Awake in the World Podcast

Listen to the sangha chant the Ashtanga invocation in detail. Michael explains how to look at the nature of thoughts and see how they change but also the way they have no power except for what we invest in them. He also talks on letting the mind rest, the jungle of habits, and seeing our habit patterns as physicians that want to heal us. Thoughts are only a little more than a cloud. Recorded on November 20, 2012.

Do you have a mind that can meet what's unpleasant? Michael Stone talks about meditation, Carl Jung, what it means to be bored, and his Bar Mitzvah. One becomes a dharma student when they see that there's a strain inside themselves that they need to learn how to work with. Recorded on October 30, 2012.

Can you bring your broken self into your life? Michael shares the personal and nervous story of asking his partner to marry him in France. Recorded on Oct 23, 2012.

Michael's talk on the core teachings of the Buddha and how they relate to being a self, letting go, repeating the past, investing too much in the future, and being stuck. Recorded on September 28, 2012. Please note, the end of the talk and discussion is cut-off.

Michael Stone continues discussing The Heart Sutra. Our practice helps others' practice. Emptiness is everything, just as it is right now. Dukkha is restlessness — we want more or we don't want. The Heart Sutra as magic, incantation, voodoo. Advice from an 88 year old quantum physicist. Mel Weitsman on life as mantra. Recorded at Centre of Gravity on July 19, 2012, day 11 of a 12-day intensive.

A riveting talk on animals and non-violence by guest speaker, Dr. Lauren Corman, given during a 12-day intensive at Centre of Gravity. Dr. Lauren Corman taught classes in the area of Critical Animal Studies, which engages an intersectional approach to, "the question of the animal." As such, Dr. Corman's interdisciplinary scholarship draws on animal rights/liberation, posthumanist, feminist, critical race, labour and environmental theories and practices. Much of her graduate work focused on an analysis of Canadian and US slaughterhouses, with emphasis on the industrialized exploitation of pigs. Recorded on July 19, 2012.

Michael Stone discusses The Heart Sutra, nirvana, worry and fear. The Buddha lists five fears. Fear is a trance state. Some of the worst things in my life never happened. During sitting meditation, feel the stable knowing behind fear and bliss. Nirvana is fearlessness. We’re all practicing in nirvana right now. Day 9 of a 12-day intensive. Recorded on July 17, 2012.

Self liberation. Thoughts without a thinker. The Buddha talks about the All. What is taste? Spiritual air miles. Bukowski has a bluebird in his heart. Three kinds of burnout. A talk by Michael Stone at Centre of Gravity on day seven of a 12-day intensive. Recorded July 15, 2012.

Michael Stone continues discussing The Heart Sutra — form and emptiness, the Buddha's troubles, making families in Toronto, bathing in Japan. What is underneath language in sitting practice is self-acceptance. Avalokiteshvara and Shariputra are both in you. Waves are the practice of water. Recorded July 13, 2012.

Emptiness is not place or process. Mistaking emptiness is like catching a snake from the wrong end. Moving out of stories in order to feel. Five skandhas. How perception works. Two kinds of teachers. A talk at Centre of Gravity on day three of a 12-day intensive. Recorded July 11, 2012.