Steve Hagen on Perception, Conception, and Enlightenment

Steve Hagen is the founder and teacher of the Dharma Field Zen Center in Minneapolis, MN and the author of several books on Buddhism, including Buddhism Plain and Simple which is one of the top five best selling books on Buddhism in the United States. In this episode, Steve teaches us about several Buddhist concepts that are often misunderstood: Wholeness vs Unwholesomeness, Perception vs Conception and Belief vs Knowledge. Knowing the true meaning of these ideas will give you great freedom as you seek the enlightenment that is your true nature.

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In This Interview, Steve Hagen and I Discuss...

• The Wolf Parable
• His book, Buddhism Plain and Simple
• The Horse and the Farmer parable
• Wholeness vs Unwholesome
• Consider the welfare of other beings in all you do
• Awareness
• Perception (the immediate, direct experience) vs Conception (our construct of things)
• Belief vs Knowledge
• That we can't arrive at truth through conception
• That enlightenment is with us all of the time, we're just not aware of it
• That enlightenment is our natural state
• The idea of "stream" as self, the Buddha said
• That the way things appear to be is more of a construct than a reality
• How picking and choosing is the mind's worst disease
• Noticing how the mind leans a certain way
• That a Buddha is a person who is awake
• The power of simply observing something about ourselves rather than trying to put a stop to it or judging it
• The Story about the 84 Problems

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