The Backyard Buddhist Podcast

Explore this Meditation to help ease your mind when you are experiencing difficulty.  Supporting your mental well-being through this mindful practice.  

Feelings of being overwhelmed, nervous, anxious, dread, resentment, and anger are all indicators that our Mental Well-Being is off the tracks.  Through meditation I have been able to find the common threads for supporting my own well-being.  Meditation may not be a cure-all but it is a damn good start.  

In this short meditation with Ronn Pawo McLane we focus on noticing the breath to help retrain our attention to be here in the present moment.  Practice this a often as needed grounding yourself in this present moment, no matter what is happening around you.  

I am back and excited to share with you a new season of The Backyard Buddhist Podcast.  In this episode let's talk about enlightenment.  What is it and how do we get there?  Make it simple and cut to the chase!  It is your innate right and ability.  Go For it!     If you'd like to be on the new season of the BYB to talk about your practice email me directly at urgyenpawo@gmail.com

In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist Podcast we are taking about the root of all suffering and most importantly how to spot it.  Once you spot it you can eliminate or at least reduce it's thrall.  We often miss the forest for the trees with reactive and repetitive conditioned responses.  Don't overlook the key to understanding and eliminating your suffering.  

What makes a great singer, songwriter, author, poet, actor or teacher?  Is there a gene that causes greatness?  Oprah says that luck is opportunity meeting preparation. So is greatness the preparation or is it the opportunity?  Join Ronn Pawo McLane for his 40th Podcast Episode and this enlightening conversation about the accessibility of greatness.

We all have experience situations that feel terrible and you wish them to be gone. We have also all had experiences when we felt that someone or something stood in our way of achieving something or getting somewhere. For me, obstacle removing was the first practice that I learned how to surrender. In this episode explore the secret of obstacle removal and path clearing.  Welcome our new contributor Millie, our new Mini Piebald Doxie. 

In the non-dual teachings of the Buddha we find ourselves faced with "The Two Witnesses", those being relative and absolute viewpoints.  In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist we seek to understand both relative and absolute while accessing the pervasive and ever-present unbiased consciousness that illuminates our truest nature.  

Cultivating awakened heart mind or Bodhichitta can be tricky and challenging.  It is more important than ever to find understanding in the challenges of our life experiences and how to navigate those rough waters.  When we endeavor to share the merits of our awakening with and for all begins what do we do about those who have treated us poorly and have wronged us?  It's kickoff time for the Super Bowl of Bodhichitta meet me on the 50 yard line.  As always, please email if I can be of help or assistance Urgyenpawo@gmail.com If you would like to participate in the 28-Day Meditation Program go to www.Cultivatemeditation.academy and use the promo code STARTNOW to get started for just $19 (one time fee)

Everyone of us has been experiencing a divisive time of unrest and discourse.  But what is causing the conditions that seem to breed anger, rage and violence?  How are we unwittingly participating in the perpetuation of these conditions and how do we make a solid change for ourselves and each other?  This week's Backyard Buddhist Podcast has answers and antidotes.  Remember this moment that change happens.   

We know that change comes from within but we tend to only go looking for the understanding that brings calm and peace when we are struggling the most.  Like a neglected garden we show up looking for a harvest when we are the hungriest.  My Dad taught me that to have a good garden you remove the obstacles on and in the ground and work the soil, providing moisture and nourishment and planting the seeds.  The garden needs tended daily if even just for a few minutes. Then and only then will you have a harvest enough for yourself and to share with others.  Cultivating a practice of peaceful and calm abiding needs your attention to bear the fruit and wealth of understanding that reaps the rewards of compassion and wisdom.  In this episode Pawo talks about cultivating the change that matters.      To check out Pawo's 28 Day Meditation Series on Teachable go to www.cultivatemeditation.academy and enter the code; STARTNOW for $20 off.  

In this episode Pawo is talking specifically about your daily meditation practice.  It is the first month of the new year have you set any priorities or resolutions?  What are your goals for shaking off what has been holding your down?  What is getting in your way?  What is it going to take to relieve this daily condition?  Let's talk about it.   Check out Pawo's new 28-Day Meditation Transformation at https://www.cultivatemeditation.academy It's only $39 and you can do it over and over as many times as you want.  

In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist Podcast Pawo talks about bringing ourselves to a constant state of awareness as we begin this new year.  Altars and offerings are a common practice but what about offering everything in our experience up to our awakened awareness?  There is Dharma when others show us exactly where we are stuck.  By doing or saying something that provokes us to get "hooked" into a habitual way of reacting with anger, greed and dissatisfaction.  We receive the living, breathing gift of the chance to work directly, honestly and compassionately with our own patterns.  Remember that without being provoked by others you may remain ignorant to painful habits and reactions and cannot train to transform them into the path of awakening.  Happiest New Year!

Our gift to the world is a robust practice of altruistic generosity, ethical self-discipline, compassionate patience, joyous effort, concentrated awareness and the wise and loving actions that result.  Tis the season for giving and what better gift than one of kindness and inclusion for all beings.  Cultivating a practice of insight, awareness and compassion each and every day is shared with everyone everyday not just for the holidays.  The greatest gift to give are the wings of wisdom and compassion.  May the efforts of your practiced awareness in this very important moment benefit countless beings in every direction and without prejudice.  

Welcome back after a short break.  Look at all the things that have changed in the world around us in just a few weeks.  In today's podcast I am answering some great questions from listeners and talking about my own Game Changers.  It is important to take a look back from time to time to see the beauty of how our karma ripened to bring us into a new phase and understanding within our individual experiences.  So happy to be back!  

On this episode of The Backyard Buddhist my guest Christopher Bayne and I talk about being part of the LGBTQIA and Buddhist communities.  How does being gay fit into our practice and how do we use that practice to overcome stresses and fears?  You get to hear it first from two Big Gay Buddhists. 

I have often been asked why Buddhism seems to focus on suffering.  My answer to that is that none of us showed up here to find relief from our overwhelming and ever present, persistent joy.  So, we focus on finding the relief from our suffering, discomfort, and dissatisfaction not to replace suffering with joy but to find a state of ease and perpetual Okay-ness.  Truth number one is that suffering, discomfort & dissatisfaction exist in our experience even though we find a myriad of ways to distract ourselves from it.  Truth number two is that there is a cause for this experience of discomfort and the cause for that very discomfort is our attachment (human attachment). Truth number three is that there is a possibility of relieving that state of dissatisfaction.  Truth number four is that by opening our minds and hearts to awakened awareness we can and will see the attachment as a human reaction and let go of our strangle hold on the reactive fear that is the nature of attachment. There is no suffering, discomfort or dissatisfaction that cannot be relieved by this methodology.  Turning directly toward our discomfort is simply to identify that we are experiencing a state of unrest regarding our individual experience.  Once we have identified the discomfort, we can seek the cause of it through insight and patient inquiry.  Then and only then can you effectively utilize the wisdom and compassion achieved through that exploration to relieve the tight grip of attachment causing this struggle. There is not simply one issue to be relieved.  Each of us has a lifetime of conditioning that has compounded our unrest and developed in despair, anxiety, and depression.  The good news is that once you have released your grasp on your attachment mindfully and attentively then the path is paved for continued relief. 

I am Ronn Pawo McLane and this is the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I have invited my friend Brooke Beets to join us today in the backyard.  Welcome Brooke!   We often find ourselves in a state of dissatisfaction because our wants do not seem to add up to our haves.  I, like many of you, did my time attempting to manifest the life and the material things that I wanted only to find myself disappointed with the results.  So why does this happen? 

We all feel separate sometimes.  Sometimes we believe we have been forgotten in the middle of no-where.  In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist Ronn Pawo talks about the contemplation of self and other.   What is relative and what is ultimate?  Why does it feel like a vast ocean of separateness?   Are we separate? 

I am Ronn Pawo McLane and this is the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  You won't often find me watching a movie or television show that has uncomfortable chaos or violence.  First it just feels disruptive to my experience and second, I have a belief that the experience of watching shows like this lodge them in your experience as real.  I am going to admit right here and now that my beliefs about this kind of material contains one small gap and that is the super-hero genre.  Maybe because I can understand that these are not real situations or maybe I am just making that up.   I have invited my friend Tod Meyers to talk about our spiritual super powers!    

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane.  Regret is a powerful obstacle when we are trying to balance our human experience and relieve suffering. Regret for our own behaviors and resentment associated with trauma caused by others or as a result of events that happened to us.  Today we are talking about how to let go of the past.  I invited my good friend Christopher Bayne to join me today.  Welcome Chris!

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane.  This week on the Backyard Buddhist Podcast we are talking about cultivating wisdom and compassion through the tools of insight.  We have so much to learn and understand but it always begins with understanding ourselves and our human/spiritual experiences.  Have you figured out how to access that insight?    

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane The great Yogi Milarepa sang: “My Body is the holy mandala itself wherein resides the Buddhas of all times.  With their blessings I and freed from all needs and attachments.  By day and night, I offer them up; Happy am I to do without material things. Knowing that all beings in the six realms of samsara are inherently Buddhas, and all the three worlds-the self-creating measureless (Trikaya) palace. Whatever I do is the play of the Dharmadhatu (ultimate reality); Whoever I'm with is the Yidam Deity; Wherever I stay is the Buddha's abode. Happy am I to forego outer supports, rituals and symbols!” This teaching reminds me that enough is enough and I have everything that I need to access peace and calm in my experience whenever I need it.

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane One of my teachers reminded me that the pure light of awareness sanctifies everything.  What it means to me is that when I shine the spotlight of awareness on what is causing my suffering, discomfort, and dissatisfaction then I can truly see the condition, the cause, and the cure simultaneously.  The part of that which is the most difficult is remembering to flip on the switch of attentive awareness to illuminate those dark corners.   I also know that it is through difficulty that we have our most important understanding.  All there is to do is be present awake and aware in this moment because it is the only moment that matters.  Hindsight is a powerful tool, but we have to be careful not to live our lives in the rearview mirror. In this moment I am enough, you are enough, we are all enough.  We are not damaged, not a failure and are all worthy of unconditional love.   Begin by cultivating unconditional love for yourself. Begin at home, on the spot, right now.  Thanks for all the listeners from around the globe for tuning in and listening.  If you would like to keep in touch subscribe to The Backyard Buddhist on Facebook or twitter or drop your email address in the link at backyardbuddhist.com    Email me directly at UrgyenPawo@gmail.com

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here in the studio alone today Danny has the day off.  Today I wanted to talk about what this practice and endeavor is all about.  For me I arrived to a Buddhist practice by accident.  I wasn't looking for it specifically but for all the reasons I showed up were the reasons that it made sense to me.  It started with a quest to relieve migraine headaches, moved tot a desperate attempt to find stabilization in my very turbulent life which progressed to anxiety and depression.  Today it is my understanding of ineffable consciousness and relative awareness that guide me to a peace and calm that is easily accessible.   Join me for this podcast with just You, Me and a microphone.   Pawo

We are happy to publish our 20th episode of the Backyard Buddhist Podcast.  We are so happy to have all of our loyal listeners as well as our newest friends joining us.  Usually Pawo settles on the topic for the day and Dan doesn't have any idea what we are going to talk about until the podcast begins. Today we are flipping the script and Danny is asking Pawo all the questions.  Join in the discussion and email your questions for these fun Q & A sessions.   urgyenpawo@gmail.com.

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are talking about the vast view of consciousness and awareness.  This journey to awakening dawns many realizations.  First is consciousness and what it actually is, and then through the clarity of that lens we can begin to examine the experience of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations.  As our understanding grows, we see our attachment to those experiences and cultivate compassion for the state of our conditioned existence.  With this wide and skillful view, we can continually offer up the awareness of this consciousness and our human experience illuminating our formerly dark path.    

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are talking about Natural Awakening.    Your own spiritual compass starts with awakened awareness.  With the lens of that awareness we see the natural state of consciousness as unstained, untarnished, and unaffected by stimulus.  Reactions and emotions are constructs of the conditioned mind and therefore are simply the illusions and abstracts concepts of the ego mind.  The natural state is spacious and formless.  Within that state of awareness thoughts, feelings, judgements, emotions, and sensations come and go, arise, and settle but leave no trace. We can transcend the thrall of our reactions by simply seeing those emotions as reactions and intentionally turning our attention to the empty open awareness of our natural unaffected state.  This awareness is always there it is never absent. 

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are talking about what it means to go beyond. Our natural state is beyond the dichotomies of like and dislike.  Far beyond frustration, anger, grief, and separateness.   The masters have provided us shining examples of what wisdom and compassion look like, body speech and mind.  Our inner Guru knows and understands what our own skillful and unskillful actions, words and thoughts look like.  We know the difference and can see first in hindsight and through practice we catch ourselves in the present moment and can shift our awakened actions.  We all have this innate ability and you have seen it in yourself and others.  Slow down, stop and flow in the stream of awakening for the benefit of all begins.   

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are contemplating non-duality and what it means for our practical understanding.   Duality can be a tricky business to understand.  In the religious sense this can be the dualistic idea that there is a person outside of ourselves that is the ultimate knower.  In the Buddhist sensibility our relative being is simply an aggregate part within the ultimate incandescence of the universe. There is no way to be apart from that interconnected unity.  No separateness, only inclusion. 

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are talking about what is behind the big golden door of enlightenment. Simple awakened Awareness is the jeweled key to the big golden door of enlightenment. But What is beyond is far more important.  This is the realm of enlightened activity where compassionate action is the outcome of this state of awakened being. 

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are talking about how we continually work at the practice of enlightened and awakened awareness both on and off the cushion. It is important to remind ourselves that the bulk of our practice is in reconditioning ourselves.  Once there has been a response that we engage with that response to intervene with wisdom and compassion.  Continually working toward enlightened action with the super-power of awakened awareness takes patience and perseverance and daily practice on and off the cushion.   Lather, rinse and repeat as many times as needed.  

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are talking about how Enlightenment 101 – How to find your enlightened, interconnected self.  The jeweled key to the golden door is awakened awareness but it is behind the door that the be-ing begins.  You already got the job of being you so own the experience of Your Natural Body, Your Natural Breath & Energy, and Your Natural Heart Mind.   Stop craving and chasing the thing that is right here, right now.  Just be, Awake, Aware, Liberated, Whole and Complete.  Right now.  

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are talking about the fourth paramita, Joyful and enthusiastic Effort.  In its most positive sense, effort (which we may think of as perseverance or commitment) is the delight you feel with doing what you know is the right thing – which, in the Buddhist context, generally means practicing the teachings.   Instead of resisting, you dig in with gusto, knowing that you are on the right track.  Some texts even claim that perseverance or enthusiastic effort is the most important perfection because it gives energy to the other five. One of the main obstacles to progressing on the Buddhist path, as in any area of life, is laziness – also known as resistance.  The fourth perfection is divided into three parts because each of them counters a specific form of laziness: Overcoming Sloth:   Procrastination and bad habits.   Counters with recognizing this rare and precious life (opportunity). Overcoming attraction to trivial pursuits:   Filling day with unimportant distractions are innately unfulfilling.  Overcoming Defeatism:  overcomes delusions of inadequacy or incompetence.    Even the mundane of everyday life experience can become obstacles to staying in our practice.  But when we find our mudra, mantra and mind of motivation we tap into a commitment that benefits us in unsurpassable ways.  In the words of Henry David Thoreau: Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity. Embrace you own compass and continue each day on your journey to spontaneous nowness awareness. 

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart.  Today we are getting right to the heart of our practice and talking about how to be enlightened and why we aren't already.   The wise master and celebrity drag queen Ru Paul says it best: "If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love anybody else?"

Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.  I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy and path-mate Danny Hobart.  Today we are breaking down the Wisdom Path of Awakening.   In Lama Surya Das' New Millennium Prayer he says “May all beings everywhere, with whom we are inseparably interconnected and who want and need the same as we do. May all be awakened, liberated, healed, fulfilled and free.  May there be peace in this world and throughout all realms of existence, an end to war, violence, poverty, injustice and oppression and may we all together complete the spiritual journey.” But It's tough to think about someone who is acting out in unskillful ways as wanting and needing the same as we do.  My heart is breaking for this injustice, violence and oppression. 

Let's face it, stress is not new to our lives, but this year has produced a few curve balls that are simply unusual.  Isolation for some and too much togetherness for others.  Finding and keeping a new rhythm that is healthy and fulfilling can be a daily challenge.  Today on the Backyard Buddhist we are talking about how to meditate and practice when things suck!  Remember that meditation practice is not just taking a bliss break, we are working toward facing and understanding the nature of our discomforts.  By first recognizing that we are experiencing discomfort then seeking the underlying cause of that discomfort allows us to face that dissatisfaction with wise and compassionate action and then further allows us to find a state of calm abiding while simultaneously relieving our reactions.  Simply said:  awareness of our discomfort and the cause of the discomfort allows us the clear view to relieve that suffering. 

Today on the Backyard Buddhist were talking about cultivating compassion and love for those who oppose us. Kindness and compassion for those who seem to battle against what we feel is the “right” way of being is one of the biggest challenges in our daily experience.  Just turn on the news and it isn't hard to find someone behaving in a manner that just grates against the grain of our own beliefs or path. Who are we to say that one path is right over another? We have only our own nature and understanding to draw our conclusions.  The place where we shift is when we endeavor to understand another's actions by looking deep within ourselves for the answer.  What draws fear in me?  What causes my protective ego to stand up and scream?  What causes aggressive and violent behavior in me?  What would it take for me to act through fear and emotion rather than rational thinking?  When you understand that in yourself, you will understand it in another.  Then you can respond with compassion and kindness rather than anger meeting anger.  Rage meeting rage and violence meeting violence.  The shift begins with me and you.  

Today on the Backyard Buddhist were talking about your karma.  Your Karma is a Bitch! Why do all these bad things happen?  Shouldn't all the good in the world counteract all the bad?  What happened to create all this chaos? In our efforts to liberate ourselves from suffering we must address the law of cause and effect.  Every action and inaction has an effect as every heartbeat moves blood and every breath moves air.  Our responsibility lies within our own body, speech and mind.  Mindfully considering each of our contributing actions not through the discernment of like and dislike but instead with the knowing that each action, word and thought matter.  It's ultimately all up to you to stop the ways that will create bad effects, but the only way out is to see it, understand it and let it go, without responding with anger or other harmful feelings, but with understanding that you can prevent  the chain of future cause and or create good ones to make a more happier present and future.

Herd, mob or pack mentality describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis. Today on The Backyard Buddhist Podcast Ronn Pawo McLane and Co-host Danny Hobart are talking about this as an active element in our daily experience and pack mentality from a practical aspect.  The wisdom of self-inquiry leads us to wise and complete action by having a wise and complete view and understanding of the truth.  Standing in your own confidence of having walked the road of introspection is unshakable.  Unskillful are those who stand on the opinions of others which lead us to misdeeds and negative karma.  Skillful are those who act on the reality of truth for the welfare and happiness of all. 

I am Ronn Pawo McLane here with my good friend and co-host Danny Hobart. Welcome to The Backyard Buddhist Podcast – Where we seek to bring calm introspection together with skillful action.   Today on the Backyard Buddhist were introducing our First HOT ON THE GRILL SEGMENT.  This is where we are talking about the relevant hot button issues that were faced with today.  You would have to live in a remote cave to have missed the sharp twist of hatred and polar views these days.  No matter what part of the world you are in there are opposing viewpoints.  We sit and watch the news like we are watching a WWE grudge match.  I find myself wondering what is staged, what is real and often ask myself “Is this real?”  Each day it just seems to get crazier and crazier, no matter if you are on one side or the other the behavior is simply appalling to see as a sane adult.    

Some days more than others we have trouble keeping our heads in the game.  Persistent thoughts continually knock us off our seat of awareness and the result is often depleted exhaustion and despair. Today on The Backyard Buddhist Ronn Pawo McLane and Danny Hobart are talking about feeding our inner demons and how to transform negative personal afflictions to positive daily growth.  

We are all trying hard to become better people.  We want to be better partners, parents and friends, but end up feeling exhausted and depleted.  So how do we balance all that?  The struggle to be better humans in our daily experience gets knocked off track with seemingly every irritation and conflict.  By changing our perspective to first supporting ourselves through the tools of compassionate understanding and patience affords and allows us the strength of wisdom to interact with others in a way that is peaceful and understanding.  When we can learn to be kind and compassionate, patient and nurturing toward ourselves we then project that toward others without effort.   Ronn Pawo McLane and co-host and good friend Danny Hobart discuss how we can do that and not get run over by our own intentions.   

In this episode join Ronn Pawo McLane and Danny Hobart as they discuss the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, Impermanence, and interconnectedness.  How can we use ancient wisdom to help us with our anxiety and depression? 

Join Ronn Pawo McLane and Co-host Danny Hobart in a discussion about being in the present moment and avoiding becoming a time traveler of distraction navigating the waters of a global pandemic.

Join Ronn Pawo McLane and Danny Hobart as they discuss how to apply ancient Buddhist wisdom into everyday life and find DIY Natural Awakening.