Name: Training Your Heart (Lojong Teachings #4): Compassion in a Tough World by Awake in the World Podcast in dharma talks
Duration: 1 h 2 min 10 s
Description: Michael starts out linking Aylan Kurdi’s body washing up on shore in Greece, with unemployment, austerity, and our interconnection. How do we wake up in the middle of confusion? He then talks about emptiness as a practice of not-knowing, and how to work with confusion. Madison, WI 1 hr.

dharma talks

Learning how to be present with an un-agitated heart. Meditation teaches us to be wiser with what’s difficult. Embodying our meditative practice by learning how to stop and see clearly. Meditation Facilitation Training, Vancouver, 1hr.

Mindfulness of the Breath & Taking the Backwards Step

Background and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/06/03/allen-ginsberg-coming-out/

CONTEXT

Allen Ginsberg on coming out

Michael starts out linking Aylan Kurdi’s body washing up on shore in Greece, with unemployment, austerity, and our interconnection. How do we wake up in the middle of confusion? He then talks about emptiness as a practice of not-knowing, and how to work with confusion. Madison, WI 1 hr.

Training Your Heart (Lojong Teachings #4): Compassion in a Tough World

If you feel unsafe or unstable, this is a gentle 10 minute guided meditation in corpse pose, for taking care of yourself. Vancouver, 20 min.

Guided Corpse Pose for Safety

Michael talks about the magic mantra that ends the Heart Sutra. Transforming fear, cultivating compassion, not-knowing, how mantras work. London, 1 hour.

The World Is Its Own Magic

Michael explains how we can cultivate a field in which anxiety can arise and change, surrounded by spaciousness. We have forces of good inside us, we aren't fated to live out our history, and we are loveable just as we are. London, 55min.

Anxiety & Meditation

What does being alive feel like? Michael tells the story of Subhuti and the questions he asks the Buddha about how to practice. Haven’t we been blessed with greatest of trusts? Aren’t we all blessed? Isn't meditation learning how to trust? Spirit Loft, Toronto, 28 min.

How Does a Buddha Stand, Walk & Control Thoughts? (Diamond Sutra 2)

Drawing on Instructions to the Cook, Michael offers a talk on the teachings of the insentient. The snow and silence are teaching us. Can you give attention to the way the insentient teaches us? Recorded December 29, 2010.

Learning from the Insentient

Beginner's mind threatens the part of us that wants to control experience. Knowing before knowing. Hakuin: wisdom is not separate from you. It's like beads rolling on a tray: sudden, ready, uninhibited. We all want to be more comfortable, and slowly the comfort starts to kill you. Knowing is a kind of renunciation. You're already there. Recorded on July 9, 2012.

Seeing the Background (Heart Sutra 1)

Many in the Buddhist world were shocked at the death of Insight Meditation and yoga teacher Michael Stone in 2017. He was only 42 years old, and few were aware that he had been struggling with bipolar disorder. It was later revealed that he had died from an opioid overdose. His death brought up many questions about the stigmas against mental illness, and the responsibility of teachers to reveal their personal challenges.  

Here, Michael’s wife Carina Stone sits down with Tricycle’s Editor and Publisher James Shaheen to discuss Michael’s legacy. Last year, Carina finished working on "The World Comes to You: Notes on Practice, Love, and Social Action," a collection of Michael’s teachings. While editing the book, Carina grappled with difficult questions about Michael’s life, all while working through her own grief around his death.

Carina Stone: The Legacy of Michael Stone

Awake in the World Podcast is a library of talks on a wide-range of topics, including bringing mindfulness and meditation practice into daily life; personal and community issues regarding mental health; and social change. The podcasts were recorded at live events so you might hear coughing, airplanes, cars, sirens, laughter, and peoples’ questions—all part of the intimate experience. Michael Stone (1974-2017) was a Buddhist teacher, author, and mental health advocate. His legacy is stewarded by Carina Stone. Podcast funded by Patreon (patreon.com/michaelstone).

Training Your Heart (Lojong Teachings #4): Compassion in a Tough World

Awake in the World Podcast

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