144 - Lotus Sutra 2: Wake Up! The Parable of the Burning House
The Parable of the Burning House is one of five main parables of the Lotus Sutra, a classic Mahayana Buddhist text. I go through the parable paragraph by paragraph, stopping to reflect on each part of...
13 Aug 202034min
143 - The Experience of Enlightenment and Why It's for All of Us
Whether you are personally intrigued by the concept of enlightenment or not, it is absolutely central to Buddhism. However, enlightenment – to use a kind of corny phrase – is not what you think. I dis...
3 Aug 202034min
142 - Direct Experience Is Liberation: When There Are No Stories, There Is No "You"
Humans evolved to make sense of their experience by explaining with a story, or narrative. Although our stories help us communicate and navigate our lives, they also can preoccupy and burden us. Somet...
24 Jul 202031min
141 - The Practice of Vow 2: Choosing the Direction We Want Our Lives to Take
The practice of vow is central in Buddhism, as I've discussed before. Vows – alternatively aspirations, intentions, or commitments, formal or informal – are a conscious choice we make about the kind o...
15 Jul 202028min
140 – Sustainable Buddhist Practice: Creating Form But Keeping It Flexible
How do we create a strong and sustainable Buddhist practice outside of a monastery? We create structure for ourselves and build good habits, but then the circumstances of our lives change. There are m...
4 Jul 202039min
139 - Suchness: Awakening to the Preciousness of Things-As-It-Is
All religions and spiritual practices have one purpose: To relieve our suffering and give us hope. As Buddhists we sometimes emphasize "relieving suffering" and leave it unsaid that, after being freed...
23 Jun 202045min
138 - Buddhist Images of Fierceness and Compassionate Anger
Despite the placid appearance of most Buddha statues and the Buddhist precept against indulging anger, there is a place for fierceness and compassionate anger in Buddhism. Especially when we're faced ...
12 Jun 202036min
137 - Sustainable Bodhisattva Practice when the World is (Literally) on Fire
Many American cities are on fire - literally - as tensions over systemic racism erupt. How do we enact our bodhisattva vows in the face of all of this suffering - caused by racism, the global pandemic...
1 Jun 202044min
