Religious concept in Buddhism
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18 episodes with three jewels
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Welcome to episode 89 of The Way Out Is In: The Zen Art of Living, a podcast series mirroring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's deep teachings of Buddhist philosophy: a simple yet profound methodology for dealing with our suffering, and for creating more happiness and joy in our lives. In this installment, Zen Buddhist monk Brother Phap Huu and leadership coach/journalist Jo Confino look at one of the foundational teachings of Buddhism: the Three Jewels – the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the teacher who, through his own direct experience, found the path to liberation from suffering. The Dharma refers to the teachings and practices that lead to awakening. The Sangha is the community that supports and transmits the Dharma. Their conversation emphasizes the Sangha's importance as the community that keeps the Buddha’s teachings alive and relevant; the need for communities rooted in the Dharma, with clear practices and guidelines to provide refuge and support spiritual transformation; and more. As usual, the hosts provide examples from their own experiences, as well as stories by or involving Thich Nhat Hanh. Enjoy! Co-produced by the Plum Village App:https://plumvillage.app/ And Global Optimism:https://globaloptimism.com/ With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation:https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/ List of resources Donate to support Plum Village’s reconstruction https://plumvillage.org/donate Interbeinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbeing Sister Chan Khonghttps://plumvillage.org/about/sister-chan-khongSister Chan Duchttps://plumvillage.org/people/dharma-teachers/sr-chan-duc Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-1966https://plumvillage.org/books/1998-neo-ve-cua-y-fragrant-palm-leavesNalanda mahaviharahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda_mahavihara Buddhahoodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhahood Dharma Talks: ‘The Five Skandhas of Grasping and Non-Self'https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/the-five-skandhas-of-grasping-and-non-self%E2%80%8B-dharma-talk-by-br-phap-lai-2018-06-08 Old Path White Cloudshttps://plumvillage.org/books/old-path-white-clouds-2 ‘The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings'https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness/the-14-mindfulness-trainings Wake Up Networkhttps://plumvillage.org/community/wake-up-young-practitioners Vinayahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinaya The Hermit and the Wellhttps://plumvillage.org/books/hermit-and-the-well Quotes “When we talk about the first jewel, the Buddha, we have to understand that each and every one of us has Buddha nature.” “Where’s my Buddha nature? My Buddha nature is my mindfulness shining in, shining out, shining near, shining far.” “The relationship between teacher and student is companionship on the path. If a teacher understands that his true belonging and his true continuation is his students, then he would do everything in his, her, or their capacity to transmit their wisdom. So the Buddha Jewel is to acknowledge that this tradition has a root teacher. And it comes from direct experience and embraces and embodies the awakened nature that each and every one of us has. A good teacher, a good Buddha, can allow us to touch our Buddha nature.” “Buddhism doesn’t mean ignoring your own traditional religious roots. And, as it’s not considered a religion, that Buddha nature can exist alongside your religious history. So if you’re Jewish or Christian, you don’t need to say, ‘Oh, I’m a Buddhist'; you can continue with your own traditions. And Thay said that it’s so important to stay rooted in your traditions, because that is your individual ancestry. And buddhahood doesn’t contradict that, doesn’t overlay it, but actually comes alongside it to support it.” “Our faith drives our practice. And our practice and the insights we get from our practice drive our faith.” “Buddha nature is ever-growing. It is very organic, it is conditioned.”
Welcome to episode 85 of The Way Out Is In: The Zen Art of Living, a podcast series mirroring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's deep teachings of Buddhist philosophy: a simple yet profound methodology for dealing with our suffering, and for creating more happiness and joy in our lives. In this installment, Zen Buddhist monk Brother Phap Huu and leadership coach/journalist Jo Confino discuss the true meaning of Zen, finding beauty and meaning in simplicity, and how to practice so in everyday life. Also, what does it mean to be part of a Zen tradition? And how do we practice Zen? How do we see the world ‘through the eyes of Zen'? The conversation also touches upon the cultivation of mindfulness, concentration, and insight; the importance of humility; finding beauty in the mundane; the sacredness of objects and spaces; the role of rituals and routines; the balance between sophistication and simplicity in one’s spiritual practice; and much more. The episode concludes with a short meditation, guided by Brother Phap Huu, on being present and grateful for the wonders of life.Enjoy! Co-produced by the Plum Village App:https://plumvillage.app/ And Global Optimism:https://globaloptimism.com/ With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation:https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/ List of resources Donate to support Plum Village’s reconstruction https://plumvillage.org/donate Interbeinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbeing Samathahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha-vipassan%C4%81Dhyana in Buddhismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyana_in_Buddhism Dharma Talks: ‘Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels'https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/taking-refuge-in-the-three-jewels-sr-chan-duc-spring-retreat-2018-05-20 Wim Wendershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Wenders Perfect Dayshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv8YO5BXCAQ Love Letter to the Earthhttps://www.parallax.org/product/love-letter-to-the-earth/Sister Chan Khonghttps://plumvillage.org/about/sister-chan-khong Sister Hien Nghiem (Sister True Dedication)https://plumvillage.org/people/dharma-teachers/sister-hien-nghiem European Institute of Applied Buddhismhttps://www.eiab.eu Sutrashttps://plumvillage.org/genre/sutras Quotes “Zen is an art of contemplation in order to see reality as it is.” “This is because that is.” “The first foundation of mindfulness, which is the core of Zen, is learning to be in the body; aware of the body in the body.” “The essence of Zen can simply be called the beginner’s mind, or the art of stopping, the art of living. And I can confidently say that in the training of the Zen school, we have to embody the three elements or three energies. Thay sometimes called them the holy energies: the energy of mindfulness, the energy of concentration, and the energy of insight.” “Sacredness is very alive when the practice is alive. And that definition comes into play when we’re in a space that has cultivated this energy of mindfulness, concentration, and insight, such as Thay’s hut, where we’re sitting now.” “Being aware and having the ability to take care of ourselves in the practice of sitting is as exciting and challenging as scoring a goal.” “I saw Thay open a door, and I learned everything I needed to learn.” “We can find meaning in everything.” “Being mindful is to establish yourself to be so alive in the present moment that nothing becomes boring.” “The art of Zen and the art of meditation is seeing the mundane, seeing the simple everyday life. And that becomes a sacred action, because our relationship to what we are doing has deep meaning, and that deep meaning represents our inner beauty, our inner contentment with this life.”“When you have something and you know it is enough, you don’t have to chase anymore. Your life suddenly becomes so much deeper and more relaxed.” “The schedule becomes our teacher, because it helps realign our energies. But we also have to have the flexibility to not be so caught in form. Form is important. Form can support us. But form shouldn’t entrap us.” “Don’t take lightly the words you announce. They come with particular energies that will come into play.” “Talent has to go with virtue.”
Subhadramati starts with the story of the Snow Queen and takes us on an exploration of imagination and Dharmic responsiveness, faith and wisdom. She shows how it is imagination that removes the twin thorns of ignorance and craving, that allows us to ascend towards the beauty of the Three Jewels. This talk was given on a Mythic Context Retreat at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre, 2024, as part of the series Mythic Context retreat. Some technical terms are used. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
Now presenting one of our favorite episodes from the archives. Amanda and Chris step through a crack in the space-time continuum with LeVar Burton, who is simultaneously Kunta Kinte, Geordi La Forge, and the host of Reading Rainbow. https://www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson https://www.amandaknox.com Bluesky: @amandaknox.com | @wisecracker.bsky.social IG: @amamaknox | @emceecarbon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this profound and deeply personal episode of the Finding Harmony Podcast, Harmony and Russell are joined once again by Hector Marcel, president of the Three Jewels Tibetan Center in New York City, meditation teacher, and Buddhist practitioner. Together, they explore the transformative power of self-reflection, the inevitability of life's challenges, and how death meditation can help us embrace life and loss with clarity and compassion. Hector shares wisdom from his decades of Buddhist practice, offering a fresh perspective on grief, pre-grieving, and the spiritual tools that allow us to navigate the chaos of modern life with grace. From the files of our mind to the crabs-in-a-bucket metaphor, this conversation will encourage you to shift your perspective and plant the seeds of peace and resilience. Topics discussed in this episode include: How our perceptions shape our reality and why managing “mind files” is key to self-awareness. The art of pre-grieving and how death meditation can transform our approach to life and loss. Navigating controversies in spiritual communities and finding your personal truth amid collective judgment. The power of karma and compassion to heal our relationships with ourselves and others. The role of meditation in cultivating an observer mind to rise above life's triggers. Special Invitation: Join Harmony and Russell in Gothenburg, Sweden, this March for a transformative 10-day yoga journey, blending traditional asana, meditation, and deep esoteric exploration. Spaces are limited, so visit harmonyslater.com or connect with Harmony on Instagram @harmonyslaterofficial to reserve your spot. Connect wi Hector Marcel: On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wakeupist/ Three Jewels: https://www.threejewels.org/ Connect with Harmony! Find your Spiritual Archetype! What is your Spiritual Entrepreneur Archetype? Take the Quiz! Sign up for the Free Spiritual Entrepreneur Class! https://harmonyslater.as.me/Spiritual-Entrepreneur-Archetype-Class Connect with Us (We love to hear from you!) Harmony Slater's Website: http://harmonyslater.com Finding Harmony Community https://harmonyslater.com/harmony-slater-coaching Find Harmony on Instagram Follow the Finding Harmony Podcast on IG Two Minute Breathwork Session
Join Tarapalita in this talk about How the Buddha´s community grew. The Buddha was a true individual. Free from everything that we are restricted by and suffer from. Psychologically, socially, emotionally…spiritually. He discovered the causes and sources of his suffering and dissolved them in the profound and sustained depths of awareness. What was left afterwards was the ongoing bliss of Liberation… On his journey towards that Liberated state, he fully commited himself to following his most subtle and radical spiritual instincts and intuitions, which at points meant going it alone. Fully alone. And yet…although he finally became an earth-shaking embodiment of what it means to be free from the chains of conditioned existence, a true individual, he spent the rest of his life creating and nurturing a community. One rooted in wisdom, love and integrity, one that is still going strong 2500 years later. An ongoing story of friendships that we here in Berlin are now a part of. So how does all this go together? Becoming more individual and also more committed to a community? Why is the spiritual community or Sangha as its traditionally called, one of the Three Jewels every Buddhist bows to? Is just about organised religion promoting itself? Is it just nice people, drinking nice tea, trying to be nice and hoping the world will be nice to them? Perhaps we cynically think we know all about what Sangha means already and if so, has it then become another dead concept neatly ticked off in our mind? The Buddha saw that we are infinitely stronger together and made sure that his community started and carried on in the right way. When there is so much distress and disharmony in our general collective experience right now, it's good to remember that things can be different. We can choose to contribute to the nucleus of a new society by taking responsibly for our own actions and raising our level of consciousness. And as we see with the rest of Buddhisms long history, you really never know how wider conditions change and what that can lead to. If we play our part in keeping the flame burning strong and true, it's possible for wider conditions in society to change and for more people to recognise and take up the Buddhas teachings in unexpected and beautiful ways. It's happened before, there's no reason it can't happen again. We're going to take a little journey into all this as Tarapalita talks to us about How the Buddha´s community grew.
In this gem of an episode, Harmony and Russell dive deep into the philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism with the wise and joyful Hector Marcel, President of the Three Jewels Outreach Center in New York City, Tibetan Buddhism Teacher, and Meditation Expert. Hector shares his journey from Argentina to Australia and eventually to New York City, where he discovered Tibetan Buddhism. This conversation is full of laughter, wisdom, and thought-provoking ideas about karma, suffering, reincarnation, and the power of meditation. The discussion touches on the misconception that spiritual practices will eliminate suffering and explains how enlightenment can be found by transforming how we experience life's challenges. Hector emphasizes the importance of facing our negative karmas, the mind-body connection, and why joy is integral to moving through suffering. Key Topics Discussed: Hector's Journey: From Argentina to Tibetan Buddhism Hector recounts his fascinating journey from fleeing political unrest in Argentina to embracing Tibetan Buddhism. His personal story illustrates how life's unexpected turns can lead to profound wisdom and spiritual transformation. Discovering Meditation and Buddhism Hector recalls his initial reluctance to embrace meditation and Buddhism and how a series of serendipitous events, including a dream and accidentally crashing a buddhist party led him to a lifelong commitment to Tibetan teachings. Understanding Karma and Reincarnation Hector offers a clear and insightful explanation of karma, reincarnation and how these concepts are tied to the Buddhist understanding of consciousness and the mind. The Role of Meditation and Pretending One of the episode's key takeaways is how meditation can help change our relationship to reality and how “pretending” enlightenment can actually lead to real awakening. Finding Joy in Suffering Hector discusses how we can find joy even in moments of suffering by shifting our mindset and understanding that our perception creates our experience of reality. Exploring Emptiness and the Nature of Reality The concept of emptiness is explored in depth, particularly how things don't have an inherent nature, and how our projections create our experiences. The Path to Enlightenment vs. Nirvana Hector explains the difference between Nirvana and full Buddhahood, offering insights into what it means to reach enlightenment and how it can be achieved not just for oneself but for all living beings. Join Hector Marcel & Three Jewels: Connect with Hector at Wakeupist on Instagram. Learn more about his work at Three Jewels, a nonprofit offering meditation, yoga, and philosophy classes in New York City. Connect with Harmony (We love to hear from you!) Harmony Slater's Website: http://harmonyslater.com Finding Harmony Community https://harmonyslater.com/harmony-slater-coaching Find Harmony on Instagram Follow the Finding Harmony Podcast on IG Two Minute Breathwork Session Yoga Gives Back Fundraiser
Ajahn Amaro offered this reading and commentary from chapter 3 ‘The Three Refuges', section ‘The Second Refuge' until the ‘Paying Respect to the Three Jewels', on 23 January 2024 during the Winter Retreat at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, UK. The post 09 – Chapter 3 – The Three Refuges (part 2) appeared first on Amaravati Buddhist Monastery.
Ajahn Amaro offered this reading and commentary from chapter 3 ‘The Three Refuges', continuing the section ‘Paying Respect to the Three Jewels' until the 'Opening to Religious Conventions', on 24 January 2024 during the Winter Retreat at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, UK. The post 10 – Chapter 3 – The Three Refuges (part 3) appeared first on Amaravati Buddhist Monastery.
Ajahn Amaro offered this reading and commentary from chapter 3 ‘The Three Refuges', section ‘The Second Refuge' until the ‘Paying Respect to the Three Jewels', on 23 January 2024 during the Winter Retreat at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, UK. The post 09 – Chapter 3 – The Three Refuges (part 2) appeared first on Amaravati Buddhist Monastery.
Ajahn Amaro offered this reading and commentary from chapter 3 ‘The Three Refuges', continuing the section ‘Paying Respect to the Three Jewels' until the 'Opening to Religious Conventions', on 24 January 2024 during the Winter Retreat at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, UK. The post 10 – Chapter 3 – The Three Refuges (part 3) appeared first on Amaravati Buddhist Monastery.
Finishing the section of Final and Provisional Refuges, and explaining the Three Jewels According to the Vajra Vehicle, from Chapter 1.
Describing the difference between the Three Jewels and the objects of refuge, both final and provisional.
Content warning for discussion of genocide, torture, mutilation, rape, and slavery Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 14 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 13 last week, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week. This week marks the 5th part of our mini series of currently ongoing genocides and humanitarian crises. Episode 2 was on Palestine, Episode 11 was on Congo, episode 12 was on Sudan, episode 13 was on Xinjiang, and today's episode will talk about the genocide of the Rohingya people of Myanmar. It's officially the end of week 2! We made it. Congratulations one and all on surviving 2 weeks worth of weeks. As a gift for you all we're going to visit the Alchemist's Table. Today;s libation is called Prohibition Sweet Tooth. It's 1.5 ounces each of Redemption Bourbon and Creme de Cacao, followed by .75 oz of Frangelico. Shake well and pour over ice. Officially the Rohingya genocide began around 2016 and continues to this day, but as we know from every other episode we've had so far, genocide's don't just pop up out of nowhere all of the sudden. There is context, there is a roadmap of hindsight that we can follow back to, if not a starting point at least a starting line. So, first, let's talk about Myanmar. There have been homonid species living on Myanmar for about 750,000 years, first in the form of Homo erectus and then Homo sapiens starting around 25,000 years ago. Then a whole lot of history happened that, while fascinating and important, isn't strictly relevant to what we're going to discuss today. Starting on January 1, 1886 Myanmar (then called Burma) was officially annexed by the British Empire under the control of the British East India Company. Burma would remain under British rule until 1948. Burma was officially declared an independent state by an act of Parliament, specifically the Burma Independence Act 1947. Burma then remained under a civilian government until 1962, at which point it was overthrown in a coup detat and Burma (which became Myanmar officially in 1989) has been under military rule since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalised or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism, which combined Soviet-style nationalisation and central planning. A long series of anti-government protests resulted in a popular uprising in 1988, sometimes called the 8888 Uprising. This would lead directly to the renaming of the country from Burma to Myanmar and the country's first free, multiparty elections in 30 years. So, as you can see Myanmar has had an interesting and contentious history born of a desire for a strong sense of national unity, stability, and growth. It was the instability of the civilian government, the lack of growth, the skyrocketing crime rates, and the fear of the disintegration of Burma into several smaller nations that would lead to the 1962 coup after all. When your country has such a strong, almost rabid desire for unity and strength and national identity it always goes hand in hand with a desire for a homogenous society. The Germans in World War 2 felt it. The Ottomans in World War 1 felt it. It's what nations who fear their own collapse DO. They look for the divisive elements, the ones who don't fit the majority mold and they say “Hey, these people won't fall in line. They're dividing out country, threatening it with their different religion, culture, values, etc. We can solve all of our problems, save our country if we just… get rid of them”. Myanmar is a Buddhist majority country, by an overwhelming margin. According to the 2014 Myanmar census 90% of the country's population (of about 56 million) is Buddhist. 6.3% is Christian and just over 2% is Muslim. The Rohingya people, the subjects of our episode for today and Mulsim, so let's dive back and take a look at the history of Muslim persecution in Myanmar. The first Muslim documented in Burmese history (recorded in the Glass Palace Chronicle) was Byat Wi during the reign of Mon, a Thaton king, circa 1050 AD. The two sons of Byat Wi's brother Byat Ta, known as Shwe Byin brothers, were executed as children either because of their Islamic faith, or because they refused forced labor. Throughout the premodern era various restrictions were placed on Muslim communities in Burma. The Burmese king Bayinnaung banned Islamic ritual slaughter, thereby prohibiting Muslims from consuming halal meals of goats and chicken. He also banned Eid al-Adha and Qurbani, regarding killing animals in the name of religion as a cruel custom. Burma having largely adopted Buddhism by the 12th century CE. Although, in a strange, cruel, and somewhat ironic twist King Bodawpaya from 1782–1819 arrested four prominent Burmese Muslim Imams from Myedu and killed them in Ava, the capital, after they refused to eat pork. According to the Myedu Muslim and Burma Muslim version, Bodawpaya later apologized for the killings and recognised the Imams as saints. During the "Burma for Burmese" campaign in the late 1930s, a violent demonstration took place in Surti Bazaar, a Muslim area. When the police, who were ethnically Indian (there was a lot of anti-Indian sentiment in Burma in the 1930s, and because most Indian people living in Burma were Muslim, this also affected Muslim Burmese people), tried to break up the demonstration, three monks were injured. Images of monks being injured by ethnically Indian policemen were circulated by Burmese newspapers, provoking riots. Muslim properties, including shops and houses were looted. According to official sources, 204 Muslims were killed and over 1,000 were injured. 113 mosques were damaged. Panglong, a Chinese Muslim town in British Burma, was entirely destroyed by the Japanese invaders in the Japanese invasion of Burma in World War 2. And, after the 1962 coup all Muslim troops were expelled from the Army. And, of course, we need to talk about the 1997 Mandalay Riots. Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar. a mob of 1,000–1,500 Buddhist monks and others shouted anti-Muslim slogans as they targeted mosques, shop-houses, and vehicles that were in the vicinity of mosques for destruction. Looting, the burning of religious books, acts of sacrilege, and vandalizing Muslim-owned establishments were also common. At least three people were killed and around 100 monks arrested. The unrest in Mandalay allegedly began after reports of an attempted rape of a girl by Muslim men, though there's no way to know if that story is true or not. In 2001, anti-Muslim pamphlets, most notably The Fear of Losing One's Race, were widely distributed by monks. Many Muslims feel that this exacerbated the anti-Muslim feelings that had been provoked by the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan. (The Buddhas are two giant statues in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan that daye from about the 6th century CE, they have long been considered a holy site by Buddhists and they were destroyed by the Talbian in 2001). And that's why on 15 May 2001, anti-Muslim riots broke out in Taungoo, Pegu division, resulting in the deaths of about 200 Muslims, in the destruction of 11 mosques and the setting ablaze of over 400 houses. On 15 May, the first day of the anti-Muslim uprisings, about 20 Muslims who were praying in the Han Tha mosque were killed and some were beaten to death by the pro-junta forces. Now, something that we need to discuss before I forget to is that since 1982 the Rohingya have been denied voting rights and citizenship within Myanmar thanks to the 1982 Citizenship Law. The law created three categories of citizenship: the first category applied to ethnic Burmans and members of the Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Arakan Buddhists, Shan, and any other ethnic group present in Myanmar prior to 1823 (though they did not include Rohingya Muslims, rendering them stateless), granted them full citizenship. The second category granted partial “associate” citizenship to the children of mixed marriages where one parents fell into the first category, as well as to individuals who had lived in Myanmar for five consecutive years, or to individuals who lived in Myanmar for eight out of the ten years prior to independence. Associate citizens could earn an income, but could not serve in political office. The third category applied to the offspring of immigrants who arrived in Myanmar during the period of British colonial rule. When we look at the state of Myanmar during the 20th century we can very clearly see Levels 3 and 4 of the Pyramid of Hate. The Pyramid of Hate was created in the mid aughts and was based on the Alport Scale of Prejudice created by psychologist Gordon Alport in the 1950s. Simply put the five levels, going from bottom to top are thoughts, words, discriminatory policy, violence towards individuals because of their membership to the group and violence against the cultural markers of the group, and finally genocide. Myanmar, very obviously has and had discriminatory policy and violence towards individuals and their cultural markers. Massacres, riots, burning Qurans and mosques all fit under level 4. But, of course, things can and did get worse. There was the 2012 Rakhine State riots. Sectarian violence erupted between the Rakhine ethnic group and the Rohingya and ended with most of the Rohingya population of Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine State being expelled. Over the course of the riots that lasted most of June and erupted again in October a little over 160 people were killed and over 100,000 Rohingya were displaced. We are now in our time of rapid escalation of violence as the next major anti Rohingya event would occur in March of 2013. But before we talk about the 2013 riots we need to talk about the 969 Movement. The 969 is a violently Islamophobic Buddhist Nationalist organization founded and run by Ashin Wirathu. Time for a slight diversion for a fun fact: The three digits of 969 "symbolize the virtues of the Buddha, Buddhist practices and the Buddhist community". The first 9 stands for the nine special attributes of the Buddha and the 6 for the six special attributes of his Dharma, or Buddhist Teachings, and the last 9 represents the nine special attributes of Buddhist Sangha (monastic community). Those special attributes are the Three Jewels of the Buddha. Wirathu claims that he does not advocate for violence against Muslims and that all he wants is peace, and yet in a Time magazine article he had this to say: "You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog", Wirathu said, referring to Muslims. "If we are weak", he said, "our land will become Muslim". The 2013 riots were particularly brutal. One incident involved several Muslim teenagers dragging a Buddhist man off of his bike and setting him on fire. As well as the deadliest incident of the riot which occurred when a Buddhist mob attacked and torched the Mingalar Zayone Islamic Boarding School. While outnumbered security forces stood by, rioters armed with machetes, metal pipes, chains, and stones killed 32 teenage students and four teachers. Now, while 2016 would be the “official” start of the genocide we would be remiss if we skipped over the 2015 refugee crisis. In 2015, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh fled from religious persecution and continued denial of basic rights in their home countries by means of boat travel, often through previously existing smuggling routes among the Southeast Asian waters. Many Rohingyas fled to Indonesia and Malaysia, which both adopted a stance open to acceptance of the Rohingya refugees still at sea in mid-May. And now we're at the genocide itself, though before we do that, let's take a look at that the US State Department had to say about Myanmar and Rakhine shortly before the shit hit the fan. The situation in Rakhine State is grim, in part due to a mix of long-term historical tensions between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities, socio-political conflict, socio-economic underdevelopment, and a long-standing marginalisation of both Rakhine and Rohingya by the Government of Burma. The World Bank estimates Rakhine State has the highest poverty rate in Burma (78 per cent) and is the poorest state in the country. The lack of investment by the central government has resulted in poor infrastructure and inferior social services, while lack of rule of law has led to inadequate security conditions. Members of the Rohingya community in particular reportedly face abuses by the Government of Burma, including those involving torture, unlawful arrest and detention, restricted movement, restrictions on religious practice, and discrimination in employment and access to social services. In 2012, the intercommunal conflict led to the death of nearly 200 Rohingya and the displacement of 140,000 people. Throughout 2013–2015 isolated incidents of violence against Rohingya individuals continued to take place. In 2016 a Rohingya resistance group known as Harakah al-Yaqin formed and attacked several border police posts leaving 9 officers dead and looting as many munitions as they could. In response to this the government of Myanmar immediately began cracking down on all Rohingya people as quickly and viscously as they could. In the initial operation, dozens of people were killed, and many were arrested. Casualties increased as the crackdown continued. Arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, brutalities against civilians, and looting were carried out. Media reports stated hundreds of Rohingya people had been killed by December 2016, and many had fled Myanmar as refugees to take shelter in the nearby areas of Bangladesh. Those who fled Myanmar to escape persecution reported that women had been gang raped, men were killed, houses were torched, and young children were thrown into burning houses. Boats carrying Rohingya refugees on the Naf River were often gunned down by the Burmese military. In a report published in March 2024, the IIMM stated the military had in a "systematic and coordinated" manner "spread material designed to instil fear and hatred of the Rohingya minority". The report found military was used dozens of seemingly unrelated Facebook pages to spread hate speech against the Rohingya prior before the 2017 Rohingya genocide. This is similar in intent to the use of radio stations to spread constant anti Tutsi propaganda during the Rwandan genocide, though obviously as information technology advances methods get more sophisticated. Though I hesitate to call Facebook sophisticated.. In August 2018, a study estimated that more than 24,000 Rohingya people were killed by the Burmese military and local Buddhists since the "clearance operations" which had started on 25 August 2017. The study also estimated that over 18,000 Rohingya Muslim women and girls were raped, 116,000 Rohingyans were beaten, and 36,000 Rohingyans were thrown into fires. It was also reported that at least 6,700 to 7,000 Rohingya people including 730 children were killed in the first month alone since the crackdown started. In September 2018, the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar released a report stating that at least 392 Rohingya villages in Rakhine State had been razed to the ground since 25 August 2017. Earlier, Human Rights Watch in December 2017 said it had found that 354 Rohingya villages in Rakhine state were burnt down and destroyed by the Myanmar military. In November 2017, both the UN officials and the Human Rights Watch reported that the Armed Forces of Myanmar had committed widespread gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against the Rohingya Muslim women and girls for the prior three months. HRW stated that the gang rapes and sexual violence were committed as part of the military's ethnic cleansing campaign while Pramila Patten, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said that the Rohingya women and girls were made the "systematic" target of rapes and sexual violence because of their ethnic identity and religion. In February 2018, it was reported that the Burmese military bulldozed and flattened the burnt Rohingya villages and mass graves in order to destroy the evidence of atrocities committed. These villages were inhabited by the Rohingya people before they were burnt down by the Burmese military during the 2017 crackdown. Since the 25 August incident, Myanmar blocked media access and the visits of international bodies to Rakhine State. Rakhine State has been called an information black hole. According to the Mission report of OHCHR (released on 11 October 2017 by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), the Burmenese military began a "systematic" process of driving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar in early August 2017. The report noted that "prior to the incidents and crackdown of 25 August, a strategy was pursued to": Arrest and arbitrarily detain male Rohingyas between the ages of 15–40 years; Arrest and arbitrarily detain Rohingya opinion-makers, leaders and cultural and religious personalities; Initiate acts to deprive Rohingya villagers of access to food, livelihoods and other means of conducting daily activities and life; Commit repeated acts of humiliation and violence prior to, during and after 25 August, to drive out Rohingya villagers en masse through incitement to hatred, violence, and killings, including by declaring the Rohingyas as Bengalis and illegal settlers in Myanmar; Instill deep and widespread fear and trauma – physical, emotional and psychological, in the Rohingya victims via acts of brutality, namely killings, disappearances, torture, and rape and other forms of sexual violence. In addition to the massive and horrific amounts of violence that are occuring, even now, inside Myanmar there is also the refugee crisis we mentioned earlier. There are over 700,000 Rohingya people who have been displaced from their homes and are living in refugee camps in surrounding countries. Most fled to Bangladesh while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. On 12 September 2018, the OHCHR Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar published its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Following 875 interviews with victims and eyewitnesses since 2011, it concluded that "the [Burmese] military has consistently failed to respect international human rights law and the international humanitarian law principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution." Even before the most recent incident of mass Rohingya displacement began in 2011, the report found that the restrictions on travel, birth registration, and education resulting from Rohingya statelessness violated the Rohingya people's human rights. During the mass displacement of almost 725,000 Rohingya by August 2018 to neighbouring Bangladesh, as a result of persecution by the Tatmadaw, the report recorded "gross human rights violations and abuses" such as mass rape, murder, torture, and imprisonment. It also accused the Tatmadaw of crimes against humanity, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The mission report recommended that six Burmese generals in the Tatmadaw stand trial in an international tribune for atrocities committed against the Rohingya. Despite all this the UN refuses to do anything substantive. Instead they are still trying to cooperate with the Tatmadaw and convince them to stop committing genocide. The UN has always been a useless tool of appeasement, Western imperialism, and white supremacy that refuses to hold anyone accountable. Of course, if the UN held genocidal regimes accountable they'd have to arrest the entire permanent Security Council so, the lack of accountability isn't surprising. It's why cops don't arrest other cops. You may have noticed that the dates in this episode stop after 2018, you also might remember that Myanmar has been called an information black hole. The genocide is still ongoing, nothing has gotten better and it's probably gotten worse, but getting verifiable information out of Myanmar is all but impossible at this point. Keep Myanmar in your sight. That's it for this week folks. No new reviews, so let's get right into the outro. Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day, and Free Rakhine.
Celebrate the Everyday Sangha by listening to this special bonus re-release of episode 26, Why Sangha? Bringing Buddhism to Life. This re-released episode is the first episode I talked about the Three Treasures, The Three Jewels, or the Triple Gem of Buddhism. Back in April of 2019, I released this episode to announce the launch of our Everyday Sangha. I'm re-releasing it today, in a bow of gratitude to the sangha, which has grown into a wonderful community. I am celebrating the sangha and the 16 sangha members who are going for refuge and receiving Dharma names in the non-sectarian, Mahayana lineage of Bright Dawn Buddhism/Kubose Dharma Legacy this Saturday, on June 1st in a special TiSarana Ceremony. These 16 will officially take refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. So, congratulations to the those 16 taking refuge and a huge thank you to the Everyday Sangha for being such a special group! I think many connect with the *jewel* or treasure aspect of the Buddha and Dharma, but Sangha? The Buddha taught the Dharma as an experiential path. His advice is to try it for ourselves, rather than taking his or anyone else's word for it. It is Sangha that moves Buddhism beyond a study or philosophy to something lived and alive. But you have to practice or it doesn't work. Sangha is where you perfect your practice with others doing the same thing. We come just as we are. Working on practices, not being people who are already perfect. The Sangha accepts us and supports us so that we can become more honest with ourselves and others. We learn to accept ourselves AND others. We accept our humanity, together.
Describing the qualities of the three jewels based on the perfection vehicle, teaching from Chapter 1.
https://youtu.be/kE3G5yrSTys
After an account of the Buddha's life, Sangharakshita asks how, if at all, such a man can be defined or categorised. This talk was given in 1968 as part of the series Introducing the Three Jewels of Buddhism *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
We can precede the Chenrezig visualization by calming techniques and breathing exercises, reciting prayers and reflecting on the kindness of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. Buddha made immense sacrifices for the benefit of all sentient beings, practicing morality, charity, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom for three countless great eons. Integrating Lam Rim meditation with deity meditation and mantra recitation can make the practice more powerful. Chanting serves as a form of meditation, giving us time to reflect and meditate on the teachings and carries blessings from enlightened beings and supports the arising of devotion, renunciation, compassion, and bodhicitta.Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the three causes of refuge (recognition of suffering and delusion, compassion for sentient beings, and devotion to the Three Jewels) and the distinction between causal and resultant refuge in the path towards enlightenment.Generating bodhicitta by reciting, "I must achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, therefore I'm going to generate bodhicitta" accumulates far greater merit than making offerings to the Buddhas for eons equal to the number of sand grains in the Pacific Ocean, or even the Atlantic Ocean. The act of generating bodhicitta is so powerful that it surpasses unimaginable offerings in terms of merit.When making offerings to Guru Chenrezig, visualize the essence of the offering as generating infinite bliss in his holy mind. Offerings we make during our practice are not just visualizations but are real offerings. Rinpoche guides us through a visualization of Chenrezig, focusing on the deity's form, attributes, and the symbolism of each aspect. Chenrezig's pure body contains countless pure realms of Buddhas within each pore, signifying the power and qualities of the Buddhas. The commentary continues with the recitation of Chenrezig's mantra and the development of great compassion, where we can engage in practices such as Tonglen (taking and giving) to alleviate the suffering of sentient beings and purify our own negativities.We can make requests to Chenrezig using a prayer that includes various requests and aspirations. These requests encompass a wide range of situations and challenges that we may encounter in our lives. We seek Chenrezig's guidance and blessings to overcome them.This teaching was given at Institut Vajra Yogini, France as part of a Four Kadampa Deities Retreat from April 18 to May 11, 2003. You can see all the teachings from this retreat here: https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/4-kadam-deities-2003/
In the next three segments of UnMInd we will take up the Three Jewels, Gems, or Treasures: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha - the highest values of Buddhism - from the perspective of their design intent. Buddha practice - time on the cushion dedicated to recovering our original, awakened nature ‑ is the most important dimension in the Zen, or meditation schools. Dharma study – reviewing and contemplating the teachings transmitted by Shakyamuni and the ancestors down to the present day ‑ comes second in importance and emphasis, as an adjunct to meditation. While participation in and service to the Sangha ranks third in the tripartite hierarchy, all three legs of the stool are considered essential to leading a balanced life of Zen. It will be most appropriate to take them in reverse order, beginning with Sangha, or community, the one most fully integrated with the social dimension. The Refuge Verse, usually chanted on a daily basis, and translated variously, reads: I take refuge in Buddha I take refuge in Dharma I take refuge in SanghaI take refuge in Buddha the fully awakened OneI take refuge in Dharma the compassionate teachingsI take refuge in Sangha the harmonious communityI have completely taken refuge in BuddhaI have completely taken refuge in DharmaI have completely taken refuge in Sangha The act of taking refuge may be interpreted in a variety of ways; from the New Oxford American Dictionary: • a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble: he was forced to take refuge in the French embassy | I sought refuge in drink. • something providing shelter: the family came to be seen as a refuge from a harsh world. • an institution providing safe accommodations for women who have suffered violence from a spouse or partner. Its etymological origin is defined as: late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin refugium, from Latin re- ‘back' + fugere ‘flee'. Over the two-and-a-half millennia of the history of Buddhism, the communities of monks and/or nuns originating in India may indeed have comported with all of the above definitions at one time or another, with the possible exception of seeking refuge in drink, which may be more characteristic of lay practice. Certain modern Zen masters have been known for their fondness for sake and beer, as was Matsuoka roshi. The dictionary definitions share a decidedly fraught connotation of seeking “shelter from the storm,” to quote Master Dylan. But when we look at the role of the Zen community in the context of modern-day America, we can see that taking refuge in the sangha has less wary, socially positive functions as well – beginning with that of providing community, itself. True community is an increasingly rare commodity in today's mobile society, where we as householders may or may not know our neighbors; and if we do, we may not for long, as they, or we, may move several times in one lifetime. In ancient India, China and the Far East, people may have been more likely to stay put in their birthplace, unless they were driven to flee danger or trouble. Today, we have displaced persons approaching an estimated 110 million, the largest refugee population in history. When we analyze the design intent of western Zen communities, which manifest a mix of traditional protocols and adaptations to modernity, we have to take into account that the monastic model is no longer the predominant form, outnumbered as it is by the expanding cohort of lay householders. People of all walks of life are taking up the practice of Zen in their daily lives ‑ including participation in programs offered by Zen centers and temples in their neighborhoods, or within a reasonable commute ‑ returning to families and professional livelihoods, partaking of practice opportunities when and where they can fit them in. I call this “guerilla Zen”: we hit it and run; hit it and run; engaging more formal training with a simpatico group, while sustaining daily practice at home, at work, and at play. Everything is eventually subsumed under Zen. Churches and other associations share this paradoxical characteristic, caricatured by the “Sunday saints, Monday sinners” trope. Zen centers do not typically preach morality from the pulpit, but offer some degree of sanctuary in which members can retrench, to reenter the fray of daily life from a more balanced perspective and stance. This is reflected in the Sixteen Precepts of Zen, which we will not detail here, but include such social parameters as not killing, stealing or lying, not indulging in gossip, and so on.The key characteristic by which a Zen sangha is defined is captured in the expression, “harmonious community.” We all belong to, or partake in, various communities and subgroups in our personal, family, and professional lives, but not all of them would meet the high bar of harmony that is associated with a Zen community, or that of a church. We are expected to leave our lesser angels at the doorstep, and aspire to a higher level of behavior, particularly with regard to our fellow seekers of awakened awareness. Compared to other socially-determined groups, such as those found in retirement homes, extended care facilities, private clubs and gated communities, one difference is that a sangha welcomes all comers, however diverse in terms of age, gender, income, background and education, or other social factors by which groups tend to discriminate. “Birds of a feather” and all. Zen groups assume that members are like-minded in their pursuit of the Dharma, and it quickly becomes apparent when newcomers join a sangha for all the wrong reasons. Attendees joining Zen retreats or undertaking residential practice are analogized to stones tumbling in a stream, rubbing all the rough edges off, until we become smooth and polished – harmonious - in our interactions with others. Several dimensions of the Zen environment yield clues to its design intent, and where it may differ from other communities. These will vary from group to group, based on the history and traditions unique to each lineage, the legacy of its founders, and, of course, personalities. Generally, we are encouraged to overlook minor superficial differences in protocols and procedures, focusing on the underlying intent of propagating Buddha practice - meditation; and promulgating Dharma – study of the teachings; the two highest-ranking values in Zen. Let's look at a few characteristic behavioral forms and features to be found in multiple “practice places of buddha-tathagatas everywhere,” to borrow a phrase from Master Dogen: OBSERVING SILENCEAn emphasis on observing long periods of silence is unusual in most public gatherings, noting exceptions such as monastic assemblies devoted to vows of silence, or Quaker congregations. Restraining speech can feel awkward, even artificial; but in time it becomes a welcome source of respite and relief from the usual pressure to engage in small talk in most social and fellowship settings. In Zen, special attention is given to being mindful while others are meditating, taking heed to move quietly, as well as foregoing unnecessary speech. MAINTAINING SIMPLICITYVisual simplicity complements acoustical silence in the form of clutter control, straightforward layout and organization of the space and furnishings, and movement through it. The meditation hall, or zendo, is a particular focus of this principle, but it applies to all the shared public spaces of the facility. The catchphrase is “leave no traces” - which has personal meaning in terms of attachment and aversion - but is manifested in communal environs by putting things back where they belong, fluffing sitting cushions, straightening shoes on the shoe shelf, and so on. Emphasis is on reducing distraction that might intrude upon or interfere with the experience of others. CLEANINGPart of the process of achieving simplicity is the ritualization of temple cleaning, in Japanese, soji. Matsuoka-roshi would often say, “Cleaning is cleaning the mind.” The very act of decluttering the space relieves the mind of mental clutter. He would say “I like to keep it empty around here.” It is understood that “the dust itself is immaculate,” of course, that nothing is really “dirty” in any absolute sense. But attitudes and approaches “providing a space conducive to practice” – a unique definition of generosity, or dana, offered by a senior member of HH the Dalai Lama's inner circle, when giving a talk at ASZC some years ago – are meant to accommodate the relative level of perception, that “cleanliness is next to godliness,” as cited by St. Thomas Aquinas. TRAININGCleaning the environment is a specific activity within the larger category of Zen training in general. We train ourselves to serve the community through these various activities, while at the same time serving our own needs for simplicity, silence, and so on. We train in what has proved necessary to establish and maintain sustainable group practice in the public sphere. Aspects of how we approach this in the context of community may begin to bleed over into our personal lives at home and at work. We may find ourselves growing more attentive to our home or office environment, assuming more ownership and authorship over their functions, and their impact upon mindfulness on a daily basis. Training in Zen manifests this “halo effect,” a natural enhancement of Zen awareness. BOWING AND CHANTINGThe intent of Zen ritual may not be apparent at first blush, and so is widely subject to misinterpretation. It looks, on the surface, much like any other service one might observe, in Protestant or Catholic churches, as well as synagogues. Some are put off by the bowing and chanting, reading in such connotations as worship, public religiosity, and obsequiousness, which are all inappropriate projections. While the various formal protocols that have evolved around Zen practice have practical effects of cohering the community, their intent is largely personal. The Buddhist bow, for example, represents, on one hand, the person we are trying to improve; and on the other, the ideal person we want to emulate, our original buddha-nature. But the palm-to-palm hand position, or mudra in Sanskrit ‑ called gassho in Japanese ‑ symbolizes that just as our two hands are part of the same body, these apparently opposing selves are also just one, or “not-two” as the Ch'an poem “Trust in Mind” reminds us. With repetition, the bow eventually becomes empty of inappropriate connotations. Like emptying a teacup, so that it can be refilled with deeper meaning. Matsuoka-roshi would often remind us to “Chant with the ears, not with the mouth,” and that the concrete chanting, itself, is the true meaning of the chant. In other words, listen deeply to the chant, which is a Dharma teaching - not a prayer or worship - so that the act of chanting in a group becomes deeply meaningful on a personal level. In professional design circles, these seemingly innocuous, everyday conventions of maintaining order in space, and harmonious dynamics in time, cannot be overlooked. They are, indeed, regarded as essential deliverables in retail and other commercial environments, where the adverse effects of clutter and noise can be measured in financial terms as loss of business and customer base. The influence of environmental factors may be less obvious in the personal realm. But in the world of Zen, they can provide powerful aids to finding and sustaining harmony with the Great Way, from Zen's roots in Taoism. For further pursuit of the symbolism and design intent of the Zen space and protocols, I refer you to Matsuoka-roshi's early collected talks, “The Kyosaku,” where you will find a chapter on the various elements to be found in most zendos. Meanwhile, remember Master Dogen's admonition in “Jijuyu Zammai – Self-fulfilling Samadhi”: Without engaging in incense offering, chanting Buddha's name, repentance or reading scripture, you should just wholeheartedly sit and thus drop off body and mind. Sangha, community service, is important, but only to the extent that it provides the conducive environment for Buddha practice and Dharma study. * * * Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Shinjin Larry Little
In this episode of the George Poulos Podcast, I share updates from my own journey of meditation, and reflect on how meditation is practice for the real game.
Whether seen in the Christian Trinity, Hindu Trimurti, Buddhism's Three Jewels, or the inherent stability of the tripod, the number 3 is magical. Visit http:www.TheAgelessWisdom.com or call (818) 569-3017 for more information. To learn more about Michael's private counseling, visit http://www.MichaelBenner.com. To learn more about Michael's book, visit http://www.FearlessIntelligence.com.
What is the central focus of our lives? Vajrashura shares a story from the Buddhist tradition where the monk Mahanama asks the Buddha; “What dwelling places (of the mind) shall we live in?” This talk was given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2018, as part of the series In Praise of the Three Jewels. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
In this episode of the George Poulos Podcast, I talk about the temptation to stop showing up, to go back into the cocoon of safety, to stop pushing the boundary of what is possible, to stop practicing meditation. I share the Buddhist death meditations and resolutions that we learned during my previous weekend at Meditation Teacher Training at Three Jewels in NYC, and how these encourage you to keep pushing towards meditation practice & expansion beyond the limitations of ego. I share personal examples of what this all means for me. 0:00 on the temptation to stop showing up, & death meditation #1 2:38 when triggered, I ask: how am I not seeing this clearly? 11:07 more on death meditation #1 12:04 death meditation #2 13:15 death meditation #3 16:02 death resolution #1, 2 and 3 18:45 why consistency of meditation practice is personally important to me 20:38 “the world needs you good” 22:49 a note to my future self
Welcome to episode 57 of The Way Out Is In: The Zen Art of Living, a podcast series mirroring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's deep teachings of Buddhist philosophy: a simple yet profound methodology for dealing with our suffering, and for creating more happiness and joy in our lives.In this episode, Zen Buddhist monk Brother Phap Huu and leadership coach and journalist Jo Confino are joined by Clover Hogan, climate activist and founder of the Force of Nature NGO. Together, they discuss activism in times of emerging polycrisis, dealing with growing anxiety, empowering young activists, and turning despair into fuel for change in the climate movement (and beyond) – at both collective and individual levels. Clover Hogan is a 24-year-old climate activist, researcher on eco-anxiety, and the founding Executive Director of Force of Nature – a youth non-profit mobilizing mindsets for climate action. She has worked alongside the world's leading authorities on sustainability, consulted in the boardrooms of Fortune 50 companies, and helped students in more than 50 countries take action. Clover has taken the stage alongside global change-makers such as Jane Goodall and Vandana Shiva, and interviewed the 14th Dalai Lama, while her TED Talk has been viewed almost two million times. In addition, Clover shares about her first retreats in Plum Village (and why it is her favorite place on Earth) and how Thay’s teachings have impacted her activism; the pressure, as a teen activist, “to be optimistic and determined”; stepping out of her “bubble of climate privilege”; avenues to creating a regenerative organizational culture; the collective consciousness of the youth movement; lessons learnt from running Force of Nature; fear, disillusionment, and despair in the climate movement; working with intentionality; old practices for new activism; why a spiritual practice is essential; and much more. Brother Phap Huu and Jo contribute leadership guidance from different perspectives; relevant stories from Thich Nhat Hanh's own activism; teachings from Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism; advice about accessing the wisdom already inside us all; and mindful ways and practical tools for engaging with ‘the other side' and showing up in a world in crisis – as an activist, but also in other roles.The episode ends with a guided meditation from the Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet online course produced by the Plum Village community. Thank you for listening. Enjoy! Co-produced by the Plum Village App:https://plumvillage.app/ And Global Optimism:https://globaloptimism.com/ With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation:https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/ List of resources Clover Hoganhttps://www.cloverhogan.com/ The Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet online coursehttps://plumvillage.org/courses/zen-and-the-art-of-saving-the-planet Lazy dayshttps://plumvillage.org/library/clips/the-art-of-being Polycrisishttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/polycrisis Dharma Talks: ‘True Love and the Four Noble Truths'https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/true-love-and-the-four-noble-truths Retreats Calendarhttps://plumvillage.org/retreats/retreats-calendar#filter=.region-eu Christiana Figuereshttp://christianafigueres.com/#/ The Organic Happy Farmshttps://plumvillage.org/community/happy-farm ‘51 Mental Formations'https://plumvillage.org/transcriptions/51-mental-formation COP26https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop26 Limited liability companies (LLCs)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability_company The Stonewall uprisinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots The civil rights movementhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights_movement Hollyhockhttps://hollyhock.ca/ Dharma Talks: ‘Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels' https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/taking-refuge-in-the-three-jewels-sr-chan-duc-spring-retreat-2018-05-20 ‘The Pebble Meditation'https://plumvillage.org/articles/news/the-pebble-meditation Quotes “Plum Village is what I want the world to look like. [Experiencing] that was really profound, because I hadn’t found that in a place or in a community. It felt like a distant utopian vision and, frankly, trying to reintegrate back into the world was quite difficult. The place itself is a lesson in what the world can look like and how we can show up for one another.” “One of my favorite things about Plum Village is the deep ecology that supports the practice, and the feeling of interbeing and being interconnected with the abundance of life all around you. I never thought about the fact that, yes, the water in my cup of tea was once a cloud. It’s a very humbling thought.” “Our practice in Plum Village is learning to reconnect to this simple action: we’re all creating a body, speech, and mind, and seeing its deep impact in the past, present, and future. And this is Engaged Buddhism.” “All the wisdom is inside people. It’s not like Plum Village is here to give you wisdom. Plum Village is here to open up and share the wisdom it knows so that it can resonate like a tuning fork to one’s own wisdom; it’s only when we’re quiet that we can listen to the quiet voice of our wisdom.” “In that pit of grief, I realized that I couldn’t perform these mental gymnastics of ‘Everything’s fine', ‘We’re going to fix this', ‘We’re going to save the world', that kind of savior complex. We can't change everything. And I realized that the only way that I could actually travel through those feelings and not be swallowed by them whole was to talk about them. So I started talking about this terror about the future. And other young people, in particular, started coming forward and saying, ‘Yeah, we’re feeling the same thing. We’re terrified, and we also feel powerless and we feel a lot of despair in response to this widespread denial.' [Whereas,] people in positions of power, who have every resource and privilege at their disposal to take action in a big way, continue to greenwash and spend money on being seen to do the right thing rather than actually doing it. That has fueled a lot of despair and disillusionment in my generation.” “A lot of young people feel really hopeless and, at the same time, a lot of people in positions of power are clinging on to this old system, this old way of being, which has created the climate crisis, which continues to perpetuate the climate crisis. This story of separation, this global economic system of extracting from nature, commodifying nature, exploiting people. They’re refusing, even as the climate crisis unfolds around us, to really wake up to it, and, critically, to hold space for the really heavy emotions that come with the realization of what we’ve done and the communities and people that we’ve chosen to sacrifice through our inaction.” “Spiritual practice is not a nice-to-have, it’s essential. We can’t do this work without that foundation.” “The Buddha said, ‘My teachings are not to be followed blindly. You have to come and taste it for yourself. You have to come and experience it for yourself.'” “Love is a verb, right? So we have to learn to generate that love: a seed that we all have, the beginner’s mind, the mind of love.” “As a monk and as leaders and as parents, as friends, sometimes our teacher says all we have to do is touch the seed of wisdom in others. Allow them to touch the love that already exists in them: the ability to be kind, the skillfulness that they can cultivate inside. And sometimes it’s not by words, it’s by action, by how we show up, by how we are present for others. Because that’s also education, that’s also transmission.” “We think that by not saying anything, we’re not transmitting, but just by listening, you’re also transmitting space for the other person to see and hear themselves. And so, the power of presence is very real, and is not something that we have to wait 20 or 30 years to have; the wisdom of just one breath can be the thread to bring the mind home to the body, so that you can truly be there for yourself and for the ones around you. And by being present, you can offer so much space.” “In the wake of [spending time in] Plum Village and trying to maintain the practices as much as possible, I am working with a lot more intentionality. I’m not saying yes to things from a place of scarcity or obligation; I’m saying yes to things where I genuinely feel I can contribute in a meaningful way.” “We sometimes work with nine- and 10-year-olds who can very eloquently tell you why capitalism is a broken system. They can explain neoliberalism to you. They can explain why an LLC [limited liability company] shareholder model is not fit for purpose within business. These young people are so switched on, and, because they haven’t been around long enough to be indoctrinated into a lot of these systems, have the capacity to stand outside of them and to ask the question, ‘Why?' Why do we have a globalized food system that is so disconnected, that exploits people? Why is it, when I go to the supermarket, everything is wrapped in plastic? Why is it that there are people experiencing homelessness in my street when there are entire apartment blocks going empty for investors? Why is it that we’ve failed to solve the climate crisis?” “Asking ‘Why?', and then following that up with ‘What if?' – like, ‘What if we did things differently?' Young people have that disruptive energy. And that’s why they have been the beating heart of every social justice and environmental movement, whether it’s the civil rights movement or the suffragettes or the Stonewall uprising. And so, helping young people to tend to that passion and realize what a super power it is, that’s how I can best show up.” “Buddhism talks a lot about transforming suffering, and people think we only think about suffering. But that is a wrong perception. The balance and the nutriment that helps us is that we cultivate joy and happiness in our community. And this is real. And only by joy and happiness can we have enough well-being to take care of the loads of suffering.” “To say ‘no' can be a mantra. But ‘no' with intention, not of ignoring and avoiding; ‘no' when we know our limits, when we know, ‘If I do more, I'm just going to be angry and frustrated.'” “When suffering is there, the other energy that we need to bring is light, love, and joy.” “Instead of trying to run away from those emotions, or allowing them to ferment into despair, how do we turn them into the fuel that motivates us? How do we think about those emotions as the compass that tells us where we should be focusing our energy?” “Being human isn’t some pursuit of just experiencing happiness, just experiencing joy. Your capacity to experience joy is a reflection of your capacity to experience suffering. And rather than trying to run away from those emotions, it’s about removing judgment from them.” “How you are inside is what you create outside.” “You can’t swim in the same river as the same person, because we’re always changing.”
Stay updated with our newsletter Join us for an incredibly inspiring episode with Hector Marcel, the president of Three Jewels, a yoga and meditation studio in NYC, an organizational change management consultant, a master teacher of meditation and eastern philosophy, public speaker, and an all around profound, wise, and awesome dude! Hector's website Hector's Instagram Three Jewels NYC --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lifeunpotted/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lifeunpotted/support
Studying and practising Tibetan Buddhism for 26 years, Hector Marcel is a passionate organisational change management consultant helping executives drive transformational change in their organisations through an emphasis on culture, people and service. He is a master teacher of meditation and eastern philosophy, linking ancient Asian ideas to modern western systems for individuals and teams. Hector serves on the board of the Asian Classics Institute and is the president of Three Jewels (the Enlightenment Studio), a New York based studio dedicated to help people reach their highest potential through meditation, yoga, public talks and community outreach. He believes that meditation opens the door to every personal achievement. Tune in as we discuss infinite celestial beings, celestial hope and blissful vs terrible experiences. IGhttps://www.instagram.com/wakeupist/https://www.instagram.com/threejewelsnyc/Three Jewels in a federally recognized 501C3 non profit all donations help us give away this ancient knowledge and make wellness accessible to all regardless of their socio economic status - we bring the technology of enlightenment to the masses. (all donations are tax deductible in the USA)https://www.threejewels.org/donateCreditsMusic- Sara Oliveira Support the show
Today we welcomed back Hector Marcel on the air to discuss finding joy in our efforts and how he stays joyful in difficult times. Hector Marcel is the president of Three Jewels, the New York-based global "Enlightenment Studio,” dedicated to helping people reach their highest potential through meditation, yoga, public talks, and community outreach. He is a social entrepreneur, public speaker, and seasoned organizational change management professional specializing in performance, culture, and service. Hector consults from his base in New York City to a variety of international clients, integrating Eastern philosophy into corporate culture and modern life. Hector has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for 25 years and believes that meditation opens the door to every personal achievement. To learn more about Hector Marcel and the Enlightenment Studio please visit threejewels.org.Thank you to our sponsors!Cardio Miracle - A comprehensive heart and health supplement utilizing over 50 ingredients. Visit cardiomiracle.com today for an automatic 15% OFF your order! Enviromedica – Rewild your gut with spore-based probiotics and wild-harvested prebiotics designed to support a healthy and diverse microbiome.Children's Health Defense - Listen every Monday as we cover the top stories from the CHD‘s Defender NewsletterSunwarrior - Use the code OLR for 20% off your purchase!Well Being Journal - For nutritional, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health.Thorne - Get 20% off your order and free shipping!
This week, I talk to producer, creative executive, entrepreneur and meditation teacher Tim Duffy, who shares some amazing tools and tips to overcome the anxiety, stress, anger, frustration, worry, and disappointment that comes in the crazy world we live in today. I also dig into the latest efforts to unionize reality TV, which is very complicated, and how streaming costs are going to keep rising and rising. Plus, I address the struggles we are facing in unscripted TV amidst the rising costs of streaming and the slow decline in broadcast viewing. For information on Tim's meditation practices or to reach him, check out his website: https://www.timduffymeditation.com And check out the amazing food biz he and his brother created as well. https://yumcrunch.com Find me on social media here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-berkowitz-5a09ab8/ https://berkreport.com https://twitter.com/steveberkowitz https://www.instagram.com/stevemberkowitz/ And if you're looking for a transcript of the episode, here it is: 00:00:00:09 - 00:00:22:21 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Welcome to another episode of the No Script No Problem Podcast on Bleav, the number one podcast network for professionals. Do you believe? Now, if you enjoy this show, please remember to subscribe and rate it with five stars. It's available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon music, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. You also find it on Bleav.com and @bleavpodcasts. 00:00:23:01 - 00:00:48:12 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Follow me on social media, Twitter and Post News. It's @SteveBerkowitz and on Instagram and Threads @stevemberkowitz and also on Mastodon, Spill, Facebook, Snapchat and LinkedIn. If you're interested in advertising on the show, please contact believe at Leave dot com. All right, let's get started. I've got a terrific guest coming up who is going to calm your nerves and give you some great advice to weather the storm during these stressful times. 00:00:48:12 - 00:01:22:02 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ But before I chat with him, it's time for a little reality check. For the first time ever, linear TV viewership made up less than half of all TV usage in a measurement month. That is according to Nielsen's. The Gauge report for July broadcast TV accounted for only 20% of viewing and cable TV 29.6%. It was a record lows and down 5.4% and 12.5% respectively, versus the same period last year. 00:01:22:05 - 00:02:00:17 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ YouTube and Netflix lead the way in terms of your streamers. Streaming viewing rose 2.9% from June to July 2023 and was up 25.3% over the past year, accounting for 38.7% of total TV usage. That's huge. Now, the thing that's kind of interesting is that one of the shows that has kind of really given Netflix this bump, you know, a 4.2% increase in TV share over the course of June is Suits, which was a cable shows on USA Network right from 2011 to 2019. 00:02:00:17 - 00:02:21:03 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ So it's pretty wild that this show, which picked up 4000000000 minutes of viewing in one week, was on USA and virtually no one was talking about it during its nine season. I mean, a nine season run is incredible, but it wasn't like it was, you know, winning Emmy after Emmy. It wasn't a succession, you know, it wasn't a Breaking Bad. 00:02:21:05 - 00:02:52:08 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ And now it's like you look at comments people are making online and it's like suits. You'd think it's, you know, the greatest show ever. So it shows to me that it's not that people don't like broadcast programing, it's not that people don't like cable programing. They just prefer watching things on Netflix. They prefer watching things on YouTube. Now, the big irony here is that the average cost of subscribing ad free to a major streamer has jumped almost 25% in the last year. 00:02:52:08 - 00:03:20:04 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ That's according to the Wall Street Journal. All right. So after years of cheap monthly fees, right, that we all loved when we first got Netflix or we first got Apple TV Plus right where we first got that wonderful bundle of Hulu and Espn+. Right. And Disney Plus, that's all gone. Everybody wants to make money. Now. All the streamers need to make money, but they are now testing our loyalty, testing customer loyalty. 00:03:20:04 - 00:03:50:14 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ And they are all raising their prices. An average assortment of the top U.S. streaming services will be worth $87 a month come this fall, while an average cable package will be $83. All right. So just like we just talked about how streaming has surpassed broadcast and cable in viewers right now, the whole point of streaming, we didn't want to pay as much as cable. 00:03:50:14 - 00:04:16:05 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Now it's all shifting back and we're suddenly paying more money for streaming than we are for cable. Disney is raising its prices for Disney Plus and Hulu, and that follows on the heels of Peacock NetFlow, X, Max, Paramount Plus and Apple TV Plus All have raised their prices recently. It's going to keep happening. They're going to keep doing this until Wall Street is happy. 00:04:16:05 - 00:04:48:08 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ The business model hasn't worked unless you're Netflix. This is also why you're seeing a huge increase in free ad supported television. Fast channels. Right to Be is a perfect example to be doing well. Moving on to the wild world of reality television, former Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel, she's causing quite a stir, talking to dozens of reality TV talent, trying to get them to unionize and get involved in potential litigation as well. 00:04:48:10 - 00:05:22:20 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ She is encouraging reality TV stars to boycott along with SAG, is asking for residuals on her shows. You know, she thinks reality TV stars should get residuals, just like actors and actresses. We have talked about reality TV. You unions for as long as I can remember. But what she's doing is going a step further. Bethenny is throwing accusations around at Bravo about a so-called cover up, you know, during an incident that happened on set. 00:05:22:20 - 00:05:46:05 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ And she's hired two very high powered lawyers. They're accusing NBCUniversal, the parent company of Bravo, of exploitation and abuse. Among other things, they've asked NBC's lawyers to preserve discovery as part of their investigation session. It's getting kind of ugly. I can't speak to anything that has to do with the litigation or any of these things that they're accusing NBC or Bravo or the producers of doing. 00:05:46:05 - 00:06:13:01 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ But I can say that unionization when it comes to reality TV is complicated. That is a very nuanced topic that I've talked to dozens of producers and friends about. And I think Bethenny has some valid points when she talks about working hours and base pay rates. Those are valid points. But there are so many layers that come into play when you're talking about reality TV. 00:06:13:06 - 00:06:37:24 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ You know, she makes a point about, you know, I think she said, you know, she only made seven grand for her first season on The Housewives. Well, Raquel, you know, as it turns out from Vanderpump Rules, made $361,000 this past season. You know, Vanderpump Rules huge hit, their biggest season ever, nominated for an Emmy. But that's a ton of money, I think, when you're talking about reality TV, it's such a diverse genre. 00:06:38:01 - 00:07:05:14 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ You can't pay a contestant on The Bachelor or Survivor the same as you do a housewife in a small ensemble cast or you can't pay the same for a designer on HGTV as much as you do a family member on a TLC show or you do you pay the same for a guy who's on a boat on Deadliest Catch as you do somebody who's competing for love on 90 day fiance. 00:07:05:16 - 00:07:26:22 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ So the genre so diverse that it's really hard to just throw numbers in there. You know, for a first season show. I think there's a lot of things that you need to take into consideration. But I do think rules and regulations are a good thing. And I think it's it's very valid to bring this up that we need to have that discussion. 00:07:26:22 - 00:08:15:07 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ I don't know if a union is the right thing, but I certainly feel like a little bit more firm. Ground rules are good thing. I would be remiss, though, if I didn't mention that producers have no union as well in unscripted television. So no insurance, no overtime and no residuals, and that often goes unmentioned. It would be amazing to get residuals when the networks run reality shows all day long on E, Bravo, MTV, Lifetime, etc. In fact, the writers on Ridiculousness are asking to join the WGA, I believe, as they should, because that show runs night and day on MTV and those folks are literally writing jokes as lead ins to the clips. 00:08:15:07 - 00:08:42:13 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ You know, other clip shows like America's Funniest Home Videos, 2.0, those writers are in the WGA. There's no reason why the folks on ridiculousness should be as well. But as you kind of can tell, it's a complicated issue. All right. Well, stick with reality TV, because why not? An article this past week and deadline had a lot of folks worried and a lot of people in reality TV are freaking out. 00:08:42:13 - 00:09:18:13 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ The headline to the article reads Doom and Gloom in Unscripted TV Producers battled challenging conditions As mid-sized firms face layoffs. It appropriately addresses the, quote, Slow down of green lights and cost cutting and quote, within the platforms and networks and how it has led to a slew of layoffs and a dearth of work in unscripted TV. The article references this drought hitting reputable companies like being a murray half yard hot snakes, high noon and propagate all very good companies. 00:09:18:16 - 00:09:45:08 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ One unscripted producer told DEADLINE, quote, It's the toughest time to be in unscripted that I can remember, unquote. Another said it was a, quote, brutal moment. I would agree. I would agree with both those producers. We all remain hopeful that things will rebound. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I will continue to tread water, keep my head above that water. 00:09:45:10 - 00:10:11:00 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Nobody should feel alone, though. That is for sure. If you're struggling out there, you're worried, Hang in there, man. And that's why I got Tim Duffy coming up in a minute. Tim Duffy is my guest. Tim Duffy is an extremely talented producer, creative executive. He's an entrepreneur here, he is a founder and he is a seasoned teacher of meditation and mindfulness. 00:10:11:02 - 00:10:46:15 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ And that is why I wanted him to come on the podcast, right? So along with being co-founder of Yum Crunch and Ugly Brother Studios with his brother Mike. Tim is a peak performance and productivity specialist who combines 15 years of teaching meditation with 20 years in the C-suite to help executives, employees and organizations thrive. Now, as you'll hear, his style modernizes the ancient teachings of mindfulness and adapts them for modern professionals. 00:10:46:16 - 00:11:11:08 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ So with all the chaos going on in both the entertainment industry and in the world at large, I think he's the perfect guest. So sit back, find a quiet place, relax. Tim's got some words of wisdom for you. Enjoy. Well, welcome back to the podcast, my friend, Mr. Tim Duffy. A lot has changed since the last time we talked. 00:11:11:11 - 00:11:35:20 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ We talked last time about mindfulness. But you are now big into this world of mindfulness and meditation. You're now, I would call you a guru in this space. And this amidst your your role on world shifts and being, you know, being a founder, being a co-CEO with your brother in that space, in this crazy world that we're in right now with media and entertainment. 00:11:35:20 - 00:12:02:01 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ And I've talked about that on the podcast before, how, you know, everybody's kind of stressed out. I thought it was perfect for you to talk about kind of the way you deal with the stresses of this world with mindfulness meditation. So talk to me a little bit about when when the craziness comes into your world, whether it's as a dad or as an executive, how do you use mindfulness, how to use meditation to handle all the insanity that comes into the world? 00:12:02:03 - 00:12:17:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY First of all, thank you for calling me a guru, which means teacher, right? Which is true. I am a meditation teacher, but in our Western culture it also means douche bag. So do not call me a guru. 00:12:17:15 - 00:12:21:22 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Let me rephrase. You are not a guru. What's a better word? It's a better word. 00:12:21:24 - 00:12:28:02 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I'm. I am a mindfulness teacher. I've been teaching mindfulness for the past 15 years. 00:12:28:04 - 00:12:36:07 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Okay, I agree. I will take back Guru and I will just say mindfulness Teacher. Instructor. Yes. Okay. 00:12:36:09 - 00:13:05:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Do the woo woo of the mindfulness community is so funny to me, right? Because like, the thing about mindfulness is it's, it's a practice that we can learn and it doesn't really take any special skills. Every single human being on earth has the ability to be mindful. And the the my particular set of circumstances brought me to mindfulness because of my own friend's anxiety and depression. 00:13:05:06 - 00:13:32:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And when I was growing up, I had this kind of pervasive sense that I was not well. I had a fear of death, a constant fear of death when I was growing up, a general kind of like unsatisfactory ness that was like the foundation of my experience and the world outside of my internal world didn't quite know about it, right? 00:13:32:13 - 00:14:01:08 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I wasn't like talking about it because I was, you know, a young man with the bravado of youth and I was seemingly doing pretty well in school and and in my work life. When I went to college, my freshman year, I was a psychology major. I wanted to work with kids. And I took this class called New Directions in Psychotherapy from this old hippie dude named Norman Bradford. 00:14:01:10 - 00:14:12:07 GUEST: TIM DUFFY He had he was like a he was he looked like a guru. He had flowy white hair, a long flowing, like Z.Z top beard. 00:14:12:13 - 00:14:14:05 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 00:14:14:07 - 00:14:44:18 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And he was just a hippie who was obsessed with creating different avenues towards wellness that weren't solely dependent on the methods of Western psychology and science. Right. Which is, of course, the language of the West is material science. So he kind of he started this class called New Directions in Psychotherapy. And every single week all we did was a new kind of meditation. 00:14:44:20 - 00:15:11:06 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And one week we'd be climbing up a tree outside and just sitting in a tree and listening to the wind. And another week we would be listening to poetry, and another week we would be doing African drumming, you know. So this was the privileged life of, you know, a private college in Baltimore called Gautier, where I discovered these traditions. 00:15:11:06 - 00:15:53:22 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And I never looked back. I'd meditate, meditated every single day. Since then, I've accrued well over 10000 hours of meditation time in my life. I sit every single morning for about an hour in the morning. Meditation for me and mindfulness have become really kind of the backdrop against which absolutely everything that I experience is experienced. So that kind of dual path, right, of like growing up in the world, getting jobs and careers, and also simultaneously having this meditation practice in my life. 00:15:53:24 - 00:16:33:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY It was the the job and the career and the life and the death and the sickness. All of that was grist for the mill, for the meditation practice, right? We don't recede back into a cave and become a monk for ten years. Although that exists, most of us actually have to pay the bills. Right, And has a great teacher, a guru named Ram Dass, that he said, Remember your true nature, which is awareness itself and your Social Security number. 00:16:33:15 - 00:16:59:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And so it's the pairing of these these two things where mindfulness can really help us thrive amidst whatever is happening. And I and there's a lot happening in our lives right now. Steve. You know, not just in a post-pandemic world of how do we we're continuing to figure out how do we exist together, how do we re socialize? 00:16:59:13 - 00:17:10:22 GUEST: TIM DUFFY We're pretty far on the other side of this. Yet a lot of folks are still trying to figure out, you know, how do I get out of the loneliness cycle? How do I socialize? 00:17:10:24 - 00:17:36:20 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ I think that's a great point. The re socialization, at least for me, you know, being on set, being around friends was something that you took for granted in 2019, right up until the pandemic. And then we all became Zoomers In one of your posts that I saw you, you were kind of saying when you were I think your point was that meditation and mindfulness is for everybody. 00:17:36:20 - 00:17:47:04 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ What do you feel like if you're a beginner? What is kind of that that first problem or that the first issue that people have with meditation or mindfulness? 00:17:47:06 - 00:18:36:07 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I think we step back even further and we go, Well, why do we need meditation and mindfulness, right, to develop an adversarial relationship with meditation and mindfulness is just a continuation of the reason why we come to meditate, meditation and mindfulness, right? Which is because we suffer the foundation of mindfulness, which of course is pulled from Buddhism. It's kind of the secular, if you will, set of practices that we're born out of a Buddhist tradition, of course, which was preceded by Hindu tradition and the Buddha, he said, We suffer because we are attached. 00:18:36:09 - 00:19:10:24 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And it begs the question, well, what are we attached to? And the answer to that is we're attached to permanence. We believe that things are going to stick around. They're going to stay that our our lives are going to stay the same when things are going really well. We want things to change when things aren't going well, but when things are going really well, we don't want things to change. 00:19:11:01 - 00:19:50:15 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So we suffer for things to change when things aren't going well. That means that when things are going well, they also have to change. This is the nature of our human life. We are born into this body and we get sick and we age and we die eventually. This is the starting point for why we suffer. We rage against the machine of our own human body and our attachment to being young or being pretty or being thin. 00:19:50:17 - 00:20:31:12 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right is creating harm in our lives. Being human is a sexually transmitted disease that always ends in death. What did the Buddhist doctor write on the death certificate as the cause of death birth? That makes sense. Yeah, right. So we we somehow think that we're going to evade this reality. Everything changes. Impermanence is a fundamental law of being human. 00:20:31:14 - 00:21:00:22 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And this is why we ask the question, how can I decrease my suffering? What is it that can come into my head that I can bring into my life and provide myself with some sense of relief? And to begin the process of relief is to acknowledge the fundamental truth of our existence, that it changes, that everything is impermanent. 00:21:00:24 - 00:21:33:08 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And I think this is very much on display in the entertainment world for us right now. The old ways of living, of the consistency of getting a job, the consistency of a paycheck, right, the consistency of the big media machine, knowing how to monetize itself and thriving, you know, and yet simultaneously continually pissing all over the people and the companies that are feeding the machine of media. 00:21:33:10 - 00:22:13:19 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right. We're in two of our deals are in strike mode right now, negotiating with this incredibly ill defined impermanent force called big media, who in and of itself, big media, doesn't know how to make a solvent business? How are we negotiating with a business that doesn't know how to monetize itself? Right. It's essential that we stand up and present ourselves back to big media and say we deserve to be paid, we deserve to be treated in equitable way. 00:22:13:21 - 00:22:48:23 GUEST: TIM DUFFY But at the same time, how are we negotiating with the machine that doesn't know how to run it? So at the core of the mindfulness, teaching is a is a concept that was derived from the US government. The Army College, I believe, created a term called VUCA at the end of the Cold War to kind of define know what is this thing that we're feeling in a term as a as a global community. 00:22:49:00 - 00:23:26:22 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And VUCA was developed and it stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, right? So volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Doesn't that sound familiar? In a word, impermanence And two words don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what our future holds, right? We hold on to the past and we bring it into the present as concepts in our minds. 00:23:26:24 - 00:23:51:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And we we we carry this kind of this weight as we age. And this weight is like a suit of armor, right? The suit of armor somehow going to protect us because don't we know so much? I know who I am. I know what my skills are. I know what my what my future holds because of all these other things that I've done in my past. 00:23:51:15 - 00:24:21:22 GUEST: TIM DUFFY No, you don't. It could all end like that. And in fact, it does over and over and over again. We do not know what the future holds. The past is helpful in some regard in the present, but it cannot predict the future. And in fact, both the past and the future can only be experienced in the present moment. 00:24:21:24 - 00:25:09:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY The past as a concept in the mind. The future is a concept in the mind, and both exist only in the present moment. So what are we to do in this mind that is constantly future in itself and freaking out? And sometimes we call this anxiety. And what do we do with the present moment in mind that is also regretting things from the past, bringing statements about the solidity of what was into the present moment, which is not solid at all, at least from a mental perspective, which is the only perspective we have. 00:25:09:06 - 00:25:40:06 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So what are we to do? One of the core practices in mindfulness is derived from, again, the Buddhist teachings in mindfulness communities. There's what's called the Three Jewels, the Buddha, which is like the teacher, the idealized kind of like being, so to speak, that knows how to relate to life from the perspective of wide open space, right? That still human, but also resting in awareness from a place of non reactivity. 00:25:40:08 - 00:26:13:23 GUEST: TIM DUFFY The teachings themselves. Dharma right, is the second jewel, which is the kind of wisdom that we as human beings, the great wisdom, traditions of the world, be them, you know, the Christian desert fathers, the second and third century, the Kabbalah teachings from Judaism, Sufi teachings from Islam, right? Native American teachings about the oneness of humanity and the interconnect and the interconnectedness of us as animals with animals and the earth around us. 00:26:13:23 - 00:26:37:07 GUEST: TIM DUFFY These are the great wisdom teachings of humanity, and they are not particular to any religion. So we have the kind of idealized human over here as the first jewel, and then we've got the second joy, which is the great wisdom traditions of the world. And then the third jewel is what you're building. And it's called Sangat, which means community. 00:26:37:09 - 00:27:10:20 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So every time you put out a podcast, you invite your world of people in to the shared experience of being together. And when they bring that shared experience in, they're sharing the 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows. As my teacher, Jack Cornfield says, together, every person that listens to your podcast right now has a set of impermanent characteristics by definition that are rising up in their lives. 00:27:10:20 - 00:27:41:03 GUEST: TIM DUFFY They've got the transition of life, they've got a baby being born or a parent or a family member dying. They've just gotten a new job or a raise or they just got fired and they no longer have income. All right. Their digest ing the food from lunch that will give them the energy to write the emails this afternoon. 00:27:41:05 - 00:28:22:23 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right. This is all just process. We are interconnected with the world around us and Sangat is representative of community. And Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, he writes about the epidemic of loneliness. If I don't think we should all jump in to becoming meditators and following a particular religion or or, or a particular way of viewing the world first, I think the first thing we should do is find a friend and have a conversation and then maybe find another friend and have another conversation. 00:28:23:00 - 00:28:42:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I think to recognize the suffering that exists in our world and to begin to alleviate that suffering, we should start by actually connecting with other human beings and saying, yes, I'm here for you. And by the way, also, I need help. Can we talk? Can we communicate? 00:28:42:06 - 00:29:02:15 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ I can relate to everything you're saying. And I'm I'm curious. Do you do you kind of utilize your meditation and your mindfulness, like in the morning? Do you do it right away? Or how does it kind of on a practical level, come into play for you personally? How have you found it to be effective in your life? 00:29:02:21 - 00:29:26:05 GUEST: TIM DUFFY There are two methods that I utilize in my life that are available to all of us. One is called formal meditation. We develop a ritual of sitting down in a particular way under particular circumstances that create a bit of a ritual that's signified to the body and to the mind. Now is the time when I'm going to do this, like sitting down for a meal. 00:29:26:07 - 00:29:54:17 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Some people say grace, some people hold hands, some people take a big, deep breath. Some people just dive right in and eat a meal together. It's about ritual to kind of establish that this is the safe container for this particular experience. That's what formal meditation is. And so I'll sit formally every single morning, but then periodically on an as needed basis, I'll also sit and meditate. 00:29:54:19 - 00:30:23:19 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And I begin by saying, okay, now is the time when I'm going to meditate. The second style of practice, which is called informal practice or in your life meditation. And this is like microdosing right throughout the day and all you're doing with informal meditation and is, you know, in in modern neuroscience tells us that we have a top down model of the world. 00:30:23:19 - 00:31:11:19 GUEST: TIM DUFFY What does that mean? It means that the mind is how we experience our lives. That and this is not a an overexaggeration or some kind of spiritual statement. Actually, modern neuroscience tells us that we actually are only capable of processing our experience through the mind, right? So we're not directly experiencing anything. Our mind is interpreting data as it comes through each of the five sense doors telling a story about that data and asking the question, does it match up with previous information If it does not match up with previous information, three things can happen. 00:31:11:21 - 00:31:41:16 GUEST: TIM DUFFY One, it just gets bored and moves on because it's nothing special is happening to it feels some sort of threat and it freaks out and turns into anxiety or depression. Three It gets invigorated because of the novelty of whatever this new story is coming in and that says need more, need more, need more, right? These are the three possibilities that we experience all day long, every day as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. 00:31:41:18 - 00:32:04:07 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right? And so mindfulness allows us to kind of experience drop into a sense and set of awareness to a place of awareness of just about our. Does this feel pleasant? Does it feel unpleasant or am I neutral? Right? We can ask that question all day long. Am I feeling pleasant to my feeling unpleasant, or am I feeling neutral? 00:32:04:09 - 00:32:27:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And it can be that simple. You can just drop that question in to the zoom that you're having while you're pitching your show. Is this pleasant? Is this unpleasant or is it neutral? You can drop it into the tasting of an orange. You can drop it into the experience of sitting with your partner and having a conversation about their workday. 00:32:27:15 - 00:33:07:24 GUEST: TIM DUFFY You can drop it into the experience of laying down at night to go to bed all day long. These three filters, so to speak, of mind, are categorizing our experience. And when we become mindful of just this simple method, pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, we loosen the grip of of reactivity so that when something is unpleasant, for instance, someone cutting us off in traffic, we're not freaking out, honking on the horn and screaming at them and creating harm in the world. 00:33:08:01 - 00:33:34:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY We just have that little gap, a tiny little gap where we go unpleasant. Welcome back. Unpleasant, You know, or that person on social media that Facebook person on social media that always spouts crazy political bullshit and you're like typing up your response and you're like, citing reference points from, you know, all of your, you know, your bubble of information. 00:33:34:04 - 00:33:35:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Yes. 00:33:35:06 - 00:33:40:18 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ You've got the article ready to post straight into the comment. Yes, I've been there. 00:33:40:20 - 00:34:13:15 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I've been there, too. I went on Facebook for like eight years because of this. And I came back to Facebook from the perspective of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, right When I read someone's post that spouting some idiot bullshit that I view as idiot bullshit and I'm typing up my response. I know that I've been caught, I've been hooked into reactivity and what am I doing on Facebook if I feed the war right? 00:34:13:17 - 00:34:55:12 GUEST: TIM DUFFY How are we contributing to the benefit of humankind when we feed the war? There's a place for thoughtful opposition, right? But we can't get into the place of action of speaking and acting to the benefit of ourselves and other human beings. Unless we have a firm foundation of I know what's going on in my internal world, what is going on in my internal world, I activated, I am pissed off, I am typing this and my job is to make that person look like an idiot in front of all their friends that never, ever, ever works. 00:34:55:14 - 00:35:34:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY There's a beautiful book called How Minds Change from an author named David McCranie, who did who explored the massive transition in California's view, both politically and culturally, about gay marriage. In 2008, 70% of the population was opposed to gay marriage. In 2008, 70% of the population was for gay marriage. What happened in ten years time for that shift? 00:35:34:06 - 00:36:06:07 GUEST: TIM DUFFY David McRaney talks about this. And at the core of it, spoiler alert is a method of investigation that political activists use called deep canvasing. And at the core of deep canvasing is deep listening, right? So when we come at a person with whom we disagree from the perspective of war, they will come at us with the perspective of war. 00:36:06:09 - 00:36:27:17 GUEST: TIM DUFFY But when we come at a person with whom we disagree from the perspective of I care about you and your experience in your life matter and I want to listen to you, and that doesn't mean that I have to agree with you, but it does mean that I will respect you and listen to you. That's where real change starts to happen. 00:36:27:21 - 00:36:54:03 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And that is the change that occurred in ten years time. With regard to gay marriage in California. Throughout our experience as human beings, there's that's part of the Dharma, right? That's human wisdom not coming from religion, not coming from tech, but just coming from one individual to another individual and saying, I care about you. I don't want to perpetuate the war. 00:36:54:03 - 00:37:22:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I genuinely want to connect with you. I want to build community. Our sangha is all beings on earth, and if we exclude one, we might as well exclude all of us. And it's from this perspective that we can actually take action and advance forward as a species to the benefit of ourselves and others. That's what mindfulness allows us to do. 00:37:22:15 - 00:37:28:14 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And there's tons of practices that we can explore and methods that we can explore. 00:37:28:16 - 00:37:50:00 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ So let's break down. You talk about kind of like the little moments of where you can bring thoughtfulness into your day and you use the example of somebody cut you off or somebody you know on social media. But let's talk about your on set and you have a disagreement with whether it's a colleague or a, let's say, talent. 00:37:50:02 - 00:38:08:02 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ How do you how would you or how have you kind of had that ability to go pleasant, unpleasant, right. And use some mindfulness to get yourself into a better place when you're having a disagreement or a bad moment on set? 00:38:08:04 - 00:38:37:21 GUEST: TIM DUFFY But one method that we can use is to acknowledge I love this maxim. If you can name it, you can work with it, right? And absolutely everything in our internal world is workable, right? Part of the foundation of what I help other peoples discover about themselves is our internal world is is like a dictator. Unless we recognize that the dictator doesn't need to lead the way. 00:38:37:21 - 00:39:12:11 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right? The dictator is just an aspect of being human. It's called mind. And we all have this mind and it's a bunch of thoughts that proliferate in certain situations, paired with physical experience in the body. And when we push the dictator in a particular direction, the dictator fights back. So but we gently name the internal experience and we call it anger, for instance, and we just gently name it and we develop an attitude. 00:39:12:13 - 00:39:35:12 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Anger is unpleasant in the body, although it can be pleasant, seemingly pleasant for some people. Right. And there's no denying that either. Right? Some of us do feel that sense of anger. But on the other side of anger, when there's action and and it harms other people and ourselves, we have regrets. So we drop in to the space of saying anger is present quickly, just quickly write it. 00:39:35:14 - 00:40:23:08 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Anger, I name it. Anger is present. Take a big deep breath. Thank you. Host of Game Show or actor. I hear what you're saying. And we decide within ourselves in that moment that we are not the constricted accumulation of change yield energy that is that needs to be right. All that congealed, constricted energy is present in our system as anger, and we watch it from the perspective of awareness from the witness, we say welcome back. 00:40:23:08 - 00:40:50:19 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Anger gently in our mind as an attitude. Welcome back. Anger. I know you. I've worked with you before. You will continue to be present on and off for the rest of my life. So let's be friendly here and you're welcome to come and go as you please. Anger right? I'm not going to fight you. Anger. But what I will do is I will receive you in the wide open space of awareness and I will know your character mystics. 00:40:50:21 - 00:41:27:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Because when we feel anger in our body, it's never about the other person. It's never about the external situation. Anger is always us meeting ourselves in our internal experience. Always. There's never, ever, ever a situation where anger is caused by someone else. It's caused by the feeling we have when we encounter that extreme external force. It's our relationship to that external force that creates harm in our lives. 00:41:27:15 - 00:41:50:23 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So and it's our relationship really ultimately to the only force that forces that there are in our experiences, which are internal, the only thing we can ever experience in our awareness is the internal. So we say, welcome back, anger is present, take a big ass deep breath, recognize Anger's presence in our lives. Get better at recognizing when anger is present. 00:41:50:23 - 00:42:32:05 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And from that place of recognition and wide open spaces, awareness, we go now I will respond. Right. And if we can respond from the place of helpfulness, then great. We can respond from the place of neutrality and not causing harm. Great. If we respond from the place of harmfulness, that's okay too, because it gives us yet another opportunity to recognize anger's presence in our life and to relate to it in a in a more constructive, helpful way. 00:42:32:07 - 00:42:52:07 GUEST: TIM DUFFY We're not receding into the cave and becoming a monk. We're living our lives and we're growing with the experiences of our lives so that we can act and speak to the benefit of self and other. This is an ideal idealized state, and that's what we're talking about. 00:42:52:09 - 00:43:19:12 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Another scenario you and I both know you put your heart and soul into developing a project. A lot of people are trusting you. You have talent, you've told them that we're know, we're pushing this forward and they're trusting you, your partners trust you. You've spent a lot of time on this and nobody wants it. 00:43:19:14 - 00:43:22:03 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Yeah. 00:43:22:05 - 00:43:45:11 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ How do you how do you use your skills to kind of not feel tense and to not feel like it? Let me now say empty, but to not feel like all that time energy in a lot of cases as a freelancer, money that was all a waste. 00:43:45:13 - 00:44:13:17 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Thank you for that question. It's a great and important question for those of us that generate from our internal experiences, ideas and concepts that we believe the world should love. My father said to me long ago when I first moved to Los Angeles, he said, If you have just one good idea, you ain't worth shit, right? I love that. 00:44:13:17 - 00:44:44:19 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And what it does is it just creates a sense of humor around it. Okay? Like, yeah, it's just one idea. You know? That being said, when we spend money and time and energy and relationships trying to get someone to finance that idea, the sting persists. So how do we relate to that Sting One way to relate to the sting is to recognize VUCA, the nebulosity of why things don't work, right? 00:44:44:20 - 00:45:27:11 GUEST: TIM DUFFY There is a network of complexity within the entertainment industry right now, and as it's been the case, you know, forever, but it's particularly apparent in today's world. We referenced it earlier as VUCA, but what is NEBULOSITY? Why did someone pass on that idea? Why didn't it work? It's in some ways it's a fool's errand, right? So we acknowledge the nebulosity of why a thing didn't work as a can, as an aspect of the experience of creating something and putting it out into the world, and then the world saying no to it. 00:45:27:13 - 00:45:58:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And we try to hold it a little less tight, right? We try to release the fist, the grip, so to speak, around what we believe to be a perfect idea that someone should buy and and give us money for right. And we reset our relationship to the idea and to the process of pitching from the firm Foundation of I don't know. 00:45:58:15 - 00:46:30:09 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right. We reset. There we go. I don't know. It's nebulous. I done there. I could try to pursue all the different patterns and paths and understand all the different forces of the hundreds and thousands of people that participate in the thing. No process or I could just say nebulous, I don't know. And then I come back to the idea and from the place of a calmer, less attached position to the idea, we can then begin to refine the idea. 00:46:30:15 - 00:47:06:10 GUEST: TIM DUFFY We can start having conversations with other folks about the idea. It might be time to just drop the idea and come up with something completely different. But often isn't it really that there's something very interesting that many people responded to when you pitched the idea? But and that thing was what everybody kept talking about, and it was maybe a particular character that you wrote about or a particular style of hero's journey in the story that, you know, began with the ending first or whatever. 00:47:06:12 - 00:47:31:21 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And we say, All right, what was the world telling me about this process that actually was kind of consistent across some of these communications that I had that I can actually lift up that aspect of the thing that I created and perhaps reform it and add new, fresh elements and perspectives into it. In Silicon Valley, this is called the pivot. 00:47:31:23 - 00:48:00:23 GUEST: TIM DUFFY You know, I've gone through multiple stages of investment for my businesses. I've watched three startups in my time in Silicon Valley, especially in Pre-seed investment. They're not investing as much in the idea as they are investing in the individuals, right? They're seeing people, founders of businesses as folks that can adapt. And here is the great word overused but still relevant. 00:48:01:02 - 00:48:34:14 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Pivot, right? What have we learned from the path we've taken to today and how do we apply those learnings to the benefit of ourselves and others with regard to this particular idea moving forward? We cannot adapt and pivot if we are stuck in the place of no one gets me or that idea was awesome and I should keep pitching that exact idea as the same way I pitched it that everybody passed on 100 times. 00:48:34:16 - 00:49:04:08 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Our life is a process. Ideas are conceptual, just like your belief that Steve is a person who is permanent and independent, when in fact really all you are is a process that's evolving over time because of impermanence concepts we bring out into the world and we try to sell our impermanent By their very nature. Children grow up because of impermanence. 00:49:04:08 - 00:49:15:01 GUEST: TIM DUFFY We don't want babies to stay, babies for babies to stay, babies which sleep in a sea of babies who can't figure it out. And then there's poop everywhere, all over the world. Yeah. 00:49:15:01 - 00:49:17:11 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ You know, I don't think anybody wants that. 00:49:17:13 - 00:49:42:17 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Our ideas are like babies. We want them to grow up and to evolve. We don't want to stop them dead in their tracks. So we hold our ideas the way we hold a newborn baby. We feed it and we love it. And at a certain point, you've got to let the baby go. But also at a certain point, when the baby becomes a 14 or a 15 year old, you got to figure out what the baby's you. 00:49:42:19 - 00:49:56:12 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right. And what the world is telling you about your 14 year old and how do we support the 14 year old to proliferate forward in the process of itself? It's the same thing with ideas. 00:49:56:14 - 00:50:02:04 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ I think that's a great analogy because you can only take care of so many kids. 00:50:02:06 - 00:50:07:14 GUEST: TIM DUFFY You got to let some of those kids go. Some of your kids are assholes, right? Yeah. 00:50:07:16 - 00:50:17:02 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ You can't take care of all of them. You start to, you know, you get to the Elon Musk stage. I mean, you're not the richest guy in the world. You got like ten kids. You can only take care of so many. 00:50:17:02 - 00:50:19:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So yeah, you can't rename all your kids. 00:50:19:04 - 00:50:31:03 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Ex Exactly So I think that's a great analogy as each, each concept is, is a little baby and then it grows up and you got to let some of them go at some point. I think that's that's a great analogy. 00:50:31:08 - 00:50:35:20 GUEST: TIM DUFFY This is the law of impermanence and it's so helpful in every aspect of our lives. 00:50:35:22 - 00:50:59:01 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Yeah. How do you, what, what advice would you give for somebody who's kind of nervously waiting to figure out what their role is in this kind of changing media ecosystem? That's kind of a vague question, but, you know, you and I both know if you're under 30, you're watching TikTok and YouTube and Netflix and pretty much that's it. 00:50:59:03 - 00:51:21:21 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ And if you are somebody who gets their work in the more legacy or traditional media, the cable networks or the broadcast, well, you know, life's going to be changing. And I think that's a big part of the problem with, you know, what's happening right now is people are watching content in a different way. We're still making content in a certain way. 00:51:21:21 - 00:51:45:01 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Not as many people are going to movies with the exception of Barbie and Oppenheimer. So I think we're kind of stuck in this mode of, okay, what do I do now? What do I do now? And you're right, everything you just said is right. How do you pivot? What kind of advice would you give to somebody who's in that kind of anxious mode of, okay, well, where do I fit in? 00:51:45:03 - 00:52:15:18 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Wow, what a beautiful question. I give this advice to people all day long. So, as you know, Steve, I've pivoted. I've been teaching meditation for 15 years to my friends throughout the entertainment community. And about a year and a half ago, the demand got so great and I was saying no, far too many people that I just decided that I needed to open up my my own life to support other people. 00:52:15:18 - 00:52:44:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So I, I work with executives and producers and and businesses to answer this question of how do we move forward and success in the face of VUCA, Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity. So the first thing we do is we acknowledge VUCA. We don't know what is to come. 00:52:44:15 - 00:53:22:07 GUEST: TIM DUFFY We step back into awareness and we recognize let's talk about an individual, right? So we'll call this individual Bob. Bob is a show runner who's been extremely successful for 15 years. He's worked on many shows and he's not had a job for a year and a half. Bob is an expert in storytelling, but Bob is relying on external forces to validate his expertise. 00:53:22:09 - 00:53:53:20 GUEST: TIM DUFFY He's saying, I'm going to wait for those forces to signal back to me that I'm okay and that my belief in myself as being essential to the success of those external forces, big media production companies, television companies that I am essential to their success, then they will come around to me as a key element that will help them regain their success in their own worlds. 00:53:53:22 - 00:54:32:14 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Bob needs to recognize that VUCA is actually happening for them as well, and so he needs to step back and say, What is it that I'm hanging on to? What we often are hanging on to is a sense of fixed identity. We believe ourselves to be a certain thing. I am a showrunner, I am X, I am what I am a husband. 00:54:32:16 - 00:55:05:00 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I am a father. I am smart, I am, I am. Whatever it is that I've perpetuated throughout my life and felt as if I could rest in that identity. But what is that identity and where is that identity? Upon further review, we begin to understand that that identity is in our minds. It lives in the abstractions of mind. 00:55:05:02 - 00:55:37:24 GUEST: TIM DUFFY It lives in the non tangible abstraction of awareness, its thoughts, its physical feelings in awareness. It's tension, it's contraction. But yet on my LinkedIn page, it says all these things, right? Well, my LinkedIn page should be all you need to know about why you should hire me and why you should use me to solve your problems. Big Media. 00:55:38:01 - 00:56:01:16 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And we look a little deeper at our LinkedIn page and we remove our connection and our attachment to the identity of our LinkedIn page. We can start to see actually a pattern. What is that pattern? When we remove our attachment to us being a particular way, the pattern is actual skills that are useful and viable in the world. 00:56:01:16 - 00:56:41:15 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Storytelling, for instance, for Bob, is not what's going away. Stories will forever be what makes us human. There will always be demand for stories, and arguably there is more of a demand than ever for story. It's just that we are attached to the old delivery systems. So when I step back in my LinkedIn identity and I go, okay, maybe that my stories and my belief that my stories are valuable to Netflix or Amazon or to, you know, CBS or whatever, maybe I step back from that and go, Well, what is living underneath that? 00:56:41:15 - 00:57:06:14 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I'm a fucking Ph.D. in storytelling, right? And then I start thinking, Well, what else is in my resume? Well, I've always wanted to work with kids or I've always wanted to work in the wellness industry, or I've always wanted to work in. I'm obsessed with a guy. What is going on in the world, Right? A growth industry, by the way. 00:57:06:16 - 00:57:33:16 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And then we start to ask the question, what? I have this kind of life earned PhD in storytelling. What if I just disentangled it from the delivery systems with which I've grown attached to which I've grown attached? And I ask the question, are there other delivery systems that will allow me to use these skills in ways that people and businesses will benefit? 00:57:33:18 - 00:58:01:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And the answer is hell yes, there are. In fact, there's more opportunity than ever for people like us. We've been telling stories our whole lives. The only obstacle towards our ability to do so is our attachment to our own identity. Our ego. We have to let go, drop back into awareness and reposition ourselves from the perspective of, Oh, I actually have a choice. 00:58:01:06 - 00:58:51:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And in fact it's infinite. But I do not have choice if I believe myself to be this label in this world. And I can only exist in that as this label in this particular world dropped the labels dropped the world's reassess, and from the place of wide open space reemerge into the world and take action. Have conversations with folks, put the word out there that you're an expert storyteller to 50 brands that you're interested in working with, all of whom in today's world are likely to need some form of expert storytelling in order for their brands to evolve to meet the needs of their clients and their customers. 00:58:51:06 - 00:59:30:15 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So that is what that's the advice that I give and it's the advice I took my sales man. You know, I haven't launched three startups because because I felt so comfortable that television was going to give me everything that I needed. I disentangled myself from the belief that television was the only way, and I've reconfigured my own relationship to the skills that I have developed over time and redeployed them back out into the world by communicating with my sangha, with my community, which is much larger than it ever was. 00:59:30:17 - 00:59:41:01 GUEST: TIM DUFFY And why? Because I actually engaged and I asked questions and I said hello and hey, I need help, or Hey, can I help you? 00:59:41:03 - 01:00:06:10 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Dude, that's awesome. I think that's great advice. I think that is advice that a lot of people, myself included, could use. All right. Before I let you go, I have to ask you how you're feeling about your Philadelphia Eagles coming up this season. I mean, look so close last year. Is this a Super Bowl year for the Eagles? 01:00:06:12 - 01:00:27:02 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Around the birth of my second child, I had to let go of the identity as an Eagles fan. So, like so right now I have three kids now, a three and a half year old talk about letting go. So every time I engage somebody that talks about sports, I go sports. Yay! And I don't really know what's going on in the sports world. 01:00:27:04 - 01:00:37:23 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I frankly, I barely watched any Eagles games last year. Super Bowl was great, by the way. Philadelphia had a great year last year's Super Bowl, World Series, MLS Championship. 01:00:37:23 - 01:00:41:10 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ That's true. I forgot to ask. Yeah, I've got to ask about the Phillies. Yeah. 01:00:41:12 - 01:01:10:03 GUEST: TIM DUFFY The only reason I know any of that is because everyone that I used to connect with about sports from Philly was talking about it on social media. My son. Right. My community. Yes. And I couldn't I couldn't I had to pay attention when folks when they got to the to the championship games. But prior to that, frankly, I was like, you know, I've got to change a diaper. 01:01:10:05 - 01:01:32:04 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Okay. I don't know what's going to happen this year, but I can't wait to connect with with more people and maybe watch more games. And but I'm not going to stay attached to it. And now come really doesn't matter to me that much. It's really just about being able to see the joy in other people's faces. I was at Disneyland the week after the Eagles lost the Super Bowl last year. 01:01:32:04 - 01:02:09:13 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Right, with my kids. My kids were on a ride and we were with a bunch of other people. They went over to California Adventure and I hadn't bought the two pass ticket or whatever. So I'm like, You guys go over there, I'm going to hang back at Disneyland and I'm just going to get quiet. So I quite literally like the week after the Eagles lost the Super Bowl and I quite literally picked a bench at the entryway to the park and I put my earbuds in and I sat down and I started to meditate because I knew they would be gone for about an hour. 01:02:09:15 - 01:02:41:22 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So I'm sitting there, the weirdo sitting on the bench with a blank look on his face, just experiencing the presence of what was happening in front of me. And what started to happen in front of me was that bastard Patrick Mahomes and a parade of celebration. Oh, wow. Oh wow. That I had no idea was about that. And down Main Street, Disney starts happening in front of my face meditating. 01:02:41:23 - 01:03:17:03 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Wow, I have an Eagles hat off, right? And you know what? And instead of you know, and I say bastard, like, obviously. But like, what I witnessed was joy everywhere around me, right? A sea of the colors of the opposition, so to speak. And the man that right. It was Patrick Mahomes. I'm talking about it. Yeah. So. And the man that won the game literally walking directly in front of me as I'm meditating and I didn't feel hate and I didn't feel angst and I didn't feel anxiety. 01:03:17:03 - 01:03:34:14 GUEST: TIM DUFFY I felt joy because I was witnessing the joy of all these other human beings. I think that's the way we should live in the sports world, you know, And I think that's the way we should live in our lives. If we can feel joy for others, then we can actually feel joy for ourselves because everything is an internal experience. 01:03:34:14 - 01:03:50:17 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So when we feel joy for ourselves or for others, what are we actually doing? We're encountering ourselves in a joyful state, right? Waking up to that reality is a game changer. And I think mindfulness meditation can help folks in that regard. 01:03:50:19 - 01:03:58:11 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Yeah, I concur. All right. Last thing, tell me a little about Yum Crunch, your company that you have with your brother Mike. 01:03:58:13 - 01:04:18:24 GUEST: TIM DUFFY So Yum Crunch is a you know, we've won some Emmys for the food content that we've made over the years, nominated for nine Emmy and five James Beard Awards. We won two Emmys a couple of years back. Again, this is about the pivot, right? This is what's available to us. We looked at our skills and we're like, we have all these chef relationships. 01:04:18:24 - 01:04:42:18 GUEST: TIM DUFFY We have the ability to tell extraordinary food stories. Well, one of the frustrations that we experience with our food shows was big media wasn't giving our viewers the opportunity to eat what they see. So we created Young Crunch to solve that problem. So we work with some of the world's best chefs and influencers to create content that you can taste in. 01:04:42:18 - 01:05:23:12 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Go to Yum Crunch dot com. You can follow us on all of our socials at Yum Yum Crunch y you and Drew and see and experience the stories that we tell and have the opportunity to buy what you see. My consultancy is Tim Duffy Meditation Ecom. I specialize in science and mindfulness based peak performance for executives and producers and companies to re approach their lives from a firm foundation of being awake to the assets that they have available to themselves. 01:05:23:14 - 01:05:49:20 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Acknowledging the difficulties but not wallowing in the difficulties. Right. How do we advance forward in our lives if we're stuck in the old habits of mind, we can actually thrive when we let go of the old habits of mind, and we recognize the true potential of what we all bring to this earth to one another. So that's what I'm setting out to do with Tim Duffy, meditation Icon. 01:05:49:22 - 01:05:53:22 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Tim, thank you for doing the podcast one more time. I appreciate it, brother. 01:05:53:24 - 01:05:57:10 GUEST: TIM DUFFY Thank you so much. Much Love to You have a beautiful day. 01:05:57:12 - 01:06:31:19 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ Before I go, I'll recommend a couple documentaries for you. Feel up sports. Give Johnny Football a watch. That's the Johnny Manziel documentary on Netflix. Remember Big Johnny, Texas A&M, huge superstar, won the Heisman, then a lot problems when he got to the NFL. Very fun, very entertaining. And another one to check out the YouTube effect. It is a comprehensive deep dive doc by Alex Winter really shows you how powerful YouTube is and will continue to be. 01:06:31:21 - 01:07:03:01 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ All right. That is going to do it for another episode of No Script, No problem for everybody listening. Please remember to subscribe, download and show it five stars. It's available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon and tune in. You can also find it at Wycombe and I Believe podcast. Follow me on Twitter and Post News @SteveBerkowitz and on Instagram and threads @SteveMBerkowitz and also on Mastodon Spill, Facebook, Snapchat and linked and yes, seriously, TikTok coming for you. 01:07:03:03 - 01:07:16:06 HOST: STEVE BERKOWITZ You can also email me any questions. You have the No script no Problem podcast at gmail.com. If you're interested in advertising on the show, please contact Bleav.com. Thank you for listening. Until next time, I'm Steve Berkowitz for No Script. No problem.
Rev. Dhammabodhi and Upasaka Dustin talk about the practice of taking refuge in the Three Jewels of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as well as the Buddhist values in the Discourse on Blessings (Mangala Sutta). These teachings are correlated with the ACT process of Values. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downwiththedharma/message
“Who do you recognize as part of your community?” In this talk from earlier in the year, Chodo Sensei introduces the Three Jewels – Buddha, Dharma, Sangha – and focuses his attention on the last; the Sanskrit word for community. Chodo invites his listeners to walk with him: past his doorman, through his neighborhood, […] The post The Three Jewels are Everywhere | Chodo Robert Campbell appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
Rev. Dhammabodhi offers Buddhist chanting. https://muktivihara.org/three-refuges-and-five-precepts-liturgy/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downwiththedharma/message
Hector Marcel is a Buddhist teacher and the president of Three Jewels, “The Enlightenment Studio,” where he collaborates with a powerful team of yogis, meditation teachers, and social change agents to facilitate transformational experiences to people in the heart of New York City and abroad. He is a social entrepreneur, public speaker, and seasoned organizational change management professional specializing in performance, culture, and service. Hector consults from his base in New York City to a variety of international clients, integrating eastern philosophy into corporate Culture and modern life.www.ThreeJewels.orgIG & tik tok@threejewelsNYC Hector's TedX talkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI7QQ15AbOsIf you enjoyed the podcast please rate, subscribe and share with your friends!Follow Scott on Instagram for more here. www.instagram.com/causingtheeffectpodcastYou can email Scott @ causingtheeffectpodcast@gmail.com
John, Chris, and Dustin discuss the teachings on the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha and the Mangala Sutta as core Buddhist values. SN 11.3 Dhajaggasutta (The Banner's Crest Discourse) https://suttacentral.net/sn11.3/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none¬es=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin Kp.5 Mangalasutta (Discourse on Blessings) https://suttacentral.net/kp5/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none¬es=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downwiththedharma/message
Designing SanghaSangha is the fruitOf all of our endeavors —If harmonious.* * *angha is also an operative dynamic of our world. Community already exists; it is just not always very harmonious. Why would Buddha have established the original Order of monks and nuns, when he had a perfectly serviceable community in the form of the Shakya clan, and enjoyed a position of high honor and privilege within it? Why do we seek out groups of like-minded folks, often turning away from the family and friends we grew up with? Why do we reject the smorgasbord of ersatz communities on offer in the wider society, and turn instead to groups who insist on sitting quietly for irrationally long periods of time, occasionally inviting someone to hit us with a stick? It is because, as Matsuoka Roshi would often say, “Civilization conquers us!”One could argue the case that Buddha was basically a late-blooming adolescent, a rebel who rejected his father's plans for his future; and potentially a draft-dodger who, as a member of the warrior caste, did not relish the idea of taking orders from the Brahmins, for instance to wage war on the neighboring tribes. One could also reasonably wager that had he been of the lower castes — an untouchable, for example — he would not likely have gotten away with his renegade movement. I submit that we are doing essentially the same thing in America today that Buddha did when faced with the dilemma of introducing a “third way,” in contrast to the probably polarized choices that denizens of proto-Hindu India faced in his day and time. In my recent book, “The Razorblade of Zen,” I delve into the choices we face today between the extremes of theism and religion on one end of the societal spectrum, with rationalism and science at the other end. Zen presents as the Middle Way, positioned between, and inclusive of, the extremes. You don't know where the middle is until and unless you go to the extreme.This vacillation, from high to low, from sensations such as exhaustion or hyper-energetic, or swings in emotions from anxiety to serenity, extreme states from depression to mania, or from one concept to its opposite, seems to be built-in to the very manner in which our mind functions. As Master Dogen reminds us in Fukanzazengi:Think neither good nor evil right or wrongThus stopping the functions of your mindGive up even the idea of becoming a BuddhaSo thinking good or evil, right or wrong is the natural functioning of the mind — monkey mind, that is.Such thoughts, emotions and states can be experienced on a strictly personal level, but they tend to influence our behavior and reactions in the social sphere as well. Which is where Sangha comes into play. One of the prevailing memes about the residential or community practice in vogue today in Zen circles is that the process is akin to stones in a fast-running creek or river — they become smooth by rubbing against each other. This analogy to rubbing off the rough edges simply by being tossed into the same tumbler for some time has its limitations. Most communities are highly intentional in their design. They often include “mindfulness gotchas” built into the day-to-day routine of the practice place.Consider that we all have other choices these days. Whether or not we live in an intentional community, and for how long, is largely dependent upon other factors, such as resources and alternatives, otherwise known as “privilege.” Most Americans practicing Zen today are vastly more affluent and thus more privileged, than was Buddha in his environ. This is one factor explaining the predominantly white and upper-middle-class skew of the leadership of American Zen. My generation is the second, after those members of my father's cohort, the “greatest generation” who went overseas in WWII. They became the first generation of American Zen practitioners and priests, having been exposed to the virus in the Pacific basin. My teacher, like theirs, was Japanese. We are now beginning to see the first generation of younger Zen students who came by it honest — their parents were into Zen.The current influx of 20- and 30-something Zen seekers are a different animal, having grown up in a post-digital and highly interconnected world, with access to most of its intellectual resources. This naturally affects how they engage with the world, and calls into question the place of Zen training, with its emphasis on face-to-face transmission of the Dharma. Why are they coming to Zen? Same reasons you and I did. I was in my mid-20's when I met Sensei; he was in his mid-20's when he came to America, as was Dogen when he travelled to China, all to find the secret of Zen, which was missing from life.Sensei would often say the secret to Zen is “Confidence in everyday life.” I would add balance to that claim, recognizing the many more tugs and pulls that are keeping us off-balance today. But we also now have many more avenues for outreach and engagement. Pre-and post-COVID, I have enjoyed many long-term, robust Dharma dialogs online, with students I have never met in person. We are actively redesigning the interface of the teacher-student relationship in all fields, including Zen.If we are to give up even the idea of becoming a Buddha, what about taking up the role of Bodhisattva?The “idea of becoming a Buddha” is relatively easy to dissect and dismiss, along with the idea of becoming anything we are not already. Or giving up the idea may create a higher likelihood of actually realizing Buddhahood. In any eventuality, it would certainly change our relationship with our community. Or would it?If we are already Buddha — that is, awake but not fully so — what effect would becoming even more awake have on our relationship to our Sangha? And by extension, to the community-at-large? Awake to what? is the question begged. Awake to the community as harmonious, that is, as genuine Sangha? Awake to our personal role in assuring that the community is as harmonious as possible, and maybe improving our performance in playing that role?We have a relatively recent usage in the realm of politics of the adjective, “performative.” This points out what some may regard as the hypocrisy of certain pols who represent positions and policies as if they truly believe in them, as we say in the religion of ideology; but an underlying suspicion suggests that they are only performing for the audience to gain or retain the votes of their constituency. Whatever the utility of this critique, and its potential influence on the future of governance, it seems we might benefit from adapting and applying it to our own role within Sangha, and by extension to society in general. While “performing” in front of others, we might pay attention to the fact that we are performing, and consider whether our actions are merely performative, or genuinely in line with our intention.Sangha is a two-way street. At least. We affect the practice of the community and the community affects our practice. It can go either way. Too much emphasis on fitting into the community, and your zazen may be neglected. Too much emphasis on personal practice, and disharmony may result. It's a balance, like most things. And Sangha is not really necessary on the personal level: see Bodhidharma. On the social level, however, the design of the community becomes crucial to its survival and success, which is measured by its beneficial effect on its members Zen lives, no matter how many or how few. If we can strike a balance between the three legs of the Zen stool — Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha — we may have a chance at experiencing the liberation that the Ancestors have assured us hangs in that balance. Zen is about true freedom or liberation: from self-imposed as well as societal constraints; it is innately apolitical. Freedom from cultural memes and mores, yes, but the Zen worldview is not a form of license; the “Zen person has no problem following the sidewalks,” as Sensei would often remind us. We followers of Zen are already the ultimate in non-conformity — no need to make a point of it. Finally, freedom from anxiety, analysis paralysis, weariness and confusion; but not based on a belief system about reality but a direct transformation of our grasp of reality.In the next series we will look at the intersection of certain selected pairs of phenomena that I find to be related to both Zen and Design Thinking. Of course I would be hard-pressed to find anything that does not relate to both of these parallel influences on my life. Meanwhile please practice-practice-practice Buddha-Dharma-Sangha.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Shinjin Larry Little
In a London basement, fifty-one years ago a new Buddhist Movement was forged. Founded on the active principle behind an often empty ritual of 'Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels', this Movement has become a dynamic worldwide community of Buddhist practitioners. Just how did Sangharakshita, through the Triratna Community and Order, transform the recitation of the words 'I go for Refuge...' into a path of deeper meaning and purpose? Bodhidasa borrows symbols from Western Magickal traditions and Catholicism to explore the power, resonance and wisdom of the Three Jewels. This talk was given on Triratna Day at Sydney Buddhist Centre, 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
Designing DharmaDharma was the pointOf 2500 years —And forever more* * *Matsuoka Roshi would often say that most people go through life with something missing; they don't know what it is, but they definitely know it's missing. Finally, he said, they come to Zen to find it. Zazen is, of course, not the only way to penetrate the truths of existence, but as Sensei claimed, any method that works — yoga, prayer, philosophy, martial arts, chanting, etc. — “will have something of Zen in it.” He would often mention examples of undivided attention in sports, like baseball —e.g. Willie mays — as evidence of the focus factor of Zen. Master Dogen expressed something similar, in a passage with which I am sure Matsuoka Roshi was familiar:When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind you think it already sufficientWhen dharma fills your body and mind you understand that something is missingFollowing this remarkable assertion in Genjokoan—Actualizing the Fundamental Point, he goes into a long analogy of the ocean appearing to be circular from our perspective when no land is in sight, and how all things are like this:Though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditionsYou see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach.This “eye of practice,” vintage Dogen coinage, comes close to giving us a clue as to what Dharma is, and how we should expect to apprehend it in our own direct experience, rather than as a concept or belief. The implication is that our eye of practice can become more discerning through, well, practice. Nowadays we interpret Zen practice as indicating meditation itself, but of course it is all-inclusive of the various dimensions of life, as outlined in Buddha's original Eightfold Path, a kind of prescription for practice.In another passage, Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon—Dogen's Vow, the great Master and Founder of Soto Zen in Japan indicates that the Dharma is a trans-sensory phenomenon, not limited to an object of perception as such:We vow with all beings from this life on throughout countless livesTo hear the true DharmaThat upon hearing it no doubt will arise in usNor will we lack in faith“Hearing the true Dharma” does not imply hearing someone preaching the Dharma anymore than “seeing” what our eye of practice can reach implies visual perception. This is the “see” of “I see what you mean.” My best friend in high school used to say, with a mischievous grin, “Yes, but do you mean what I see?”You could make the case for “feeling” the true Dharma as well, and go beyond the senses in your embrace of the Dharma as having to do with sensation altogether, as Master Dogen mentions in Jijuyu Zammai—Self-fulfilling Samadhi after a long, effusive description of realization:When for even a moment you express the Buddha's seal By sitting upright in SamadhiThe whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha's sealAnd the entire sky turns into enlightenmentAll this however does not appear within perception Because it is unconstructedness in stillnessIt is immediate realizationSo by this we are to understand that expressing or hearing the true Dharma is a transformational experience, not subject to ordinary understanding. But this should not surprise us; what, of all the many phenomena we experience on a daily basis, can we be said to truly understand? That the Dharma is beyond understanding does not mean that it is not real, or that it must be unimportant. We do not “understand” birth, or death, nor most of what happens in-between.At this point you may want to shout, in exasperation, “Please stop talking about Dharma and just tell me what it is!” If Dharma is beyond understanding, yet accessible to awareness, it is certainly beyond concepts, and far beyond words. Which brings up the central stanza from Tozan's Hokyo Zammai—Precious Mirror Samadhi:Although it is not constructed it is not beyond wordsLike facing a precious mirror Form and reflection behold each otherYou are not it but in truth it is youSo this unconstructed dimension of reality can be pointed at, if not captured, in words. Which explains the written record of some 84,000 sutras and the vast body of commentary on them from India, China and Japan. When it comes to the instructions for meditation, which Zen claims to transmit the method of Buddha himself, the words are not pointing at a description of reality, but rather offering a prescription for a do-it-yourself approach to entering into the true Dharma directly, through whole body-mind immersion. So as Pogo the Possum famously reminds us, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The Dharma is already present in its multifarious manifestations, from the world of nature as well as the machinations of human kind, and beyond to the unlimited, inconceivable universe. The only thing coming between the true Dharma and ourselves is our own ignorance, both innocent and willful. It may help to consider the contrarian position that we already hear the true Dharma, that in fact we cannot hear anything but the true Dharma. Elsewhere I have argued that anything and everything we hear has to be dukkha, the universal dynamic of change that we human beings interpret as “suffering.” In order to hear any sound, the sound has to emanate from some level of change. No change, no sound. Similarly, we can assume that any sound we hear, including that of human voices, constitutes an instance of Dharma. It cannot be otherwise. Confusion sets in when we understand the language that the human voice is speaking, particularly if they are speaking of the Dharma. Instead of witnessing the concrete event that happens to be producing intentional sounds directed toward illuminating the Dharma, we find ourselves bogged down in the dualistic concepts being expressed in language, which is inherently dualistic in nature. Both things can be true at the same time, as the popular trope has it.The design of Dharma would then relate only to the spoken and written teachings, perhaps extending to the establishment of temples, monasteries and Zen centers as intentionally promulgating and propagating the practice. When we read the record of Buddha's teachings, or sutras, assuming that they capture the events fairly accurately, we can see that the format for their live presentation was similar to the ubiquitous talk show of today. Typically a member of the Order would interview the sage, asking questions for the benefit of the audience. Occasionally Buddha would have a guest or two sharing the couch.Our charge and challenge today is the same. How we present the Dharma to today's audience will be the determining factor in its acceptance, assimilation, and effect upon the denizens of our world. In my opinion, Zen may be one of the few hopes we have for world peace in an increasingly mad world. How we introduce Zen to the madding crowd and whether we can make it accessible to all levels of society will greatly condition the influence that the “compassionate teachings” have on the future. This is why we emphasize householder Zen, rather than the monastic model, in the Silent Thunder Order.If the Dharma were dependent upon a specific lifestyle or mode of living in the world, it would not be the Dharma. Imagine a world in which Zen has not yet been discovered and the method of its transmission is yet to be invented and designed. The bare manifestation of reality is still the Dharma. Or even further, a world on which there are no human beings to “hear” or “meet” the true Dharma, as we are told was the case a mere 250 to 300,000 years ago. The Dharma was already operative in that inchoate world. Dharma has many connotations. A couple that are indicative of its deeper meaning are that of a “being” — from a minute particle to the largest galaxy; and that of “law” — as in natural law, or the way reality works. In this latter definition it is close to a principle of physics, or Taoism's the “Way.” So Dharma as “teachings” in the form of words is merely pointing at the true Dharma that transcends words.But language is one of the most powerful and precise media that we have available to convey meaning But in communications design, the message is the message received, not the message sent. Master Dogen was a master of the language, as was Matsuoka Roshi, doubling down in his non-native tongue of English. That these past masters used language instead of being used by it makes them exemplars of the approach to solving the problem of propagation of Zen today. In literary circles the advisory trope is “Write what you know.” The key to being able to share the Dharma assets is to hear, or meet the true Dharma, oneself. In a “publish or perish” climate, we can expect to find a lot of folks rushing into print at their first inkling into what they think they recognize as the Dharma, or its corollary in their vernacular.That there is a true Dharma implies that there can be a false Dharma, or many such anomalies. Or we may quote one of the ancient but timely Ch'an poems on the subject, Hsinhsinming—Trust in Mind:There is one Dharma, not manyDistinctions arise from clinging ignoranceOnce the subject of Dharma is identified and introduced into the vernacular, it becomes subject to the same distortions as any other topic of discourse. Zen offers a refreshing approach to this dilemma. We say with Dogen, in Fukanzazengi—Principles of Seated Meditation:You should stop pursuing words and lettersLearn to withdraw and shine the light on yourselfWhen you do so your body and mind will drop awayAnd your original Buddha nature will appearNote that taking Dogen's “backward step” is the opposite of attempting to understand by pursuing linguistic concepts. It is also, fundamentally, the opposite of “doing.” This is the intersection of Buddha and Dharma. By engaging in an intentional act of non-action, thinking non-thinking, and doing non-doing, the natural process of realization can take place. Do your best to do nothing about this.In the next segment we will take up the third leg of the stool, that of Sangha, the harmonious community. * * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Shinjin Larry Little
Designing BuddhaBuddha was the firstTo define design intent —It hasn't changed much.* * *In the next three segments of UnMind Podcast we will consider the Three Treasures of Buddhism — Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha — from the perspective of design thinking. That is, the method of Zen as consisting of Buddha practice: time on the cushion; Dharma study: researching and interpreting the teachings of the lineage masters; and Sangha service: the place and importance of community. We will devote one podcast to each of these three legs of the stool, as the saying goes, stabilizing the process of living a Zen life in our times. Anyone-anytime-anywhere Zen. One of the premises of Zen practice is that it starts out as a specialized method, upright seated meditation, or zazen in Japanese, consisting of discrete periods of time in “silent illumination,” which is not necessarily silent and often not very illuminating. But over time we develop patience with it, which means patience with ourselves and our own impatience. Over time the halo effect of zazen begins to expand beyond time on the cushion to subsume all of our other activities in daily life until it is virtually 24/7. But don't get ahead of yourself; this usually takes some time. You may be a prodigy or genius of Zen but you may be carrying more baggage than you imagine so better to err on the side of modesty and not develop grandiose expectations, and best to entertain none at all. However, the benefits of zazen will probably blossom in your life in unexpected ways. One of our more recent members who is a poet amongst other skills sent the poem below, which testifies to the remarkable accessibility of Zen meditation under any and all circumstances:Waiting Room Zazen Waiting room zazen— Quiet as a zendo, Almost. Each patient in a chair Staring at a cell phone Or reading. Sitting upright, I lower my gaze. Such stillness In the midst of it all. Too soon they call My name. —Renee WalkerZazen is so simple in design that it is virtually irreducible. It doesn't require a lot of equipment, other than a human body. The upright posture and natural breath can be employed anywhere, and this has an immediate and dramatic effect on attitude and attention. But this is more likely to come true after long practice on the cushion, preferably in a controlled environment such as the zendo. So both things are true at the same time. It is optimal to sit in a setting more conducive to meditation, but it is possible to meditate in environments not designed for that purpose.Soto Zen's worldview and approach is often compared and contrasted to other practices. There are many styles of meditation competing for attention these days, including “mindfulness” meditation, which differs in one key physical aspect from zazen: they recommend sitting with the eyes closed. Which raises a question of how mindful that can be, if it doesn't even include the sense of seeing, our greatest source of sense data. Historically Rinzai and Soto Zen were often positioned at odds with each other, though many exponents of one school or the other, including Matsuoka Roshi, dismissed any difference as superficial or pedagogical in nature. Their historical provenance was probably largely politics. From my perspective as a professional trained in design thinking, Soto Zen appears as simply the simplest. That is, we rely on the method of Zen meditation itself to carry the bulk of the load, less so on the influence of the teacher and other dimensions of the practice. The trappings of ritual, study and other appurtenances are supportive but not critical to the essential process. Again, the design of zazen is ingenious and deceptively simple: just sit still enough, long enough, and observe what happens.Proponents of Soto Zen view Koan practice as somewhat superfluous or extraneous as well, in that in zazen, we are sitting smack dab in the middle of the real koan: the riddle of life itself. This does not mean, however, that the method of penetrating the illogical mysteries presented by koans, under the tutelage of an accomplished master, is not appropriate for some students of Zen. I have heard that some Rinzai teachers consider koan practice to comprise preparation for shikantaza, the experience of just sitting. So there is no real conflict between the two great schools in terms of meaning or objectives. All roads lead to nirvana if pursued with sincerity and diligence.Matsuoka Roshi's appreciation of Rinzai Zen was amplified by his respect for Hakuin, as indicated by his praise of Zazen Wasan, the great Rinzai master's paean to zazen. In such considerations, we should keep in mind the all-inclusive embrace of Zen's worldview, rather than falling into comparative thinking, or indulging in attitudes of exclusion. There is no my way or the highway in Zen; no absolutely right way or wrong way. Even if one wastes an entire lifetime in futile pursuit of a Zen fantasy, rebirth will provide the necessary course correction, just as the planet Earth will eventually recycle all of the waste matter with which the human species has polluted it. Zen takes the long-term view, but there is no time to waste. The underlying impulse to practice Zen is sometimes characterized as “Buddha seeking Buddha.” This means that it is not exactly our personal mission to wake up to realization of the sort promised by Zen. Zazen is already the full expression of enlightenment, not something we “do” to attain enlightenment. We may regard it as “assuming the posture” of enlightenment, just as we assume the posture of surrender when we are arrested by the police. The cross-legged or kneeling postures traditionally associated with meditation, including Zen, are clearly non-defensive. One cannot easily flee or fight from this position. But what we are surrendering to is not an attack from outside, but the internal struggle with existence itself, with all its maddening contradictions.The idea of innate enlightenment does not mean that we do not have to do any work to realize it, but that what realization reveals is, in some sense, already true. That we are already “buddha,” already awake, but not yet cognizant of the fact, is something like the difference between potential and kinetic energy. Matsuoka Roshi described zazen in an analogy that points to this dynamic, saying that it “looks like a mountain, but actually it is a volcano.” The underlying caldera of magma is building to a climax that will one day erupt. But he also described the experience of realization as something more subtle than a volcano erupting, more like the “parting of clouds to reveal the sun” than a sudden lightening bolt from the sky.Which brings us to the subject of Samadhi, a jargon term in Buddhism that is so revered that it is usually capitalized in text. In Hakuin Zenji's Song of Zazen he praises the Samadhi of zazen effusively:Thus one true Samadhi extinguishes evilIt purifies karma dissolving obstructionsThen where are the dark pathsTo lead us astray?The Pure Lotus Land Is not far awayPowerful stuff. If we experience genuine samadhi in our zazen, it apparently has a direct effect upon not only our immediate awareness and appreciation of the determinative causes and conditions of our existence, but also expiates or atones for our karmic actions of the past and mitigates any consequences in the present and future. Samadhi is the secret sauce of Zen meditation. It is our ticket to the Pure Lotus Land of legend. Which raises the question, just what is this samadhi and where can I get some? The answer in Soto Zen is, of course, in zazen. My model of zazen samadhi consists of – surprise – four points, the inevitable, fundamental tetrahedron. I suggest we think of samadhi in four dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, and social.The physical posture of zazen is a model of balance, sitting upright in the midst of gravity, “leaning neither to the left or right, front or back,” as Master Dogen puts it with his usual spareness of expression. Where does that leave us? Exactly in the middle. Without going into his excruciating detail on the proper establishment and maintenance of the posture, we can see that it is essentially centered and balanced, as symmetrical a pose as possible for the human body, as clearly illustrated by the vast body of iconography — imagery and statuary of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas — as well as portraits of the known Ancestors of Zen. The most visible thread running through the entire history of 2500 years and counting is this singular, central posture of the seated buddha. The other aspect of note is the non-binary or androgynous nature of these artistic representations, and their resemblance to the local population, rather than rendering and accurate ethnic representation of Shakyamuni, for instance. I understand that these illustrate the principles of buddha-nature being non-gendered, and as a potential to be realized by all human beings.So once we have begun to experience what it means to enter into this exalted physical state of upright seated samadhi, the inevitable and predictable side-effects begin to set into place. Since the mind (J. shin, C. hsin—“heart-mind”) and body cannot separate, notwithstanding the Western view of mind over matter or the spirit as opposed to the incarnate body, emotional samadhi manifests to ever-greater degree with the normalization of physical samadhi: less anxiety, more natural calmness. Mental samadhi likewise begins to manifest as more clarity, less confusion — particularly in regard to the reality that the Buddhist teachings are pointing to. We begin to experience in a direct, sensory (or better, trans-sensory), and concrete way the actual meaning of such seemingly obscurantist phrases as “form is emptiness; emptiness is form.” Eventually, by becoming more grounded in reality on the cushion, we begin to enjoy what I refer to as a kind of “social samadhi,” — less friction, more harmony in relationships with family and friends, professional associates and even strangers. In developing patience with ourselves on the cushion, we find we naturally have more patience with others. Take my word for this until it becomes true for you.In the next segment we will take up the Treasure of Dharma, usually listed second of the three. Like buddha, dharma, and sangha will be seen to be forces of nature, operative dynamics of the universe. * * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Shinjin Larry Little
Aryajaya talks about the significance of Going For Refuge to the Three Jewels. Excerpted from the talk Commitment Is Key given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting! Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favourite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
Wealth destroys those who lack in wisdom, But not those who seek the beyond. Craving wealth, those lacking wisdom Destroy themselves As well as others. (355) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Passion is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of passion Bear great fruit. (356) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Ill will is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of ill will Bear great fruit. (357) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Delusion is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of delusion Bear great fruit. (358) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Longing is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of longing Bear great fruit. (359) The Sangha is one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism, alongside the Buddha and the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha). Traditionally, the Sangha is comprised of monastics, spiritual teachers, bodhisattvas and enlightened beings. Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is considered the doorway into Buddhism, the way to become a Buddhist. Even if one has no intention of becoming a Buddhist, refuge in a teacher, the teachings, and a spiritual community is a fundamental step towards simply attaining inner peace. But refuge can be seen as the first step, or realization, toward attaining enlightenment, complete liberation from suffering. The Sangha plays an important role in Buddhist practice. It provides a supportive community for practitioners to learn from and practice with. So we can say that the people we practice with and the teachers we learn from are part of our Sangha, spiritual community. The Sangha also creates a field of merit. Merit refers to “good karma.” When you have seen people, perhaps on TV, visit monasteries and make offerings to monks and nuns, they are making offerings to the field of merit in order to create exceptionally powerful “good karma.” But we can create good karma towards the field of merit in many ways. For example, the Buddha or any Buddhist spiritual teacher, would be so happy for you to practice patience or compassion as an offering. This episode explains many ways we can create good karma towards the field of merit and practical ways to build or strengthen Sangha, a spiritual community, for ourselves. Wealth destroys those who lack in wisdom, But not those who seek the beyond. Craving wealth, those lacking wisdom Destroy themselves As well as others. (355) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Passion is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of passion Bear great fruit. (356) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Ill will is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of ill will Bear great fruit. (357) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Delusion is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of delusion Bear great fruit. (358) Weeds are the ruin of fields; Longing is the ruin of people. So offerings to those free of longing Bear great fruit. (359) --Buddha, The Dhammapada References and Links Buddha.The Dhammapada. Translated by Gil Fronsdale. (Kindle). Shambala, Boston and London, 2011. (Link) Find us at the links below: Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Buddhismforeveryone Facebook Group:Join our private group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sanghatalk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buddhism.with.joann.fox
"Unleash Your Inner Queen: 3 Crown Jewels of Queen Energy" SUMMARY In this episode, Tonya Leigh discusses the three crown jewels of Queen Energy - ways of being and attitudes that create Queen energy. The first crown jewel is taking commitments to oneself seriously. The second crown jewel is self-care. The third crown jewel is that of an attitude of acceptance. A queen is someone who takes their commitments to themselves seriously and does not shy away from the discomfort of making changes in order to become a powerful leader of their own life. A queen also has a 'red velvet rope'; they know how to set boundaries and limit access to their life. This can mean saying no to people and events they don't want to participate in. A queen is someone who sets high standards for themselves and respects their own needs and wants. They understand that in order to achieve their goals, they must make sacrifices and push through the discomfort of change. This conversation is about why it is important to set boundaries for yourself in order to be the queen of your life. What we cover in this episode: 0:00:00 "The Three Crown Jewels of Queen Energy: Taking Your Commitments to Yourself Seriously" 0:04:05 Building Trust with Yourself 0:07:48 Becoming a Queen: Crown Jewels 1 & 2 0:10:09 "The Power of the Red Velvet Rope: Setting Boundaries and Becoming a Queen of Your Life" 0:14:54 Exploring Queen Energy: Accepting Yourself Fully to Create Results and Feel Better 0:17:12 Accepting Yourself: A Conversation on How to Embrace Your Humanness and Move Forward in Life 0:20:30 "The Three Jewels of Queen Energy: Taking Commitments to Yourself Seriously, Creating Boundaries, and Accepting Yourself Fully" Quotes: We have to be willing to have our own backs. And to me, that is the epitome of Queen Energy. A queen takes her commitments to herself seriously. Anything that you do that's unfamiliar is difficult. In the beginning, our brain wants to fight the unfamiliar because the brain doesn't trust it. And so part of being a queen, and this is not even one of the crown jewels, but it encompasses all of this, is that you must be willing to feel discomfort in order to change and step up and be the powerful leader of your own life. So that is crown jewel number one. And every time you make a commitment to yourself and you don't show up for it, you are breaking trust with yourself. Useful Resources: FREE Download: Self-Image Manifesto Give yourself the Royal Treatment! Enroll now here: http://schoolofselfimage.com/royal/ Connect with Self-Image Coach Tonya Leigh: Website: https://schoolofselfimage.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyaleigh/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TonyaLeighOfficial/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifecoachschool YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1RNNnPWpxvq7y7jK5rlOmQ
We are thrilled to have Hector Marcel, President of Three Jewels Enlightenment Studio, back with us on the show today talking about manifestation. Hector says we must be clear on what we want to manifest and put it into action. For example, if you want to be in a relationship, spend time being present for someone in the same way you want a person to be there for you. If you do it with true intention, you'll manifest what you want for yourself. Hector's group, Three Jewels, is a New York-based global "Enlightenment Studio,” dedicated to helping people reach their highest potential through meditation, yoga, public talks and community outreach. Hector is also a social entrepreneur, public speaker and seasoned organizational change management professional specializing in performance, culture, and service. He consults from his base in New York City to a variety of international clients, integrating eastern philosophy into corporate culture and modern life. Hector has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for 25 years and believes that meditation opens the door to every personal achievement. Learn more about Hector at threejewels.org, and follow him on instagram @wakeupist and @threejewelsnyc. Thank you to our sponsors!Enviromedica – The BEST probiotics on the planetChildren's Health Defense - Listen every Monday for Bern and Mary Holland, President of CHD! KetoCon - April 21st-23rd at the Palmer Events Center in Austin, TX. Get tix by April 1st and use the code OLR for $50 off the 3-Day Pass. Sunwarrior - Use the code OLR for 20% off your purchase!Well Being JournalThorne - Get 20% off your order and free shipping!
As we begin to talk about the arrival of Buddhism on the Japanese archipelago we start out with a look at the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, and his teachings. For more, check out our webpage at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode- Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 83: Shakyamuni, aka the Historical Buddha. First a quick note—it has been brought to my attention that some of the episodes are out of order, particularly the older episodes. I'm going to try to fix that. It probably has to do with a decision I made about a year or so in to not worry about the “season” number, since this isn't exactly a “seasonal” show. But if some episodes are marked as “Season 1” then they likely show up differently. I'll probably see if I can't just remove the “Season” number from all of the episodes and hopefully that will fix it. Last episode we talked about the happenings over on the Korean Peninsula during the reign of Ame Kunioshi, aka Kimmei Tennou, and it wasn't looking very good for Yamato and their allies. Over the course of the last several decades in our story the kingdom of Silla rose to power, brokered a deal with Baekje, and then ended up eating up all of the smaller polities that sat between them, including Nimna, Kara, and whatever else was there. A Baekje-Yamato alliance attempted to put the brakes on Silla's ambitions, but despite some major offensives they were thwarted time and again. Overall, it seems rather a bleak outlook for Yamato, but there were several things going for it. For one thing, with their close relationship with Baekje, Yamato was getting a plethora of new ideas—from how to govern to the subject of our current episode: religion. That's right, if you didn't figure it out from the title, we are finally going to talk about Buddhism. The Buddhist religion and its accompanying institutions have played a huge role in the development of Japan and Japanese culture, and so we are going to want to understand something about this and where it came from, and the journey it took to get to the islands. And to start with, let's go back to the very beginning, of what Buddhism actually is. Now this isn't going to be an in depth history of Buddhism, but I am going to try to hit the high points so that we have some context for things we'll see later on. It should also be noted that, while the core of the religion remained the same, specific beliefs and practices were not always universal across all people and at all times. Also, not everyone believes in exactly the same things, and as an outsider I'm going to do my best, but this will probably be more at the level of a Wiki article than a scholarly treatise. If you are interested in more, I highly recommend looking into what various scholars have written. Also, a lot of what I'm pulling from is Andrew Skilton's book, “A Concise History of Buddhism”, mainly because I think it fits what we are trying to outline here, but I recognize that there other teachings and scholarly discussions. Still, I think most of what we talk about will probably be at an even higher level than that book gets into. And that brings me to another thing that's important to say up front: when I say Buddhism, I'm not necessarily talking about Zen, or any particular sect, at least not right now - though Zen is Buddhism, or a school of Buddhism. Likewise you might also hear about Tendai, Shingon, or even Jodo, or Pure Land, Buddhism— those are all sects within Buddhism, and just some of the schools that made it to Japan, although a lot of them don't appear until after the time we're currently in. The differences between these sects could be likened to the differences between Roman Catholicism and various Protestant groups—or even with the Orthodox church. While they have differences, they also have their similarities, and the core beliefs that make them all Buddhist. As to why this is so important—Buddhism had a huge impact on the development of Japan. As we'll talk about in a later episode, the adoption of Buddhism affected not just the philosophical thinking of the Japanese court, but had direct impacts that would bring about the end of what we consider the Kofun era. Furthermore, having at least a cursory understanding of Buddhism is going to be useful in understanding some of the ways people thought about the world they inhabited. Finally: I am probably going to butcher the pronunciation on a lot of Buddhist terms, but I will do my best. Where possible I may preference the Japanese terms, both because they are more familiar to me, but also because that is how most of us will encounter them in the context of Japanese history. Buddhism gets its name from the fact that it promulgates the teachings of the Buddha, the Enlightened One, and while various people are believed to have attained this enlightened state over the course of human history, we usually are referring to the individual known to us as the Historical Buddha, also known to us as Siddartha Gautama. Tradition holds that Siddartha was the son of one of the elites of the Shakya clan—later this would translate into the term “Prince”, though some think that term may not be quite accurate. Still he was born into power and privilege, at the height of his society; later this would translate into him being considered a member of the Kshatriya warrior class. His birthplace is thought to be located in “Lumbini”, at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, in modern Tibet, in the 6th century BCE. Some traditions put the year of his birth at about 566 BCE, though there are those that suggest a later date, even into the 5th century. From a young age, we are told that Siddartha was protected from much of the outside world, living a life of luxury, and unaware of the poverty and suffering that went on outside of the palace walls. You see, a seer had predicted that he would be destined to lead an empire—either political or spiritual. And so his father did everything he could to ensure that Siddartha would aspire to the political. Even though his mother had died when he was young, Siddartha was largely insulated from any suffering until his teenage years, and he was even provided a young wife, Yashodhara, by the time he was sixteen years old—which probably wasn't that young, back in those days. It was as a young man, in his late twenties, traveling about the land in a carriage, that Siddhartha saw four sights that suddenly set his mind on a different path. First, he saw an old man, and in asking about him, it occurred to him that old age and infirmity were the inevitable outcome of life; there is no escaping it. Likewise he encountered people suffering from disease and even death, in the form of a dead body. All of this forced him to confront the fact that suffering is a part of life here on the mortal plane. Finally, he encountered a wandering ascetic, which got him to thinking about spiritual matters, and that perhaps there must be a better way—a solution to all of this suffering. As he contemplated what to do, he was suddenly graced with what should have been wonderful news: his wife had just given birth to a son. However, to Siddhartha, he saw this child as simply one more thing that was keeping him from going out and seeking answers to the problems he saw. The comfort of his life, the social obligations, the privileges he had were all metaphorical chains, keeping him from going out really trying to answer the questions he had. And so, at the age of 29, he absconded himself. He left his wife and child. He left the power and prestige and worldly possessions he had inherited from his family, and he went out to seek answers and to find out how to put an end to suffering. To do this, he sought out teachers, one after the other, learned what they had to teach, found himself at the end of what they could give him, and moved on. These teachers provided various meditation techniques, which helped, perhaps, to ease or even forget the pain and suffering of existence, but the pain and suffering were still there, nonetheless. It should be noted that a core belief at this time was in the concept of reincarnation. The idea that, based on your karmic balance, that is the difference between the good and evil that you did, here in the world, you would be reborn after death into a new body and a new life. If you did well, then you would be born higher up the ladder of existence, perhaps into a better caste or more. But if you committed sins and evil acts then you would find yourself born further down the ladder of existence, perhaps even as an animal or an insect. The problem, as Siddartha saw it, was that all of this just meant you kept going back through the same things over and over again, coming back into the world, and once more experiencing suffering. Even stories of the gods themselves tell of their wants and needs, and of their fighting, suffering, and even dying. As long as one stayed on the wheel of life and death, suffering would be inevitable, and you'd always come back around to it. He sought out answers in some of the extreme forms of asceticism. Holding his breath for long periods. Starving himself. These were meant to bring on a state wherein he hoped he would find the answers. Eventually, though, he spurned these techniques as well, claiming they were dangerous and unnecessary. He instead ate food in reasonable quantities, and found a form of meditation that felt natural. In other words, he sought out a path between the extremes of hedonistic overindulgence and severe deprivation—a Middle Way, one might say. Practicing this tempered form of existence, he meditated under a tree, and it was there that Siddartha Gautama achieved an awakening, or enlightenment. He could see the world for what it truly was, and gained profound insight into our condition. This is how he became known as Buddha, or “the one who has awoken”, to quote Andrew Skilton. He was only 35 years old—he had been studying for 6 years to this point, when he finally found the answers he was looking for. Quick side note right here: For many, “Buddha” is not a single person or individual. People may talk about the historical Buddha to refer to Siddhartha Gautama, but technically “Buddha” is a title for anyone who has awakened to the truths of the universe. Buddhist traditions would come to define various people who had attained this enlightened state, though Siddhartha Gautama is generally considered the most important for the current era. Siddhartha Gautama spent the next forty-five years or so of his life wandering the land and teaching his Middle Way to anyone who would listen. He initially spent time teaching in the area of the Bodhi Tree, where he had first experienced his revelation, and this area is known to us as Bodh Gaya. He later went to a deer park in the area of Rshipatana, where five of the ascetics whom he used to hang out with were gathered. These ascetics had known Siddhartha when they were all practicing extreme deprivation together. They had come to see him as a teacher, but turned from him when he spurned his own attainments and started on his Middle Path. It took some initial convincing, but Siddhartha was eventually able to convince them and bring them around. From five, Siddhartha's disciples soon grew to 60, and he sent them out across the land to share his teachings with the people. His community of followers—known as his Sangha—continued to grow. As for Siddhartha himself, he seems to have focused much of his time on urban centers, with much of the last 20 to 25 years spent weathering the rainy monsoon seasons in the city of Sravasti. When he was 80 years old, Siddhartha grew seriously ill, possibly from something he ate. Realizing his own state, it is said that he predicted his death in three days, and he passed away among a grove of trees. Seven days later, his remains were cremated, and, much as with holy men everywhere, bone and teeth left over from the cremation were distributed as relics. Tradition holds that ten relics went to ten rulers for burial under stupas, or memorial mounds, as a tribute to Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. After his death, his disciples continued to grow the community, or Sangha, and spread the word. The life and teachings of the Buddha were written down in various documents and these were copied into different languages. In about the 3rd century BCE, Buddhism gained a powerful patron in the form of Ashoka. No, not the Togruta jedi, Ahsoka Tano, but the Mauryan king, Ashoka the Great. Much of what comes down to us about Ashoka is as likely legend as fact, but we do know some things for certain because Ashoka left his own words carved in stone across his kingdom. Many of these mention Buddhist ideas and concepts and even identify key sites, such as the site of Lumbini, where Siddhartha Gautama was born. At the same time, I would be remiss in not pointing out that it can be difficult to suss out just what Ashoka believed. He certainly patronized Buddhism, much as Constantine patronized Christianity, including calling councils together to help ensure Buddhist orthodoxy, but it also can be read as a form of propaganda, utilizing Buddhist concepts to strengthen his own rule. We'll see how later sovereigns would use similar tactics to lay claim to being a Buddhist sovereign, as well. Whatever his motivations, the pillars and inscriptions left from the 3rd century BCE provide us some of the first instances of the term “Buddha”, as well as another name, “Shakyamuni”, the “Sage of the Shakyas”; the “Shakyas” being Siddhartha's own people. So with the patronage of Ashoka the Great, the influence of Buddhism spread. But what was it? Well, what we know is what was passed down, first as oral tradition, and later written down. First of all, all things in existence are impermanent. That is they come and go. People live and they die. Even we change, moment from moment, nothing is truly static in this world—even if it were to last for thousands and thousands of years. Then there is suffering—the bane of humankind's existence. However, it is also inescapable, at least in this life. Describing suffering, and his solution to it, Siddhartha, aka Shakyamuni, revealed the Four Noble Truths, which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. They are, roughly: · Suffering is an innate characteristic of existence. Even the greatest pleasure eventually fades, leaving longing in its wake. No matter how many times you go round the wheel of life and death, you cannot escape it. · Suffering arises because of our desires. From our material wants and needs to simply our desire to not be hungry or cold. · Ending our attachment can help us put an end to suffering. · To put an end to desire, and thus to suffering, one should follow the Eightfold Path. So the four noble truths are something like a diagnosis of the human condition and then a potential solution. By the way, notice the numbers four and eight—just as Christianity tends to find particular value in the number seven (seven deadly sins, seven heavenly virtues, etc.) and 12 (Jesus and the 12 Apostles), Buddhism finds particular significant in the number eight, and, to some degree, the number four, although that would clash in some areas of East Asia, where the word for “four” sounded like the word for death. And that eight is found in Shakyamuni's recipe for how to end suffering: Right understanding Right resolve Right speech Right action Right livelihood Right effort Right mindfulness Right concentration These are all individual actions for someone to strive to achieve, but they are also pretty vague. After all, what is “Right Understanding” or “Right Resolve”? That feels kind of like giving someone directions by saying “take the right road and you'll get to where you want to go”. Indeed, Buddhism therefore offers various precepts for how to live your life in accordance with the eightfold path. There are precepts for the lay person and precepts for monks and nuns. These include the requirement to avoid taking a life, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and even harsh, frivolous, or senseless speech. There are also positive admonitions, such as to cultivate loving kindness and speech that is truthful, kindly, helpful, etc. There are different lists of these precepts, but they generally include the same things. On top of this were the rules for monks, including such things as fasting after midday; no singing or dancing; no garlands, scent, or adornments; no luxurious beds; and a vow of poverty—no accepting gold or silver, the coin of the day. Besides following the precepts, there were various teachings and practices that monks and lay persons can follow. Most common are various techniques of meditation, meant to help open the mind to see beyond the surface of what we can perceive with our eyes and our ears and to transform one's consciousness. All of this was geared towards the eventual attainment of a state of enlightenment, and eventually, nirvana. Contrary to many popular portrayals, though, nirvana is not some kind of heavenly existence. After all, any existence in this plane, at least as we know it, was still suffering. Instead, to attain nirvana meant to escape the cycle of death and rebirth entirely. How and what that looks like may vary depending on your interpretation, but that is generally agreed upon as the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. This does not mean that there was not a concept of a heaven or a hell in Buddhism. While some have suggested that much of Buddhism and Buddhist practice is philosophical in nature, or geared more towards mindful practice, it is also steeped in certain cosmological views of the universe, and greatly influenced by the beliefs in the Indian subcontinent. Gods and demons, however, were simply different orders of existence, and even gods and demons could seek their own escape from suffering if they chose to do so. It appears as though Buddhism was originally passed down as an oral tradition amongst the community of Shakyamuni's followers. Eventually this was written down in texts, describing Buddhism for those who came later. The canonical texts that outline the Dharma, that is to say the teachings of the historical Buddha, are known as sutras. They contain the actual words of the historical Buddha, or so it is believed, and the core of his teachings. Then there are the Vinaya, which are those writings about the community, or Sangha, and the rules for the community and for various monks. These came about as the community grew, and various Buddhists in different areas, without access to the direct disciples of the Buddha themselves, started to vary in their practices. As such, the Vinaya texts were written to try to give some shared reference material. Finally, there are the Abhidharma texts, which are further writings about the teachings, generally with a more scholarly bent. They elaborate upon what is found in the sutras, but are not considered the actual teachings of the historical Buddha. Together, these three classes of texts are known in the Buddhist tradition as the Tripitaka, or three baskets, with any canonical text generally falling into one of the three descriptions. I'll note that it is unclear to me just when these texts were written down. The oldest extant sutra fragments are from sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE, but some of the texts—particularly sutras and Abhidharma texts, were likely around much earlier. Various traditions make claims to when different texts were written, but it can be hard, sometimes, to discern fact from fiction. There is also at least one other form of Buddhist literature which would be important in its spread, and that is the jataka tales. These are stories about the previous lives of the Buddha. Much like Aesop's fables or the parables found in the Bible, these are stories that contain lessons and often help to break down or explain a particular point, but they are not necessarily the direct teachings of the Buddha himself. The focus of the canon was to help define and preserve the Three Jewels of Buddhism: Memory of the Historical Buddha, Siddartha Gautama, aka the Shakyamuni Buddha; the Dharma, which is to say, his teachings, and the Sangha, or the community of followers. Over time, things changed. Early on, Buddhist monks would wander much of the year, coming back together during the rainy seasons and then dispersing again. At various times they would call a council and come together and ensure they still held the same doctrines, though even with that, differences began to form. At first it was just over things like the rules of conduct, which might differ in one place or another. Eventually, though, different sutras began to appear here and there, claiming to describe different teachings of the Buddha. One such sutra is the Lotus Sutra, which claims to tell the story of what the Buddha taught after his last sermon. It claims that after most of the people had left, the Buddha began another discourse just for those who remained, and that became known as the Lotus sutra, one that many will likely have heard of. Other texts include the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra. Not everyone accepted these texts as factual and canonical scriptures, however. Particularly in the south, down to Sri Lanka, many of the Buddhist communities continued to focus on what they considered the orthodox canonical texts, while others began to incorporate these new sutras into their practice. Those sects that accepted the new sutras, which often focused on the concept of Boddhisatvas—individuals who had done all they needed to attain Buddhahood, but who had “remained” in this world to help shepherd and guide others—or on various tantric and spiritual techniques to attain Buddhahood for themselves, became known as the Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, sects. On the other hand, those sects that denied the authenticity of such sutras and which tried to keep to what they believed was the original tripitaka became known as Theravada Buddhism. Today, Theravada Buddhism tends to be more popular in Southeast Asia, in places like Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos, while Mahayana Buddhism tends to define many of the practices in Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan. In addition to changes in what people considered doctrine, the nature of the Sangha and Buddhist worship changed as well. Over time, monasteries were set up as specific places where monks could settle down. This may have originally arisen from the places where they would gather during the monsoons, but they eventually became places where the monks themselves stayed, and where individuals might come to learn. In addition, there was a rise in the worship of holy relics, and many such settlements would have one or more stupas containing some form of holy relic that the people could pray to. People also built statues depicting the Buddha and other figures from the stories. An entire school of how to depict various Buddhas and other figures came about, with specific hand gestures and postures imparting specific meaning to what was built. Traditions arose around how to build these temples and monasteries as well as to how to build the various statues and even to specific identifying features that would call out the Buddha, such as long fingers, drooping earlobes that had once held heavy and elaborate earrings, toes that were all the same length, et cetera. The features of Buddha images—especially the faces—would change in different areas. Much as Jesus is often depicted as a white man, Buddha would typically be depicted with features similar to the people who were making the image. Still, certain aspects remain the same from one tradition to another such that they are all recognizable as the Buddha. From Shakyamuni's home south of the Himalayas, Buddhism would eventually spread, following the trade routes of the so-called Silk Road. Buddhist missionaries appear to have made contact with the Han dynasty, but it wasn't until the Northern and Southern states period that it really took off. Likewise, it made its way to the Korean peninsula, and from there to Japan. But those are all things to save for our next episode, when we take a look at just how this new religion grew and expanded and became so influential in the continent and eventually in the peninsula and the archipelago itself. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts. If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. And that's all for now. Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.
What is this Dharma that we are offered to take refuge in? Can it be defined? Continuing our discussion of what, and what not to take refuge in. Now that we have some sense of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths and basic principles, we'll add the Refuge Field, and all Dharmas in our next Object of Refuge: The Dharma. As always, we'll use the instructions as tools to unlock our realizations and insights that are beyond words and concepts. The path has many layers, join us as we delve into the second of the Three Jewels. Readings from The Life of Shabkar The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast: Episode 85 Compassionate Recovery: Mindful Healing for Trauma and Addictions Available in Kindle, Trade Paperback, Hardcover New shows on Fridays. Tune in for practices integrated with words and sounds on this and all the shows! All are welcome. Send questions to info@compassionaterecovery.us Also available wherever you get your podcasts, such as iTunes, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Google Podcasts
Rachel Webb is the Executive Director of Three Jewels NYC, a 501c3 non-profit Enlightenment Studio that specializes in the preservation and dissemination of authentic Buddhist teachings in a modern and approachable way. Rachel has trained simultaneously in yoga and mental health services for the past decade. She has taught meditation and Buddhist dharma for the past 6 years, and yoga for the past 4 years. You can check out her work below.Three Jewels website: https://www.threejewels.org/End of Year Fundraiser Classes: https://www.threejewels.org/eoy-fundraiserRachel Webb on Instagram: @internet.dakiniThree Jewels on Instagram: @threejewelsnycIf you enjoyed the podcast please rate, subscribe and share with your friends!Follow Scott on Instagram for more here. www.instagram.com/causingtheeffectpodcastYou can email Scott @ causingtheeffectpodcast@gmail.comJust click below to subscribe to the YouTube channel!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDspmpM11TLZlqXv_bmV5jQ?sub_confirmation=1
Hector Marcel is the president of Three Jewels, the New York-based global "Enlightenment Studio,” dedicated to helping people reach their highest potential through meditation, yoga, public talks and community outreach. Hector has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for 25 years and believes that meditation opens the door to every personal achievement. You can check out his work below.Three Jewels website: https://www.threejewels.org/Hector Marcel on Instagram: @wakeupist Three Jewels on Instagram: @threejewelsnycApply by September 15 for the Three Jewels 200-hour Meditation Teacher Training, online or in-person from September 30-December 11. Deepen your meditation practice or learn to guide meditation from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. Scholarships available. Learn more at https://www.threejewels.org/meditation-teacher-training.If you enjoyed the podcast please rate, subscribe and share with your friends!Follow Scott on Instagram for more here. www.instagram.com/causingtheeffectpodcastYou can email Scott @ causingtheeffectpodcast@gmail.comJust click below to subscribe to the YouTube channel!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDspmpM11TLZlqXv_bmV5jQ?sub_confirmation=1
Today I sit down to talk to Stephen McManus. Buddhist teacher, healer, and director of Three Jewels New York City. Stephen and I discuss his journey towards Buddhism and he shares a significant life event that drew him deeper into spirituality and Buddhism. Stephen is passionate about creating sustainable inner peace, he shares what this means and how each one of us can find a way to integrate peace in our life's long term. We chat about karmic lessons that help us use everything and every situation as teacher—to liberate us from mental afflictions and the ego. Stephen has also found a way to bring humor into the spiritual path, through his creative and lighthearted posts on his Instagram page @superspiritual To find out more about Three Jewels, Stephen or if you want to partake in daily practices subscribe to their YouTube page Three Jewels Podcast Production: Written, directed, and edited by Krista Xiomara Produced by LightCasting Original Music by Mr. Pixie Follow this podcast on Instagram @ianwpodcast
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