Jon and Doug have a wide-ranging chat with the dharma teacher and peace activitist, Stephen Fulder, founder of Tovana, the Israel Insight Society.  We discuss his work in Israel and his new book, How to Thrive in Hard Times.

You can find his book here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Thrive-Hard-Times-Buddhist/dp/1915672740/

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What is the role of community in our practice? The sangha is one of the traditional three refuges or jewels of Buddhism. The Buddha also advised at the end of his life to hold the self as our island and refuge, with the dharma as our island and refuge. Jon and Doug discuss how we reconcile these ideals.

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Three key aspects of the seven enlightenment factors are investigation, energy, and joy. What are they, and how can we touch them in our practice?

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The final aggregate in the set of five is consciousness. What is meant by  consciousness/ As an aggregate of clinging, when does it get in the way?
Jon and Doug discuss.

Doug's Video:
The Problem(s) of Consciousness -- https://youtu.be/W1Pn65QZiZs

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In Buddhism the root of karmic action is in sankharas, a word with many uses in the dharma.  As we practice, we can see the sankharas taking shape and then realize we have choices.  But even the choices are related to other sankharas and the "wow' of this mind. 
Jon and Doug discuss them and how we can view their role in our lives.

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Two days after the US Election, Doug and Jon discuss how they are handling the results. They also discuss how our practice can support us as we look to the future political landscape in the US and the world.

Jon offered this poem by Rilke as a support:

Let This Darkness be a Belltower
 Rainer Maria Rilke

Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

Doug's Video:
No Local Meditation Group? Six Solutions -- https://youtu.be/-rEKVKsV2iU

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Feeling tone, the pleasure or pain we take in experience, is a central part of dharma.  As an aggregate, a foundation of mindfulness, a link in the chain of dependent origination,  appreciating, understanding, and directly experiencing Vedana is a key to experiencing freedom.
Jon and Doug have a lively discussion on this topic.

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Doug and Jon continue to explore the Five Aggregates of Clinging (to self) and this week explore Form.    How do we cling to form and at what point, does this clinging become suffering?  Are doesn't it?

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Jon and Doug discuss perception and how it's mediated by past experience and the stories we tell. How does it become misperception? How can we work with our perception to live more skillfully and fully?

*this quote is attributed to the Roman poet Phaedrus but it is often used by various Zen teachers

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How does our concept of ourselves and others create suffering?  What would it be like to soften this "conceit of self".  Understanding and seeing through this conceit, is the last of the higher fetters, which needs to the released before awakening. 

Jon and Doug discuss how this comes up in practice.

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