Chapter 5 Bodhisattva

Michael Stone uses the teachings on emptiness to work with the body. He calls sitting "physical practice" and he describes yoga as "psychological practice." Recorded at True North Insight in Ontario on April 18, 2014. (Photos by Andréa de Keijzer)

Form & Emptiness: The Role of the Body in Meditation Practice

In Madison, Wisconsin, Michael talks on the Kayagatasati Sutta exploring meditation on the body, how to work with the breath, and meditations on the dissolution of the body at death. Recorded on May 17, 2014.

Mindfulness Of The Body

A public lecture about the effect of phones, the internet, and digital media on our minds and relationships. Michael offers very practical tools for managing our minds in an era of information overload. 1 hour. Copenhagen.

Photo credit: Andréa de Keijzer

Stabilizing Ourselves In The Digital Age

How To Meditate, Forgive, End Blame, And Stop Wounding Your Own Heart

Meditation, how the mind functions, and contra-indications for meditation are the subject of this talk. Michael explores karma and also the delay of gratification, borderline personality, and the difference between practices that uncover repression and practices that strengthen the personality in helpful ways. Enso Foundation, Kelowna, 1 hour.

Making Friends with Your Mind

Molly Boeder Harris co-teaching with Michael on trauma sensitivity during the Meditation Facilitation Program. Vancouver, 46 min.

Trauma Sensitivity in Meditation, Mindfulness & Yoga ft. Molly Boeder Harris

Molly Boeder Harris co-teaching with Michael on self-soothing and trauma awareness during the Meditation Facilitation Training. Recorded in Vancouver, 59 min.

Your Body is Trying to Support You: Self Soothing & Trauma Awareness ft. Molly Boeder Harris

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

Michael details fear, dissociation, and shame, and how they impact the body, mind, and relationships. Very clear talk about the strategies we use to protect ourselves and create recognizable symptoms. Michael ends with a story about generational trauma. Meditation Facilitation Program, London. Recorded on July 30, 2016.

Listen to Part 2, Healing Trauma Through the Body: http://bit.ly/2kke4WB

Symptoms of Trauma

Michael suggests that you need to get deeper than cognition and stories, in order to heal trauma. It’s what we have created in the wake of painful events, that need healing. Knowing when to name our symptoms and then when to drop the pathology. Meditation Facilitation Program, London, 40 min. Recorded on July 31, 2016.

Listen to Part 1, Symptoms of Trauma: http://bit.ly/2lhkCDI

Healing Trauma Through the Body

Using a Zen koan about the Pang family, Michael talks about wholehearted activity, compassion, and throwing yourself to the ground when someone falls down. He ties this into the refugee situation in Europe, racism, and how to take compassionate action when we have no idea what to do. Recorded in Copenhagen on September 25, 2016.

What Do You Do When People Fall Down?

Michael explores how mindfulness and meditation practice can heal shame and trauma and how these symptoms manifest in relationship. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Recorded on November 20 2016.

Shame, Perfectionism, and the Pre-Cognitive Dimension of Trauma

Michael explores the sensitive topic of knowing when to pull out of relationships, kindness to one’s self, emptiness, love, and a story about appreciating that you and others are divine. Chapin Mill, New York. Recorded December 30, 2016.

Seals, Owls & Letting Go of Destructive Relationships

Michael uses an old Zen tale, a troubled story about him falling in love with his wife, and quotes from Shunryu Suzuki, to describe the practice of not-knowing and not holding onto anything. He ends with a very interesting and subtle meditation instruction on breathing. Chapin Mill, New York. Recorded December 31, 2016.

Not Picking & Choosing

How to not leave your body, even when it feels untrustworthy. We can always turn to the body in pain, grief, and even in altered states of consciousness. Anxiety, compassion, and equanimity always play out in your body. Victoria, B.C. Recorded January 19, 2017.

My Body is My Teacher Now

Michael integrates a discussion of spiritual bypassing (using practice to avoid dealing with painful feelings and unresolved emotional habits) with a teaching on using labeling to let go of ruminating thoughts and overthinking. Victoria, B.C. Recorded January 22, 2017.

Spiritual Bypassing & Mindfulness of Thinking

Michael explores practicing without an idea of gain, the Universal Self, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Pattabhi Jois, the Buddha and Shunryu Suzuki. How can you blend your breath with the larger self? Moksha Westshore, B.C. Recorded February 18, 2017.

You Can’t Make A Person Into a Buddha

On retreat, Michael speaks about the Buddha’s instructions for practicing alone in the wilderness, how past actions haunt the body, how to turn towards anxiety, and a moving story about his son and autism. Wisconsin. Recorded March 25, 2017.

Fear, Dread & Anxiety: The Buddha in the Forest

Michael discusses Chapter 5 of the Shantideva and the way negative emotional mood swings cannot hold together for very long without thoughts. How we have to inject stories into our moods to keep them afloat; and the practices for transforming anger. 

Recorded on February 26, 2013.

Chapter 5 Bodhisattva

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