The main thing that causes us to be confused about reality is our self centeredness, our thinking we're separate. The fourth noble truth lays out what that path is, which is often called the eightfold path. You may have heard that buddhism is basically, or even only, meditation,. and that meditation is the most important thing you can do; learning is ok, but not really important. Practice, we are told, is meditation. Werat practice, practice, practice.
Bob Thurman is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. He’s also the President of the Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization. He’s also the President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies.
In this episode, Bob and Eric discuss his book, Wisdom is Bliss: Four Friendly Fun Facts That Can Change Your Life
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In This Interview, Bob Thurman and I Discuss How to Find Bliss and …
- His book: Wisdom is Bliss: Four Friendly Fun Facts That Can Change Your Life
- How our civilization is based on fear
- The wisdom in the bliss view is that reality is good and that you get back what you put into it.
- The Four Friendly Fun Facts he renamed from the four noble truths
- How altruism strengthens our sense of self-worth
- To be noble means you become more “we” oriented than “me” oriented
- The deepest level of reality is love, abundance, energy
- First Friendly Fact is to take responsibility to understand our ultimate reality or we will suffer
- Second Friendly Fact is the diagnosis- to understand that we are not the center of everything
- Third Friendly Fact is the prognosis or needing to unlearn and opening ourselves to what we really are
- Fourth Friendly Fact is the “therapy” or the eightfold path of how we can open our own minds to find freedom and bliss
- Our tendency to see things as absolute rather than relative
- Investigation is the real practice of Buddhism and meditation is a tool
- Realistic mindfulness is noticing what’s going on in the real world
- The three types of wisdom are born of learning, unlearning, and freedom
Bob Thurman Links:
Bob’s Website
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If you enjoyed this conversation with Bob Thurman, you might also enjoy these other episodes:
Robert Thurman on Buddhism and The Dalai Lama
Paul Hannam on The Wisdom of Groundhog Day
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