Buddhist Geeks

We’re joined again by Tami Simon–founder of the spiritual media company Sounds True and senior student of Vajrayana teacher Reggie Ray. This week we ask her about her new podcast series, Insights at the Edge, where she has been interviewing many of the best spiritual teachers in the world. Jokingly, Tami said that she wanted to name the show, “Grill the Guru.” Even though that was a joke, there is some truth in it, and she uses her opportunity with these different teachers to ask them tough questions about their lives.
We also ask her about some of the people that have impacted her the most during her decades of being around, and working with some of the brightest spiritual teachers of our time. She shares stories from some of her favorite luminaries, including Quaker teacher and activist Parker Palmer, Julia Butterfly Hill, Adyashanti, and finally “the living now gate,” Eckhart Tolle.
This is part 2 of a two-part series. Listen to part 1, You Will Get the Dharma You Need.
Episode Links:
Eckhart Tolle TV ( http://www.eckharttolletv.com )
Geneen Roth: No Situation is Unworkable ( http://bit.ly/1TOG2TT )
Insights at the Edge Podcast ( apple.co/1TOFNrL )
Sounds True ( www.soundstrue.com )

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In this episode we speak with Tami Simon–founder of the spiritual media company Sounds True and senior student of Vajrayana teacher Reggie Ray. Tami shares us with us the intimate details of her initial meeting with Reggie, and the amazing results that followed. She also describes what she has learned from beginning to teach the dharma to others, while also making a vow to only teach that which she truly knows.
This is part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to part 2, Insights at the Edge.
Episode Links:
Dharma Ocean ( http://www.dharmaocean.org )
Meditating with the Body ( http://bit.ly/1TOFIV5 )
Insights at the Edge Podcast ( http://apple.co/1TOFNrL )
Sounds True ( http://www.soundstrue.com )

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This week we speak to the Buddhist-inspired musician Ravenna Michalsen. She explains why dharma music need not sound the way we think it should (think monks chanting in Asian in a cave). Instead, Ravenna’s music crosses musical genres and stretches our notion of what dharma music is. We also discuss the life and teachings of Machig Labdron, one of Tibet’s most famous female masters and the inventor of the Chöd lineage of practice. At the end of the interview we end with a song from Ravenna’s album Dharma Song called “Ki Ki So So.”
Episode Links:
Women of Wisdom ( http://bit.ly/BZTyo )
Mindful Music ( http://www.tricycle.com/insights/mindful-music )

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This week, Adam Engle, the business mastermind behind the Mind and Life Institute, joins us to discuss both the evolution of the project as well as its larger impact. The first Mind and Life Dialogue was held in Dharamsala, India in 1987 with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since then, Adam says, it has done more than any other organization to help “legitimatize the scientific study of meditation.”
Listen in to hear more about how they’ve gone about creating an active collaboration between scientists and contemplatives, and what kind of fruit that collaboration has borne.
Episode Links:
Educating World Citizens for the 21st Century ( http://www.educatingworldcitizens.org )
Mind & Life Institute ( http://www.mindandlife.org )

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Alan Chapman is a Western magick practitioner, and the author of the newly released book, Advanced Magick for Beginners. Alan found his way into the field of Chaos magick through the work of Aleister Crowley and since has worked with a powerful technique called “the Holy Guardian Angel,” which very much like the guru yoga techniques of the Vajrayana schools, allows one to surrender to an external guide on the path to enlightenment.
Alan shares with us the details of the Western occult tradition, including its core purpose of enlightenment, which he calls “the great work” of magick. He also connects some of the spiritual practices of magick with the Buddhist maps and models. Finally, he shares with us some of the details of a project he has recently launched called Open Enlightenment, whose purpose is to promote a transparent and open discussion surrounding the nature of enlightenment throughout the world’s mystical traditions.
Episode Links:
The Baptist’s Head ( http://www.thebaptistshead.co.uk )
Advanced Magick for Beginners ( http://bit.ly/2v5mMu )

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Dr. Susan Blackmore–a psychologist and long-time Zen practitioner–shares with us the discoveries that she made while writing her latest book, Ten Zen Questions. Listen in to find out what she discovered after many, many hours of asking questions, such as: “Am I conscious now?”, “What was I conscious of a moment ago?”, & “There is no time. What is memory?”
Also, listen in to hear how she feels this type of exploration, often called Koan training in the Zen Buddhist tradition, can illuminate and inform the traditional scientific study of consciousness.
Episode Links:
The Headless Way ( http://www.headless.org )
Ten Zen Blog ( http://tenzenbookblog.wordpress.com )
Dr. Susan Blackmore ( http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk )
Ten Zen Questions ( http://bit.ly/bxloL )

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Daniel Ingram, Theravada meditation teacher, joins us today to discuss the online community he and Buddhist Geeks host, Vince Horn helped create, The Dharma Overground.

Daniel shares how the Dharma Overground has been a grand experiment in discussing practical, down-to-earth, and empowering dharma out in the open and the results of that experiment thus far.

This is part 2 of a two-part series. Listen to part 1, An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book.

Episode Links:

• The Dharma Overground ( http://www.dharmaoverground.org )
• Interactive Buddha ( www.interactivebuddha.com )
• Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha ( bit.ly/E1tF )

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Daniel Ingram, a Theravada meditation teacher and one of our most popular guests, joins us again to discuss his recently published book, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha. In discussing the book we dive into some of the more foundation distinctions he makes, including that of the three trainings. Daniel claims that the trainings in morality (or ethics), concentration (or meditation), and insight (or wisdom) are distinct trainings, each having their own unique gold standard. He explores each of these gold standards and pays particular attention to the gold standard of insight, which has to do with seeing the three characteristics of experience—impermanence, suffering, and not-self.

Listen in for some geeky, technical, and hard-hitting dharma from one of today’s little known, yet extremely profound, American dharma teachers.

This is part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to part 2, The Dharma Overground.

Episode Links:

• Interactive Buddha ( http://www.interactivebuddha.com )
• Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha ( http://bit.ly/E1tF )

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Lama Sarah Harding, Tibetan translator and student of the late Kalu Rinpoche, joins us again to discuss some of the major trends in Western Buddhism. Having taught a class on “Buddhism in America” for the past several years, Sarah is uniquely positioned to share some key insights on this topic. We cap the conversation off discussing the regular, and unfortunate, occurrence of scandal within different Buddhist communities in the West, and what some of the major causes seem to be.
This is part 2 of a two-part series. Listen to part 1, The Traditional 3-Year Retreat: Intensive Training for a Nonexistent Job.
Episode Links:
Zen Masters: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves ( http://bit.ly/1TOEOYQ )
The Darker Side of Zen: Institutions Defining Reality ( http://bit.ly/1TOEOrF )

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Lama Sarah Harding, Tibetan translator and student of the late Kalu Rinpoche, joins us to discuss the experience of doing a traditional 3-year retreat in the Tibetan tradition. She was part of a small group of people, who in the mid 70’s did the first 3-year retreat held for Westerners.
Listen in to find out more about the practices one does during the traditional retreat, what the biggest challenges can be, and what the benefits are (especially when compared with shorter periods of practice).
This is part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to part 2, Western Buddhism: Megatrends & Scandals.
Episode Links:
Jamgon Kongtrul’s Retreat Manual ( http://bit.ly/3oIyzG )

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