This week we talk to Steve Hagen
Steve Hagen is the founder and teacher of the Dharma Field Zen Center in Minneapolis, MN and the author of several books on Buddhism, including Buddhism Plain and Simple which is one of the top five best selling books on Buddhism in the United States. In this episode, Steve teaches us about several Buddhist concepts that are often misunderstood: Wholeness vs Unwholesomeness, Perception vs Conception and Belief vs Knowledge. Knowing the true meaning of these ideas will give you great freedom as you seek the enlightenment that is your true nature.
This episode is sponsored by Health IQ and Casper
In This Interview, Steve Hagen and I Discuss…
- The Wolf Parable
- His book, Buddhism Plain and Simple
- The Horse and the Farmer parable
- Wholeness vs Unwholesome
- Consider the welfare of other beings in all you do
- Awareness
- Perception (the immediate, direct experience) vs Conception (our construct of things)
- Belief vs Knowledge
- That we can’t arrive at truth through conception
- That enlightenment is with us all of the time, we’re just not aware of it
- That enlightenment is our natural state
- The idea of “stream” as self, the Buddha said
- That the way things appear to be is more of a construct than a reality
- How picking and choosing is the mind’s worst disease
- Noticing how the mind leans a certain way
- That a Buddha is a person who is awake
- The power of simply observing something about ourselves rather than trying to put a stop to it or judging it
- The Story about the 84 Problems
Steve Hagen 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
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
AS says
Did I miss him explaining what is wholesome?