[This episode originally aired on September 20, 2022]  In the English language, the words “patience” and “patient” derive from the same word, meaning “to suffer” •  the Tibetan term for patience has more of a sense of forbearance; in Sanskrit, it has more to do with a of a sense of equilibrium  •  the practice of patience has to do with boycotting our addiction to rushing through things, aggressively trying to force life to move in the ways we would like it to  •  patience is not inaction; in fact, the paramita of patience points to the possibility of addressing problems in the world more effectively because our actions are not based on anger, panic, speed, or aggression  •  three traditional guidelines for working with the paramita of patience are: 1) not getting sucked in by others’ disruptiveness; 2) understanding the causes and origins of other people's anger; and 3) examining the many little points of irritations in your life, and being willing to face your own states of mind.

[This episode originally aired on September 13, 2022]  Coming from the vast and expansive ground of the first paramita, the paramita of generosity, we now turn our attention to the second paramita, the paramita of discipline  •  discipline has to do with meticulousness of behavior and a sharpening of mindfulness and awareness  •  when we work with generosity and discipline, we're really working with a fundamental challenge: when do we need to tighten, and when do we need to loosen up?  •  when do we need to think large, and when do we need to draw in and pay attention to the specifics of what is right in front of our nose?  •  the challenge is not to lose the vastness in the details, and not lose the details in the vastness  •  the point of the paramita of discipline, like the point of all of the paramitas, isn’t about self-improvement; the bottom line is that it allows us to be better able to benefit others. 

[This episode originally aired on September 6, 2022]   Continuing our exploration of the paramita of generosity  •  generosity is like the expanding universe: it just keeps expanding and expanding without limit  •  the practice of generosity challenges us to stretch beyond our fear and territoriality and sense of impoverishment  •  Buddhist teachings recommend working with three dimensions of generosity: material generosity, psychological generosity, and the generosity of offering the dharma or the teachings  •  material generosity refers to giving what is needed, whether it be food or clothing or any other material object  •  psychological generosity refers to giving the gift of confidence or fearlessness; it has a tone of empowering others, supporting others, giving others the strength to face life  •  the generosity of offering the dharma means offering others inner support for their spiritual development  •  in all three cases, we are working in the realm of relationships; we are learning to tune into situations so we can respond with what is most appropriate.

[This episode originally aired on August 30, 2022]  The English word “generosity” comes from the Latin meaning “noble birth”  •  in talking about the bodhisattva path, this doesn't mean elitism or nobility in the sense of being kings and queens, but nobility in terms of a noble way of being in the world—with dignity, with skill, with love and with compassion, and with a sense of respect for one's own life and the life of other beings  •  of the six paramitas, generosity is fundamental; it is about the quality of your very spirit, your inner workings, your heart and your mind  •  it refers to a sense of inner richness combined with a sense of outer connection and invitation toward other beings  •  in the practice of cultivating generosity, we’re looking at the contrast between what one could call “poverty mind”—a pinched mind, an imploded mind, a shrunken mind—and “generous mind”—a bigger mind, a more relaxed mind, a mind expanding and opening outward. 

[This episode originally aired August 23, 2022]  In this episode, and in the next few episodes, we will explore the paramitas—what Trungpa Rinpoche referred to as “techniques of non grasping”  •  these techniques help us cultivate the two foundational qualities of wisdom and compassion  •  wisdom is cultivated through stillness, and compassion is cultivated through action  •  on the bodhisattva path, the six paramitas are considered supreme because they carry us from a conventional, moralistic point of view to an approach that truly expresses wisdom and compassion  •  the paramitas are generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and knowledge  •  they are called transcendent because they take us from the world of duality to the world of non-duality, where our beneficial actions are not strangled or twisted by the needs of ego, but are free and spontaneous  •  with paramita practice, we are engaging with powerful techniques that undermine the force of grasping and allow true compassion to come forth.

[This episode originally aired on August 16, 2022]  Bodhisattvas are those who dedicate their lives to attaining enlightenment themselves, and to providing situations that lead to the enlightenment of everyone  •  in approaching this high aspiration, bodhisattvas do not look to some heavenly figure to provide examples of how to accomplish the goals of the bodhisattva path  •  instead, they look to the elements of this ordinary world: the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space  •  like the earth, we can aspire to support all life, and provide a base of support that is non-judging, strong, solid, and reliable  •  like water, we can aspire to cleanse impurities, join things together, and relieve a world thirsty for love and compassion  •  like fire, we can aspire to burn away the distinctions we cling to so strongly, and purify whatever we come into contact with  •  like wind, we can aspire to provide a cool breeze of delight, sweeping away possessiveness, egocentric clinging, and obstacles  •  like space, we can aspire to accommodate everything.

[This episode originally aired on August 9, 2022]  Impermanence applies not only to the world around us, but to our internal world as well  •  we assume that we are a solid reference point, and everything else around us is changing  •  in reality, it’s more like changing is observing changing  •  if we turn our attention inward, we see that there is no solid point from which to observe all of this, because our inward experience is filled with change as well  •  this becomes very obvious during sitting meditation, where we notice our mind, our body, our moods, our thoughts, and our sensations are constantly changing  •  our world is a changing and dynamic world; it is a world of birth and death, arising and dissolving  •  it is within that world—the world as it is—that we find ourselves; and it is within that world that we can find true freedom, relaxation, and awakening.

[This episode originally aired on August 2, 2022]  In Buddhism some practices are designated as meditation practices, such as working with mindfulness and awareness  •  other practices, called contemplative practices, are focused on working with the concepts in our mind  •  one of the most important of these is the contemplation of impermanence, change, and death  •  we often have difficulty accepting the reality of impermanence; we create various coverings to mask this raw, basic truth  •  but this contemplation isn’t intended to make everyone morose or obsessed with death  •  in fact, this kind of contemplation actually frees one from the fear of change, and provides a basis for being able to accommodate change  •  the following four approaches are often given for helping us to broaden our understanding of impermanence: 1) everything that is born will die;  2) every meeting leads to a parting;  3) every gathering leads to a dispersing; and  4) everything created eventually dissolves, or is destroyed. 

[This episode first aired on July 26, 2022]  Random labeling, or kuntak in Tibetan, is a two-step process: first we select some portion of our perception and give it a label; then, once we’ve done that, we fixate on it and make it solid  •  we make something that really doesn’t exist into something that’s seemingly solid, and we do that over and over again  •  there’s a famous saying: “Fish don’t exist”  •  there are lots of things swimming around in the sea that do exist, but “fish” don’t really exist; “fish” is just a label  •  it’s natural to group things into categories and then give those categories names  •  the problem arises when labeling leads to fixating—making what is arbitrary seemingly solid and unchangeable, something to be fought over and obsessed about  •  where did the label come from? It came from a random thought  •  random labeling is no joke; it closes up the open expanse of mind  •  it perpetuates our own suffering, and the suffering of those around us.

[This episode originally aired on July 19, 2022]  The Tibetan term for compassion—karuna—can be translated as “noble heart”  •  in the Buddhist teachings, compassion is almost always linked with another quality that actually changes the sense of what it might mean  •  in this episode I will talk about three such pairings: compassion with emptiness, compassion with wisdom, and compassion with skillful means  •  linking compassion with emptiness places it in a perspective that is less dualistic and less heavy-handed; there is a sense of playfulness and spaciousness and spontaneity  •  pairing compassion with wisdom introduces a certain accuracy, and the intelligence to know when to act and when to refrain from acting  •  without wisdom, we risk falling into “idiot compassion,” where were you just launch into a situation thinking you are going to be helpful, but end up actually making it worse  •  and thirdly, compassion is often linked with skillful means, or effective action  •  this pairing emphasizes the fact that compassion is not something we just dream about, but it shows up in our actions.