Living from a place of calm, alert presence that doesn’t allow us to avoid anything untangles the knots of Karma. In tonight’s talk, Michael explains how we can learn to change our relationship to what gets us caught in life’s tangle. We get our inspiration from knowing that every single awakened being has gone through the same climb as we are engaging in presently. And at some point, our adventure becomes more important than the baggage we’re carrying.

While in a monastery in Nepal, Michael learned to drink around the leaves of the unstrained tea he was served. What Michael discusses in tonight’s talk, among other things, is how we can learn to relate to what floats around in our lives. He goes on to discuss the Four Noble Truths and how they can continually help us stay on track in our practice.

Stillness, quietude and openness are key to any authentic practice. Once we practice these three qualities, according to what Michael tells us in tonight’s talk, we begin to realize a purification that helps us recognize what it means to let go into the Emptiness that is Everything. In purification we make ourselves ready for what stillness offers and free ourselves from the tangle that is called karma.

Being without speaking is a beautiful way of expressing our selves totally. This happens when we give our mind an open field in which to graze. We have two major paths to meditative awareness: Big Field, and Cattle Chute. In this talk, Michael suggests that the bigger our field, the greater our chance to study our minds. When we do this we see that our ego is to reality as a ping pong ball is to the ocean. We see that the ocean has nothing to resist. Our ping pong ball mind, however, is desperate to try to manage or think of managing our oceanic nature. Here we find joy. Infinite joy.

This podcast is a recording made by members of the Infinite Smile, expressing their gratitude for the Sangha, as a way of asking for all who have been touched by this teaching to give. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Unlike his normal dharma talks, this podcast is a recording of a presentation he gave to the Walnut Creek, California, Integral Transformative Practice group. For the most part Michael describes the three levels of awareness, nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, and dharmakaya. At each level, he suggests that there are various traps and snares to consider as we walk the spiritual path. And yet Michael also suggests that there is a way that helps us avoid these impediments.

Is it possible to gain enough perspective on our wants and desires that we can actually become free of them, as the Buddha taught?

How is it that Eihei Dogen’s suggestion that when we “forget the self, we are enlightened by all things” apply when we welcome new life into the world?

How can we possibly stabilize any type of spiritual practice or realization in the face of all the crap that the world throws our way?

What happens when we truly forgive?