Diggin' the Dharma

Jon has just got back from a long retreat, so we discuss his experiences, as well as offering a few book recommendations for the holidays and New Year. Go to our website for titles and some links!Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

Is our "Diggin' the Dharma" logo a problem? Doug and Jon react to some recent comments on a thread at Doug's YouTube channel that expressed the concern that the logo was offensive in depicting the Buddha with a shovel.   It's an opportunity to look at the teachings of "rites and rituals" as well as the concept of spiritual materialism.Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

"Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, endowed with perception and cognition, that I declare that there is the world, the origination of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the world.”  In this quote from the Rohitassa sutta  the Buddha addresses the knowing  body.  All that we know  and experience is in this body.  So embodied practice is not the practice of cognitive understanding (though this is important) but rather a result of our direct experience.   Embodied practice is when our actions are a result of  heartfelt wisdom.  Where the rubber meets the road.Doug and Jon discuss what is meant by embodiment and how do we know when we know.Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

As we head out of the week of Thanksgiving we consider eating and food in the context of early Buddhist practices.   For those of who are used to eating three meals a day--a very western European way-- the notion of eating on the early Buddhist monastic schedule  of one basic meal a day before noon would seem rather strange if not impossible to hold to.  Of course, we don't go out for alms rounds to obtain our food and our daily schedules are quite different.   There is also the question of our attitude toward food and eating.    In this episode Doug and Jon explore eating as a practice and how meditation and Buddhism impacts (or not!) their food habits.Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

For our listeners in the US, we are beginning Thanksgiving week. It's a perfect time to consider gratitude and how it integrates into our lives.  And if you're not in the US it's still a good time!  As always, thank you all for listening, and for your continued support!Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

Perception is one of the Five Aggregates of Clinging and critical to our understanding of self and the world we live in.   It is through mindfulness and our meditation practice that we start to see through the trap of our own perceptions.  We don't see things as they are, we things as we are" (attributed to Anais Nin).Bhante Gunaratana's book is: Meditation on Perception.Sutta:https://suttacentral.net/an10.60/en/sujato Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

With the upcoming election in the US we will look at politics and Buddhism. Should we allow our Buddhist ideals to influence our voting? What would the Buddha himself have said in the midst of so much partisanship and how do the teachings on "holding to fixed views" fit into our own political dialogues?  Jon and Doug have an animated discussion on this important topic without implying how you should vote.  But you should vote!Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

As we record this episode, Elon Musk has recently purchased Twitter. His purchase raises all sorts of questions relevant to Buddhist practice, perhaps most importantly of Right Speech. What should be allowed online? How should we practice on Twitter or other social media platforms?  Does our written communication actually inline with our intent and do we have a sense of how it might land with others?  This is where our mindfulness practice truly makes a difference.Someone is wrong on the Internet! https://xkcd.com/386/Key and Peele Text Gone Wrong Small KindnessesBy Danusha LamérisI’ve been thinking about the way, when you walkdown a crowded aisle, people pull in their legsto let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”when someone sneezes, a leftoverfrom the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.And sometimes, when you spill lemonsfrom your grocery bag, someone else will help youpick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smileat them and for them to smile back. For the waitressto call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.We have so little of each other, now. So farfrom tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, thesefleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

The Buddha  became a pretty famous guy, but what did fame mean to him?   Did he even think about it?   Fame was not something he sought.  He just taught and became well known through his teachings.   If he had access to social media would he have used it?    Fame and renown is certainly not the secret to happiness but so many strive for it.  Join us as we discuss this interesting topic and what it means to us.Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/

Doug and Jon discuss the five hindrances that the Buddha had to overcome on the night of his enlightenment. We find them not only cropping up in our formal meditation practice, but in our everyday lives as well. How should we deal with them? We have lots of tips.Support the showGo to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/