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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