This week, we're sharing the second of two episodes from Inner Cosmos that explore the neuroscience behind our sense of self. Host David Eagleman investigates why our bodies, composed of trillions of cells, feel like a single, unified "me." These episodes offer a compelling scientific perspective on the Buddhist concept of anatta (no-self), providing a fascinating bridge between ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience. Listen now to all of the wonderful episodes from Inner Cosmos: h...
Feb 15, 2025•1 hr 3 min
This week, we're sharing part one of two episodes from Inner Cosmos that explore the neuroscience behind our sense of self. Host David Eagleman investigates why our bodies, composed of trillions of cells, feel like a single, unified "me." These episodes offer a compelling scientific perspective on the Buddhist concept of anatta (no-self), providing a fascinating bridge between ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience. Listen now to all of the wonderful episodes from Inner Cosmos: htt...
Feb 07, 2025•31 min
This guided practice, recorded for the Jung Center of Houston's MBSI Power of Community series, invites you to turn your attention inward with kindness and understanding. As you listen, allow yourself to be held in a space of warmth and acceptance. This meditation offers an opportunity to connect with parts of ourselves that might feel uncomfortable.
Nov 26, 2024•14 min
If you've finished your day of work -- or just want to take a relaxing break -- this guided meditation is here for you! This meditation was recorded live as part of the Mind Body Spirit Institute’s Power of Community meditation series. To learn more and register (for free!), click here: https://geni.us/mbsipoc May you and all beings be well.
Feb 07, 2024•29 min
This week internationally renowned spiritual teacher and author Andrew Holececk about his new book, Reverse Meditation , in which he shares a powerful form of spiritual practice that can transform our relationship to unwanted experiences. In the process, we open more and more fully to the luminous, spacious true nature of the mind. Toward the end of the episode, he offers a guided contemplation you can use next time you feel the urge to complain. Andrew’s website: andrewholecek.com Check out his...
Sep 07, 2023•48 min
In this guided meditation, we'll start with cultivating focus with an object by imagining light flowing down through the body. But then we switch to "object-less" meditation, which is less well known. As you practice, see if you can notice what it feels like to cultivate each type of focus. May you and all beings be well.
Aug 22, 2023•27 min
Barbie might be the last character you'd expect to be similar to the Buddha... but consider this: The beginning of Barbie's journey into the "real world" comes when she begins to reflect on death and impermanence. Sounds a lot like the story of Buddha's life to me! This episode offers a few thoughts for anyone about to see the hottest movie of the summer or who's just seen it and wants to reflect on its hidden spiritual meaning. Want to learn more about Buddha's lif...
Jul 27, 2023•5 min
This Tibetan-style tonglen meditation on compassion was recorded live as part of the Mind Body Spirit Institute’s Power of Community meditation series. To learn more and register (for free!), click here: https://geni.us/mbsipoc May you and all beings be well.
Jun 08, 2023•27 min
I used to think that Buddhism and trying to "manifest" what you want don't go together. But then I realized that actually Buddhist teachings on karma tell us how to put in place the causes for getting what we want. Mind blown! Want to learn more about the basic teachings of Buddhism? You can check out my book, The Buddhist Path to Joy, here: https://geni.us/buddhistpathtojoy And my free courses on Buddhist basics for beginners here: https://geni.us/freecourses May you and all being...
Jun 02, 2023•9 min
Today’s episode is a little different. I’m sharing some “inspirational” writing I did for my own sangha, Dawn Mountain’s, newsletter a couple of weeks ago. This is my appreciation for the dharma’s ability to help us not just feel better but also navigate the difficult times in life without giving up. I’ll share the story of how bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara got 11 heads and 1,000 arms. Want to reply? You can post on Facebook or Instagram and tag this podcast, @BuddhistWisdomModernLife. To sign up ...
May 23, 2023•5 min
To celebrate the Buddhist holiday of Vesak, which commemorates the birth and awakening of the Buddha, here’s a guided meditation on trusting and resting in our own buddha nature. You (yes, you!) are a buddha masquerading as a human, and the tragedy of human life is that we’ve forgotten we’re already everything we’re looking for. This meditation was recorded live as part of the Mind Body Spirit Institute’s Power of Community meditation series. To learn more and register (for free!), click here: h...
May 16, 2023•24 min
This episode is a guided meditation on relaxing into the spaciousness of our true nature, which I offered for the Mind Body Spirit Institute's Power of Community series (see link below to register for free). Learning to relax into spaciousness is at the heart of the Buddhist wisdom teachings —and one of the best things we can do for our health and happiness. This meditation introduces the beautiful practice of resting in open awareness and invites us to discover the vast, open expanse that i...
Apr 17, 2023•25 min
In this talk, we explore Thich Nhat Hanh's interpretation of the Easter story of the death and resurrection of Jesus from a Buddhist perspective. While acknowledging that this interpretation is not representative of any given Christian interpretation, we use certain aspects of the Christian story and its interpretation for Buddhist purposes. In Christianity, Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, a concept that only applies to Jesus. However, in Buddhism, this applies to every living be...
Apr 09, 2023•17 min
The biggest challenge most meditators face is finding enough time to practice -- and the Pomodoro Timer method is my favorite way to get around this. In this episode, I’ll dive into the Pomodoro Timer method and show you how it can help you get more time to meditate. So if you’re a meditator who always wishes you had more time for practice, listen now and download my free time tracking spreadsheet! Get the free spreadsheet and future video trainings: https://geni.us/pom4meditators Watch the vide...
Mar 31, 2023•14 min
In today’s episode I’ll be speaking with Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, who leads its Everywoman’s Leadership program. Throughout her career, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. Today we’ll talk about her book Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. The second edition just came out i...
Mar 17, 2023•56 min
This is a meditation I led for the Power of Community program hosted by the Houston Jung Center’s Mind Body Spirit Institute. It was recorded live, so you might hear background noises. If you’d like to join the Power of Community for free weekly meditation sessions (in English and Spanish), you can register here: https://geni.us/mbsipoc Free courses on Buddhist basics: https://geni.us/freecourses My book for beginners on the Four Noble Truths: https://geni.us/buddhistpathtojoy May you and all be...
Mar 03, 2023•25 min
In today’s episode I’ll be speaking with Cynthia Kane, the Founder and CEO of the Kane Intentional Communication Institute, which provides services to help individuals and companies improve their communication skills and show up authentically in their most important relationships. She actually has an entire book on the topic of today’s conversation: How to Communicate Like a Buddhist. Cynthia will share tips to help us all connect more authentically, plus she puts communication in the cont...
Mar 03, 2023•52 min
Welcome, friends, in today’s episode I’ll speak a bit about meditating to benefit those who have died, and then I’ll guide a short practice using the mantra of Amitabha Buddha: OM AMI DEVA HRI. (See below for a short summary.) More on Amitabha: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit%C4%81bha If you enjoy this practice, please share this episode and subscribe! To learn more about Buddhism through my free courses, click here: https://geni.us/freecourses Or get my book for beginners, The Buddhist Path ...
Feb 10, 2023•20 min
Welcome, friends, in today’s episode I’ll be speaking with author, Zen monk, and founder of the Ithaca Zen Center Yoshin David Radin. Sylvia Boorstein (co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center) described his new book, A Temporary Affair , like this: “These short discourses by an old Zen priest facing his possible imminent death are relaxed and friendly in tone. They speak directly to the heart of human suffering, the confusion that comes from not understanding what is clearly available for us...
Jan 19, 2023•59 min
New year, new you? Come get support and connect with fellow seekers at these live online events! Impermanence and buddha nature with my lamas (and sometimes me) at Dawn Mountain's virtual temple: https://www.dawnmountain.org/teaching-tuesdays-2/ Bring your spirituality to work -- and de-stress your brain while you're at it: https://junghouston.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/junghouston/event.jsp?event=9873 Join me and other Mind Body Spirit Institute faculty members for short (free) meditations each...
Jan 18, 2023•2 min
We've probably all wished we had more time for spiritual practice, and you might have made a resolution to meditate (or journal, pray, etc.) more this year. But what do we have to give up to make space for what's most important? In this video, I share a big lesson from grad school that helps me prioritize what's most important... with some help from Marie Kondo! Happy New Year. :) If you enjoyed these reflections, please share this episode and subscribe! &...
Jan 11, 2023•7 min
This meditation uses the imagery of descending into a sacred pool inside a sacred cave to offer an opportunity for renewal: letting the ego self dissolve to light, then emerging again and deciding which parts of our ordinary sense of self we want to keep carrying.
Dec 21, 2022•17 min
Inspired by Deborah Eden Tull's beautiful book Luminous Darkness, here are some reflections on the beauty of this darkest day of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere). Happy holidays. :)
Dec 21, 2022•4 min
My friend Dent Gitchell, PhD, an educator, author, and meditation teacher in Arkansas, joins me today to bring a different perspective on reincarnation cases. After a childhood of being open to the unseen aspects of reality, Dent trained with Roger Woolger, a pioneer in past life regression therapy, which helps people recover from previous life traumas that are holding them back from healing and freedom in this life. Now, I’m not sure that all memories that come up in this form of therapy refer ...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 27 min
I first met my guest today, Jake Loveland, when we recorded an interview for his podcast, Tenaciously Human, about the connections between Buddhism and success in life. (You can find that episode here: https://geni.us/mPbVnik.) One thing Jake mentioned in that first conversation was that he’s a big fan of the Jewish and Christian idea of the Sabbath, and as I took time off this summer, I found myself thinking again and again about how rest and relaxation open more space for creativity. So why ar...
Oct 21, 2022•49 min
Hi, friends, I’m excited to introduce you to Dr. Dent Gitchell, an educator, author, and meditation teacher – a guy with a lot of credentials and a lot of expertise. But what I recently learned about him is that he’s been a fan of The Grateful Dead since he was young, and along with that came a lot of consciousness-expanding experiences with psychedelics. In this conversation with Dent, we’ll dive into those early experiences and how they’ve shaped the wise and kind teacher he’s become. To learn...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 11 min
If you've heard of the three types of Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana), you might wonder: What are the origins of Vajrayana Buddhism? How is it similar to and different from Mahayana and Theravada? What are the practices and beliefs of Vajrayana Buddhists? In this video, I'll cover the historical origins of the Vajrayana forms of Buddhism and talk about the one region where this type of Buddhism is dominant: Tibet and the Himalayan regions. If you’ve ever wondered what Buddhist tant...
Oct 04, 2022•43 min
We’ve all heard of “enlightenment” in the context of spiritual practices like Buddhism. But in this episode, my colleague Deborah Eden Tull walks us through the equally important practice of “endarkenment” and other wonderful explorations from her new book, Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown. I very much enjoyed reading this book and appreciated her invitation to explore the realms of mind outside of our “daytime” consciousness as we practice receptivity and...
Sep 27, 2022•59 min
Y'all, get ready to meet a good friend and dharma sister of mine, Pam Stockton, as we discuss psychedelics and how they can be helpful on the spiritual path—in the right context, with the right preparation, for folks who can benefit from them, which isn't everyone. You can learn more about Pam at her website, which is linked below. And if you'd like to learn more about the basic teachings of Buddhism, there's a link to my free courses, too. Pam Stockton is licensed as a professional counselor in...
Aug 10, 2022•49 min
Y'all, I'm so happy to share a conversation I had with Emily Anchia, the Digital Manager at my home sangha, Dawn Mountain. Her degree is in personal finance, so we talked money stuff, and she comes at the topic from a more spiritual angle that reminds me of Marie Kondo more than the finance bros on YouTube. If you'd like to learn more about the basics of Buddhism, please see the links below to my free courses for beginners and to my favorite comprehensive intro courses on Buddhism and Bud...
Jul 27, 2022•37 min
