Be Here Now Network

In response to the conflicts in the world, Jack offers a harmonizing guided meditation inviting us into peace, sanctuary, and the heart of refuge.

“I breath in peace and breath out peace to all those who are amidst the troubles of this world—the conflicts, the refuges, the violence and the fear. I send you a peaceful breath. May we be peaceful together.” – Jack Kornfield

In this timely episode, Jack leads a harmonizing guided meditation to help us:

- Find a mindful, balanced, and compassionate response to the conflicts and tragedy’s happening throughout the world today

- Turn our awareness to the present moment, merging mind, body, and spirit

- Extend our consciousness, compassion, and mindful loving awareness around the planet, it’s people, and environments

- Send out peaceful healing breaths to all those who are amidst the troubles of the world

This episode is from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation on 10/23/2023.

In this powerful new Dharma Talk touching on current events, an emotional Jack offers a heart of refuge amidst the world's conflicts.

"There's a liberation amidst birth and death, joy and sorrow, war and peace, that is beyond it all. This is the sacred openness of love and awareness itself.” – Jack Kornfield

In this emotional episode, Jack touches into:

- The terrors of the ongoing wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Darfur

- How constant news media effects our emotions and wellbeing

- Learning to live from the 'heart of refuge' which the Buddha offers

- What does it mean to be a refugee? How can we help create sanctuary?

- The importance of outsiders opening to the suffering of all humans rather than taking sides

- How the Buddha's mindful loving awareness overcomes Mara's aggression, greed, and doubt

- The ways we can open ourselves to forgiveness, compassion, community, safety, love, and trust

This episode is from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation on 10/23/2023.

Already downloaded by over 15k people, visit dharmamoon.com/ebook to get YOUR free copy of The Art of Teaching Mindfulness!

Jack explores how meeting our lives with a directness and simplicity helps bring the mind, body, and heart into unity.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"The spirit of the practice is a unification of the mind with the body and the heart, bringing them all together into one. In that unification, or collectedness, then it becomes possible, when the mind isn't wandering in fantasy of past or future, to see directly and clearly.” – Jack Kornfield

In this Dharma Talk, Jack mindfully illuminates:

- Buddha's simple wisdom: "In the seen, there is only the seen. In the heard, there is only the heard. In the sensed, there is only the sensed. In the thought, there is only the thought."

- Meeting our practice and the world with a directness and simplicity; bringing the mind, heart, and body into unity

- Cultivating an "excruciatingly" precise awareness and paying careful attention so we can see our life process in a new way

- The three-sided crystal of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness/insecurity, and selflessness

- Suzuki Roshi and the blissful wisdom of simplicity

This Dharma Talk 9/29/1983 at the Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Learn the Healing Art of Guided Meditation in this Masterclass with Jack Kornfield! Sign up for the on-demand version before Nov. 15 to take part in two live Q&A sessions with Jack!

For episode 226 of the Metta Hour, we’re bringing you an episode from the Ten Percent Happier Podcast in which Dan Harris interviews Sharon about her brand new book, “Finding Your Way.”

Dan Harris is a former ABC News anchor who, after reporting all over the world, experienced an on-air panic attack while hosting Good Morning America. Despite initial misgivings, he turned to meditation and changed his life for the better. He is the author of the book “10% Happier,” a #1 New York Times bestseller, and the Ten Percent Happier podcast host.

In this conversation, Sharon and Dan discuss:

• The impetus for Sharon’s new book

• What Sharon means by “an authentic life”

• Learning to be your own BFF

• How the notion of self-love squares with the Buddhist notion of emptiness

• Why it can be harder to receive love and help than to give it

You can get a copy of “Finding Your Way” in hardcover or ebook formats at our website. To hear more episode of the Ten Percent Happier Podcast or App, visit their website.

In this wild Q&A session from 1976 that is teeming with frenetic energy from the audience, Ram Dass really just wants to talk about three things: God, sex, and dope.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join the Ram Dass Fellowship virtual meetup on November 7th, sign up for the General Fellowship group here to receive more information.

In this episode of Here and Now:

Dealing with a slightly wild audience, Ram Dass answers questions about how our actions can influence other people’s journey of awakening, what commitment truly is, and how to look at our predicament from different levels.

But what Ram Dass really wants to talk about is three things: God, sex, and dope. He talks about moving beyond the desire for drugs, how people become attached to their sexual expression and what tantra truly is, and defines God to the best of his ability.

Ram Dass ends the evening by singing, “Rejoice in the Lord.” Again, I say, rejoice.

“Beyond all of the patterns of energy – physical, astral, causal – lies God, that which is beyond form. You aim for that, and in the course of it, if you are pure in your aim, you can do nothing which is adharmic, going against the dharma. And if you stay in the flow, in the Tao, in the dharma, then whatever needs to be for you and your fellow human being will be done, even though you may not understand what it is that’s happening to you. Your intellectual awareness of what is going on is not necessary for this journey. It can speed it up and help it, but it’s not necessary.” – Ram Dass

Mindfully infused with various Buddhist skills, this episode features a dialogue between Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and Raghu Markus on the many opportunities for practice in our daily lives.

“During our daily life, we have so much opportunity to practice. To practice being generous, to practice being patient in the face of other peoples problems; the opportunity to keep pure ethical conduct and never harm or lie or cause any problems for others. During our day we have these endless opportunities for practicing these qualities of the heart, so we should be grateful because sitting on a cushion is not an opportunity really to practice being generous, ethical, or patient.” – Tenzin Palmo

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu Markus and Tenzin Palmo explore:

- Tenzin Palmo’s earliest experiences of connecting to The Buddha

- The imminence of death

- Tenzin’s Book, Reflections on a Mountain Lake

- What perfection is and how we can realize it

- Tenzin’s journey to the guru in India

- Women on the path of Buddhism

- The process of starting a nunnery

- Non-self, the ego, and Becoming nobody

- Recommendations from the Buddha

- Taming the mind

- Starting with ourselves when we cultivate compassion

- The six paramitas (perfections) of the Bodhisattva path

- Opportunities for practice in our daily lives

- Death, letting people go, and expressing love

- Spirituality as a path of joy

About Tenzin Palmo:

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (born 1943) is a bhikṣuṇī in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is an author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India. She is best known for having spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation retreat.

Links & Recommendations From this Episode:

Pick up your copy of Tenzin Palmo’s Reflections on a Mountain Lake or one of her other works HERE: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743802/reflections-on-a-mountain-lake-by-jetsunma-tenzin-palmo/9781645471424/

Using poetry and story-telling, Trudy Goodman melds together present moment awareness and Metta in this beautiful ode to mindfulness.

This dharma talk was originally published on Dharma Seed.

“I really love mindfulness because when we’re fully present with the object of our attention there are also so many qualities of Metta, of a certain kind of caring and connection and warmth.” – Trudy Goodman

In this 2008 talk recorded at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Trudy Goodman demonstrates:

- What mindfulness actually means

- Experiencing metta as a byproduct of being mindful

- Noticing we are lost as a sign of awareness

- Having Metta for ourselves when we veer off course

- Self-worth and our capacity for compassion

- Being alive as our greatest achievement

- Developing strategies for painful emotions

- The practice of taking a step back

- Making the shift into receptivity

- The Zen tradition and calling out to yourself

- The contour of the Dharma and being in service of aliveness

- Appreciating our surroundings through the non-interfering presence of mindfulness

“The beauty of our mindfulness practice is that it can go anywhere, that the quality of our attention when we’re mindful, it really doesn’t depend on the content of the experience.“ – Trudy Goodman

In this riveting episode, Jack shares hilarious personal stories illuminating lessons from his life as a forest monk in Thailand.

"The spirt was you just did it, and you worked with whatever came up as your practice. Living the life of a monk meant taking what came to you and working with it, whether it was difficult or easy.” – Jack Kornfield

In this riveting episode, Jack dives into:

- What it was like living as a forest monk in Thailand at Ajahn Chah's forest monastery

- The wisdom he learned through experiencing Ajahn Chah's four-part teachings on surrender, opening up to see clearly, working with the mind, and gaining balance/perspective

- The two levels of Dharma practice: using Dharma to feel comfortable, and using Dharma to get free

- Ajahn Chah's rascally yet direct interactions with students, including one with Ram Dass

- Working with attachments and aversions in order to overcome them and grow spiritually

- Learning how to let go and not get caught in the mind's lures, traps, and intricacies

Discover the transformative practice of teaching mindfulness in a new FREE 30-page ebook by Senior Buddhist teacher and Emmy award-winning musician, David Nichtern.

With its blend of humor, wisdom, and accessible approach, The Art of Teaching Mindfulness ebook is a must-read for anyone interested in sharing the life-changing practices of mindfulness with others.

Already downloaded by over 15k people, visit dharmamoon.com/ebook to get YOUR free copy of The Art of Teaching Mindfulness!

This episode from Insight Meditation Society on 6/7/1981 was originally published on DharmaSeed.

"Meditation practice is where you are sitting. It's not to go to some other place, or have the ideal setting, or have your coffee, or have your quiet little room. Where you are is your practice." – Jack Kornfield

Explaining the Hindu goddess Kali, Dr. Svoboda lectures on disrupting structure in order to see supreme reality.

This 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 Living with Reality, Dr. Robert Svoboda explains:

The 700 verses of Shri Durga Saptashati

A description of Kali’s attributes

Ayurveda and the separation of the desirable versus undesirable

The manifestation of Mahamaya

Blood as the representation of Prana

How Kali fights off the enemies of our spiritual development

Kali Shakti and awakening awareness

Kundalini and identifying with Shiva

Removing Maya and turning it into consciousness

The difference between Kali and Kali Yuga

Time, death, and darkness

The liberation that comes from destruction

Images of the goddess as incarnations and invocations

“Everything you see is in the process of falling to pieces … and Kali is standing there as the manifestation of what will happen to everything and everyone. There will be that total destruction and that reversion of everything into something new.” – Dr. Robert Svoboda

In an expansive discussion around Steve Kanji Ruhl’s book, Appalachian Zen, Steve and Raghu explore finding equilibrium through zen practice.

“In Buddhism, the true home is that place within each of us, it’s an inner heartland. We can call it original Buddha Nature; it is accessible to all of us anytime and any place. It’s really a matter of finding this inner equilibrium and being in this moment, in this place, and being fully alive.” – Steve Kanji Ruhl

In this episode, Raghu Markus and Steve Kanji Ruhl discuss:

Cultural Transformation in Appalachia

Steve Kanji’s experience of violence and PTSD

Zen practice and finding our inner equilibrium

Enduring a soul injury and the journey of healing

The teachers that shape us for better or worse

Meeting Ram Dass and receiving sanctuary

The concept of home and the path as the guru

Holding self and other simultaneously

Zazen meditation practice

Living deliberately and obstructions of the will

Balancing intention with surrender

Breaking down the conditioning that prevents us from being clear, kind, and present

Direct identification and Tantric intimacy

Community as the antidote of dysfunctional solitude

About Steve Kanji Ruhl:

Reverend Steve Kanji Ruhl, M.Div., is an innovative Zen Buddhist minister ordained in the Zen Peacemaker Order by Roshi Bernie Glassman, and is also a lay Zen dharma holder and preceptor authorized by Roshi Eve Myonen Marko. Formerly affiliated with Green River Zen Center in western Massachusetts where he helped to teach and assisted Roshi Eve, he now operates independently, teaching Zen students in person and through his Touch the Earth cyber-sangha to “be clear, be kind, be present” through instruction in koans, ethical precepts, and shikantaza (“just sitting”) meditation. Also a multi-published author, Steve Kanji Ruhl was awarded the Gold Prize for Best Spiritual Memoir in the 2023 Nautilus Book Awards for his book, Appalachian Zen: Journeys in Search of True Home, from the American Heartland to the Buddha Dharma.