Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday Better

Enjoy another special preview of a Members Only Feature: Bonus Contemplation Podcasts. These are short podcasts for you to use as subjects for contemplation or analytical meditation. This contemplation, "Loved Just As I Am", is by my dear friend, Satya Robyn, and purposely follows the episode where I share my journey into baldness due to Alopecia Areata. Satya directs the Bright Earth with her partner, Kaspa, and works as a psychotherapist and a writer. These bonus contemplation podcasts will be released regularly and presented by myself or some of my Bright Dawn Lay Minister/lay ministry student friends and colleagues. To be sure you don't miss any of them, join the Everyday Buddhism Membership Community or Everyday Sangha: https://www.everydaybuddhismcommunity.com/join-community-or-sangha.html For more about Satya and the Bright Earth Pure Land Buddhist Temple, check out these websites: http://www.brightearth.org/ www.satyarobyn.com or at www.dearearth.co.uk ***************** Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits! https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism

In this episode, I share my journey into baldness caused by Alopecia Areata. September is Alopecia Awareness month, so I'm happy to share this episode now. No matter what our hair looks like or changes to, we are never satisfied. Hair seems one of the most prominent marks of our self. We seem uniquely attached to our hair as self. My hair loss first started in mid-December 2021, then paused and seemed to start growing back, then in April it was on a steady downward trend. And by July, I began to make peace with the fact that I was losing so much hair there wasn't much of a point in trying to hide it, so I shaved it all off. This was a process of working to accept things as they are, called Arugamama, from Morita Therapy in Japanese Psychology. Listen to this episode to see how I've come to accept my new bald self. ***************** Book, Diamond Sutra by Red Pine, mentioned in this podcast: The Diamond Sutra - Translation & Commentary by Red Pine  My book, mentioned in this podcast: Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices For Real Change ***************** Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits! https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism

Join me for a conversation with Jack Huynh, a long-time Buddhist practitioner and the founder of the https://beyondthecushion.com/ website. Jack is a first-generation immigrant to the U.S. from the Vietnam War and found his own path in the Dharma, different from his parents who are also Buddhist practitioners. Jack's website explores the diversity of Buddhist lay practice in a complex modern life. The idea for it was born from Jack's own curiosity and longing to ask lay practitioners about their practice, after years of attending retreats and not having a local sangha. In exploring the compelling personal stories of the practitioners highlighted on the site, you'll find that despite the Buddhist schools, lineages, geographic location, and stages of practice, all Dharma is Dharma. It's an inspiring journey, as is the conversation in this episode. Check out the website: https://beyondthecushion.com/   Visit Jack's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackhuynh/   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, "Everyday Buddhism"   Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits! https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism

Join me for a special summer mirror episode of the podcast, Zen At The Sharp End by Mark Westmoquette where I was invited to talk about my experience with "troublesome Buddhas." The Zen At The Sharp End podcast focuses on how to turn difficult people and relationships into your best teachers. In each episode, Mark and guests discuss how Buddhist and mindfulness practices can help us see our difficult people or situations as troublesome Buddhas, our greatest teachers. I am sharing this episode of Mark's podcast on my podcast because I think what Mark has to teach with this method is something everyone of my listeners can benefit from. I am painfully honest in the episode, so I debated sharing it directly with you, but I believe it is in our shared vulnerability that Buddhist practice comes alive. Check out Mark's podcast: Zen at The Sharp End   Buy his book: Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People: How to Learn from your Troublesome Buddhas Learn more about Mark by visiting his website: https://markwestmoquette.co.uk/   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book: Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change   Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits!https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism

Join me for a very special conversation with Ashley Lynn Olson, the author of the book, Confined to Align, and the author of a life that has consistently defied the odds. And that is, in no small part, due to her unbelievable spirit and ability to steer her thoughts, emotions, … and her life into the positive. As you will hear, Ashley has overcome obstacles in her life that would knock many of so far down we would have trouble ever looking up again, including a car accident that killed her father and paralyzed her when she was fourteen years old. But she demonstrates an amazing attitude—dare I say a "Buddhist" way of seeing life—evident from this quote from her book: "Choose to choose. Feeling confined is a choice…. Choose compassion for yourself and those around you. Choose to see your situation as an opportunity to expand internally, or better yet, as a moment in time-space to re-align and focus on your path of well-being and purpose…." Click play to listen to a conversation with Ashley you won't soon forget! Buy the book: Confined to Align: A Journey to Wellbeing Learn more about Ashley by visiting her website: https://wheelchairtraveling.com/ Her YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/wheelchairtraveler08 And her Instagram feed: https://www.instagram.com/wheelchairtraveling/   Click here to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices For Real Change  

Join me for a conversation with Arlene Faulk, as we talk about the ups and downs of living with the symptoms, diagnosis, and eventual healing of Multiple Sclerosis. Arlene went from a career as business executive to a calling as a Tai Chi teacher.  ​Arlene captured her dramatic personal story in a memoir, Walking on Pins and Needles: A Memoir of Chronic Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis. Faulk recounts how she regained mobility, embraced the power of Tai Chi, and took back control of her life. Her inspiring story demonstrates how a chronic and debilitating health condition lacks the power to control our lives and stop us from moving in the direction of possibility.   Buy the book: "Walking on Pins and Needles" Learn more about Arlene by visiting her website: https://arlenefaulk.com/about/   Check out her YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/faulktaichi

In the next two episodes, Episode 72 and Episode 73, I am in conversation with two amazing women who demonstrate with their lives how we can actively accept what seems unacceptable. Although these episodes represent something out of the ordinary for this podcast, they illustrate, in sharp detail, how everything changes and things that we don't want to happen to us WILL happen to us. After these two episodes, look for another Bonus Contemplation on the Five Remembrances for members of the Community and the Sangha, presented by Bradley Nussbaum. Join the Membership Community or Everyday Sangha now if you want to catch each of the upcoming Bonus Contemplations: Join Membership Community | Join the Everyday Sangha  

Enjoy a preview of a NEW Members Only Feature: Bonus Contemplation Podcasts. These are short podcasts for you to use as subjects for contemplation or analytical meditation. They will be released regularly and presented by myself or some of my Bright Dawn Lay Minister/lay ministry student friends and colleagues. To be sure you don't miss any of them, join the Everyday Buddhism Membership Community: Join the Membership Community or the Everyday Sangha: Join the Everyday Sangha

Rev. Gyomay Kubose, my teacher's father, wrote about "purposeless purpose." He said: "Too much intelligence or too much efficiency can create trouble. So, we must learn non-intelligence, which is super intelligence." Does that sound nonsensical? Our sangha is studying The Diamond Sutra now and it is filled with reasoning (or non reasoning?) like that. It is the the superpower of the Dharma because the wisdom it contains is transcendent. You can't "get there" from here, by what is normally considered intelligence. You can only get there by learning "non-intelligence", as Rev. Gyomay teaches. My overall word of advice for enjoying being a student of the Dharma is to relax and not try to "figure it out." One of the main points of practicing with the Prajnaparamita sutras is to NOT try and understand it. That is what these sutras are teaching: It's NOT understanding. It's NOT about concepts. It's about living. Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, "Everyday Buddhism" Red Pine's translation and commentary of The Diamond Sutra And books from Rev. Koyo Kubose and Rev. Gyomay Kubose: Bright Dawn: Discovering Your Everyday Spirituality Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living The Center Within

In the past year I've noticed a feeling of "disappearing" in the world ... and to the world. A sense of my slipping relevance to the people and world around me. Yet, the good news about seeming to disappear is that it reveals the absolute truth of things as they are. Am I disappearing or am I transcending? It's a simple twist of the head. A change in perception. A change in awareness that I realize through an understanding of emptiness, Japanese psychology, and the experience of meditation. Listen as I talk about my incredible disappearing self that happens through meditation and through the understanding that active acceptance is the key to transcending. Holding on to what I think I might be losing keeps me suffering like a shimmering ghost that is unable to let go. Actively accepting the naturalness of this disappearance kills me completely. Book, by Karl Brunnholzl, mentioned in this podcast: The Heart Attack Sutra: A New Commentary on the Heart Sutra My book, mentioned in this podcast: Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices For Real Change