Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday Better

Join me for an episode that is part autobiographical, part solidarity with Pride and Black Lives matter, part poetry, part science, and part Buddhism. Sounds a bit chaotic, doesn't it? Yet I hope you find some relevant order. Sharing a recent experience with my own revisiting of internal trauma sparked by the external trauma of pandemic politics and social unrest, I tried to find order in the chaos through poetry and, of course, Buddhism. Every life has some chaos because as the poet Gregory Orr writes, "there is a great deal of disorder in experience." Or stated through a Buddhist lens, "the unenlightened life is suffering." Yet, in the suffering and chaos there may be a new heartbeat; the birth of a new order, if we lean in and keep going with strong back and soft front.

Join me for a special guest episode with Dr. Christiane Michelberger, a retired physician, psychoanalyst, and past spiritual seeker who currently mentors seekers in their quest to awaken. Christiane talks about how more than 10,000 hours of meditation and 40 years of studying Buddhist scriptures didn't help her deal with debilitating fear when she was faced with the reality of breast cancer. It was then that she took steps to escape from a habit of "spiritual sleepwalking" and find a way to see through the 'me' that it is at the heart of our dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and suffering. Christiane and I share a wide-ranging conversation about the importance of seeing through the 'me' … embracing the ordinary … why meditation may not be enough … shifting from spiritual illusions to simple reality ... spiritual bypassing … brainwashing and guru worship … and dealing with the stages of grief we might be going through during the new pandemic reality we find ourselves in.

In this episode, I reflect on our responses when we find ourselves in life situations that don't make sense and that are out of our control. As we make our way through the global Covid-19 pandemic we see humbling examples of courage and compassion. And we also see examples of people responding in fear and anger. The symptoms of fight, flight, or freeze—our natural responses to perceived threats—are everywhere you look. We have been smacked in our collective and previously comfortable faces with the need to find ways of accepting what is happening to us. And many of us aren't doing so well. Yet, the pandemic is teaching us about interdependence, change, and impermanence in a profound way. Our choice is to respond like victims or like the brave front-line workers, with a noble response to suffering.

Join me for a special guest episode with Duncan Ryuken Williams, the author of American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War. 125,000+ Japanese-Americans we rounded up and placed in internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many of these were Buddhists who persevered despite their imprisonment. Circumstances that were no fault of their own but because of their "Japanese faces" and their faith in a non-Christian religion seen as anti-American. And they kept going because of that faith. The lessons shared in this episode can help us, too, find faith and freedom during this time of separation and community during the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The whole world is afraid. A tiny piece of biological stuff—this virus—brought the world to its knees. A contagion or plague of this level is not new to the world but new to most of us living today. We have very little experience dealing with this level of uncertainty. This makes protecting the health of our minds and hearts as important as protecting the health of our bodies. There has never been a better time to develop a practice of finding a healthy balance between being informed and tormenting yourself. Listen as I share mantra, breathing, awareness, and mindful writing practices that might help.

There is a view of Buddhism that is idealistic. That it's all about meditating and chanting in an incense-filled room, hidden away from the world. That the peace promised in Buddhism comes from being away from, above, or different from, the troubles of the world. If your mind is full of what you think Buddhism or spirituality "should" be, no matter what teaching is placed at your feet, the grip of your expectations will prevent you from absorbing it or finding a new perspective that might bring you peace. The Buddha was soaked in the troubles and suffering of the world and it is what drove him to find out what suffering was made of. The peace the Buddha promised is found in a personal understanding of ignorance and the practice to overcome it. The peace you seek is not an escape from the world but an understanding of it.

This is a special episode dedicated to the life of our good friend and neighbor—too soon lost. It focuses on the haiku by Issa: This world of dew is a world of dew, and yet, and yet. Listen as I read writings of my grief and how I come to the realization that maybe "and yet" is not just "nevertheless it hurts" but also "but yet." It's all in how you show up for yourself and for others. In that showing up, false borders of belief and concepts disappear in our shared precariousness. In our shared impermanence. In our world of dew ... As we share grief and are healed for a moment.

Join me for a special episode and conversation with Ken McLeod, author, translator, and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. Ken and I talk about his innovative approach to teaching and writing about traditional Buddhist texts and practices. I reached out to Ken because I connected on a deep level to the material in his books and in the written and audio presentations on his website, unfetteredmind.org. Ken McLeod's ability to accomplish a sort of direct pointing to a knowing experience beyond the words and conceptual understanding was a rare find in my experience with other books and talks on Tibetan Buddhist texts. That is what I wanted to introduce to my podcast audience. Whether you're new to Buddhism, just intrigued, or a long-time practitioner, spending some time with Ken's work will shake off the worries of whether you understand the words and transport you directly into the answers.

2020 seems like something out of Sci-Fi. But here we are. And from my perspective—approaching my 67th birthday in a little under 2 weeks—we ARE living in what was the sci-fi from my childhood perspective. I imagine, though, that for most of my podcast listeners, how we are living today doesn't seem like sci-fi to you. It's not that new for you. It all depends on where you stand—your perspective. Here we are. From where you sit, listening to this podcast, you may be filled with hope or despair. You may have pain or feel great. You may be young or you may be old. But you are where you are. And we're all here with you. It may look different where I'm sitting, but I am here right now, just as you are. And, together, we'll enter 2020. Another year, another decade on the calendar, but if we live at the moment, we can have an awareness of just being here. With no before and after and no "room for memories or imagined futures." That is the ultimate fact and it transcends the duality of new year, old year; young person, old person; well person or sick person. Yes, everything changes and we are in motion on the horizontal time train, but, "in vertical time, everything is accessible; every possibility is restful and free."

In this episode, we celebrate Bodhi Day, the traditional celebration of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment. Yet, listen as we discover how it is a celebration of our enlightenment, too. The message of the December darkness is a messenger of our own enlightenment. Without darkness, we couldn't know light. Shakyamuni's enlightenment experience is ours. He proclaimed, "I and the great earth, and all beings are naturally and simultaneously awakened." We don't chase the darkness away through external ritual or stringing lights, but by looking inside to find our own light.