Through a retelling of classical Indian stories, Dr. Robert Svoboda pays homage to the most beloved saint of Maharashtra, Jnaneshwara.

Ep. 52 – The Life of a Saint- Jnaneshwara

Connecting to the timelessness of the present moment, Gil Fronsdal offers practical steps towards the only source of true happiness: contentment.

This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal explores:
- Seeing the timeless present through photographs 
- Enjoying the preciousness of our limited time here on earth 
- How corporate, capitalist America prefers people who are discontent
- What the Buddha said about the vital importance of contentment 
- How many desires often dissipate on their own if you ride them out
- The ways in which desire alienates us from ourselves 
- The embodied quality of contentment and being in touch with ourselves
- Freedom in the Buddhist sense: freedom ‘from’ rather than freedom ‘to do’
- Cultivating contentment by valuing it and seeing it as an important part of life
- Activities which encourage contentment versus remaining frantic
- Facing discontentment head-on so that it does not drive us 
- This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

“Contentment is a falling away of anxiety, restlessness, reaching forward, fear, being fragmented, and disconnected. It is a kind of settling. If we’re driven by desires, fears, preoccupations, or fantasies, often our energy, our center of attention, is upwelling in an unhealthy way. As we are contented, we feel the settling down, settling down into the center of gravity.” –Gil Fronsdal 

About Gil Fronsdal:
Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.



Contentment On The Buddhist Path with Gil Fronsdal | BHNN Guest Podcast - Ep. 232

Speaking across the decades from the 1960s to the 2010s, Ram Dass shares stories about his mother and father, and explores what it means to honor our parents and incarnation. 

This episode of Here and Now is a compilation of Ram Dass discussing what it means to honor our parents and our incarnation. 

We begin in 1969 at the family farm in New Hampshire. Ram Dass talks about how most of our efforts to help other people are simply high drama. He tells a story about wanting to speak with his mother about dying when she was going through that process, but she had to be the one to open the door to the conversation.

The next stop is the 1970s at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, New York. Ram Dass explores how part of the spiritual journey is about honoring incarnation and honoring our parents. He shares stories about spending time with his father, and how moments of intimacy between them were born of Ram Dass not trying to be someone special anymore.  

We move on to a 1985 Seva benefit in San Rafael, California. Ram Dass discusses moving back home at 50 to care for his aging father. He then tells the story of being called home from a meditation retreat to help his sick stepmother, and a moment of anger he felt towards his guru about what was happening.

Up next is a trip to the 1990s at the Conscious Aging Retreat in Clearwater, Florida. Ram Dass responds to a question about helping a child awaken. He talks about how you have to become somebody before you become nobody, and recalls a memory where he and his mother overcame their roles of parent and child for a brief moment.

Finally, we end with a conversation between Ram Dass and John Welshons on Maui in 2011. Ram Dass tells the story of a meditation retreat that turned into a therapy group, which triggered a memory from when he was a young child and his mother was holding him down during a temper tantrum. Ram Dass tries to reconcile this memory with the moment when his guru told him his mother is a very high soul. 

The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.

“Now, I’ve done this, being with my father once a month now, for several years, because I said to myself, ‘Look, you have to honor your incarnation. And one of the aspects of your incarnation is that you are your father’s son.’ And even though, on some level, that seems kind of funny, it happens to be part of what it’s about. Just like I have to honor the fact that I am an American. I have to pay my taxes. I have to do a lot of stuff. And this is one of the things, I must honor it. And then I have to figure out—what does it mean to honor it? What does it mean to honor it? What does it mean to honor parents?” – Ram Dass

About Ram Dass:
Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him. Learn more at ramdass.org.

Ram Dass on Honoring Parents and Incarnation Ram Dass | Here & Now Ep. 291, Across the Decades

Defining the nature of Bodhicitta, Joseph Goldstein explains that enlightenment is inevitable when compassion and emptiness coexist.

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein thoughtfully articulates:
- Bodhicitta: the heart-mind of awakening and working for the benefit of all beings
- Living in the world while still remembering the truth of non-self and impermanence
- The beauty of selflessness embodied through Dipa Ma’s life and teachings
- Regularly reflecting on impermanence as both a reality check and a spiritual practice
- The nature of the mind as intrinsically empty and naturally radiant 
- Coming out of our mind-drama and entering into the empty luminosity of the present moment 
- Compassionate responsiveness to the needs of others
- Forgiveness as one of the most profound ways to respond with open-hearted compassion

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“This responsiveness is compassion, not as a meditative stance, but rather it is the responsiveness of an open heart, of an open mind. It can show itself, this compassionate responsiveness, in so many different ways. It can manifest very beautifully as forgiveness.” –Joseph Goldstein 

Buddhist Teachings on Emptiness, Luminosity & Responsiveness w/ Joseph Goldstein | Insight Hour 255

Raghu Markus and Psychoanalyst Dr. Jeffrey Rubin unpack how mindfulness, empathy, and self-understanding connect the worlds of Buddhism and Western therapy.

In this Mindrolling episode, Raghu and Dr. Rubin discuss:

- Jeffrey’s traditional upbringing and the unexpected spiritual experience he had during a basketball game
- Key parallels between Western psychotherapy and Buddhist wisdom
- How “hovering attention” and mindfulness support both therapists and clients
- Identifying pure presence in numerous activities, from chanting to sports and beyond 
- The marriage of Buddha and Freud: moment-to-moment non-judgmental, non-interfering presence 
- Why some Buddhist practitioners can be “one with experience” but struggle to articulate what that truly means
- Viewing our symptoms as beautiful gateways to transformation rather than obstacles
- Putting practice into everyday life and helping people truly live differently
- Empathetically understanding those we disagree with 
- Becoming open to feedback and growth instead of shutting down new ideas 
- The ways in which we maladaptively try to cure ourselves 
- What real, sustainable transformation actually looks like in practice

About Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin:
Dr. Rubin practices psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy and teaches meditation in New York City and Bedford Hills, New York. Widely regarded as a leading integrator of the Western psychotherapeutic and Eastern meditative traditions, Dr. Rubin created Meditative Psychotherapy based on decades of study, teaching and helping people to flourish. Dr. Rubin is the author of six books and numerous publications. He has taught at universities, psychoanalytic institutes and Buddhist and yoga centers. Dr. Rubin lectures in the US and has given workshops at the UN, the Esalen Institute, the Open Center and the 92nd Street Y. His pioneering approach to psychotherapy and Buddhism has been featured in The New York Times Magazine.​ Sign up HERE for a workshop on self-transformation with Dr. Rubin

“I call it the marriage of Buddha and Freud. It’s any practice that cultivates moment-to-moment, non-judgmental, non-interfering presence. That can be qigong, prayer, or Sufi dancing. I don’t want the audience to think it has to be Buddhist; it can be many things. It just happens to be very well done in Buddhism. It’s any sincere path that will help you focus, concentrate, have more self-compassion and compassion for others.” –Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin

Where Psychotherapy Meets Buddhism with Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin & Raghu Markus | Mindrolling Ep. 621

Offering listeners a way to live life fully, Trudy Goodman explores how to overcome the brain's negative bias by inclining the mind toward appreciation. 

In this episode, Trudy Goodman gives a lecture on:
- The mind’s tendency to view things negatively 
- How evolutionary wiring shapes what we notice and what we miss
- A powerful teaching from loved ones at the end of life: do all things with joy
- Remembering that our heart is inclined toward that which we pay attention to
- How micro-moments of mindfulness accumulate into lasting transformation
- Building new neural pathways through steady, repeated practice
- Living fully with both joy and difficulty instead of moving into denial
- Ensuring that we do not overlook that which will grow our spiritual wealth
- Realizing that both our feelings about a situation and the situation itself do not really matter
- Why the Buddha wanted us to look deeply at our suffering and to question it
- Taking in the goodness of your very own being

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

About Trudy Goodman:
Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

“This took me so long to understand in my practice: that what I think about what’s happening doesn’t matter. Actually, what’s happening doesn’t even matter. All that matters is do we know it? Can we be with it without being hard on ourselves, shaming ourselves, blaming somebody else? All that matters is our quality of attention to it.” –Trudy Goodman

Live It Up with Trudy Goodman | BHNN Guest Podcast Ep. 233

Indigenous scholar Apela Colorado, Ph.D., joins Anita Sanchez to explore the power of dreamwork and practical ways to reconnect our inner and outer polarities.

This week on The Four Sacred Gifts, Anita and Dr. Apela Colorado discuss:

- A loving prayer for all of those who are suffering around the world
- Inner connection between the self and larger reality 
- Dr. Apela’s experience growing up embedded into nature 
- Facing the shadowy parts of ourselves and the world
- How Dr. Apela moved through the traumatic parts of her childhood
- Re-indigenizing reality and looking for ways that our inner polarities can be brought together
- Dreamworkers, dream ceremonies, and Dr. Apela’s prayer to her ancestors  
- How dreams can do so much for us, and are actually very influential to our waking reality

"Before you go to bed at night, just ask your ancestors to allow you to have a dream—to sense whatever it is, and just leave it at that. Open your heart. Say it truly not just from your head, but from your heart.” –Anita Sanchez

About Apela Colorado, Ph.D.  

Founder of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network, Apela Colorado, Ph.D.(Oneida-Gaul) is a pioneering scholar, educator, and cultural bridge-builder whose work spans Indigenous knowledge systems, social policy, and spiritual ecology. A Ford Foundation Fellow, she earned her Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University in 1982, with additional studies in Federal Indian Law and Child Welfare at Harvard University. She has served as a representative to the United Nations Earth Summit, a delegate to the Conference on Religion and Environment hosted by the President of Indonesia, and an advisory board member for the South African Research Chair in Development Education. Her scholarly publications explore the intersections of Indigenous wisdom, spirituality, and science. She is the author of Woman Between the Worlds: A Call to Your Ancestral and Indigenous Wisdom (Hay House, 2021), and co-author of numerous academic works on cultural revitalization and sacred ecology. Learn more HERE.

	“I found out if you want to do revolutionary work, for me it means work that sustains life, it means the sacred feminine, it means the connection of feminine and masculine, the polarities and bringing them together through love.” –Apela Colorado, Ph.D.

Bringing Polarities Together with Apela Colorado & Anita Sanchez | The Four Sacred Gifts Ep. 16

For episode 274, we are continuing a new series on the Metta Hour, centered on kids, in honor of Sharon’s first children’s book, Kind Karl, coming out on December 9th!

Co-authored by Jason Gruhl, this illustrated picture book is for 4-8 year-olds and is a new children’s adaptation of Sharon’s beloved book Lovingkindness. 

To learn more about Sharon’s forthcoming children’s book, Kind Karl, and pre-order a copy with a special pre-order gift, you can visit Sharon’s website, right here: https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/kind-karl

For this podcast series, Sharon speaks with educators, caregivers, and researchers about the ways meditation, mindfulness, and lovingkindness can impact children of all ages and the family systems that support them. For the third episode of the series, Sharon speaks with Meena Srinivasan.

Meena Srinivasan is an educational leader, speaker, author, and visionary edupreneur. With over two decades of dedicated service, she has consistently championing the fusion of Mindfulness and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). In 2022, she was featured as one of Mindful Magazine's "Ten Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement," while also gaining recognition in Educational Leadership Magazine for her insights into Mindful Leadership and Wellbeing. Her recent TEDx Talk on Tenderness is one of the most popular talks of 2024 with more than 2 million views. A dedicated practitioner for more than 25 years, Meena is a newly ordained lay Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, in the lineage of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who calls her a “precious ambassador of mindfulness.”

In this conversation, Meena and Sharon speak about:
- Aligning inner life with outer work
- Meena’s early spiritual foundation in Hindu culture
- Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
- SEL practices for different ages & environments
- Smell the Flower and Blow Out the Candle meditations
- Supporting kids in crisis
- Thích Nhất Hạnh’s School of Interbeing
- The importance of parents'’ and educators’ well-being
- Community practice as a necessity 
- Transformative Educational Leadership 
- Meena’s research on tenderness with Yale 
- Tenderness versus compassion, vulnerability & empathy
- The Three Breath Hug Meditation
- The Non-Toothache Meditation

The episode closes with Meena leading guided practice. You can learn more about Meena’s work on her website, right here.

To learn more about Sharon’s forthcoming children’s book, Kind Karl, and pre-order a copy with a special pre-order gift, you can visit Sharon’s website, right here.

Metta Hour Kid's Series with Sharon Salzberg & Meena Srinivasan | Ep. 274

Discussing humanity’s deep fear of death, J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson analyze how freedom arises when we understand the inseparable connection of life and death.

To start at the beginning of this 18-part dialogue on consciousness, spirituality and navigating life with J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson: https://youtu.be/rcn0gXWv9UU

This time on Freedom from the Known, J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson discuss:
- The fear and avoidance of death that most human beings experience
- Freeing the mind from fear and understanding death as something beautiful
- Our many human theories about death and the afterlife 
- Considering what actual dies outside of the organism 
- The radical relation of birth and death 
- The futility of ceaselessly analyzing the content of the mind
- How humans have attempted to sell immortality 
- The destructibility of all man-made creations and concepts
- Understanding that living, love, and death are one thing

This talk was originally recorded in 1974 at San Diego State University and curated by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America

“Unless the mind frees itself from fear, there is no possibility of understanding the extraordinary beauty, strength, and vitality of death.” –J. Krishnamurti

About J. Krishnamurti:
For nearly six decades until his passing in 1986 at the age of ninety, Jiddu Krishnamurti traversed the globe, delivering spontaneous and captivating discourses to large audiences. Krishnamurti assumed the role of an investigator rather than an authority figure, encouraging individuals to question assumptions and explore the depths of their consciousness. His extensive body of work, estimated at over 100 million words, spans more than six decades of relentless inquiry and dialogue. His teachings, compiled in numerous books and translated into multiple languages, continue to inspire seekers worldwide, inviting them to embark on a profound journey of self-discovery and understanding. J. Krishnamurti’s legacy endures as a guiding light, offering timeless wisdom for those who dare to challenge conventional thinking and explore the complexities of existence.

About Dr. Allan W. Anderson:
Dr. Allan Anderson was a poet, author, Professor Emeritus, beloved teacher, scholar of the Oracular Tradition, and a gifted religious linguist. He helped to form the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State College in 1969. Dr. Anderson later became chair of that department, specializing in Eastern Religions, until his retirement in 1985.

J. Krishnamurti on the Vitality of Death | Freedom From the Known Podcast Ep. 14

The space of AI alignment research is highly dynamic, and it's often difficult to get a bird's eye view of the landscape. This podcast is the second of two parts attempting to partially remedy this by providing an overview of technical AI alignment efforts. In particular, this episode seeks to continue the discussion from Part 1 by going in more depth with regards to the specific approaches to AI alignment. In this podcast, Lucas spoke with Rohin Shah. Rohin is a 5th year PhD student at UC Berkeley with the Center for Human-Compatible AI, working with Anca Dragan, Pieter Abbeel and Stuart Russell. Every week, he collects and summarizes recent progress relevant to AI alignment in the Alignment Newsletter. 

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Embedded agency
-The field of "getting AI systems to do what we want"
-Ambitious value learning
-Corrigibility, including iterated amplification, debate, and factored cognition
-AI boxing and impact measures
-Robustness through verification, adverserial ML, and adverserial examples
-Interpretability research
-Comprehensive AI Services
-Rohin's relative optimism about the state of AI alignment

You can take a short (3 minute) survey to share your feedback about the podcast here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YWHDFV7

AIAP: An Overview of Technical AI Alignment with Rohin Shah (Part 2)

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change.

The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions.

FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.

AIAP: An Overview of Technical AI Alignment with Rohin Shah (Part 2)

Future of Life Institute

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