The Imperfect Buddhist

Auto Transcription/Please Excuse Errorswhat is this word? Efficiency. Sometimes it seems a close cousin to death. We are encouraged not to linger, not to enjoy life, to hurry up and get done. So we'll have time for something else. Something else. What efficiency is a destroyer? Millions upon millions of living dead done in by the electric can opener and the automobile progress is our most important product. Babies are our business. Time is money. Life is cheap. Modern technology, modern business, the modern state, gives us everything we need except breathable air, drinkable water, edible food, meaningful work, freedom from fear, freedom to love.Freedom to be ourselves. Courage, pride, friendship, hope, the moral of the story is don't be in such a hurry. Beware, creeping efficiency. Slow down and live.Paul Williams DOS Energy.Welcome to the Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss present moment awareness and incorporating Zen principles into modern. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney, and today's episode is titled Buddhism and Hustle Culture.Maybe you're a musician, maybe you're a photographer, a painter, Maybe you're someone that repairs shoes, you know, a Cobb.Maybe you run a daycare or maybe you work at an office building and you post pictures of your latest food adventures.Maybe you've heard of this concept of having to post on Instagram or Facebook a certain amount of times in a week or a day to stay.As a musician, maybe you've heard the concept of writing and releasing songs once a month. Singles albums seem to be dead.. Maybe you've been asked, Hey, What's your side hustle as if it's just a normal thing, a prerequisite to you being a modern American .Maybe you've watched Gary V on YouTube.Where he talks about hustle culture and grinding ,his energetic caffeinated personality and voice coming through the speakers urging you to hustle, hustle harder. You gotta really want it. If you wanna make it are we allowed to enjoy the present moment?Auto Transcription/Please Excuse ErrorsWithout worrying about how much time we're wasting, how much money we might be potentially losing, how many leads we may be missing out on. I mean, hey, we worked 40 hours already. Is it okay for us to enjoy the weekend? Is it okay for us to enjoy the hours after work? Is it okay if we only post a picture on social media when we feel so inclined to all those questions will be answered in this episode of the imperfect Buddhist Hustle culture as a concept actually goes further than social media or side businesses it also bleeds a little bit into success overall in life where. People start to feel like we're being left behind by the pack. Oh no, this person hustled and got this college degree working after hours after they left their nine to five, this person got his real estate license outside of work .This person selling handmade hats on Etsy, on their off hours. What am I doing wrong? What's wrong with me?It can extend into things like having a nicer car. The concept of keeping up with the Joneses, .I know at times I've feltthe push as a musician . That I need to be pushing out a song every so often that if I don't put out something once a month and post at least every other day on my social media, I'll become irrelevant.I've felt that pressure watching any YouTube video about. What it takes to be successful in the music industry. Of course, they will tell you post often and share music often. Put out a song every month, have a monthly release schedule 12 songs a year.The idea of content creation. Sickens me at this point. It's like, let's just create content. I want to create content, content, content. Do we need more content?And maybe even a little bit with this imperfect Buddhist podcast. I know that all the statistics would say, Okay, post often, post, regularly hustle. Get that episode done on the weekend, hustle, post it on every Wednesday morning at 5:30 AM Rigorous content creation when it comes to art, music, or any creative endeavor can choke the life out of the creativity. It pushes people into algorithmic pieces of art and music. To repeat what they've already said artistically.Overall, it's not a good thing for the depth of creativity to be pushed to be on this schedule of pumping out noise.On the other hand, some of the most famous artists, when you look at their body of work, they are profoundly prolific, A lot of art coming out, a lot of music coming out, and sometimes you only know 10 out of the 150 songs that they've worked on recorded.My kid's coming in to say hi. Hey kitty baby. Come here. A little kitty baby.Say hi, kitty. Say hi. The people in the mic. Come on, say hi. Say hi. That was her mad at me meow. I think hustle culture adds a new layer to. Some of the feelings of guilt that people experience in our culture when it comes to how much money they make, what kind of car they drive, how nice of a house they live in, or apartment they live in. Are they living at their parents? It adds to the layer of comparison.When you start to come back to your true identity, which can be reclaimed through different practices, some people use prayer, meditation, present moment awareness. Mantras. When you start to encounter your true identity, which is the awareness that is experiencing this life, the more you let go ofidentifying with the thoughts in your mind, which include hustle, culture, jealousy of what others have attained in their life. You come back to the fact that you are a playful awareness that is experiencing this life. Recognizing yourself and the world around you in life, and you recognize that this life is a big game , ultimately things only have meaning when we give them meaning.Auto Transcription/Please Excuse ErrorsThat you reclaim joy in realizing thatthese are all electrons dancing around and playing a game called American Society, or playing a game of South American society or whatever country you're from. These electrons, these atoms are moving around. And create human bodies and trees and cars and streets and houses, and the idea of hustle culture.So we have thisfantastic array of life moving around us, we realize that we have the freedom to. Disidentify with the unhelpful thoughts, disidentify with the unhelpful perspective, and we come back to the reality that we're on a planet floating through space, infinite blackness and light, and isn't that amazing?So we come back to the reality of who we truly are and what life really is. We reclaim a playfulness. In our life.When we reclaim our power, And we realize that life is not as constrained or simplistic and black and white as our culture or people in our culture would have us believe. We have the ability to choose how we wanna be in our life. Because sometimes it's better. To share the works of others that have said things much better than I can ever say them. Wanna share an article from a website called ALifeinprogress.canada.ca by a woman named Krista O'Reilly Davi Diu.  Titled, What If All I Want is a Mediocre Life? What if All I Want is a small, slow, simple life? What if I am most happy in a space of in between where calm lives, What if I'm mediocre and choose to be at peace with that? The world is such a noisy place.Auto Transcription/Please Excuse ErrorsLoud haranging voices lecturing me to hustle, to improve, build, strive, yearn, acquire, compete, and grasp for more, for bigger and better sacrifice. Sleep for productivity. Strive for excellence. Go big or go home. Have a huge impact in the world. Make your life count. But what if I just don't have that in me?What if all the striving for excellence leaves me sad, worn out, depleted, drained of joy? Am I simply not enough? What if I never really amount to anything when I grow up beyond mom and sister and wife? But these people in my primary circle of impact know they are loved and that I would choose them again, given the choice, can this be enough?Auto Transcription/Please Excuse Errors What might happen if I decide that I am enough and that this imperfect and beautiful mediocre life of mine is good enough? What if I never build an orphanage in Africa, but send bags of groceries to people here and there and support a couple of kids through sponsor? What if I just offer the small gifts I have to the world and let that be enough? What if I don't wanna write a cookbook or build a six figure business or speak before thousands, but I write because I have something to say and I invest in a small community of women and care about and encourage them to love and care for themselves as well. Because bigger isn't always better and the individual matters.She is enough. What if I just accept this mediocre body of mine that is neither big or. Just in between and I embrace that I have no desire to work for rock hard abs or 18% body fat, and I make peace with all of it and decide that when I lie on my deathbed, I will never , regret having just been me, take me or leave me. What if I am a mediocre home manager who rarely dusts and mostly maintains order and makes real food, but sometimes buys pizza, and who is horrified at moments by the utter mess in some areas of my home who loves to menu, plan and budget, but then breaks her own rules and pushes back against rigidity? Who doesn't care about decorating and fancy things, whose home is humble but safe? What if I'm not cut out for the frantic pace of this society? It could not even begin to keep up and see so many others with what appears to be boundless energy and stamina, but know that I need tons of solitude and calm, an abundance of rest and swaths of unscheduled time in order to be healthy body, mind, spiritual health.Am I enough? What if I'm too religious for some and not spiritual enough for others? Not evangelistic, not bold enough, yet willing to share in quiet ways and genuine relationship. My deeply rooted faith, and in my doubts and insecurities, this will have to be enough. And if I have been married for 21 years and love my husband more today than ye

00:01When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself. Shunryu Suzuki00:25Welcome friends and travelers along the path. This is the imperfect Buddhist. I'm your host, Matthew Hock Mahoney, and today's episode is titled Buddhism and Leadership, leading by example and the ripple effect.01:07Leading by example can have profound impacts on our relationships, our spiritual development, and the world around us. In a time where so many people, including myself sometimes, want to inspire action in others around them through using force or coercion of some sort, or I guess telling other people how to think and act. I believe leading by example is the ultimate way to make change in the world.01:36This is something that I've been thinking about quite a bit lately, especially with all of the political unrest and people screaming at each other across the aisles on how we should think about gay rights or how we should deal with women's rights and their right to bodily autonomy with abortion. Bud Light in an attempt to appeal to a different demographic, adding certain controversial imagery.02:06and messaging to their cans and being ostracized by both sides of the argument.02:15with things like climate change and starting to think a little bit about how can I play a part in changing people's thoughts around me that don't agree with me. My uncle Tim, for instance, I visited with him on 4th of July and he has some very strong opinions about climate change, that it is a conspiracy, that all climate scientists or the ones that are reporting on this are actually funded by the government. And so how can I get him to see things the way that I see them? How can I get him to see?02:44The science that says, Uncle Tim, our oceans are hotter than they've ever been. Uncle Tim, we've never seen weather patterns like this ever. Uncle Tim, how are they keeping it quiet that certain scientists have been receiving this money? I wanna go into this argument and start to tell him how to think about the subject. So I started thinking more about what does leading by example mean in this situation? Segment one.03:12the desire to change others and leading by example.03:22It's pretty normal to wanna change others instead of leading by example. Maybe it takes less energy or we have the illusion that it takes less energy that if I could just lambast my Uncle Tim, bludgeon him to fucking death with scientific data. The numbers, Uncle Tim's go to the beach, let's go to the water. Dip your toes in, how hot does it feel? Tim, I want you to see things the way that I see them.03:49Maybe it's for some fucked up reason of control. Maybe it's for some other daddy issue. Or maybe it's because I truly care about the environment and I'm freaked out by what's happening and someone I love, my uncle Tim, doesn't see it. And it scares me that he doesn't see it. And I want someone I love to see it and to work with me to make a better situation. Maybe it's easier for me to04:18Point out to Uncle Tim all this stuff and talk about the science, talk about the data, because it's really hard for me to look at my own life and see how am I playing a part in making the situation worse? How am I a contributor to climate change? What are the things that I'm doing or that I could change that would make the situation better? Why do I want to control? Why do I want to bludgeon with my ideas, convince, influence? What are these desires?04:48where actions come from. Looking inside, they come from a strongly held belief, one that I am certain is correct. So there might be the desire to have someone I love or care about see something the way that I see it. Why is that important? Because if they don't believe what I believe, maybe that means they're lower intelligence and I just can't stand for that. Or maybe it's some type of ego gratification where05:14If they're disagreeing with me, then maybe that means I'm wrong somehow and I can't stand for that. And it's also an attachment to a certain outcome. I want the earth to sustain life, human life. I want that. I desire that. I will fight for that. And it's not such a bad attachment, but in Buddhism it is an attachment. And maybe some would say it is a wish for well-being of others, a form of metta, form of love. And that could also be true.05:43But only we can know by seeing ourselves truly. Trying to change others through force has its limitations. How about you? Someone says, hey, Sarah, hey, Mike, hey, John, hey, Christy. Hey, Matt, you're doing that wrong. This is the way to do it. I can't believe you ever tried it that way. Let me show you the right way to do it. And I never want to see you do it that way ever again. You're an idiot for thinking that. What does that bring up for you?06:13And of course that's an extreme version, but of course it brings up resentment, brings up a pushback, and a lot of times it strengthens the behavior we wish to see changed, strengthens the ideas or beliefs in other people's that we wish to see changed, and it grains those things deeper in other people. So a lot of the times it has a counteractive effect. This idea that we're going to change them, make them better, make them believe what we believe doesn't seem to work.06:44Segment 2, the 100 year old man's unintentional inspiration, aka I want to pet dogs.06:56June 23rd, 2023, 8 a.m. He wanted to pet dogs for his 100th birthday, hundreds lined up. Allison Moore was stunned when more than 200 canines congregated waiting patiently for their turn to be petted by her father. When Allison Moore began brainstorming ideas for her father's 100th birthday celebration, there was a non-negotiable for the festivities. Dogs needed to be there, as many pooches as possible.07:26Quote, he just love, love, loves dogs, Alison Moore 60 said of her dad, Robert Moore, who turned 100 on June 14th. Quote, every dog he sees, he wants to pet. He has been like this his whole life, end quote. In addition to a big family dinner on his birthday, Alison Moore and her two siblings wanted to do something extra to mark the milestone. Sadly, a lot of his best friends aren't with us anymore, she said. So she decided dogs would have to do.07:55Six days before the celebration, Allison Moore posted on the Neighborhood Network site next door, as well as on Facebook, explaining her idea and asking for dogs in San Jose to stop by for a pet parade on June 17th. People started sharing her posts and other local groups on social media. Quote, We live in a nice little community and I thought I could get some of my neighbors and friends to come.08:17End quote, said Allison Moore, adding that she planned for her father to sit outside her home with a banner and assemble a small line of dogs for him to admire and cuddle. Human treats and dog treats would be served. Since the posts got some attraction, Allison Moore said she expected 20, maybe 30 dogs to show up. She was stunned when, shortly after the parade started at 11 a.m., more than 200 canines congregated, waiting patiently for their turn to be petted by her father. Quote, I was shocked, end quote.08:46said Allison Moore, explaining that some people drove more than 10 miles to attend the celebration. Her father, who was the Dean of Applied Sciences and Arts of San Jose State University for 25 years, was deeply touched by the turnout. Quote, he was so overwhelmed, end quote. His daughter said, he was just so sweet in talking to the kids and petting all the dogs and saying their names. It was so much fun, end quote.09:10Even though the event was intended to bring joy to Robert Moore, it ended up also being a delightful day for the people who attended, including Roger O'Brien, 88, who has Alzheimer's disease. His daughter, Denise O'Brien, brought him in his geriatric recliner, along with his dog Lucky, to the parade. Quote, it was the most beautiful thing, end quote, said Denise O'Brien, who owns a dog care company, Silicon Valley Watch Dogs.09:37and stumbled upon Alison Moore's post on Nextdoor. It's been a long time since I saw my dad smile for 90 minutes straight," end quote. Her father has been suffering from Alzheimer's for the last 11 years. Denise O'Brien said, adding that he only remembers his wife's name and his dog's name. He proudly introduced Lucky to everyone at the parade. This made not just my dad's day, but his whole year. TheWashingtonPost.com by Sydney Page, June 23rd, 2023.10:07Thank you.10:13This guy loved dogs. He found a lot of joy in petting dogs, seeing dogs, talking to dogs. Was he out to change the world or get in the news or convince other people that, hey, the present moment is worth enjoying? Hey, dogs are part of that present moment. Nope, he just enjoyed dogs. He enjoyed petting dogs. He enjoyed the simple things in life. And in turn, he values those simple things by valuing something simple and real.10:42He enjoyed it and through this big story that got out, now he's inspiring other people to enjoy the simple things in life like petting dogs. It's an unintentional ripple effect that can't help but have a subconscious impact on anybody that reads it. Maybe most people that read that story wouldn't think, hey, I should be more present and enjoy what's in front of me. This guy could have done anything. I don't know anything, but he decided on his 100th birthday to pet dogs.11:12Maybe this 100 year old knows something, I don't know. But it inspired me. Started to make me think a little bit about the climate change stuff. I started thinking to myself, maybe I'm coming at it backwards.11:23Friday morning, my wife and I, we started doing this early morning beach walk before we go to work. And I was grumpy this morning. I didn't want to get up. I was up late the night before playing Magic the Gathering Arena. We got to the beach and we were walking and I was watching my breath and feeling a little bit of water at my ankles and sand in my toes. Listening to the

00:05Welcome to the Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss present moment awareness and incorporating Buddhist principles into modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney, and today's episode is titled Buddhism and Warry.00:37I have a long history with Warri. I remember being on a road trip with my family during the summer. It must've been like five or six coming up with all of these Warri thoughts about if we had enough gas or how far it was gonna be to the next place that offered food. And my dad, who was great with nicknames, came up with a nickname for me. He called me the designated warrior. My family laughed about it,01:06Worried what he meant by that.01:10Through my early adolescence and teen years, I was prescribed anti-anxiety medication and I took that up until I was about 18 or 19. My early 20s, I came into contact with my worried thoughts again. And from my early 20s up until now, I've been practicing meditation as a way to find some grounding in the midst of worried thoughts.01:39I just got back from a week long work trip up in Cincinnati. We do this a couple times a year. There's a bunch of people in the office and new people that I'm meeting for my new position as a business development representative. During this work trip, I noticed that my anxiety or worry was turning up to a new level, getting home from socializing, I would think, oh no, did I make a bad impression? What if they didn't like me? What if they thought I was too quiet?02:08We all do it, some of us more than others. Maybe not everyone, but most people will have these what ifs and if we're not careful, they turn into habits of negative thinking.02:22Worry, like many other patterns of thinking, compounds on itself. So we may have a worried thought. In my instance, I'd have the worried thought, oh, did I make a bad impressions on my coworkers? Then I think maybe I was too quiet. And then if I go to try to fix it and act from that worry, I might say, oh, tomorrow I'm going to do a better job of shaking people's hands and looking them in the eyes and smiling at them as we talk. I'm going to do a better job of that. Oh, but then what if they sense that I'm being fake?02:52Oh man, this doesn't feel very mindful. I'm not being a very good Buddhist. In those moments we are completely in our heads and our bodies and it's hard to step outside of it because the what-ifs feel so real. I'll continue worrying if I don't decouple from the thought that worrying is keeping me safe. We don't worry for no reason and in some way there's some justification inside. Whether it's subconscious or conscious that03:20Boring will keep me safe. It'll keep me on the right path. It's gonna keep me going in the right direction or the direction that I desire.03:28We can slow down enough and step outside of the worried habits of thinking and negative desire. Desire that's based on external circumstances being a certain way. So as we slow down, we use techniques that are available to us to become more present, whether that be awareness of our breathing, awareness of the room we're in, the sounds in the room, whatever we can do to bring our attention back. As we slow down, we can start to03:57Find our own intentions and look at what our intentions are in life. How are we coming at life? Some of the good news about the mental energy of wari is that it's a pretty pronounced energy. It's not as subtle as some other things that we may work with in our meditative practices. Wari is pretty obvious, it's pretty flavorful, pretty strong. It's a good opportunity for us to tune in and become more aware, more present.04:25Warring may have kept us safe in the past. We may have had to worry or think ahead or plan our next move to survive. And there's nothing wrong with planning or thinking ahead. We can really look out for the energy or thought when we start to notice it saying what if. We know that it's usually unnecessary worry. The energy of fear and worry, also usually referenced as anxiety, is like a 10-headed04:53monster, ten-headed dragon, where you chop one off and then another ten can pop up elsewhere. I know that through personal practice where I might work through some area of fear that I'm having and feel good about that and then subconsciously a new worry starts to pop up and then takes me some time to realize what's going on and I say, oh yeah, this is the pattern, this is the energy of anxiety. And I start to see that this is the exact same thing but only presented as a new...05:22thought or image in my mind.05:33It may be hard for us to find an equilibrium in the midst of worry if our environment isn't really conducive to peace. And while we can be peaceful in any situation, when we are starting out and we're working with worry in our life, it's important to use set aside time and space to step away from the objects of our worry and to step away from people and distractions. We do this through regular practices.06:02In Zen Buddhism, they set aside time for a practice known as Zazen, or in more modern mindfulness practices, they set aside time for meditation. Setting aside time in your day for quiet reflection, for cultivating awareness through different awareness practices, allows us to slow down enough and tune into a knowing presence beyond thinking. Once we experience this knowing presence beyond thinking,06:30we gain access to a new dimension of being.06:35Once we experience being through our practice, it gives us something to hold against other experiences and ways of being in life. We recognize when we're worried and spinning worried thoughts in our minds, how groundless and unreal that state of being is compared to present moment being. In some traditions, they call it zero, coming back to zero, nothingness. And the object isn't to get rid of anything, we're simply07:04Watching what is and in the instance of worry What is is that our minds are racing usually off to the future or to the past? And asking what if what if my car breaks down on this trip down to visit my uncle? What if I made a bad impression with my girlfriend's family last weekend over Thanksgiving? What if I'm single for the rest of my life? What if I end up being a virgin for the rest of my life?07:34I know how tempting these what-if thoughts can be. As mentioned, some people are more prone to falling into the traps of what-if. Whether that be because of their wiring, being more prone to anxiety or anxious states of being or their past where they had to worry and think ahead to survive. I know that with my own worry, some of it comes from a sense of control or desire for a sense of control. I worry, hey.08:03I didn't do a good enough job of making sure everybody I came in contact with today liked me. Is that really up to me? Yes, I have influence. I can present myself in the best way I can, be kind, concerned, learn how to listen well, and maybe even, would you believe it, I actually developed some genuine care for the person I'm talking to. It's all fine. But do I really have control over how people perceive me? And...08:32What my worry is telling me is, what if every person you saw today didn't like you? Or what if this person didn't like you? It's asking, what if you don't have complete control of the world around you? News break, no one has control of everything. No one has control of most things. A lot of my worry comes from a desire to hold on to the status quo. I have a job that pays well and I'm moving into a position that's going to pay more.09:00I'm worried that I didn't make good impressions on some people that I'll be working with in this new position. The warrior says, okay, well, if he didn't do well there, they may not like you and man, you're gonna get fired. But it comes from a desire to hold on to what I have or a desire to keep things going in a certain way out of fear of loss. Buddhism talks about that a lot. Desirelessness is maksha liberation. That if we didn't...09:27desire anything other than what was, we would be perfectly content and at ease.09:42If you're looking for actionable steps when it comes to your own worry, here's some of the things that have worked for me. Cultivate awareness, whether that's through a daily meditation practice or through present moment awareness in your daily activities, whatever you're doing, trying to bring a sense of awareness to the moment. This leads to the ability to be aware of what's going on.10:11The options available to us become limited. But through meditation and mindfulness practices, we cultivate an awareness that allows us to witness our own state of being, state of mind, which then allows us to recognize when we're worrying. When you see the worry and you ask, what if? You see, oh, this is a what if thought. You can ask yourself, is there anything actionable that I can do in this moment that would be beneficial to avoid the circumstance or outcome that I don't want?10:41and see what you come up with. And then if there isn't, there's really nothing you can do that's actionable, then it's okay to just stay in that labeling, witnessing presence, labeling the thought as what if, recognizing the patterns of worry, metacognating on the thoughts that are floating by, and really just step back into your witnessing presence, watching things float by. As Pima Chodron says, I am the sky, everything else is the weather.11:11We come back to the truth that no matter what happens in our life, whether it be experiencing worry or the objects of our worry coming true. Everybody does hate me at my workplace. I'm fired because I just could not fit in. Come back to the reality of being that who we are, what we are made of, is not dependent on any external circumstance, positive or negative.11:37We are the being, the presence that witnesses and experiences life. You might say to yourself in those moments where it gets stressful and all the anxious thoughts come in and the worrying starts up. You can tell yourself, I am forever and always whole

00:00Hey, so before we start this episode, I do want to give you a heads up that we will be talking about some adult subjects. So if you have any people in your life that you're listening to this podcast with, or you yourself are somebody that feels like you don't want to hear about some very personal subjects, then you might want to listen to one of the other episodes or put on a different podcast. You've been warned.00:27Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I undertake to cultivate responsibility and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments00:57and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. That's out of Thich Nhat Hanh's 5 mindfulness trainings.01:25I want to welcome you to the Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss mindfulness and incorporating Zen principles into modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney, and today's episode is titled Buddhism and Masturbation.01:44Bye!01:59First, I want to say thank you so much for joining me on this path together as we learn about and share experiences of incorporating mindfulness, Buddhist or Zen teachings into our modern lives. Thanks for choosing this podcast out of all the other Buddhist podcasts and mindfulness podcasts that are out there. It really means a lot.02:23Understanding Buddhism, Zen, and Sexuality. Anybody familiar with Zen or Buddhism will be familiar with the concept of mindfulness, which is the teaching that one can train themselves to place their awareness in the present moment and through this awareness one can come into contact with truth or the way things are with the Dharma.02:50If you were to look at old school Buddhism, old school Buddhist teachings, the Dhammapada, a lot of these teachings seem to be aimed at monks, people living in a community where practice was at the forefront of their life day in, day out, when they would eat, there was a ceremony, a practice that they would do, when they would sweep the floor, when they would meditate, when they would sleep, all these things were regimented and they were not allowed to.03:18have any type of sexual relations with other people in the organization or outside the organization, strictly forbidden. And in some Buddhist teachings, it was taught that sexuality or sex lust were a defilement of the mind, that they led to endless suffering and rebirth and negative karma.03:47self-pleasure. Sure, some people within monasteries or even lay practitioners view sexuality or sex in the same way that it's a defilement and a distraction from the path of liberation. But then in modern times you also have the Thich Nhat Hanh flavor, which I read that at the beginning there that it's not saying that there's anything inherently wrong with sexuality. It's as natural as eating. However, just like with eating,04:15they recommend a mindful approach, being present, being aware in sexual activity, being present and aware with whom you have sexual relations with, what are the impacts, what is the karma related to these sexual relations.04:32Zen Buddhism has an emphasis on direct experience and awakening through the present moment. Through our meditative practices, whether that's zazen, walking meditation, which is known as kinnhin, or other different various awareness training techniques like oriochi, which is a ceremony, a formal way of eating that's there to cultivate awareness. The core aim is this direct experience.05:01of reality in Zen. And so it's never really been a contradiction in my mind when it comes to base sexuality, meaning not using porn to stimulate the mind or live in some type of fantasy and not projecting a bunch of lust on men or women or people around you if you are present in that sexual act. It's a consenting person, of course.05:27and you can be present and mindful and not lose yourself in some type of daydreaming or projection, then it could become a mindfulness practice. There was a time where I thought, okay, my sexuality or masturbation, self-pleasure, sex, are not in alignment with the teachings of Zen Buddhism or these awareness trainings. But then I also adopted this other viewpoint where I said, okay, maybe I can treat it as a mindfulness training.06:00So that said, where am I at with it now? There was a time for the last couple years that I really didn't put much thought into my use of porn, when or how often I masturbated or had sex or lusted. There was not much emphasis or awareness around those things until I started thinking within the last couple weeks about that. About...06:26Where does my practice begin and where does it end when it comes to my own sexuality? And what is healthy? What is in alignment with the path to awakening as I see it? And it's been a challenge. It's been this last week. I've really put an emphasis on it as I've been preparing to talk about this on this episode. I've asked myself, can I not use porn? Can I not fictionalize or...06:55fantasize in my mind when I masturbate. Can I masturbate less? This is maybe TMI, but this is something that needs to be talked about. I think that a lot of people are ashamed to talk about it. It's not normalized in a lot of spiritual communities. And I think that there is, in our current culture and society, I think that there's like this sex positive culture, which can have a lot of benefits.07:21There's a lot of room for interpretation when we talk about like, all sex is good. Embrace your sexuality. That can leave a lot of room for like, what is healthy? What is good for my mind? What will lead me on a path to awareness towards awakening if that's the path that I'm endeavoring to walk down? This last week, I've kind of put some question marks around those questions.07:47When I got that sexual urge, when I have that feeling, it's kind of like being hungry. You can sense it, you can feel it, and there's a desire and a need there. I've experimented with this idea of being present while I did my masturbatory practices and tried to bring my awareness to the sensations that were present. To be quite frank with you, it was pretty unenjoyable. There wasn't a whole lot08:17pleasant about it other than the physical sensations that I created without any type of imagination or fantasy in my mind. Not holding those images in mind or fantasies and just really being present with the act of jerking off. There wasn't a whole lot that was really exciting about it. This experiment left me with a lot of insight. Wow, how much of...08:44this pleasure that I'm getting, how much of it is what they call in Buddhism attachment, fantasy, and illusion? How much of this pleasure I'm deriving is it from some type of imaginary fulfillment of a fantasy I have in my mind? Since doing that, I've had less desire to masturbate.09:08Through our normal meditative practices, like sitting or walking meditation, we cultivate our ability to hold things without judgment. And in this case, I was holding the thing. Wow. We developed that compassion to hold things without judgment. And while I was holding my thing, I was also holding the desires of my mind with compassion and holding it with an element of letting go. Our09:37Culture promotes the idea of these strong sexual attachments and normalizing, in a sense, really strong lust. It's used in ads to sell things. We're using sexuality and sexual desire to sell things, as the saying goes, sex sells.09:58It's good that we are developing a sex positive culture. We're not shaming people for their sexuality, whether that's gay, trans, straight, non-binary, or not interested in sex at all.10:14Catholic Church or other organized religions where sex is prohibited, where sexuality is closeted, and we've seen the horrific things that can happen when someone is in complete denial of their own sexuality, of their own sexual needs and desires. It does seem like in environments where sexuality is swept under the rug, not talked about, act like it doesn't exist, or where it's said that it's just evil, some really terrible sad things happen.11:00Some of the negative effects of mindless masturbation. Don't you like that? That just rolls off the tongue. Mindless masturbation. I've noticed when I use porn, there's a sense of shame and it's interesting, like I won't be very aware while I'm using it and fantasizing and doing the act, but afterwards I noticed there's like kind of this feeling of being grossed out and be like, ugh, what did I just do?11:30shame can come from a lot of places. Porn use and mindless masturbation can have some negative effects. There is the movement of nofap which is about no masturbation essentially and that it has all these benefits of boosting productivity, creativity, self-confidence. Some books mention the negative effects of masturbation on creativity. Think and Grow Rich where he talks about a controlled sexual11:59a huge asset to success that some of the greatest and richest people, greatest creators, channeled and harnessed their sexuality for things other than sexual acts and channeled those into creative works and business. So some people would say that an effect of porn would be a lack of ambition, a lack of genius creativity. And I don't know if that's fact, but that's what some people say.12:29using porn or sexual fantasizing in one's mind is that we can strengthen this pathway of sexualizing individuals. Looking at someone like a piece of meat, that it does strengthen that pathway. Say I've been in a period of really engaging with porn and sexual fantasy and masturbation for a period of time and I get into a conversation with a woman that I find attractive. There is a12:57tendency to zoom in on that sexual aspect and may

00:07Welcome to the Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss present moment awareness and incorporating Buddhism into modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney, and today's episode is titled, Buddhism and the Sacred Power of the Present Moment.00:54What is the present moment? It's this very instance, this little sliver of experience where everything's happening.01:05Living in our fast paced world, we're told we need to think about what we want to become when we get older. Most of us never really feel like we ever get older. We're always waiting for that big moment to come. The raise, the promotion, the perfect person to come into our life. That moment when we'll feel happy, completed, and everything will be just the way it should be. Our fast paced society doesn't leave a lot of room for the present moment. If someone's caught staring outside the window,01:35at wind rustling the leaves outside on a fall day? They might be asked, what are you looking at out there? Oh, you're daydreaming.01:49I was out to lunch with a friend. A couple weeks ago, Chris and I were sitting down to enjoy an Italian sub. We were talking about religion. Him and his partner are Christians and they've been practicing for a long time. I said, I really don't feel like what the heart of Zen Buddhism talks about is very religious. And I looked at him and I was like, where else do you think God is going to contact you?02:17Can God contact you in the future, worrying about the future, dreaming of the future? Is he going to contact you somewhere in the past in your mind? Or is God going to contact you now in this very moment, this present moment?02:31The heart of Zen Buddhism is cultivating and polishing our awareness and connection to what's happening around us and becoming more and more aware of the subtleties that exist on multiple levels beyond just the surface. The present moment holds huge transformational potential when we start to bring our attention to what is happening in our bodies, minds.02:58experiences, we start to see them as phenomenon. We start to see that thoughts come and go. We start to see that emotions come and go. We start to see the people come and go. We start to see that life conditions come and go. Rich, poor, sick, healthy, young, old. We come in contact with the transitory nature of life.03:30And so then we start to recognize that those things cannot be counted on for any type of security or self. Because if these things are all changing, then who are we?03:43Our sense of self begins to change and what we are is more and more revealed. We are the presence that is experiencing life, experiencing all these changes. We start to identify with the presence that witnesses all of phenomenon.04:02I read on a YouTube quote, one guy left a comment and he says, the longer I continue to do my spiritual practice, the more that I realize that true spirituality is not about becoming something you're not, but it's about letting go of what you're not until the true you is revealed. So that's why Zen Buddhism, it doesn't really force a whole lot down your throat. Yes, there's some precepts and there's some different teachings that you can read, but the real emphasis is on Zazen.04:32practice. The real emphasis is on sitting and being present. Because when you do that, all this stuff that's talked about by the Buddha, you start to experience it yourself. So there is no real need for someone to shove anything down your throat if you are experiencing it in your own practice. But where else can we connect with the sacred other than this present moment, this very instance? When we call it this instance, we lost it.05:01as James Brown would say, in the cut. I'm in the cut. You're in that very instant.05:08I remember early on in my practice, just noticing how my mind wanted to go off so much into the future, into the past, and daydream or complain. And I was really bringing my attention and my awareness into the sensations of the present, whether that was my breath or the sounds around me. I didn't have any significant experiences until one day I was in my sister's backyard in Lake Oswego, Oregon, walking around doing what I understand now was walking meditation.05:38And I remember my eyes catching this redwood tree and this sense of presence being there. I saw the tree as I normally would, but there was an extra depth, an extra layer to it that I connected with. When we try to put words to these experiences, sometimes we lose the significance of the experience. But the best way I can put it is that there was an extra dimension between me and the tree. And maybe it was just the opposite of that, that there was no me and the tree, that I was feeling a connection.06:08a oneness while looking at the tree. And there was not so much an observer and observed, but a connection with. In that moment, the tree seemed to breathe that there was a sense of liveness to this, what I would normally look at as like an inanimate object. That was my first lived experience of this new level of life that was around me and always happening that I hadn't been in contact with since childhood.06:42So when you think about whether you're Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, when have those real special spiritual impactful moments happened to you? Were they somewhere while you were dreaming about the future or caught up in your past? Those significant lived moments where you felt a deep connection with the divine, where did that happen? You experienced them in the present. The gift of...07:08Present moment awareness is that it allows us to tap into and align ourselves with living a more sacred life. We open the possibility to have those experiences more often. We have to play to win. The main practice is zazen, where very little instruction is given. Most teachers will tell you as beginner to focus on your breath, the sensation of the in-breath, the space between the in-breath and the out-breath, and then the out-breath, the space between the out-breath and the in-breath.07:38and trying to continuously bring your attention back to just the sensations of breathing, the sound, and watching that breath.07:47There's another form of Zen meditation called Shikantaza, which is just sitting. And this is fully taking your open, spacious mind and receiving what is present. You're not focusing on any particular object of concentration, but you notice. With a wide sphere of receptivity, you notice and you hold your attention in that space for as long as possible.08:12So these are just a couple of examples of how Zen Buddhism has this focus on helping people cultivate a present moment awareness, where they can connect with the sacred. And the only place that it exists is now. Or as Thich Nhat Hanh would say, life is available only in the present moment.08:31Maybe you're saying to yourself, why would I want to go sit in silence in this Zazen thing? Why would I do that for hours or potentially days on a retreat? I want to read something from Dainin Katagiri. Hopefully I'm pronouncing his name right. I've been reading his book, Returning to Silence. He says, when you sit down in Zazen, you don't know why. If you think about it, you can come up with many reasons. But the reasons don't hit the mark exactly. You cannot ignore the reasons you have thought of because they are part of the truth, but not the complete truth.09:01What you want is just to be present, right in the middle of true reality, where you and Zazen exactly merge, nothing else. To sit Zazen is to call upon something, and to sit Zazen is exactly the something you are calling upon. You sit exactly in the middle of something you are always looking for and calling upon. We don't know what it is, but it is always there. If you sit down, you feel something, you taste it, by virtue of deeply seeing the human world.09:30of hearing the sound of the world, immediately we manifest ourselves with wholeheartedness. Whoever we are, whatever reason we have to decide to sit down, immediately we sit with our whole mind, our whole heart. Even for a moment, that's pretty good. Very naturally, all we can do is constantly return to the source of Zazen, which means Zazen based on casting off body and mind.10:11The key to awakening and connecting with the divine is the present moment. But you might say, man, there's nothing in my present moment other than stressful situations, mean people, bad food, messy home. But we learn in our spiritual lives that it is all usable and all workable. And if you have some struggle, you might be better off than someone that has a really perfect life because they're less pushed and less likely to seek.10:45Sometimes the present moment hurts. Sometimes the present moment isn't very fun, isn't very comfortable. Lately my wife and I have been cutting back on our TV usage as we've become aware that we've used it as a form of escapism. So a lot lately I've been confronted with myself more than normal outside of my normal meditation practices. And there's a feeling of fear inside. I'm recognizing that11:13because of past traumas and experiences that I've had, that there's a fear that I could lose it all, that this house that we bought and this marriage and love that we've built, our savings, all that stuff, it's just gonna be taken from me. It's just gonna be gone one day. And while that could be true, that insecurity, that fear is not really that fun to be with. There's a part of me that wants to run from it, that wants to distract myself, put my mind in some type of...11:41simulated reality with TV or my phone or whatever. And this is a little bit different than my early practice where the present moment was like a refuge from all the stuff going on in my mind. And now it almost feels like the present moment is putting me in contact with something I would rather avoid. And Scott Peck talks about in his book, The Roadless Travel, that all mental illness comes from the inability to experience suffering. I want to wo

00:06Welcome to the Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss mindfulness and incorporating Zen principles into modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney and today's episode is titled, Buddhism and Intrusive Thoughts.00:51It really doesn't surprise me that I was drawn to Zen Buddhism. And this is an important episode for me because as some of the most listened imperfect Buddhists out there might know, I've struggled with intrusive thoughts or impulsive thoughts for about the last 14 years. And it really was probably the reason I got into meditation at all. The message of Zen Buddhism that we aren't our thoughts.01:21that we are the awareness around and experiencing our thoughts was very helpful to me in those early days and still is. To be able to see our minds as passing clouds, we practice what's known in Buddhism or even now some hippie culture, something called mindfulness. Mindfulness is the deliberate turning of our attention to the present moment and whatever we are doing in that moment.01:50Mindfulness can be emboldened and strengthened through a practice known as Zazen, which is meditation in Zen Buddhism. We do these practices to help us be mindful in our daily lives. And intrusive thoughts or impulsive thoughts, they happen in our daily life while we're feeding the cat or driving the car. Before we delve deeper into the topic of intrusive thoughts and02:20Buddhist philosophy. I want to take a moment to understand a little bit more about what these terms mean and how they impact people's lives. Intrusive thoughts can be described as reoccurring, unwanted, or usually distressing thoughts, images or urges that pop into your mind. They're usually intrusive, hence the name, in nature, and they appear and disrupt02:50well-being. Some people would say that impulsive thoughts are more characterized by sudden urges or impulses to act and usually without consideration for the outcome and these impulses can arise seemingly out of nowhere. They compel people to engage in certain behaviors and as the name suggests, they're hasty or impulsive. In my practice, I've dealt more with intrusive thoughts than impulsive thoughts.03:18Intrusive thoughts and impulsive thoughts can create intense anxiety, turmoil, and they can create a feeling of being out of control. If we don't have a way to deal with them or work on them and they're left unchecked, of course it's going to affect our relationships, our work, and overall quality of life. Throughout this episode, we're going to explore practical approaches to working with one's intrusive thoughts. And I'm going to share some of my personal experiences of03:47the start of these intrusive thoughts along with some of the success that I've had along the way.04:15Zen Buddhism is a storehouse of antidote for this type of affliction, namely intrusive thoughts and impulsive thoughts. Shunryo Suzuki said that to follow the path of Zen is to realize that your thoughts come and go of their own accord. You need not serve them tea. And in Buddhism there's this character known as Mara. Mara is the affliction of the world, suffering.04:45and essential what he's saying is that Mara may come into your house. As long as you don't serve Mara tea, he won't stick or she won't stick around. Dogen Zenji said, in the landscape of silence, thoughts appear like passing clouds. They come and go, but the sky remains unchanged. How does one develop a state of being where the last little quotes I read05:13become something that one experiences. One can begin to experience their own thoughts and emotions through the practice of mindfulness, through the practice of developing present moment awareness. And so hence we have the importance of mindfulness in one's daily life. Zen Buddhism offers various practices for cultivating awareness so that when that image pops into one's mind.05:39eventually you can see it as phenomenon. You can see it as static electricity, if you will, the phenomenon of life.05:49I personally deal with intrusive thoughts, intrusive images. The first time it had a significant impact on my emotional health and mental well-being was when I was staying with my sister and her husband and a couple roommates up in Portland, Oregon. My nephew was about a year old at that time. I remember we were sitting in the living room and there was imagery of06:16me doing something to hurt him, I don't remember specifically what it was, or maybe like this underlying fear that somehow that could be something that I would do, and it set off this chain of events. At that point I was not acquainted with any type of meditative training or Buddhist practice. I had no grounding in mindfulness. I was fully identified with my mind and actually to strengthen the06:43The trouble here was I was very into the whole idea of manifestation of the secret, which if you're not familiar with it, it pretty much means thoughts are things and when we think about something or we hope for something, we really can imagine that it's real, it will manifest itself in our life. So on top of having these fears and compulsive images and worries, I'm now thinking, uh oh, I'm creating it. Like this is gonna, this is gonna happen. Oh, I can't think that. This whole.07:11back and forth mental struggle. I had no grounding in it. Of course the wheels kept going and I was pushing it away and acting like it wasn't real and then arguing with myself. That was really a hard place to be. The anxiety got worse and worse. The depression sets in because I'm so anxious. People are like, why aren't you talking? I would have this internal dialogue that's going a million miles a minute. I'm ashamed, so I can't tell anybody what's going on. I can't tell my father or my mom or...07:40my best friend or my girlfriend. What would they think if they knew that these images were popping into my mind? Would they also think that I was going down this path of becoming a murderer?07:56So what arose out of that experience was a deep need for refuge in a place of safety and healing, but I didn't know how or what or when that would happen.08:14What does Buddhism have to say about intrusive thoughts? What can it offer when it comes to the affliction of intrusive thinking? In Buddhism, there's an emphasis on non-attachment. Non-attachment goes further than our own thoughts and emotions. It also plays a part in how we interact with the world and ourselves as a whole. But nonetheless, it still pertains to our thoughts. And becoming non-attached means that we don't08:43Place any identity in our own thoughts. It means that we don't place any identity in the images that pop into our minds. This means that we don't have a sense of self there. So the image of dropping the heavy bag of cat food onto my cat, there's no sense of self there. We see it as a flash in the pan as a phenomenon. Just like we might see a shooting star across the night sky, we have this sense of non-attachment.09:12We can see potentially the causes and conditions that led to the imagery or the thought, and we can let go of any dialogue that goes too far into identifying with these intrusive thoughts.09:27Sometimes with intrusive thinking, it can really fuck with our internal dialogue because I'm a good person. I am not supposed to have images or thoughts like this that pop into my head. Non-attachment, non-self allows us to become fluid as beings on this planet, that we are allowed to experience the phenomenon of life, thoughts, emotions, experiences without placing ourself in them.09:58That's a little bit of the catch-22 with Zen practice. Not only do we let go of identification with the negative thoughts or so-and-so quote negative thoughts, what we label as such, but we also let go of our positive versions of ourselves. The good teacher, the kind mother, the famous musician, the infamous Karen, the poor grocery store worker, the rich real estate agent.10:28The creative younger brother. We let go of all these identities along with the impulsive thoughts, intrusive thoughts. We no longer identify with any of them as who we truly are.10:44The best technique for working with intrusive thoughts is having a regular meditation practice. It helps to enter your day with the intention of awareness. Without a regular meditation or zazen practice in the mornings, you can bring mindfulness and the intention of mindfulness. But in my own experience, in many practitioners' experiences, having a practice in the morning set aside specifically for cultivating awareness.11:13makes the effort of mindful awareness during your day much easier. Having that mindful awareness will serve you in helping to alleviate the karmic wheel of intrusive thinking in your mind. God, do I know how cheesy that sounds, but the wheel of thought in your mind, if you want to put it that way. A little bit of how we can apply this in practice, in applying Zen principles to this. If we start our day with awareness through a11:43meditation or zazen practice, whether that's five, ten, or 20 minutes in the mornings. We start out on the right foot. When we're working and all of a sudden an image or fear of an image coming up, because sometimes I know how it goes, you're afraid that you might have that image. See if you can step into that witnessing presence of what's arising and see if you can sense the emotion in your body. Tap into the emotion.12:09Sometimes grounding your awareness in the feeling in your body can really help ground that experience because then you're not feeding into the mind. And it's good because usually the emotion is strong. That feeling of fear, disgust, embarrassment, it's going to be pretty pertinent. It's going to be pretty there. So it's a good thing to tap into. Be cautious of witnessing that and letting it turn back into thinking in your mind. Bring that witnessing presence.12:38The same thing that you develop in zazen, when you're witnessing that breath, there's no judgment of the sensation of breathing. It's just a witne

00:00To love is to recognize. To be loved is to be recognized by the other. Thich Nhat Hanh00:20Welcome my friends and fellow travelers to the imperfect Buddhist, where we get annoyed when our kitties walk all over our recording equipment when we're trying to record a very serious podcast. I'm your host Matthew Hockmahoney, and in today's episode, we're talking about relationships. This episode is titled Buddhism and Relationships.01:08I remember I told my coworker Christy that I was Buddhist, and shortly after she said something along the lines of, Buddhists don't believe in relationships. Sorry Christy if you're listening to this if I completely butchered what you said, but it was pretty much that sentiment. I guess some people outside of Buddhism, or maybe even in certain sects of Buddhism,01:29don't believe in relationships or perhaps in the past in the monastic days they didn't believe in relationships. I know they definitely didn't allow them in most monasteries. There appears to be a wide spectrum of people's interpretation when you say Buddhism and relationships. You have people say that Buddhists don't believe in relationships and then you have like a self-help book on dating written from the perspective of the Buddha.01:56In a more general sense, we have the central idea in Zen of cultivating awakening through present moment awareness. And I think this is a great way to enter into the conversation of Buddhism and relationships. As we grow in our capability of being present with ourselves through meditation or meditative practices, we develop an open, embracing awareness.02:25We practice that on ourselves in silent meditation and our various other ways of practicing. We can extend that same loving, open awareness that we cultivate in meditation to people in our lives, including significant others.02:45When we cultivate that present moment awareness, we also get to experience more of the best things in life because the best things in life are happening in the present moment, including our relationships, our interactions with our partners, our interactions with everybody in our life. It happens right now.03:06you03:16A more generalist view of how things are going in the relationships department in society right now. Relationships seem a lot more complicated than they did back when our parents or grandparents dated. Why is that? I think it's pretty obvious. If you start to look at modern dating, you see some pretty obvious things that stick out as far as dating apps, social media, but then there's some other things that seem like they're maybe not as obvious.03:45A lot of people lack communication skills or the ability to connect to others through conversation, holding a conversation. I know personally, in my early 20s when I left the house, I found it hard to hold conversations with anyone, let alone a woman I found attractive. That kind of put a damper on my romantic life. Not really being able to hold a conversation with someone I felt was attractive because I didn't know how to navigate it. I didn't know how to04:17The way relationships start these days is pretty different. We talked about social media and dating apps, people connecting more on a surface level, obviously looking at somebody liking the way that they look, you can swipe right or left. Also connecting more surface level with what they decide to tell you about themselves in their description. So we have a veneer that we interact with in the dating world. A lot of people04:45We're very self-preoccupied and part of that comes with our culture and social media and the self-preoccupation that our culture pushes through advertising and through media. There's a hero in almost every movie or show that you watch and it's all about that character. And so in a way that starts to form the mind in a way that it's like you're the main character in your movie. So you start to look at your world in that way.05:16I'll read something from If the Buddha Dated, which I've not read the whole book, but this is a nice quote. It says, our refuge is being exactly where we are, not dramatizing problems by replaying them in our heads, telling stories to our friends, eliciting sympathy, and convincing ourselves that this is a very big deal. Our refuge is in the stillness of being the compassionate witness to our panic and fear, not judging it as good or bad.05:44just accepting the what is of the moment.05:48this open awareness that we cultivate in meditation. Usually with our own minds, thoughts and emotions, we carry that into our relationships with our partners. We can hold them in that same open loving awareness, recognizing our true self, it's a funny way of saying it, but our unitedness, our oneness in that relationship, and we can move towards unity. And it's a beautiful thing to be able to share that with a partner.06:17with somebody that you can spend your life with. But we can also experience that unity outside of romantic relationships. So if you're somebody that is not particularly interested in romantic relationships or haven't had very good luck with them, you're not excluded from that experience of unity.06:45the idea that you can just simply meditate and bring the awareness of meditation to your relationships. It's a bigger task than what it looks like on face value. I've been meditating off and on, mostly on for the last 10 years, and it's only more recently that I'm finding I'm able to bring this presence and love to people around me in a more consistent basis. If you are somebody that is07:11practicing and doing your daily meditation in the morning and the evening. Whether it's five, ten, twenty minutes each session, it may take a little bit of time. And I think it does start with yourself. Starts with self-love. Kind of love yourself before you can love other people. But cheesy? It is. It's very true. So, starts with loving yourself.07:35Recording this episode has helped me reflect a little bit on where I'm at in my relationship and how some of the stuff I've learned from the Zen temple and various self-help books has impacted my relationship. And it makes me thankful that I've had the influence of this in my life. Our relationship would be in a very different place, if at all, existing without some of this stuff. My practice moving forward, the way that I plan on approaching relationships,08:05will be mostly the same. I'm continuing though to develop the perspective of other as self, trying to move closer to unity, viewing my partner's needs the same as my own. It is a moment-to-moment practice. We are perfect the way we are, but there's always room for improvement in that this path of awareness and awakening is something that is continually walked and it's never really completed.08:35I'd really appreciate it if you could rate and review my show in your podcast. Service of choice, for instance, if you're in Spotify clicking the stars. Give me a lot of stars. And maybe leaving a couple thoughts on the podcast. I really appreciate your support. It encourages me to keep going. I look forward to talking to you next time. Alright, bye-bye.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-imperfect-buddhist/donations

00:00Who will master this world and the realms of Yama and the gods? Who will select a well-taught Dharma teaching as a skilled person selects a flower?00:21Welcome to The Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss mindfulness and applying Zen principles to modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney and today's episode is titled Buddhism and the Mexican Petunia.00:46Lately, my wife and I have been trying to cut back on our use of the TV as a distraction device. We've experimented with taking the plug out of the TV or taking the batteries out of the remote, and it's never really stuck. This time, we've made it about three days. I've been trying to take more inspiration from nature. I've been trying to take more walks outside along our 1950s neighborhood streets. I've got these brick houses. They all look pretty much the same.01:15This morning I went for a walk at about 6.30 a.m. as the sun was rising. I've been trying to pay attention to the natural world around me and notice things and try to look at the trees and the flowers and the plants without labels, looking to see what this being is in front of me. It's a lot easier for me to do that than it is with human beings. Human beings, we have all of our emotions and projections and wants and desires and all that stuff. So it can be easier for me to start with01:45tree beings and plant beings and bug beings.01:50The name of this episode's an interesting one, Buddhism and the Mexican Petunia. You might be wondering where I'm going with this. But today's episode, we're gonna talk about this Mexican Petunia that's growing outside of my window and the little lessons that I've learned from it over the two years that I've been living in this house. We're gonna learn from this unassuming flower, resilience, embracing impermanence, finding beauty and simplicity, growth and transformation.02:19and non-identification with labels. That's a lot for a little plant that most people consider to be a weed to teach us.02:38We bought our house about two years ago. When we moved in, there really wasn't a whole lot of landscape and we have the classic front and backyard grass. We have a magnolia tree that's beautiful in the spring that has beautiful white flowers. We have various other plants and shrubs. My wife pulled up some and I remember distinctly when we first moved in, there was this one plant that was growing near my office window down the ground, scrubby looking little thing. It looked different than a lot of the other plants around.03:08mowing the yard. I was wondering should I mow it down? And my wife said, oh no don't do that. That's a Mexican petunia. Some people think it's a weed, but it's actually a really pretty flower. So we can just leave it. And the plant wasn't anything special. It has these long spear-like leaves to it. It's got a really dark green, pretty skinny small stem. And so some time went by and I think one or two little purple flowers popped up on it and I just03:37was so blown away that a lot of people would consider this flower to be a weed or a pest. I was really surprised when I saw how beautiful the purple flowers were. Over time, we left it, we let it grow, and a couple small offshoots turned into a whole bush. After being here for a year, springtime rolled around again, and all of a sudden we got all of these beautiful purple flowers, and they're blooming right below my office window, so...04:05I'm sitting at work and I look out the window and this purple flower will catch my eye. I noticed a heavy rainstorm would come and all the flowers would drop. And I was like, oh man, I really like to look at those. And the next morning there'd be brand new flowers. I remember telling my wife, holy crap, like this is an amazing plant. It drops its flowers and it has brand new flowers the next day.04:31The Mexican petunia is very resilient too, with all the really strong storms we get here with wind and heavy rain, or when it gets really hot and humid, or even when it gets really cold too during the winter. It seems like the Mexican petunia just stands there. It's never looked like it's been that surprised by any of the weather. It may not have flowers year round, but I've never really felt like it died back severely or anything when some plants, man, it gets cold for a while and they're just...04:59dead, you have to baby him and cover him and all this stuff. But the Mexican Petunia, it's just made it through.05:17drawing some inspiration from the Mexican petunia and its ability to withstand so many conditions. Not only is it dealing with extreme heat and cold and wind and rain, but also the glaring eye of gardeners who look at it as like a pest. I'm not a plant, but I don't think it's aware of those distasteful glares that it's getting every now and then from our neighbors.05:45reminds me of this section out of Returning to Silence by Katagiri. He says, human beings are apt to attach to the aspect of life called pleasure. This is why we often say enjoy life. Why then does Buddhism say look at suffering? Because suffering is the one aspect of human life that people don't want to see. We try to close our eyes to suffering but we cannot do it. It is because we can't close our eyes to suffering that the Buddha has to say.06:13Look at this other aspect of human life that you don't see. Suffering is a holy truth. So to say that life is characterized by suffering is not a pessimistic teaching. And reading that and looking at the petunia, I see that it can withstand all of these adverse situations. It doesn't even label them as adverse. It's completely with whatever the environment is doing. And it's just saving up its energy for spring to put out flowers and to drop them and create new flowers.06:44We can learn from this Mexican petunia selflessness. The Mexican petunia doesn't sit there and think, oh, poor me, it's so hot out right now, oh my God. And oh, Matt's neighbor across the street just keeps looking at me with his little trowel that he wants to dig me out. Oh, it's so cold. Oh, nobody even stops and notices my flowers. It keeps making its flowers and it drops them. It doesn't hold on to those old flowers or think how hard it worked on those flowers.07:14budding of the flowers, the letting go of those flowers so that new ones can be made with new pollen so it can spread its sweetness throughout the land.07:26Learning from this giving and dropping away and giving, I'm learning that we may have a great meditation. Things may be flowing really well and it's this flower blooming and it's gorgeous and you're experiencing it and you're one with it. The bell rings or somebody knocks at the door. We start to think how good we are at meditating, how great it's going, and we start to hold on to that. Letting that fall away and allowing the new bloom to come up, whatever that next experience is.07:56This is from the Dhammapada. It says, the mindful apply themselves. They don't amuse themselves in any abode. Like swans flying from a lake, they abandon home after home.08:10One other thing I want to mention is the simplicity and elegance of this flower. It's very unassuming in non-blooming times with spear-shaped leaves and a dark green. Now that I know that it creates such beautiful flowers, I appreciate its simplicity and elegance in non-blooming times. It's a very unassuming plant and we can draw that parallel to our own practices, especially in zazen.08:39And some people, especially if you're practicing at a Zen temple, would be like, what? This is not what I would expect when it comes to a spiritual practice. Everybody's in these black robes and bells ring and you go sit down and it's pretty plain and it's not over the top. There's something to learn about that in our own spiritual lives about not being extravagant or over the top, that we can be simple and natural and plain and produce these beautiful ways of being.09:08these beautiful experiences that we can share with people. We can be an example of simplicity, yet brilliance. Simple brilliance.09:22Bye!09:33This is a study in how much one plant could symbolize for one person, if they really took the time to look at it. Concepts of simplicity, renewal, letting go and endurance. All things that I found symbolized in a plant, most people would consider a weed in my front yard.09:54If we're looking for it in our own practices, our own lives, we can find inspiration. We can find symbolism for resilience, growth, simplicity, and embracing imperfection. I would encourage you, in your own life, taking a look at the world around you. Hopefully you have some type of nature. Maybe it's just a small bush out in front of your house, but take some time to look at it. Pay attention to it with the passing of the seasons. Try not to label it.10:24or come up with a bunch of stories in your mind about what it is to pay attention to as the months and the seasons go by. When we start to get to that place where everything is usable, we start to see teachers all around us. We have flower teachers, tree teachers, bug teachers, and bitchy Karen teachers. Those ones are harder to learn from, but they definitely have a lesson to teach. I'm still trying to learn the lesson there.11:04inspired to honor this beautiful simple plant in front of my house. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. I look forward to talking to you next time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-imperfect-buddhist/donations

00:09Welcome to the imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss mindfulness and incorporating Zen Buddhism into modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney and today's episode is titled Buddhism and Love.00:52Thank you for stopping in and listening. Whether this is your first episode or I don't know what episode I'm on, maybe your 50th. I really appreciate you sticking with me and stopping in. It's been a while since I've shared with you. It's amazing how the days blend together. When I'm working from home, it seems like weeks can go by, months. And even the last couple years seems like they've gone by very fast. And I was looking at...01:19episodes and realized, wow, I haven't talked with you in a while, so I wanted to change that.01:26Love and Buddhism. I had a friend recently when we were talking about Buddhism bring up the idea that some Buddhists don't believe in relationships as far as sexual, physical relationships or marriage. I think I've heard that from other people before. When we're talking about love though, we're talking more about the concept of seeing yourself in someone else, seeing unity. I quote,01:55When you love someone, you have to offer the best you have. The best thing we can offer another person is our true presence. Thich Nhat Hanh. It's being present with somebody, seeking to understand, and eventually even seeing your true identity, which is the presence that witnesses, realizing that's in that other person. You recognize your oneness. Please know that I'm not there yet. This is the imperfect Buddhist. I didn't say I'm completely at this place yet.02:24But I have had visions or insight moments where I've felt that connectedness, oneness, and had moved from my head of thinking about this concept of oneness and actually experiencing it.02:51Love and our culture. How does this topic or concept of love relate to our culture? Love is a word often used in titles for Netflix shows, like Love is Blind. It's used a lot in songs, song lyrics. People say, hey, I love ice cream or I love pizza. I think a lot of people don't have a very deep definition of what love means.03:20We have a culture around love, which is this commercialized version. We have sayings about love, love your neighbor, or I love that pizza, but what does this really mean?03:32I've been married for almost... Oh my God, don't tell my wife I'm forgetting our anniversary, but I wanna say we've been married for six or seven years. At the time when we were dating, I was reading this book called The Road Less Traveled. It had a pretty profound impact on my life and the way that I look at reality. When I met Amanda, we both read that book together, and it has a really great definition of love. And so I'm gonna read that for you. M. Scott Peck, the author, defines love as...04:00The will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth. Actually, that was my first real definition of love. It gave new meaning to the word love. Before that, love was something that was thrown around in songs or in pop culture or something you'd say in a sentence, but it didn't really have any real meaning.04:30My own journey with the concept of love has been evolving quite a bit lately. I recently started the book A Course in Miracles, which is definitely not in Zen or Buddhist tradition, but it has a lot of powerful things to say about love, about human experience and what it means to be connected with other people. The author claims that they...04:58channeled this work and it seems to be written from the viewpoint of Jesus. I know that is enough to make most people's eyes roll and typically would make my eyes roll, but I gave it a try because somebody that I really respect in the mindfulness teachings mentioned it and said this is a really powerful book and make up your own mind. So I did and I have gotten a lot out of it, especially around the concept of love and action in05:26love's role in life. Through reading it I am starting to recognize love as an experience and a phenomenon rather than just a thought or an action. That there is this energy of love that we can experience. We can also be the transmitter of love. This is all sounding new agey but all that means is that we choose loving action. We choose to see people as ourselves and treat them accordingly.05:56quote from A Course in Miracles, teach only love for that is what you are.06:04The idea in A Course in Miracles is that there is only love, everything else is an illusion and a fiction created in the minds of men and women and that awakening is coming home to that reality that there is only love. In Buddhist texts, the Dhammapada says, hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. This is the eternal rule.06:49I want to talk a little bit about the reality of applying some of these concepts in my own life. A lot of my practice comes up in work. That makes sense, right? I spend a lot of my time other than sleeping or at home at work. There's a person that, personality-wise, I actually, I don't really have much of a problem with them, but it seems that they really are not a fan of me. From the beginning, I remember my second day at this job. It's a remote job, but I had flown in to the location and had...07:18Just met everybody and I think it was like day two and I remember walking into the shared office space with a team and this person gave me this very, kind of like they're looking right through me, glaring. As time went on it became very apparent that this person just didn't like me, eventually resulting in me talking with my boss and saying, hey, do you think this person has it out for me? And he said, yeah, they do. It's not me projecting anymore. It's very obvious that this person doesn't like me.07:49I've had different reactions to this. There's been times where I felt very defensive. My boss would bring up to me something that this person had come to them with telling on me or finding a reason to point out a mistake that I made. I've did the defensive thing where I got brought up and I started going into being defensive and trying to point out this person's flaws and all that. Coming at it like this didn't feel good. At the end of the day, after08:14Going through the dramas of complaining to other people, feeling offended, or maybe even in some ways trying to suck up or be nicer to this person that doesn't like me. Trying to like, maybe influence this opinion they have of me. It just didn't feel good. It didn't feel right. Reading A Course in Miracles, it was starting to influence me to start to look at other people in a new way, including this person, from the perspective of, okay, I've made the mistake also where I just decided somebody was bad or negative, never even speaking to them.08:45So after spinning my wheels with all of the traditional routes, complaining, trying to coerce the situation, I started applying this idea of... I guess put it the simple way, treating other people the way I want to be treated. I would hope in a situation where I was misguided in my assumptions about someone, or projecting a lot on somebody else, I would hope that they would be able and willing to forgive me and to recognize the pain that I was in.09:14It's changed the dynamic between us, not necessarily that it's changed this person's mind about me, but it's changed the dynamic within myself where it really doesn't bother me much anymore. I'm doing what I can, doing my best, trying to treat the people around me with love, including this person.09:33Going back to that concept of acting for my own or another person's own spiritual growth in that moment where this person is projecting onto me or treating me unfairly, what is the best thing for my own and this other person's spiritual growth?09:49Not really being that offended or hurt by the projections that this person is pushing out because that would only strengthen the illusion in themselves and myself. I get offended or I start to want to change a course, the situation, it's strengthening that illusion, which has no reality.10:15Another breakthrough that's come from this embracing of love as a guide for my actions and thoughts is jealousy, especially in romantic relationships.10:30It started all the way back to when I was like really a little kid. I remember being worried that my mom or my dad were going to cheat on each other. I'd ask them, are you cheating on dad or are you cheating on mom? And then as the years went by, my parents got a divorce and I remember being jealous of my mom's time when she got remarried. I suddenly just felt like I wasn't getting the same attention. Got into my first relationship, one of those little teenage fights where you break up for a weekend.10:58And during one of these weekend breakups, she went on a date with another guy, ended up making out with him, who knows what happened. I'm questioning her for months about what really happened. It got ingrained at a young age, these patterns of jealousy, suspicion, and fear. In my marriage now, there are moments where I start to go down that path of imagining my wife doing something behind my back or going out with somebody or saying that she's...11:24going to the Goodwill to go shopping for used clothes or whatever, but really she's out with this guy.11:32I had a realization recently where I was like, okay, what is loving in this moment? So say my wife was in a situation where she really decided to do that. What kind of pain would she have to be in or confusion or illusion or whatever you want to call it? She'd have to be in a very dark, hurt place to be taking such actions. This consideration shifted things for me where suddenly I wasn't afraid, but I was feeling compassion.12:01It was a shift from fear into love and trying to see things through other people's eyes, but also seeing other people as myself.12:11It was a game changing shift. I still have those moments where I get fearful or I start to go down the questioning path ab

1. Introduction (00:19): - Title: "Understanding Mindfulness and Conscious Living through Buddhism" - Introduction: Matthew Hawk Mahoney, host of "The Imperfect Buddhist," delves into the significance of patterns in mindful living.2. Mindful Living and Recognizing Patterns (01:07 - 02:34): - Understanding the role of mindfulness in recognizing and altering life patterns, fostering conscious decision-making and personal growth.3. Understanding Life's Cycles and Patterns (03:17 - 04:18): - Highlighting the concept of interconnectedness and life cycles, emphasizing the significance of patterns in mindful and Buddhist philosophies.4. Cultivating Present Moment Awareness and Mindfulness Practice (04:18 - 06:32): - Emphasizing the importance of mindfulness and present moment awareness as fundamental practices in conscious living and Buddhist teachings.5. Mindful Relationships and Conscious Communication (06:32 - 09:45): - Applying mindfulness to foster healthy relationships, emphasizing the importance of conscious communication and understanding patterns in interpersonal dynamics.6. Transforming Patterns through Mindfulness and Gratitude (09:45 - 11:56): - Exploring methods for transforming deep-rooted patterns through mindfulness and expressing gratitude, aligning with Buddhist principles and conscious living practices.7. Conclusion: Embracing Mindful Living for Joy and Fulfillment (11:56): - Encouraging readers to embrace mindful living and conscious awareness, fostering joy, love, and well-being in alignment with Buddhist teachings and principles.Transcript00:19Welcome to the Imperfect Buddhist. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney, and today's episode is titled Buddhism and Patterns.01:07Patterns have been a key theme in my life lately. Particularly patterns that I would like to cease or change or augment. Maybe I'm halfway there. Maybe half the battle is knowing that I have patterns. Patterns have been playing an important part in my life right now, in my marriage and my personal life. Decisions I make with my health, how I spend my time, how I show up in my relationship.01:35Do I show up with a approach of love and growth and wanting to learn about myself and my partner? Or do I show up with feelings of jealousy, of control, of needing things to be a certain way? How does my partner show up? Is my partner showing up with patterns she created in her past? Certain family dynamics that shaped her at a young age? Is she showing up to me with those patterns?02:04or she's showing up with a mindset of love, growth, honesty. And let's not forget fun. My dad, of all people, because he has some serious habits and patterns in his life, he told my sister, I don't know if he told me, I think he told my sister, but it's a thing that we bring up every now and then in the family where he said, you know, Amanda, everything's a pattern, everything's a circle. When it comes to our habits, seems to be the case, seems to be true.02:34When we're unconscious, as can happen with anybody, even the most serious meditators in the world, we find ourselves at the end or the beginning or the middle of a habit. We ask, how the hell did I get here again? Some of us might believe we have no control, that this is just how it is, this is just my life, and it's your fault. It's her fault, it's his fault, it's their fault that I'm acting this way.03:17Patterns are a part of life. And to try to say that we should be devoid of patterns, goes against human nature, goes against nature itself. Look at the sun, look at the moon. They rise and they fall, usually around the same spot in the sky depending on the time of year. It rains, it's sunny, trees grow leaves and the leaves fall down to the ground and nourish the soil and the soil nourishes the tree. The tree makes new leaves.03:47The leaves fall down and nourish the soil. Our bodies, we inhale. Our lungs fill with air and pulls oxygen into our bloodstream. And we exhale that carbon dioxide. We inhale again. Our digestion, we get hungry. We eat food. Food goes in, it's digested, and it comes out as poop. It's all cycles. Everything is patterns. Experts will tell you it's good to have a healthy routine, a healthy pattern.04:18So how does Buddhism or mindfulness, present moment awareness, play a part in any of this? A friend and I were talking, and this is one of my best friends in the whole world, and my friend had been at the bar, just taking a little bit of me time, doing some journaling, reading some self-help books, trying to just figure out how they were feeling, what was going on with them. And I met up with them after they'd done this soul-searching session.04:47They were talking about how they wanted to start doing like these self check ins with themselves. They asked themselves like, how am I feeling? What am I doing right now? And we started talking about it and they asked me, how do you start with these patterns, either making new patterns or changing old patterns? The truest answer I could say was present moment awareness. And does it matter if you're Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Catholic, Satanist? The present moment is a real thing. It's right here in front of us. And05:15Being in the moment, being present is not a religious belief, it's just an act. It's a habit to focus. If we want to work on our patterns in life, we have to start where we're at. We have to start where the patterns start and start paying attention. Present moment awareness is the key to having some authorship to get our hand on the wheel of our life a little bit and to steer a little bit consciously. Like we're in a Tesla05:45car and it's autopiloting towards the ultimate destination of our life and we're like watching YouTube on the screen or playing one of those Tesla video games that comes with the car and then we like look up and we start looking around and we're like wait a minute do I want to go here? Do I want to go to Chuck E Cheese for the 50th time this month? I'm kind of sick of Chuck E Cheese. I haven't liked Chuck E Cheese since I was five years old. I am a 55 year old man.06:14Why do I keep going to Chuck E. Cheese? Do I like Chuck E. Cheese? I think I'm gonna turn off autopilot and maybe go to Olive Garden. What's more mature than Olive Garden?06:32So the core teaching in most meditative traditions is mindfulness and present moment awareness. And there's a reason for that. It is the key to deeper states of awareness, to augmenting habits, changing habits, engaging in new habits that hopefully benefit our well-being, feeling a freedom in life, joy, relationships.06:57Relationships and patterns seems to be one of the areas where patterns become most prevalent, most hurtful, most painful. Whether that's our own patterns and the way we are in relationships or the way other people are with us based on their patterns. And I'm guilty of it. I can admit that I have my patterns that are not so helpful. In this particular situation with this person I was with, she got home after work. I had made a nice meal.07:27I noticed a tightness in their face, like a little crease in between the eyebrows, usually a sign that something's going on. My partner had signed up for a book reading group and I said, oh, that's cool. I'd like to go. And they said, no, I don't really want you to go. I want to do this on my own. Sometimes you have a habit of talking over me or I feel like I can't express myself fully when you're around. And that was hard to hear, but I understood where they were coming from.07:57was much more quiet and there had been talks about how sometimes I could overpower them or talk over them. So yes, I totally got where they were coming from. I said, okay, I understand. As we sat on the couch, I said, hey, let's talk. Let's just connect and do a little check in. And it started pretty positive. But as we talked, that tightness on my partner's face came back and they had this crease between their eyebrows and I could sense.08:23It was getting heavy again. We eventually got to the bottom of it, and my partner expressed to me that she felt embarrassed by jokes I would make. And that was really hard to hear. And I felt sad that we had to dig so much to get to the bottom of what was going on. My partner expressed to me that, oh my God, this was a pattern. That she, in some ways, was projecting some of my responsibility on how she should feel or not feel when it comes to being.08:53embarrassed or not. The bigger pattern here was maintaining the status quo. So instead of telling me and really sitting down and expressing to me how serious this feeling of embarrassment and my part in bringing that up in them was, she decided to avoid that, maintain the status quo, and then begin to exclude me from certain social events. For her it was a moment of revelation of this is09:23points of contention out of fear of upsetting the person in my life. It was something that they learned early on with their family, their parents, and it was a pattern that was brought into our relationship.09:45I used to do these quick tip things and who knows, I may bring it back, but really there's only one tip and that is to be present. To do the practices that bring your attention and focus your mind on what's happening right now in your body, in your mind, in the environment around you. And that's really the only tip I can really give is that we can cultivate our present moment awareness through practices like mindfulness, meditation, and we can use the...10:14present moment energy that we cultivate through this to work with the patterns in our life. Sometimes noticing a pattern is all it will take to change it. Noticing a pattern though, sometimes it stays the same. It may even increase for a time. But usually through the simple noticing of a pattern, when we see it in the totality that is available to us as much as we can, we see what does it create? What is it creating in our lives and our relationships? Is it...10:41Is it bri

Uniting Mind and Body in the Present MomentIt's easy to feel disconnected from the present moment and overwhelmed by the chaos of our thoughts. However, the wisdom of ancient traditions like Buddhism offers a simple and effective way to regain control of our minds and connect with the here and now – the breath.The Witnessing PresenceIn our quest for personal growth and self-awareness, Mahoney emphasizes the importance of returning to the breath as a constant anchor. When our thoughts scatter, when we worry about our future, or when we become consumed by concerns, the breath becomes our refuge. By becoming aware of each inhalation and exhalation, we access a quiet stillness that exists at the beginning and end of every breath.Witnessing Thoughts and EmotionsThe practice of witnessing our breath serves as an effective tool for those who find it challenging to observe their thoughts and emotions objectively. Rather than getting caught up in the emotional turmoil of our internal narratives, we can take a step back and label our thoughts and feelings. By observing without judgment, we cultivate a state of non-attachment to these thoughts, an essential component of meditative traditions.Breath as an Anchoring PointOur breath becomes an ever-present anchor, a constant that allows us to be present in any situation. In the same way that some individuals use prayer beads as a meditation tool to center their attention, breath awareness offers a tangible and always accessible source of mindfulness. It helps to slow down our racing thoughts, enabling us to be fully present.Cultivating Witnessing PresenceAs we practice witnessing our breath, we also cultivate a witnessing presence. This state of awareness doesn't label experiences as good or bad, positive or negative – it embodies the essence of "don't know mind" or "beginner's mind" found in Buddhism. We can extend this awareness to our thoughts, allowing us to approach them with greater clarity and detachment.Breath Awareness in Daily LifeIf you find it challenging to incorporate breath awareness into your daily life, consider integrating it into your meditation practice. Set aside dedicated time for silent meditation, with the primary aim of witnessing your breath. When your mind wanders, it's not a failure – it's part of the process. Even a single minute of breath awareness during a 20-minute meditation is valuable.The Direct Experience of TruthBy observing your breath, you tap into something real and tangible, allowing you to experience the truth directly. It's a truth that's always present, always solid – your life, the life energy that animates you and the world around you. You can let go of the restless energy of your mind, the constant search for solidity through thought, and simply be present with your breath.Using Your Thinking MindThe key is not to abandon your thinking mind but to use it wisely. Don't let your thinking mind control you. Rather, harness its power to enhance your awareness and understanding.As Thich Nhat Hanh suggests in his book "Peace in Every Breath,"mindful breathing is like a seatbelt for everyday life. It keeps you safe in the present moment, helping you weather the turbulence of modern existence.Transcript:The breath is a powerful bridge connecting life to consciousness, and through it, we can unite our body with our thoughts. By consistently returning to our breath, we can achieve a profound witnessing presence, enhancing our awareness and embracing the richness of the present moment. So, take a deep breath, be present, and discover the transformative power of the breath in your own life.00:00Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.00:18Welcome to the Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss present moment awareness and incorporating Zen principles into modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney. And today's episode is titled Buddhism and the Breath. We're not talking about stinky breath. We're not talking about proper breathing while we're running. We're talking about tuning into our breath as a way to00:47using the breath to train our awareness in what's known in some circles as the witnessing presence.01:04Working on the Imperfect Buddhist lately, really putting in a lot of energy. I've been looking for ways to deepen my own practice so that I'm walking the walk instead of just talking because podcasts are mostly talk. One of the ways I've been doing this is trying to come back to my breath as often as possible. When I notice I'm getting off in the future about how am I going to support myself as a podcaster? How am I going to pay my bills?01:34come back to my breath. And I start thinking about how am I gonna monetize this podcast? Are people really gonna wanna subscribe to some content? How am I gonna pay my bills? I come back to my breath. When I start worrying about where's my wife? I haven't heard from her in a couple hours. Is she cheating on me? I come back to my breath. And coming back to my breath, aware of my inhalation, my exhalation, and the spaces in between those two movements.02:04A quietness, a stillness that exists at the bottom and the top of every breath.02:10Let's talk about using the breath as an anchor to the present moment, as something that's always available to us, no matter where we are. Sometimes in Buddhist or mindfulness circles, people talk about becoming aware of our thoughts. Like, just take a step back and witness your thoughts as if you're a third person. Don't judge, don't add any extra thinking. Just witness those thoughts, those energy patterns, maybe even name them. And the example of me...02:40having these fearful thoughts, I would take a step back and say jealousy or fear or abandonment issues. You can do those with a very non-judgmental labeling, but that can be hard for a lot of people. Telling people, hey, witness your thoughts and your emotions from a witnessing presence and don't get too attached to them. That's easy to say, but for a lot of people, they don't really understand what that means and there's so much emotional energy involved in their thoughts.03:07that it's a huge thing to overcome, especially when you're first starting in meditative traditions. The breath is such a beautiful refuge for people that are on this path of awareness.03:26So we witness our breath and as thoughts come in and they start to try to pull us out of the moment, pull us into the future, into the past with fears or dreams of the future or hopes for the future or resentments from our past or worry about what this person is thinking about us or how we're doing in our job. We just come back to the sensation of breathing and we experience the miracle of letting go. In the Bible, there's a quote,03:56I'm talking about the miracle of letting go. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.04:20The breath becomes our anchoring point. We can use the breath as something that we can come back to. Breath is a brilliant tool for this as it's not good or bad, negative or positive. It's a really easy thing to be with and use as a source of awareness that will bring our attention to the present moment. Maybe you've seen some people in religious communities carry around these mala beads and they hold a bead and some of them will say a prayer. Some of them will actually just feel the bead.04:49sensation of the bead in their hand and then they pull the beads through their fingers. This is used as a meditation that ties the awareness back to the present moment. If it's used for prayer then it's used to center that attention on the prayer through some type of physical means. And in a lot of ways, breath awareness is the same thing. It's a sensation that's always happening that is inside of us that allows us to cultivate present moment awareness, to slow down our05:18obsessive thinking minds and be present.05:24Another blessing of our breath, another benefit in practice through breath awareness, and we actually cultivate our witnessing presence as well, which is the power to be with experiences, thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, physical environment with a state of awareness that neither judges good or bad, positive or negative, does not label. In Buddhism it's called don't know mind.05:53or beginner's mind, a state of mind that doesn't come to situation, emotions, thoughts, physical sensations with any type of preconceived beliefs or notions about the experience. So breath awareness, simply witnessing our breath and watching what happens, seeing how long we can actually be present with the breath develops this witnessing presence. So we can take this same awareness to our minds when the thought comes up.06:22of my wife. Where is she? What is she doing? Maybe she's cheating on me. I have a little bit of a witnessing presence there. I can see what's happening, notice what's happening in my body, and it gives me a little bit of room to see a little bit of the bigger picture. It gives me a little bit of space around it so that it's not an all-encompassing nightmare of fear and absurd behavior.06:53If you find it too hard to tune into your breath and daily life while you're driving or having a conversation with somebody, you may want to incorporate breath awareness into your meditations. Have the aim of your attention while sitting in zazen or doing a silent meditation to be present with your breath and to witness it. When you set aside time and go to a quiet room, set up a chair or a cushion and sit down, start a timer for 10 or 20 minutes.07:22With the aim of trying to witness your breath and be with th

About this episode:In our fast-paced modern world, the pursuit of mindfulness and spiritual growth can often feel elusive. However, at the heart of Zen philosophy lies a profound truth: everything in life is usable for awakening.Embracing this concept means seeing imperfection, challenges, and difficulties as tools for personal growth and enlightenment. It's a pivotal moment in our spiritual journey when we realize that suffering and imperfection can crack open the shell of ego, leading to humility and compassion.Eckhart Tolle, in "The Power of Now," beautifully captures this idea: "If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being. No humility, no compassion. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary."The key is to confront discomfort without judgment and listen to our inner wisdom." Thich Nhat Hanh, in "The Miracle of Mindfulness," reminds us that even mundane activities can be opportunities for awakening.Mundane experiences become gateways to mindfulness and a deeper understanding of the present moment. Positive experiences, too, can be savored without worrying about their end, teaching us to appreciate the now.Challenges, whether they come in the form of new experiences or difficult emotions, have the power to transform us, shedding illusions of weakness and conditioning, revealing our true selves illuminated with awareness.In conclusion, the concept that "everything is usable" reminds us that every moment, every experience, and every emotion in life can be a stepping stone on our journey toward awakening. Embracing imperfection and challenges with open hearts and minds unlocks our potential for personal growth, mindfulness, and a deeper connection to the world around us. Ultimately, it is through these experiences that we become more fully alive and aware of the beauty of our existence.Transcript:00:16Welcome to The Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss present moment awareness and incorporating Zen principles into modern life. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney and today's episode is titled, Everything is Usable. Today's episode is all about using what is at hand, what is in our life for awakening, whether that's pain, joy, or just boredom.00:42We'll talk about the concept of everything is usable. The concept that we can use all of life's experiences for our own awakening.01:09At some point in our spiritual life, we decide to embrace imperfection. We start to embrace challenges in our life. This will be a shift for us. Some people, maybe if their parents were on some different level, maybe they helped their children accept and embrace challenges and difficulties. But for the most part, most people will have to learn how to do this in their own way. At some point on the spiritual path, we begin to embrace01:37difficulty and imperfection in our life. We start to see imperfection and difficulty as teachers. We start to see imperfection and difficulty as fodder for awakening, something that can fuel our personal awakening and the endeavor of meditation.01:58Eckhart Tolle in his book, The Power of Now says, If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being. No humility, no compassion. Suffering cracks open the shell of ego. And then comes a point when it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.02:21This idea that suffering or imperfection can be used in our own awakening is something that I'm becoming reacquainted with in my own practice. My wife and I this year have been endeavoring to reduce our technology use and to start picking up old hobbies or being comfortable with it just being quiet in the house staring out the window. And so I've been noticing that through eliminating our TV use or trying to limit our technology use that I'm...02:48Becoming more acquainted with this underlying feeling of dissatisfaction, like this kind of anxiousness that's been living underneath the surface and festering as I've been indulging in a lot of screen time. I have had a couple moments where I'm feeling uncomfortable and I'm like, I don't want to feel this. I want to distract myself again. I want to get away from this feeling. I don't like it. And sometimes it wins. Sometimes I start watching stuff on my phone as I stuff my face and eat my lunch.03:16And sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I'm able to stick with it and feel it and go through it. And then I'm able to ask myself, is there anything I can do differently that may make an impact on how I'm feeling? I started picking up rock climbing again, and soon I'll be doing some yoga at the rock climbing gym. And I noticed a big change in my body. Rock climbing for me is a really mindful sport, present as I'm doing the moves necessary.03:44So this little slight change to my routine is starting to help me.03:54What I'm talking about is a recognition in your own presence. When you embrace whatever suffering you're feeling, you embrace it, you feel it. You're not mad at it. You're not trying to push it away, but there's a still voice or a voice that comes up where you could say, oh, maybe there's something I can change that would help me. This is a little bit different than pushing it away or being upset about how you feel, adding an extra layer to the pain that you already have. It's a quieter, still, wise voice that just says.04:23Maybe there's a different way. Coming back to this feeling of dissatisfaction. Maybe some of that is pretty normal. Maybe there isn't a whole lot I can do to change it. Maybe that dissatisfaction is inherent with the current way a lot of people's lives are set up.04:41Thich Nhat Hanh said, if while washing the dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not, quote, washing the dishes to wash the dishes, end quote. What's more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be05:09able to drink the tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus, we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life. Thich Nhat Hanh, the miracle of mindfulness.05:27Mundane activities can be a doorway to awakening for us. They are opportunities for mindfulness and presence. And there is no mundane activity. Everything becomes sacred by our awareness. When we tap in and we live the philosophy that everything is workable, everything is usable, then everything becomes sacred. Everything becomes our teacher and we are awakened and enlivened by our life, just as it is.05:59We can take the awareness we cultivate through our formal practice of meditation, zazen or mindfulness practice, and we can take that into anything we do. We can take it into doing the dishes. We can smell the soap. We can feel the gross outness because, man, maybe we didn't do dishes for a week, which seems to be the case for me sometimes. We can feel the heat of the water on our hands and listen to the scrub brush as it breaks away the dried-on food from a whole week, you pig.06:29But we can tap into what's happening in that moment. Where's our attention? Is it on the present? Is it in this moment? And if it isn't, maybe we can ask ourselves why. And we don't wanna get into a bunch more thinking. But if it's a simple answer, it's usually true. Sometimes when I ask myself, why am I not present? Well, doing the dishes or rock climbing or driving to pick up my wife. It's because either A, I'm just not aware and I'm letting my mind drift, which is natural.06:59Or B, there's something that in my life right now I'm not wanting to feel, I'm not wanting to deal with. I would rather it not exist. And so I purposely or unconsciously put my attention somewhere else. I daydream or I uninhabit my life.07:21Everything is workable, even positive experiences. They may not have the pull that suffering does, because suffering really can pull you right into the moment, right into your body, because it's so intense. Positive experiences can teach us a lot. Yeah, it feels, number one, it feels great to have a positive experience, something that goes our way, or to spend time with someone we really love and enjoy, where moments flow together, and there's a sense of ease and happiness and joy.07:51It's pretty easy to be mindful in those moments, although a lot of people aren't. They're worried about losing that moment. When's it gonna be over?08:01I know that I'm guilty of that with my marriage. My marriage I'm very happy in. I love my wife and my partner, but I can't help but think of what happens when it's gone. How am I gonna feel? I don't wanna lose this. I can tap in right now and experience this moment, cherish it, and realize that it is fleeting, and that all the warring in the world will not change this moment from not being at some point, whether that's 10 minutes.08:29An hour, a day, a year, 50 years, there was going to be a moment where this experience will be no more. When we tap into the present moment, we experience the joy of life. And we can also see that it's transitory and learn the lesson that all things are transitory. We see this in our pain, we see this in our joy, and it makes us much more appreciative of what is happening. If it is joyful, we can really savor it and be appreciative for what it is.08:58Wow, I have a wife, a partner that time flows easily for us. We get along, we laugh, we have adventures. We experience really beautiful things. She brings the best out of me, helps me see the world in a more bright and beautiful way. And I can cherish that and savor that now, knowing that it isn't forever. If someone told me, hey, Matt, your dad's gonna die when you're 19 and it's gonna be one of the mos

Voice-to-Text Translation. Please excuse errors.Take time to pray. It is the sweet oil that eases the hinge into the garden so the doorway can swing open easily. You can always go there. Consider yourself blessed. These stones that break your bones will build an altar of your love. Your home is the garden. Carry its odor hidden in you into the city. Suddenly your enemies will buy seed packets and fall to their knees to plant flowers in the dirt by the road. They'll call you friend and honor your passing among them. And when asked who's that, they'll say, oh, that one has been beloved by us since before time began. Give everything away, except your garden, your worry, your fear, your small-mindedness. Your garden can never be taken from you.Welcome back to the imperfect Buddhist. My name is Matthew Hawk Mahoney, and today's episode is titled Buddhism and anxiety. I've been working from home for the last year and two months. I've been trying to find any way to get out of the house. So the other night, my wife suggested that we get ice cream, and I never turn down ice cream, unfortunately.And there's a little local spot here in Jacksonville, Florida called Dreamette. It's been there since the 1950s. It's a cool little old-school spot. A neighborhood called Edgewood, and we like going there. It's fun. A lot of families there and we walk around the neighborhoods , we showed up, and they were closed.So we went to a part of town that we don't usually go to much busier. There's a main highway there. It's a brand new mall area, so there's a lot of traffic, a lot of people, and we got our ice cream. Of course, I got a pumpkin spice-flavored ice cream. I'm basic. I know. And we sat down in front of Coldstone.I just took in what was going on around me. I saw all this traffic flying by, people coming and going and really loud cars out on the highway.I had a little flashback to when I worked in customer service. I had a couple of customer service jobs. One of the busiest was Starbucks drive-through & cafe. And that has to be the busiest job I've ever worked. I still sometimes have nightmares about making pumpkin spice, lattes, or caramel frappuccinos with extra caramel.I had this flashback to all the anxiety I used to experience, and even experiencing the anxiety of that present moment where there's so much going on. So many people going here and there and loud sounds and an ugliness that comes along with roads, pavement and new construction before the decorative plants, have had time to grow.You end up with this very industrial feel. So I was struck a bit by how anxious things feel in society , not only in. our life when we're out in the marketplace, for instance, at a little strip mall that I was at, but also in media, YouTube, for instance, I see these financial podcasters that I've watched from time to time.Every time I'm on there now it's like the great collapse is coming. China's economy is destroyed and how to prepare for the, the great impending doom. Apocalyp. And it's tempting to click on 'em sometimes, but then I'm just like, what the heck? And so there's just this flavor of anxiousness. There's a thick schmear of anxiety. Lately in my life, I've been a bit cloistered. I've been. In my home office, which is also my music studio and podcasting studio. I have up these sound panels, these four inch thick base traps that absorb a lot of sound. And to me it feels pretty darn peaceful in here , but it wasn't always like that. From the age of 19 to 24, I experienced deep sometimes paralyzing states of anxiety and panic attacks. I turned 18 years old. I dropped out of high school to join a band. And this was my dream, but this where the really deep experiences of anxiety started to happen.My introduction of adult life, like what it meant to be in charge of myself and also open to all of the things that can happen. And the, the, all the responsibilities that come along with being an. Touring around smoking at least a pack a day of cigarettes eating really terrible food.Like McDonald's whatever was available. Maybe sometimes we'd stay at someone's house and they'd make those Dino nuggets. Have you ever had those Dino nuggets? Just chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs touring around. I wasn't taking this medication that I had been on since I was 14 years old.It was. Antidepressant antipsychotic anti-anxiety was called Paxil. I started to have these experiences of just like fear deep states of doom later, later discovered it's called a panic attack. And so experiencing that around a group of guys, I really didn't know that. Well, it was really hard to navigate.I was on my own in this touring band, playing guitar every night. Experiencing deep levels of anxiety, fear, like, what am I gonna do? I don't really have a job. Flash forward about a year, I ended up leaving the band partially because of the anxiety I'm in. Grant's pass.It's my mother and my stepfather's wedding. This was 2008. At that point, the anxiety is paralyzing. I'm so deep into my own head, having compulsive images, where I would see someone's face fall off or see myself stabbing a knife into someone's neck, the imagery in my mind. This was really scary because I'm like, what the hell? What's going on deep states of not only anxiety, but I think maybe there were O C, D or something going on where compulsive images were popping into my mind. And I'm like, no, I don't wanna see this. My sister-in-law who was there for the wedding, Cheryl.Gave me this book called the power of now, by Eckert toll. It's all about present moment awareness. And that was the beginning of my present moment awareness exploration. Flash forward another five, six months. I'm starting to practice some of this mindfulness stuff. I really don't understand the concepts that well, the whole concept of present moment awareness and trying to bring your attention to the sensations of this moment and the reality of this moment, it felt very foreign.And if you're new to practicing mindfulness or Buddhism, I could understand that feeling or it's like, what are you talking about? it's not really something tangible. It's not something easily understood with the mind. It's something that you have to experience for yourself, but flash forward another six months, I'm working at Starbucks, a very busy, very crazy location.Hundreds of customers per shift, hundreds of drinks, go, go, go, go, go do this, do that, do this, do that refill. This pump, this syrup, steam, this milk. Sweep the floor clean the bathroom. It's crazy. And in the midst of this, I'm trying to practice a mindful awareness, trying to be present with what's happening not only that, but then having the external pressures.For management like Matt, you need to smile more or Matt, you need to interact more with people. I just, I obviously wasn't a very good vibe fit for Starbucks because I'm this depressed anxious kid who maybe even looks weird because he is trying so hard to be present in the midst of all this chaos.So it was a really awkward time, an awkward time to be trying to practice this stuff. But. I believe it saved my life. I believe. I don't know if I would, maybe I wouldn't be dead, but I would be in a much different place. I imagine it would be a much darker place if I hadn't started coming back to some type of tangible truth, something that I could touch and experience on a daily basis.And that's what mindfulness brought for. And some of my anxiety kind of manifested and attached itself to some type of O C D thinking or imagery that would pop into my mind. And it was torturous at times, having a weird double punch of, seeing some terrible image, including my nephew, maybe a knife or something being stabbed into him.Seeing that alone , nobody wants to have to imagine that or see that. Adding to that, , oh my gosh, the fear around, you know, is this something I'm gonna do? Is this something I want to do? , am I becoming some type of evil murderous person? the third painful part of it is like, I can't talk to anybody about this.They're gonna think I'm crazy. They're gonna think I'm a murderer. So you have all these compounding mental issues. The freedom that mindfulness and practice gave me was able to see that and to realize that wasn't me. It was a time I was desperately needing to know that my mind and my thoughts and imagery in my mind, or worries or whatever were not me.I desperately needed to know that. And so I clung to that philosophy. It was the perfect antidote to. What I was experiencing. I don't know if I would be as deep into this practice if it wasn't for those experiences, because , in a lot of ways, if things are going great, you think you're hot shit.You really believe in yourself you have all these images of success for yourself. you really believe people think you're the coolest person in the room and you're handsome and you're wealthy or you're gonna be really, we. Nothing wrong, with some of these thoughts, but if you really believe all that, it's hard to hear a philosophy or a teaching that says you are not your thoughts, because that's like, that's really hard to let go of all that that's like so important.So much a part of what you think is real and it creates this story in your mind. So it's hard to let. Of identity when you feel like your identity's pretty cool, but in my situation, I was afraid of my identity or I was afraid of the thoughts I was seeing. I was paralyzed by the possibilities. My mind could spin up.So a teaching that came along and said, no, you're not your thoughts. You're not your worries. And along with that, though, it also said, well, you're also not your positive thoughts about yourself. You're not. You're not the concept, the positive concept you have in your mind. There was a little bit of clinging to that as I had to let go of everything, because it said it's just in general, you're not your thoughts.So I had to let go of everything. So in a way, this imagery that would pop into m

Welcome to the Imperfect Buddhist, where we discuss Mindfulness and Incorporating Zen Buddhism into everyday life. I'm your host Matthew Hawk Mahoney, and today's episode is titled Buddhism & Anger Pt. 2So, I did it again! Outside of my body, I watched as my voice fell into a lower frequency, my volume raising as I said, "This is bullshit!." My boss's eyes widened. My poor coworker was caught in the middle looking down and away from the zoom camera call. "This is bullshit!" I said, "I refuse to accept this because it isn't fair. How about you thank me? Huh?" I finished, my face tight with the fire beneath my skin. My boss calmly said, "Alright, I will talk to you guys later." Hanging up.Now three days later, in the pit of my stomach, there is a weight, a sadness underneath the surface. The rage hangover. I know this now. I have seen this before.I look out of my window at the yellow Florida winter day. Tears well up in my eyes. Yes, I have seen this one before too. This experience is called Helplessness.I have been sitting every day for the last couple of years and practicing off and on for 11 years. I have also added exercise and cleaned up my diet. Yet, here I am, regretting my latest tantrum. I have told myself before, "It's not worth it, Matt! This causes more problems than it solves." and yet here I am again, feeling hopeless.So, what is the wise answer here? Desirelessness is Moksha Liberation, one of my favorite sayings, but how does it apply here? Until recently, I could only use this concept after the tantrum, letting go of the desire for what happened to be anything other than what it was. Digging for answers, typing in "Sudden Anger" into doctor google, a Reddit came up, as they usually do. A person talked in the post about her struggles with irrational and disproportionate bursts of anger while driving, which I also experience sometimes. In the comments, someone responded with something that hit home for me. They said, "We get angry because there is something that we desire very strongly" they continued, "We want this so badly that we get angry to try and attain that thing or correct a certain behavior."What did I desire at that moment? I wanted my boss and coworker to see me as competent; I didn't want to be blamed for something I didn't do. I desired so badly that I burst out in anger, throwing a total rage fit.Where does Buddhism end and Mental Health counseling begin? This is a great question, one that I am still exploring. At times I get tastes of an answer; however, only small. Many masters say that we don't practice Zazen to change anything. Zazen allows us to come into contact with what is.Well, what is, is that I barf up these rage fits, usually out of nowhere, surprising myself and others. Full of regret, I feel isolated and without recourse. I seriously resolved in the past to shrug my shoulders and write it off as the imperfection of life, as promised by the buddha. This is the trickiest Karmic pattern I have encountered yet. The second is jealousy, and the third is Nicotine. This one is challenging because it arises suddenly, strongly with what appears to be no premeditation. There is no buffer room from "this upsets" me to "rage fit."Zen brings us into contact with what is. Sometimes seeing what is in the brilliance of clear sight can change the thing we see clearly. Other times, for instance, my current dilemma, more profound work will need to be done. The wise counsel of a trained professional.The wonderful thing about this latest outburst is that it puts me into contact with humility. Driving home after dropping my wife off at work, I put on the latest Imperfect Buddhist episode, Buddhism & Resistance. What a juxtaposition. Starting the episode, I say calmly into the mic, "Peace exists on the other side of your resistance." going on to share some insights about peace and letting go.Not one day after the episode was released, I am having a big anger outburst at work. Resisting my projected fears about inadequacy and blame.This practice has a way of humbling anyone who truly walks its path. Thank god I named this the Imperfect Buddhist Podcast! It makes it so much easier when I make a mistake. I can share my shortcomings with you.This latest outburst has brought up a lot of questions about Buddhism and what expectations I place on my practice. It brings up questions about how seriously to take my own Karma and the harm it causes others. It points to the soft underbelly of my practice, stating calmly and confidently, "How 'awake' are you now, Matt?."The illusion that if we are just mindful enough, sit enough, or are the perfect student that our own imperfections will vanish. That this practice will fix me and I will once and for all become perfect becomes apparent as an illusion, as a farce. This realization leaves me standing naked to my own shortcomings and the effort that will be necessary to form new habits. This concept reminds me of my wife, and I's favorite M. Scott Peck quote."Love is not effortless. To the contrary, love is effortful."Desirelessness. Such a touchy subject in Buddhism, for if we don't desire anything, how will we ever change? The trick is witnessing the things that are less than ideal in ourselves, non judgementally. If we approach the hurt part of ourselves that is harming others with a voice of condemnation, we inflict further pain on ourselves and continue the cycle. This approach may be scary for the highly moral out there. I, like many others, believe the self scolding voice is necessary to keep me on a virtuous path. How would I know I have done wrong without this internal self-scolding dialogue? How will I not perpetuate this behavior in the future? We don't need the voice in our head to tell us what we did was wrong. Our bodies will tell us. Inside we have a fine-tuned compass that will tell us if our behavior is off in the weeds. If what we have done isn't in alignment with what is right.The trick is to let go of all this internal dialogue and rumination on our harmful behavior, make amends, and admit our shortcomings to those affected by our negative Karma. Then we pay attention to our internal compass, our "gut," and begin the process of forming new, hopefully, more wholesome karmic patterns. Another blessing of these anger outbursts is compassion. Who understands people who are physically violent with their partners or friends? I indeed never truly was. The gift of my anger imperfection allows me to see more clearly how automatic our Karma can be. How it can take hold so fast and ferociously that afterward, we are left clutching our tattered dignity and moral compass. Some karma is so volatile, chemical, and buried. These patterns operate deep in one's psyche and subtle emotions. Bursting forth uncontrollably. Embracing a more lighthearted approach to our deepest troubles allows room for grace. Yes, my anger issues are serious, but ultimately, in perspective, life is doing a dance through me, this one called anger, but now that I am becoming more aware of it, I become more responsible. Response able. The more I become aware of it, the more accountable I become; change can happen. The trick here is that we aren't creating an identity out of the heaviest, most opaque parts of ourselves. We see these parts of ourselves and recognize them more and more for what they are. The more I become acquainted with my anger, the more I can greet it even in its most subtle forms. Hello anger, I see you dressed up as criticism today. Then I can ask, "Why did you feel the need to dress up as criticism? Maybe anger would respond, "Well, so and so didn't do this and that the way I needed!" Then maybe I would ask, "How do you feel when you criticize?" and anger would say, "Well, now my chest is a lot tighter, my jaw is clenched, and I didn't even get my way!" I could follow up by asking, "So was it worth it, anger, to criticize in the first place?" This would really have to be one of my best days... I feel more hope for myself and others encountering their own chemical karmic patterns. I recognize that each moment will require something different from me and that I may actually be resisting the thing in front of me through inaction. See, I had this concept backward originally. I used to believe that simply recognizing the emotions within myself, seeing the desire for something to be other than what it was, would be enough. Sometimes that is all that is required. In this case, I never fully recognized what I was doing when a coworker disappointed me with their lack of communication skills residual frustration being stored away. These resentments building and stacking up until BAM! Rage Fit. During a recent Imperfect Buddhist interview with Kakumyo, he mentioned that sometimes new Karma in the opposite direction of your old Karma can be helpful. Applying this, recently, an encounter came up at work, pushing the "unfairness button" within, only this time I saw the tension in my body and that familiar vortex within. I said, "Oh! Time to tune in, Matt" recognizing this as part of the resentment buildup phase of my rage-fit karmic pattern, I started some deep breathing practices. 5 1/2 seconds in 5 1/2 seconds out. Okay, body equalized now. Let's take inventory. Asking myself: What about this situation or interaction frustrated me? Oh! I feel my intelligence/integrity is being blamed for the disorganization of this job. Is this a valid frustration? Are others experiencing this? Okay, what would be proactive action to help solve this to make it better in the future? How can I ask for what I need? How can I contribute to the solution?Thanks so much for enjoying this episode. This one was hard to write as it isn't easy to admit one's shortcomings, but I want to share the complete picture of my experience on this side. I hope you have a wonderful next couple of weeks, until next time, Matt.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-imperfect-buddhist/donations

Peace exists on the other side of your resistance. The noise, talking, and eating of the holidays, A haze cast over the clearer vision I had developed with my practice. Awareness of wholeness seems to slip away little by little until I am binge eating all those sweets I swore I didn't want and rubbing my Magic the Gathering headache.How come the lived experience of peace is so easy to forget and the mechanical habits so enticing?Getting ready to head back to work after this long holiday break, I decided to get back into my regular sitting practice. Sitting down into my Zazen posture, it took only minutes until my awareness touched the confusion and irritation in my body. Becoming aware, I saw how the confusion in my body moved to churn thoughts in my head and this aversion to what was happening, resistance to what already was.The thoughts sounded like this:"Why did you eat so much sugar? You're lazy. Why didn't you offer to help wash the dishes? You really feel like shit now, don't you? What is wrong with you?"Seeing the energy and thoughts clearly, I smiled. I saw my mind flicker as if to say, "Well, if you don't resist this, then what?"As I let go of that thought, instant peace came over me. The "negative feelings" didn't change, but my awareness reclaimed its seat in freedom. I let go of the desire for this moment to be anything but what it was. Many teachers talk about this concept of naming what is happening in our bodies and minds. Here is an excerpt from an article on the website growmindfulness.com"In his book, Mindsight, Dan Siegel argues that we "Name It to Tame It" – in other words, by naming our feelings, we are better able to control them or, at least, lessen their impact...To say "I feel angry" is a very different statement, both in content and impact, then the words "I am angry". The latter tends to define us as angry people, whereas the former helps us to recognize that we are not our feelings – we are a lot more than what we feel. Feelings come and go in nature and intensity – our essence remains. Naming our emotions in a gentle, non-judgmental way affirms our self-worth and opens up the opportunity to master our feelings." - growmindfulness.comI like what was said here. However, I don't like the statement, "master our feelings," as this continues the legacy of war between our thoughts and how we want things to be.As we become truly aware of what is happening in our bodies and minds and hold that truth in open awareness, there will be no need to "Master our feelings." Once we encounter the truth in and around our complex emotions, that reality fundamentally changes the challenging emotion itself. Yes, better controlling our emotions is an admirable skill and is undoubtedly a by-product of Zazen. However, we don't sit in Zazen to change anything.Speaking of the distraction of the holidays, I like the idea of embracing distraction. I and many others have tapped purposefully on their phone screen, deleting Instagram and Facebook, writing a very heartfelt post to my friends explaining my decision to leave social media alone. All this to find myself redownloading the apps or sneaking a peek of Facebook through the browser.Embracing distraction as a lay practitioner may be the only way to go. It is a path of nonresistance. Can we find the middle path with all of this technology?If you've found the path and been able to walk it, please let me know. I have yet to be able to walk it. The only skillful way to reclaim my attention and original Mind is through a regular sitting practice. After all of the holiday noise, food, and waves of experiences, it is easy to get pulled back into the flow and pushed around by things. If we have a regular sitting practice, we build our reconnection to original Mind into our schedules. We remove the stumbling block of missed Zazen practice by ensuring our reconnection to the Dharma through regular, scheduled training.Just like when we were kids, our parents repeatedly reminded us to brush our teeth until the habit was clearly formed, every morning and night. We must be our own good parents and develop the habit of Zazen. We brush our teeth to avoid cavities and decay. We sit Zazen to reconnect us with our Original Mind.Why do we resist? We resist out of our illusion of control. We believe that by fighting something, we can avoid it or change it. However, the reality is that what we resist persists. My wife brought up to me over the holidays her frustration with a comment someone close to her made; when she told them about her struggles with PMDD, they said, "Well, you just have to choose to not take it personally." This really frustrated her, as I assume it would have for most people.I wonder if they have some different machinery than me? Maybe some people really can control their thoughts and emotions with precision like that. I, however, cannot.The only thing that has led to any peace for me is fully becoming aware in those moments when I feel attacked, offended, or hurt. I cannot turn these emotions or thoughts off, but I have trained my awareness system to kick on faster and faster when these emotional bumps come along. The more I become aware of and see these emotions and thoughts for what they are, they change, and my sense of self grows larger.For instance, instead of being solely the experience of being offended by a side comment someone made, I am now simultaneously both offended by a comment someone made and aware of swinging around an unimaginably hot ball of gas whirling ever out into the blackness of space. It is the realized concept of "This Too."Soaking our attention in the stillness of Zazen allows our "Orignal Mind" to be uncovered. I have mentioned this term original mind a couple of times. Here is an excerpt from one of Shodo Harada Rōshis writings, titled, Original Mind. He writes:"In Buddhism, it's often said that humans' Original Mind, that Mind we have at birth, is like a clear mirror, pure and uncluttered, without shape, form, or color, with nothing in it whatsoever. If something comes before it, the mirror reflects it precisely, but the mirror itself gives birth to nothing. If what has been reflected leaves, its image disappears, but the mirror itself loses nothing. Within the mirror, there is no birth, no death. No matter how dirty a thing that is reflected might be, the mirror doesn't get dirty, nor does it become beautiful because something beautiful is reflected in it.Just because additional things are reflected, that doesn't mean anything increases in the mirror itself, nor does anything ever decrease when fewer objects are reflected. A mirror is without increase or decrease.Humans' pure Original Nature is just this. Without shape, form, or color; without birth and death; not clean or dirty; not increasing or decreasing; not male or female; not young, not old; not intelligent, not stupid; not rich, not poor. There are no words, no explanation possible, no description that will apply here, only a pure mirror-like base. This is humans' true quality; this is an actual experience. From our Zazen (sitting meditation), cut all nen (mind-instants), dig down completely to the source of those nen—dig, dig, dig until we reach the place where the human character has been totally cleared. When the source point is reached, this state of Mind can be touched."By Shodo Harada Rōshis"No matter how dirty a thing that is reflected might be, the mirror doesn't get dirty, nor does it become beautiful because something beautiful is reflected in it."We resist what appears in the mirror out of a desire to deny the thing being reflected. We aren't fully aware of our true identity as the mirror yet and mistake ourselves as the reflected object. As mentioned by Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now, a lot of our identity is wrapped up in these negative parts of ourselves.Even though a particular aspect of our thinking and belief system causes us much pain and trouble in our lives, we may still cling to it. Why is this?It comes from the strength of the ego. The part of us that fears annihilation, desperately grasping for something solid. A deep well of fear can open up in someone as they start to look behind the curtain of their most well-orchestrated negative concepts of reality. So then, resistance can manifest in multiple forms. One is our avoidance of facing and feeling something. Another is our inability to let a specific aspect of our beliefs dissolve, negative as they may be. We fear stepping into beginners' Mind because of our fear of annihilation. We want so badly to control our version, our narrative of reality, that we will create multitudes of reasons why this practice is stupid, how it's not working, or downright unsafe!We fear letting go because we haven't experienced the freedom of our original Mind yet, the peace of letting go.One of the cliches worth mentioning here is Gandhi's quote, "There is no path to peace. Peace is the path." When I say, "Peace exists on the other side of your resistance." I don't mean that you will have peace once you do this or that other thing. I mean that peace is available to you now, but you must stop resisting, easier said than done, right? This is where Zazen comes in.When we practice Zazen, we cultivate the ability to hold our experiences in equanimity or open awareness. Zazen practice trains our minds to hold experiences from the witnessing perspective. That's why many teachers have students start with watching their breath. There isn't much to judge about our breath, good or bad. It just is. Over time we develop this ability to witness, and we can take this attention to other aspects of our experience. Now we can see our sadness, loneliness, anger, or physical pain with equanimity, with the open awareness we have cultivated.I first learned about the concept of Witnessing Presence while reading Eckhart Tolles The Power of Now. In it, he says:"The good news is that you can free yourself from your Mind. This is the only tr

Today I am interviewing the Abbot of Dharma Rain Zen Temple, in Portland Oregon, Kakumyo Lowe Charde.Kakumyo has been practicing Zen Buddhism for over twenty years and has been a full-time monk for that entire time.Today's episode is special for me to share with you. Kakumyo is the first teacher with which I have ever worked. My sessions with him led me to more profound experiences in my practice. Rounding out this two-year season one experience with this episode feels right! Next year, I am very excited to meet you with all-new episodes for season two of The Imperfect Buddhist!Please enjoy this interview with Kakumyo Lowe-Charde.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-imperfect-buddhist/donations

I Found a Dead FoxMary Oliver I found a dead foxbeside the gravel road,curled inside the bigiron wheelof an old tractorthat has been standing,for years,in the vines at the edgeof the road.I don't knowwhat happened to it-when it came thereor why it lay downfor good, settlingits narrow chinon the rusted rimof the iron wheelto look outover the fields,and that way died-but I knowthis: its posture-of looking,to the last possible moment,back into the world-made me wantto sing somethingjoyous and tenderabout foxes.But what happened is this-when I began,when I crawled inthrough the honeysuckleand lay downcurling my long spineinside that cold wheel,and touched the dead fox,and looked outinto the wide fields,the foxvanished.There was only myselfand the world,and it was Iwho was leaving.And what could I singthen?Oh, beautiful world!I just lay thereand looked at it.And then it grew dark.That day was done with.And then the stars stepped forthand held up their appointedfires-those hot, hardwatchmen of the night.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-imperfect-buddhist/donations

Take time to pray. It is the sweet oil that eases the hinge into the garden so that the doorway can swing open easily. You can always go there. Consider yourself blessed. These stones that break your bones will build the altar of your love. Your home is the garden. Carry its odor hidden in you into the city. Suddenly your enemies will buy seed packs and fall to their knees to plant flowers in the dirt by the road. They'll call you friend and honor your passing among them. When asked who was that they will say, oh, that one has been beloved by us since before time began this from people who would have trampled over you to maintain their advantage. Give everything away, except your garden, your worry, your fear, your small-mindedness. Your garden can never be taken from you.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-imperfect-buddhist/donations

You live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is reality, but you do not know this. When you understand this, you will see that you are nothing and being nothing, and you are everything.Welcome back to the imperfect Buddhist. My name's Matt. This is a show where we discuss mindfulness and incorporating Buddhism and meditation into modern life. I want to apologize that it's been a while since I've done an episode, my wife and I bought a house here in Jacksonville, Florida. As everything that goes along with that, moving in stuff moving in all of our furniture.Little projects that come up with electrical work and plumbing and all of that. Plus, I got a new job working from home, and I've just been really focused on learning that and then resting on the weekends. To top it off, I've spoken about this before, meditation, Zen is one of those things.It's hard to speak about.Bill who leads a Soto Zen meditation group here in Jacksonville, Florida. He said his teacher says that talking about these things or trying to say, you figured out what Zen meditation is or mindfulness is, is like squeezing a bar. So the harder you grip it, the more likely it is, it's going to shoot out of here.The purpose of this podcast is to just be a place where people can come to lightly grasp that bar of soap, to talk about these ideas, listen to these ideas, just make an attempt, be a finger pointing to the moon, as they say in Zen. We talk about these concepts; it's a finger pointing to the moon.What that means is you don't mistake the finger for the moon. So us talking about this is not the actual thing itself, and that's what's important to keep in mind. Many books talk about these concepts, and they're healing and powerful in their own way. But I don't think.That these concepts mean anything without practice. If you get anything out of this podcast, I hope that it encourages you to find that mindfulness and meditation practice in your own life.Today we're going to be talking about the purpose for some people; this may be a familiar topic for others. It may be something you don't think about. My. For me lately and through most of my life, it's kind of been a theme, thinking about what am I supposed to be doing with my time, what really matters. At times had been something that I really thought about. And then times I was really intentional about with common tiger, my music.Pretty much told everybody I'm committing, you know, the next five years of my life to music, which I did. I said this is what I'm going to do. This is all I'm going to do, success or failure. This is just what I'm going to do. It felt excellent to have a purpose, right. To define something that meant something to me, I could see a deeper meaning in and go after it.But that meaning kind of started to fade a little bit. I began to become a bit disenfranchised with the idea that being more successful in music would make me happy or getting more plays on Spotify. It was going to make me happy and don't get me wrong. I didn't start this project or goal for those things, but eventually, that's kind of what it turned into because I did find success. It stopped being about my connection with the music and making something that I really enjoyed. Fast forward from that to living in Florida, Jacksonville, lived here for a couple of years.My music, it's still something I'd worked on. I'd done voice lessons and tried a little singer songwriter stuff that I put out under the name, Matt sun. Things just kind of started to fade a little bit. It wasn't, it's not, didn't feel as important to me. My personal experience with purpose. I'm well acquainted with the question for a while. I wasn't very acquainted with the answer as I do with most things, most questions that I just don't have a clear answer to, or have a gut answer to. I sat with it would bring myself back to the moment that I was in.I'd bring myself back to sensations. Sounds, colors, site. I would just bring myself back to the moment and continued my sitting practice and let this question, not as much, turnover in my mind, but more rest in my mind and my body having that question. And I'm sure, meditators out there, people that are experienced with this stuff will know what I'm talking about, and you have the question, it kind of sits there, some traditions of Zen meditation. I'm not very well acquainted. This style of practice, but they use koans. There are these questions, right? The teacher will give a question to a student and they'll say, what is the sound of one hand clapping? There's not really a clear answer to that. And the more you try to think about it, the more you try to conceptualize and to give some clear answers. You get further away from the truth. And I think when it comes to purpose and finding purpose in your life, the more you try to analyze and overthink it, you get further away from the truth.Over a couple months, I started this new job and I'm working from home I'm not really doing as much music. I haven't done the podcast as you know, kind of thinking, like what does this all mean? And I did, I did come to some conclusions and conclusions are so slippery, just like that bar of soap of Zen.You come to a conclusion and it will change, but I'll come back to that in a moment. Let's talk a little bit about your experience or maybe what I would perceive the general experience of most people in our society is. And that is one of lack of purpose we are facing. Commercials for clothing products and food.We go on Instagram and Facebook and we see people just living these glamorous wives. I think most people, including myself, had been sold this idea of fame. Your purpose is this fame. Some people do find a more wholesome connection with purpose. Maybe not one that they chose necessarily, maybe it's having a family or having a house.I begin to question where they came to that conclusion from, was it out of default or was it out of just going with the flow? They went to college, met somebody, got married, had kids, but for most of us, there's this sense of lack of purpose jobs are paying a lot less.So you don't have this sense of fulfillment or purpose in like bringing home a paycheck and feeling like, Hey, you know, I'm serving a purpose. I, I work at, maybe I work at the, the car manufacturer I work at. , I don't love my job, but you know what my purpose is, I provide for my family, I come home, I have dignity.That was the reality for our grandparents and even our parents. A lot of people these days, we don't get that satisfaction from our jobs anymore. Even if they're not something that we love. , lower-paying jobs, lack of purpose and work. Most of the work that's available is customer service.I understand people wanting to veer away from religion. I grew up in a small town and listening to the podcast will know about this. I grew up in a small town rogue river. Grant's pass in Oregon. And it's kind of like the Bible belt of the Pacific Northwest. There's a lot of churches and that's like very strong influence there.I would go to church. I haven't played in a Christian rock band, so I understand people being wanting to kind of push away religion and even spirituality. We're kind of fed up with these brands of spirituality and religion that were shoved down our throats and didn't feel real, but that's another place that we are lacking.Meaning is, is some type of connection. To something bigger than ourselves and for many generations, our grandparents and their parents, and even our parents, God or religion, was this connection to something bigger than somehow gave us some meaning in the midst of suffering. We've lost that connection are homogenizing society, machine culture, machine.When there is something that's beautiful, like mindfulness, you're listening to this podcast and hear the word mindfulness, and you roll your eyes because it's been turned into this thing that it's actually was never meant to be. It's this commercialized thing.And you've got, people. Women in yoga pants being like, just be mindful of it. And it really ruins the whole thing. There's many instances of this coming up in our society, anything that has this ability to help people breakthrough and find some type of reality past this Dole flat existence, I think our society kind of likes to keep us in that place, but anything that comes up, you know, mindfulness or psychedelic drugs or the hippie movement. Originally, these are all things that actually had a real purpose behind them, but it just got homogenized. Hippies, for instance, you , start seeing Halloween costumes with a girl with her fingers and a peace sign and a bandana, Thai bandana or whatever.This process of taking. That have meaning, and that can offer value to our society and then homogenizing them into this consumerist machine strips that value. It steals that value away from us, that people that are in this society. These are just a couple of instances of how this machine does this.We're being not attacked, but we are purpose as being eroded, meaning as being eroded. Many fronts. So it's not really, it's not our fault. It's not your, your fault. If you feel lost, you go to your job and you feel like what's the purpose. I mean, I, I probably more than others, I will admit have those existential crisis is, or did for quite, quite a many years where it's like, it would just hit you.And I was like, what is the purpose? This is pointless. So we lack inherent meaning. We lack direction, we lack purpose the question is like, okay, well then what is my purpose? How do I find that in my life?  Back to a revelation I had, I was watching a YouTube video called the Hermes paradox, and it was talking about the idea of, okay, if there's like all these aliens out there, all of these different races of aliens on these different plans where the hell are they? The Hermes paradox. It's kind of a big idea. I'm not going to encapsulate it here, but the general question is, oka

"Without the precepts as guidelines, Zen Buddhism tends to become a hobby, made to fit the needs of the ego." - Aitken RoshiSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-imperfect-buddhist/donations