Awake in the World Podcast

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.

Beginner's mind threatens the part of us that wants to control experience. Knowing before knowing. Hakuin: wisdom is not separate from you. It's like beads rolling on a tray: sudden, ready, uninhibited. We all want to be more comfortable, and slowly the comfort starts to kill you. Knowing is a kind of renunciation. You're already there. Recorded on July 9, 2012.

The mind makes snapshots and creates categories, our patterns contain the world keeping us small and separate, mindfulness is the new Tylenol, dying as generosity, perhaps practice means simply catching up to what you actually feel, instead of living in your descriptions of what you feel. Recorded on June 26, 2012.

How do we bow? Everything becomes your teacher. Throwing up dualistic ideas. Teachers are heavy, students are feathers. The pain of panic wakes you up to what hasn't grown up. Sincerity. The sense of something else gets in the way of satisfaction. Recorded on June 14, 2012.

People who practice Zen are always asking: what is this all about? Whatever you do, Buddha is in that activity. Becoming the breath. Hitting the pillow. Occupy the wall. Suck your thumb. Recorded on June 5, 2012.