In this episode, I begin with a brief celebration of the 5th anniversary of this podcast and 1 million unique downloads, then move to a reflection on conditioned existence through the lens of climate change and the pandemic. The Buddha taught that we suffer because of change and conditioned existence. In other words, we suffer because we have a nature that is impermanent and and changeable, based on the conditions that affect us. Because of the truth of conditioned existence, there is nothing fo...
Jun 24, 2023•32 min•Ep. 91
In this episode I am honored to talk with Satish Kumar, a peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, who has been inspiring global change for more than 50 years. As a child, Satish renounced the world and became a wandering Jain monk. Then in his 20s, he undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money, from India to America, for the cause of nuclear disarmament. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration, social justice, ...
May 31, 2023•49 min•Ep. 90
In this episode, I celebrate May Day with a re-release of Episode 13 of this podcast, Right Effort: Joyful Balance . I originally released the episode for Labor Day 2018. I thought back on it during the last couple of weeks as I struggled to be still and relax, while recovering from oral surgery during the first week of warm weather. I was restless because, despite the beautiful smells, sounds, and feelings of the NOW of spring around me, I wasn't really there. My attention was on another time w...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 89
Don't miss this fascinating episode where I talk with Cindy Rasicot, an award-winning author of Finding Venerable Mother: A Daughter's Spiritual Quest to Thailand and creator of Casual Buddhism , a weekly YouTube series that welcomes people from all walks of life to explore their spiritual practice in conversation with Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni. The focus of the conversation is Cindy's spiritual life—especially her relationship with Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, the first woman to be or...
Apr 06, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 88
In this episode I talk with Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, an author, Zen teacher, and Jungian psychotherapist who has devoted his life to the study and application of psychotherapy and Buddhism. In our conversation, we discuss Koshin's latest book, Untangled: Walking The Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion. Among many other things, we talk about: * The needy Cookie Monster in him, myself, and maybe many of you. * The power of perspective in helping you to recognize when your old st...
Mar 08, 2023•54 min•Ep. 87
Welcome to a special BONUS podcast, introducing our first "Chat with Everyday Buddhism" YouTube videocast on our Everyday Buddhism YouTube channel and now as an audio version for the podcast. It is our very first episode of "Chat with Everyday Buddhism" where we are planning a series of chats with our sangha leaders, our sangha members, and special guests. In the first chat, join a conversation with Wendy Shinyo Sensei, the host of the Everyday Buddhism podcast and leader of the Everyday Sangha;...
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 86
In this episode, I talk with Emma Varvaloucas, an editor and writer with a decade+ focusing on discovering and publicizing underreported good news in the nonprofit media space. Emma is the executive director of The Progress Network, where she writes the popular What Could Go Right? weekly newsletter and is co-host of the What Could Go Right? podcast. She was formerly the executive editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and the editor of two books from Wisdom Publications. In a wide-ranging con...
Feb 14, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 85
Enjoy a special release of a Members Only Feature: Bonus Contemplation Podcasts. These are short podcasts for you to use as subjects for contemplation or analytical meditation. I've released this contemplation, "Impermanence", as a birthday gift to my podcast audience, in celebration of my 70th birthday. It is by my friend and fellow Buddhist teacher, Kaspa Thompson. It purposely follows the episode, "Navigating Grief and Loss" by Kimberly Brown. Kaspa directs the Bright Earth with their partner...
Jan 12, 2023•10 min•Ep. 84
Enjoy a special release of a Members Only Feature: Bonus Contemplation Podcasts. These are short podcasts for you to use as subjects for contemplation or analytical meditation. I've released this contemplation, "The Five Remembrances", as a birthday gift to my podcast audience, in celebration of my 70th birthday. It is by my dear friend and Everyday Buddhism Sangha Leader, Bradley Jinaiyo Nussbaum. It purposely follows the episode, "Navigating Grief and Loss" by Kimberly Brown. I am publicly rel...
Jan 12, 2023•11 min•Ep. 83
In this episode, I celebrate my 70th birthday, which was yesterday, with the release of 2 special bonus contemplations on impermanence. I saved a couple of Members-only bonus episodes for release following episode 81, "Navigating Grief and Loss" with Kimberly Brown. They are Impermanence with Kaspa Thompson (Inspired by Shan Tao) and "The Five Remembrances" with Bradley Jinaiyo Nussbaum. I know many of you have more of your life ahead of you rather than behind you, the truth is, we can never kno...
Jan 12, 2023•4 min•Ep. 82
In this episode, I talk with Kimberly Brown about her new book, Navigating Grief and Loss:25 Buddhist Practices to Keep your Heart Open to Yourself and Others, where she shares an approachable pathway to personal and collective well-being through real-life, contemporary meditations based on traditional practices. We talk about the power of love for reducing mental suffering … the illusion of control and remembering things are not all up to us … being present for and taking care of anger and othe...
Dec 28, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 81
In this special "best of" episode, we celebrate Bodhi Day, the traditional celebration of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment. Yet, listen as we discover how it is a celebration of our enlightenment, too. The message of the December darkness is a messenger of our own enlightenment. Without darkness, we couldn't know light. Shakyamuni's enlightenment experience is ours. He proclaimed, "I and the great earth, and all beings are naturally and simultaneously awakened." We don't chase th...
Dec 07, 2022•22 min•Ep. 80
In this episode, I get lost in a conversation with Deborah Eden Tull, who I wished I could have talked with for hours! Deborah Eden Tull is a Zen meditation and dharma teacher, author, public speaker, and sustainability educator. In our conversation we discuss her latest book, Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown , a deep book bridging the Dharma, personal awareness, and transformation—through the lens of darkness and all that word connotes, like uncertainty, ...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 79
In this episode, I have a far-ranging and fascinating conversation with Melissa Moore, Ph.D., a teacher of Buddhism and Contemplative Psychology. In it we talk about her book, The Diamonds Within Us: Uncovering Brilliant Sanity Through Contemplative Psychology , a treasure of a book that weaves the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism with psychology, producing a guidebook of real-life practices to address our internal struggles and the reactions we have to the daunting times we live in. I know you'll ...
Oct 28, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 78
I am honored to present this podcast episode with Rev. Marvin Harada, the Bishop of the Buddhist Churches of America. In it we discuss what makes Shin Buddhism a truly "everyday Buddhism", meditation, mindfulness, chanting, ritual, and about the teachers we have in common and what made them special. I know you'll enjoy this talk with Rev. Harada as much as I did talking with him. He is down-to-earth and delightful, if you can't tell by his giggle! if you've never heard of Shin Buddhism—or don't ...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 77
Enjoy another special preview of a Members Only Feature: Bonus Contemplation Podcasts. These are short podcasts for you to use as subjects for contemplation or analytical meditation. This contemplation, "Loved Just As I Am", is by my dear friend, Satya Robyn, and purposely follows the episode where I share my journey into baldness due to Alopecia Areata. Satya directs the Bright Earth with her partner, Kaspa, and works as a psychotherapist and a writer. These bonus contemplation podcasts will be...
Sep 22, 2022•9 min
In this episode, I share my journey into baldness caused by Alopecia Areata. September is Alopecia Awareness month, so I'm happy to share this episode now. No matter what our hair looks like or changes to, we are never satisfied. Hair seems one of the most prominent marks of our self. We seem uniquely attached to our hair as self. My hair loss first started in mid-December 2021, then paused and seemed to start growing back, then in April it was on a steady downward trend. And by July, I began to...
Sep 20, 2022•30 min•Ep. 76
Join me for a conversation with Jack Huynh, a long-time Buddhist practitioner and the founder of the https://beyondthecushion.com/ website. Jack is a first-generation immigrant to the U.S. from the Vietnam War and found his own path in the Dharma, different from his parents who are also Buddhist practitioners. Jack's website explores the diversity of Buddhist lay practice in a complex modern life. The idea for it was born from Jack's own curiosity and longing to ask lay practitioners about their...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 75
Join me for a special summer mirror episode of the podcast, Zen At The Sharp End by Mark Westmoquette where I was invited to talk about my experience with "troublesome Buddhas." The Zen At The Sharp End podcast focuses on how to turn difficult people and relationships into your best teachers. In each episode, Mark and guests discuss how Buddhist and mindfulness practices can help us see our difficult people or situations as troublesome Buddhas, our greatest teachers. I am sharing this episode of...
Jul 20, 2022•40 min•Ep. 74
Join me for a very special conversation with Ashley Lynn Olson, the author of the book, Confined to Align , and the author of a life that has consistently defied the odds. And that is, in no small part, due to her unbelievable spirit and ability to steer her thoughts, emotions, … and her life into the positive. As you will hear, Ashley has overcome obstacles in her life that would knock many of so far down we would have trouble ever looking up again, including a car accident that killed her fath...
Jul 16, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 73
Join me for a conversation with Arlene Faulk, as we talk about the ups and downs of living with the symptoms, diagnosis, and eventual healing of Multiple Sclerosis. Arlene went from a career as business executive to a calling as a Tai Chi teacher. Arlene captured her dramatic personal story in a memoir, Walking on Pins and Needles: A Memoir of Chronic Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis. Faulk recounts how she regained mobility, embraced the power of Tai Chi, and took back control of h...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 72
In the next two episodes, Episode 72 and Episode 73, I am in conversation with two amazing women who demonstrate with their lives how we can actively accept what seems unacceptable. Although these episodes represent something out of the ordinary for this podcast, they illustrate, in sharp detail, how everything changes and things that we don't want to happen to us WILL happen to us. After these two episodes, look for another Bonus Contemplation on the Five Remembrances for members of the Communi...
Jun 16, 2022•3 min
Enjoy a preview of a NEW Members Only Feature: Bonus Contemplation Podcasts. These are short podcasts for you to use as subjects for contemplation or analytical meditation. They will be released regularly and presented by myself or some of my Bright Dawn Lay Minister/lay ministry student friends and colleagues. To be sure you don't miss any of them, join the Everyday Buddhism Membership Community: Join the Membership Community or the Everyday Sangha: Join the Everyday Sangha...
Jun 10, 2022•10 min
Rev. Gyomay Kubose, my teacher's father, wrote about "purposeless purpose." He said: "Too much intelligence or too much efficiency can create trouble. So, we must learn non-intelligence, which is super intelligence." Does that sound nonsensical? Our sangha is studying The Diamond Sutra now and it is filled with reasoning (or non reasoning?) like that. It is the the superpower of the Dharma because the wisdom it contains is transcendent. You can't "get there" from here, by what is normally consid...
Jun 09, 2022•22 min
In the past year I've noticed a feeling of "disappearing" in the world ... and to the world. A sense of my slipping relevance to the people and world around me. Yet, the good news about seeming to disappear is that it reveals the absolute truth of things as they are. Am I disappearing or am I transcending? It's a simple twist of the head. A change in perception. A change in awareness that I realize through an understanding of emptiness, Japanese psychology, and the experience of meditation. List...
Apr 30, 2022•24 min•Ep. 70
My teacher, mentor, and friend, Rev. Sunnan Koyo Kubose passed away suddenly last month. In his honor, I'm replaying Episode 20, a special interview with him, as the first of a series of episodes dedicated to honoring my teachers. It is through Bright Dawn and my Sensei, I learned how to bring Buddhism into the everyday. Listen as we discuss what the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and its Lay Ministry program is all about, from Rev. Koyo's perspective ... its historical influences, its m...
Apr 10, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 69
Join me for a delightful conversation with Vanessa Sasson who told the Buddha's story in a way you probably never heard it. She masterfully places you in the lives of Siddhartha and his wife, Yasodhara, as Siddhartha comes to grips with suffering for the first time. His obsession with ridding the world of the suffering that so many accept as part of life, is his calling. Sasson's calling was to write this story, based on her many years of study, as a Buddhist and religious scholar, but—most impo...
Mar 09, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 68
Join me for a fascinating conversation with Arthur Brooks, where we talk about two of his 12 books, Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture of Contempt and From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, his new book just released this week. Because we talk about both books, it is a wide-ranging conversation, but I think I can summarize it by using Arthur's words from this episode. He talks about how we see oursel...
Feb 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 67
In this podcast, I talk with Pamela Patton, Director of Pastoral Ministries for All Souls NYC. Pamela is a both a Unitarian Universalist and a Buddhist and she founded the Buddhism and Mindfulness program at the popular Unitarian Universalist church, All Souls, in Manhattan. In a wide-reaching conversation, we talked—among other things—about how important it is to keep your own practice strong if you want to help others. I think this is just as important for all of us to keep in mind, as it is f...
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 66
In this episode, we celebrate the Winter Solstice, Bodhi Day, and the light of the Buddha's Promise, meaning our enlightenment, too. The message of the December darkness is a messenger of our own enlightenment. As Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote, "having discovered for himself the perfect peace of liberation, he kindles for us the light of knowledge, which reveals both the truths that we must see for ourselves and the path of practice that culminates in this liberating vision." We don't chase the darkness a...
Dec 21, 2021•31 min•Ep. 65
