buddhism

Today we welcome Joseph Goldstein to the podcast. Joseph is a co-founder and the guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) along with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg. He is one of the first American vipassana teachers and has been teaching Buddhist meditation worldwide since 1974. A contemporary author of numerous popular books on Buddhism, his publications include Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, One Dharma, Insight Meditation and others.

In this episode, I talk to Joseph Goldstein about Buddhism and the impermanence of life. Being too attached to the self can bring suffering. However, this doesn’t mean that we need to forego our identities or self-care. Joseph explains that enlightenment can be achieved when the mind is free from clinging. He talks about the different states that can help us realize the insight of impermanence and selflessness. We also touch on the topics of mindfulness, compassion, creativity, and wisdom.

Website: www.dharma.org/

Twitter: @onedharma

Topics

03:01 Joseph’s background and expertise

09:31 Enlightenment

15:11 Balance of mind

24:15 Noticing per minute

31:02 Mindfulness and flow

35:38 Wisdom is insight

38:00 Creativity

41:20 Different mind states

49:51 The tales of Sisyphus and Icarus

55:29 Skillful means

58:53 Flow of being

1:02:04 Unprompted mindfulness 

1:04:42 Equanimity

1:09:24 Compassion and connection

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don’t think you can come across a person with so much diversity as my guest today Nikki Mirghafori, or in Persian it would be Mir - gah - foor- ri. She has grown up in Iran and then immigrated to the US where she studied at Stanford and UCLA and became a visiting professor at  UC Berkeley. There is a side of her that is interested in technology and AI, specifically the ethics of AI. But then there is the other side of her which is an empowered teacher who holds a lineage in Theravada Buddhism, she studied all different kinds of Buddism and felt connected to mediations and silent retreats.  She brings together, perhaps a bit like I do but a lot more, an interesting perspective of east and west of science and spirituality that  I believe is incredibly  needed in the times of confusion we are about to embark on,

Nikki Mirghafori, PhD, is of Persian heritage and immigrated to the US in her teens.  She was introduced to contemplative practices and yoga in the early 1980s, to meditation in 1991, and to Theravada Buddhism in 2003. Nikki has studied at Stanford's CCARE and UCLA's MARC and is a Stanford-certified Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) instructor and UCLA-certified mindfulness MAPS facilitator.  She spent four years as a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley's Psychology Department with the renowned psychologist, Professor Eleanor Rosch, the co-author of the seminal book The Embodied Mind . Her teaching includes lectures, classes, day longs, workshops, silent retreats on meditation and Buddhist contemplation in the San Francisco Bay Area and internationally.  Concurrent with her dharma practice and teaching, Nikki has been an Artificial Intelligence scientist and academic at a research institute affiliated with UC Berkeley.  She holds a Ph.D. in computer science from UC Berkeley. She has also served on the IEEE P7010 Standards Committee on Well-Being Metrics for Ethical AI.

Listen as we discuss:

• 03:00 - Science and spirituality
• 06:30 - The Islamic Revolution
• 09:00 - Change of scenery
• 11:30 - Falling in love
• 13:00 - Meeting mortality 
• 16:30 - The Four Noble Truths
• 19:00 - Grief is the price we pay for love
• 23:00 - The tick that bit me
• 24:30 - Silent retreat
• 27:00 - The well of sadness
• 31:00 - The gift of space
• 34:00 - Human connections and awakening
• 39:00 - A question of singularity 
• 43:00 - Weak AI Vs Strong AI
• 48:00 - The consciousness of trees 
• 51:00 - Buddist cosmology
• 56:00 - Already here
• 01:01:00 - Is AI conscious?
• 01:08:00 - Where are the ethics?
• 01:15:30 - Snake Oil Phenomenon
• 01:21:00 - Spiritual AI
• 01:25:00 - Utopia Vs Dystopia
• 01:33:00 - How to break the rules ethically
• 01:38:30 - The practice of goodwill
• 01:41:00 - Greed, hatred and confusion

Connect with Nikki Twitter @NikkiMirghafori and LinkedIn. Find out more about her work here.

YouTube: @mogawdatofficial
Instagram: @mo_gawdat
Facebook: @mo.gawdat.official
LinkedIn: /in/mogawdat
X: @mgawdat
Website: mogawdat.com

Don't forget to subscribe to Slo Mo for new episodes every Saturday. Only with your help can we reach One Billion Happy #onebillionhappy

Hinduism and Buddhism are closely related in a number of ways, including their vision of what comes after we exit this mortal coil. Learn about the religions' interesting interpretation of the state of existence outside space-time, in this classic episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we traverse a decade of Sam’s conversations on the topic of meditation. 

We start with the very first recorded episode from the archives: a conversation with Sam’s meditation teacher and friend, Joseph Goldstein. Goldstein recalls how his thinking was unlocked—allowing him to fully realize the power of the practice—by the utterance of one single word.

We then hear from author Richard Lang as he guides us towards a strangely obvious insight that came to be known as “the headless way.” Next, philosopher and neuroscientist Thomas Metzinger employs his vast expertise in both neurobiology and meditation to show how our brains generate a model of the world and self, and how meditation can help us catch that process in the act.

Psychiatrist Judson Brewer then shifts the conversation to some very practical applications of mindfulness meditation, addressing the problem of addiction to things like food, smoking, or drugs by retraining the reward centers in our brains. Next, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson dig into the neuroscience of meditation and discuss how experienced meditators may actually be physically altering their brains. 

We then listen in on Sam’s conversation with author Robert Wright, who defends the claim that “Buddhism is true.” Sam and Wright discuss the validity of this claim while ensuring they keep it separate from the political and moral behaviors of Buddhist nations and individuals.

We conclude with Sam delivering the answer to a question posed by the Belgian neuroscientist Steven Laureys. In doing so, Sam provides a comprehensive tour of his philosophies. He ties together his personal brand of moral analysis, his reverence for science and truth seeking, and his reasoning as to why he still meditates and why he proudly promotes the practice.

About the Series

Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced The Essential Sam Harris, a new series of audio documentaries exploring the major topics that Sam has focused on over the course of his career.

Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most compelling exchanges from the Making Sense archive. Whether you are new to a particular topic, or think you have your mind made up about it, we think you’ll find this series fascinating.

The suicide forest in Japan is a beautiful place with a checkered reputation. Trigger Warning: This episode features a discussion of suicide. If you or anyone you know needs help, please call 988.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode kicks off our series on the Eightfold Path which will continue on Wednesdays for the next two weeks with Eugene Cash and Joseph Goldstein.

DaRa Williams is a trainer, meditation teacher and psychotherapist and has been a meditator for the past 25 years. She is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation and is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program and is an IMS Emeritus Guiding Teacher. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The first two components of the Eightfold Path: Right View and Right Thinking
• How the Eightfold Path has played out in DaRa’s life 
• The notions of Intuition, Clear Seeing, and Openness 
• And the very tricky skills of renunciation and fostering non-attachment to outcomes

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dara-williams-592

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Actor Michael Imperioli is best known for a string of memorable onscreen performances that include Goodfellas, The Sopranos, and most recently on The White Lotus. What you may not know is that he has a deep Buddhist practice and has actually grown into something of a meditation teacher. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The classic celebrity life crisis that brought Imperioli to Buddhism 
• The importance of consistent practice as a way to get familiar with your mind so that your thoughts and emotions and urges don't own you
• The specific Tibetan Buddhist tradition Imperioli practices and what his daily practice looks like
• Whether meditation helps him be more creative
• How acting and meditation are similar
• Whether getting older affects our ability to grok impermanence
• Why Imperioli started teaching meditation online
• How to meditate off the cushion in daily life

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/michael-imperioli-591 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I came across my guest, Jigme Ugen after he uploaded a video in response to a viral clip of a young Indian boy with the Dalai Lama. The video Jigme uploaded explained Tibetan cultural traditions and tried to give another opinion on what was going around on the mainstream media. My intention here is not at all to convince you that the Dalai Lama is one thing or another but when I decided to share this video on Instagram some of the responses I got enraged me. Some people rejected it without even watching it.  This led me to decide to have this conversation to tell my listeners that the top skill we need in today's fake world of social media, is to always listen to the opposite point of view before we make up our mind.

Jigme Ugen is the President of the Tibetan National Congress who has lived in exile in Minnesota, USA since 2001. 

Listen as we discuss:

• 05:30 - Important disclaimer 
• 08:00 - The opinion and the other opinion 
• 10:00 - Meaning of prayer 
• 13:00 - History of Tibet 
• 18:00 - Seven Years In Tibet and Kundun 
• 21:00 - Injustices and struggles 
• 22:30 - Empathy and compassion 
• 28:00 - Child abuse 
• 30:30 - Culture shock 
• 32:20 - Sky burial 
• 37:00 - Tibetan culture 
• 41:00 - Squeezing cheeks 
• 43:00 - THAT video 
• 58:00 - The long tale 
• 01:03:00 - A community in pain 
• 01:06:30 - The impact of hate speech 
• 01:15:30 - The truth and the sun 
• 01:17:30 - Finding peace and harmony 
• 01:19:00 - The inner child 
• 01:22:00 - Obama’s ears 
• 01:24:00 - Sexual harassment 
• 01:25:00 - Consider ALL opinions to find the truth 

Connect with Jigme Ugen on Instagram Jigme, Twitter  @JigmeUgen and LinkedIn 

YouTube: @mogawdatofficial
Instagram: @mo_gawdat
Facebook: @mo.gawdat.official
LinkedIn: /in/mogawdat
X: @mgawdat
Website: mogawdat.com

Don't forget to subscribe to Slo Mo for new episodes every Saturday. Only with your help can we reach One Billion Happy #onebillionhappy

A beautifully weird conversation with the creator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. 

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded its world-renown Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic in 1979, and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (CFM), in 1995. He is the author of many books including Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are. 

His latest book, Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief, illustrates a range of evidence-based mindfulness meditation practices for those suffering with the challenges of chronic pain. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The origins of MBSR and its relation to pain relief
• Pain vs. Suffering
• The accessibility of awareness
• The limitation of mindfulness meditation as a self-improvement practice
• The quote, “open your mouth and you’re wrong” 
• Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of of healing 

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/jon-kabat-zinn-580 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One of the Dalai Lama‘s most challenging teachings, especially for secular western minds, is reincarnation. In this episode, His Holiness describes the Buddhist deity who he believes to be his “boss.” Dan then sits down with Richie again to discuss whether there is any scientific evidence for rebirth. The episode begins and ends with emotional moments, where members of our team respond with tears to being in the presence of the Dalai Lama.

Want more of The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness? Download the Ten Percent Happier app wherever you get your apps.

Full Show Notes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dalai-lama-guide-541

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Healthy Minds Innovations
• UVA research on reincarnation

Additional Resources:

Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/JoinChallengePod

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How can we get better at selfishness? That’s one of many fascinating topics we cover in this episode, in which we play snippets from Dan’s one-on-one interview with His Holiness, and then unpack it all with Dr. Richard Davidson, neuroscientist and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds. We talk to His Holiness about “wise selfishness,” how to handle our enemies, and whether he ever gets angry. Then Richie recounts a time when His Holiness exhibited a rare flash of anger— towards him, in fact.

Want more of The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness? Download the Ten Percent Happier app wherever you get your apps.

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dalai-lama-guide-540

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Healthy Minds Innovations

Additional Resources:

• Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/JoinChallengePod

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Dalai Lama makes a risky move. When confronted by a young American woman coping with incredible loss, he does something surprising and counterintuitive. The incident surfaces a question that is more urgent now than ever: As social media, tribalism, individualism, and a global pandemic conspire to keep us separated from each other, how do we maintain what psychologists call “social fitness”?

In conversation with Dr. Richard J. Davidson, world renowned neuroscientist and longtime friend and collaborator of the Dalai Lama, we unpack the scientifically demonstrated benefits of the social connection embodied by His Holiness, and give easily accessible strategies to incorporate this wisdom into your everyday life. Also, Dan has a bit of an identity crisis. 

Want more of The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness? Download the Ten Percent Happier app wherever you get your apps.

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dalai-lama-guide-539

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Healthy Minds Innovations
• Compassionate Leadership Summit
• The Wellbeing Project

Additional Resources:

Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/JoinChallengePod

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dan flies to Dharamsala, India to spend two weeks in the orbit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is the first installment of a five-part audio documentary series, something we’ve never done before now. Over the course of the episodes, we talk to His Holiness about practical strategies for thorny dilemmas, including: how to get along with difficult people; whether compassion can cut it in an often brutal world; why there is a self-interested case for not being a jerk; and how to create social connection in an era of disconnection. We also get rare insights from the Dalai Lama into everything from the mechanics of reincarnation to His Holiness’s own personal mediation practice. 

In this first installment, Dan watches as a young activist directly challenges His Holiness: In a world plagued by climate change, terrorism, and other existential threats, is the Dalia Lama’s message of compassion practical — or even relevant? 

Full Show Notes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dalai-lama-guide-538

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Healthy Minds Innovations
• Compassionate Leadership Summit

Additional Resources:

Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/JoinChallengePod

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's episode, Andy & DJ discuss Democrats launching a coordinated attack on Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk, scientists warning of a new 'zombie virus' being a threat to society, and Bob Iger contradicting himself and expressing regret after denouncing anti-grooming laws.

Is it possible to learn to spot which state your nervous system is in and move from suboptimal states to much better ones? The subject of how to work with your own nervous system is called Polyvagal Theory and today’s guests Deb Dana & Kaira Jewel Lingo will give us a primer on what that exactly means. They will also talk about how our nervous systems are connected to the nervous systems of other people, and how we can learn to co-regulate our systems for the betterment of others. 

Deb Dana is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who is a clinician, consultant and author specializing in complex trauma.  Her work is focused on using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma, and creating ways of working that honor the role of the autonomic nervous system. She has written several books, including Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory. 

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. She is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption. 

This is the third installment of our series called, The Art and Science of Keeping Your Sh*t Together. In each episode we bring together a meditative adept or Buddhist scholar and a respected scientist. The idea is to give you the best of both worlds to arm you with both modern and ancient tools for regulating your emotions.

In this episode we talk about:

• The basics of Polyvagal Theory
• A fascinating and easily graspable concept from Buddhist psychology called, “store consciousness”
• The interconnectedness of our nervous systems and the responsibility that creates for all of us
• How to handle being annoyed
• What happens when we beat ourselves up with “shoulds,” and how to stop doing that
• The value of simply knowing, in the moments when you’re stuck, that those moments are impermanent
• How to allow your suffering to inform your life
• The value of “micro-moments”
• Two ways of caring for painful states without suppressing them
• And the power of action and service in overcoming anxiety

Full Shownotes: www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/deb-dana-kaira-jewel-lingo-522

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Relationships can be tricky. Especially if you find yourself upset with someone, and instead of talking it through, you let it fester until one moment you completely lose it and end up having to apologize. If you’ve ever felt like you had friction with the people in your life, or that you’ve been taken for granted, today’s episode offers you solid strategies to cope. 

Sister True Dedication is a Zen Buddhist nun and teacher ordained by the great meditation teacher and author, Thich Nhat Hanh. She edited several of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books, including The Art of Living and Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. She was born in the United Kingdom, studied history and political thought at Cambridge University, and worked for BBC News before ordaining as a nun at the age of 27.

In this episode we talk about: 

• The six phrases – or mantras – that Thich Nhat Hanh recommended people use in their relationships
• Keeping misunderstandings “dust free”
• Taking action to make sure anger doesn’t fester
• The importance of recognizing that our understanding of the world is always partial
• Bringing mantras to work
• How Sister True Dedication went from journalism to the monastery

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/sister-true-dedication-514

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are you interested in suffering less? Today's guest, Dharma teacher Pascal Auclair, is going to talk about seven very specific and practical ways to train your mind for reduced suffering by exploring a Buddhist list called the seven factors of awakening, which is a part of the fourth foundation of mindfulness. We’ve talked about a bunch of Buddhist lists on the show before, but this is one of the happiest of all the lists to explore. 

Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, who have both been previous guests on this show. Pascal is now a core teacher at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts. He is also a co-founder of True North Insight and one of its guiding teachers. 

This episode is the fifth and final installment of a series we've launched on the four foundations of mindfulness.

In this episode we talk about:

• The movement from difficult states of mind to more beneficial and helpful states of mind
• How the 7 factors can help you create your “best mind”
• The difference between the “energizing” and “calming” factors 
• How to practically apply these factors to your daily life
• And specifically how the seven factors can improve your relationships

Full Shownotes: www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/pascal-auclair-508

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is it possible to be happy no matter what happens? Today we’re going right to the source of what makes us unhappy to learn how to disarm and disable potential suffering before it owns us. 

Everything that comes up in our mind is either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. In other words, with everything we experience, we either want it, don’t want it, or we don’t care. In Buddhism, this is called “feeling tones” or “vedana” and it is known as the second foundation of mindfulness in the Buddha’s comprehensive list. So why does this matter? Because if you are unaware of the pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral tones, then you are being controlled by them. Similarly, if you are unaware that certain people or things provoke aversion, then you can unthinkingly avoid or even be aggressive towards them. In this way, we can be like puppets on a string— just yanked around by greed, hatred, and numbness. 

Today’s guest, dharma teacher Christina Feldman, is going to drill down on this embarkation point for our suffering, zap it with mindfulness and help us understand how we don’t have to live like puppets on a string. 

Feldman began teaching in the west in the seventies after spending years in Asia studying Buddhist meditation. She is a co-founder of Gaia House, a retreat center in the UK, and has also served as a guiding teacher at Insight Meditation Society beginning in its early days. More recently, she is a co-founder of Bodhi College, which is dedicated to the study and practice of the early teachings of the Buddha. She is the author of a book called, Boundless Heart: The Buddha's Path of Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity, and co-author of Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology.

This episode is the second installment of a series we've launched on the four foundations of mindfulness.

In this episode we talk about:

• Why vedana is often called, “the ruler of consciousness” or “the king, or the queen of consciousness”
• How to practice with vedana, and the benefits thereof
• Her lovely description of the Buddha as being very focused on understanding “the architecture of distress and unhappiness” 
• Her contention that unhappiness is not a life sentence. 
• Her definition of genuine happiness
• What she means by the power of “giving greater authority to intentionality, rather than to mood or story”
• And her personal practice of setting life intentions every year

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/christina-feldman-500

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.