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This week we talk to Brian Tom O’Connor
Brian Tom O’Connor is an actor, theatre director, cabaret performer, and formerly depressed guy who stumbled onto the source of joy and happiness in the background of all experience.
In This Interview, Brian Tom O’Connor and I Discuss…
- The One You Feed parable
- His new book, Awareness Games: Playing with Your Mind to Create Joy
- Real reality vs Virtual reality
- Why games are a more effective approach than questions to exploring awareness
- The fact that you don’t have to believe anything to play a game
- That trying to reproduce an experience isn’t doable
- That trying to get rid of an unpleasant feeling isn’t doable
- That the mind is an excellent servant but a poor master
- The power of noticing “the whiteboard itself” rather than what’s written on it
- The three basic questions: What’s in awareness now? What is awareness? Who/what is aware?
- The Future Fishing game
- The Past Catching game
- The game, Slippery Mind
- That awareness games can be a good break from a serious meditation practice
- The benefit of allowing emotions to flow through you
- The game, Include Include Include
Brian Tom O’Connor Links
A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other.
One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear.
The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”
The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feedThe Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable.
This parable goes by many names including:
The Tale of Two Wolves
The Parable of the Two Wolves
Two Wolves
Which Wolf Do You Feed
Which Wolf are You Feeding
Which Wolf Will You Feed
It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.
Terri says
I very much enjoyed hearing this podcast interview. I struggle with discipline to do a regular meditation practice even though it seems like it would be beneficial. But awareness games feels more like something I could do. I followed along with the two you introduced. I look forward to reading your book. Thank you Eric and Brian for a great interview and introduction to awareness games.
Bharat Agarwal says
Nice concept…a lighter approach to Vipassna practice!!!