projection 11
• Refuge 11
• The four thoughts that turn the mind 11
• The eight worldly concerns 10
• Attentional balance 8
• Not-self (anatta) 8
• The six perfections (paramitas) 8
• Ecology and the climate 7
• Nature and the outdoors 6
• Cognitive balance 5
• The eightfold path 5
• Peace and conflict 4
• The sixfold matrix of mental balance 4
• Secular mindfulness 3
• Symbolism and iconography 3
• Introspection and self-monitoring 1
• Spiritual materialism and bypassing 1
• The three marks of existence 1