62 - Listener's Questions: Practicing with Mental Illness
I share and answer three questions from listeners about practicing Buddhism and meditation when you're experiencing some kind of mental illness. I talk about when still, silent meditation might be unh...
8 Jun 201821min
61 - Taking Refuge and Precepts: The Significance of Becoming a Buddhist – Part 2
This is the second of two episodes on the practice of formally making vows to commit yourself to the Buddhist path as a lay person, in which I introduce you to two more ways of approaching lay vows in...
25 Mai 201818min
60 - Taking Refuge and Precepts: The Significance of Becoming a Buddhist – Part 1
Many religions have initiation rituals in which adherents formally commit themselves to their tradition – baptism, confirmation, and Bar or Bat Mitzvah, for example. Buddhism has its own initiation ri...
18 Mai 201815min
59 - The Buddha's Teachings Part 6: The Three Poisons as the Root of All Evil
In this episode I introduce the Buddha's teaching of the three poisons. According to the Buddha, the root of all evil – that is, all unskillful, selfish, harmful actions of body, speech, and mind – is...
12 Mai 201827min
58 - Dogen's Bendowa Part 2: Inconceivable Dharma, Practice, and Realization
This episode is the second of two on the first part of "Bendowa," Zen master Dogen's essay that amounts to "Soto Zen in a Nutshell." This week I cover two more important subjects Dogen covers in Bendo...
4 Mai 201824min
57 - Dogen's Bendowa Part 1: What's the Big Deal about Zazen?
Zen master Dogen wrote Bendowa in 1231 to introduce his Japanese students to Soto Zen. In a sense, then, it's "Soto Zen in a nutshell." In this episode I introduce the text and the context in which it...
30 Apr 201821min
56 - Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and the Power of Compassion
Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion (also called Guanyin, Kannon, or Kanzeon), is hands-down the most popular of the Buddhist archetypal bodhisattvas. The many teachings and stories around ...
22 Apr 201827min
55 - Listener's Questions: Enlightened Behavior, Openings, Chanting, Recommended Books
This episode answers four listener questions: 1) What is enlightened behavior - can someone be "awakened" and still do immoral or harmful things? 2) I had a profound experience in meditation – what no...
12 Apr 201822min
