In this episode, I welcome back Rebecca Li to talk about her new book, Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No Method. Rebecca and I had a conversation in May of 2021, about her previous book, Allow Joy into Our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times. Rebecca is a meditation and Dharma teacher in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen and founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community, a Chan Buddhist practice and study community made up of individuals committed to cultivating wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all beings. Rebecca has two decades of Dharma and meditation teaching experience, leading retreats or teaching at Buddhist centers in North America, Europe, and Asia. She has been featured in several Buddhist publications, including Tricycle , Lion's Roar , and Buddhadharma. She is also one of the founding board members of The GenX Buddhist Teachers Sangha where she continues to serve as a board member. Rebecca is a sociology professor and lives with h
This week, over at my new premium Substack podcast, Words From My Teachers, I released Episode 6, continuing readings from the book, The Center Within by Rev. Gyomay Kubose. In the episode I read the following essays: Middle Way, Water, Purposeless Purpose, No Mind, and How the Buddha Taught. As a special bonus episode for the Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am sharing the reading of the essay Purposeless Purpose. It's a wonderful essay to reflect on, as they all are in The Center Within , but I'm releasing it here on the Everyday Buddhism podcast as a companion piece to Episode 103. Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha: https:www.patreon.comEverydayBuddhism If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https:donorbox.orgpodcast-donations Subscribe to my premium Substack feed and podcast, Words From My Teachers: Subsc
As a special bonus episode for the Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am sharing the reading of the essay Purposeless Purpose. It's a wonderful essay to reflect on, as they all are in The Center Within , but I'm releasing it here on the Everyday Buddhism podcast as a companion piece, which you will find in the next episode, 104. But as a special introduction to the bonus episode, I am adding new content in this re-release of an episode I did in June of 2022, called Why Nonsense Makes the Most Sense , which was built on the essay, Purposeless Purpose. The new addition is some insight about meditation that is related to the purposeless-purpose message. Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha: https:www.patreon.comEverydayBuddhism If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https:donorbox.orgpodcast-donations Find out more a
This week, over at my new premium Substack podcast, Words From My Teachers, I released Episode 6, continuing readings from the book, The Center Within by Rev. Gyomay Kubose. In the episode I read the following essays: Middle Way, Water, Purposeless Purpose, No Mind, and How the Buddha Taught. As a special bonus episode for the Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am sharing the reading of the essay Purposeless Purpose. It's a wonderful essay to reflect on, as they all are in The Center Within , but I'm releasing it here on the Everyday Buddhism podcast as a companion piece to Episode 103. Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha: https:www.patreon.comEverydayBuddhism If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https:donorbox.orgpodcast-donations Subscribe to my premium Substack feed and podcast, Words From My Teachers: Subsc
In the spirit of the holiday season, I am re-releasing a popular episode from 2019: The Boundless Heart - Bodhicitta. It is my wish that we all try to practice being a Bodhisattva during this holiday season … Starting with me! ;) Stating the obvious, it's been a rough 7 years or so. Years marked by war, pandemic, social injustice, tribalism and, overall, something called high conflict made popular by Amanda Ripley's book of the same name, where conflict is the ruling energy and that leads to the stress, fear, anxiousness, and despair most of us have been feeling. She writes: The challenge of our time is to mobilize great masses of people to make change without dehumanizing one another. Not just because it’s morally right but because it works. Lasting change, the kind that seeps into people’s hearts, has only ever come about through a combination of pressure and good conflict. Both matter. That’s why, over the course of history, nonviolent movements have been more than t