We Are Not Who We Think We Are, with Peter Coyote, Explores the practice of meditation to catch a glimpse of who we truly are. His mask workshops provide for the possibility of “the disappearance of your everyday self [along with] self-criticism, self-consciousness, and a sense of shame…[allowing for] absolute freedom.” It allows us to experience Buddha's idea of no fixed self. Peter Coyote is an award-winning actor, author, director, screenwriter, and narrator who has worked with some of the world’s most distinguished filmmakers. He’s won several Emmys for his narrations and was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest in 2011. In 2015 he received “transmission” from his teacher, making him an independent Zen teacher. He’s conceived mask training experiments and workshops as tools to give us a reprieve from the repetitive weight of our normal attachments and habits. His books include The Rainman’s Third Cure: An Irregular Education (Counterpoint 1998/2015), Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle (Counterpoint 2015), Tongue of a Crow: A Book of Poetry (Four Way Books 2021) and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Meet Buddha: Masks, Meditation & Improvised Play to Induce Liberated States (Inner Traditions 2021)

Interview Date: 12/30/2021     Tags: Peter Coyote, mask, Pantalone, Lone Ranger, Tonto, acting, improv, street theater, enlightenment, San Francisco Mime Troop, ego, Samantha Paris, Voicetrax, Thelonious Monk, Paper and Glue documentary, French artist JR, emptiness, engaged Buddhism, karma, compassion, kindness, Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Buddhism, Philosophy, Art & Creativity, meditation