298 – Framing Your Dharma Practice in a Helpful Way

298 – Framing Your Dharma Practice in a Helpful Way

by | Mar 31, 2025 | Buddhist Practice

Chances are, whether you’re aware of it or not, you have a certain way of framing your Dharma practice. That is, you function using a conceptual framework that defines your relationship to your practice, the intent of that practice, and what is supposedly being transformed by that practice. When you’re centered in the moment, you can practice without framing, but most of the time you’ll be framing things whether you mean to or not. It’s good to be conscious of your framing and choose a framing that’s helpful.

297 – Investigando la Mente Errante

297 – Investigando la Mente Errante

by | Mar 16, 2025 | Spanish Translations

Category: Práctica Budista ~ Translator: Claudio Sabogal Click here for audio + English version of Episode 297   Casi todos los que practican meditación o atención plena se encuentran con el fenómeno de la mente errante: cuando, a...
297 – Investigando la Mente Errante

297 – Investigating the Wandering Mind

by | Mar 15, 2025 | Buddhist Practice

Almost everyone who practices meditation or mindfulness encounters the phenomenon of the wandering mind – when, despite your conscious intention, your mind is filled with thoughts that have nothing to do with your current experience. You can employ various techniques to let go of the thoughts and “bring the mind back” to your meditative object or to the present moment, but often these techniques are applied as if all mind wandering was of the same nature. I investigate different reasons your mind wanders and how they call for different responses.

296 – Preguntas y Respuestas: Paramis, Atención Plena, Karma y Disfrute

296 – Q&A: Paramis, Mindfulness, Karma, and Enjoyment

by | Mar 8, 2025 | Listener's Questions

This is an extemporaneous question-and-answer episode. Do you know the difference between a parami and a paramita? Do I still like to think of mindfulness as “undivided presence?” What about when Buddhists use the idea of karma as an excuse not to take compassionate action? Why can’t our practice include more activities aimed at the cultivation of joy, creativity, and other positive experiences?

295 – El Poder de la Ecuanimidad

295 – El Poder de la Ecuanimidad

by | Mar 1, 2025 | Spanish Translations

Category: Práctica Budista, Enseñanzas Budistas ~ Translator: Claudio Sabogal Click here for audio + English version of Episode 295   La ecuanimidad es un poderoso estado del ser que no sólo reduce nuestro estrés y sufrimiento, sino...
295 – El Poder de la Ecuanimidad

295 – The Power of Equanimity

by | Feb 28, 2025 | Buddhist Practice, Buddhist Teachings

Equanimity is a powerful state of being that not only reduces our stress and suffering but also enables us to respond effectively. However, in our efforts to achieve some measure of equanimity, we may end up stuck in the tentative calm of denial or in the coldness of indifference. True equanimity is clear-eyed, undefended, compassionate, and inclusive – but how do we cultivate it? I explore the virtue of equanimity from a Buddhist perspective.

294 – Diez Campos del Zen, Campo 10 – Conectando con lo Inefable, o lo que es más Verdadero

294 – Ten Fields of Zen, Field 10 – Connecting with the Ineffable, or What Is Most True

by | Feb 17, 2025 | Buddhist Practice, Ten Fields of Zen

The tenth Field of Zen is Connecting with the Ineffable. Zen is not based on a belief in God in a theistic sense. However, at its core there is a strong emphasis on a much more profound, inspiring, significant, and hopeful Reality than the bleak, mundane, and discouraging one people sometimes experience in their ordinary daily lives. Call this “greater reality” anything you like – God, the Divine, That Which is Greater, Other Power, the Ineffable, the Great Mystery, the Great Matter of Life and Death – but you have tasted it at peak moments of your life. Zen encourages you to explore and deepen your relationship with the Great Matter.

294 – Diez Campos del Zen, Campo 10 – Conectando con lo Inefable, o lo que es más Verdadero

292 – Ten Fields of Zen, Field 9 – Bodhisattva Activity: Enacting Vows to Benefit All Beings

by | Jan 31, 2025 | Ten Fields of Zen

The ninth Field of Zen Practice is Bodhisattva Activity, which is enacting vows to free all beings as well as yourself. The Bodhisattva Vows are an acknowledgment that you are interdependent with all beings and things, and such an aspiration can give a sense of purpose and direction to your whole life. Of course, it’s impossible to fulfill this vow literally, and when you try to put it into action it is no easy matter! It requires tangible engagement with the world, including other people. If you hide out in comfort, you’re unlikely to transcend self-centeredness. If you rely only on your own resources, you’re likely to exhaust yourself and limit your impact. How do you even decide what Bodhisattva Activity to undertake? There is much to be learned by practicing in this Field of Zen, which inoculates you against the delusion that you can attain true peace of mind by ignoring the suffering of others.

294 – Diez Campos del Zen, Campo 10 – Conectando con lo Inefable, o lo que es más Verdadero

290 – Ten Fields of Zen, Field 8 – Realization: Direct Experience of Reality-with-a-Capital-R

by | Dec 28, 2024 | Buddhist Practice, Ten Fields of Zen

The eighth Field of Zen Practice is Realization, gaining a direct, personal experience of the truth. Realization helps you respond appropriately, allowing you to live by choice instead of by karma. Even more importantly, it gives you a larger perspective that can result in equanimity, even joy. There are different levels of truth, and the Dharma – Reality-with-a-Capital-R – is the biggest truth of all. Fortunately, it is a wonderful and liberating truth to wake up to. However, it’s important to understand that there is no “Realization” you can attain that means you know everything. The truth is infinite and there is always more to awaken to and embody.

294 – Diez Campos del Zen, Campo 10 – Conectando con lo Inefable, o lo que es más Verdadero

289 – Ten Fields of Zen, Field 6 – Opening Your Heart: Self-Acceptance and Non-Separation (2 of 2)

by | Dec 18, 2024 | Buddhist Practice, Ten Fields of Zen

This episode is the second half of the seventh chapter of my book-in-progress, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. Listen to/read the previous episode (288) first, where I talk about the importance of Opening Your Heart and how that effort is viewed in the Buddhist tradition. In that episode I also discussed the four Brahmaviharas – goodwill, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. I finish the chapter in this episode by covering self-acceptance, practicing with the real, human relationships in your life, and Opening Your Heart in Sangha.

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