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230: Adyashanti Part 2

May 15, 2018 By Eric Zimmer Leave a Comment

Adyashanti is a renowned and gifted spiritual teacher. He’s written many books, hosts meditation retreats and speaks around the world to large audiences at a time. With such a wide audience, it’s amazing that when you experience Adya’s teaching, it’s as if he’s speaking directly to you – to your very heart. Whatever your experience with or preconceived notions of spiritual awakening, allow yourself to re-engage with the idea through this interview. As you turn the inquiry towards yourself this time, you may be surprised, moved and/or transformed by what you find – if you are brutally honest in the process.

Visit oneyoufeed.net/transform to learn more about our personal transformation program.

In This Interview, Adyashanti and I Discuss…

Self-Inquiry
Starting with I am not _____
Starting with all inclusiveness – I am _____
Being open to being wrong about things
Experiencing an “uncaused” sense of well being
Self-transcendent values
It works best in life to ______
When you have less internal conflict you treat the world in a different way than if you have more internal conflict
Removing the religious and cultural compass removes the moral north star
We reorient ourselves to comfort being the north star
Nothing mattering AND everything mattering
That Adya is oriented towards truth and love
Activities are neutral – it’s what we bring to it that gives it meaning
What is it about awakening that you want?
What is meaningful moment to moment and day by day
At every moment, we are giving expression to what we value
How nothing shuts down awakening faster than judgment
The spiritual persona of “I’m going to get out of this human game” or “I’m going to be here but not really be here”
The importance of coming to grips with the human experience of imperfection…
…without turning it into an excuse for unwise behavior
Be aware of your human limitations and don’t see them as “wrong”
The problematic experience of existential unworthiness
The economic catastrophe of a collective human awakening

Adyashanti

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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 feed

The 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

229: Adyashanti 2018 Part 1

May 8, 2018 By Eric Zimmer Leave a Comment

Visit oneyoufeed.net/transform to learn more about our personal transformation program.

In This Interview, Adyashanti and I Discuss…

Eric’s awakening experience
The awakened state in perpetuity
The shift in perception that happens with awakening
The paradox of wanting something like awakening yet wanting it stands in the way of having it
Will gets you to the cushion and once there, it’s important to let go of it
Does one need a spiritual teacher when seeking awakening?
The teacher evoking something from vs the teacher giving something to the student
How people work with unconscious patterns
How you can’t not be awakened – even if you don’t feel it, it’s there
Emotional conflict
Paying attention to what’s recurring in you
Anything that’s happened to us that was too big for us to remain conscious while we experienced it, gets trapped in our system – turned into some other emotion or it just gets stuffed and is now just there waiting for you. The universe is now asking, “can you experience this now?”
Being fine with being sad
Let everything be exactly the way it is
How dealing with life’s experiences as they come transforms you
A clinched fist vs an open hand metaphor
“Let” vs “Let go”
If you can’t let it go, can you let it be
Failure as part of triumph
Failing your way through something consciously can cause a sort of transformation
What it looks like to build a spiritual practice
Daily quiet meditation, Engage in some precise self-inquiry (a wonderment of “being”)
How spirituality is the direct investigation of YOUR experience
The only way to get self-inquiry wrong is not to be ruthlessly honest about what’s happening in your experience
The fear of getting something wrong
Think of your spiritual teacher kind of like a college professor

Adyashanti

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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 feed

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

222: Jeff Warren on Meditating with a Busy Mind

March 20, 2018 By Eric Zimmer 1 Comment

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Jeff Warren is a former journalist and more recently is a researcher, writer, and teacher of meditation and personal growth practices. His most recent book, written with Dan Harris, is called, Meditation for Fidgitty Skeptics: A 10% Happier How to Book. Jeff is a likable, relatable guy who carries a lot of practical wisdom in his conversational style of communicating. If you’ve ever felt like you’re not good at meditating or that meditation just isn’t for you because your brain never turns off, this interview is for you because that’s how Jeff would describe himself, particularly at the beginning of his practice years ago. We all know that meditation is good for us but for many, it just feels inaccessible and out of reach. If that is how you feel, what Jeff has to share in this interview will make that gap shrink in size so much so that you can hop right over it and try again.

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In This Interview, Jeff Warren and I Discuss…

The Wolf Parable
His book with Dan Harris, Meditation for Fidgitty Skeptics: A 10% Happier How to Book
The role of meditation in living with depression
The voice in our heads
Not identifying with the voices in our heads
Coming out of the conversation in our heads
The idea of “I can’t meditate”
Thinking we’re supposed to stop thinking when we meditate
Changing the relationship with your thoughts
Focusing on an anchor, getting lost in thought, realizing you’re lost in thought and coming back to your anchor = mediation
How quick we are to conclude that meditation isn’t for us
That meditation is a practice
Celebrating the coming back from thought in meditation
Training affability during meditation
Finding enjoyment and curiosity during meditation
Asking “What’s the attitude in my mind right now?” during meditation
That attitude is what you’re training during meditation
Looking at the world with interest
Equanimity = a lack of pushing and pulling on experience
Opening to experience so that there’s no friction
When everything has permission to express its self fully

Jeff Warren Links

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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 feed

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

166: Adyashanti

February 21, 2017 By Eric Zimmer Leave a Comment

Podcast: Download

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This week we talk to Adyashanti about waking up

Adyashanti, author of The Way of Liberation, Resurrecting Jesus, Falling into Grace, and The End of Your World, is an American-born spiritual teacher devoted to serving the awakening of all beings. His teachings are an open invitation to stop, inquire, and recognize what is true and liberating at the core of all existence.

Asked to teach in 1996 by his Zen teacher of 14 years, Adyashanti offers teachings that are free of any tradition or ideology. “The Truth I point to is not confined within any religious point of view, belief system, or doctrine, but is open to all and found within all.” Based in California, Adyashanti teaches throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Europe, and Australia.

In This Interview, Adyashanti and I Discuss…

That our work as humans is on the journey from a walking contradiction to a walking paradox
That if we see something out of alignment with our value system we feel it in our body as tension
That our bodies are our best aid when it comes to navigating our inner consciousness
That there are different types of awakening
That awakening is a fundamental shift of identity
The primary task of any good spiritual teaching is not to answer your questions but to question your answers
What to do when you WANT to change but then you can’t seem to change
The 5 foundations of spirituality
What is my aspiration?
That wanting to feel pleasure can only take us so far
When we start feeling better we’ll stop looking deeper
Never abdicate your authority
That “true” meditation is the art of allowing everything to be exactly as it is
That meditation is there for us to get experiential insight into the nature of our being, our consciousness
The importance of bringing your intelligence along for the ride in meditation
To let go of what the outcome should be in meditation
Our whole body is a sensory instrument through which we experience life
That self-inquiry is joining the intellectual mind with the contemplative spirit
An unresolved deep question is often what sparks an awakening
How contemplation is different from meditation and inquiry
The three means of evoking insight: contemplation, meditation, and inquiry
The Jesus story is a map for awakening
How the Jesus story is so compelling
What life is like for awakened people
That awakening can be sudden and/or it can be a gradual unfolding
How enlightenment is the end of one game and the beginning of another
The difference between exploration and seeking
Whether or not psychedelic drugs play a role in awakening

Adyashanti Links

Please Support The Show with a Donation

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.

143: Tara Brach

September 13, 2016 By Eric Zimmer 4 Comments

Podcast: Download

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This week we talk to Tara Brach

Tara Brach is an American psychologist and proponent of Buddhist meditation. She is a guiding teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C Brach also teaches Buddhist meditation at centers for meditation and yoga in the United States and Europe including Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, the Kripalu Center,and the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies.

Brach is an engaged Buddhist specializing in the application of Buddhist teachings to emotional healing. Her 2003 book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha, focuses on the use of practices such as mindfulness for healing trauma. Her 2013 book, True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart, offers practices for tapping into inner peace and wisdom in the midst of difficulty.

In This Interview, Tara Brach and I Discuss…

The One You Feed parable
Being kind to the parts of ourselves that are more primitive
The difference between feelings and thoughts
Dropping the storyline
The question of “What am I unwilling to feel?”
How we have to go through the difficult emotions to get to peace
The importance of remembering the good
Not being addicted to suffering
The habit of looking for what’s wrong
What’s the moment like if there is no problem
How we tend to always anticipating a problem
How we are almost always lost in thought
Practicing coming into our senses
Self-compassion as the most important quality on the spiritual path
Only being taught one type of meditation
Trying different types of meditation until we find the one that works best for us
The quality that helps people progress on the path of meditation: intention
How to deal with numbness
Tara’s tips on dealing with depression
How depression hates a moving target
That depression is not our fault
Finding refuge in difficult times
Instead of asking “What’s the Meaning” asking “What matters to me here”

Tara Brach Links

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group

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?”

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.

136: Brad Warner

July 26, 2016 By Eric Zimmer 1 Comment

Podcast: Download

This week we talk to Brad Warner about not being a jerk

Brad Warner is an ordained Zen teacher and author of the books There Is No God And He Is Always With You , Sit Down and Shut Up and Hardcore Zen. He’s also a writer for the Suicide Girls website, bass player for the hardcore punk rock group 0DFx (aka Zero Defex), star of the movies “Shoplifting From American Apparel” and “Zombie Bounty Hunter M.D.,” director of the film “Cleveland’s Screaming!” and former vice president of the US branch of the company founded by the man who created Godzilla.

His latest book is called: Don’t Be a Jerk: Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan’s Greatest Zen Master – A Radical but Reverent Paraphrasing of Dogen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

In This Interview, Brad Warner and I Discuss…

The One You Feed parable
His book, Don’t Be a Jerk and Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan’s Greatest Zen Master
That we become the people we need to become
How a person can be a buddha one minute and a jackass the next
That once you realize what your “negative” urges are, they become less attractive for you to respond to
The answer to the question, “How do you strive to be a better person AND accept life exactly as it is?”
That the most intelligent course of action is the one that benefits everyone involved
How one of his teachers said that you need to hold an equal amount of faith and doubt
The idea that thoughts are just the secretions of your brain the same way your stomach acid are the secretion of your stomach
According to the Zen practice, there is nothing other than what exists right now
The powerful truth that Brad Warner states: “you can always improve your situation but you do so by facing it, not by running away”
The mistake that’s made when designating certain things as “self”
The role of nature as it relates to the dharma according to Dogen

Brad Warner 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 feed

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.

134: James R Doty

July 12, 2016 By Eric Zimmer Leave a Comment

Podcast: Download

This week we talk to James R Doty about the power of compassion

James R Doty, MD, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of CA, Irvine and medical school at Tulane University. He trained in neurosurgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and completed fellowships in pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

As Director of CCARE, Dr. Doty has collaborated on a number of research projects focused on compassion and altruism including the use of neuro-economic models to assess altruism, use of the CCARE developed compassion cultivation training in individuals and its effect, assessment of compassionate and altruistic judgment utilizing implanted brain electrodes and the use of optogenetic techniques to assess nurturing pathways in rodents.

Dr. Doty is also an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist having given support to a number of charitable organizations including Children as the Peacemakers, Global Healing, the Pachamama Alliance and Family & Children Services of Silicon Valley. Additionally, he has endowed chairs at major universities including Stanford University and his alma mater, Tulane University. He is on the Board of Directors of a number of non-profit foundations including the Dalai Lama Foundation, of which he is chairman and the Charter for Compassion International of which he is vice-chair. He is also on the International Advisory Board of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

He is the author of Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart

In This Interview, James R Doty and I Discuss…

The One You Feed parable
His book, Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
The impact of compassionate acts on our brain, health and well-being
How early in his childhood he felt like a leaf being blown around by an ill wind
The four key lessons that, when learned, changed the trajectory of his life
The difference between you and your inner voice
That when you create the internal circumstances for reaching your goal, that allows for the possibility of the outward circumstances to align themselves for your own success
A scientific perspective on the connection between the brain and the heart and the rest of the body
The types of practices that can improve your vegal tone and why that matters
The important role that attachment early in life plays in the quality of health later in your life
The important role that connection with others plays in your health throughout your life
That being of service to others is what gives life meaning

James R Doty 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 feed

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.

129: John Prendergast

June 7, 2016 By Eric Zimmer 3 Comments

Podcast: Download

This week we talk to John Prendergast about tuning into our body

John J. Prendergast, PhD, is a psychotherapist, retired professor of psychology, spiritual teacher, and founder and editor-in-chief of Undivided: The Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology.

He received his undergraduate degree from UC Santa Cruz and my M.A. and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

His latest book is called In Touch: How to Tune into the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself

In This Interview, John Prendergast and I Discuss:

The One You Feed parable
How important our body is
What “knowing” is
Learning to trust our deeper knowledge
The difference between inner knowing and hunches based on fear
Finding true knowing from ego desires
The static in our system
Observing thoughts as just thoughts
Learning to be more aware to the sensations and feelings in the body
Our brain- The Thought Factory
Scanning the body
Identifying with the world from our thinking, not our body

John Prendergast Links