Speaker 1: Social life is about every step on the path of
Speaker 1: life every day. That's where what really needs to n
Speaker 1: not just on Saturday than the senday in church with
Speaker 1: Monday Moskull Meditation Center. Welcome to the one you feed
Speaker 1: throughout time. Great thinkers have recognized the importance of the
Speaker 1: thoughts we have, quotes like garbage in, garbage out, or
Speaker 1: you are what you think ring true, and yet for
Speaker 1: many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us.
Speaker 1: We tend toward negativity, self pity, jealousy, or fear. We
Speaker 1: see what we don't have instead of what we do.
Speaker 1: We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit.
Speaker 1: But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It
Speaker 1: takes conscious, consistent and creative effort to make a life
Speaker 1: worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep
Speaker 1: themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their
Speaker 1: good wolf. Thanks for joining us. Our guest today is
Speaker 1: Lama Siria Doas, one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation
Speaker 1: teachers and scholars, one of the main interpreters of Tibetan
Speaker 1: Buddhism in the West, and a leading spokesperson for the
Speaker 1: emerging American Buddhism. The Dalai Lama affectionately calls him the
Speaker 1: Western Lama. Syria Das has been featured in numerous publications
Speaker 1: and major media, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The Washington Post,
Speaker 1: and even one segment of the ABC sitcom Dharma and
Speaker 1: Greg titled Leonard's Return, which was based on his life.
Speaker 1: Syria has appeared on Politically Correct with Bill Maher and
Speaker 1: twice on the Cold Bear Rapport. Syria is the author
Speaker 1: of thirteen books and his latest is called Make Me
Speaker 1: One with Everything. Buddhist meditation is to awaken from the
Speaker 1: illusion of separation. Hey, everybody, before we get started, just
Speaker 1: a couple of quick announcements. The first, and this is
Speaker 1: exciting news, is that on May here in Columbus, Ohio,
Speaker 1: we will be having the first ever one You Feed
Speaker 1: Party get together shindig, call it what you will, at
Speaker 1: the Roosevelt Coffee House. It'll be open to the first
Speaker 1: fifteen people who sign up at one you Feed dot
Speaker 1: event Bright dot com. Event. Bright is spelled e V
Speaker 1: E N T b R I t E. So when
Speaker 1: you feed dot event bright dot com, sign up for
Speaker 1: the one you Feed Party on May twenty at the
Speaker 1: Roosevelt Coffee House. The second thing that I wanted to
Speaker 1: say is that on our website now at when you
Speaker 1: feed dot net, you can click and leave us a
Speaker 1: voice message. Over to the right, there'll be a little box.
Speaker 1: Click on it and you can record anything you want.
Speaker 1: Say hello, give us some feedback, tell us what you like,
Speaker 1: what you don't like, and uh, suggest a topic for
Speaker 1: a mini episode if you want. And the final thing
Speaker 1: is I've had a couple of people graduate out of
Speaker 1: the one on one coaching program. It's been going great.
Speaker 1: If you are interested, I've got a couple of spots
Speaker 1: that have reopened. You can send an email to Eric
Speaker 1: at one you feed dot net. Thanks and enjoy the show. Hi, sir,
Speaker 1: you're welcome to the show. Thank you, Eric, nice to
Speaker 1: be here. I am very excited to have you on
Speaker 1: Your book, Awakening the Buddha Within was one of the
Speaker 1: early books I read on Buddhism. It's been a while now,
Speaker 1: probably shortly after it came out, and it was it
Speaker 1: was one of the books that really set me on
Speaker 1: a path of becoming very interested in Buddhism and getting
Speaker 1: more serious about meditation. So I thank you for that night.
Speaker 1: I've read your new book and really enjoy it. Also,
Speaker 1: thank you. I hope we all can awaken the bood
Speaker 1: in this within and see the light of the divine
Speaker 1: and everybody in each other and everything. So our podcast
Speaker 1: is all the one you feed. And it's based on
Speaker 1: the parable of two wolves, where there's a grandfather who's
Speaker 1: talking with his grandson and he says, in life, there
Speaker 1: are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle.
Speaker 1: One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness
Speaker 1: and bravery and love, and the other is a bad wolf,
Speaker 1: which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And
Speaker 1: the grandson stops and he thinks about it for a second.
Speaker 1: He looks up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather,
Speaker 1: which one wins? And the grandfather says, the one you feed.
Speaker 1: So I'd like to start off by asking you what
Speaker 1: that parable means to you in your life and in
Speaker 1: the work that you do. Well. I like that parable. Um,
Speaker 1: obviously I want the spiritual path and spiritual teacher. So
Speaker 1: I think we have some agency or some choice, and
Speaker 1: choice is very important in life as his motivation and intention.
Speaker 1: So it's very important, as in the parable, whether we
Speaker 1: feed he good, you know, the higher side or the
Speaker 1: lower side of our nature, let's say our animalistic nature
Speaker 1: or our more higher divine the spiritual side of our nature.
Speaker 1: So that's very important, and the parable makes it clear
Speaker 1: that it's a choice. And I think the grand apparently
Speaker 1: wisdom asked to have from ancient times is very important
Speaker 1: for us today and are increasingly fast placed, fast paced. Sorry,
Speaker 1: in a historical times, people seem to be out of
Speaker 1: touch with the timeless wisdom traditions that are so much
Speaker 1: pressing forward to what's new and the nano second and
Speaker 1: so on. So I'm all in favor of this kind
Speaker 1: of timeless yet timely wisdom. I think it's very good
Speaker 1: for today, at tomorrow, and for a better future. So
Speaker 1: your new book is called Make Me One with Everything,
Speaker 1: Buddhist Meditations to Awaken from the Illusion of Separation, and
Speaker 1: in it you talk about a concept called inter meditation,
Speaker 1: and could you talk about what intermeditation is and maybe
Speaker 1: how that compares to what a lot of us have
Speaker 1: thought of as regular meditation for lack of a better word. Well,
Speaker 1: my new book is all about what I've coined intermeditation
Speaker 1: or co meditation. Taking off on the Sandmaster chick nag
Speaker 1: Hans turned into being about seeing through the illusion of
Speaker 1: separateness and recognizing our interconnectedness, our inter ovenness, our interdependence,
Speaker 1: and our inter beeing. And there's ben't too much about
Speaker 1: self growth and turning inward and looking inward in the
Speaker 1: meditation field to balance our streets extra version and materialism.
Speaker 1: But I think today it's very important to recognize that
Speaker 1: none of us can do it alone. It takes the
Speaker 1: village same boat. We rise at full think, let's swim together.
Speaker 1: And so I've been teaching more and more about this
Speaker 1: kind of intermeditation or become mean what permeable, not just
Speaker 1: trying to meditate or pray or do you know, can
Speaker 1: get away from it all? That's fine the vaccasion to sign,
Speaker 1: but there the other fifty weeks of the year to consider.
Speaker 1: So for that being with things, being with what hyphen
Speaker 1: rathern against it, trying to get away from it all,
Speaker 1: pushing it away, No into meditation or commentitation, waiting being
Speaker 1: with things, breathing out and breathing in with things. Based
Speaker 1: on the Tibetan writing, the breath meditation called tongue lent
Speaker 1: or low jung, where we dissolve the separation between self
Speaker 1: and other, between out or inner, writing, the breath, emerging
Speaker 1: with nature, emerging with loved ones, eventually seeing less difference
Speaker 1: between us and them and even our enemies. So this
Speaker 1: is very much being with rather than against it, and
Speaker 1: emerging into and so forth. And I'm very excited about
Speaker 1: this because I think in today's world, the US and
Speaker 1: them problem is just so paramount and and the and
Speaker 1: extreme views and terrorism and so on, and we really
Speaker 1: need to find a way to go beyond us in them.
Speaker 1: Dualism and just meditating getting away from the while of
Speaker 1: going in weard or seeking our own happiness is just
Speaker 1: not enough. I think we need to have a collective
Speaker 1: awakening and shared spirituality, spirituality for a a couple of collective
Speaker 1: spirituality and so on. That's what I'm working on now
Speaker 1: in the face my teachings in life. So, what is
Speaker 1: an example of an intermeditation that we could we could do?
Speaker 1: Can you give some examples of what what this practice?
Speaker 1: And from reading the book, there's a bunch of different ones.
Speaker 1: But could you pick a maybe a practice that we
Speaker 1: could give the listeners that is an example of intermeditation. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'd be glad to um, for example, rather than just
Speaker 1: closing our eyes and trying to be quiet and stop
Speaker 1: thinking or or get away through all, maybe we could
Speaker 1: open our eyes in our ears and just look at another,
Speaker 1: maybe eye gazing with a loved one or a pet
Speaker 1: and breathing together and convergitating and mergitating that fund with
Speaker 1: words and dissolving together. Just being together and not trying
Speaker 1: to get anything out of it for ourselves could be
Speaker 1: a great co meditation of inter meditations, and it has
Speaker 1: its basis in the count of principles of spirituality for
Speaker 1: couples and finding a portals because oneness. How we can
Speaker 1: do this by writing the breath, breathing out, breathing in
Speaker 1: together as well as by eye gazing and becoming more permeable,
Speaker 1: so of sending up, letting down our defenses seen through
Speaker 1: acceptiveness and eventually recognizing that we all want to need
Speaker 1: more or less the same. So this facing each other,
Speaker 1: standing or sitting however we want to do it. It's
Speaker 1: a great way of intermeditating or com meditating and being
Speaker 1: together in a sacred manner and integrating. We would be
Speaker 1: part of the of life, not that we have to
Speaker 1: be a lot more silence or get away from the
Speaker 1: lolling and meditation little more country or treat to do it.
Speaker 1: Another way to do it is not just with people
Speaker 1: with pets. What was nature like I like to do
Speaker 1: with water? Meditating with water, commeditating with the oceans or
Speaker 1: waterfalls or waves and listening to it, just dissolving with
Speaker 1: the sound or letting the sounds of the wind or
Speaker 1: the waves wash every single way. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: a very practical or doable nature mysticism, just washing every
Speaker 1: single way. And this is an example of com meditation
Speaker 1: or into meditation which nature. And you can pick which
Speaker 1: natural element works best for you for me to water,
Speaker 1: but for someone might be fire like spon fire gazing,
Speaker 1: or it could be earths like looking in a mountain
Speaker 1: or the Grand Canyon or just you know, the garden.
Speaker 1: Whatever natural element can help transport one beyond ho it self.
Speaker 1: So the notion is being with rather than against things.
Speaker 1: As I said, of course, this is a very hard
Speaker 1: opening thing because when real wise others want to need
Speaker 1: the same as we do to them and their loved
Speaker 1: ones and their land in their place, then we have
Speaker 1: a chance to more naturally treat others as we would
Speaker 1: ourselves be treated and naturally follow the Golden rule. And
Speaker 1: you say that inner meditation is the antithesis of naval
Speaker 1: gazing and narcissism, or the religion as escape, yoga as commodity,
Speaker 1: spirituality as a vacation. Yes, being with things rather than
Speaker 1: running away from them. We're trying to go later and
Speaker 1: just get away from goalification, which is fine, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't go far enough to have a spiritual life. Spiritual
Speaker 1: life is about every step on the path of life
Speaker 1: every day. So that's where the webber really means to road,
Speaker 1: not just on Saturday and synagogue Sunday in church a
Speaker 1: Monday Moscow meditation center. So I think that it's fine
Speaker 1: to have a yoga session or meditation session let's say
Speaker 1: the morning or you know, or weekend we get away,
Speaker 1: but there's six and other days of the week to consider.
Speaker 1: Then for this, I think being more open and befriending
Speaker 1: things and co meditating with them, we're into being with
Speaker 1: them is the way that we need today for our
Speaker 1: collective awakening. And that's just for naval gazing, for self
Speaker 1: growth and self being more self conscious. In our narcissistic society,
Speaker 1: we don't need more of that self awareness is a
Speaker 1: whole different thing about and self consciousness or narcissism and
Speaker 1: method fine line or discernment to learn how to make right.
Speaker 1: As I was as I was reading it, I was
Speaker 1: thinking of, um, you know, at least meditation, as I've
Speaker 1: been taught, a lot of it is paying attention to
Speaker 1: what's happening inside me, my mind, my breath, my body.
Speaker 1: And it really sounds like a lot of what you're
Speaker 1: describing as pain raising that level of awareness to things
Speaker 1: that are around me and outside of me. Is that
Speaker 1: a fair description us? Of course, any meditation or contemplative
Speaker 1: practice involves awareness, the cultivation of awareness, of potension, and
Speaker 1: the focus of the presence of mind, of of mindfulness
Speaker 1: or other mindlessness. As they say today, it's very popular
Speaker 1: mindfulness as a mind training to what kinds of benefits.
Speaker 1: So that begins, let's say, with yourself, will, with your breath,
Speaker 1: with your physical sensations here and now, But it needs
Speaker 1: to extend also to whoever you're with and whatever you're
Speaker 1: with as well, unless you're a lifeline contemplative or hermit
Speaker 1: who just meditates or prey the loan all the time,
Speaker 1: which I would speculate most of us are not going
Speaker 1: to be, nor do we need to be so. For
Speaker 1: most of us, relational meditation or co meditation is really
Speaker 1: the way to go and to expand and deepen our
Speaker 1: contemplative experience in portals to one is everywhere with everyone
Speaker 1: and everything, Like in the In the book of Course,
Speaker 1: I give some classical co meditations and its meditations like
Speaker 1: writing the breast, sky gazing, nature, dissolving and other things,
Speaker 1: listening to music one another at a time and so on,
Speaker 1: but also some more let's say creative original takes on it,
Speaker 1: like momitation considering like maybe you come home from work
Speaker 1: at night, after the kiddies are asleep, can you go
Speaker 1: in their bedroom and you take a look at them.
Speaker 1: You just stand there and sit there and let it
Speaker 1: all happen. No need to meditate or pray. This is
Speaker 1: a fully angels are very heart opens. You just watched
Speaker 1: the little breast rising and falling, and just breathe with
Speaker 1: them and view them. Let all the preoccupations and stress
Speaker 1: as the day wash away. That's a marvelous natural meditation.
Speaker 1: It's not hard, you know, there's no struggle to concentrate
Speaker 1: as people usually struggle with meditation. They say oh, I
Speaker 1: can't give it to my thinking. Well, in that kind
Speaker 1: of natural situation, the heart opening feelings transport you beyond
Speaker 1: your habitual self and thinking. I guarantee it. Try to
Speaker 1: call that momitation. Another way to do it is meditating
Speaker 1: with the Dalai Lama or whoever your super spiritual superhero
Speaker 1: or ideal is or God, Buddha, Jesus as an archetype
Speaker 1: in person or in the abstract, and letting them, as
Speaker 1: it were, do it for your breathing with them, looking
Speaker 1: at them in person or a picture or visualized the image,
Speaker 1: the icon, the architect, holding it in your mind, breathing,
Speaker 1: beating with them in and out, and letting everything else go,
Speaker 1: everything dissolved, and experience a great peace and nivonic peace
Speaker 1: and harmons beyond self and other, beyond effort and effortlessness,
Speaker 1: beyond inside and outside, beyond separation or even union, and
Speaker 1: just be in the capital B. You have some short
Speaker 1: quotes in the book that I think are really interesting
Speaker 1: that I'd like to maybe read you one and ask
Speaker 1: for a couple of them and ask you to expound
Speaker 1: on them a little bit. The one I want to
Speaker 1: start with you say, I think you have to love
Speaker 1: first and see second. Yes, it's interesting that you asked
Speaker 1: me about that, because the publisher interviewed me for a
Speaker 1: webcast and was one of the two or three she
Speaker 1: picked out. Also, And I am so intent upon moving
Speaker 1: this discussion from the head to the heart. Mindfulness is
Speaker 1: signed on our education system, and our mentality is already
Speaker 1: so damn mental in our scientistic postmodern reality, and I myself,
Speaker 1: being a New York intellectual and mode of mind, I
Speaker 1: am so moved to make the journey from head to
Speaker 1: heart and even deeper through the body and the earth
Speaker 1: and the whole. That's why the inscription in the beginning
Speaker 1: of the book is from a contract or non dualistic
Speaker 1: oneness scripture of Tibet contract text that says, the whole
Speaker 1: world is my body, all beings, my heart mind. So
Speaker 1: consciousness or awareness ascensions is pre eminent in being, but
Speaker 1: the body is still part of it by the end,
Speaker 1: so insuptionable, just like in mind body medicine, which is
Speaker 1: coming on throwing today. And I think it's very important.
Speaker 1: So making the journey from the head to the heart,
Speaker 1: so opening the heart first and then awakening and illumining
Speaker 1: the mind. We're already over educated. We know so much
Speaker 1: that we understand so little less the problem. We need
Speaker 1: more wisdom and discertain and not just intellectual knowledge. So
Speaker 1: the wisdom's heart is very, very important. So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm awesome about there, Not just being more mindful and
Speaker 1: thinking of my fullness, com meditation of the mental discipline.
Speaker 1: It's all sounds like something eyebrows up. What about the
Speaker 1: rest of our body? Not to mention the collectives, the family,
Speaker 1: the group, all the animals and beings and nature itself,
Speaker 1: and is doing some of the intermeditation practices the way
Speaker 1: to make that journey from the head to the heart.
Speaker 1: I believe that impimeditation and commentation takes us beyond us
Speaker 1: in them and body and mind and all of these separations,
Speaker 1: and helps us see deeper into the inextricable oneness or
Speaker 1: the the the spectrum of the art that completes the whole,
Speaker 1: just like you and me together makes the we and
Speaker 1: so forth. So each of us is very important, but
Speaker 1: all of us together probably more important to the long run.
Speaker 1: Not to mention our earth, the species and the survival
Speaker 1: of all of us. So again that's too from eye
Speaker 1: to we right, you safe? And I love this quote
Speaker 1: because it's something that we talk about on this show
Speaker 1: a lot. But it's fools seek from afar, the wise
Speaker 1: find truth beneath their feet. Yes, so of course everything
Speaker 1: I say is going to be about it's right here
Speaker 1: and now, and not to postpone it. I think you're
Speaker 1: going to do this when you retire or next summer
Speaker 1: or on the weekend, because it's now where never as always,
Speaker 1: And if we don't do it now, you know it
Speaker 1: never happens. If I'm not here now, we won't be there.
Speaker 1: Then we're still going to be postponing and putting it off,
Speaker 1: because that's a habit, that's the nature of karma and
Speaker 1: condition habit felt. The path is right beneath our feet. Eleven.
Speaker 1: Christian tradition says, although it there's no is, emphasize heaven
Speaker 1: on earth, Heaven is right here, not just later after
Speaker 1: we die. And Buddhism, another non dual tradition, certainly emphasized
Speaker 1: that nirvana right here within some sort with the light
Speaker 1: right here within the shadows, not elsewhere, not just after
Speaker 1: we die, not in some whole foreign holy land. It
Speaker 1: can fantasize and ideal lines about but here and now
Speaker 1: it's God ain't here, She's nowhere, and she's here, she's everywhere.
Speaker 1: That's money what you're thinking. So I'm I'm encouraging backyard
Speaker 1: Buddhism or universal Dharma, spirituality lodge, occupying the spirit, not
Speaker 1: just leaving it to the one percent to do that
Speaker 1: because Alli llamas or Hylama story desk of that matter.
Speaker 1: But occupied the spirit ourselves and make a better world
Speaker 1: for ourselves and all loved ones. And look what's going
Speaker 1: on in the world. What's the alternative when we need
Speaker 1: each other? Even the Dalai Lama, who's a monk and
Speaker 1: one might think very minos or solitary, says we need
Speaker 1: each other to become enlightened. He doesn't say everybody can
Speaker 1: do it themselves. We need each other to become enlightened.
Speaker 1: That's a quote of Mahyana Buddhism from the Dalai Lama,
Speaker 1: from the Universal Vehicle. Think about collective vetterment, the greater good,
Speaker 1: biggest number, not just me being happy or peaceful temporarily.
Speaker 1: You talk about the middle Way in the book a
Speaker 1: couple of different times, and I'm interested in sharing a
Speaker 1: little bit more about what the middle Way means to you.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a concept that I have found very
Speaker 1: useful in my life, and and different people interpret it
Speaker 1: slightly differently. I'd be interested in hearing your take on that. Well, Um,
Speaker 1: it depends what you're thinking about, Like as a Buddhist,
Speaker 1: I think about Buddha never cult is teaching Buddhism. He
Speaker 1: called it the middle way beyond extremes such as materialism,
Speaker 1: when realism, or all or nothing, or sterity on one hand,
Speaker 1: or indulgence. So that was his middle way, that violence, moderation. Um.
Speaker 1: Another way of looking at it, I think is it's
Speaker 1: a real touchstone for us today to not given to excess,
Speaker 1: you know, or all or nothing always never mentality or
Speaker 1: way of thinking very black and white, which is so brittle,
Speaker 1: so dogmatic. The middle way includes so many things just
Speaker 1: that I think it helps us avoid the ditches. The
Speaker 1: middle way has many lanes on the Great Highway of life,
Speaker 1: but it helps avoid the ditches on either side. I
Speaker 1: think that's the point. So for me, it's a cut
Speaker 1: stone for not being too extreme, not arguing with my mate,
Speaker 1: you know, with words like always they never, not seeing
Speaker 1: others there's a little good, bad or all good, even
Speaker 1: over idealizing people is also leads you to all kinds
Speaker 1: of trouble as we see in the spiritual world and
Speaker 1: celebrities and so on. So I think the middle way
Speaker 1: is really Buddha's greatest teaching in a way I always
Speaker 1: I always hear myself saying that, although it's not something
Speaker 1: my teachers ever said, Um, since my teacher's always stress
Speaker 1: awaysdom and compassion and generosity and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But I think this, this sense of balance or appropriateness
Speaker 1: in the middle way, is really a Buddha's greatest teaching
Speaker 1: and maybe contribution. What would be in your own life?
Speaker 1: What is the lesson that has taken you the longest
Speaker 1: to learn? Perhaps what I just talked about, the middle way?
Speaker 1: How to really you know, live live and and live
Speaker 1: and die and and and um the center in the middle.
Speaker 1: You know, I have to live in the center as
Speaker 1: well and not vie off. Besides, as I said, even
Speaker 1: too much of a good thing could be a problem,
Speaker 1: like over idealizing people or things that you can lead
Speaker 1: to disappointment as well as being hopefully kept cynical. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one is uh. I would say that's probably right
Speaker 1: up there with mine, is finding that middle way through
Speaker 1: things without being too far up to one extreme or
Speaker 1: the other. So that's been when perhaps one of my
Speaker 1: greatest challenges. Um. But I could mention something else if
Speaker 1: I find this interesting, and I love to share this
Speaker 1: with people, and I have a lot of the students
Speaker 1: and I you know, have they asked a Lawma Colum
Speaker 1: and blogs online and things like that. People alreay asking
Speaker 1: me this kind of thing. So I also like to
Speaker 1: say that it's very challenging to realize that things that
Speaker 1: you hear in life are really a myth, like all
Speaker 1: you need is love, which I grew up with, you know,
Speaker 1: with the Beatles and the sixties and all that, actually
Speaker 1: love is not enough. Sometimes other things interfew with being
Speaker 1: together or being harmonious, like people die or change your
Speaker 1: sexual orientation or stop loving you. You know, there are
Speaker 1: other factors that have to come together. And there are
Speaker 1: many myths that one could mention. That's a very challenging
Speaker 1: for me to accept that so many of the so
Speaker 1: much accepted knowledge, always in the past down is really
Speaker 1: very very questionable for example, about you know, reality or
Speaker 1: good and bad or us in them or and it's
Speaker 1: easier to pick on outer things like American superiority or
Speaker 1: white superiority. It's easy to see through those things, but
Speaker 1: we still may act from that. And if you go
Speaker 1: travel around the world, you see Americans acting like that
Speaker 1: everywhere else, I mean many cases. And it's very hard
Speaker 1: to root prejudice out of our hearts and minds. So
Speaker 1: that that's been very challenging also for me to know
Speaker 1: this how strong conditioning is and can be to work
Speaker 1: on that. So many times over the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: I've I've seemed to be getting the message about learning
Speaker 1: to unknown, not thinking that. We get pretty set in thinking, well,
Speaker 1: I know this to be true, and I know that
Speaker 1: to be true, and and for whatever reason, I keep
Speaker 1: I keep running across constant reminders to go back to
Speaker 1: being a beginner, and a lot of these things that
Speaker 1: I might think I know the answer to. Well, like
Speaker 1: I've said before, we know so much, what we really
Speaker 1: understand so little, and the mind and intellectual knowledge also
Speaker 1: has its limits. Thus the Zen Buddhist teaching about not
Speaker 1: knowing and living with mystery and not having fixed opinions.
Speaker 1: In interview as an master involved with China saying, do
Speaker 1: not seek to find the final truth. Nearly cease to
Speaker 1: cherish opinions. I think that's awesome statement of timeless wisdom.
Speaker 1: And if we if we believe as a science, which
Speaker 1: is kind of the religion of today, we noticed that
Speaker 1: every few years or decades the science changes a lot
Speaker 1: of fixed truths and its and its beliefs. So that's
Speaker 1: also very instructive I think to also take the said,
Speaker 1: you know, top con mentor or scientific facts and any
Speaker 1: generation with a grain of salt. I'm not just saying
Speaker 1: not here to say science, we modern medicine isn't better
Speaker 1: than superstition in which craft that we had, you know,
Speaker 1: thousands of years ago. It is better, but it's still
Speaker 1: it's a very malleable or evolving field of knowledge as well.
Speaker 1: So I've concluded in my graying years that my head
Speaker 1: is not really the best neighborhood for me to live in.
Speaker 1: And again making the journey from the head to the
Speaker 1: heart and prioritizing or being more attentive to help the
Speaker 1: heart path the heart opening relationships and so on, like
Speaker 1: with children with pets, quality time rather than quantity and
Speaker 1: so forth, and to my true vocation enjoy path and
Speaker 1: not just the big should that I should on my
Speaker 1: head with sometimes oh I should do this or that,
Speaker 1: get a little old to that, but the joy path
Speaker 1: never gets old. We often teach what we need to
Speaker 1: learn is that kind of been at one of your challenges.
Speaker 1: Is that moving from the brain and the overthinking into
Speaker 1: more of the heart path. Um, I guess yes, we teacher.
Speaker 1: We need to learn so, you know, because if you're
Speaker 1: a teacher, you find out that you may think you're
Speaker 1: teaching one thing, you may be teaching other things too.
Speaker 1: So yes, definitely about the hard path, but I also
Speaker 1: don't want to set the hard is it opposed to
Speaker 1: a separate from the head. I'm definitely an educator and
Speaker 1: a thinker, and I'm awful questioning and judgment and discernment
Speaker 1: and discriminating awareness, not just becoming simple minded in the
Speaker 1: name of simplicity, you know, simplifying your life. That's becoming
Speaker 1: a simpleton. But life can be quite simple when one
Speaker 1: is less complicated, that's for sure. So sometimes I think
Speaker 1: I say I hate myself saying, oh, my dog, walking
Speaker 1: my dog in the morning is the best time of
Speaker 1: my day, and people give me a queer look like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's said, but it's not. I'm sorry. That's how it
Speaker 1: is What can I say? That's how it is. It
Speaker 1: feels that way to me. What do I know? I
Speaker 1: think my dogs have done more to help me make that,
Speaker 1: make that journey from the head to the heart than
Speaker 1: anything else that I've probably come across. Yeah, and now
Speaker 1: that I have grand nephews and nieces and step grandside
Speaker 1: of it, Couber, you know, I'm spending more concerting on
Speaker 1: the form plane with them. Life is good. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to have some other grand agenda. And it's a mystery.
Speaker 1: It's a miracle and a mystery. I love it. Last
Speaker 1: name time. If you take ourselves too seriously, right, My
Speaker 1: girlfriend in the seventies used to call me serious Toss.
Speaker 1: Much younger now and less serious now. I'm more like
Speaker 1: the Jolly Lama. In fact, I suggested that Ben and
Speaker 1: Jerry asked me the name to my ice creams for him,
Speaker 1: so I named one the Jolly Lama and another one
Speaker 1: It's the Butter World. But they didn't make the taste testing, unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Did you get to pick the flavors to are just
Speaker 1: the names? Yeah, we worked on it, but the Jolly
Speaker 1: Lama had some kind of red offside berry and yellow,
Speaker 1: something of rather orange kind of like tibet and Buddhist colors.
Speaker 1: But um, we had fun with that. It's fun. It's
Speaker 1: fun to collaborate with people. I love my friends, I
Speaker 1: mean gifted with the treasure of friends. Well, sir Ya,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking the time to join
Speaker 1: us on the show. I've really enjoyed talking with you.
Speaker 1: And they'll definitely be links on the on the show
Speaker 1: notes for how everybody can find your book, find your
Speaker 1: website and all of those things. Is there anything you
Speaker 1: want to add is as we wrap up, No, but
Speaker 1: I want to say thank you for what you're doing,
Speaker 1: and also for picking out some of the short, pissy
Speaker 1: words of wisdom or Buddha bites by one liners from
Speaker 1: the end of the book, where I have a list
Speaker 1: of them, and I think those are things that it's
Speaker 1: worth writing on a yellow sticky or an index card
Speaker 1: and thinking about maybe one a week or one a day,
Speaker 1: like things and not what they seem to be, nor
Speaker 1: are they otherwise. And a few of the one liners
Speaker 1: like letting go means letting come and go letting be
Speaker 1: I have some good one line is listening to the
Speaker 1: end of the book, in the section called Buddha bites.
Speaker 1: So it's a com meditation practice I called meditating with
Speaker 1: words of wisdom. Of course, you can make up your
Speaker 1: own or you can find your own in the words
Speaker 1: of wisdom of Ecclesiastes or whoever you like in the
Speaker 1: Great Enlightenment literature of the world. Yeah, there was one
Speaker 1: other you had in there that we didn't have time
Speaker 1: to talk about. But it was if you're not here now,
Speaker 1: you won't be there then, which I think is awesome.
Speaker 1: Exactly well, and guarantee that. And that's the whole message
Speaker 1: of this mindfulness and new nouness movement to free us
Speaker 1: some pist in present and future conditioning and live more
Speaker 1: and savor than now. Who knows how long we're gonna live. Well,
Speaker 1: what's going to come next? But there's been now the
Speaker 1: Holy now, this the President, the gift something to be
Speaker 1: great for every day that we wake up. There's a
Speaker 1: gift in the miracles. Up. Let's enjoy it together and
Speaker 1: treasure and treasure and protect life and not squand to it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Yeah, thank you, take care o you alright, goodbye, goodbye.
Speaker 1: You can learn more about Lama Suryadas and this podcast
Speaker 1: at one you feed dot net slash Syria. That's s
Speaker 1: u R y A