Gaylon Ferguson is an acharya, or senior teacher, in the Shambhala International Buddhist community and a faculty member in Religious Studies at Naropa University. In his new book, Welcoming Beginner's Mind: Zen and Tibetan Buddhist Wisdom on Experiencing Our True Nature, he uses the classic Zen oxherding pictures as a way of illustrating the stages of the spiritual journey, exploring the paradox of how we can awaken to what we already are.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ferguson to discuss how he as a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism came to write a book about Zen, why he believes dissatisfaction is actually a sign of awakened intelligence, what we can learn from welcoming and staying with our boredom, and the role of desire on the path to awakening.

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