Sharpening the Mind

Barefoot Bran is my guest. He’s a buddhist folk musician in Kansas City. He’s a member of the Rime Buddhist Community and the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. We talk about spirituality, music, dreams, and community, as well as the intersection between paganism and buddhism

We’re all dreaming. We’re going through life missing things because we’re dreaming. And we’re not seeing reality clearly. How do we wake up?

I’d like to Introduce you to Chan Buddhism. This is a path that is practical and it’s about training our minds so we can engage the world in a more meaningful way.

This talk was recorded at a meditation gathering at Unity Southeast in Kansas City, Missouri. In this talk I addressed the question, “is meditation boring?”

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This is a talk I gave at Fountain City Meditation. There were 17 in attendance, including one child and one dog. Because it was the first outdoor meditation of the season, I decided to just briefly talk about the basics. Why do we meditate?

My childhood friend Daniel Symes joined me on the podcast to talk about spiritual communities. 

Daniel has been my friend since I was 11 years old and he's a member of pagan and freemason communities. We discussed what those communities, and Buddhism, do well and also where they struggle. I talked some, but not much, about my experience at a temple I used to attend called the Rime Center. He talked some about his experience with the pagan communities: Camp Gaea and Gaia Community (and I marveled at the fact that there are two pagan communities in Kansas City with essentially the same name). And we also talked about semi-spiritual communities like Freemasonry and Scouts BSA. 

And we talked about Fountain City Meditation, which I think is a project but may actually be a community.

This is a recording of a live talk I gave online in the Tattooed Buddha Community Facebook group. I went over a teaching from Hongzhi in “Cultivating the Empty Field” then I addressed some questions and comments about anger.

We all have to face death. Impermanence is a part of our lives and one thing we all have in common is that we lose the people we care about. What can help us with our grief? In this episode I get personal and talk about my own story. ——Recommended Reading: “Awake in the World” by Michael Stone and “No Death, No Fear” by Thich Nhat Hanh

Daniel and Alicia talk about: Insecurity, Introspection, and Brain Weasels.

Part one of a series. Insecurity is something we all struggle with it. In this episode Daniel and Alicia explore Daniel’s insecurity regarding hosting events.