The greatest gift is the
Mark Ovland's Dharma Talks
at Gaia House
Mark Ovland
Mark began practising meditation in 2008 and spent the following four years living and working in retreat centres and monasteries around the UK and Asia. Motivated to make these precious teachings more widely accessible and available, in 2013 he co-founded Freely Given Retreats and soon afterwards pioneered taking mindfulness courses into UK prisons. In more recent years Mark has been especially engaged with environmental and social justice issues. He was a close student of the late Rob Burbea.
--
Select from Mark Ovland's
44
talks
--
VIEW ALL
2025-02-10
A Look at Clinging (through the fog)
2025-07-01
Closing Session for the Retreat
2025-03-03
Dharma Joy
2026-04-09
Evening Guidance - Meeting all Experience with Mettā (Guided Meditation)
2026-03-07
Guided Meditation - A Gentle Allowing of Experience
2026-08-12
Guided Meditation - Bathing All Appearances in Kindness
2024-08-10
Guided Meditation - Embodied Metta to Self & Easy Being
2026-08-18
Guided Meditation - Finding Our Way with Mettā
2024-08-16
Guided Meditation - Metta to All Phenomena
2026-08-09
Guided Meditation - Mettā to Ourselves, a Loved One, and the Group
2025-06-29
Guided Meditation - Ripples in the Space of Awareness
2025-02-13
Guided Meditation : Welcoming & Opening to Everything
2025-02-09
Guided Mettā Meditation : Easy Being, Self & Sangha
2026-01-18
Guided Practice - Mettā for Yourself and Someone Easy
2026-01-21
Guided Practice - Mettā to Your Whole Experience
2026-01-23
Guided Practice & Closing Talk
2025-02-07
Hindrances as Blocks & Doorways
2025-03-04
Instructions - Leaning into Gladness
2024-08-13
Instructions - On Appreciation
2026-01-20
Instructions - Prioritising Patience
2026-03-08
Instructions - Simplifying Each Moment to Its Vedana
2025-02-08
Instructions : Contact and Sounds
2025-02-11
Instructions on easing contraction
2026-04-05
Lunchtime Short Reflection - Tending to the Heart on Retreat
2025-03-01
Meditation Instructions : Slowing Down and Finding One's Anchor
2026-04-04
Morning Instructions - A Light Touch of Mettā, with the Easy Being.
2025-06-28
Morning Instructions - Easing & Releasing Contraction
2026-08-08
Morning Instructions - Helping Ourselves to Settle (Kindness and Releasing Cont…
2026-08-21
Morning Instructions - Letting Go of the Content of Experience
2026-08-11
Morning Instructions - Releasing Ourselves fr the Grip of Pleasant and Unpleasa…
2025-06-25
Opening Evening - Opening Our Sense of Equanimity
2026-01-17
Opening Talk - Interdependence is Profound
2022-12-18
Reflections and Guided Practice
2026-08-07
Retreat Overview - The Confidence to Shape Experience
2024-01-18
Stabilising Non-Reactivity
2025-06-27
Talk - A Telltale Sign of Clinging (and a Doorway for Practice)
2026-01-22
Talk - Bringing Love to the World (an improvisation)
2024-12-16
Talk - Dukkha, Clinging & Choice
2026-09-20
Talk - Rubin's Vase & the Drama of Life
2026-08-10
Talk - Satisfaction, Choice, and Getting What You Want
2024-08-12
Talk - The Practice of Appreciation
2026-08-17
Talk - The Rope of Reactivity
2026-01-19
Talk - Weaving Your Life with Love
2026-03-08
Talk - Why Buddhist Practice Works
--
Select one of Mark Ovland's 12 retreats
--
2022-12-16
Boundless Heart, Vulnerable Life
2024-01-17
The Nearest Freedom
2024-08-09
Empowering Kindness
2024-12-13
Finding Peace
2025-02-06
An Open Path
2025-02-28
Radical Freedom, Wise Response
2025-06-25
Unequalled Radiance (Dana Retreat, Livestreamed)
2026-01-17
The Heart of Awakening
2026-03-07
Living With Illness & Loss (online retreat)
2026-04-02
The Power and the Beauty: Soul-Making Dharma with Mettā and Skills of the Heart
2026-08-07
Refreshing Confidence; Resourcing the Journey
2026-08-17
Fulfilling Stillness; Journeying Beyond the Known
