Burgs Podcast

Why do we find it so hard to accept certain things?  When we find it challenging to accept something, it is usually wrapped up in our idea of ourselves and how we think the world should be. A big part of acceptance is yielding on our position and to the way things are. Experiencing grief can be a healthy response to losing someone we love and can also be unhealthy – how can we love unconditionally without attachment that is bound up in fear, control and insecurity? 

Keeping fear packaged up inside us ties up a lot of our energy.  It takes courage to turn this into something positive. What lies behind the fear we are holding onto? At the deepest part of ourselves is the fear of our existential annihilation. We can overcome this by gradually developing a relationship with what remains when our ego passes; the love which is the ground of our being. 

Upholding a complex life that is both expensive and difficult to mange vexes us to the point that we don’t experience joy.  The path out of suffering is a gradual path of negotiation with ourselves, looking at which the degree to which we are attached to things that cause suffering and our willingness to let these go. If we are in conflict with letting go, then we are not ready to do so. It is a choiceless process relating to our level of understanding and our longing for simplicity. 

Following the Buddha's enlightenment, a great Brahma asks the Buddha to teach others the path out of suffering.  This leads to the Buddha's first teaching and the turning of the wheel of Dharma which has existed to this day. The truth lies within each and every single one of us waiting for us to discover it for ourselves. What are you going to do with your time here? 

Burgs tells the early life story of the Buddha.  Born as a prince, Siddhattha Gotama was destined to become either a great monach or a great spiritual leader.  Leaving his palace in his late twenties, he encounters human suffering and the very next day renouces the life of sensual pleasures to live the life of a wandering ascetic.  He learns from the greatest teachers of the age, followed by undertaking austere practices, before finding the middle way and reaching his goal of the causal cessation of suffering on a May full moon.  

Our culture is built on the idea that we should always be challenging ourselves to achieve more and we drive ourselves to our limit for long periods of time. The result is that we can live our lives in an over-stimulated state for years and we are never deeply at rest. This can have a huge impact on our health and wellbeing. Our nervous system can be in a coping state the entire time, always pushing to get more out of ourselves rather than raising our capacity. To get the most out of life, we should ask ourselves what can we come by from a state of ease and comfort?

There are many offerings out there promising quick fixes and instant transformation. Yet the journey to free ourselves from suffering is a gradual process where we let go layers of conditioning in stages. This podcast explores how it is consciousness which is the greatest conditioning factor in our life and transforming this is a progressive path.  

We are currently at an axis point where we are being asked to let go the persuit of our creations and feel more alive. Can we find the courage to do what is being asked of us and stand up for the freedoms of future generations, just as past generations have done? 

Burgs explores how we always have the choice to make our suffering the making of us, no matter how painful it might be.  "Healthy grief" is honouring our separation and a true state of love, as opposed to "unhealthy grief" which is not willing to accept the way things are. Grief is a process that can open us up more completely to life and does not need to shut down our capacity to love. In this way, we can live with a sense of gratitude and appreciative joy, rather than fear. 

Burgs explores the nature of love we have with a partner. He examines how attachment can smother our love and how fear only shrinks the heart. Healthy relationships require sacrifice and hard work. We should seek to love people unconditionally for who they are rather than expect more than is reasonable.