September 19/20, 2023 UPDATE:This course is now available onUdemy.com: https://www.udemy.com/course/progressive-breath-awareness-booster. Even though in a way I got the option I requested of them, I’ve decided since Insight Timer didn’t give notice or choice but made all their courses available only to Plus Members I’ve put the course on Udemy to reach a wider audience of those wanting one off purchases. If anyone wants to do the course outside of these platforms please contact me.
June 27, 2023 UPDATE:Progressive Breath Awareness Booster – New Bonus Mini Coursenow available as an Insight Timer Plus audio free for members. From what I remember, under the older rules, before opening up to all teachers, this mini bonus course is essentially stuff I couldn’t include in the main course because I was limited to 15 minutes per day and had to pitch a detailed plan before starting piecing together production.
The Progressive Breath Awareness Booster course primarily addresses the breath through approaches, observations, perceptions, practice ideas, and with inquiries ranging from simple, commonplace, practical and broad overviews to the bizarre, obscure, esoteric, and minutia. This aim of this course is not to overwhelm, for overthinking, for comparison, or judgement; rather, it primarily intends leveraging cutting edge material to increase and enhance the likelihood of maintaining and prolonging bare awareness of breath for and during breath practices as well as in everyday life.
Since I find being aware of breath (for longer periods) very helpful, yet at the same time quite challenging, the intent to discover new and better ways to deepen and prolong breath awareness brought through most everything in this course to contemplate, meditate with and experience each part piece by piece.
The decision to initially keep private much of the material in this course came when assembling 2020’s Breath: Questions for Contemplation; Perceptions and Practice Ideas which is highly recommended as prerequisite. Since Part One wasn’t designed for Insight Timer’s course format it didn’t make since to use the same title and then tack on a “Part Two” hence the rename Progressive Breath Awareness Booster while also siding with releasing as a course for wider adoption and benefit.
In addition to this public presentation the private portion may be given if working with me, or may be released later. Much of what’s public is aggregated from other public sources while the private includes material I’m unsure of what portion is public and what portion is not.
“Being unsure of what portion is public and what portion is not” mostly means there’s really no simple way to verify what’s considered as new and original for this course hasn’t already been put out there in some shape, form or manner and to what degree of (dis)similarity.
The choice for this type of release also brought up and includes the classic question of whether or not it’s OK to charge for meditation instructions. Below is a portion of my email response to this very consideration (with additions and edits in brackets for retrospective clarity):
. . . I thought and pondered this long and hard while making this course. I even reached out to Insight Timer to request an option for this course to not be sold individually while still making it available to plus members who [more or less] donate to the platform (to support all the free users) and then [plus] members get access to all the courses (amongst other features) and then insight timer in turn more or less donates to teachers if I’m getting all this right.
I made sure nothing included in the course, to my current knowledge, came directly from any Buddhist canon nor directly from any Buddhist teachers (other than a handful of descriptive word choices) as it’s obvious Buddhist teachings are provided freely in the spirit of generosity.
As soon as Insight Timer offers the option to only make this course available to [donating] members I’ll choose that and even better if I will be allowed to mention that anyone interested in this course can contact me directly and get it freely. I surely plan to mention this on my website for the announcement write up for this course too.
. . .
I invite further thoughts, feelings and advice about all this
The female barefoot in the desert image above, as well as the windblown male silhouette for this blog post’s main image were both rejected by Insight Timer. They write, “for courses, we recommend using, clean, warmer, minimalistic, bold, and compelling images that generate positive emotions in our audience.”
And (then) check out the course entirely free for Insight Timer Plus members (currently $60/year which includes a 7-day free trial), or the easy to remember: tinyurl.com/breathcourse. There’s a multiple choice reflective question at the end of each of the five days on Insight Timer with no right or wrong answer as well as a virtual classroom for students to ask (me) questions.
As a bonus, after finishing the course listen to Progressive Breath Awareness Booster – New Bonus Mini Course anInsight Timer Plus Premium Track free for members. From what I remember, under the older rules, before opening up course creation to all teachers, this mini bonus course is essentially stuff I couldn’t include in the main course because I was limited to 15 minutes per day and had to pitch a detailed plan before starting piecing together production.
It’s also currently $19.99 via: https://www.udemy.com/course/progressive-breath-awareness-booster. Even though in a way I got the option I requested of them, I’ve decided since Insight Timer didn’t give notice or choice but made all their courses available only to Plus Members I’ve put the course on Udemy to reach a wider audience of those wanting one off purchases. If anyone wants to do the course outside of these platforms please contact me
Born of necessity for more optimal breath meditation and almost even just being able to use breath as a meditation object nearly at all, I wish the best optimal outcomes to all who come across this course.
Renowned meditation teacher and author Richard Shankman (co-founder of the Sati Center and guiding teacher at Metta Dharma Foundation) shares insights from over 50 years of practice and 35 years of teaching, diving into the nuances of samatha, samadhi, jhanas, and insight. We explore why meditation is about honoring the process rather than chasing rigid attainments, balancing our natural tendencies as “investigators” versus “marinators,” navigating the role of external vs. inner teachers, moving beyond dogmatic “jhana wars,” and his recent explorations combining traditional retreat environments with medicine work.
[Disclaimer: Just because I engaged the topic of psychedelics here does not mean I’ve taken an ultimate stand on them one way or another. While I’m open to reconsidering and adjustments my current view is that these can be very powerful and (thus) unnecessary for how (my) practice is going and my own time for experimenting with them seems behind me. That said I can’t speak for anyone else with these substances other than it seems one would be wise (for starters) to do plenty of research before consideration; find the proper time, place and facilitation and integration processes]
Audio: Samadhi, Jhanas & Beyond: Intuition, Awakening & Deepening Meditation Practice With Richard Shankman
Ai slightly cleaned up transcript:
Chapter 1: Introduction & Richard Shankman’s New Course
Hey Wholeness, welcome. This is Josh of Integrating Presence and I’m rejoined by Richard Shankman. Richard, how’s it going today?
I’m well and I’m happy to be with you again. Nice to see you again.
Likewise. This definitely makes my day today for sure. I’ve been looking forward to talking to you again because I consider myself maybe a little bit of a meditation nerd and like to talk shop when I can, you know. And yeah, we covered a little bit of ground in our last conversation. I’ll link to that. But so I guess what have you been up to since we talked to you last time? I know you have a course out that I got a chance to check out a little bit and I found it really helpful.
Yeah. Well, that is something that I’ve done. Should I say just a little about it, or—?
Yeah, yeah.
What I want, you know I’ve done, well as you know, the world of meditation is a big world. And it’s taught and practiced—well, first of all, we don’t even all have the same goals, so that’s—and of course that’s a whole big topic because in the dharma, or you could say the Buddhist world, depending on your Buddhist tradition, they may have—what the tradition offers is different goals and it’s not one way. And then how we relate to those goals is going to vary for all of us.
So, and then how we practice can unfold, as you know, on its own in different ways, or we can choose to also steer how the practice—and this is a whole interesting conversation that’s actually I think may have happened since I spoke with you, but I’ve had some experiences working with some students where things were unfolding in certain ways that I thought were quite wonderful, and other teachers were saying, “No, no, no, it’s not supposed to be that”. So, you know, it’s a big world, and then on top of that, just so many ways that meditation practice itself is taught.
So what I wanted to do is—over the years, you know, I’ve taught and put some things out there, but I wanted to try to pull together in an accessible way just the way I wanted to offer. And so I created this video course, and it’s these short little—they’re like five to eight or ten-minute little sections. There’s 27 pieces, so it’s a lot.
And on one part, one part is meditation instructions themselves, from—I’m not getting—I could talk about exactly the style I’m teaching in, but it goes from beginning all the way to really jhana and beyond. So, that’s a whole thing—what do you mean by beyond jhana? And then there’s a second stream that’s interwoven, which is teachings and discussions on the topic of samadhi and jhana. So there’s kind of the teachings and the practice. So I put this together, and that was kind of the motivation of wanting to put it together, and it was really everything I know to do that I consider to be a full and complete—the way I would teach. So that was what it was.
Very good. It’s funny that now I’ve switched to more of a systematic practice and more of the Pa-Auk lineage, but before that, I’d just naturally skip around, and that’s what I did through your course because I didn’t—for whatever reason, I didn’t get to go through it from start to finish. But from what I could tell, what I honed in on, you’re very broad-ranging and diplomatic, right? You show many, many doors, and you don’t say you have to go through this door in this way, you know. You cover a lot of ground and you offer many opportunities about this vast world of samatha practice and samadhi, and how it relates to insight, too. So I really appreciate this kind of diplomatic approach.
Chapter 2: An Inclusive, Non-Dogmatic Approach to Meditation
Well, you know, it’s interesting you phrase—use that word, “diplomatic.” I’ve heard that a lot, or you know, “you’re so inclusive”. And the thing is, I’m not just being kind of a nice guy about it. One of the things I’ve just learned, you know, I’ve been practicing myself for gosh, like 50, 55 years, 56 years—that’s a long time—and I’ve been teaching for probably 35 years. So just—I’m just saying based on that, fortunately I got over the delusion I had early on, of you know, when I was young and knew the least, I was the most opinionated. And I’ve really come to see, it’s—you know, we say, “Oh, it’s not one way,” but it’s really not one way.
And so I do feel like, you know, I’m associated—I get identified as a samadhi and jhana person, and that’s—I understand that from my books and all of that, and I do—there’s no question of the power and the value of that, but—and so when I teach, I am teaching in a way where we do want to move in the direction of deepening all of these wholesome qualities: the samadhi side for sure, it’s so beneficial, and the insight, and the mindfulness, and the heart qualities, and all of these things. No question about it, we want to just—but I’ve really—I have to say, so we want to do—and there are two things.
One is how you do that. Look, I understand teachers who have—I don’t mean this disparagingly in any way—they have what I would call a “one-size-fits-all.” If you want to practice with this teacher, this is what you do. You do this technique. You know, they’re just techniques—we don’t want to make a big deal about it—but and that’s fine because they’re just offering their way, and it clearly worked well for them or they wouldn’t be teaching in that way.
And then you’ll go to another teacher, and it’s almost the opposite, and it’s got to be this other way, and it obviously worked well for them or they wouldn’t be teaching it. So that shows us that it’s a diversity, and the important thing is finding the way that makes the practice—I just, because I know you practice with Pa-Auk, I’ve known personally people who’ve gone—I know somebody who spent two years in the monastery or this retreat center with Pa-Auk and said, “Oh, I never got jhana”. They were getting very powerful concentration, it just didn’t match his particular way. So, and that’s fine.
So, what I’ve come to see is that what’s important is finding the practice that resonates, and that—and I know other teachers may disagree, that’s fine—but that makes it come alive the most. And then we follow that, and we have choice points to either let it reveal itself as it deepens and we follow that, or we may want to steer it in different ways, and there’s ways to do that.
So the way I teach in my course is: how do we help people find what’s the practice—even if you don’t even know, start off with one that just sort of really will catch for you, and it’s like, okay, it’s happened and this is really opening. And then as it’s unfolding, we want to let the present moment teach us, because it’ll reveal, and depending on what’s happening, that informs what to do next, as long as you kind of have an idea of where you’re trying to aim, what’s really going to get us there.
So, I’ve—and I’ll just add one more piece. I’ll even back it up further and—
Chapter 3: Process Over Attainment: Practicing Beyond Goals
—I may be kind of really kind of an outlier in what I’m about to say. I’m hesitant here, but I’m just going to go ahead and say it. I would say all of these qualities we’re developing—the insight, the samadhi, the jhana, and all that—are both a really huge, big deal, important, and somehow at the same time, they’re of no importance whatsoever.
And what I mean by that is I really feel that it’s not about what you attain, it’s just being in the process itself—that the doing of it is the practice. What you get or don’t get—it’s just showing up, engaging, and just working the best you can. Even if nothing—I mean, it’s not like nothing’s ever going to happen. Even if nothing happened, just that you doing it is the full-blast practice. It’s really—and that may be different than somebody who’s saying, “No, no, no, you got to get jhana” or whatever.
It’s a really good reminder, too, that, you know, it’s a spiritual cliche almost to say it’s about the journey and not the destination, but it really is. It really is, you know? And that’s what we have to keep reminding—especially, I think, our Western society where we’re so goal-oriented, you know, and it has to pay off or show results right away, and has to be a clearly defined goal and clearly defined progress. You know, that’s all great and stuff, but the main thing is doing the practice, and like, the process and the journey is really important and not losing sight of that.
Yeah. One thing you said is that—I hope we can get the best of both. As a matter of fact, I think—I’m pretty sure in my course, one of the things I say in the intro to the meditation, I say, “You know, we’re sort of given this advice of sort of two things that seem like they’re opposite,” because you know, you hear these teachers that’ll say we’re not trying to get anywhere or be—and it’s like, well, wait a minute. Aren’t we on a path? Of course we’re trying to get somewhere. And so, we’re trying to do both. We’re trying to get somewhere for sure, no question about it. And the way we do that is—that’s the getting nowhere part—is just being here in the present moment. So if we can bring the best of both, then we still can of course move along a path, of course deepen these qualities, but just also, what’s happening in the present moment? How do we work with that? So I mean, to me, that’s the sweet spot.
And you also speak to another thing here about being comfortable with—
Chapter 4: The Paradox of Aiming vs. Just Being Present
—paradox, because as we do this work—and a lot of spiritual work—we’ll be confronted with these paradoxical things, right? Like, okay, there is no goal, but yes, we need to have a goal, and it’s just—it seems like it’s paradox upon paradox, and being comfortable with that and working with that, and doing that or not resolving, but just kind of holding both of these things together at once.
And for instance, you mentioned kind of this inner teacher, and I—some people might call that intuition, and I just—from my experience, just practicing more, not everybody, but a lot of people, their intuition starts to become developed and becomes more online. So again, it’s another maybe paradoxical thing of when to know that your intuition is sufficient and the inner teacher is online, and when to seek and use an external teacher. You know, for years I thought, “Oh no, I just—that’s too awkward. I don’t know where to start with taking on an external teacher.” But—
Chapter 5: Cultivating the Inner Teacher vs. Seeking Guidance
—now actually, I’ve found so much great benefit in taking on a teacher more formally. And some monastics in some traditions, they don’t really take on lay students, so people are left with lay teachers—different styles.
So yeah, balance.
So yeah, exactly. So how would you kind of advise, or what would you have to say about both developing this inner teacher and intuition, along with taking on an external teacher, too?
Psychotherapist and meditation teacher Bill Belanger — founder of Mixed Contemplative Arts — shares his journey through Tibetan Buddhism, his decade-long training under Dr. Daniel P. Brown, and how Western Dharma can evolve beyond rigid dogma by focusing on pragmatic, reality-tested results—an approach he compares to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). We also explore the balance between direct-awareness practices (Mahamudra and Dzogchen) and traditional preliminaries, the nuances of bringing mindfulness into corporate and clinical settings, and Bill’s impactful work introducing meditation and mental health programs to incarcerated individuals on prison tablets.
The Dhamma Brothers (by Dr. Jenny Phillips) – a documentary following an intensive 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat inside a high-security prison.
Audio: What Can Western Buddhism Learn From MMA? Psychotherapy, Dzogchen And Prison Dharma With Bill Belanger
Cleaned up by ai transcript from Youtube:
Chapter 1: Introduction & Bill Belanger’s Background
Hey wholeness, welcome. This is Josh of Integrating Presence and Inner Scout and today I have Bill Binger with me. Bill, how’s it going?
Good. Yeah. How are you? Oh, doing okay.
I’ll just start with this question and since we haven’t talked or we don’t know each other too much, this will be pretty much new for me. Who’s Bill? What kind of work does he do?
Yeah. So, I was trained as a psychotherapist. So I’ve been in the mental health field for a little over a decade but mostly in the corporate world. So making mental wellness courses, psycho education and then we connected because of our shared interest in Buddhism but I come at it from a different tradition. So I’ve been practicing mostly in the Tibetan tradition for about 20 years. So yeah, that’s the the short and sweet answer.
Yeah, I guess so. Uh so this is a primarily Buddhist podcast now integrating presence. I thought we’d talk about that. You you did mention something about a prison program too. So let’s I don’t know much about vajriana and Tibetan traditions. So we’ll have to wade into that. We we wanted to talk also about like intersections of where things were. One of the things when I meet Dharma friends and Dharma acquaintances, one of the first things I like to ask them is like how did you first encounter dharma dharma? I think it’s a good place to start.
Chapter 2: Encountering Buddhism & Studying with Dr. Daniel P. Brown
Yeah. I I don’t know why but I was really curious about it from a very young age. So the first book I got was at age 14 from the Tibetan tradition. I I don’t think I really understood much of it at the time, but I was just intrigued and I just was curious for years and got introduced to mindfulness and I eventually did a trip to Bhutan in India where we studied Tibetan Buddhism.
Then after graduating college, I returned to Asia. So I did India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, but I did a long retreat in Nepal in the Galuka School of Tibetan Buddhism. But I I really spent years kind of searching for the right tradition. And when I came back to Massachusetts, I practiced at a Zen center. And then I eventually met my main teacher. I’m bad with dates. So it must have been around maybe 2010, 2011 or something. And pretty quickly, like on the first night I met him, I was like, “Okay, this is the teacher I’ve been searching for.”
Um, and I studied with him until his passing, which was about maybe four years ago, so for about a decade. And he was a really fascinating figure. His name was uh Dr. Daniel P. Brown. So, he was a psychologist at Harvard. He’s just like probably the only true genius I’ve ever met. Was just like a truly brilliant man. But he also was a lineage teacher in Tibetan Buddhism and translate Tibetan and Sanskrit. But we we talked before we started the beginning of like how to even approach sariana and it’s so esoteric and there’s so much ritual and cultural baggage and I think without him I would have wouldn’t have had a clue. Um but he was enormously gifted at kind of making it accessible presenting it in psychological language demystifying it.
So yeah that has been the most influential of any of the practice I’ve done but you know in the meantime done a lot of other retreats and worked with other teachers but he’s definitely been the head teacher.
Well right on. So I’ll ask about practice here, but I think another convergence question to start this is you’re you said psychotherapy, right?
Mhm. So like if you if if someone were to wander off the streets and just start uh talking without any kind of context or reference about certain you know I I don’t know exactly in that school but I know that there’s some um there’s some stages right with with deity practices in some of the schools and some uh you know wild visualizations. I would say if somebody just walked in and started talking about something that it it may be similar, you know, in the wrong context without the right support and stuff, people might think, well, this guy’s a little bit off his rocker, right?
But but it’s really interesting then how if there’s like a lineage and and a whole bunch of people doing certain things in certain contexts for certain reasons, it’s now uh it’s now not quite the same thing. I mean, we I guess even the crazy wisdom traditions I I guess from what little I know, you know, that’s well, that’s a whole another thing, but like so so how do you uh how do you use first off talk about your practice a little bit because I don’t even know really much of any of the preliminary stuff and there there’s so much commonality though between like samatab fasa from what I understand across a lot of the additions in Yeah, I mean maybe I can just speak very broadly about it too because Dan’s approach was unusual.
Chapter 3: Preliminary Practices (Ngöndro) vs. Direct Awakening
um and and I think in a good way. So when I first did the Tibetan retreat in Nepal, so it was 30 days and then I stayed for another week after, but it’s more in the preliminary practices. So the way that they think of it is I I actually I I it was a long time ago, but I think in that 30 days I think we barely even talked about mindfulness just to show you how much they emphasize the preliminaries. So from their perspective, you don’t just jump into some of those practices, you have to train the mind and get it ready. So, it’s almost like if you’re going to go do an intense sport, you need to stretch, you need to get ready, you need to get pliable. So, there’s a lot of different preliminaries, but a lot that they focused on is more on really it’s on changing your thoughts. It’s on changing thinking patterns and your perspective. The way Dan talked about is like they’re essentially motivational practices. So, the most impactful was the contemplation on death. So you basically uh you know in a meditative state you remind yourself remind yourself that one day you’ll die that you have no control over that and all these things you take so seriously are just going to vanish. Um but you do it over and over and over and you start to really see things differently and so like talking with people who had left that retreat people are you know they quit their jobs they made all these life changes because it’s it puts things in perspective. So from the Tibetan perspective you do that at the beginning to like have really good motivation to practice so that it’s not just something you go in and out of that it’s like a it’s like a 180 in how you view life. So there’s a lot of practices like that.
There’s a lot of visualization practices, you know, again, I I I tend to really look at it more through a psychological lens now. And I think a lot of them are helping really develop a a healthy sense of self, to do attachment work, to develop positive affect, these things that kind of stabilize the self structure before you go to these other practices that could destabilize it potentially. Now, within Tibetan Buddhism, there’s four schools. You could say five if you count Bon, which is the indigenous religion of Tibet. They all have very different flavors. So the Galuka is the newest which is really I think 1300s 1400s is the Dalai Lama school. They’re the most academic and they talk about the preliminary practices the most in my experience. You know frankly they can be a little rigid in too which I I didn’t always resonate with. What Dan did is he didn’t really do that. He we did a little bit of it but he more wanted to jump in the deep end because his critique was that especially with westerners you can spend decades doing those practices but you don’t really ever in his words get a taste of awakening or really experience like what this tradition is about. So what Dan taught is more mahammudra and zogchan which are considered like the pinnacle of Tibetan Buddhism which have much less ritual. You’re not really doing all that visualization and DD practice and it’s about working with awareness really. So again, those resonated with me a lot. I I still appreciate the visualizations and those other practices, but yeah, I I think they’re they’re really prep they’re kind of preparing you for the more advanced things. In my opinion,
it’s really well put and I I do see, you know, Zchin and uh more so even than Mahammudra with with folks I encounter and and teachers and stuff that are familiar with these. and I I don’t necessarily practice this, but I I’m familiar with these a little bit or the you just walk me through the instructions and oh yeah, I’ve I’ve I’ve considered this. I’ve in integrated this in parts of my practice and along the way or things like this. So, and you bring up another good point of when introducing just Buddhism in general, which is a huge thing. You know you got
Chapter 4: Adapting Dharma to the West & Monastic Systems
Please rejoice: for much of October, I will be away on a meditation retreat in Indonesia. I’ve already scheduled two blog posts to publish automatically while I’m gone, and likely no October Meditation Q&A session. Wishing you all the best in your practices and studies
Note: the intro quote of me uses an edit that excludes context and can be interpreted in a way that is not entirely representative of major portions of our conversation
A conversation about meditation, inner work, nervous-system awareness, ethical living, solitude, and learning what to carry—and what to put down.
What if meditation is not really about sitting still, clearing your mind, or becoming “good” at meditation at all? What if the deeper practice is learning how to live—with more awareness, more discernment, and less reactivity?
In this episode of Spirit to Cell, Dayna Wylder sits down with Josh Dippold for a wide-ranging conversation about what can happen when meditation becomes a sustained practice rather than another item on the self-improvement checklist. Josh shares how a difficult period in his twenties led him toward meditation and eventually into a daily two-hour practice that has continued since May 2012.
Together, Dayna and Josh explore how inner work can change the way we relate to our habits, relationships, time, external stress, solitude, and even our own identities. The conversation keeps returning to a deceptively simple question: What are we carrying that we do not actually need to carry?
Episode Highlights
· Why suffering can become the doorway into a deeper practice—and why meditation often unfolds gradually rather than producing immediate results.
· How Josh’s long-term meditation practice brought greater awareness to behavior, ethical conduct, relationships, and lifestyle choices.
· The uncomfortable side of changing habits: what happens when your internal priorities change but your social environment has not.
· Why learning to be alone can become restorative rather than lonely, and how carving out even brief moments of solitude can create space to respond instead of react.
· Dayna’s insight that meditation does not have to mean sitting on a cushion: a breath between calls, a phone-free walk, or a few minutes of genuine presence can become part of everyday practice.
· The difference between productivity and presence—and the subtle trap of turning even self-care into another list of things to accomplish.
· A family dinner practice built around gratitude, hope, and asking what would be helpful before moving into complaints or problem-solving.
· The role of boundaries, discernment, and knowing when to engage with external events versus when to step back and regain perspective.
· Pratyahara, or sense restraint, and the value of intentionally reducing unnecessary stimulation so that subtler forms of awareness can become easier to notice.
· Letting go, and also noticing what we may be unnecessarily “picking up” from other people, situations, and expectations.
· Josh’s experience with extended silent retreats and “noble silence,” including what happens when ordinary social communication is removed.
· The power of language and identity: how changing the way we describe an experience can create more space between ourselves and the label we have placed on it.
The Bigger Conversation:
Meditation as a way of living
Josh describes meditation as something that began during a difficult period and gradually became the centre of his life. What started as a response to suffering evolved into years of self-examination, study, ethical reflection, and increasingly subtle attention to consciousness, emotions, and energy. One of the strongest themes in the conversation is that the practice changes as the practitioner changes.
Dayna brings a complementary perspective from yoga, hypnotherapy, and her own experience with meditation. She reflects on initially approaching meditation with the same achievement-oriented mindset she brought to everything else. Over time, she came to see yoga as much more than physical postures and to recognize the deeper role of philosophy, discipline, awareness, and meditation.
When the practice changes the practitioner
Josh talks openly about how meditation made him more aware of his own behavior and the consequences of his choices. Rather than presenting ethical practice as a set of rigid commandments, he describes it as something to experiment with and live into—while maintaining compassion for ourselves when we fall short.
That idea connects with Dayna’s observation that many changes in her own life did not arrive as forceful decisions. Some habits simply stopped feeling aligned. As greater internal space developed, she found herself listening differently to what felt supportive and what created more noise.
From productivity to presence
One of the most relatable parts of the episode is the discussion about accomplishment. Josh describes recognizing a subtle drive to constantly do, improve, complete, and achieve. Dayna shares a similar realization: even after gaining more time for healing, she initially turned self-care into a four-hour morning checklist.
Their conversation suggests a different question: What if the goal is not to fill every available moment with something productive? Sometimes the practice is creating unstructured space and allowing ourselves to simply be.
The nervous system and the everyday practice
The episode also brings meditation into ordinary life. Dayna describes using short breathing resets between work calls and creating a family dinner ritual that begins with gratitude and hope before moving into what would be helpful. Josh emphasizes the value of remembering the breath and returning to awareness, even when circumstances are busy.
The point is not perfection. It is repetition: creating enough moments of awareness that responsiveness becomes more accessible than automatic reaction.
What do we need to put down?
Later in the conversation, Josh describes letting go as one of the teachings that has become increasingly central for him. He also turns the question around: What are we picking up that we do not actually need to carry?
That distinction is especially powerful when we think about responsibility. Caring about something does not necessarily require carrying it continuously, reacting to every development, or proving that we care through constant engagement. Discernment becomes part of the practice: knowing what is ours to address, what is ours to learn from, and what we can allow to remain outside our sphere of responsibility.
Making room for intuition
The conversation eventually arrives at one of Dayna’s favourite yoga concepts: pratyahara, or sense withdrawal. For Dayna, reducing the constant stream of news and social-media stimulation became a way of creating more internal space. Josh connects this with the Buddhist idea of sense restraint and with consciously reducing unnecessary stimulation.
The deeper theme is not isolation. It is discernment. When the external noise becomes quieter, both speakers describe having more room to notice what is happening internally—and, over time, to distinguish intuition from habit, impulse, or mental noise.
The power of words and identity
Near the end of the episode, Dayna and Josh explore how language can shape identification. Josh describes the distinction between saying “I am” a particular state and recognizing that a particular experience is happening. Dayna connects this with her own awareness of the language she uses around her health experience.
The invitation is not to deny an experience. It is to notice the difference between experiencing something and making it the definition of who we are.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to meditate for two hours a day to benefit from meditation?
No. Josh describes a highly committed personal practice, but both Dayna and Josh discuss accessible forms of everyday mindfulness. A single conscious breath, a short pause between activities, a phone-free walk, or a few minutes of intentional stillness can be a starting point.
What if I cannot stop my mind from thinking?
The conversation does not frame meditation as simply forcing the mind to become blank. Instead, it emphasizes noticing, returning, and developing familiarity with the internal landscape over time.
How can meditation affect everyday life?
In the episode, meditation is connected with awareness of behavior, relationships, habits, ethical choices, boundaries, productivity, and the ability to respond rather than react.
What is pratyahara?
Pratyahara is a yoga term commonly translated as sense withdrawal. In this conversation, Dayna relates it to intentionally reducing external stimulation, while Josh connects it with Buddhist ideas of sense restraint and healthy renunciation.
What does “letting go” mean in this context?
Josh describes it as examining craving, clinging, and unnecessary burdens. He also emphasizes the importance of not using “letting go” to bypass issues that genuinely need attention.
What is noble silence?
Josh describes noble silence as a retreat practice in which participants refrain from ordinary conversation except for designated interactions such as teacher interviews or group Q&As. He explains that removing ordinary social communication can reveal subtler habits of the mind.
Where can I learn more from Josh?
Josh shares two primary websites: IntegratingPresence.com for his more Buddhist-related work and Innerskilled.com for broader personal-development material. His social and video links are listed below.
Episode Description / Summary
Meditation can begin as a way to cope with suffering, but over time it can become something much bigger: a practice for how we think, choose, relate, respond, and live. In this episode of Spirit to Cell, Dayna Wylder speaks with Josh Dippold about his long-term meditation journey, ethical living, social conditioning, solitude, productivity, nervous-system awareness, pratyahara, silent retreats, letting go, and the power of language.
Josh shares why he has maintained a two-hour-a-day meditation practice since May 2012 and what changed as his practice moved from intense inner work into increasingly subtle awareness. Dayna shares her own experiences with meditation, including using it during periods of intense life pressure and recovery, and the ways she has learned to create space rather than turn every healing practice into another achievement.
This conversation is an invitation to become curious about what you are carrying, what you are feeding with your attention, and where you may be able to create more space for responsiveness, discernment, and inner wisdom.
Episode Chapters
00:00 — Introduction & Welcome
01:10 — Josh’s Origin Story with Daily Meditation
04:08 — Moving from Suffering to a Sustained Practice
07:18 — Ethical Precepts & Lifestyle Shifts
14:10 — Breaking Social Conditioning Around Habits
18:35 — Releasing Judgment & Finding Solitude
21:50 — Dayna’s Recovery, MS Journey & Shifting Meditation Styles
26:30 — Mindfulness in Chaos & Daily Life Practices
31:10 — Overcoming the Need to Always Accomplish
34:55 — Nervous System Resets & Family Dinner Rituals
49:30 — The Practice of Pratyahara (Sense Restraint)
54:20 — Letting Go vs. Picking Up Burdens
59:40 — Experiences with Silent Retreats & Noble Silence
1:07:50 — The Power of Language & Detaching from Labels
1:12:40 — Where to Find Josh & Final Insights
1:17:15 — Closing Thoughts & Takeaways
About Dayna Wylder
Dayna Wylder is the founder of Energy Over Matter, host of the Spirit to Cell podcast, and author of Unlearn Dis-Ease, Relearn Well-Being: Frequency. She is an educator, speaker, podcast host, and energy-healing practitioner whose work explores the relationship between the body, energy, nervous system, awareness, and deeper patterns behind persistent symptoms.
Dayna’s work includes the Healing Continuum, a signature approach inspired by the yoga kosha model and focused on creating greater awareness across the layers of our experience.
In this forty-sixth installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash, we continue our inquiry into meditation practice both on and off the cushion this time keeping on with a kind of 37 theme from last month’s “The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva” and now to the 37 Factors of Awakening from the Theravada tradition essential to realizing awakening. We approach these in a non-systematic manner to see what insights and wisdom come up from our studies, experiences and practices while spending more time towards the end on various perception of the physical body including death and decay of the body. As usual we invite questions and comments live, beforehand and after.
Not mentioned in the show: I was later taught that ideally — and eventually, practically too — all these factors need to be cultivated together
Overview of the 37 Factors of Enlightenment
The 37 factors of enlightenment in Theravada Buddhism are essential teachings that guide practitioners toward spiritual development and liberation. These factors are categorized into several groups, each contributing to the path of awakening.
Categories of the 37 Factors
Category
Factors Included
1. Four Ways of Attending to Mindfulness
– Mindfulness of the body (kāyānupassanā) – Mindfulness of feelings (vedanānupassanā) – Mindfulness of the mind (cittānupassanā) – Mindfulness of mental objects (dhammanupassanā)
2. Four Right Strivings
– Efforts to prevent unwholesome states – Efforts to abandon unwholesome states – Efforts to develop wholesome states – Efforts to maintain wholesome states
– Mindfulness (sati) – Investigation of the Dhamma (dhamma vicaya) – Energy (viriya) – Joy (pīti) – Tranquility (passaddhi) – Concentration (samādhi) – Equanimity (upekkhā)
7. Noble Eightfold Path
– Right view (sammā diṭṭhi) – Right intention (sammā saṅkappa) – Right speech (sammā vācā) – Right action (sammā kammanta) – Right livelihood (sammā ājīva) – Right effort (sammā vāyāma) – Right mindfulness (sammā sati) – Right concentration (sammā samādhi)
*There’s naturally an ongoing open call for meditation (related) questions for the (roughly) monthly “Meditation Q & A” either by the various social media means listed; integratingpresence[at]protonmail.com or just showing to type/ask live.*
Background
Regular, current and past visitors to Integrating Presence may recall the monthly series “Ask Us Anything” I did with Denny K Miu from August 2020 until January 2022 — partially including and continuing on with Lydia Grace as co-host for awhile until March 2022.
For a fewmonthsthereafter I did various Insight Timer live events exploring potential new directions and/or a continuation of the Ask Us Anything format while weaving in other related teachings to these events.
Then, after chats with meditation coach Wendy Nash, it became clear to start a new collaboration similar to “Ask Us Anything” simply and clearly called “Meditation Q & A” especially due to the original intent of the Ask Us Anything’s being “discussions about meditation and related topics.”
Audio: 37 Factors Of Awakening | “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #46
Full Verbatim Transcript (with timestamps removed and perhaps minor corrections via ai):
Hey, folks. Welcome. This is Josh of Integrating Presence and I’m joined by Wendy Nash once again. Wendy, what’s going on?
Well, I’m here on Gabbie Gabbie country in Queensland in Caboolture as usual. What’s going on? I was in an expo this morning about well-being. I gave a mindfulness session. So, do you know how many people came along? How many, Wendy? Zero.
I guess everybody’s completely well.
That’s great. Yeah. Well, you know, I’m not sure that’s quite how it works, but it’s not—it’s a very poor community, so I don’t think that’s going to be the case. It’s more just it’s not the right time and place. And I think that’s the thing about meditation, you know, sometimes people just aren’t ready for it. And that’s just how it is. You know, it took me I think five years or something, three years before I decided, oh yeah, I’m ready now. So, yeah.
You know, that’s a really good point. And I’ve now been meditating with people from Buddhist countries and things and actually from what I understand a lot of folks from Buddhist countries, a lot of them don’t even meditate either. You know, it’s purely kind of devotional and dāna and sīla is a practice, you know, ethics. And so I guess it is more rare than we want to believe even though there’s supposedly a huge Western mindfulness craze. You know, I guess it is what it is. And yeah, so today’s session we’re going to—I mean, you know, well, this is kind of unusual because I don’t normally do themes and things but since we did 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva last time I thought 37’s an interesting number. There’s another number I know, 37, and it’s called the 37 Factors of Awakening. And in Buddhism there’s a lot of lists and so this is no exception. In fact, this is kind of a super list of lists of lists type of thing. So, let me just read the little introduction I have here again.
In this swapcast recorded near the Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) https://www.iltk.org Venerable Yudrön (Asokā) of https://youtube.com/@echoesandstoriesofdhamma and I talk a little Buddhist philosophy, monastic training, daily mindfulness practice, and navigating the spiritual path followed by an excerpt from a conversation with Venerable Tenzin Pamo who lives at ILTK
Many thanks to Venerable Yudrön for taking the time out to invite me to record, the sharing involved and the editting
0:00 – Introduction & Welcome
02:30 – Life & Practice at ILTK
07:15 – Monastic Training & Community Dynamics
13:40 – Integrating Study & Daily Meditation
20:10 – Working Through Obstacles & Doubts
23:30 – Venerable Tenzin Pamo
Some of the Teachers, Historical Figures, Places, Organizations & Communities Mentioned / Referenced:
Lama Thubten Yeshe (Lama Yeshe – Co-founder of FPMT/ILTK; mentioned for his book When the Chocolate Runs Out)
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Co-founder of FPMT, ILTK, Kopan Monastery, and Kopan Nunnery)
Ajahn Chah / Thai Forest Masters / Luang Por (Referenced in connection with Cittaviveka / Chithurst Buddhist Monastery and teachers who came from the Thai Forest Tradition)
Dharmakirti (Dharmak in transcript – 7th-century Indian Buddhist philosopher associated with Buddhist logic, epistemology, and valid cognition)
Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) (Pomaia, Tuscany, Italy)
FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition)
Audio: Monastic Life, Mind & Meditation With Venerable Yudrön (Asokā)
Timestamps removed from YouTube transcript with no edits via ai:
Hey, wholeness. Welcome. This is Josh of Integrating Presence and today I’m joined by venerable Udrung. Venerable, how’s it going today?
Oh, it’s wonderful. It’s really wonderful. I’m fine. And um in a beautiful spot as well. You can see behind me.
Let me just let me just jump in real quick. We’re going to publish this on both integrating presence and echoes and stories of Dharma. So venerable, why don’t you explain what’s going on here?
I currently am in northern Tuskanyany at um the institut uh established 1976.
Uh the location is stunning. It’s on the
Tescan Hills and it’s a several century old castle refurbished and uh made
adequate for several monastic sana to to be settled here over
the years. Some resident teachers even have passed away already after staying here 27 30 years.
So institut is belongs to the galuk tradition of
Tibetan Buddhism and the idea in the beginning
was born uh by two masters uh lama who’s known because he wrote
this little book called when the chocolate runs out about happiness basically and uh Lama
and Lama both of them Tibetans who had escaped to Nepal
they both passed away. Lazopar passed away two years two almost three years ago in Nepal. He also was the one who
established Copan monastery on the hills of Kathmandu and Copan Nanary also on
the hills of Kathmandu in Nepal. And so the institute is celebrating this year his its 50th anniversary.
So there’s lots of activities and uh it’s a semi monastic and lay
institute. So it’s not a monastery but it functions as partial monastery with the lay community and there are
lots of activities um like secular Actually,
there also is a a teacher here who used to be in the
Thai forest tradition and knows uh Rampo.
It’s very vibrant and obviously it reminds me of how Cheetah
Monastery was established the same year in the UK.
Uh it has a bit of a similar energy inside.
I’ve been here 10 days and I set on a retreat
that also contains some teachings, some essential teachings, online training
and I have been blessed to be integrated in the nuns community.
So, and reconnect with nuns whom I had met in Bhutan last year in November.
It’s been very vibrant, very intense and beautiful and we also been blessed with beautiful weather. So, this is the end
of the summer in Tuskany and the air is very pure. also have recorded a number of interviews with some of the nuns and I found a beautiful community.
Some of them have had incredible uh journeys through the Himalayas.
Also, interestingly, the nuns community uh counts
14 months altogether and four monks in addition four western monks in addition to the the Tibetan teachers.
So there were more nuns [laughter] than monks, but it’s still not a monastery and it’s definitely not a nand.
So it’s been very it’s been wonderful actually to to listen to them and to to listen to their stories. So I will
integrate some of those uh interviews into our conversation as well.
And thanks for taking the time to uh do that. I’m looking forward to to to hearing all these. I mean that’s quite a
lot of work organizing and then you know almost kind of not convincing but you know and then taking the time and
everything like that. Um did you want to say anything about that or Yes. I real Yes. Actually it’s
interesting when we had the our our conversation last time I had this sense that I was sharing a lot. I’m not used to speak about my journey and my myself.
So I I had a suddenly a thought that hm maybe it’s too much of a personal story
and u and then I arrived here and all these nuns and the teachings and I
said said would you be willing to be part of my introduction to a podcast
where I was on conversation with a host who wanted to know about my journey.
Yes, please. [laughter] And I said and they asked then they said why would you like to do it under that format? I said well I I’m probably going
to use that those interviews in different formats but uh because I thought that I was talking
too much about myself but obviously it’s a paradox because the actual podcast what it was was my my journey and they
said but you know you have to remember that the conditions of the western nuns
in particular compared to other nuns in all traditions is is very specific because we need to find homes for
especially when we don’t speak Tibetan if you are in a Tibetan tradition and so people are interested to hear about
these stories and I said well then even more so I want to add some of some of your our story and I will do that it will require
some editing I’ve had interesting stories and and already I had one of my assumptions it’s not necessarily my own
assumption but it’s it’s a general assumptions that tends to to consider that women tend to ordain late later in life compared to
men. And there some of them have uh a full life not just the work but they have a husband and they have children
and then things happen and you know something causes and condition come together and they decide to become
monastics and the next day I met one of the nuns who arrived from India and she’s a tutor for the debating part of
the master program and I realized she ordained here when
she was 23. So she actually is the eldest in terms of years of ordination.
She’s not the eldest because she’s only 43. The eldest is is beyond 70.
But there are nuns here who have been ordained for 18 and 16, 17, 18, 19 years. So it’s a very particular
community. and all my assumptions or the general assumptions were like completely shattered [laughter] in on in many in many aspects. So it’s
it’s been extremely uh important for me to be here at this stage of my journey and at the
same time to hear those stories. The location here is quite stunning.
Yeah, big yeah as I say that’s that’s awesome. and some other synchronicities here. You know, I heard some uh construction in the
background there. Here I am at a public place u to I was just talking to a um a lay gentleman uh out in the Boston area
and he’s a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and he’s like he wants to integrate or implement this debating culture uh
somehow in the United States and we were just talking how it is kind of the wild west for Dhamma in the United States
[Ai assist:] In this episode of Integrating Presence, I’m joined by Dr. Will Tuttle, author of The World Peace Diet, to explore a side of his life many may not know: his deep roots in Zen Buddhism.
Dr. Tuttle shares his incredible “existential” journey—from being raised in the birthplace of American Transcendentalism to walking across the country with no money in search of a Master. We dive deep into his experiences living at “The Farm” in Tennessee, finding his teacher in a Zen center in Alabama, and eventually traveling to South Korea to live and practice as a Zen monk at Songgwangsa.
In this conversation, we discuss:
The influence of Emerson and Thoreau on his early spiritual path.
The “man with the staff” prophecy and finding his Zen Master.
The rigorous daily life of a monk in a traditional Korean monastery.
The synthesis of meditation and sutra study in the Jogye Order.
The mysterious “relics” (Sarira) found in the ashes of enlightened masters.
How the spiritual landscape of South Korea has shifted over the decades.
You are correct—that was a condensed and polished version formatted for readability, rather than the literal word-for-word transcript.
Here is the complete, exact transcript text verbatim from the original provided audio context. All filler words, stutters, false starts, and exact conversational phrasing are preserved, cleaned of chapter markers, and formatted cleanly with speaker tags and paragraph breaks for WordPress:
Josh: Hey wholeness, welcome. This is Josh of Interklild and Integrating Presence and I’m rejoined by Dr. Will Tuttle. I guess it’s Dr. 2, right? Still.
Will Tuttle: Yes.
Josh: Cool. How’s it going today?
Will Tuttle: Thank you, Josh. It’s going very well and I really appreciate the platform you’re creating and thanks everyone for listening in. Great to be here.
Josh: Well, right on. Yeah. for the the first time we we talked on my other platform and you gave a story of kind of your background, you know, of how you went across the country early on and how it led to so many things from there. So, I’ll link to that in the show notes. So, we have to go back through all that. But I just I wanted to talk more on integrating presence here since it’s more of a Buddhist related platform now. how you how you came to the dharma dharma, you know, how you how what was your like first exposure to it and and just general background and uh we we’ll just jump in there too.
Will Tuttle: Sure. Well, you know, that’s a great question. I I think I was probably in a way first exposed to the dharma through the American transcendentalist. I was born and raised in conquered Massachusetts and I wasn’t that aware of it growing up as a kid but when I went away to college in Maine in the early 1970s I started to read Emerson and thorough and that led to some teachings a little bit into Dowoism Buddhism they were really bringing in fact I found out later thorough had the largest library of Asian books in the in North America Dowism Bavad Gita all these things so they were beginning to integrate these and trying to fit it into the Christian background that they were in and created transcendentalist kind of thinking. So I and then I remember I was at KBY College in Maine. I took a course in meditation that was taught by a a Christian the chaplain actually of the of the chapel. But we learned about Zen, you know, we studied Zen. So I started watching my breath for the first time. I was only maybe I don’t know 19 or 20 years old, something like that. And that was one thing led to another and I started to talk to my family, my younger brother Ed and we decided well actually we discovered this book about uh Ramana Maharshi from India but his practice was very similar to a He said go deeper with the question of who am I? You know what is this being you think you are? You’re not this body you know and so I was introduced to those ideas and I actually loved it. It was like I’ve been raised in a Christian tradition but it it had been like kind of like water on a duck’s back. It never really took for me. I just didn’t quite connect for some reason. But when I heard these teachings, I was like real water. I think I was so thirsty. And so we just decided, and I won’t go into it, but we decided to leave home, walk go to California, walk all the way there with no money. And we ended up walking west to Buffalo and then south over a several month period about 20 miles a day. We ended up at the farm in Tennessee, which was the largest in the world back in 1975. and they were studying basically under Steven Gaskin who was sort of the main founder but he was a student of Suzuki Roshi and and did a lot of work with the Zen Center and Suzuki Roshi at the San Francisco Zen Center and and right when we got there the book the Zen mind beginner’s mind had just come out everybody was reading that book and so we we read it too and it kind of went along with everything that we were thinking and you know or non-thinking I guess and but it was just too focused there on work I mean it was like just hard work, you know, cutting wood for it was January, it was freezing or December. And so we left there and walked farther south to Alabama and we ended up we heard [clears throat] about and we ended up at a Zen center, a Korean Zen center in Husville, Alabama that had been started by uh some people who had connected up with Soyang Bosanim. He was a a Zen master from South Korea. And so we could just practice there. It was so great. We we they gave us a room. My grandmother sent us $10 a week. we could live on back in 1975. You could live on that. And uh we sat from like 6:00 a.m. till 9:00 p.m. every day. We just nobody, you know, we had our and there were some people there that were serious uh students of the dharma and they would help us and teach us certain things. And then it was funny because we had heard when we were at the at the farm that by this kind of a psychic person who said, “I see a man with a staff coming into your life.” And so after about 3 months in in March, this guy from Northern California, a Zen master was going to come and teach there and they showed us a picture of this old man and he was standing there with a staff and we said, “Oh, there he is, you know, the man with the staff.” So he came and so ended up studying with him at Master Gilbert. I also, it’s a long story, but I went I ended up in a Tibetan Buddhist meditation center called Kagur Jordan Kunab in San Francisco. I got out there in I guess it was 1978 maybe and I studied there for a few years. I really love I really liked the Tibetan Buddhist practices and I got pretty deeply into it but I my heart was still with Zen. So I ended up leaving there and studying with my Zen teacher who lived in Oakland. He was in you maybe 80 years old at that point and and I studied with him for the ne till he was about 98 you know for the next almost 20 years. And then during that time I also would studied with Stokang Bosanim from he would come over you know and uh from Korea and then he set it up for me to go over to Slangsa and study there shave my head become a Zen monk for a while there. So that was my introduction into it and it was really mainly I think at that Zen center in Huntsville because we were really into it there and there was classes you know every other night on meditation and and so forth. So that was when we really started reading all the books all the the the and it was and it was both it was Zen but I studied quite a bit of the Terravadan teachings mindfulness practices that are so important Shamata vaposa so forth as the foundational teachings and and then I got into the vajriana in California so I I feel like I have a pretty broad range over the years but but Zen is still sort of my main focus.
In this forty-fifth installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash, we continue our inquiry into meditation practice both on and off the cushion following up this time with a comment Wendy made last month about having memorized and worked with “The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva” (Gyelse Tokmey Zangpo, 14th century), a classic Tibetan Buddhist text that outlines the mindsets, behaviors, and spiritual training required to cultivate compassion and altruism. So we planned to look at least some of these in the light of formal and daily life practice.
Ai summarizes our talk thus:
Personal Context & Personal Experiences: Wendy shares her history of reciting the 37 practices daily while dealing with a stressful job, separation, and difficult interactions in England. Josh describes his current setting house-sitting in Illinois and recounts a recent cafe encounter where applying loving-kindness helped shift a tense atmosphere.
Interpreting the 37 Practices: The hosts explore the tone of the verses—debating whether they read as absurdly difficult, tongue-in-cheek, or radical inversions of normal human behavior. Verses highlighted include:
Giving away possessions or taking on an attacker’s negative karma without thought of retaliation.
Regarding someone who exposes hidden faults or acts like an enemy as a spiritual friend or child.
Taming one’s own mind with loving-kindness rather than trying to conquer external enemies.
Practicing generosity without expectation of karmic reward.
Mindfulness, Ego, and Relationships: They reflect on how the practices highlight human ego, self-righteousness, and the tendency to identify with insights. They discuss the challenges of managing physical sensations/emotions (vedana) and how intimate relationships and daily life serve as the true training ground for self-awareness.
Conclusion: The hosts conclude that while taking the Bodhisattva path literally feels like a massive, “Sisyfean” task, its core power lies in prompting an internal shift in perception and self-honesty.
Below is a breakdown of the 37 practices via ai conjuring, grouped by their core themes:
Foundational Conditions (Practices 1–9)
Appreciate human birth: Utilize the precious opportunity of this life to study and practice the Dharma.
Abandon attachment and aversion: Leave environments that trigger negative emotional reactions or unhealthy attachments.
Seek solitude: Retreat from distractions to allow inner clarity and spiritual progress to grow.
Impermanence: Realize that money, body, and loved ones will all pass away; let go of mundane fixations.
Avoid bad company: Distance yourself from influences that increase negative emotions and diminish virtues.
Rely on spiritual teachers: Seek guidance from qualified teachers whose qualities inspire peace and discipline.
Take refuge: Put your trust in the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) for genuine protection.
Avoid harmful actions: Refrain from unwholesome actions to avoid future suffering.
Seek permanent freedom: Recognize that worldly pleasure is fleeting, and aim for ultimate liberation.
Intention & The Altruistic Mind (Practices 10–11)
Generate Bodhicitta: Direct all spiritual effort toward liberating every sentient being from suffering.
Exchange self for others: Understand that suffering comes from self-cherishing, while happiness comes from cherishing others
Transforming Adversity into the Path (Practices 12–21)
When robbed: Offer your body, wealth, and merit to the person who stole from you.
When attacked: Take upon yourself the harm and negative karma of the attacker.
When insulted: Speak of the other person’s virtues in return.
When exposed or criticized: Respect the critic as a spiritual teacher.
When betrayed: Treat a ungrateful person like a loving parent treats a child.
When humiliated: Bow down to the aggressor with respect.
When destitute or ill: Accept suffering joyfully as a tool to burn off negative karma.
When wealthy or famous: Remain humble and recognize that material success is temporary.
When angry: Tame your own mind rather than trying to conquer external enemies.
When overcome by desire: Let go of addictive objects immediately, as if drinking salt water.
The Six Paramitas / Perfections (Practices 22–30)
Generosity: Give without expecting anything in return.
Ethical conduct: Maintain morality, as you cannot help others if you cannot discipline yourself.
Patience: Treat hostile people as valuable teachers of patience.
Enthusiastic effort: Apply diligence to spiritual training as if your hair were on fire.
Concentration: Cultivate deep meditation (samadhi) to calm the mind.
Wisdom: Realize emptiness—that all phenomena lack inherent, independent existence.
Examine your own flaws: Continually reflect on your own mistakes rather than judging others.
Avoid harsh words: Speak gently, as harsh language disturbs others and damages virtue.
Mindfulness: Keep constant watch over the state of your mind and actions.
Wisdom & Final Integration (Practices 31–37)
Self-reflection: Continuously examine your faults to eliminate them.
Avoid pointing out faults: Never speak ill of another practitioner’s mistakes.
Abandon attachment to offerings: Avoid competing for wealth, status, or praise.
Avoid harsh speech: Refrain from words that cause distress to others.
Apply remedies immediately: Eradicate disturbing emotions the moment they arise.
Maintain continuous mindfulness: Always ask: “What is the state of my mind right now?”
Dedicate merit: Direct all positive energy gained from these practices toward the enlightenment of all beings.
The Thirty-Seven Practices of All the Bodhisattvas
You see that all things are beyond coming and going, Yet still you strive solely for the sake of living beings— To you, my precious guru inseparable from Lord Avalokita, I offer perpetual homage, respectfully, with body, speech and mind.
The perfect buddhas, who are the source of all benefit and joy, Come into being through accomplishing the sacred Dharma. And since this in turn depends on knowing how to practise, I shall now describe the practices of all the buddhas’ heirs.
1. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to study, reflect and meditate, Tirelessly, both day and night, without ever straying into idleness, In order to free oneself and others from this ocean of saṃsāra, Having gained this supreme vessel—a free, well-favoured human life, so difficult to find.
2. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to leave behind one’s homeland, Where our attachment to family and friends overwhelms us like a torrent, While our aversion towards enemies rages inside us like a blazing fire, And delusion’s darkness obscures what must be adopted and abandoned.
3. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to take to solitary places, Avoiding the unwholesome, so that destructive emotions gradually fade away, And, in the absence of distraction, virtuous practice naturally gains strength; Whilst, with awareness clearly focused, we gain conviction in the teachings.
4. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to renounce this life’s concerns, For friends and relatives, long acquainted, must all go their separate ways; Wealth and prized possessions, painstakingly acquired, must all be left behind; And consciousness, the guest who lodges in the body, must in time depart.
5. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to avoid destructive friends, In whose company the three poisons of the mind grow stronger, And we engage less and less in study, reflection and meditation, So that love and compassion fade away until they are no more.
6. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cherish spiritual friends, By regarding them as even more precious than one’s own body, Since they are the ones who will help to rid us of all our faults, And make our virtues grow ever greater just like the waxing moon.
7. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to take refuge in the Three Jewels, Since they will never fail to provide protection for all who call upon them, For whom are the ordinary gods of this world ever capable of helping, As long as they themselves are trapped within saṃsāra’s vicious cycle?
8. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to commit a harmful act, Even though not to do so might put one’s very life at risk, For the Sage himself has taught how negative actions will ripen Into the manifold miseries of the lower realms, so difficult to endure.
9. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to strive towards the goal, Which is the supreme state of changeless, everlasting liberation, Since all the happiness of the three realms lasts but a moment, And then is quickly gone, just like dewdrops on blades of grass.
10. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to arouse bodhicitta, So as to bring freedom to all sentient beings, infinite in number. For how can true happiness ever be found while our mothers, Who have cared for us throughout the ages, endure such pain?
11. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to make a genuine exchange Of one’s own happiness and well-being for all the sufferings of others. Since all misery comes from seeking happiness for oneself alone, Whilst perfect buddhahood is born from the wish for others’ good.
12. Even if others, in the grips of great desire, should steal, Or encourage others to take away, all the wealth that I possess, To dedicate to them entirely my body, possessions and all my merits From the past, present and future— this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
13. Even if others should seek to cut off my head, Though I’ve done them not the slightest wrong, To take upon myself, out of compassion, All the harms they have amassed—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
14. Even if others should declare before the world All manner of unpleasant things about me, To speak only of their qualities in return, With a mind that’s filled with love—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
15. Even if others should expose my hidden faults or deride me When speaking amidst great gatherings of many people, To conceive of them as spiritual friends and to bow Before them in respect—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
16. Even if others whom I have cared for like children of my own Should turn upon me and treat me as an enemy, To regard them only with special fondness and affection, As a mother would her ailing child—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
17. Even if others, equal or inferior to me in status, Should, out of arrogance, disparage me, To honour them, as I would my teacher, By bowing down my head before them—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
18. Even though I may be destitute and despised by all, Beset with terrible illness and plagued by evil spirits, Still to take upon myself all beings’ ills and harmful actions, Without ever losing heart—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
19. Even though I may be famous and revered by all, And as rich as Vaiśravaṇa, the god of wealth himself, To see the futility of all the glory and riches of this world And to remain without conceit—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
20. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to subdue the mind With the forces of loving kindness and compassion. For unless the real adversary—my own anger—is defeated, Outer enemies, though I may conquer them, will continue to appear.
21. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to turn away immediately From those things which bring desire and attachment. For the pleasures of the senses are just like salty water: The more we taste of them, the more our thirst increases.
22. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to entertain concepts, Which revolve around dualistic notions of perceiver and perceived, In the knowledge that all these appearances are but the mind itself, Whilst mind’s own nature is forever beyond the limitations of ideas.
23. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to let go of grasping When encountering things one finds pleasant or attractive, Considering them to be like rainbows in the summer skies— Beautiful in appearance, yet in truth devoid of any substance.
24. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to recognize delusion Whenever one is confronted by adversity or misfortune. For these sufferings are just like the death of a child in a dream, And it’s so exhausting to cling to delusory perceptions as real.
25. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to give out of generosity, With no hopes of karmic recompense or expectation of reward. For if those who seek awakening must give even their own bodies, What need is there to mention mere outer objects and possessions?
26. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to observe ethical restraint, Without the slightest intention of continuing in saṃsāric existence. For lacking discipline one will never secure even one’s own well-being, And so any thought of bringing benefit to others would be absurd.
27. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cultivate patience, Free from any trace of animosity towards anyone at all, Since any potential source of harm is like a priceless treasure To the bodhisattva who is eager to enjoy a wealth of virtue.
28. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to strive with enthusiastic diligence— The source of all good qualities—when working for the sake of all who live; Seeing that even śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, who labour for themselves alone, Exert themselves as if urgently trying to extinguish fires upon their heads.
29. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cultivate concentration, Which utterly transcends the four formless absorptions, In the knowledge that mental afflictions are overcome entirely Through penetrating insight suffused with stable calm.
30. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cultivate wisdom, Beyond the three conceptual spheres, alongside skilful means, Since it is not possible to attain the perfect level of awakening Through the other five pāramitās alone, in wisdom’s absence.
31. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to scrutinize oneself Continually and to rid oneself of faults whenever they appear. For unless one checks carefully to find one’s own confusion, One might appear to be practising Dharma, but act against it.
32. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to speak ill Of others who have embarked upon the greater vehicle, For if, under the influence of destructive emotions, I speak of other bodhisattvas’ failings, it is I who am at fault.
33. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to let go of attachment To the households of benefactors and of family and friends, Since one’s study, reflection and meditation will all diminish When one quarrels and competes for honours and rewards.
34. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to avoid harsh words, Which others might find unpleasant or distasteful, Since abusive language upsets the minds of others, And thereby undermines a bodhisattva’s conduct.
35. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to slay attachment And the rest—mind’s afflictions—at once, the very moment they arise, Taking as weapons the remedies held with mindfulness and vigilance. For once the kleshas have become familiar, they’ll be harder to avert.
36. In short, no matter what one might be doing, By examining always the status of one’s mind, With continuous mindfulness and alertness, To bring about the good of others—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
37. The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to dedicate towards enlightenment All the virtue to be gained through making effort in these ways, With wisdom that is purified entirely of the three conceptual spheres, So as to dispel the sufferings of the infinity of beings.
Here I have set down for those who wish to follow the bodhisattva path, Thirty-seven practices to be adopted by all the buddhas’ heirs, Based on what is taught in the sūtras, tantras and treatises, And following the instructions of the great masters of the past.
Since my intellect is only feeble and I have studied but a little, This is not a composition likely to delight the connoisseurs, Yet since I’ve relied upon the sūtras and what the saints have taught I feel these are indeed the genuine trainings of the buddhas’ heirs.
Still, the tremendous waves of activity of the bodhisattvas Are difficult for simple-minded folk like me to comprehend, And I must therefore beg the indulgence of all the perfect saints For any contradictions, irrelevancies or other flaws this may contain.
Through whatever merit has here been gained, may all beings Generate sublime bodhicitta, both relative and absolute, And through this, come to equal Lord Avalokiteśvara, Transcending the extremes of existence and quiescence.
This was composed in Jewel Cave (Rinchen Puk) in Ngulchu by the monk Tokme, a teacher of scripture and reasoning, for his own and others’ benefit.
*There’s naturally an ongoing open call for meditation (related) questions for the (roughly) monthly “Meditation Q & A” either by the various social media means listed; integratingpresence[at]protonmail.com or just showing to type/ask live.*
Background
Regular, current and past visitors to Integrating Presence may recall the monthly series “Ask Us Anything” I did with Denny K Miu from August 2020 until January 2022 — partially including and continuing on with Lydia Grace as co-host for awhile until March 2022.
For a fewmonthsthereafter I did various Insight Timer live events exploring potential new directions and/or a continuation of the Ask Us Anything format while weaving in other related teachings to these events.
Then, after chats with meditation coach Wendy Nash, it became clear to start a new collaboration similar to “Ask Us Anything” simply and clearly called “Meditation Q & A” especially due to the original intent of the Ask Us Anything’s being “discussions about meditation and related topics.”
Audio: 37 Practices Of A Bodhisattva | “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #45
Full Raw Verbatim Transcript (with timestamps removed via ai and whatever else it did to it:
Hello and welcome everyone. Uh besides this technical challenges, Wendy, how are you? How’s it going?
Well, I had my birthday this week.
Oh, happy late birthday. I don’t know why I missed it. I should should have had this down, but anyway, who who cares?
Better late than never. Okay, so my friend I said, “No presents. No presents. No presents.” cuz I always I’m I hate I hate it when people give me presents because I they give like people give me what they think they should get me rather than what I actually want and you have to know me really well to know me what I want and my partners never get it right like they just never get it right and they’re supposed to be paying attention and they’re rubbish at it. So I just go no presence let’s just not do it. Nonetheless, she did it and it was actually very sweet and she scrimps and saves and she has like she really has a lot of expenses. So for her to send a boat like a box of a box of with a plant and a balloon that would have been a massive massive kind of financial burden for her. Very very sweet. Very sweet.
A that’s cool.
Yeah. So I’m here on Gabby Gabby Country in Queensland. And Josh, you’re in a cafe.
Yeah. You know, I’m I am um housesitting for friends in Eastern Illinois while they go to Death Valley in in uh in the States with their kids. And so there’s no internet out there in my phone plan. It works out there, but barely. So I thought, you know, better better come here and uh do this. And so it it’s kind of fitting for this. usually don’t get into bodhicit sappa practices because I don’t you know I’m not on this path but that’s it’s all about out uh being out and helping people right and saving all beings everywhere. Um so a little little tongue and it but you know kind of um so Wendy why don’t you um you mentioned these 37 practices of abod sappa last time and I I was just looking now and AI messed it up pretty much you know it it it watered it down and and duplicated a lot of stuff. So I put the the regular text in the post too. So what do you want to say about this? Where do you want to start?
So I like the 37 practices of body sata because I a few years ago I was having a miserable time in a job. I was miserable where I was living. I had recently separated. I and the people were just awful at work. Like they were just really awful. And so I actually took to this practice of reciting the 37 practices every morning when I meditated and just to myself and just and I you know I memorized it all. And it was really good cuz when it said like it’s actually very very funny. So the verses are very very funny. So let me just see if I can bring up the verses. And while you’re looking at one, let me um the what I have up here is under the guise of thing transforming adversity into path. When robbed, offer your body, wealth, and merit to the person who stole from you. You know. Yeah. It’s so it’s like okay. Wow. I I’m not there. I I couldn’t imagine doing that when attacked, take upon yourself the harm and negative karma of the attacker, you know. So, it’s kind of tongue and cheek
[Ai assist:] Integrating Presence and Echoes and Stories of Dhamma come together in this special swapcast to speak with Bhante Bhikkhu Subhūti, an American Buddhist monastic based in Sri Lanka.
Now in his 20th vassa, Bhante Subhūti reflects on the journey that brought him from lay life into monastic training, and on what two decades of living the monastic life have taught him about practice, discipline, and the mind.
The conversation also explores aspects of meditation practice, including his experience of developing and sustaining a contemplative practice within the monastic environment. Alongside the formal dimensions of Buddhist practice, Bhante Subhūti shares practical reflections and advice for lay practitioners—how the Dhamma can be integrated into ordinary life, and what can genuinely support spiritual development beyond the meditation cushion.
Chapter Titles (with approximate timestamps):
0:00 – Introduction & Welcome
0:35 – Meeting Bhante Subhūti
1:23 – Early Spiritual Journey & Be Here Now
3:46 – Discovering Buddhism in College
5:00 – Learning Meditation & the Computer Group
8:48 – Leaving Bayer Diagnostics & the Decision to Travel
12:16 – From Tibetan & Mahayana to Theravada & Goenka
16:10 – The Fiji Watch Story: The Turning Point
24:20 – Evacuation, India, and Commitment to Ordination
26:17 – Wat Pah Nanachat & Discovering Pa-Auk
29:29 – Arrival in Myanmar & First Ordination (2001)
34:05 – Visa Crisis & Moving to Sri Lanka (2007)
36:57 – Reordination & Doubts About the Original Ordination
41:12 – Return to Myanmar, Hawaii, and Later Path
44:22 – Current Life: IIT, Master’s Program & Present
53:31 – Concepts, Conventional Truth & Ultimate Reality
1:01:38 – Breath Meditation, Four Elements & Kasinas
Note: if interested in joining Bhante Subhūti’s (roughly every other) Sunday online Dhamma gathering please contact Bhante or other attendees to request to join
Here’s just a outline of a sampling of a portion of the talk:
Josh: I’d like to jump into a key Dhamma topic: concepts. In basic practice, concepts like the body or the breath help us anchor attention. But as practice deepens, we learn that even the “breath” or the “body” are conventional concepts (paññatti), and the practice eventually requires discerning ultimate materiality (rūpa) and mentality (nāma).
Could you talk about the role concepts play in practice, how they can be wholesome (kusala), and where their limitations lie?
Bhante Subhūti: We must distinguish between conventional truth (sammuti-sacca) and ultimate truth (paramattha-sacca).
Even the Buddha used conventional concepts. He referred to himself, called people by their names, and addressed his monks as “Bhikkhus.” He didn’t walk around saying, “Listen closely, ultimate materiality and mentality over there!” He didn’t speak exclusively in terms of kalāpas (subatomic units), cittas, or cetasikas in everyday conversation. In the Sutta pitaka, the Buddha spoke in conventional terms so people could understand. The Abhidhamma provides the detailed “scientific footnotes” underneath those conventional statements.
Think of it like water. Conventionally, we call it “water.” In ultimate chemical reality, it’s H_2O—hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Even a chemist asks for “a glass of water,” not “H_2O.” We need conventional language to communicate.
How Concepts Function in Practice:
Samatha (Concentration): Uses concepts as objects. For example, in mettā (loving-kindness) practice, the object is satta (living beings)—which is a concept. In kasiṇa meditation (like earth or white kasiṇa), you focus on a concept derived from physical form.
Morality (Sīla): Relies on conventional concepts. To break the first precept (killing), there must be the perception of a living being (satta-saññā). In ultimate reality, a body is just shifting physical elements, but morality operates in the realm of conventional awareness.
Vipassanā (Insight): Deals strictly with ultimate realities (paramattha)—discerning physical and mental phenomena, seeing their true characteristics: impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā).
The Mistake with Breath Meditation:
Many practitioners confuse ultimate physical sensations with the concept of the breath. When people focus on the breath at the nostrils, they often start focusing on four-element sensations: hardness, heaviness, heat, or movement.
Hardness/Heaviness = Earth element
Heat = Fire element
Pushing/Motion = Air element
When you focus on physical sensations (temperature, pressure, tension), you are focusing on ultimate physical realities, not the concept of the breath.
To illustrate a concept: Imagine standing by a highway watching traffic.
If you look at specific cars—a red Ford F-150, a blue Tesla, a Mazda—you are focusing on specific individual characteristics.
If you step back and simply hold the general concept of “vehicle,” you ignore color, brand, or model, holding only the concept “vehicle.”
In Ānāpānasati (mindfulness of breathing), the breath must be taken as a continuous concept, ignoring individual elemental sensations (heat, pressure). Once the concept is stabilized, it transforms into a light mark (nimitta).
Josh: That’s a brilliant clarification. Could you give us a brief structural overview of the Pa-Auk meditation system, from samatha to vipassanā?
Bhante Subhūti: Pa-Auk Sayadaw did not invent a new system. He took the classic roadmap provided in the Visuddhimagga and the Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha and systematized it into a step-by-step practical curriculum.
Stage 1: Samatha (Developing Concentration)
Ānāpānasati or Kasiṇa: Practitioners begin with a samatha object (such as breath, Earth kasiṇa, White kasiṇa, etc.).
Nimitta & Jhāna: Through sustained focus on the concept, the light/nimitta appears. The practitioner stabilizes the nimitta and enters the four jhānas (absorption states).
40 Samatha Objects: Practitioners master the five masteries of the jhānas and work through various objects among the 40 traditional samatha subjects.
Four Elements Meditation: To transition toward vipassanā, practitioners analyze the physical body through the Four Elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air).
Discerning Materiality (Rūpa): As concentration deepens, the practitioner breaks down the physical body into subatomic units called rūpa-kalāpas. They discern the specific elemental compositions of the sense doors (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind-base).
Discerning Mentality (Nāma): The practitioner discerns mental processes (cittas and cetasikas) occurring at the six sense doors during cognitive processes (vīthi).
The practitioner discerns the cause-and-effect relationships between mental and physical states across time.
Using deep concentration, they trace back causes into past lives (typically 4–5 past lives) and forward into potential future lives, directly verifying how past ignorance (avijjā) and craving (taṇhā) produce present existence.
Stage 4: Vipassanā (Insight Practice)
Only after fully discerning ultimate mind, ultimate matter, and their causes does formal vipassanā begin.
The practitioner applies the 40 modes of Insight (anicca, dukkha, anattā) to all physical and mental phenomena of the past, present, and future, internal and external.
This systematic contemplation (sammasana-ñāṇa) leads sequentially through the stages of Insight Knowledge (vipassanā-ñāṇa), culminating in Nibbāna.
Audio: Watch in the Ocean: From Silicon Valley to Ordination in Myanmar & Sri Lanka with Bhante Subhuti
In this transcript Ai removed timestamps as well as most misspellings corrected (names except Ani), technical terms, place names). Light punctuation and minor smoothing for readability while remaining faithful to the spoken content. Speakers clearly labeled.
Josh: Hey, wholeness and welcome. This is Josh of Integrating Presence and I’ll soon be joined by co-host Anie, formerly known as Ahsoka, for this swap cast with her Echoes and Stories of Dharma podcast. We’ll be joined by guest Bhante Subhuti Bhikkhu. We didn’t do a formal introduction in this. You’ll soon learn all you need to know that an introduction would cover. So without further ado, here it is.
Anie: Hello. Good evening, Bhante.
Bhante Subhuti: Good evening. How are you today?
Anie: I’m doing okay.
Bhante Subhuti: Yeah, we just had a lot of chanting and it’s something I do every day. Nearly every day. We just had a sāmanera who we had a special day for because he’s flying out to Myanmar to go to the Pa-Auk study center in Pyin Oo Lwin. So he’s only 12 years old. So we had like a big… a lot of coconut lamps, coconut oil lamps. Yeah, we had maybe 20 of them or something. So it’s good.
Anie: So well, you have had an interesting journey coming from being a computer programmer into becoming a renunciant and homeless, start living with uncertainty and completely different culture as well. You’ve written a book Going for Broke which is available on your website, and there’s a lot of reflection on your journey from starting to take this shift, turnaround in your life. Would you tell us a bit about how you settled in Sri Lanka eventually? Give you as much time as you need.
Bhante Subhuti: Okay. It’s like having your own… I’ll try to give a shorter version. Yeah.
So for me, I got into spirituality probably when I was like 17 or 18. I think about 17. I asked my parents… I asked my mother to buy me a book called Be Here Now. Remember Be Here Now by Ram Dass. And surprisingly, it’s a lot of people’s first spiritual books, at least in my generation. But I really… it was just a little bit of curiosity of what spirituality is and what those… because I was just 17. Especially in the 80s there wasn’t really any spirit… you were really weird if you were into spirituality. And like the Buddhist section in the early 90s in Barnes & Noble… we used to have bookstores if you remember… and the whole Eastern philosophy section was maybe like three feet wide. It was like one shelf and one or two shelves on a bookshelf and that would include like Hindu and Mahayana, Tibetan, and there would be nothing in Theravāda. There’d just be maybe the Majjhima Nikāya or the Dīgha Nikāya and just a few other books. Maybe What the Buddha Taught might have been there and the Dhammapada.
So anyway, when I was in college I took a world religion lecture-hall thing by chance because it was my first year and I was just signing up for any classes that I could get into. And when I learned about Buddhism I thought that Buddhism would be a good religion for me, mostly because I didn’t party when I was in university. I didn’t drink, I didn’t do drugs. And so the rules… there’s only five precepts… and the rules seemed very simple for me. And so then I asked a friend to teach me meditation who used to go to UC Berkeley, which was one of the places you could find spirituality in the late 80s and early 90s. And he came back to a local school that I was going to and I knew his brother. He was like an older brother of a friend of mine and I asked him to teach me meditation and he taught me meditation how to count my breath and the basic… count up to 10 and back to zero. In the Pa-Auk method they say count… or even the Visuddhimagga actually they say count five is too small and 10 is too large so you should usually pick eight because it’s close to the Eightfold Noble Path. So but he taught me how to count the breath and I was just thinking like, should I light a candle? And he’s like, if you want to light a candle you can light a candle. I said, should I light some incense? And he says, if you want to light some incense you can light some incense. And so I did that and it was something that I kept up for a good portion of the remainder of my life actually.
So I learned how to meditate and kept meditating and then I saw some advertisements for meditation on the bulletin board and ended up joining what ended up being like some type of computer cult and teaching meditation. No drugs, no alcohol, but you sort of get high off of meditation. And everyone was like… you go to these parties where you just meditate and have fun and they were really high-vibe parties. They’re really cool and you mingle around and there’s like college students and there’s like other people who are a little older in their 30s or 40s and everyone’s a computer programmer who’s a professional and then later they want you to become a computer programmer as well. And so I was into it and I decided to try it out. It wasn’t my major in university. I was supposed to be a school teacher and back then… it’s not like computers nowadays… not many people had computers and at that time I didn’t have a computer actually. Very few people owned computers. We might have a computer lab. You had to take a test in order to go into the computer lab during that time. You had to prove that you could copy files by typing the commands back then and people were afraid of computers. And being a computer programmer is like you had to be really brave because the computers were not as friendly as they are now. And I ended up graduating with a degree in technology education. It sounds good for someone who’s going to become a computer programmer, but it has nothing to do with computer programming. And there’s another major called educational technology, which is about bringing technology into the classroom. That’s a different major. It’s reverse words.
So after I graduated I joined that thing and then I became a computer professional with a different degree. I ended up fast-tracking into the computer industry and they wanted us to make a lot of money and they told us how to do it and we went direct. My first job was contracting, consulting, and just straight in. And I never had like a full-time corporate job. And we learned how to do that and know our stuff cold and get into the business. And so I decided to leave that group because it was getting more businessy instead of spiritual. It used to be very spiritual. We used to meditate with the teacher. It was like really fun. Incredible experiences actually. And then so I decided to leave after I became a professional for like a year or maybe like a year or so. And then I just went to different jobs.
And my third job was working for Bayer Diagnostics, you know, the aspirin company, the medical pharmaceutical. They’re a chemical company actually. And we were making a blood meter. And the first… I was brought in because the project was late. The human blood project. It counts your red blood cells, your white blood cells, and this other thing called new… new XY. I don’t even know what those are. But we made this machine and then the second phase was an animal blood machine. And the animal blood machine I found out later was used for animal laboratory testing.
So I was a vegetarian at that time and there was one other vegetarian… you know, this type of stuff, you were like a weirdo back then if you were a vegetarian. They didn’t have vegetarian menus at restaurants. You know, I was there to watch Starbucks do soy milk lattes… like when they first started doing them it was like a secret thing that you had to know about. But so yeah, I was a vegetarian. There was one other vegetarian in the whole complex and she told me about this animal laboratory testing thing and I decided that I couldn’t work on the project and that I would leave. And I gave six months notice and I continued to work on the human blood machine. And generally speaking, the code is nearly the same for the animal blood machine except a little bit of a user interface to select which animal’s blood you’re testing. But generally speaking, especially from my end, the sections of the code that I was particularly working on… it was all the same. And so they told me to work on the human machine because I refused to work on the animal phase two project. And so they told me to just continue working on the human blood machine and they would copy my code into the phase two codebase. And eventually I had to leave. They were paying me lots of money and I wasn’t doing much work because most of the development was on phase two. And so they wanted me around because it was medical diagnostic equipment and I could fix my own bugs like in an hour and it might take someone two weeks to do it. So whatever they paid me per week, per hour, whatever, it was a bargain. But eventually I decided to leave and I gave them six months notice. And that was a catalyst for me to go traveling. It was something that I always wanted to do. I thought that because I was a contractor or consultant that I would have long breaks in between jobs because it would be difficult to get a job, but it wasn’t that way. And I just went from one job to the next and my jobs were very long-term actually, even though it was based on short-term hire. Originally it was short-term hires, but they ended up lasting a long time. So I never took a vacation. I barely took any days off. And then I just went all or nothing and I got a backpack and a ticket to go halfway around the world and I was ready for a big journey which I wrote about.
And I should backtrack a couple steps. I did Goenka. When I left that teacher, I started in the Tibetan world because it was closest to like what the teacher was doing. And then I went to the Mahayana world, Chinese Buddhism, Vietnamese Buddhism. And I was doing the teacher training course in a Vietnamese temple. And from there I learned about the White Lotus Sutra. And I learned that it’s okay to lie if you have a good reason. And I was like, this is nonsense. And I completely rejected Mahayana because of that. And at the same time we were assigned a book to summarize and teach. And I had picked The Wings to Awakening by Ajahn Thanissaro. These are the 37 factors of enlightenment called the bodhipakkhiyā dhammā. And it was a good book. And at that time we also had to do a retreat, a 10-day, 7-to-10-day retreat per year as part of this course type thing that I was doing, this teacher training course. And so immediately I became immersed in Theravāda and I rejected Mahayana, Tibetan. And I was just so amazed with the structure of the Theravāda suttas. And being someone who learned about education, we have a saying in the business: say what you’re going to say, say it, say what you said. And if you look at the suttas, you know, the Buddha, he will say, here are the five things of blah blah blah. And then he lists them out and he said, these are the five things, you know, and this is where it leads to. And then you reach Nibbāna. Sādhu, sādhu. So it really grabbed me about how straightforward the teachings were. There was like no mysterious… there was nothing mystical and it was very straightforward, it’s very common sense. And I was like, wow, this is what I should be doing.
And when I did my first Goenka retreat… and a lot of Westerners, now you can have many entrances into Buddhism and spirituality, but one of the main entrance ways back in the 90s, early 90s… actually this was in the late 90s… was to do a Goenka course. It’s one of the only things around. Otherwise you’d have to spend $200–$300 a night doing a Tibetan or doing the IMS classes. Actually they’re about $80 or $100 a night at that time. And so I did the Goenka thing and I really loved it. I just had so much faith in it because on the first night I ate a lot of extra food on the first night and then there’s like a video recording and he’s like, so you ate a lot of food didn’t you? And I was like, how does he read my mind? Then I was like, no, this is a recording. So I was like, he knows human nature. And so then I followed the teachings and I believed that you could do everything in the teachings that what he was teaching. So I had a really great experience there. And I remember on the 10th day they allow you to talk and they do loving-kindness. Everyone’s talking and I just want to stay in this… they give you this like pagoda room or something like that. It was just like when I got there I was like, this is all I need. I just need a little meditation closet and I’ll be okay. And I remember crying on the last day because everyone’s talking and I didn’t want it to end. And I wanted this to be my life.
The Story of the Weaver-Girl — Dhammapada Verse 174 Pesakaradhita Vatthu — [Verse 174: Blind are the people of this world: only a few in this world see clearly (with Insight). Just as only a few birds escape from the net, so also, only a few get to the world of the devas, (and Nibbana).]– https://tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/verseload.php?verse=174
phaistosdiskdecoded.com — Is the Phaistos Disk a Buddhist meditation diagram? ‘The Phaistos Disk is a coded master key with a system of numbers that was used to illustrate a network of knowledge for up to 1,800 years.’
Desire Realm as the Emotional World; 8th jhana as neither sensation nor no sensation — as threshold of perception; avijjā = insentience; Nirodha-samāpatti as the stopping of existence (or awakening from the dream of existence)
Desire Realm as the Emotional World; 8th jhana as neither sensation nor no sensation — as threshold of perception; avijjā = insentience; Nirodha-samāpatti as the stopping of existence (or awakening from the dream of existence)
https://t.co/EUVJPId02c Is the Phaistos Disk a Buddhist meditation diagram? ‘The Phaistos Disk is a coded master key with a system of numbers that was used to illustrate a network of knowledge for up to 1,800 years.’
