Be Here Now Network

For episode 177 of the Metta Hour, Sharon speaks with Bonnie Pitman.

Bonnie is a nationally recognized leader in the museum community. Her museum career spans 50 years of service in the museum, education, and university fields. Since 2008, Bonnie has been living with chronic illness. In 2011 began her daily practice to “Do Something New,” inviting the exploration and celebration of making an ordinary day extraordinary while dealing with chronic illness.

In this episode, Bonnie shares about her work in the art world and how she sees art as a doorway to contemplative practice. She and Sharon talk about how differently art is looked at in Eastern culture and what role suffering has to play in the creation of art. They discuss the history of Bonnie’s “Do Something New” initiative and what that looks like for her today while still facing chronic illness. Lastly, they discuss the role gratitude has played in her well-being and, in particular, her chronic disease. Bonnie closes the conversation with a guided lovingkindness meditation.

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

Learn more about Bonnie and try the "Do Something New" practice at dosomethingnew.org

Highlighting the deeply penetrating aspects of Metta, Joseph Goldstein explores how love, kindness, Right Thought, desire, gratitude and friendship can revolutionize our lives.

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

This dharma talk was originally published on Dharma Seed

Helping us past our endless wanderings on the hamster wheel of samsara, Spring Washam illuminates Buddha’s way to freedom and lasting happiness.

In this Dharma talk from the Insight Meditation Society’s People of Color Retreat on June 16th, 2010; Spring Washam explores the Buddha’s Second Noble Truth in an illuminating discussion on desire, craving, and clinging.

This talk from Spring Washam was originally published on DharmaSeed.org

In this episode of The Road Home, Ethan Nichtern explores the dharma of Lego and how doing small things can help with the often insurmountable feeling of being overwhelmed by the world. 

Get more Buddhist wisdom from Ethan at ethannichtern.com

David Nichtern and Michael Kammers have a free-flowing conversation around the theme of resonance, touching on loving awareness, clear seeing, compassion, and more along the way.

Find more from David at DharmaMoon.com – a website offering Workshops/Courses, Teacher Trainings, Mentoring, and more

Joseph Goldstein offers a guided meditation and continued reflection on how we can free ourselves from Papanca – the three proliferating tendencies of mind: craving, conceit, and wrong view.

This dharma talk was originally published on Dharma Seed

In ‘On Being God,’ Alan shares on therapy, religion, mystical experiences, & Jesus, before playing the hilarious and light-shedding role of a clinical patient who realizes they’re God.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Mystical Experiences // Humanity & Nature // Psychiatry & Religion (0:00)

Jesus & The Great Heresy // Democracy in the Kingdom of Heaven // Karma & Responsibility (23:23)

On Being God: Alan Watts Clinical Experience (38:38)

“To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely with this universe, you feel profoundly rooted in it and connected with it, you feel that the whole energy which expresses itself in the galaxies, is intimate. It is not something to which you are a stranger, but it is that with which you are intimately bound up, that in your seeing, your hearing, your talking, your thinking, your moving, you express that which it is that moves the sun and other stars.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 6 – On Being God: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-6-on-being-god/

Alan Watts illuminates the nuances of Zen and the Unspeakable World in this dynamic ‘Zen Bones’ talk adorned with Buddhist chanting, chimes, and gongs.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Zen Bones (0:00)

10,000 Things, One Suchness (10:08)

The Unspeakable World (22:22)

“Zen is a way of life, a state of being that is not possible to embrace in any concept whatsoever. So that any concepts, any ideas, any words that I shall put across to you this evening will have as their object showing you the limitations of words and of thinking.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 5 – Zen Bones: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-5-zen-bones/

Alan Watts illuminates the connections between Taoism and relativity, technology and human evolution, culture and seperation, Saints and rascals, you and not-you, as well as difference and unity.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Taoism & Relativity, Technology & Human Evolution (0:00)

Seperation & Culture, Saints & Rascals (15:25)

You & Not-You, Difference & Unity (28:10)

“The principle of relativity is absolutely fundamental to an understanding of Taoist philosophy. That is to say, that wherever you are, whoever you are, and whatever you are: you’re in the middle.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 3 – In Your Own Way: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-3-in-your-own-way/

In the second episode of Being in the Way – an Alan Watts podcast exclusively on the Be Here Now Network – Alan’s son, Mark Watts, shares background on Alan’s early life, before introducing two of his father’s specially curated dharma talks: Taoist Way of Dropping Out From Karma (Part III), and Wisdom of the Ridiculous.

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit https://Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

Beginners Mind, Zen Mind (0:00)

Taoist Way of Dropping Out From Karma (7:40)

Wisdom of the Ridiculous (34:45)

“The whole conception of nature is as a self-regulating, self-governing, democratic organism. But it has a totality; it all goes together. This totality is the Tao.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 2 – Dropping Out From Karma: https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-2-dropping-out-from-karma/