Norman Fischer on Spiritual Growth through Imagination

Norman Fischer is a poet, author, Zen Buddhist teacher and priest. He’s a graduate of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop and he’s been publishing poetry since 1979. He’s the author of 17 books of poetry, 6 books of prose on Zen and religion as well as numerous articles and essays. In this episode, Eric and Norman discuss his book, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path.

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In This Interview, Norman Fischer and I discuss Spiritual Growth through Imagination and…

• His book, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path
• Redefining imagination and discovering it’s prevalence and role in life
• The role of imagination in spiritual paths
• How we don’t see the world exactly as it is, but rather through filters
• Loosening our grasp on what we think of as absolute reality
• Constructing useful stories in our mind rather than living by our default stories
• The essential ways in which imagination enriches the experience of our lives
• When we realize we are making our lives for ourselves, we have the power to make it differently
• The Bodhisattva: A Buddha in training
• Compassion, Love and Service for the benefit of others
• The Bodhisattva Path
• The myth of separateness and the truth of interconnection and love
• That holding two (seemingly contradictory) ideas in our mind at one time offers us depth perception
• How ideals can inspire us rather than put pressure on us
• The disease of perfectionism
• How to engage in “Joyful Effort” when you don’t feel very joyful and don’t have much effort to spare
• Patience: Just keep going and be of benefit to others
• Turning toward what’s arising: facing it, embracing it, breathing into it and going forward with it
• The problematic nature of favoring one’s own suffering over the suffering of others

Norman Fischer Links:

normanfischer.org

Poems by Norman Fischer

Essays by Norman Fischer

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