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Through meditation and lecture, Gil Fronsdal outlines how the awareness of awareness is more important than the content of an experience.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal explains:
Giving too much importance to our experiencesBeing mindful of whatever is present in a given momentThe authority we give to our fixationsDropping into the experience of the body breathingKnowing our feelings and thoughts and noticing when we are distractedA guided mediation from Gil to develop awareness of awarenessAbout Gil Fronsdal:
Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.
“In some ways, it doesn’t matter that much where you bring your attention, what matters is that you’re using it. You can develop just as much clarity of mind and presence of mind on the rain sound as you can on your breathing, as you can on almost anything.” – Gil Fronsdal
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In this 2022 retreat session, Spring Washam and Sharon Salzberg take a deeper look at mindfulness, the foundation of the Buddhist tradition.
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In this episode, Sharon and Spring hold a discourse on:
Working directly with our mindAn opening body scan meditation with SpringThe practice of Satipatthana and finding freedom through mindfulnessFinding the end of suffering by examining our own body internallyThe importance of posture in meditationViewing the present moment without distortionOur relationship to what is arisingToxic happiness and negation of the realBeing with what is actually happening moment to momentMetta as an open, connected, interested quality of the heartA closing metta meditation from SharonRecognizing the power of good that moves through usAbout Sharon Salzberg:
Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller,
Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness.
Her forthcoming release, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom, is set for release in April of 2023 from Flatiron Books. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed five million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond.
Learn more about Sharon and order your copy of her new book at www.sharonsalzberg.com
About Spring Washam:
Spring Washam is a well-known teacher, author, and visionary leader based in Oakland, California. She is the author of A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage and Wisdom in Any Moment and her newest book, The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground. Spring is considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based meditation practices to diverse communities. She is one of the founding teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, located in downtown Oakland, CA. She has practiced and studied Buddhist philosophy in both the Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism since 1999. She is a member of the teacher’s council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California where she was trained for over a decade.
In addition to being a teacher, she is also a shamanic practitioner and has studied indigenous healing practices since 2008. She is the founder of Lotus Vine Journeys, a one-of-a-kind organization that blends indigenous healing practices with Buddhist wisdom in South America. Her writings and dharma teachings have appeared in many online journals and publications. She currently teaches meditation retreats and leads workshops, and classes worldwide.
Spring currently teaches meditation retreats and leads workshops, and classes worldwide: springwasham.com and is cohost of her own podcast on Be Here Now Network, The Spirit Underground.
“There is something really important about us being willing to be with what is true, not with what we want, but the real experience. We wake up, there’s heartache, I didn’t want heartache but there it is. Can I be real with that?” – Spring Washam
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Manglende episoder?
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Sharing her recent near-death experience, Trudy Goodman explains how and why dharma practice is essential to facing death without fear.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Buddhist teacher Trudy Goodman shares:
How even slivers of wisdom light up our lifeHer personal story of a near-death experience and choosing to liveThe imminence of death and knowing it can come at any timeThe extraordinary opportunity it is to be bornThe value in each moment we are awareThe way that life takes care of lifeLearning to rest and not pushFreedom from surrendering to the way things areHow who we are is more important than what we doThe way that pain concentrates the mind and tests our practiceAppreciating all of the little moments that act as dharma doorwaysThis recording was originally published on Dharmaseed
About Trudy Goodman:
Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide.
“Who we are is more important than what we do. It just is. It’s really true that just being alive is a gift, even though there are moments when it doesn’t feel like that.” – Trudy Goodman
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Gil Fronsdal offers Buddhist wisdom on relating skillfully to our emotions and seeing them as messengers of our inner worlds.
This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/insighthour and get on your way to being your best self.
In this talk, Gil Fronsdal lectures about:
Identifying emotions without getting lost in the storyThe necessity and benefits of feeling painKnowing what's happening as it's happeningHow most of us are driven by our desires and aversionsSimply knowing and how free our knowing can beMaking room for our experiencesHow our emotions let us know what we should pay attention toLearning how our emotions live in the intelligent system of our bodyHow reactivity blocks us from processing emotionsBeing in our body and allowing processes to unfold“One of the primary functions of emotions is to let us know something is important. They’re knocking on the door of our capacity to know. They are not accidents, they’re not incidental, they’re not annoyances, they’re not unfortunate. They’re actually a very important form of which your inner life is presenting itself to you.” – Gil Fronsdal
This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed
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Professor and Investigator Dr. Quevedo is hosted by Jackie Dobrinska for a philosophical talk on interrelation and psychedelic therapies.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
In this episode, Dr. Sylvestre Quevedo and Jackie Dobrinska explore:
The qualities of love within the heartHow the chemical components of MDMA aid in social bonding and heart-openingTouching into transcendent realms and the divineThe importance of our worldviewsNavigating difficult experiences when using plant medicineTurning to sacred texts to glean understandingRam Dass’ perspectives on psychedelicsHow the Bhagavad Gita can help usThe Indigenous 7 generation teachingThe efficacy of MDMA in PTSD treatmentAwareness and appreciation for natureThe importance of community and being in connectionThe uses of psychedelics beyond the medical modelThis conversation was recorded as part of the Ram Dass Explorer’s club. To learn more and sign up to join a Ram Dass fellowship gathering near you, visit RamDass.org/Fellowship.
About Dr. Sylvestre Quevedo:
Sylvestre Quevedo is currently Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF and a Principal Investigator in an FDA trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and UCSF. He earned his medical degree at the Harvard Medical School and a Master of Public Health degree at Harvard School of Public Health. After postdoctoral training in family and community medicine at the University of Arizona, he spent four years developing community health center programs in underserved communities in Colorado, Washington and California. He returned to postdoctoral education with studies in law and public policy at the Stanford Law School, followed by internal medicine at Stanford and a fellowship in nephrology and medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar.
Learn more about Dr. Quevedo HERE.
About Jackie Dobrinska:
Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an inter-spiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves.
“The defining characteristic of a medicine carrier is his/her relationship with the medicine. These are not just chemicals or herbs, these are sentient beings that you’re in communication with.” – Dr. Sylvestre Quevedo
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In a stimulating talk on reincarnation, ego-death, and other dimensions, renowned Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee bridges this world and the next.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This week, teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee returns to explore:
The unknowable essence of deathLessons and instructions from the UpanishadsDying to the ego before we die to this physical worldThe transcendent dimension of our own beingHaving choice in the afterlife if one transcends their ego in their lifeHow relationships with spiritual teachers can last lifetime after lifetimeReincarnation and unfinished spiritual lessonsJourneying through other dimensionsDeath as a friend and destinationHow easy it is to be caught in the distortions of the worldLearning the lessons of our individual soulsBeing surrounded by an all-embracing lightAbout Llewellyn:
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D. is a Sufi teacher in the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya Sufi Order. He is the author of Sufism, the Transformation of the Heart, and the founder of The Golden Sufi Center. Check out his new podcast Working With Oneness.
“The further one travels along the spiritual path, the more life and death are intertwined. The mystery for me has always been how life covers over so much of our true nature, which
death reveals.” – Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
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Describing writing as an act of faith, author Anne Lamott offers a workshop on connecting to our inner longing for creativity.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This week, Anne Lamott joins the BHNN Guest podcast to teach:
Following our creative lives and childhood callingsMeeting our creativity half-wayHow all of us start at the beginningMaking time for writing in our livesFiguring out what it is we want to write and making a listOwning everything that was done to us and everything we have seenAccepting that our first drafts will not be wonderfulWhy we should not worship perfectionismFinding a writing partner or local writing groupTaking everything sentence by sentencePaying attention to ourselves and all that dwells within usTo read the poem Anne recites, Monet Refuses the Operation, click HERE.
About Anne Lamott:
Anne Lamott is the New York Times best-selling author of many books, including collections of essays, novels, and long-form non-fiction, including the classic writing manual Bird by Bird and child-rearing memoir Operating Instructions. In addition to being a novelist and nonfiction writer, Lamott is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Keep up with Anne on Instagram.
“Isn’t that amazing what is inside you that wants you to midwife it? It needs a doula. It needs you. It has no pens. It has no paper. It needs you to birth it. So here is what you do, you stop not writing.” – Anne Lamott
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Live from Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Trudy Goodman offers insight on skillfully working with the breath by infusing mindfulness with lovingkindness.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Buddhist teacher Trudy Goodman discusses:
Keeping the breath company with our attention from start to finishThe breath as a rudder to navigate our inner experienceStaying attuned and connected to the movement of the breathFinding safety and relaxation in our breathAlternative practices for those with asthma or other breathing concernsStudying the birth and death of experienceHow the Buddha practiced mindfulness of breath during his great awakeningFeeling the breath within the breathReturning to the breath when our attention straysThis recording was originally published on Dharmaseed
About Trudy Goodman:
Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide.
Learn more about Trudy’s offerings at trudygoodman.com
“We’re really looking at and studying the birth and death of experience, how a breath arises, moves, and passes away.” – Trudy Goodman
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This week, Buddhist Teacher Gil Fronsdal explores our quality of well-being and how we can cultivate ease, happiness, and contentment on the path to inner liberation.
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In this talk on cultivating well-being through Buddhist practice, Gil touches on:
Happiness as something we do not pursue, but cultivate by creating and recognizing conditions for itThe “three breath journey” meditation practice, which helps to shift perception and be presentDeveloping clarity and ease through mindfulness practiceTransforming challenging emotions and experiences by befriending them non-judgmentallyPhysical presence and awareness in the body as a part of cultivating well-beingExperimenting with different mindfulness techniques to find what brings you joy and ease“We create the conditions for happiness, and we learn to recognize the conditions that bring it forth. But we try not to be the cause of happiness, but we are cultivating happiness and well-being.” – Gil Fronsdal
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Describing the man-made wall between humans and divinity, Llewellyn reminds us of our own divine nature and how to access the light.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
In this episode, returning guest teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee discusses:
“The Wall” between ourselves and the DivineThe spiritual merging of the lover with the belovedSeparation as a consequence of human consciousnessLlewellyn’s book, Darkening of the LightThe slow process of spiritual life and lifting the veilThe wall that has been built between humans and divineHow Christianity eradicated pagan beliefs and strengthened the wall between worldsCommunism and capitalism as the twin demons of the worldAccessing the light through our higher spiritual centersGoing beyond the world rather than dismantling itRe-learning how to be sincere, responsible, and openOur shared evolution and a better, possible futureAbout Llewellyn:
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D. is a Sufi teacher in the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya Sufi Order. He is the author of Sufism, the Transformation of the Heart, and the founder of The Golden Sufi Center. Check out his new podcast Working With Oneness.
“The Sufis describe how we need a separation between the worlds, 70 veils of light and darkness or the glories of his face would burn away everything. As I know from my own experience, the light of the divine is too dazzling to perceive it directly. Its energy is too strong. This is one of the reasons why spiritual life is a slow process, a gradual lifting of the veils as one develops spiritual strength, becomes more and more able to bear the light.” – Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
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Reflecting on the inevitable truth of suffering, JoAnna Hardy explains what we do have jurisdiction over: our action, speech and mind.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, JoAnna Hardy explains:
Recognizing the first noble truth of suffering all around usBreaking down what we cannot control in lifeHow resistance toward the inevitable causes sufferingReflecting on our ability to control our internal world (priorities, attitudes, etc.)How our speech and actions are in our jurisdictionCultivating a wise, steady, and skillful heart and mindThe mind as our sixth senseThe way we latch on to the stories we tell ourselvesHow one mind-state can feed into anotherRetraining the phenomena of our habitsThe relief we can feel when we let go of what we cannot controlAbout JoAnna Hardy:
JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice.
This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org
“When we sit here and deeply pay attention to this process of the mind, it’s so fascinating. What is under my control, what can I control? Pay attention every time you have a mind moment to what you do with it and to it, and how you hold it, and what you decide your next mind moment is going to be.” – JoAnna Hardy
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Ram Dass taught that every moment is the perfect teacher. How is this possible when things are groundless – i.e. uncertain and constantly changing? How is this possible when we find ourselves anxious, angry, too tender, or even working with big traumas?
In this episode, psychotherapist Ralph De La Rosa sits down with Jackie Dobrinska, Ram Dass Fellowship Director, to discuss these questions. Together they look at how we can combine the inner technologies of East and West in a way that allows us to heal and thrive and even find joy in the most challenging of times – by uncovering the boundless qualities of the heart.
This conversation was recorded as part of the Ram Dass Fellowship’s regular online gatherings. To learn more about the Ram Dass Fellowship and sign up to join a fellowship gathering near you, visit RamDass.org/Fellowship.
Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
About Ralph De La Rosa
Ralph De La Rosa (he/they) is a teacher of human spirituality, internationally published author, and trauma-focused psychotherapist. is the author of two internationally published books. He is a psychotherapist in private practice and seasoned meditation teacher known for his radically open and humorous teaching style. He is personally mentored by Richard Schwartz, founder and developer of Internal Family Systems.
Learn more about Internal Family Systems therapy: IFS Institute
Ralph began practicing meditation in 1996 when he first stumbled upon Ram Dass’s “Cookbook for a Sacred Life” in the back pages of Be Here Now. He was a student of Amma’s for 16 years, has studied Buddhism since 2005, and began teaching meditation in 2008.
Learn more about Ralph and check out his latest book, Don’t Tell Me to Relax: Ralphdelarosa.com
About Jackie Dobrinska:
Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an interspiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves.
Learn more about Jackie’s work at asimplevibrantlife.com.
"If we were to escape, if we were to find that way, to just make the switch and go to the joyful end of the spectrum and never, ever, ever or walk on the shady side of the street ever again, we would be missing the biggest opportunity." - Ralph De La Rosa
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Focusing on Sila, Samadhi, and Prajna, Trudy Goodman explains how the Eightfold Path can carry us through all of our life experiences.
In this episode of the BHNN Guest Podcast, Buddhist teacher Trudy Goodman offers a lesson on:
The Eightfold Path as an expression and fulfillment of awakened lifeSila, Samadhi, and PrajnaEstablishing ourselves in goodness and the gift of fearlessnessThe bliss of blamelessness when we are free from guilt and regretHow committing to wise intention naturally improves our lifeNoticing what’s here in the present moment and gathering the fragmented pieces of ourselvesThe limitless portability and applicability of mindfulnessMindfulness as the steady and accepting love of grandparentsFalling in love with the miracle of our own beingBeing drawn into the practice and allowing it to carry usHaving receptivity to the unfolding of thingsThis talk was originally published on Dharmaseed
About Trudy Goodman:
Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide.
Learn more about Trudy’s offerings at trudygoodman.com
“Mindfulness helps us notice what’s here so that we can start to gather and bring back all these scattered, fragmented bits of ourselves and our experience. As we bring them into our awareness and as we bring them back home to the heart, to more wholeness, these bits and pieces of our life experience and ourselves begin to coalesce and settle down and peacefully co-exist. We can have love, we can aversion, we can have likes and dislikes, and they can peacefully live in the same heart. There doesn’t have to be any conflict.” – Trudy Goodman
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Gil Fronsdal discusses having confidence in what the Buddha represents within ourselves and being a refuge for all beings.
This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal explains:
How the Buddha defined confidence and fateInstructions from the Buddha on making oneself a refugeBeing a refuge and support for all beingsPersonal worth and finding yourself in communityThe benefit of having confidence in ourselves and in our practiceThe imperfections that stain the mindHaving confidence in that which the Buddha represents within ourselvesReflecting on the times when our minds are not caughtHow the dharma is visible here and now, not there and thenThe balance between responsibility and allowing natural unfoldingAbout Gil Fronsdal:
Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.
This 2014 talk was originally published by Dharmaseed.
“The reference point for having confidence or faith or trust in the Buddha is not in the great power and wisdom of the Buddha, but rather something that we can know for ourselves, that we realize is reflected in the Buddha.” – Gil Fronsdal
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Jackie Dobrinska and Bruce Damer chat about insight into ourselves and outsight into the world in this recording from the Ram Dass Explorers Club.
The Ram Dass Explorers Club is a free virtual group wherein members delve into pivotal movements within the psychedelic renaissance while paying homage to the enduring legacy of Ram Dass. Join HERE to embark on explorations of expanded consciousness, guided by the themes of awe, transcendence, union, and beyond.
Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
In this episode, host Jackie Dobrinska speaks with Bruce Damer about:
Ram Dass’ work and how he continues to inspire othersHow Bruce came to know Ram DassThe way that Ram Dass hits on the center of thingsAlbert Einstein and thought experimentsEntering flows of connection and timeThe etymology of psychedelicsHow we create our own realitiesComing into embodied wisdom and the serpent of the internetRam Dass as a beacon to the reality we needNavigating psychedelics and having adequate preparationKnowing that we are always held by loveAbout Dr. Bruce Damer:
Dr. Bruce Damer is a scientist, psychonaut, and humanitarian. Dr. Damer is Chief Scientist at BIOTA Institute, UC Santa Cruz. He is an astrobiologist working on the science of life’s origins, spacecraft design, psychedelics and genius. Dr. Bruce has spent his life pursuing two great questions: how did life on Earth begin, and how can we give that life (and ourselves) a sustainable pathway into the cosmos? A decade of scientific research with his collaborator Prof. David Deamer at the UC Santa Cruz Department of Biomolecular Engineering resulted in the Hot Spring Hypothesis for an Origin of Life published in the journal Astrobiology in 2019. Dr. Damer also has a long career working with NASA on mission simulation and design and recently co-developed a spacecraft to utilize resources from asteroids. You can keep up with Dr. Bruce Damer on Twitter.
About Jackie Dobrinska:
Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an interspiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves.
Learn more about Jackie’s work at asimplevibrantlife.com.
“We can create our realities. We’ll determine whether we are constricted or opened at every moment by our choices of what we produce for our fellow humans.” – Bruce Damer
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Moving through the senses, JoAnna Hardy guides listeners in a meditation to acquire stillness of the mind.
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In this episode, JoAnna Hardy guides us through:
The benefits of having clarity and a still mindThe breath-body central focusGaining self-trustPaying attention to the sounds and sights around us without assigning meaningWorking the muscle of awarenessReengaging with the breath when the mind gets busyThis recording is from the Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center: Mindfulness for Educators.
About JoAnna Hardy:
JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice.
“It’s important that we start that way, with this breath-body central focus, to really collect, gather, and sustain the capacity of our mind to be more still. From that stillness, this really beautiful self-trust comes. We can trust ourselves more because we are not at the whimsy of that chaotic mind.” – JoAnna Hardy
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Distinguishing commentary from direct experience, Gil Fronsdal helps us break free from the conventions and comparisons that the mind makes.
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In this episode, Gil Fronsdal speaks to listeners about:
Paying homage to those who have purified their heartsDirect experience versus attempting to describe thingsThe way that comparison arisesSelf-image and appreciating our own suchnessResting in the part of ourselves that is not an idea or a conceptThe conditioning that can happen from societyWisdom from sitting with physical painLiving in the present moment instead of the stories we tell ourselvesLetting things be as they areSeeing God in our simple, direct experiencesComing back to the breath and practicing all throughout the dayThis 1998 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed
About Gil Fronsdal:
Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.
“Most of us know the wonderful smell of a rose, but if you could try to describe in words what that fragrance is, you’d have a hard time I think. The actual sense, the direct experience of smell, is something we can all experience; seeing this flower as it is. In Buddhism, there is a lot of emphasis on seeing things as they are.” – Gil Fronsdal
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Nina Rao interviews Nani Ma about her deep devotion to serving her guru and her service work with Ganga Prem Hospice.
If you are interested in donating to Ganga Prem Hospice, you can do so through a donation to End of Life Care International with a memo specifying you would like it to go to Ganga Prem.
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This time on the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast, Nani Ma shares with us:
Her religious upbringing into ChristianityBeing pulled to India from a young ageSeeking liberation from suffering and painThe story of meeting her guru, BabajiThe beauty and power of the Ganges riverHer daily routine and how she meditatesHow to deal with difficulties by watching our breathReaching one-pointedness through chanting single-worded mantrasMoving through the physical death of a guruForming cancer clinics in India and Ganga Prem HospiceAbout Nani Ma:
Nani Ma is from the United Kingdom and sought spiritual enlightenment at a very young age. One day, she realized that serving the multitude and helping the needy is also an aspect of spiritual practice. So, she started taking care of the terminally ill cancer patients in the hospital, guiding the people who are suffering from pain and death to embark on a new journey. Together with Dr. A. K. Dewan, she established the Ganga Prem Hospice. Ganga Prem Hospice is a spiritually-orientated, non-profit hospice for terminally ill cancer patients. The Hospice has been constructed at the foot of the Himalayas on the bank of the river Ganga.
Krishna Das is offering two benefit kirtan concerts in Rishikesh October 2024 - details on KrishnaDas.com/Events
“When we watch our breath, it slows down. The breath and the mind are connected. Either the breath slows down and the mind slows down, or the mind catches hold of one thing, which is the name, and the name has its power by itself. The name has its own power.” – Nani Ma
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Guiding listeners through the seven factors of enlightenment, Trudy Goodman shows us the play of awakening in daily life.
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In this episode, Trudy Goodman holds a talk on:
Loosening our grip on self-involvementLiving lovingly and joyfully in our daily livesThe seven factors of enlightenmentThe things that torment us and connect usHow nature offers metta to usRemaining poised amidst little catastrophesEquanimity and being balancedTrusting in the unfolding of realityAbout Trudy Goodman:
Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide.
This 2011 talk was recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation center and originally published on Dharmaseed
“Being a Buddhist or practicing these Buddhist teachings is to live lovingly and joyfully without getting so caught or identified with the suffering self. And not just out in some fantasy mountain cave that we might imagine ourselves in or on meditation retreat at luxurious Spirit Rock or in the monastery, but in the midst of whatever we’re doing.” – Trudy Goodman
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Taking us on a pilgrimage through Buddhist teachings, Gil Fronsdal describes meeting the dharma in ourselves.
This recording from Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on Dharmaseed.org
Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenow
This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal teaches on:
Meeting the dharma in ourselves through direct experiencesGoing into the world with a phenomenal capacity for non-harmingLooking at what really motivates and drives usThe story of the Kalama SuttaRecognizing what brings welfare vs. what brings harmBreath as a form of assurance and how our easeful, relaxed breath can be our teacherHindrances and what keeps us removed from ourselvesComing home to our selves, our bodies, our sensationsAllowing the flow of experience to move through usReleasing all of the things we hold ontoAbout Gil Fronsdal:
Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.
“It is so simple and so basically human, the capacity to recognize that we’re suffering or that we’re happy. In relationship to grand religious philosophies and ideas, it can seem maybe inconsequential to base one’s religious life on being able to recognize where is harm and where is welfare. But that relates at the heart to what the Buddha was pointing at. It points to something that we are able to experience and see and know for ourselves directly.” – Gil Fronsdal
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