By Infinite Smile
Uncovering peace in the midst of busy lives.
Michael discusses how it is that we can carry a practice that allows for us to "get there" in terms of waking up. Among the most necessary approaches to this process is to deconstruct the reality we live in from...
This evening's talk spans poetry, rock 'n roll, awareness, friendship, and how we can meet our experiences during the Holiday season with care and purpose. In fact, Michael argues, "awareness itself, is gratitude."
Among the most important aspects of spiritual work is our sense of community. It can inspire us and keep us focused on the needs of the moment. It can also remind us of how necessary it is to make friends...
So often we find ourselves working to build things that we see as beneficial: a life, a relationship, a home, or even a philosophy that might work to offer us shelter from the chaos of contemporary living. In this talk,...
As the poet, Atticus points out, we are often very complicated beings. This shows up especially in relationships. While any relationship can be a challenge, our intimate relationships are especially good at helping us uncover our attachments. This is at once...
What is loss and where does the fear associated with it come from? What about anger? What is grief? How do we best cope with these general attributes of loss and the negativity that it inspires? This evening's podcast goes...
It all happens here, in this very body. While it's critical we not get lost in its desires, enlightenment doesn't happen in any other place. Alex Grey
So often we can feel closed off from ourselves, the world, and those around us. In this talk, Michael discusses another option that leads us on a decidedly different spiritual and psychological trajectory, even when situations are difficult.
It's all about relationships. Seriously. Everything is related, interdependently, to everything else. Enjoy the podcast of this talk.
Topics such as dealing with negativity, difficult people, and situations that challenge us are covered in this talk.
Enjoy this evening's talk on the integration of spirituality into real life experiences, including shopping and politics.
Enjoy this evening's talk, spanning a wide range of spiritual topics.
Enjoy this evening's talk on how perfection shows up in the strangest ways.
This evening's talk covers a range of topics but centers around the idea that hopelessness offers us freedom. This is covered by Pema Chodron in her book, When Things Fall Apart.
What happens when we really stop? Really. Stop. This question can guide us into an openness that may fundamentally alter our lives. Imagine life without the sniff & scurry, the shake, rattle & roll. Imagine a life where we get...
This evening’s discussion centers around Michael’s proposal that our identification with ideas, objects, feelings, our bodies, our histories and our perceived destinies will always block any kind of stable awakening.
In this evening’s talk, Michael describes the benefits of sangha as a shortcut to uncovering our pre-existing enlightened mind. He further goes into the ways that Awakening manifests in each of us as a series of qualities that show up...
In this evenings talk, Michael describes the benefits of sangha as a shortcut to uncovering our pre-existing enlightened mind. He further goes into the ways that Awakening manifests in each of us as a series of qualities that show up...
In this mashup of two talks, Michael uses the phrase from Dogen Zenjis, Instruction to the Cook, where he suggests that each grain of rice be handled carefully, as if it were your own eyes. Treating our lives this way...
What happens when we are in the midst of disagreement? This can apply to a marriage, a friendship, a community or (perhaps especially) a legislative debate or an election. The Buddha had some thoughts on this as noted in the...
Michael asks the audience in this week's talk, what it is they think that enlightenment will bring them. He then goes forward to suggest that enlightenment will bring nothing to our experience that we don't already have. But its realization...
While several of Michael's students have gone through the trials and tribulations of going through the shuso ceremony, where students offer up (among other things) their first Dharma talk, David Fitzgerald was the first to have his inaugural talk to the...
So what is it that gets in the way of Awakening? If we are already Awake, why don't we feel it? According to Michael, wisdom traditions seem to offer up some suggestions. Among the most important pointer is stillness itself. Without...
If we're willing to follow our fear and our negativity with our whole being, according to Michael, we are offered an opportunity to awaken. The loosening of our individual consciousness into a universal awareness is the byproduct of an authentic...
In this talk, Michael walks meditators through the rough stages of spiritual ascendancy. With practice, he shows, the egoic structures as their practice deepens. He goes on to suggest that the felt-sense of what's real is what we call, "love."...
Spiritual practice becomes both broader and deeper the moment we can truly forgive. This includes forgiving others as well as forgiving ourselves. Typically our defenses work as attacks against perceived external threats, but it's "the second arrow," as Michael points...
The Zen saying "Drinking this cup of green tea, I stop the war" offers us a chance to explore our own relationship with war. While it may sound passive and irresponsible on the surface, how we meet even the most...
"This deep, spiritual work," according to Michael, "is ultimately, is about resolve." In Stephen Batchelor's, Buddhism Without Beliefs, this idea of committed, fearlessness is supported where he suggests that we continually take accurate stock of our lives and then live from...
Michael points out, in this talk, how we must be willing to let go of our old habits in order to develop new ones. As Joseph Campbell says, "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,...
Whether we like to think about it or not, death is actually at our door all of the time. Is it possible to be at peace with this knowledge? Or, can this only happen if we're in denial of death's...
Whether you are a beginning meditator or a seasoned practitioner, fear can be a useful tool in this work. Practicing, for example, in the midst of our fear shows us a path toward a new perspective where we no longer...
Michael works with The Book of Serenity's, Case #76 as a way of describing the path of attainment. He also weaves into this description an application of how people come together and separate in relationships. By using the phrase, "The...
In this evening's talk, Michael looks at the three components to truly letting go. He first begins with the aspiration for awakening. Secondly, he points to the appreciation of what we have been given in this life. Thirdly, he points...
In this video, Michael discusses the idea of love as inspired by Paul's letter to Corinthians, Chapter 13. He then compares the Christian version of love to a decidedly Buddhist interpretation, drawing on the idea that love can be seen as...
One of the things that Zen practice leaves out, according to Michael McAlister, is a more direct approach to uncovering the Witness. This simple awareness, is all there ever is, and in this talk, Michael uses a piece by Ken...
When we let ourselves truly recognize what lies beyond our preferences and our attachments, we begin to get a sense of how expansive we really are. This recognition can be an explosive experience that rattles us to our core, scaring...
"There is only choice," as Michael has pointed out. Even not choosing is a choice. Even in spontaneous expressions of joy or pain, we choose how we will relate to the ways in which we meet these experiences. When we open...
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When we commit to directly knowing, as we say in Zen, our True Nature, we have to be willing to give everything up. Everything. Lingering attachments work to insulate us from a full exposure to this very life that we...
In this talk, Michael addresses several issues; among them, how we often lose the view we've been offered by insight. He's written about this and calls it "The Rubber Band Effect," and suggests that we take pains to examine its...
To begin with, all of us at Infinite Smile offer each of you well wishes as we begin the holiday season. We also are so thankful for all of your support and participation in this project of awakening. Recognizing our gratitude...
Regardless of our tradition, we can reduce our spiritual practice to its component pieces and find that Buddhism's Four Noble Truths offers us a path toward freedom. We first recognize our anguish, we then see it's cause as our clinging, we...
Michael begins this talk with the following quotation from Rilke's Duino Elegies: For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to destroy us. This sets up his...
In this talk, Michael speaks about how the One Precept of "Doing No Harm" can actualize the potential of awakening in any situation. Along these lines, Michael openly shares how he and his wife have separated so that their marriage...
Actively meeting inspiration through poetry can make a huge difference as we move through the world. The same applies to uncovering the things that crack us up. Laughter matters since it is a celebration of the unexpected and defines an...
Click here or on the title in order to listen to Michael's talk. To subscribe to this podcast, paste this address directly into a podcast aggregator. This will automatically download new discussions on a regular basis. The easiest option is to download the new iTunes software and subscribe to this...
There comes a point in our practice where we consciously let go of everything that has supported our work. It's not that we reject or avoid anything but rather that we stop holding on to all that's familiar. This is...
When we can accept reality as it is, we can no longer find ourselves to be at war with it. There is nothing to resist, in other words, when we are no longer clinging to any expectation that things should...
We often begin our spiritual journey because we're at the end of our rope. We seek ways to avoid our discomfort. Unfortunately, when our practice centers itself around seeking we find that our progress along the path is continually blocked. Authentic...
Kanshi Sosan's work, The Mind of Absolute Trust, offers us some great guidance in relation to meeting our lives fully. Michael leads the sangha in a reading and brief interactive analysis of the text, pointing out how we might best...
