Be Here Now Network

Drawing on the availability of grace, Krishna Das explores being a good person to ourselves and others in this virtual Satsang.

In this episode, you will learn about remembering the truth, having patience with yourself, and connecting to the guru.

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

"Until we love ourselves enough, until we learn to give ourselves a break and not judge ourselves so harshly, we will always be comparing, judging, evaluating and trying to buy affection...you just have to do the work on yourself." — Krishna Das

Joseph Goldstein explores the tendency of desire, how we can understand this driving force of Samsara, and how we can practice being free of it.

“Desire is not an insignificant conditioning in us, and it takes many forms. And it’s really not the form or even the object that’s terribly important or interesting. It’s that force, it’s that energy, it’s that habit pattern of wanting. When we don’t see it, when we’re caught, when we’re identified with that wanting mind, it obscures the natural freedom of mind. It obscures the recognition of the open, empty, selfless nature of awareness.” – Joseph Goldstein

NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommmune.com/ramdass

In this episode, Joseph shares his insight on:

- The clear, unobstructed nature of the mind, and how deeply habituated patterns such as desire can obscure our natural wisdom

- The craving for sense pleasures

- Desires that manifest in our meditation practice in the forms of the expecting mind, the comparing mind, and trying to hold on to a past experience

- The desire for existence, and the craving for non-existence

- How we can better understand the powerful conditioning of desire in all of its forms and free ourselves from identification with it

This dharma talk from January 3, 2005, at the Insight Meditation Society, was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Reflecting on impermanence, Jack Kornfield explains that despite our physical frailty our spirit can never truly die.

Where can we go when we die? Jack Kornfield explores the recycling of energy, our limitlessness beyond death, and how death enables us to live more presently.

NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass

"There's this amazing thing with death that there is both less of someone and yet more of them. There's some way in which you can walk in the woods and they are there to speak too. Being with death slows us down, it softens us, it makes us more gracious." — Jack Kornfield

On a journey to release the stories that hold us back from our true selves, Dharma teacher Judith Ragir and Raghu Markus review healing wounds and changing karma for generations.

In this episode they discuss family trauma, moving beyond our conditioning, and how to repair our hearts.

NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass

Judith Ragir (also known as Byakuren in Buddhist circles) is a Dharma teacher in the Zen lineage of Katagiri Roshi. She was instrumental in founding the Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she was the Guiding Teacher for nine years and is currently Senior Dharma Teacher Emeritus. An accomplished artist, Ragir makes Buddhist-inspired quilts which are on display in Buddhist Centers around the United States. Her written pieces have appeared in many anthologies, including The Eightfold Path, Zen Teachings in Challenging Times, The Hidden Lamp, The Path of Compassion, Seeds of Virtue-Seeds of Change and Receiving the Marrow. Check out her newly released book, Untangling Karma: Intimate Zen Stories on Healing Trauma.

"The woundedness gets healed both psychologically but also through spiritual practice, through God consciousness entering you. Then you feel like something larger than yourself is holding you, helping you, and giving you love." – Judith Ragir

Joseph Goldstein explores the 10 unwholesome activities and actions of the body, speech, and mind that the Buddha advises us all to refrain from for our own happiness and well-being.

NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass

This dharma talk from October 29, 1995, at the Insight Meditation Society, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

“The whole path of practice of understanding is realizing that we actually have choices all along the way. We don’t simply need to be acting out the patterns of our conditioning. And this is the great gift of awareness, it gives us the possibility of choice.” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph explores:

How the Buddha’s motivation was compassion for all beings, and how this led to him explicitly spelling out the 10 unskilled and unwholesome actions to refrain from

The four unwholesome actions of the body: killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct

The four unwholesome elements of speech: lying, harsh speech, gossiping, and frivolous and useless talking

The three unwholesome activities of the mind: covetousness, ill will, and wrong view

How the great power of awareness is the way to work with all of these actions and activities as they arise

Mindfully navigating death, we learn from Jack Kornfield how to appreciate the vulnerability of one's final moments on earth.

Jack Kornfield describes the truth death pushes us to face and how keeping an awareness of the inevitable aids us in living fully while we can.

NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass

"Mindfulness of death is powerful because it begins to bring abut a deep questioning, a profound shift of identity. In the face of death, who are we?" — Jack Kornfield

Anthropologist and psychotherapist, Geral T. Blanchard, LPC, joins Raghu to discuss how to awaken the soul with indigenous wisdom for today's world.

Geral (Gerry) Blanchard, LPC, is university trained in psychological and anthropological approaches that can address a variety of mental health issues including trauma and addictions in a holistic fashion. He has decades of experience addressing matters of interpersonal violence, traumatization, as well as behavioral and substance addictions. Geral has served as a consultant and trainer for scores of social service agencies, prisons, and chemical dependency treatment centers. Geral has lectured widely throughout the U.S. and additionally in Sweden, Canada, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. He has authored a variety of books on the subjects of sexual abuse, post-traumatic growth (PTG), and the incorporation of indigenous healing traditions in today’s psychotherapeutic settings. Gerry is a regular contributor to the UK Shamanism magazine, Sacred Hoop. Order his new book Awakening the Soul: Indigenous Wisdom for Today's World. For more info please visit Geralblanchard.com

"One of the basic tenants of shamanism is that the first thing you do with any patient is you remove all obstacles to healing, and almost always fear is the number one obstacle." – Geral T. Blanchard

Enter the heart space with Krishna Das and learn about self-growth, humility, and non-judgement in order to build beautiful connections.

Krishna Das ponders transforming painful relationships and connecting to our inner strength through practices like chanting, meditation, and acceptance.

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

"We need more love is what it comes down to, but it has to be real love which means not being judgmental about others and allowing others to be who they are." – Krishna Das

Joseph Goldstein explores the suffering that comes with wanting, the three types of desire, and why our investigation is to notice the ways the mind gets caught and the ways it can be free.

This dharma talk from October 10, 1999, at the Insight Meditation Society, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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

“When we’re lost in the wanting mind, in the mind of desire, it solidifies and strengthens the sense of self, the sense of ‘I,’ and it obscures the natural clarity, the recognition of the natural clarity and lucidity and emptiness of our own minds. So it’s a great obscuring force when we’re not paying attention.” – Joseph Goldstein

Jack Kornfield describes finding a light in the dark via Buddhist wisdom on forgiveness, transience, and a profound sense of freedom.

Through ancient storytelling and dharmic conversation, Jack Kornfield helps us grasp forgiving ourselves and others, keeping a connection to our senses and instincts, and resting in our Buddha nature.

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

“To forgive means simply that we will not put anyone out of our heart because to do so closes us. It reduces us from being human.” – Jack Kornfield