From the Pure Land Podcast

Often, in Buddhist texts, the “eight worldly concerns” make their appearance. This verse, for example, is part of my daily practice:I will learn to keep all these practices Untainted by thoughts of the eight worldly concerns. May I recognize all things as like illusions, And, without attachment, gain freedom from bondage.What are the concerns that taint daily life? The Buddha lists them in Lokavipatti Sutta. As translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, the sutta begins:Monks, these eight worldly conditions spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions. Which eight? Gain, loss, status, disgrace, censure, praise, pleasure, & pain. These are the eight worldly conditions that spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions.That passage never struck me as profound until I saw the “concerns” translated as “winds.” Yes, most of us bend to the winds of:Gain/loss,status/disgrace,censure/praise,pleasure/pain.With all eight winds, the compass heading is between attachment and aversion to avoid being blown off the path. Walk the path of equanimity.You can find more From the Pure Land blog posts and podcasts at melpine.substack.com Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

It was a joy this morning to spend 45 minutes interviewing Tara Mandala Executive Director Cady Allione and Chögé Lisa Erickson about that worldwide organization, which was created by Lama Tsultrim Allione, who traveled to Nepal and India in 1967 hoping to learn to paint mandalas and ended up with that and much more. She was one of the early pioneers in bringing Buddhism to the West.While Lama Tsultrim is on a solitary retreat, Cady and Lisa spoke with me about Tara Mandala, some of its programs, especially Feeding Your Demons, and its Yana social networking platform, which I find unique and encouraging for Buddhism in the West. Many Buddhist teachers, especially those trained in the East, tend to be cautious about providing space for students to freely share their lives and practices with each other. Oh, and did I mention they’re mostly men?If Buddhism is to flourish in the West, it needs more opportunities for students to build communities. That’s why I think Yana is a model. It’s not only for those of us in the West, of course, but that’s where most of my readers and listeners are.I could go on about Lama Tsutrim, Tara Mandala, and Yana… But Lisa and Cady do a better job than I could hope to, so I’ll stop typing and encourage you to watch or listen to the 45-minute recording. As a prelude or postlude, consider spending six minutes with Lama Tsultrim on the feminine and masculine in Buddhism: https://youtu.be/BdYbSTc7l60Mel's website and blog are at melpine.substack.com Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

The essence of my practice is connecting with my pure mind, or my Buddha Nature. Teachers in the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions have pointed the way for me. If you are unfamiliar with the terms, there’s no need to distinguish between these slightly different ways to reach that inherent Buddha Nature. Just find the teacher you’re comfortable with to help guide you.Machig Labdrön (1055-1149) founded several lineages in the Mahamudra Chöd tradition. Chöd literally means cutting through. As a practice, it refers to cutting through the connection to your demons, especially the ego. Mahamudra refers to the clarity, wisdom, and emptiness of the pure mind, or Buddha Nature.Machig lived to the age of 93 or 94. The teaching known as her “final instructions” or “Wisdom From an Old Lady” expresses, as well as anything else I’ve come across, the mindset and meditation practice that lead one closer to the inherent pure mind. For those who’d like to listen in meditation to Machig’s words, as translated by Tsem Rinpoche, I’ll read them slowly, leaving periods of silence.…(M)ind itself has no support, has no object: let it rest in its natural expanse without any fabrication. When the bonds (of negative thoughts) are released, you will be free, there is no doubt. As when gazing into space, all other visual objects disappear, so it is for mind itself. When mind is looking at mind, all discursive thoughts cease and enlightenment is attained. As in the sky all clouds disappear into sky itself: wherever they go, they go nowhere, wherever they are, they are nowhere. This is the same for thoughts in the mind: when the mind looks at mind, the waves of conceptual thought disappear. This body of ours is impermanent, like a feather on a high mountain pass. This mind of ours is empty and clear like the depth of space. Relax in that natural state, free of fabrication. When mind is without any support, that is mahamudra. Becoming familiar with this, blending your mind with it — that is buddhahood. Supreme view is beyond all duality of subject and object. Supreme meditation is without distraction. Supreme activity is action without effort. Supreme fruition is without hope and fear. This old lady has no instructions more profound than this to give you.May we all find our place of rest in the nature of mind.Visit the From the Pure Land website and blog at melpine.substack.com Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

My flow of blog posts has slowed because I’ve been finalizing my book proposal. I’ll have it ready for my chosen publisher by Wednesday. To keep my subscribers and podcast listeners supplied with a steady flow of my words of wisdom, I’m making today’s release of a draft book chunk free to all.My experience in the writing, editing, and publishing universe confirms my belief in impermanence. Everything I plan and write now is tentative. It’s a long way from final (if anything ever is). Today’s release is for a book section where I’ll tell my personal spiritual story. Some of the content has appeared in previous From the Pure Land posts.The From the Pure Land blog has thousands of readers and subscribers in 40 U.S. states and 18 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 55 countries.You can check out the blog at melpine.substack.com Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

I had the pleasure today of interviewing Beth Korczynski, director of philanthropy for Tergar International, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s worldwide organization. Tergar’s reach extends worldwide, so it’s accessible to almost anyone at any level of experience in meditation and spiritual practice.Beth and I discussed:* Tergar’s culture of openness and transparency. The ethics of transparency.* The Anytime Anywhere Meditation program, which can help with meditation for people with any religious background. Tergar trains teachers for the program, and you may be able to find one in your area by using this list.* The Joy of Living program for a wide range of students and the Path of Liberation for those seeking to continue on a Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhist track.* The book and course A Meditator’s Guide to Buddhism for those wanting more.* The character and commitment of Mingyur Rinpoche. His efforts to reduce the suffering of all.You can watch the 53-minute video and a much shorter one from Mingyur Rinpoche at https://melpine.substack.com/p/the-tergar-bus-will-pick-you-up-anywhere. Or go to my website at melpine.substack.com. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

Maybe impermanence works faster in science than in poetry. I learned recently that the initial singularity model for what led to the Big Bang is already outdated. Who knew? It will take a lot longer, though, for poetry about it to be outdated. A case in point is Marie Howe’s poem Singularity, which I mentioned in a previous post and recite in this podcast.Meanwhile, modern visionaries are combining philosophy with science, especially quantum physics and artificial intelligence, to grope for models of reality. I find the ideas of physicist Federico Faggin, who designed the first microprocessor, and Bernardo Kastrup, who holds PhDs in philosophy and computer engineering, fascinating and almost congruent with Buddhist teachings.You can find a written version of my podcasts along with my blog posts at melpine.substack.com. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

What about fully claiming that Buddha within you? So many of us think we’re not yet there; we have more work to do before fully realizing our Buddhahood. We go from teacher to teacher, each telling us we fail to grok it because it’s so easy. Maybe there’s one more book to read, or another thousand hours of meditation practice will get us there.I’m not knocking books and meditation practice. The proverbial God knows I’ve read plenty of books and meditated for many hours, but there’s no “there” to get to. Our Buddhahood is already here. I’m reminded of this quotation from Zen philosopher D.T. Suzuki’s book An Introduction to Zen Buddhism:Understanding which does not understand, that is Buddha.I hesitate to use the phrase…Fake it to make it.It’s not faking if it’s true. Maybe what I’m suggesting is faking our level of conviction that it’s true. What if we stop waiting for a sudden flash of enlightenment and spend at least part of every day fully realizing Buddhahood?Imagine how that would change our world. We’d see a pure land everywhere we look and hear every sound as a mantra.You'll find my blog posts as well as podcasts at melpine.substack.com. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

Live your life fully. And use every moment, every opportunity, in a way that is beneficial for oneself and for others. If we live every moment the same, in a positive, peaceful, and kind way, then death is also another moment—the same. So there’s no difference. —Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, as quoted in Andrew Holecek’s book Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. This From the Pure Land Post can be listened to on a podcast app or RSS feed. It can be read as a blog post or watched as a vidcast on my website, melpine.substack.com. It's a personal account of my evolution over the past year, the origin of From the Pure Land, and plans for the coming year, including a book project. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

Be careful.The moment you start talking you create a verbal universe, a universe of words, ideas, concepts and abstractions, interwoven and interdependent, most wonderfully generating, supporting and explaining each other, and yet all without essence or substance, mere creations of the mind.Words create words, reality is silent.— Nisargadatta MaharajBillions and billions of words have been spoken and written to help guide people toward a state that can’t be described in words—enlightenment. Billions and billions of words have been spoken and written about upādāna—the Pali and Sanskrit word for the clinging and grasping that divert people from reaching enlightenment.Getting lost in all those words is a prime example of upādāna. That’s true wherever we live and whatever our ethnicity, but for those of European ancestry who live in the West, we love our words and either/or logic. We want answers, not questions. We want the truth to be either this or that.One prayer used in Vajrayana Buddhist practice expresses an aspiration to “precisely determine” the meaning of the teachings we practice. Another aspires for “confusion itself [to dawn] as primordial awareness.” By not choosing between the two, by accepting both aspirations, we gain experiential—not conceptual—learning and wisdom.If that last sentence leaves you scratching your head, you’re not alone. It took me more than three decades of meditation and guidance from inspired teachers to begin to gain experiential wisdom. As one of my teachers, Lama Surya Das, has said:The scarcest human resource is wisdom.I began writing this post with a different destination in mind, but I realize now that fewer words are better, and this is a good time to begin a period of meditation. So, I’ve turned this into a podcast with guided meditation and periods of silence. In the broadcast industry, they call that dead air, but silence has a beautiful life.So, please find a comfortable, quiet spot and relax in whatever position you prefer for meditation.You might close your eyes and find your pure awareness. In a moment, I’ll ring the bell of mindfulness three times. See if you can listen each time from that place of pure awareness, listening until the sound fades...-----You can find the full From the Pure Land blog at melpine.substack.com Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

We have to learn the art of stopping—stopping our thinking, our habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule us. —Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022)That’s a good subject to talk with your chiropractor about when you’re lying facedown on her adjustment table in an office adjoining a shopping complex as the December holidays approach—the art of stopping. It’s what happened to me yesterday.I had already decided that, because of the hectic season, my next podcast would be a guided meditation listeners could use whenever they find themselves busily bee-ing and forgetting to simply be. Then Doc Misty said she had been thinking about the importance of stopping and found it hard to build even ten minutes a day into her busy schedule for meditation.So, I’ll have her and people like her in mind as I lead this. I hope it’s useful for those newer to meditation and the more experienced listeners to From the Pure Land.Before we begin, I’ll say a few words about Thay. That’s what his students call the venerable Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who died in 2022 at the age of 95. That’s the Vietnamese word for “teacher.” It was my privilege to consider Thay my primary teacher for almost three decades and to have attended numerous in-person events with him, including a weeklong retreat in the mountains of Vermont.If you’re unfamiliar with Thich Nhat Hanh, consider reading his classic book The Miracle of Mindfulness or anorther favorite of mine, Living Buddha, Living Christ.That retreat in Vermont was held at the Ascutney Mountain Resort in the skiing off-season. The retreat organizers rented the place and hired a local catering firm to supply vegetarian meals. The caterers were given one unusual instruction. At every meal, the bell of mindfulness would be rung once or twice.Thay’s students know what the sound of the bell means. When they hear it, they are asked to stop whatever they are doing (as long as they can do so safely), listen to the beautiful sound as it fades, focus on their breathing, and return fully to their “true home.” So the catering servers and kitchen staff were asked to do the same. At each meal, as the bell sounded, they would stop along with the rest of us. Sometimes, they’d stop in midstride holding a tray of food or empty plates.At the retreat’s final meal, as we thanked the catering employees, they told us how much they enjoyed this new practice of stopping. So, I invite you now to find a comfortable, quiet spot to stop and breathe when you hear the sound of the bell. You might think:Listen. Listen. This beautiful sound brings me back to my true home.The From the Pure Land blog and website are at melpine.substack.com. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

Thich Nhat Hanh’s most compelling poem is Please Call Me by My True Names. That link will take you to the text, a recording of him reading it, and a song written to convey it. The poem arose from Thay’s grief after reading a letter in 1976 about a 12-year-old girl on a boat escaping from Vietnam who was raped by a Thai sea pirate and then threw herself into the sea. Here’s what Thay said about writing it:When you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we can’t do that. In my meditation, I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was, I would now be the pirate.After a long meditation, I wrote this poem. In it, there are three people: the 12-year-old girl, the pirate, and me. Can we look at each other and recognize ourselves in each other? The title of the poem is ‘Please Call Me by My True Names,’ because I have so many names.I am not a poet, and certainly not as eloquent as Thay. But I’ve been groping for a way to express my grief over what seems like an eruption of painful news over the past week. For personal reasons, the killing of Rob and Michelle Reiner and arrest of their son Nick was the trigger for the pain I feel over all of it.Please Call Me MeatheadPlease call me Meathead, A caricature of my generation's idealism, And please call me Archie, Clinging to the remnants of life as I knew it.Please call me Michelle and Rob, Spending my senior years in what appeared to be opulence, And please call me Nick, Likely to escape my addictions only by being imprisoned.Please call me Barack, Praising Rob for seeing "the goodness of people, "And please call me Donald, So trapped in my ego that I make Rob's death about me.Please call me Uncle Eddie and Aunt Margaret, Spending my senior years in what appeared to be comfort, And please call me Cousin Barry, Unable to overcome the voices telling me to kill them.I am the Hamas leader Blinded by ideology, And I am the Gazan Living through a homeless winter.I am the religious right in Israel, Willing to murder innocents to inhabit all of Palestine, And I am the West Bank resident Needing to choose between losing my home and losing my life.I celebrated Hanukah in Bondi Beach, And I was radicalized by the Islamic State.I studied at Brown, And I am a fugitive on the run.I am Ahmed al-Ahmed.I am Buddha. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

In my manuscript for the spiritual memoir tentatively titled From Pain to Peace: Tragedies and Violent Deaths Taught Me Wisdom and Compassion, I’ve aimed for readers from any faith tradition. Only in the last three chapters do I detail how Buddhism specifically helped me. I’m now working on an appendix for people interested in learning the basics of Buddhism.As I answered a question that Westerners typically have about Buddhism, I realized I had expresed what, for me, is the core. Here’s the Q&A I drafted:Isn’t Buddhism nihilistic—teaching that life is suffering?The Buddha didn’t teach that life is suffering. He taught that suffering is an inevitable part of life. And he used a word, dukkha in Pali, that can be translated as “dissatisfaction.” He wasn’t saying that following his teachigs would do away with pain. He taught a way to stop turning the inevitable pain into angst.The Buddfha uses a two-arrow metaphor in the Sallatha Sutta. Here’s a paraphrase:When an ordinary person experiences painful feeling, they experience two arrows—the bodily pain itself, and the mental anguish that follows. It’s like being struck by one arrow and then immediately struck by a second arrow. But when a wise person experiences painful feeling, they feel only the first arrow—the actual physical sensation—without adding the second arrow of mental suffering on top of it.The “bodily pain” is not only a wound but the unavoidable suffering that comes with having a body and being alive—ilness, aging, and the loss of what we love. The second arrow is our mental and emotional reaction to the first. It’s our resistance, our “why me?”, our catastrophizing, our shame about being in pain, our anxiety about the future, our rumination about the past.I prefer not to say “enlightenment,” because it carries a lot of baggage, assorted differently among the various Buddhist traditions, but I’m clear on this:When we learn how to remove the second arrow, we awaken to a life of joy, peace, and compassion for ourselves and others.Nothing can be expressed fully in a sentence, but that—for me—is the essence. I didn’t understand this truth without the help of practices developed and taught after the Buddha’s lifetime, like nature-of-mind meditation, but they brought me back to the early teachings. Now I understand them in ways I hadn’t decades earlier.I’m curious about how you might express your thoughts about the core of Buddhism. Please share them in the comments to this post. I’ll start a Substack chat on the subject as well.While you’re at it, include what books on the basics of Buddhism you recommend for the curious. I’m adding a list to the appendix and welcome your suggestions.And for your holiday shopping, the eBook version of A Buddhist Path to Joy is on sale everywhere until January 1 for $2.99. For your friends on Spotify or other audiobook platforms, consider giving them the self-narrated version.For Mel’s LinkTree, click here or scan:A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition by Mel Pine is available via online bookstores worldwide. The audiobook version is now available on Audible as well as Spotify and more than two dozen other outlets. You might be able to borrow it from your favorite library. The ISBN is 9798992969788.From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 42 U.S. states and 33 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 14 countries.Receive six free guided meditations and subscribe to Mel’s Awakening to Joy newsletter.Consider sharing this post with friends and loved ones. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

I’m lifting my nose from the grindstone of working on my next book to announce that A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition has been released as an audiobook. I recommend the 10 hours of listening as the best way to “read” the boook, especially because it’s a bargain. Narrated by me, with voice actor Robin McAlpine playing the role of AI bots Claude and Grok in two chapters, you can buy it for $6.99 on Apple. On Spotify, you can listen for free with ads, without ads for if you’re a premium subscriber, or buy it for $6.49.Audible will eventually carry it, but expect the price to be higher there. On Rakuten Kobo, popular worldwide, it’s $7.99. I haven’t checked the rest of its two dozen distribution channels. The distribution to libraries will be slowest, but you can alert yours if you’re interested in borrowing it. The audiobook ISBN is 9798992969788.Now, back to The Spiritual Gift of Trauma.A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition by Mel Pine is available via online bookstores worldwide. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

I’m overjoyed to share this interview with my dharma brother Bodhipakṣa, founder of the Wildmind Community. As you’ll learn, he’s got a lot going on, but he found the time to spend more than an hour with me on Zoom today. His book The Heart’s Awakening: 108 Steps to a Life of Love came out eralier this month. His next one, to be released in the coming months by Wisdom Publications, is titled Sit. It offers his method for keeping to a daily meditation practice, with followup emails to keep you on track.Oh, and don’t forget his websites Fake Buddha Quotes and Real Buddha Quotes.I hope you enjoy our discussion. I did. Here’s the Zoom summary with some editing from me: ....***The Path to Joy Book ClubWith the eBook and paperback versions of A Buddhist Path to Joy off to a good start and the audiobook scheduled for release on November 10, I’ve scheduled a book club meeting for Wednesday, November 19, startying at 1 pm East Coast US time. As with most book clubs, there no need to have read or even bought A Buddhist Path to Joy. Just attend ready to discuss a path for Eastern-influenced spirituality in the West—maybe a jazzy path.We’ll have a brief meditation, a few remarks about this book and my next, and (I hope) a free-flowing discussion. Please register here, and I look forward to seeing you then, if not sooner.Two chapters of the audiobook include discussions between AI platforms and me, but no automated voices were used. The part of the AI platforms is played by voice actor Robin McAlpine. It sounds much better that way them it would if I played both roles. A lot better.A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition by Mel Pine is available via online bookstores worldwide. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve been blessed over the last couple of years with a driving curiosity about the various spiritual paths toward liberation from suffering. If I want non-Buddhists as well as Buddhists to benefit from what I write, I need to understand the range of belief systems. Reddit has helped me there. It’s where I first came across Kardecism.At first glance, it seems like an obscure 19th-century European curiosity. But with millions of practitioners in Brazil and growing interest elsewhere, it deserves attention.Allan Kardec was the pen name of Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, a French educator who in 1857 published The Spirits’ Book. He wasn’t trying to start a religion. He was attempting to systematize what he believed were communications from spirits through mediums. The result became a comprehensive philosophy addressing many of the same questions Buddhism tackles through different methods and with some different answers.As one who sees the donut before thinking about the hole, I’ll start with similarities....A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition by Mel Pine is available via online bookstores worldwide. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

Becoming an author has brought me more visibility and engagement with hundreds—maybe thousands—of Buddhists and those wanting to learn about Buddhism. I’ve learned how many of them believe there’s only one way to be a Buddhist and practice Buddhism—their way. Ask 10 Buddhists how to define the faith and you’ll get 11 answers, with five of them delivered with my-way-or-the-highway certainty. I guess beginner’s mind isn’t part of their understanding.I’ve been criticized for using the phrase “New Middle Way.” I knew I was being presumptuous in adopting it, but I wanted to make the point that, for Buddhism to thrive in the West, maybe we need a path that steers between secularism and strict traditionalism. Over the last day or so, I realized I’m talking about Jazzy Buddhism, bringing what came from the East and making it into something slightly different—still based on the fundamentals, still beautiful, and still improvisational.I say “still” improvisational because the Buddha taught his followers to test every spiritual concept the way a goldsmith tests gold. They should accept only those teachings that lead to “benefit and happiness.” He didn’t preach thou-shalt-nots. He taught guidelines like the Eightfold Path, clearly aimed at grown-ups making difficult grown-up decisions. How you play the notes is up to you as long as you always keep reducing suffering and promoting benefit and happiness as your goal.Don’t start improvising, though, until you have internalized the basics. But likewise, don’t get stuck in the fundamentals forever. You’re not trying to become an ancient museum piece, perfectly replicating ancient forms. You’re learning the structure so you can eventually transcend it. You learn traditional Buddhist practices so you can adapt them to your actual life.This jazz analogy makes clear that you can’t just wing it. You can’t improvise jazz without learning music theory. Worthwhile improvisation comes from deep knowledge of the underlying structure.But I see too may students of Buddhism getting stuck in school. It’s as though they’re waiting for a diploma. But graduation comes from within, when wisdom becomes second nature. At some point, you need to take ownership of what we Tibetan Buddhists call Vajra Pride, the certainty that you are already a Buddha. You don’t need Pomp and Circumstance as long as you have awareness, clarity, and compassion.A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition by Mel Pine is available via online bookstores worldwide. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

Brief and profound, the Heart Sutra encapsulates the essence of prajnaparamita—the perfection of wisdom personified as the “lady of wisdom.” The sutra emerged from the Buddha’s teachings at Vulture Peak (Gridhakuta) near Rajgir in India, a site that remains a pilgrimage destination for Buddhists from around the world.The Heart Sutra is the philosophical core of the vast Prajnaparamita literature. In it, the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara explains the nature of ultimate reality through the doctrine of emptiness (shunyata) in reply to a question from Shariputra, a senior disciple of the Buddha. The text points toward a wisdom that transcends all conceptual frameworks.On Wednesday, I began assisting in the fifth year of Andrew Holecek’s Preparing to Die program, in which I’m meeting some wise and compassionate spiritual yogis and yoginis.One is Ann Wheatley, who lives on the South Island of New Zealand and who set to music (including an oud) a free-verse remix of Thich Nhat Hanh and Ken McLeod’s translations of the sutra. I find her work (along with Thay’s and Ken’s) moving and have her permission to share it here in From the Pure Land. It is an honor and a blessing to pass it along to you.The audio without my introduction and visuals is available here.A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition by Mel Pine is available via online bookstores worldwide. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

This Friday, October 17, A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition, becomes available in paperback and eBook format from Amazon and other online retailers worldwide. You can expect the self-narrated audiobook in November. I’ve quietly released the Kindle version on Amazon two days in advance, so you can buy it now at the $2.99 pre-publication price and start reading right away.To celebrate the publication date, I’m releasing Chapter 34 for free. As I appoached the end of the book, I added this deeper dive into one tradition than I offer in the earlier chapters. It’s a brief overview of the Mahamudra practice, beginning with a bit about Buddhism’s arrival in Tibet. Here’s the text and my narration as it will sound in the audiobook.Chapter 34: A Deeper Dive into Mahamudra and Tibetan Buddhism...May you all be at ease.A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition by Mel Pine is available via online bookstores worldwide. Consider sharing this post with friends and loved ones. Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe

One of my first podcasts, more than a year ago, was the Five Touchings, a guided meditation. It’s time to offer it again now that I’m more competent at audio production, and at guiding meditations.I experienced the Five Touchings meditation in 2000 as led by the venerable Thich Nhat Hanh and twice before that led by other teachers in his community. Because I can find no current version that lives up to my memory of it, I’m once again recording my own.It’s a powerful—and emotional—meditation intended to ground you. I’ve heard Thay recommend it as a daily practice for recovering from trauma. The recording that follows will be included in the audiobook version of A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition. The text is in the book. The print and eBook versions will be released on October 17 and the audiobook in November.The Five TouchingsSit comfortably in your usual meditative position. Eyes open or closed, as you prefer. Focus on your breathing for a minute and then scan your body, relaxing any areas you perceive as tense. Rest in awareness of your breathing or other bodily sensations. Allow any thoughts to come and go without either rejecting them or following them to another association. You might mentally say the Refuge Prayer or a mantra. If you’re not a Buddhist, you might recite a short prayer in your faith or a poem connecting you to the oneness. When you’re ready, go on to the first touching.Blood Ancestors - Part 1Rise gently to a standing position with your legs slightly apart, imparting a sense of stability. You’re standing like a mature tree, roots deep in the earth reaching up through your feet, legs, and body. Your limbs can withstand storms and strong winds.Bring to mind your mother and father, whose genetic essence circulates continuously to every cell in your body. If you don’t know who they are, imagine them. You’ll have another opportunity to thank non-blood ancestors. Form a mental image of your mother and father when you were a small child.Your parents transmitted more to you than physical characteristics. They conveyed their spirit of life.Now imagine your four grandparents, who each dealt with life tribulations to convey their genes and spirit to your parents. Your eight great-grandparents similarly did whatever they needed to do to give birth to and raise your grandparents. Can your imagination take you further back through generation after generation to the beginning of beginningless time?Feel your connection and thank them for contributing to who you are.Blood Ancestors - Part 2Gently lower yourself to a prone position, your abdomen and extended limbs on the ground, your head on a pillow as comfortably as possible.Although your parents did their best to convey love and support, they weren’t always able to do so skillfully. Their own suffering and impurities got in the way. It was similar with their parents and the parents before them to the beginning of beginningless time.As you lie prone, like a log in the forest, you allow any negative emotions about your blood ancestry to dissolve into the earth and become absorbed into the biosphere.Spiritual Ancestors - Part 1When you’re ready, rise gently to a standing position with your legs slightly apart, imparting a sense of stability. You’re standing like a mature tree, roots deep in the earth reaching up through your feet, legs, and body. Your limbs can withstand storms and strong winds.Bring to mind any teachers, ministers, adoptive or foster parents, or others who, through love, taught you the values by which you live. Reflect on their spiritual teachers and the chain of teachers or lineages back to such seminal figures as the Buddha, Jesus, Mother Mary, and Machig Labdrön. Maybe it’s a philosopher, writer, or political leader. In gratitude, feel your connection to all the teachers in that chain or lineage.Thank them all for contributing to who you have become.Spiritual Ancestors - Part 2Gently lower yourself to a prone position, your abdomen and extended limbs on the ground, your head on a pillow as comfortably as possible.Your human teachers and those before them were not fully enlightened Buddhas or embodiments of Jesus. Along with their Buddha Nature and holiness, they had mental states that sometimes manifested in unwholesome actions. Some of them may have harmed you and others.As you lie prone, like a log in the forest, you allow any negative emotions about your teachers and their impurities to dissolve into the earth and become absorbed into the biosphere.Land Ancestors - Part 1When you’re ready, rise gently to a standing position with your legs slightly apart, imparting a sense of stability. You’re standing like a mature tree, roots deep in the earth reaching up through your feet, legs, and body. Your limbs can withstand storms and strong winds.Take a moment to feel gratitude to those who lived and labored before you on the land you call home. Imagine the workers who built your community’s structures, roads, and bridges, the farmers who may have plowed the fields or tended the herds before them, and the Indigenous people before the farmers. Extend out to your nation. Think of the artists, musicians, physicians, scientists, civic leaders, and freedom fighters who contributed to the culture.Bow to them in gratitude and commit to carry on their spirit.Land Ancestors - Part 2Gently lower yourself to a prone position, your abdomen and extended limbs on the ground, your head on a pillow as comfortably as possible.Some of your land’s leaders engaged in hateful and violent acts. Some may have contributed to the oppression of minorities, women, and anyone identified as “other.” They inherited unwholesome mental states from their forebears, and their hearts were not open to spiritual teachings of love.As you lie prone, like a log in the forest, you allow any negative emotions about unwholesome political and civic leaders to dissolve into the earth and become absorbed into the biosphere.Loved Ones - Part 1When you’re ready, rise gently to a standing position with your legs slightly apart, imparting a sense of stability. You’re standing like a mature tree, roots deep in the earth reaching up through your feet, legs, and body. Your limbs can withstand storms and strong winds.You feel buoyed by the compassion and guidance you have received from your blood, spiritual, and land ancestors and channel that to your loved ones—family and closest friends. You have not always been able to show them the love you feel, but you know how deeply interconnected you are.Knowing what words and actions are genuinely loving may sometimes be difficult, but you commit to making the best choices you know how to make.Loved Ones - Part 2Gently lower yourself to a prone position, your abdomen and extended limbs on the ground, your head on a pillow as comfortably as possible.You have not always received back the love you deserve. Perhaps a loved one is difficult to reach and help because of mental illness or addiction. Maybe a relative has withdrawn for unknown reasons. Possibly, political or religious differences have gotten in the way.As you lie prone, like a log in the forest, you allow any despair over conflicts or walls between you and your loved ones to dissolve into the earth and become absorbed into the biosphere.Those Who Have Harmed You - Part 1When you’re ready, rise gently to a standing position with your legs slightly apart, imparting a sense of stability. You’re standing like a mature tree, roots deep in the earth reaching up through your feet, legs, and body. Your limbs can withstand storms and strong winds.Absorbing strength and positive energy from your ancestors, teachers, and loved ones, you extend your love to those who have harmed you. You understand that their actions grew out of harm done to them and misperceptions about you. You sincerely wish them relief from their suffering.Those Who Have Harmed You - Part 2Gently lower yourself to a prone position, your abdomen and extended limbs on the ground, your head on a pillow as comfortably as possible.As you lie prone, like a log in the forest, you release any suffering and sorrow that others have caused you to dissolve into the earth and become absorbed into the biosphere.EndWhen you are ready, roll onto your back or take any restful position. Rest in awareness. Please don’t try to prevent thoughts from coming, but don’t hang onto them as they come. Let them go. You might listen to soothing music.From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 41 U.S. states and 34 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 17 countries.Receive six free guided meditations and subscribe to Mel’s Awakening for Regular Folks newsletter.Consider sharing this post with friends and loved ones. 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I wrote this post before I learned that more than 7,600 people, most of them members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), had donated more than $300,000 for the family of Thomas Jacob Sanford, the man who murdered four members of their church in a shooting attack at a Michigan chapel. In response, journalist Kelsey Piper wrote:If America is going to make it, it will be because people choose forgiving things they should never have had to forgive over hurting people they have every right to be angry with.On November 12, 2014, Plum Village in France made this announcement:With a deep mindful breath we announce to the world the news that yesterday, the 11th of November 2014, Thay, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, experienced a severe brain hemorrhage. Thay is receiving 24 hour intensive care from specialist doctors, nurses and from his monastic disciples.If Buddhism had patron bodhisattvas the way Christianity has patron saints, Thay would be the patron bodhisattva of voicing Buddhism for modern life. But his body never regained the ability to speak and write, and it died on January 22, 2022, He was 95.The enduring messages he left us with are:* Mindfulness: Living fully in each moment.* Interbeing: We don’t exist alone but in the vast interconnected web. I am in you. You are in me.* Deep Listening: Hearing each other in mindful and loving non-judgment.* Engaged Buddhism: You cannot practice Buddhism while ignoring the suffering around you, and you cannot create lasting social change without first cultivating peace and understanding within yourself.NOTE: What follows emanates primarily from my impure mind—not from any dream or vision. It’s my attempt to present what Thay might be teaching us today. Consider none of it as coming from Thich Nhat Hanh....Pre-order A Buddhist Path to Joy: The New Middle Way Expanded Edition though any of these outlets. The eBook is $2.99 until the October 17 publication date.Consider sharing this post with friends and loved ones.Visit Mel's websites at https://melpine.substack.com/ and https://www.melpinehub.com/ Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe