Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver
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79 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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The Five Precepts: A Buddhist Practice for Everyday Life
30 oktober 2026 · 27 min
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The Five Buddhist precepts may sound straightforward, even familiar: don’t kill, steal, lie, engage in inappropriate sexual conduct, or use intoxicants. But there is more to these standards of behavior than what you read on the surface. I explore how the precepts invite us to pay attention to what sustains or diminishes life, how we treat others, and the many ways we distract ourselves from what is true.
The precepts, as I was trained, are not permanent vows of perfection, but daily commitments we can consciously review and renew. I also look at the three stages of ground, path, and fruition to understand what constitutes breaking a precept.
Highlights:
The Five Precepts:
Refraining from killing as a commitment to preserving life force in ourselves, others, and the situations we encounter.
Learning not to take what has not been offered
Practicing truthfulness by pausing to examine what we actually know before we speak.
Looking beyond obvious sexual misconduct to consider the ways we take advantage of others for our own satisfaction.
Recognizing intoxication in its many forms, from alcohol and drugs to compulsive scrolling and attachment to our own opinions.
A daily commitment: the precepts are renewed each day, rather than treated as permanent vows that leave no room for human complexity.
Ground, path, and fruition: Exploring the three stages that must come together to break a precept.
Podcast After Party Music
A tribute to Magic Sam, the influential blues guitarist, and his instrumental track Looking Good from West Side Soul.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New Online Workshop on The Five Buddha Families
Join Kevin Townley for Full Fathom Five: The Buddha Families & Creative Expression, a 4–hour workshop on November 14th at 11am et. Kevin will guide you through the Five Buddha Families and how the difficulties or confusion states that we might experience can actually fuel o…
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Seeing Ourselves and Others Through the Five Buddha Families
23 oktober 2026 · 39 min
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In this episode of Buddhism Beyond Belief, I explore The Five Buddha Families, a mandala that maps five forms of wisdom and their corresponding expressions of confusion. From the sharp precision of Vajra to the spacious awareness of Buddha, each family offers a way to understand our own patterns, recognize the gifts and challenges in ourselves and others, and cultivate greater compassion. I also share examples from everyday life to bring these energies into focus.
Highlights:
Why non-dualistic thinking is beyond conception and how mandalas can help us navigate the non-conceptual
The Five Buddha Families:
Vajra: How anger is connected to precision.
Ratna: Pride, richness, generosity, and the wisdom of equality.
Padma: How longing is a form of discriminating awareness and sensitivity to nuance.
Karma: Anxious speed and the ability to accomplish what is meaningful.
Buddha: How spaciousness and wakefulness can also express themselves as unfocused and spacey.
How recognizing these five energies in ourselves and others can deepen compassion and support the path to liberation.
Podcast After Party Music
I share why I love the distinctive guitar playing of Steve Cropper on Booker T. & the M.G.'s Green Onions, and how his spare, stinging style echoes the influence of Lowman Pauling.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New Online Workshop on The Five Buddha Families
Join Kevin Townley for Full Fathom Five: The Buddha Families & Creative Expression, a 4–hour workshop on November 14th at 11am et. Kevin will guide you through the Five Buddha Families and how the difficulties or confusion states that we might experience can actually fuel our creativity. There will be time to work on artmaking in real time.
Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spirit… -
The Atlantic Meditation Article: Does Meditation Have a “Dark Side”?
16 oktober 2026 · 38 min
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A 2026 Atlantic article explored “The Dark Side of Mindfulness.” They published a similar article in 2014 that also discussed negative results from meditation practice, “The Dark Knight of the Soul”. (Not sure why “knight” was used, tbh.)
In this episode, I look at both articles and talk about the risks that I’ve seen arise, not from meditation per se, but from meditation practiced without the guardrails provided by such time-tested (though by no means foolproof) sources such as lineage and profound spiritual insights provided by true teachers (aka realized beings who won’t also try to get you to take off your pants or give them all your cash.)
I share my own experience with PTSD and how it has shown up in my decades of meditation practice. I talk about how Buddhist teachings differ from self-help and how to approach meditation with the compassion of self-love rather than the aggression that may accompany the wish to “fix” ourselves.
Highlights:
Meditation amplifies our inner state rather than calming it which may be why, for some, suffering deepens
How Buddhist meditation practice differs from “mindfulness” marketed as self-help
Why trained teachers, lineage, and sangha (community) matter
How silent retreats and intensive practice entered into without preparation and care may become disorienting
The difference between meditation as self-help and meditation as a spiritual practice
The importance of holding compassion for ourselves and others as a central purpose of practice
Podcast After Party Music
“Think” by The Five Royales showcases Lowman Pauling’s epic, stinging, minimalist guitar style, a style that influenced many. Though he has remained relatively unknown, you’ve heard his influence on players from the 60s, 70s, and beyond. Respect and all hail, Lowman Pauling!
Mentioned in this episode:
The Dark Side of Mindfulness (Atlantic Magazine, September 2026)The Dark Knight of the Soul (Atlantic Magazine, June 2014)
Watch this epis…
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The Whole Buddhist Path in Four Sentences
9 oktober 2026 · 10 min
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In this episode, I look at The Four Dharmas of Gampopa, four short sentences I've recited as part of my daily Buddhist practice for more than thirty years. Together they sketch the whole path: connecting my mind with truth, deepening realization, clarifying confusion, and finding that confusion is not separate from wisdom. You certainly don't need to be a Buddhist to explore this formula.
Highlights
What "grant your blessing" can mean outside religious belief
Finding your lineage in the people you admire and want to emulate
Bringing the mind into line with truth
How realization deepens as you travel the path
How the path can clear up confusion instead of adding to it
Mentioned in this episode
The Jewel Ornament of Liberation by GampopaWatch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity
Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with …
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Your Space Shapes Your Mind
2 oktober 2026 · 14 min
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How we arrange our outer world can have a surprising effect on our inner state. In this episode, I talk about how creating an environment of stability, simplicity, and respect for objects can help us meet a difficult world with more confidence and strength. I share four simple ways to work with our environment: creating a ritual, caring for our space, wearing clothes that feel good to us, and eating food that nourishes us.
Highlights:
Why working with our environment influences how we work with our minds
Creating a personal ritual to connect with what matters
How cleaning and caring for our space can restore a sense of dignity
How our clothing affects our state of mind
Nourishing our bodies as an expression of self-love
How our environment can become a source of stability and strength
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity
Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscr…
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Pacify, Transform, Discover: A Buddhist Guide to Difficult Emotions
25 september 2026 · 14 min
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How do we work with strong emotions when the world feels frightening, divided, and uncertain? I look at three Buddhist approaches to difficult emotions: pacifying them, recognizing them as gateways to compassion, and discovering the wisdom within them. The key is learning to let go of the story and feel the feeling.
Highlights:
Three Buddhist approaches to working with strong emotions
When stepping away is helpful, and when it becomes self-aggression
How difficult emotions can deepen compassion for others
Finding wakefulness, focus, and wisdom within anger
The difference between experiencing a feeling and repeating its story
How meditation trains us to bring attention back to our lives
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity
Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Hear…
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Conversation with Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and my meditation teacher, Part Three
18 september 2026 · 22 min
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In Part Three of my conversation with my longtime teacher and spiritual friend Sam Bercholz, we talk about the strange and wonderful ways teachers can enter our lives, and how meditation can help us become more receptive to what is already here. We talk about devotion, wakefulness, Buddhist deities, and faith as something we investigate and put into practice rather than simply believe.
Highlights:
How Sam and I became spiritual friends more than 30 years ago
Recognizing a teacher through experience rather than analysis
How meditation can make space for clearer seeing
Deities as expressions of awakened qualities
Faith as investigation, verification, and practice
Why the Dharma is about waking up, not self-improvement
Mentioned in this episode
Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path by Samuel BercholzWatch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien
©Open Heart Project
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Conversation with Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and my meditation teacher, Part Two
11 september 2026 · 20 min
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In this episode, I continue my conversation with Sam Bercholz. We talk about bringing the dharma into the modern West without reducing it to either cultural imitation or scientific validation. We discuss the three yanas, emptiness and fullness, egolessness, and devotion. Sam shares a way to understand devotion as appreciation for wakefulness and a willingness to be guided by someone who embodies it.
Stay tuned for Part Three next week.
Highlights:
Why dharma does not require scientific validation
The three yanas
Emptiness as fullness, not nihilism
What egolessness actually means
Devotion as appreciation, trust, and openness to guidance
How a teacher-student relationship forms through investigation and experience
How Sam met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Why he named his business Shambhala Publications
Mentioned in this episode
Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path by Samuel Bercholz
Inexplicable Joy: On the Heart Sutra by Susan Piver
Meditation in Action by Chögyam Trungpa RinpocheWatch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartp…
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Conversation with Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and my meditation teacher, Part One
4 september 2026 · 15 min
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I talk with my longest time spiritual friend, Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and author of the new book, Rude Awakenings. It was written at the request of his second root teacher, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, who asked Sam to write a book containing everything he learned from his first root teacher, the great and mysterious Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
For me, this book lives up to its subtitle: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path. It was written by someone who has known and published almost all of the great Buddhist (and other) masters of our lifetime, checked everyone’s sincerity and realization, and drawn, as far as I can tell, impeccable conclusions about the true dharma and who and what to trust.
I trust him deeply. In addition to his extraordinary accomplishments, he is my closest spiritual friend. Sam taught me how to meditate more than 30 years ago and is still my meditation teacher. He gave me the refuge vow (by which one formally commits to the Buddhist Path), taught me how to give this vow, and, most importantly, introduced me to my root teacher, Tulku Thondup Rinpoche.
In this first of 3 short episodes, we talk about his beginnings as a practitioner, the centrality of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal, wakefulness, lineage, and why the relationship with a teacher is so important in Vajrayana Buddhism. We also look at how to find a teacher without becoming confused by cultural forms or an individual’s charisma.
Highlights:
Why did Sam write this book?
Who are Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal and how do you invoke them?
What is the 7-Line Supplication?
How do you find a teacher? What qualities do you look for?
The relationship between teacher, lineage, and awakened mind
Why a teacher is indispensable in Vajrayana practice
How to investigate a potential teacher with both intelligence and heart
The difference between Buddhist teachings and the cultures in which they developed
For more on my personal thoughts …
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Three Ways to Work With Heartbreak: Part Three
28 augustus 2026 · 11 min
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Heartbreak can make our usual strategies for managing pain useless. It can also show us what is true about being human: everything changes, everything ends, and love is precious because it cannot be held onto. In this episode, I look at how heartbreak itself can become part of the spiritual path.
Highlights:
Bringing heartbreak to the path without trying to turn it into a lesson
How impermanence shows us the preciousness of each moment
Why heartbreak reveals our deep connection with other people
Heartbreak as love unbound from an object
Being with what is, without trying to change it
Mentioned in this episode:
My book, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available - in print and in audio format
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien
©Open Heart Project
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Three Ways to Work With Heartbreak: Part Two
21 augustus 2026 · 14 min
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When heartbreak is overwhelming, the instinct is often to make it stop. But what if the practice is not to fix what we're feeling, but to learn how to be with it? In this episode, I continue looking at three ways Buddhism offers us a path through heartbreak. The second way is practicing loving-kindness.
Highlights:
Learning to make space for a racing mind instead of trying to shut it down
Working with the intensity of heartbreak without insisting that it disappear
How loving-kindness can turn suffering into compassion
Extending our wish for relief for ourselves, those we love, strangers, difficult people, and all beings
Why caring for others can bring back a sense of strength and agency
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available - in print and in audio format
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien
©Open Heart Project
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Three Ways to Work With Heartbreak: Part One
14 augustus 2026 · 11 min
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Heartbreak is something we have the tendency to want to get rid of as quickly as possible. But some heartbreaks cannot be “fixed” or hurried. In this episode, I look at how Buddhist teachings can help us when heartbreak has a life of its own. We start with the mind: learning to be with what is happening rather than trying to change it. Meditation is a way to let the mind settle naturally in times of emotional upheaval.
Highlights:
Why some heartbreaks cannot be solved or pushed away quickly
The three yanas as three different ways to work with heartbreak
The first step is learning to work with your mind
What heartbreak can show us about love, compassion, and being of benefit
Mentioned in this episode:
My book, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart
More on the yanas in this podcast episode, Episode 26, How to Choose a Meditation Teacher
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien
©Open Heart Project
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Learning is Remembering: The Outer, Inner, and Secret Teachers
7 augustus 2026 · 21 min
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How do we recognize a true teacher? In this episode I talk about the outer teacher, the inner teacher, and the secret teacher. Along the way I share a story from teaching the Heart Sutra, reflect on an unexpected lesson about joy, and use a piece of music to show how wisdom can reach us through content, direct experience, and the context in which it all unfolds.
Highlights:
What the outer, inner, and secret teacher represent in Buddhist practice
Why real learning is often based in recognition rather than picking up new information
How expectations color the voice of the inner teacher
A story from a Heart Sutra retreat and an unexpected teaching on joy
How music shows three different ways of knowing
Why the outer teacher's job is to point us toward the wisdom we already have
Mentioned in this episode: The Heart Sutra
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien
©Open Heart Project
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Meditation: An Act of Rebellion
31 juli 2026 · 12 min
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It's no secret that many forces are competing for your attention, especially online. Some are noble and righteous. Some are not. Trying to track it all is...exhausting.
The need for boundaries around our hearts and minds has never been more important. We must preserve our energy so that we can continue to care, dream, and love.
Meditation helps establish mental and emotional boundaries. This is not about bypassing. It is about retaining life force to fight the good fight and respond to your world with intense clarity, compassion, and purpose.
Please have a listen to this episode to learn more.
Highlights:
Why meditation helps set strong mental boundaries
Reclaiming your attention from distraction and overwhelm
How working with the breath builds discernment and agency
Why protecting your attention is a radical act
The difference between reacting to the world and responding on purpose
How protecting your energy lets you be of greater benefit to others
Referenced in this episode: Buddhist Cosmology: The Six Realms of Being (Episode 12)
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.…
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How Do You Help Someone Who is Dying?
24 juli 2026 · 17 min
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This is a shorter episode, recorded while my family and I accompany my mother through hospice care. I reflect on an instruction I received when I first learned to meditate: resting more fully on the out breath than the in breath. As I prepare to be with my mother at the end of her life, that instruction has taken on new meaning. I share a few experiences that have shaped how I understand death, presence, and what it means to simply be there when a loved one is dying.
Highlights:
Why my meditation practice rests on the out breath
The link between breathing out and letting go
My own near-death experience and how it colors the way I am accompanying my mother
The impossibility of knowing what is right during such moments
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien
©Open Heart Project
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What is Emptiness?
17 juli 2026 · 32 min
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What does "emptiness" actually mean in Buddhism? It is one of the most misunderstood teachings, often taken to mean nothingness or the absence of meaning. In this episode, I discuss emptiness through the Zen koan "Mu," a personal story of heartbreak, and the Buddhist understanding that we are not separate from one another. Rather than pointing to a void, emptiness shows the fullness of all phenomena and the compassion that comes from recognizing it.
Highlights:
The Zen teaching of "Mu"
A story of my own broken heart that pointed out the nature of emptiness
Why emptiness does not mean meaninglessness
Mind as relational
The link between emptiness and compassion
Why meditation is about more than improving your thoughts
Listener Question
How do you work with someone who pushes your buttons? I share Pema Chödrön's advice “to feel the feelings and drop the story,” and why staying with the felt experience can change how we relate to difficult situations.Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Music
This week's song is Along Comes Mary by The Association, a pop classic with astonishing lyrics, unforgettable harmonies, and what may be the greatest handclaps ever recorded.Mentioned in this episode:
My book The Wisdom of a Broken Heart: How to Turn the Pain of a Breakup into Healing, Insight, and New Love
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New course: 30 Days of Dharma
For 30 days, beginning September 13th, I’m offering a chance to practice all of this together with a small group of people who want to take the dharma off the cushion and into ordinary life. We'll create a personalized daily routine, meditate, study the teachings, and look at how wisdom, compassion, and power actually show up at home, at work, and in our relationships. Every participant will hav…
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Four Reminders that Deepen Spiritual Practice
10 juli 2026 · 27 min
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This week I share one of the central teachings in Tibetan Buddhist practice: the Four Reminders that turn the mind toward the dharma. I had a recent conversation with Lama Sonam Rinpoche who said to me multiple times in the course of a few hour conversation: there is no more important teaching than this. In this episode, I try to offer some insights into why a great Lama might say such a thing.
Highlights:
How the Four Reminders create a trustworthy foundation for spiritual practice
Why your life really, really matters
How impermanence brings clarity to everyday living
A practical way to understand karma
The weird way that acknowledging suffering actually helps
How these contemplations can deepen any meditative or contemplative practice
Listener Question
Can we get so focused on spirituality that we lose touch with the “real world”? I talk about the difference between real practice and spiritual bypassing, and why the path is never separate from ordinary life.Ask me a question
You can send your questions via Instagram DM or through our form.Music
This week's track is "Okie Dokie Stomp" by the musical miracle known as Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.Mentioned in this podcast: Episode 12, Buddhist Cosmology: The Six Realms of Being
Also mentioned: great contemporary blues artist Sue Foley’s live version of Okie Dokie Stomp
My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New course: 30 Days of Dharma
For 30 days, beginning September 13th, I’m offering a chance to practice all of this together with a small group of people who want to take the dharma off the cushion and into ordinary life. We'll create a personalized daily routine, meditate, study the teachin…
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How to Live as a Mystic
3 juli 2026 · 28 min
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It’s episode 60! A perfect place to reach a summation of my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics which posits that meditation is not about becoming a better version of yourself. It is a spiritual practice that opens you to the three qualities of the awakened mind: wisdom, compassion, and power. How do these qualities arise from sitting there, doing “nothing”? All I know is that millions of practitioners over thousands of years have reported that it is so.
In this episode, we look at the seven principles of living as a mystic, hiding in plain sight.
In this episode:
Why meditation is a spiritual path, not a self-help project
A common misconception about meditation and how it keeps people from practicing
How your everyday life provides the perfect gateway to magic
An introduction to a Buddhist teaching, the three kāyas, and how it all relates to the magic of meditation
Sensing what is under the surface is just as “real” as whatever is on the surface
How meditation helps us relate to ourselves, others, and the world
Music
This episode closes with "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson, a recording that seems to come from somewhere else.
Send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.New course: 30 Days of Dharma
For 30 days, beginning September 13th, I’m offering a chance to practice all of this together with a small group of people who want to take the dharma off the cushion and into ordinary life. We'll create a personalized daily routine, meditate, study the teachings, and look at how wisdom, …
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We Dream on Behalf of Others: Presence, Agency, and Staying Sane
19 juni 2026 · 25 min
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This episode picks up on the sixth principle of spiritual practice from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We Dream on Behalf of Others.
Meditation protects our minds from the incessant barrage of those who seek our attention, whether for good or, most probably, for ill. Great forces are vying for agency over your thoughts right now. I hope that doesn’t sound conspiracy theory-y! It just seems obvious that a lot of money is being spent to capture attention spans as so much consumerist fodder. What could possibly go wrong?! Besides everything!
In this episode, I talk about the importance of maintaining sovereignty over your inner world, in no small part because it enables you to keep dreaming…visioning…imagining…remaining connected to what is possible–not as a means of escaping reality but of laying the ground for creating a new reality, one that includes decency, sanity, and care for others.
There are many who simply cannot dream right now, and for very understandable reasons. Many are under siege. Homeless. Hungry. Living in a fire of rage.
Right now, we are able to dream. This may not always be so, but while it is, we could dream on everyone’s behalf. Because what we cannot imagine, we cannot build.
Highlights:
In the Heart Sutra, the Buddha's meditative absorption stirs a student, Sariputra, to ask an important question.
Because none of us is truly separate, your practice affects everyone around you.
Plenty of beings cannot dream right now because they are besieged, hungry, sick, or without a home, so the rest of us can hold dreams for them.
If we cannot dream something, we cannot build it, and there are forces that would rather their dreams of money and power become ours. Don’t do it!!
Meditation is how I keep my own mind: I notice a thought, call it a thought, and come back to the the present.
Listener question
From Kim, a parent who wants to stay informed for the sake of conversation with her children, but i…
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The Inexplicable Magic of Cleaning Up After Yourself
12 juni 2026 · 28 min
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“The first rule of magic is containment,” said the great Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and many other books. This points to the idea that the world we live in changes the way our minds and hearts work. The more uplifted our world, beginning with our actual home, the more potency we have in our spiritual quest. Why? It’s magic?
In this episode, I explore the fifth principle from Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We Clean Up After Ourselves. I also answer a listener's question about why the Buddha described friendship, not as helpful along the way, but as the way. And for the podcast after party, we check in with the great Ini Kamoze.
Highlights
Why caring for your environment is a spiritual practice
How the "container principle" shapes meditation and daily life
What it means to clean up after yourself — in your space and in your relationships
Repairing small moments of disconnection
Why the Buddha taught that spiritual friendship is the whole of the path
The role of sangha in practice
Music
Listen to "Here Comes the Hotstepper" by Ini Kamoze and tell me you somehow remained seated.
Mentioned in this podcast: Fake Buddha Quotes
My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.New 7-Day Program Starts June 14th
Seven Days of Inexplicable Magic is a chance to immerse yourself in post-meditation practice, aka the rest of your life. What happens when practice follows you into your relationships, home life, bill-paying, creative pursuits? Together, we will find out.. The program follows …
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The Importance of Spiritual Boundaries
5 juni 2026 · 34 min
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The spiritual path asks you to open up, and the more you do so, the more you feel everything: your tenderness, things you’ve been avoiding, your deepest longings. It’s important to stay open to all of this but being open takes judgment. I know people say you shouldn’t judge but I say, hell yes, you’ve got to judge. The deepening vulnerability of the journey requires discernment and self-protection.
In this episode, I explore the fourth principle from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We Are Boundaried. I discuss healthy boundaries, the importance of relying on teachers who can introduce you to your own wisdom (not theirs alone), and a traditional teaching called the Seven Treasures that help us establish protection, agency, and trust in our knowing.
Highlights
• Why boundaries matter
• Meditation as ground, path, and fruition
• The three qualities cultivated through practice: compassion, clarity, and courage
• Three teachers: outer, inner, and secret
• The line between a community that supports you and one that seeks to take you over
• The Seven Treasures as a framework for protection and self-trust
• A listener's question about progress in meditation, and where to actually look for signs your practice is working
Music
For the after party I'm playing "Who Do You Love" by Bo Diddley. It's deep and full of swagger, from one of the true original rockers.Have a listen.
My new book is now available
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which go counter to conventional wisdom.
Learn more and buy your copy here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.New 7-Day Program
A new 7-day programSeven Days of Inexplicable Magi…
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The Wisdom of a Broken Heart
29 mei 2026 · 27 min
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In this episode, I explore one of the most persistent misunderstandings about meditation: that it is supposed to make you feel better. From my experience, meditation does not numb heartbreak or smooth out emotional life. It opens us more fully to our experience. I talk about why vulnerability is not a failure of practice, but a sign that something real is happening. I also share thoughts on heartbreak as a path of awakening, the connection between heartbreak and compassion, and why meditation with eyes open benefits everyday life.
Highlights:
• Why meditation makes you feel more, not less
• The connection between heartbreak and awakening
• Softening toward yourself as the root of compassion
• Why vulnerability is part of the spiritual path
• Reestablishing agency when the mind runs wild
• The difference between looking to receive love and looking to offer it
• How awareness “cuts through” during meditation
• Why I teach meditation with eyes open
Music After Party
I talk about the song “Dark End of the Street” by James Carr and why it remains one of the most heartbreaking songs about longing and love ever recorded.
Also from me on Buddhism and heartbreak: The Wisdom of a Broken Heart
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.New Book & New Program
For more on the topic of meditation and heartbreak, please look for my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, out June 1. It explores meditation not as self-improvement, but as a spiritual path rooted in ritual, heartbreak, creativity, vulnerability, and awakening in everyday life.
You’re also invited to join Seven Days of Inexplicable Magic, an immersive program exploring how meditation practice can move beyond the cushion and into every aspect of your life. …
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The Way is Personal
22 mei 2026 · 31 min
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In this episode, I reflect on a recent meditation and writing retreat where participants explored grief, heartbreak, violence, loss, and the experiences that shape us most deeply.
I talk about why the personal is not an obstacle to spiritual practice but the very material of the path itself. I explore how teachings on egolessness can become distorted into self-erasure, and why real transformation begins by turning toward our experience with curiosity, courage, and love.
I also answer a listener question about non-duality, discuss why it may be impossible to “understand” intellectually, and share thoughts on how wisdom comes to us through openness rather than effort.
Highlights
Why difficult personal experiences are often the doorway into creativity, insight, and connection
The transformative power of being witnessed and deeply heard
How teachings on egolessness can become confused with shame or self-rejection
Why your suffering, brilliance, confusion, and history are part of the spiritual path
“What you seek does not come from you. It comes to you.”
How ritual creates receptivity in meditation practice
Why spiritual practice does not remove heartbreak, but changes our relationship to it
Non-duality and why it may be experienced rather than understood
Music After Party
I share my love of 1980s reggae and dancehall through Wayne Smith’s “Under Mi Sleng Teng,” a track that helped transform reggae music through its groundbreaking digital riddim.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity…
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Ritual Sustains Spiritual Practice
15 mei 2026 · 20 min
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In this episode, I explore why spiritual practice becomes sustainable through ritual, not force. I share the story of a month-long meditation retreat where I discovered an unexpected sense of ease in both meditation and writing, and how that experience led me to begin teaching meditation and writing retreats myself.
I also introduce the first principle from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We engage in daily ritual. Through the Buddhist teaching of the three jewels, Buddha, dharma, and sangha, I explore how wakefulness, contemplation, and community create the conditions for practice to truly take root.
Highlights
Why meditation retreats can unlock creativity, focus, and flow
How structure and repetition create a container for spiritual practice
The first principle of Inexplicable Magic: we engage in daily ritual
Buddha as wakefulness itself, not just a historical figure
Dharma as reflection, contemplation, and connection to wisdom
Why community, or sangha, is essential for sustaining practice
What really happens when meditation becomes difficult or boring
Simple ways to bring the three jewels into daily life
Music After Party
I share “Uncloudy Day” by The Staple Singers, featuring the extraordinary guitar playing of Pops Staples and the unforgettable voice of Mavis Staples.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst o…
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Starting Over: Meditation for Mystics
8 mei 2026 · 32 min
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In this episode, I reflect on a recent conversation in the Open Heart Project sangha about scientific research on meditation. Yes, meditation can improve brain function and mood. But if we stop there, we may miss the point.
There’s a much older, deeper body of “research” drawn from lived experience over thousands of years. Meditation is not just about feeling better. It’s about waking up, opening fully to life, and discovering a freedom that goes far beyond conventional thought.
I share seven core principles from my upcoming book Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics that challenge the self-improvement framing of practice.
Highlights:
Meditation is not a tool to fix what’s broken. We begin from wholeness, not deficiency.
Practice is rooted in ritual
The personal is not the problem
Turning toward sorrow opens the door to real compassion
Boundaries are part of spiritual life
Cleaning up your environment strengthens your inner life
We practice for others, not just ourselves
Live as a mystic in everyday life
The middle way is not a compromise but a lived reality beyond rigid frameworks and extremes
This episode is an invitation to look at meditation’s deeper proposition.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Middle Way: To learn more, please check out our episode #5.
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rat…
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Do Buddhists Pray?
1 mei 2026 · 17 min
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Here is a new episode after an unexpected pause. I’m moving to a new house and that has stirred disorientation, emotional complexity, and a break from familiar patterns. The truth is, I just didn’t know if I had anything of use to say. Also, I was in a bad mood? Needy! It happens! It turns out that this unsettled place provided a good context to consider a question raised in our Open Heart Project sangha: do Buddhists pray? If so, to whom?
In a non-theistic tradition, rather than being directed toward an external deity, prayer becomes a way of relating to awareness itself. The images, rituals, and expressions of devotion are not about reaching for something outside us, but about connecting to the wisdom, compassion, and courage already present.
In this episode, I explore prayer as communion rather than asking, and how everyday acts of attention, care, and listening can deepen our relationship with the divine.
Highlights
What it means that Buddhism is non-theistic
Why you can practice meditation without adopting a belief system
Buddhist deities as reflections of your own wisdom mind
Prayer as communion rather than petition
Everyday life as an expression of prayer
Listening, presence, and awareness as the heart of practice
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is requir…
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Recap: The Noble Eightfold Path
17 april 2026 · 43 min
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In this episode, I bring all eight steps of the Noble Eightfold Path together. This teaching is a way of living, not a project of self-improvement. This is about how we relate to experience and how that shapes suffering or freedom.
Highlights
Right View
Seeing clearly begins in the present moment.
Meditation helps us loosen our grip on thoughts and recognize we don’t truly know.
What we seek arises when there is space, not through more thinking.
Right Intention
Intention matters more than outcome.
Pause and examine what is driving your actions.
Let care for others be part of every decision.
Right Speech
Practice real listening rather than simply reacting.
Avoid harming self and others through your words.
Ask: Is it true, beneficial, clear, and timely?
Right Action
No fixed rules, but the five precepts offer guidance.
Act with care, compassion, and awareness.
Letting go reduces the tendency to create more suffering.
Right Livelihood
Your work is part of the path.
Avoid harm and consider how you relate to others in the work you do.
Integrity at work supports the spiritual journey.
Right Effort
Rather than pushing harder, Right Effort means not giving up.
Build daily patterns that supports what matters most.
Include yourself and others in that commitment.
Right Mindfulness
Not a tool for optimization.
Practice presence with precision and openness.
Be with experience as it is.
Right Concentration
Train attention by returning to a single focus.
Over time, attention becomes steady and connected.
Offering full attention is not separate from enlightenment.
Conclusion
This path isn’t linear or something to complete. It’s something to live.
Test it for yourself. Bring your own intelligence to what you hear.
Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountai…
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Eight: Right Samadhi
3 april 2026 · 25 min
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This week we arrive at the final step of the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Samadhi, often translated as concentration or absorption. If the earlier steps help us see clearly and act with intention, this final step gathers the mind into a unified experience.
Right Samadhi is not about forcing the mind to focus. It begins with learning to place attention on one thing and come back when it wanders. From there, it deepens into the ability to give your attention fully to another person. And eventually, it points beyond both of those, toward a loosening of the sense that there is a separate “you” paying attention to something else.
In this episode, I explore Right Samadhi through three lenses: foundational, relational, and transformational.
Highlights
What Right Samadhi actually means beyond “concentration”
Why the ability to focus is becoming rare and why it matters
Meditation as training attention
Attention as the basis of love
What it means to truly listen to another person
The challenge of stepping outside self-focused attention
The possibility of awareness without a subject or object
Right Samadhi as the culmination of the Noble Eightfold Path
Music After Party
This week I share “Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears” by A Winged Victory for the Sullen.
You can also listen here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Get your copy of The Buddhist Enneagram
From March 10 – April 10, you can receive 30% off the new physical edition of The Buddhist Enneagram when you order directly from Shambhala Publications. Use code ENNEAGRAM30 at checkout. If this book has been on your reading list, or if you know someone who might benefit from this perspective on the Enneagram, this is a great time to pick up a copy. Buy yours here.If you’d like a free chapter, s…
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Seven: Right Mindfulness
27 maart 2026 · 32 min
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This week we explore Right Mindfulness, the seventh step of the Noble Eightfold Path. While the earlier steps shape how we see and act in the world, this step turns us inward again, toward our direct experience.
Right Mindfulness is not about self-improvement or optimization. It is a way of relating to the mind as it is. Through meditation, we begin to see that thoughts are not a problem to solve, but something to notice, release, and return from, again and again.
In this episode, I explore Right Mindfulness through three qualities that arise in practice: precision, openness, and spaciousness.
Highlights
Why mindfulness is not a tool for fixing yourself
The simple meditation formula: notice, let go, come back, begin again
Why thoughts are not the problem
Precision as the foundation of practice
Openness to allowing experience to be as it is
Spaciousness for the true nature of mind
The shift from identifying with thoughts to recognizing awareness itself
Music After Party
This week I share “I Won’t Cry” by Doug Sahm, a true Texas legend.
You can also listen here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Get your copy of The Buddhist Enneagram
From March 10 – April 10, you can receive 30% off the new physical edition of The Buddhist Enneagram when you order directly from Shambhala Publications. Use code ENNEAGRAM30 at checkout. If this book has been on your reading list, or if you know someone who might benefit from this perspective on the Enneagram, this is a great time to pick up a copy. Buy yours here.If you’d like a free chapter, sign up for my weekly meditation newsletter here.
Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for Fearless Creativity, a meditation and writing …
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Six: Right Effort
20 maart 2026 · 30 min
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This week we explore Right Effort, the sixth step of the Noble Eightfold Path. While the earlier steps guide how we understand reality and how we act in the world, Right Effort begins to turn inward. It concerns how we work with our own mind and inner life.
Right Effort does not mean pushing harder or forcing yourself to improve. It begins with a commitment not to give up on yourself. From there, it becomes a practice of directing your energy wisely, caring for your inner world, and recognizing that even difficult states of mind can contain seeds of wisdom.
In this episode, I explore Right Effort through three lenses: foundational, relational, and transformational.
Highlights
Why Right Effort is not about striving or pushing yourself
A personal story about learning not to give up on myself
The role of daily structure in supporting what truly matters
How meditation helps us reclaim agency over our attention
The effort required to remember our shared humanity
What it means to “look deeply” at difficult emotions
How anger, desire, anxiety, and spaciness can contain seeds of wisdom
Music After Party
For the after party, I share a short song called Regular Rabbit by Stephen Spencer. He writes songs based on stories told by his young daughter, and they capture something simple and reassuring about being human. This one brings me joy every time I hear it.
You can also listen here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Get your copy of The Buddhist Enneagram
From March 10 – April 10, you can receive 30% off the new physical edition of The Buddhist Enneagram when you order directly from Shambhala Publications. Use code ENNEAGRAM30 at checkout. If this book has been on your reading list, or if you know someone who might benefit from this perspective on th… -
A Powerful New Take on the Enneagram (from my new book)
13 maart 2026 · 50 min
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This episode, we pause our exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path before returning next week with Right Effort.
This week, Shambhala Publications (my favorite publisher) is reissuing my book, The Buddhist Enneagram. I’m so proud this is happening and I wanted to take this chance to share thoughts on the two wisdom streams that have shaped my life for more than three decades: the Buddhadharma and the Enneagram.
Highlights:
Why compassion is central to Buddhist teaching and why it can be most difficult in our intimate relationships
Nine patterns of attention through which we experience the same world
How understanding these patterns can transform conflict with partners, family, and colleagues
A personal example of how different Enneagram types notice different things in the same situation
The three centers of intelligence in the Enneagram: instinctual, emotional, and mental
How each center responds differently when life does not go our way
The three instinctual drives that shape each type: self-preservation, social, and intimate connection
Why these combinations create 27 nuanced ways of being
How each type carries both an idealization and an avoidance
Using the Enneagram not to label people but to understand them and remain connected
How the system can support genuine compassion in everyday life
Music selection:
I share a recording of “Black Night,” most famously associated with musician Charles Brown. The version we listen to features Willie Nelson and Dr. John from the album Milk Cow Blues. I talk about the extraordinary musicians on the track, including producer and guitarist Derek O’Brien, who created the theme music for this podcast. You can also listen to it here.
Get your copy of The Buddhist Enneagram
From March 10 – April 10, you can receive 30% off the new physical edition of The Buddhist Enneagram when you order directly from Shambhala Publications. Use code ENNEAGRAM30 at checkout. If this book has been on your reading … -
The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Five: Right Livelihood
6 maart 2026 · 27 min
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In this episode, I explore Right Livelihood, the fifth step on the Noble Eightfold Path. We began with Right View and Right Intention, then moved into speech and action. Now we turn to how we earn a living. It may sound ordinary, but the way we work, relate, and exchange value in the world can either bind us more tightly or support liberation. I share three lenses from the Buddhist tradition to investigate what Right Livelihood might mean for us now.
Highlights
Why your job belongs on a path aimed at awakening
The foundational teaching: avoid professions that cause harm
Work as relational practice, the workplace as a practice community
Right Livelihood as Bodhisattva activity in daily life
Protection, money, and the spiritual function of financial stability
When Buddhism meets consumer culture
How business and interdependence might inform one another
Music After Party
In our after-party, I share “Le Bien, Le Mal” from Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 by Guru, featuring MC Solaar.
Their collaboration feels like a true exchange. Two artists building something together, each sharpening the other. You can hear the mutual respect.
You can also listen here.
Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for Fearless Creativity, a meditation and writing retreat offering dedicated time for creative work alongside guided meditation and conversation. Writers of all genres and levels are welcome, with no prior meditation experience required.
Learn more and register here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open…
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Four: Right Action
27 februari 2026 · 27 min
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In this episode, I explore Right Action, the fourth step on the Noble Eightfold Path. We begin with Right View and Right Intention, then move outward into speech. Now we take those steps into how we live and act in the world. Right Action is not a fixed rulebook. It is nuanced, relational, and always evolving. I share three lenses from the Buddhist tradition that help us investigate what right action might mean in our lives right now.
Highlights
Why Right View is about seeing beyond our education, insights, and intelligence
How Right Intention arises from recognizing interconnectedness
Why there is no universal playbook for Right Action
The Five Precepts as a foundational guide: no killing, no stealing, no lying, no intoxicant abuse, no sexual misconduct
Right Action through the Mahayana lens: loving kindness, compassion, and taking joy in others’ happiness
The Vajrayana perspective: karma, karmic seeds, and the possibility of planting none at all
Letting go as a radical form of action
How meditation reveals the mind noticing itself
“Mind resting in mind” and the end of karmic momentum
Music After Party
In our after party, I share “Feel Like Going Home” from the album Folk Singer by Muddy Waters, produced by Willie Dixon and featuring Buddy Guy. It is spare, intimate, and timeless.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for Fearless Creativity, a meditation and writing retreat offering dedicated time for creative work alongside guided meditation and conversation. Writers of all genres and levels are welcome, with no prior meditation experience required.
Learn more and register here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, an…
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Three: Right Speech
20 februari 2026 · 26 min
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In this episode, I explore the third step of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Speech, and why it might more accurately be called Right Listening. I begin with a story about the so-called “Marcus Syndrome”, the habit of using someone else’s speaking time to prepare your reply. From there, I revisit Right View and Right Intention, and how the way we hold our inner world naturally shapes the words we send out into the world.
We look at the classical categories of unskillful speech and then discuss four questions you can ask yourself before you speak. At the heart of it all is the rare and vulnerable skill of listening. I also reflect briefly on a teaching from the Heart Sutra about how one’s capacity to listen can create deeper insight in others.
Highlights
The “Marcus Syndrome” and the illusion that we are listening when we are really rehearsing
How Right View and Right Intention give rise to Right Speech
Why listening may be the highest communication skill
The four forms of unskillful speech
Lying, including half truths and things we repeat without certainty
Abusive speech, and the difference between harm and skillful anger
Divisive speech that separates people from one another
Idle speech that fills space without purpose
Four questions to ask before speaking
Is it true
Is it beneficial
Is it clear
Is it timely
The power of presence and how good listening is contagious
Music After Party
A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam CookeI share why this song feels like a masterwork of sorrow and strength. It is a statement of grief and hope held in the same breath.
You can also listen here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for Fearless Creat…
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Two: The Power of Intention
13 februari 2026 · 27 min
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When I first started my own business years ago, I was full of doubt, excitement, fear, and hope, often all at the same time. Out of nowhere, a major opportunity landed in my lap that could have launched everything forward. There was just one problem. I did not respect the work of the person offering it. In this episode, I reflect on that moment and how a single sentence from my meditation teacher changed the way I understand right intention, karma, and the mysterious consequences of our actions.
This conversation explores right intention through personal experience and Buddhist teachings, moving from practical self examination to a much larger, more mysterious view of how our actions ripple through the world. I also share a personal story about illness, healing, and what it means to work with karma without knowing how or when it will resolve.
Highlights
The early days of my business and an opportunity that forced a difficult ethical decision
A Tibetan Buddhist teaching that reframed how I think about success and failure
What right intention really means beyond good outcomes
Right view and the radical idea of interconnectedness
The three cycles of Buddhist teaching and how each understands intention
How our actions move into the world like wave forms, not straight lines
A personal story about injury, illness, and how it impacted my view of karma
Three ways to understand right intention in daily life
Letting go of expectations while still acting with care and responsibility
Music After Party
I share one of my all time favorites, Bobby Blue Bland’s recording from 1961, Two Steps from the Blues. I talk about why this album is such a turning point in blues and R & B history, and why Bland’s voice remains unforgettable to me. I also reflect on hearing him live while working at Antone’s in Austin, the reverence he inspired, and the joy of recently meeting his son, Rodd Bland, who continues the legacy in his own powerful way.
You can also lis… -
The Noble Eightfold Path: Step One: Seeing Clearly
6 februari 2026 · 35 min
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In this episode, I begin a conversation about the Fourth Noble Truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, and its first step, Right View. I review the first three Noble Truths and reflect on how Buddhism is often misunderstood as a tool for stress reduction, when it is actually a profound path of liberation from suffering. I explore how suffering arises not simply from loss or disappointment, but from grasping. I share why Right View is the essential foundation that allows the rest of the path to unfold with coherence and meaning.
Highlights
Why Buddhism is more than mindfulness or stress reduction
The Four Noble Truths and suffering as dissatisfaction rooted in grasping
Right View as the foundation of the Noble Eightfold Path
Relative and absolute perspectives on loving kindness and non-duality
Meditation as letting go, presence, and openness
Mentions
The Four Noble Truths and The Middle Way: Foundations of the Journey, episode 5 of Buddhism Beyond Belief
The Four Noble Truths of Love: Buddhist Wisdom for Modern Relationships by Susan Piver
The Heart of Unconditional Love: A Powerful New Approach to Loving-Kindness Meditation by Tulku Thondup
The Play Of Thought by Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche
Music
I share a personal story about how Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” changed my life, and I offer the song as this episode’s after party music.
You can also listen here.Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Ask me a question
You can send your questions via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for Fearless Creativity, a meditation and writing retreat offering dedicated time for creative work alongside guided meditation and conversation. Writers of all genres and levels are welcome, with no prior meditation experience required.
Learn more …
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Strength in a Time of Crisis: What Helps?
30 januari 2026 · 32 min
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This morning, the Open Heart Project Sangha gathered as we do every day to meditate and reflect together. The group was larger than usual, a clear sign of how shaken many of us are by what is happening in the United States right now.
I began by saying there is nothing I can offer that makes this moment acceptable or less horrifying. There is no teaching that explains it away. What we can do is see and feel the suffering clearly, without denial or false comfort.
We talked about the exposure of cruelty and hypocrisy, while also remembering that this country has held real goodness alongside real harm. I explored the three poisons that distort our response to crisis: grasping, delusion, and aggression. Although we must act and resist, aggression only breeds more aggression. Now what?
Drawing on Buddhist teachings about the realms of existence, I focused on the human realm as the place where we can wake up and respond with sanity. During times that I cannot defeat my enemies, I can still strengthen my friends. That shift restores strength and energy.
I closed by underscoring the importance of continuing to imagine a sane and compassionate world, no matter how far off it may feel. Without the ability to envision what is possible, we lose the ability to create it.
We dream on behalf of others.
Highlights:
Why this moment calls for community rather than answers
The danger of responding from grasping, delusion, or aggression
Remembering both the harm and the goodness in our collective history
The human realm as a source of strength and responsibility
Strengthening friends when you cannot defeat enemies
Why imagining a better world is crucial
Mixing sanity into situations of profound cruelty
Music
For the after party, I share “Say It’s Not So” by Angela Strehli, my favorite female blues singer. The track features Derek O’Brien, who also composed the music for this podcast. This song is deeply personal to me, and it cuts straight to the heart …
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Four Karmas: Actions That Protect the Mind
16 januari 2026 · 40 min
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In this episode, I introduce the Four Karmas—pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying—as practical actions for meeting chaos, conflict, and confusion without losing clarity or heart. In this Buddhist framework, karma means action, not fate. These are not strategies for getting your way, but ways to protect the mind, deepen compassion, and interrupt ignorance in real time.
I also explore the “ Māras ,” the obstacles that can distort each karma, and why wisdom sometimes needs to be gentle—and sometimes fierce. Drawing on the story of the Buddha under the Bodhi tree, I reflect on how distraction, shame, and aggression show up in our own lives, and how these four actions help us meet them skillfully.
Highlights
Karma as action, not reward or punishment
The Four Karmas as tools for clarity and compassion
How wisdom can be peaceful or wrathful
Knowing when to add, wait, attract, or let go
The Four Karmas (Briefly)
Pacifying: Settling down to see clearly, often through deep listening rather than fixing.
Obstacle: Spiritual bypassing.Enriching: Adding what genuinely increases vitality and connection, based on what’s actually needed.
Obstacle: Accumulating without applying.Magnetizing: Receptivity—allowing insight, creativity, and help to come toward you.
Obstacle: Emotional reactivity that obscures perception.Destroying: Ending or pruning what no longer serves, without aggression.
Obstacle: Total shutdown instead of skillful cutting.Closing Music
I end the episode with “Waloyo Yamoni (We Overcome the Wind)” by Christopher Tin—a piece that feels vast, direct, and deeply human.
If you found this episode meaningful, please share it or leave a review. It truly helps.
During this episode, I mentioned my upcoming retreat on meditation and writing, Fearless Creativity. You can learn more here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Ask me a question
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Three Qualities of Awakening
9 januari 2026 · 26 min
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As we move into a new year, how do we deepen our understanding: of ourselves, our relationships, and our spiritual practice? In this episode, we explore the three essential steps of learning in the Buddhist tradition: hearing, contemplating, and meditating.
Highlights:
Why the first step, hearing, is more than listening: it’s opening to what’s being offered without judgment or projection.
How contemplating allows teachings to be tested, weighed, and integrated through experience rather than accepted blindly.
What it means to meditate in the deepest sense: living a teaching, letting it shape your being.
A story from a meditation student learning to let go of constant vigilance and just breathe.
Reflections on Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness and integrating wisdom into daily life.
If you want to learn something deeply—whether meditation, spiritual practice, or life itself—these three steps are your path.
Podcast After Party – Song Feature:
We celebrate music as a form of transmission and joy with a performance by the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum (also spelled Oum Kalsoum, Om Kalsoum, Umm Kalsoum, Om Kulthoum, Oum Kulthoum, and Umm Kolthoum). Her song Lelat Hob (Night of Love) showcases the power of live music, devotion, and cultural adoration.
For the full version of this song, you can listen here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Ask me a question
You can send your questions via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Learn to Teach Meditation
The Open Heart Project Meditation Teacher Training returns this January.
We begin January 17th, 2026.
I teach every session. It’s intimate, rigorous, supportive—and it’s for anyone who wants to help others work with their own minds and hearts.Click here to learn more & sign up.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about…
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Inexplicable Magic: An Excerpt From My Upcoming Book
26 december 2025 · 16 min
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For the final episode of the year, I am sharing a short excerpt from a book I am writing called Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics. This work grows directly out of the heart of this podcast and its focus on how we actually live–not as monastic meditators, but as householders.
In this excerpt, I reflect on the Buddha’s awakening and on meditation as it was originally understood, not as self-improvement or stress reduction, but as a path of waking up from delusion and helping others do the same.
I explore the connection between mindfulness and awareness. Mindfulness is essential, but it is the ground, not the fruition.
Awareness cannot be cultivated through effort. It can only be allowed, and it is where insight, opening, and real transformation arise organically.
This episode looks at meditation as a way of relating rather than fixing. A practice that breaks the heart open and reveals wisdom, compassion, and bravery. It’s not a transaction, but a way of living, and, ultimately, a way of dying.
To close out the year, I share one of my most beloved pieces of music, Sentimental Walk from the film Diva, a piece that brings spaciousness and calm and accompanies me often when I write.
Thank you for listening and practicing with me this year. I look forward to continuing the conversation in 2026.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Ask me a question
You can send your questions via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Building a Mindful New Year is a free, six-day online program exploring how Buddhist practice can help us stay present, steady, and values-aligned in uncertain times. Through daily teachings, meditation, and community practice, we focus on supporting ourselves first—so we can more honestly meet our lives and care for others as the new year begins. You can jump in anytime between 26–31 December to gain access to all 6 talks. Sign …
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Buddhism and the Four Immeasurable Qualities
19 december 2025 · 24 min
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As we close out a year many of us are ready to leave behind, this episode reflects on what we might want to carry forward—and what we can gently let go of. I explore the Buddhist teaching of the brahmavihāras, or Four Immeasurables, as a way of giving our hearts a place to live that is honest, resilient, and humane.
The Four Immeasurables—loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—are called “immeasurable” because they are not limited resources. They don’t require perfection or self-improvement. They begin with noticing what is actually happening.
In this episode, we explore:
Loving-kindness
Begins with softening toward ourselves, not being “nice” or agreeable
Extends outward to loved ones, strangers, and even enemies without requiring forgiveness or approval
Far enemy: hatred
Near enemy: conditional or performative kindness
Compassion
Feeling another’s pain as our own, grounded in shared humanity
Distinct from sympathy or pity
Far enemy: cruelty
Near enemy: pity
Sympathetic joy
Feeling another person’s happiness as our own
A remedy for isolation and scarcity thinking
Far enemy: envy
Near enemy: shallow or distracting pleasure
Equanimity
Staying present with joy and sorrow without grasping or pushing away
Fully engaged, not numb or indifferent
Far enemy: grasping
Near enemy: indifference or “good vibes only” detachment
Throughout the episode, I emphasize that the practice is not about trying to embody these qualities, but about noticing our real relationship to them. That noticing itself is the practice.
Music Segment
We close with a podcast after party featuring “Jump Around” by House of Pain, along with a story from my time working at Tommy Boy Records in the early ’90s and a brief exploration of the mysterious opening sample. A link to The Best Sample in History video is included here.Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.Ask me a question
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The Way of Listening: Songs That Stayed With Me
12 december 2025 · 1 uur 10 min
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In today’s episode, I’m doing something a little different. Lately I’ve been ending each show with what I called the Podcast After-Party—I share a song I love, along with a few words about why it matters to me. I never meant it to be anything formal. It was simply a delight, a way of sharing the music that has struck some essential chord in my life (no pun intended).
I’m not a scholar of music, nor a musician, nor anything close. But I’ve been lucky. My early years in Austin, I worked at a little blues bar called Antone’s—where I landed only because my car broke down—and it opened my ears in a way I could never have planned. I learned to hear. That hearing became a kind of companion to my practice: a way of sensing spaciousness, precision, longing, and joy in another language.
As this year comes to an end, I wanted to gather all those after-parties into one place. Today’s episode is simply that: the songs I’ve shared with you, with my original commentary, offered again for your listening pleasure.
The songs featured in this compilation are:
Episode 28
“Christine Leroy” by the Johnson Mountain Boys
An early American ballad that moved me deeply and launched the after-party itself, reminding me how music carries both sound and devotion.Episode 29
“Tribal Dance” and “Albatross” by Peter Green
Two pieces from a singular musician whose playing embodies spaciousness, warmth, and directness. His work is a study in attunement rather than control.Episode 30
“My One and Only Love” by John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
A tender, refined expression of what I call “undone”—an invitation to let the heart be unguarded.Episode 31
“Blue Sky” by The Allman Brothers Band
A song about presence, joy, and the beauty of two instrumental voices finding harmony without forcing it.Episode 32
“Swim Away” by Toni Price
A haunting a cappella piece about longing for home; spare and full of ache.Episode 33
“Double Trouble” by Otis Rush
A dark, piercing blues performa… -
When Practice Isn’t Enough: A Buddhist Look at Panic
5 december 2025 · 24 min
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In this episode, I speak directly to a question I’m often asked: what can we do when anxiety or panic takes over? While many people associate Buddhism with calming the mind, the path is far more layered than stress reduction. Sometimes the most skillful response is not meditation but something far more ordinary and tender.
I share my own experience with severe panic attacks—episodes triggered whenever I felt trapped, especially on airplanes. These attacks arrived suddenly and with enormous force, and none of my usual tools helped. Not meditation. Not breath practice. Not even medication or, memorably, tequila. What ultimately made a difference was human connection: one person’s kindness interrupting the spiral of fear.
The turning point came from a United Airlines pilot, Captain Denny, whose simple presence and reassurance steadied me. Later, I learned to ask seatmates for brief conversation during takeoff. Every single time, someone responded with kindness. That small act—letting myself be seen—became my true mantra. Sometimes the most effective practice is to ask another human being to care, even for a moment.
Meditation, I learned, can actually intensify panic, and it’s important to acknowledge that. In moments of terror, the dharma may show up not as a technique but as connection, vulnerability, and shared humanity.
Highlights
Why Buddhist practice offers more than stress relief
My experience with claustrophobia-related panic attacks
The flights where panic overwhelmed every coping strategy
How Captain Denny’s kindness changed everything
The healing power of vulnerability for both giver and receiver
Why meditation can sometimes intensify fear
The “mantras” that truly helped: someone sees me, someone cares, we’re in this together
After-party: Yellowman, “Zungguzungguguzungguzeng” and a brief history of the “Diseases” riddim
Thank you for listening, for sharing the podcast with anyone who might benefit, and for being part of this ex…
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Lessons on Right Speech from a Chaotic Morning
28 november 2025 · 27 min
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In this episode, I explore what I believe to be one of the most urgent Buddhist teachings for our current moment: Right Speech. Many people associate Buddhism with stress reduction or calming the mind, and while those benefits are real, the path is far more robust. It offers a way to wake up, to see clearly, and to live everyday life with more meaning, compassion, and courage.
I also share a story that unfolded early this morning at Austin’s Barton Springs pool—an unexpected confrontation between two dog owners that I somehow stepped right into. It wasn’t pretty. I wasn’t pretty! As I reflected on what happened, I realized it offered a lens for examining Right Speech, what it is, what it isn’t, and how challenging it can be to practice it in real time.
Right Speech is the third step on the Noble Eightfold Path, following Right View and Right Intention. It is essential. Speech is our bridge to one another and a central part of the path. In this episode, I walk through the four characteristics of wrong speech, the five questions to ask yourself before speaking, and the ways in which our words—and the intention behind them—shape the world.
I close with a song for our podcast after-party: “Wichita Lineman,” written by Jimmy Webb and recorded by Glen Campbell, one of the most beautiful and mournful songs I know.
Highlights
Why Buddhism is more than mindfulness or stress relief
Why Right Speech may be the most vital teaching for our time
A real-life story about conflict, dogs, and my unplanned intervention
The four kinds of wrong speech: lying, divisive speech, abusive speech, idle speech
Five questions to ask before speaking:
Is it the right time?
Is it truthful?
Is it gentle or kind?
Is it beneficial?
Is it spoken with goodwill?
Reflections on whether my own speech this morning met any of these criteria
Why awareness of speech is a profound spiritual practice
Thank you for listening, for sharing the podcast with anyone who might enjoy…
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Keeping Practice Sacred (Without Getting Weird)
21 november 2025 · 23 min
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In this episode of Buddhism Beyond Belief, I explore how we can keep our meditation practice genuinely spiritual without making it complicated, performative, or “weird.” After more than thirty years of practice, I’ve learned that depth comes from sincerity, not technique. The simplest form of meditation—just sitting—can open profound dimensions of patience, clarity, confusion, authenticity, and genuine confidence.
I share a story from a long retreat in the Colorado Rockies, where I unexpectedly found myself helping to produce a classical music recording inside a sacred building called the Great Stupa. Unsure how to preserve the serenity of the space, I asked my teacher for guidance. He offered three simple instructions that continue to shape my practice today: make offerings, request blessings, and dedicate the merit.
In this episode, I talk about what each step means, how it can frame a daily practice, and why ritual helps us sustain a spiritual view without needing anything elaborate. I also reflect on how the effects of meditation show themselves–not during the practice, but in the rest of our lives.
I close this episode with music I love. This time, I share “Double Trouble” by the incomparable Otis Rush—one of the most haunting, emotionally searing blues artists of all time. I talk about his unusual left-handed, upside-down guitar style, the mystery of the track’s opening lyric, and my own early encounters with Otis Rush that left an indelible mark on me.
Highlights:
Why approaching meditation as a ritual can deepen the spiritual dimension of practice
A story from a Colorado retreat and making a recording inside the Great Stupa
The three steps my teacher offered for keeping practice sacred:Make offerings: Enter practice with generosity by offering your present-moment heart
Request blessings: Turn toward the sources of wisdom you hold in the highest regard
Dedicate the merit: Offer whatever goodness arises to benefit all beings
How s…
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The Seven Characteristics of a Dharmic Person
14 november 2025 · 34 min
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In this episode of Buddhism Beyond Belief, I explore how we truly enter the path—not through esoteric or “advanced” practices, but by grounding ourselves in simple awareness and presence. After more than thirty years of practice and teaching, I’ve come to see that depth in meditation isn’t about complexity. It’s about sincerity—how fully we can find our breath, sit with our mind, and meet life as it is.
I share what the Tibetan Buddhist tradition calls the seven characteristics of a Dharmic person—qualities that guide anyone, Buddhist or not, toward wisdom and compassion. Together, they offer a map for living with steadiness, clarity, and an open heart, even when life feels messy or painful.
I also tell a story about grief, and how the seemingly simple quality of good conduct can become an act of warriorship—opening to heartbreak instead of turning away.
And as always, I close with music I love: this time, “Swim Away” by the late Toni Price—an artist of rare authenticity whose voice carries both ache and freedom.
Highlights:
Why Buddhism is not just about stress reduction, but about liberation and living fully.
Why “advanced” practices mean nothing without the ability to find your breath.
The Seven Characteristics of a Dharmic Person:
Passionlessness: Tolerating life’s small irritations without chasing perfection.
Contentment: Slowing down to appreciate the everydayness of daily life.
Fewer Activities: Creating space by loosening the grip of constant doing.
Good Conduct: Living with care, attention, and courage to face what is painful.
Awareness of the Teacher: Recognizing and honoring the sources of wisdom that awaken you.
Propagating Prajna (Wisdom): Bringing what you’ve verified as true into daily life.
An Attitude of Goodness: Trusting your inherent wholeness—your Buddha nature.
Reflections on grief, love, and the courage to open to heartbreak.
A story from Sharon Salzberg and the Dalai Lama on self-esteem and basic goodness.H…
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A Guided 10-Minute Meditation Practice (plus music)
7 november 2025 · 28 min
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In this episode, I offer a guided meditation and explore what it really means to not be trying—not striving to get somewhere, even in practice. Rather than exerting effort or resisting, meditation invites us to let go again and again and rest in a state of receptivity.
We look at how love, insight, and creativity are not things we can get, but things we receive, and how meditation teaches us to rest in that open space. I also clarify common misconceptions about meditation—especially the idea that we must stop thinking—and instead suggest developing awareness of thought rather than control over it.
We end with a reflection on attention, presence, and the natural rhythm of the breath, followed by a story about one of my favorite songs, “Blue Sky” by The Allman Brothers Band, and the beauty of two voices joining in spontaneous harmony.
Highlights:
Letting go of striving and resting in presence
The art of receiving rather than seeking
Thoughts as part of awareness, not the enemy of it
Attention as placement, not analysis
The connection between meditation, creativity, and love
Closing reflection: “Blue Sky” by The Allman Brothers Band
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is available here.Ask me a question
You can send your questions via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Learn to Teach Meditation
The Open Heart Project Meditation Teacher Training returns this January.
We begin January 17th, 2026.
I teach every session. It’s intimate, rigorous, supportive—and it’s for anyone who wants to help others work with their own minds and hearts.Click here to learn more & sign up.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or jo…
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Transcending Insanity, Part Six: True Wisdom
31 oktober 2025 · 42 min
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In this episode, I explore the sixth and final pāramitā—prajna, or wisdom—the one beyond words and concepts. True wisdom isn’t about knowledge but about recognizing the interdependence of all things and walking the Middle Way between eternalism (“something lasts forever”) and nihilism (“nothing matters”).
We revisit the first five pāramitās—generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, and meditative absorption—and see how they lead us to the spacious awareness that meditation reveals. Mindfulness is only half the path; the other half, awareness, brings love, creativity, and compassion.
We also look at the three forms of wisdom—worldly, beyond worldliness, and beyond even dharma—and the essence of the Heart Sutra: “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.”
I close with a piece of music I love, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman’s “My One and Only Love,” a perfect expression of what I call undone and refined.
Highlights:
Prajna as direct, wordless knowing
The Middle Way between extremes
Emptiness as fullness and interconnection
Mindfulness vs. awareness in meditation
The three forms of wisdom
The Heart Sutra’s simple truth
Closing reflection: Coltrane and Hartman’s timeless duet
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to see me share my reflections, the video version is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdpt80EJvOcAsk me a question
You can send your questions via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.Learn to Teach Meditation
The Open Heart Project Meditation Teacher Training returns this January.
We begin January 17th, 2026.
I teach every session. It’s intimate, rigorous, supportive—and it’s for anyone who wants to help others work with their own minds and hearts.Click here to learn more & sign up.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachi…
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Meditation is for Mystics (it’s not a life hack)
24 oktober 2025 · 39 min
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In this episode, I talk about something that’s been making me a little grumpy: how meditation is often reduced to stress relief. While that’s a real benefit, it misses the deeper purpose — waking up to reality itself in order to be of benefit to others.
Meditation isn’t a self-improvement plan. It’s a path of presence — one that begins with self-awareness but is meant to open outward, toward others and the world. When practice stops at “me,” it can harden into self-absorption. When we remember its spiritual heart, it becomes a way to connect — energetically, compassionately, courageously. This has nothing to do with religion.
To see meditation as a spiritual practice, it helps to examine (to a very small degree) the nature of mind itself. After all, mind is what we work with during practice and this is different than mere thought. I also share how the enneagram offers a roadmap for seeing ourselves and others more clearly. We explore:
The three centers of intelligence — gut, heart, and head
The three instinctual drives — self-preservation, social, and sexual/intimate
The three responses to pain — toward, against, and away (known in Buddhism as the three poisons)
These perspectives remind us that our differences are not barriers but gateways to understanding and that the point of practice is to blend with animate energies rather than wall ourselves off from them.
And finally, I share a bit of music. I talk about Peter Green, the brilliant early member of Fleetwood Mac, whose songs “Tribal Dance” and “Albatross” embody the powerful qualities of spaciousness, warmth, and directness. His playing reminds me that true artistry, like true practice, is about attunement rather than control.
Highlights:
Why meditation is more than stress reduction
Using the enneagram to deepen compassion
The true nature of mind
The “three poisons” in Buddhist teachings and how they obscure clarity
Mentioned:
The Buddhist Enneagram by Susan Piver
“Tribal Dance…
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Buddhism and the Enneagram (with a musical aside)
17 oktober 2025 · 27 min
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In this episode, I share why I wrote The Buddhist Enneagram and how two life-changing systems—the Buddha Dharma and the Enneagram—can support your journey toward wisdom, compassion, and self-understanding.
Contrary to common views of Buddhism as merely stress relief, I explore its deeper invitation: to live more fully, to wake up, and to meet life with an open heart. The Enneagram, in turn, becomes a powerful upaya—a skillful means—for making compassion real.
In this episode, I talk about:
Why Buddhist teachings go far beyond “calming down”
How I first encountered the Enneagram—and why it changed everything
The connection between your “flaws” and your true nature
Real-life stories of how understanding Enneagram types transformed relationships
The Buddhist view that our poisons are our wisdom
How each Enneagram type maps onto a path of transformation
Plus:
At the end, I share a beautiful bluegrass song that has moved me deeply—“Christine Leroy” by the Johnson Mountain Boys. It’s our new “after-party” segment to celebrate the power of music and storytelling. Listen to the whole song here: https://open.spotify.com/track/0obAxxHy2PoTA7BM2aadDt?si=d51c970c363e4c05Have a question for me?
Send a voice message via DM on Instagram (@susanpiver)—I’d love to hear from you. *Please note: Your recording might be included in a future podcast episode and answered on the show.
Learn to Teach Meditation
The Open Heart Project Meditation Teacher Training returns this January.
We begin January 17th, 2026.
I teach every session. It’s intimate, rigorous, supportive—and it’s for anyone who wants to help others work with their own minds and hearts.Click here to learn more & sign up.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter…