Dharma Talk and Meditation Podcast

Cultivate the good. Cultivating the good means uncovering, recovering the wisdom and compassion that are present as potential in all of us.

How we behave matters.

There is a way to navigate this human-ness this being-ness without suffering about it, without taking it all so seriously, so personally, so gravely.

For the next 3 months, I'm going to use my book, ‘Heart of the Revolution’ as the topic for my Monday night Dharma talk and guided meditation. This book is about loving-kindness and compassion, forgiveness, generosity, equanimity, what we call the ‘brahmaviharas’ or ‘the heart practices’ of Buddhism.

The Buddha had a really really radical proposal for humanity. For all of us. And that is, that all living beings have the power, the potential , he ability to free themselves from suffering through their own actions – through our own efforts – in this lifetime, no matter where you come from, what you've done.

The five precepts are referred to as ‘Sila’; Buddhist ethics to train ourselves to abstain from killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct and using intoxicants.

Discussion on: Truth. Self-control. Generosity. Steadfastness. And patience.

Keep meditating. Keep coming back. Persevere. Don't give up even though sometimes we feel so hopeless. Keep trying. Develop the mantra, “I love you, keep going”.

Fear and the antidotes to fear.

What's the difference between non-attachment and detachment, avoidance, dissociation, dismissiveness or complacency?

You can't really trust the untrained mind but ultimately, you're going to have to train your mind so much that it becomes trustworthy.

Anatta: Where is this I? What part of me is clingy, needy, afraid, angry, judgmental, inflated, deflated? Where is this self?

The spiritual revolutionary defies both the internal and external forces of oppression.

Death meditation. Sometimes when you have a meditation like this it's worth actually sitting down and reflecting a little bit. Maybe you hadn't thought of these things in a long time but then when you had 30 minutes to live, it all came rushing back. And maybe you think, “I do want to follow through rather than going back to sleep, rather than going back into denial or avoidance.”

It's probably much more wise for us to take full personal responsibility for being annoyed by humans. But how often do we think that everyone else is the problem? Think, “if the annoying people just weren't so annoying, I'd be happy.”