By GBF
Buddhism for Liberation and Social Action. We invite teachers from all schools of Buddhism to offer their perspectives on the dharma and its application in modern times, especially for LGBTQIA audi
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The podcast currently has 853 episodes available.
How can we reconcile our sexuality with Buddhist practice?
(Recorded June 11, 1995)
Following on the heels of the AIDS crisis, in 1995 societal shame about LGBTQ sexuality was quite prevalent. Eric Kolvig emphasized that Buddhism is an ethical system focused on reducing suffering, not a moral system with judgments of good and evil. Arguing that repressing sexuality doesn't work, he challenges us to engage with it skillfully whether choosing celibacy, monogamy, or multiple partners.
Eric shares several insights from his own exploration of sexuality and spirituality:
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Eric Kolvig, Ph.D. was a teacher in the Vipassana Buddhist tradition for 30 years, from 1985 through his retirement in 2015.
A gay man, he was one of the first teachers to foster queer sanghas, leading meditation retreats offering public talks around the United States and abroad.
Eric had a particular interest in “grassroots dharma,” building spiritual community in democratic, non-authoritarian ways, and he led retreats in the wilderness. He was one of the first teachers who was open about using Dharma to cope with severe mental illness.
He worked with many teachers but primarily with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg in the lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma, and also with Richard Clarke in the Zen lineage of Roshi Philip Kapleau.
After retiring as a dharma teacher, he moved to rural New Hampshire to lead a contemplative lifestyle. After an illness, Eric died on July 2, 2024.
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If you are interested in more from this wise elder of the LGBTQ community, find links to additional resources available by Eric Kolvig, along with a complete transcript of this talk at:
https://gaybuddhist.org/podcast/gay-sexuality-and-buddhist-dharma-eric-kolvig/
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
When we feel stuck or overwhelmed by society, how can we find joy and courage?
Steven Tierney asks us to challenge the notion that we are stuck with no way out. He emphasizes that rather than avoid the difficult, we can find a way through by embracing Buddhist teachings and practices.
This can include:
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Steven Tierney (Kai Po Koshin) is a Dharma transmitted teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Steven has a new Sangha: Oceans Compassion Sangha and also practices with Gay Buddhist Fellowship, Meditation in Recovery at SFZC, Great Spirit Sangha, SFLGBTQA Sangha, and the Hartford Street Zen Center.
Steven believes that we can find wisdom, compassion and awakening wherever good people come together for practice, healing, service and joy. Dr. Tierney is a psychotherapist in private practice and Professor Emeritus in Counseling Psychology at CIIS.
He is a Certified Addiction Specialist and has been named a Diplomate in Clinical Mental Health by the American Mental Health Counselors Association. He is also a certified suicide prevention and intervention trainer, providing workshops, classes, and consultations. Steven can be reached at 415-235-1061 or [email protected]
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
What core Buddhist teachings are reflected in all other wisdom traditions?
As stated in the Kālāma Sutta, known as the Buddha's "charter of free inquiry," Donald Rothberg encourages us not to believe anything simply because we are told to, but rather apply our own experience and discernment.
He encourages us to embrace the very practical core teachings of Buddhism and consider how those resonate with other religious traditions.
He explores the foundations of our teachings in familiar Buddhist language, framing them in terms of:
He then looks at the essence of each and how they can be expressed very simply in ordinary, practical language that goes beyond Buddhism.
WATCH the full talk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ZLIg05F38
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Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., is a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Center, a guiding teacher for the Marin Sangha in San Rafael, California, and a regular teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, Southern Dharma Retreat Center, InsightLA, and New York Insight.
He teaches retreats and groups on concentration and insight meditation practice, lovingkindness practice, transforming the judgmental mind, mindful communication, working skillfully with conflict, and socially engaged Buddhism.
He has practiced insight meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen, body-based psychotherapy, and trauma work. He has helped guide many six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality, both Buddhist-based and interfaith, and is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
As spiritual beings grounded in oneness, how do we overcome the tendency to feel separated while in human form?
In this practical talk, Michaiel Patrick Bovenes shares reminders for finding connection.
Connecting with others depends on how we are being:
Tips for practical application.
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Michaiel Patrick Bovenes - is a metaphysician, published author, spiritual healer, and the founder of Soul-utions -- a revolutionary personal empowerment teaching. His online courses and live events have helped thousands find greater inner strength and personal peace. Since 1991, he has helped people transform their stress into strength and their struggle into greater freedom, confidence, and positive change. Soul-utions is not a religion, it's a conscious relationship with your Soul. Soul-utions focuses on activating your inner power to create the changes you desire by aligning with your true purpose, inner wisdom, and empowered destiny. Find him at https://linktr.ee/michaiel.soul.utions
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
If we are an expression of the whole, why does life feel so personal?
In a talk that examines duality, Dorothy Hunt asks us who and what we really are. Is our awareness something that belongs to us as a separate 'me', or is it instead something that arises from our experience of reality?
She likens reality to an enormous unending tapestry on a loom, consisting of interwoven strands that give rise to the whole.
The vertical cords are the 'warp' - the stable structure that determines the shape of the tapestry, akin to our true nature -- that unchanging awareness for which each person is a vehicle.
The horizontal threads, known as the 'weft,' constantly change to provide color, texture and variety, much like the moment-to-moment experiences, thoughts and words in our lives.
Just as a wave cannot be separated from the ocean, no single thread can be removed without affecting the whole.
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Dorothy Hunt serves as spiritual director of Moon Mountain Sangha and was the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She is the author of Only This!, Leaves from Moon Mountain, and Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness, as well as articles published on nondual wisdom and psychotherapy. She teaches at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti, who invited her to share the dharma in 2004. Dorothy has a long and deep connection to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and the nondual teachings of Zen, Advaita, and the Christian mystics. She invites a deep welcoming of the human expressions of the mystery. A licensed psychotherapist since 1967, Dorothy has now retired from her private practice. She is a mother and a grandmother. For more information, please visit: https://dorothyhunt.org or Dorothy Hunt - Moon Mountain Sangha on YouTube.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
How can we use our practice to see us through troubled times and remain a light against the darkness?
Laura Burges encourages us to see Buddhist practice as a laboratory, a place to experiment with our own experience. Drawing from the book, "Buddhism Without Beliefs" by Stephen Batchelor, she likens the Four Noble Truths to a diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment for the challenges facing us and the world. If they were contained in bottles, each would come with a simple instruction label:
To approach our practice as an experiment, she encourages us to develop an agnostic curiosity rather than hardening the teachings into firm beliefs. In this way, we can practice with an open mind and heart.
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Ryuko Laura Burges, a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaches classes, lectures, and leads retreats in Northern California. She received monastic training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Shambhala Publications offers her Buddhist children’s books, Buddhist Stories for Kids and Zen for Kids. Her most recent book from Shambhala is The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path Out of the Darkness of Addiction. Laura lives in San Francisco.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
The divine abodes, also known as the Brahma Vihāras in Sanskrit, are four supreme emotions or mental states that are emphasized because of the Buddha's teaching that "whatever one frequently ponders on, that will become the inclination of their mind."
In this talk, Walt Opie examines these four and offers the "near and far enemy" of each one.
The commentaries on the Brahma Viharas explain that each of the four qualities has two "enemies." The far enemy represents the opposite mental state, which can pose a challenge to our practice. However, the near enemy, while appearing similar enough to be mistaken for the desired quality, is an imposter that is ultimately detrimental. These are:
1. Metta (Loving-kindness)
Near Enemy: Sentimentality (a superficial or insincere affection).
Far Enemy: Hatred or ill will.
2. Karuna (Compassion)
Near Enemy: Pity (a condescending form of compassion).
Far Enemy: Cruelty or indifference.
3. Mudita (Sympathetic joy)
Near Enemy: Comparison (feeling joy only when others are less successful).
Far Enemy: Jealousy or envy.
4. Upekkha (Equanimity)
Near Enemy: Indifference (a lack of care or engagement).
Far Enemy: Attachment or aversion.
Walt also recounts the impact of loving-kindness practice on inmates in his prison outreach program and describes Metta as a good antidote to ill will and anger.
He concludes by offering stories of loving-kindness as examples.
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Walt Opie was introduced to insight meditation in 1993 at Spirit Rock and attended his first residential retreat there in 2005. He is a graduate of both the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders' (CDL4) program and the Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy program. Walt is a participant in the current Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Teacher Training program. He leads a monthly sitting group for people in recovery in Berkeley and serves as a volunteer Buddhist facilitator at Solano State Prison in Vacaville. In addition, he is the Executive Director of the Buddhist Pathways Prison Project (BP3).
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
How have the Four Heavenly Messengers led you to the path of the dharma?
In this talk, Bob Stahl shares his own experience with these messengers and how they changed the course of his life in the midst of being a very confused young man without direction.
He encourages us to consider the conditions and events that have appeared in our own lives to shepherd us toward awakening.
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Bob Stahl, Ph.D., founded eight Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs in medical centers in the SF Bay Area before he retired from El Camino Hospital in Mt. View, California.
He serves as an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health at Brown University Mindfulness Center and formerly at the Oasis Institute for Mindfulness-Based Professional Education and Training at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Bob teaches MBSR Teacher Trainings and Insight Mindfulness Meditation retreats worldwide and is the former guiding teacher at Insight Santa Cruz and a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. He is the co-author of five books: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook (1st & 2nd editions), Living With Your Heart Wide Open, Calming the Rush of Panic, A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook for Anxiety, and MBSR Everyday.
Find him at https://www.mindfulnessprograms.com/
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
Can we find meaning and pride in our ordinary lives?
In this talk, Liên Shutt contrasts the extravagant events in our lives with the everyday moments and asks us to consider if we can drop our expectations of how things should be and instead allow them to exist just as they are.
This is the definition of Buddhist wisdom or Prajña, which translates as "knowledge of things as they are."
She quotes Sekkei Harada Roshi in "The Essence of Zen:"
"Things that we can see and hear do not exist because we believe they do; they exist apart from a person's thought. That which exists separately from the thoughts of the ego self... is the dharma."
Liên helps us see that individuals and groups exist independent of whether or not we think they should.
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Liên Shutt (she/they) is a priest lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Soto Zen traditions in the U.S., Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, an inclusive, anti-oppression sangha and non-profit in the SF Bay Area. She lives on Ohlone land, currently called San Francisco, with her partner, exploring waterways and forests as often as they can. Visit https://accesstozen.org/ for ways to connect and practice together.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
How can we cultivate an undefended heart that is open and caring?
John Martin shares that the true nature of our heart is inherently pure and loving. However, we need to practice to cultivate this purity.
Some of the practices he shares include:
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John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice project.
Find his upcoming events at: https://calendar.spiritrock.org/event-speaker/john-martin/
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
The podcast currently has 853 episodes available.
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