Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday Better

In this episode I talk with Oren Jay Sofer about his new book, Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity & Love. Oren teaches meditation and communication internationally. He holds a degree in comparative religion from Columbia University and is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for the healing of trauma. Oren has practiced meditation in the early Buddhist tradition since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India, and later spending 2-1/2 years living as an renunciate at branch monasteries in the Ajahn Chah Thai Forest lineage. He is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, and is a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher’s Council. Oren is also the author of the best-seller Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication and two books on teaching mindfulness to adolescents: The Mindful Schools Curriculum for Adolescents and Teaching Mindfulness to Empower Teens. His teaching has reached people around the world through online communication courses and guided meditations, combining classical Buddhist training with the accessible language of secular mindfulness In our conversation we talked about, among other things: How our hearts REALLY are made for these times … Our hearts were made to awaken and if we can practice—in small steps—turning toward suffering, we enter a portal to transformation. How the world shapes our hearts in ways not best for us and how we can practice shaping our own hearts. How getting in touch with our true values will guide us through these challenging times. How we need to consciously "change the channel" of our thoughts to be more aligned with our true values.   Buy the book (Amazon affiliate link): Your Heart Was Made for This   Learn more about Oren Jay Sofer, his teaching, courses, and special events: https://www.orenjaysofer.com/   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/orenjaysofervideo   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orenjaysofer   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OrenJaySofer/   X/Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/OrenJaySofer/   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/orenjaysofer/     Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   Join the Everyday Sangha: Join the Everyday Sangha   Join the Membership Community: https://donorbox.org/membershipcommunity   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

Join me for a delightful conversation with Steve Kanji Ruhl about his book, Appalachian Zen: Journeys in Search of True Home, from the American Heartland to the Buddha Dharma, the 2023 Gold Prize winner for Memoir in the Nautilus Book Awards. Steve Kanji is a Zen Buddhist minister ordained in the Zen Peacemaker Order, now teaching independently and instructing Zen students through his Touch the Earth cyber-sangha. Reverend Kanji received his Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University and is a Buddhist chaplain at Deerfield Academy, a Buddhist Adviser at Yale University, and faculty member of the Shogaku Zen Institute. Kanji has been a guest speaker or workshop facilitator at Harvard’s Center for World Religions, Yale Divinity School, the International Conference on Socially Engaged Buddhism, the Omega Institute, and elsewhere. In addition to Appalachian Zen, he is the author of Enlightened Contemporaries: Francis, Dogen & Rumi—Three Great Mystics of the Thirteenth Century and Why They Matter Today and has recently finished writing a new book about his personal experience of spirituality and wellness called The Whole Earth is Medicine: Science, Zen, and Healing Body and Mind in a Journey through Cancer. He has also published two volumes of poems, The Constant Yes of Things and Paintings of Rice Cakes Satisfy Hunger. In his book, Appalachian Zen, Kanji takes us on a 30-year journey through his search to find his "true home" in lilting and lyrical prose and poems that move the story from Appalachia through academia—constantly asking: What is home? What is this? What is life? Death? What is real? … The questions Buddhism never answer but continue to ask. In our conversation we talked about, among other things: -Childhood memories -The search for self and the search for losing the self -Being a foolish being and Shin Buddhism -The contrast between Western and Eastern philosophical and spiritual worldviews -Mystical Christianity and the similarity to the direct experience of the sacred in Buddhism -Buddhist lay ministers as compared to Buddhist monastics, priest, and the "guru model" -Kanji's teaching of "Be Clear, Be Kind, Be Present"   Buy the book (Amazon affiliate link): Appalachian Zen   Buy the book from the publisher: Appalachian Zen   Learn more about Steve Kanji Ruhl, his teaching, spiritual guidance, and special events: http://www.stevekanjiruhl.com       *Special Everyday Buddhism Substack / Words From My Teachers podcast subscription promo code: Redeem by 3/31/2024 for 20% subscription for 1 year!   Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   Join the Everyday Sangha: Join the Everyday Sangha   Join the Membership Community: https://donorbox.org/membershipcommunity   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

In this episode, I welcome back Rebecca Li to talk about her new book, Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No Method. Rebecca and I had a conversation in May of 2021, about her previous book, Allow Joy into Our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times. Rebecca is a meditation and Dharma teacher in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen and founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community, a Chan Buddhist practice and study community made up of individuals committed to cultivating wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all beings. Rebecca has two decades of Dharma and meditation teaching experience, leading retreats or teaching at Buddhist centers in North America, Europe, and Asia. She has been featured in several Buddhist publications, including Tricycle, Lion's Roar, and Buddhadharma.  She is also one of the founding board members of The GenX Buddhist Teachers Sangha where she continues to serve as a board member. Rebecca is a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey. In Allow Joy into Our Hearts, Rebecca wrote about Chan Practice and she continues to teach the path of Chan Buddhism in the book we will discuss today, Illumination. In Illumination, she dives deeper into the Chan meditation of Silent Illumination and deeper still into what causes our suffering and how Silent Illumination can help us identify and help decrease the causes of our suffering. In her book, Rebecca takes us on a fascinating, deep-dive into the method of no method in silent illumination and guides us in the mechanics of this type of practice. In our conversation we talked about, among other things: How, in our meditation, we turn thoughts into enemies, rather than allowing thoughts and feelings to be fully experienced and felt … About how tend to try to "achieve" as meditators, as if a sport … And about the modes of operation: craving, aversion, trance, problem-solving, intellectualizing, quietism, and forgetting-emptiness …   Buy the book (Amazon affiliate link): Illumination: A Guide to the Method of No-Method   Learn more about Rebecca Li and her Dharma talks, guided meditation offerings, and retreats: https://rebeccali.org/       *Special Everyday Buddhism Substack / Words From My Teachers podcast subscription promo code: Redeem by 3/31/2024 for 20% subscription for 1 year!   Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   Join the Everyday Sangha: Join the Everyday Sangha   Join the Membership Community: https://donorbox.org/membershipcommunity   Register for the Introduction to Buddhism Course (by February 22, 2024): Register for the Introduction to Buddhism course   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

This week, over at my new premium Substack podcast, Words From My Teachers, I released Episode 6, continuing readings from the book, The Center Within by Rev. Gyomay Kubose. In the episode I read the following essays: Middle Way, Water, Purposeless Purpose, No Mind, and How the Buddha Taught. As a special bonus episode for the Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am sharing the reading of the essay Purposeless Purpose. It's a wonderful essay to reflect on, as they all are in The Center Within, but I'm releasing it here on the Everyday Buddhism podcast as a companion piece to Episode 103.   Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Subscribe to my premium Substack feed and podcast, Words From My Teachers: Subscribe to "Words From My Teachers"   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

As a special bonus episode for the Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am sharing the reading of the essay Purposeless Purpose. It's a wonderful essay to reflect on, as they all are in The Center Within, but I'm releasing it here on the Everyday Buddhism podcast as a companion piece, which you will find in the next episode, 104. But as a special introduction to the bonus episode, I am adding new content in this re-release of an episode I did in June of 2022, called Why Nonsense Makes the Most Sense, which was built on the essay, Purposeless Purpose. The new addition is some insight about meditation that is related to the purposeless-purpose message.   Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Find out more and register for the Introduction to Buddhism course: Introduction to Buddhism course information and registration   Join the Everyday Buddhism Membership Community: Join the Membership Community   Join the Everyday Sangha: Join the Everyday Sangha   Subscribe to my premium Substack feed and podcast, Words From My Teachers: Subscribe to "Words From My Teachers"   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

In the spirit of the holiday season, I am re-releasing a popular episode from 2019: The Boundless Heart - Bodhicitta. It is my wish that we all try to practice being a Bodhisattva during this holiday season … Starting with me! ;) Stating the obvious, it's been a rough 7 years or so. Years marked by war, pandemic, social injustice, tribalism and, overall, something called "high conflict" made popular by Amanda Ripley's book of the same name, where conflict is the ruling energy and that leads to the stress, fear, anxiousness, and despair most of us have been feeling. She writes: The challenge of our time is to mobilize great masses of people to make change without dehumanizing one another. Not just because it’s morally right but because it works. Lasting change, the kind that seeps into people’s hearts, has only ever come about through a combination of pressure and good conflict. Both matter. That’s why, over the course of history, nonviolent movements have been more than twice as likely to succeed as violent ones. It with this in mind I offer the replay of this 2019 episode, a reflection on bodhicitta, the good heart—something we can all practice even if we don't participate in nonviolent movements or the "good conflict" Amanda Ripley refers to. I know it's been far too easy for me to react in anger when I'm really just afraid and to dismiss instead of disagreeing, which is a dehumanizing activity. So, in the spirit of holiday peace, good will, and reflection, I will remember the bodhicitta. Bodhicitta characterizes the path of a Mahayana practitioner. It is Bodhicitta that creates a Bodhisattva and it is Bodhicitta that ultimately creates a Buddha. In Tibetan, compassion is translated as the nobility or greatness of heart which implies wisdom, discernment, empathy, unselfishness, and abundant kindness. Bodhicitta is compassion working with a mind awakened by right view. It is the joining of compassion and emptiness. We'll examine how to use the Four Bodhisattva Vows to supercharge Right Intention with Right View and discover the same spacious freedom of a flower that blooms despite its circumstances. Please join me as you listen to this "best of" episode.   Book by Amanda Ripley referenced in podcast (Amazon affiliate link): High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out       Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Subscribe to my premium Substack feed and podcast, Words From My Teachers: Subscribe to "Words From My Teachers"   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

In this episode of Words From My Teachers, an Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am reading the first five chapters from The Center Within by Rev. Gyomay Kubose: Awareness A Shining Star Buddha Nature and Gassho Buddhism Is Everyday Life Empty-Handed I hope you enjoy these readings and I hope you will take my suggestion and cue to do some reflection at the end of each essay. As my teacher, Rev. Koyo Kubose taught, "Don't just read. Ask yourself how you can use what you heard? How can you add it to your spiritual toolbox?" This is the last of the episodes released in full as public episodes, so be sure to subscribe to receive 5 essay readings weekly. And please share this feed using the convenient "Share" button on the Substack post. Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast ***************************************** For more about Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Bright Dawn.org

Introducing Words From My Teachers, a premium, weekly Everyday Buddhism podcast. Words From My Teachers features readings from the books written by and about my teachers from the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and the Kubose Dharma Legacy … Rev. Gyomay Kubose, Rev. Koyo Kubose, and Haya Akegarasu.   This is the first of 2 episodes that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly through the Substack link.   In this first episode, I will give a background of Bright Dawn, based on an article I wrote some years ago. I called it The Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Buddhism with Attitude—Keeping it REAL and ALIVE. It summarizes the history of the Kubose family and Bright Dawn and I have shared a link to a PDF of the original article in my Everyday Buddhism Substack feed.   Rev. Koyo Kubose and his father, Rev. Gyomay Kubose, continued the mission started by the Japanese Pure Land teachers, Honen and Shinran—bringing the Dharma to everyone in their everyday lives. Rev. Gyomay Kubose’s lifework was dedicated to promoting Buddhism in America, so that the Dharma could be part of the lives of those in a Western culture, where Buddhism was not native.   It is my hope that this Words From My Teachers podcast will help keep Rev. Gyomay's and Rev. Koyo's voices alive by bringing them to listeners not familiar with the Bright Dawn teachings and reinforcing them to those who already appreciate them.   Stay tuned for the next episode, with a reading from Rev. Gyomay Kubose's book, The Center Within, that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly, on Mondays, by subscribing to my Everyday Buddhism Substack premium content.   Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast ***************************************** For more about Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Bright Dawn.org

Introducing Words From My Teachers, a premium, weekly Everyday Buddhism podcast. Words From My Teachers features readings from the books written by and about my teachers from the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and the Kubose Dharma Legacy … Rev. Gyomay Kubose, Rev. Koyo Kubose, and Haya Akegarasu. I started the Everyday Buddhism podcast in June of 2018 so that I could share the everyday approach to Buddhism that was instilled in me by my teacher Rev. Koyo Kubose and the Bright Dawn Lay Ministry program. It is an approach that was not widely taught or communicated at the time … and, honestly, it still isn't. The lineage from which the Bright Dawn teachings derived is unique in the Dharma-sphere and its teachings are what I built my podcast and virtual sangha approach on. It is my hope that this Words From My Teachers podcast will help keep Rev. Gyomay's and Rev. Koyo's voices alive by bringing them to listeners not familiar with the Bright Dawn teachings and reinforcing them to those who already appreciate them. Stay tuned for the first 2 episodes that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly by subscribing to my Everyday Buddhism Substack premium content. Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast

What a delight it is to have James Crews joining me for a conversation about the book, The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace & Renewal, which he edited. James is the author of the essay collection, Kindness Will Save the World, and editor of several bestselling poetry anthologies, including The Wonder of Small Things, Healing the Divide, The Path to Kindness, and How to Love the World. He has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and in People Magazine, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, and The Washington Post. He is the author of four prize-winning books of poetry, and his poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, and other journals. As you will no doubt hear, James is a gentle soul whose conversation about poetry, spirituality, and life is healing … His words and the tender way he speaks them is a balm for our painful and anxious times. Among other things, we talked about: How we turn to poetry during difficult times like these precisely because as James expresses it, "poems are such small but spacious containers that hold so much with just a few powerful sensory details" …. And, he says, "Poetry heals because it is so embodied." Poetry as spiritual practice. How poets do what they do with language. How poetry helps us transcend dualistic thinking. How poetry creates connection and compassion. Take some time to ease into this episode. I promise you will be soothed and come away craving more poetry in your life, even if you never appreciated it before.   Buy the book (Amazon affiliate link): The Wonder of Small Things book   Learn more about James Crews, course offerings, and subscribe to weekly email: https://www.jamescrews.net/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.crews.poet   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crewspoet     Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

I am very happy to share the wisdom of Gemma Naturkach, a member of our Everyday Buddhism Community and Sangha. I asked Gemma to join me for a conversation on the podcast, after listening to her share her reflections and insight about her experiences as a refugee from Ukraine. It really helps give us a bigger perspective—a perspective from the real-life experience of a woman trying to make sense of everything that happened to her and her family, who were driven from their home and country because of war. Gemma is a U.S. Army vet and member of a three-culture family. She is an ICF and iPEC certified coach and founder of Social Media for Coaches. She is deeply committed to using her experiences to champion the voices of those who have been uprooted from their homes. Her wisdom was sharpened through her own experience as she and her family made their way from Ukraine to Wisconsin in February 2022. After asking her to be guest on the podcast, I found out that Gemma has written a book, called  Surviving Patriotism, targeted for release in 2024.This work serves as a testament to her emotional journey during her and her family's evacuation and subsequent resettlement. Among other things, we talked about how home and community is where you make it … the complex emotions of hating and then trying not to hate the "enemy" … how rage doesn't think, reflect, or consider … how war is romanticized … and how we feel pressured to pick a side, labeling one as bad and the other as good … and ways we might help when we feel helpless. I am positive Gemma's reflection on her experience … her honest sharing of what she went through and her thoughts along the way … may help you see war, anger, and propaganda from a broader and clearer lens … a lens outside our cultural or tribal bubbles. I know it did me! * Note: Correction - Near the end of the episode, I mistakenly referred to Palestine as Pakistan.     Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

I am delighted to share this conversation with Roshi Eve Myonen Marko about The Book of Householder Koans: Waking Up in the Land of Attachments, which she co-wrote with Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao. It was released in 2020 but I'm sure glad I finally found it! It's become one of my new favorite books and a real treasure as a practice tool. Roshi Eve Marko is a Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, with her late husband, the renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman. She is also the resident teacher at the Green River Zen Center in Massachusetts. Roshi has trained spiritually-based social activists and peacemakers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and has been a Spiritholder at retreats bearing witness to genocide at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Rwanda, and the Black Hills in South Dakota. Before that she worked at the Greyston Mandala, which provides housing, child care, jobs, and AIDS-related medical services in Yonkers, New York. Koans have always been a favorite practice of mine but I had drifted away from them off and on … and off for the last few years until this book. If you've listened to earlier episodes of this podcast, then you may have heard my back-to-back episodes about Zen Koans. This is unlike any book about koans I've ever read. It drills deep into your "hiding places" … doing what koans do perfectly: They stop you in your tracks, as they mess with your conceptual thinking, and shake your false trust in the stability of what we think we know. Being drawn into questions, without the comfortable ground of "knowing" offers a practice that can help us pause in our everyday rush to stress and anxiousness caused by trying to be somewhere other than where we are at this moment. I just loved this conversation with Roshi Eve! Among many other things, we talked about…The importance of "not knowing" … About the surprise factor in the situations we find ourselves in life and how they help the mind "make leaps" … And about how we should try to enter life with out whole selves—our bodies, not just our minds. So, don't miss this one! One of my favorite Buddhist subjects and one of the best books I've read in a very long time.   Buy the book, read the reviews, and learn more about Roshi Eve:   https://www.monkfishpublishing.com/products-page-2/buddhism/book-householder-koans/   Website and Blog: https://www.evemarko.com/   Zen Peacemakers: https://zenpeacemakers.org/   Green River Zen Center: http://www.greenriverzen.org/   Interview with Roshi Eve Myonen Marko: https://www.zlmc.org/blog/interview-with-roshi-eve-myonen-marko     Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

This is a special encore episode with Rev. Marvin Harada, the Bishop of the Buddhist Churches of America. It also includes a new introduction highlighting the upcoming study of The Pure Land Sutras in our Everyday Sangha ... and why sutra study is so important in Buddhist practice. Come join us!   In the re-released episode with Rev. Harada, we discuss what makes Shin Buddhism a truly "everyday Buddhism", meditation, mindfulness, chanting, ritual, and about the teachers we have in common and what made them special.   I know you'll enjoy this talk with Rev. Harada as much as I did talking with him. He is down-to-earth and delightful, if you can't tell by his giggle! if you've never heard of Shin Buddhism—or don't know too much about it—this episode is for you.   Pure Land Buddhism is one of the most widely practiced forms of Buddhism in East Asia, and in Japan, Shin Buddhism, or Jodo Shinshu, is actually the largest school of Buddhism in Japan.   CORRECTION TO THE INTRODUCTION OF REV. HARADA: Rev. Harada served as a minister for the Orange County Buddhist Church, but did not serve as head minister throughout the entire 33-year period.   Find out more about the Buddhist Churches of America: https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org/   Find out more about the BCA "Everyday Buddhist" program mentioned by Bishop Harada: https://www.everydaybuddhist.org/       Join the Everyday Sangha: https://donorbox.org/supporters-bonus-content-membership   Join the Membership Community: https://donorbox.org/membershipcommunity   Find out more about or register for the Introduction to Buddhism Course: https://www.everyday-buddhism.com/p/introduction-to-buddhism-course-and-registration-1/   Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

I am thrilled to share this conversation with Rainn Wilson—Yes, that guy … the actor best known for his role as Dwight Schrute in The Office. In the conversation we talk about his recent book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. Rainn Wilson is a NY Times Bestselling author and three-time Emmy nominated actor best known for his role in NBC’s The Office. Besides his many other comedic and dramatic roles on stage and screen, he is the co-founder of the media company SoulPancake and host of the docuseries Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss. Rainn is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy, as well as the coauthor of SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions. Some of this you may already know about Rainn, I'm sure, but something you may not know—but will learn from this conversation—is that, in addition to Rainn being a practitioner of the Baha'i faith, he is deeply spiritual, has studied many religions, and has a unique ability to capture the deepest of existential philosophy and social behavior in common cultural references and everyday language. Among many other things, we talked about what spirituality is ... what soul is ... who or what God is or isn't ... The two aspects of spirituality as demonstrated by the 1970's TV shows, Kung Fu and Star Trek ... What is sacred and where can we find it? Rainn's new book took me deep into reflection but also kept me giggling. It's the same with our conversation. So, keep listening … I promise Rainn will open your mind, open your heart, and—of course—make you laugh. The conversation starts now …   Buy the books (Amazon affiliate links): Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution   Soul Pancake: Chew on Life's Big Questions The Bassoon King: Art, Idiocy, and Other Sordid Tales from the Band Room   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/RainnWilson/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/rainnwilson   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rainnwilson/       Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

You're in for a treat in this episode. At least it was a treat for me to have a conversation with Clark Strand. Clark is a former Zen monk, author, Haiku teacher, and communicator of all things spiritual and religious. He has studied and actually practiced within many, many spiritual and religious traditions so he speaks from actual experience. The focus of today's conversation is on his book, Waking the Buddha: How The Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History is Changing Our Concept of Religion, but Clark is also the author of Seeds From a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey, Now Is the Hour of Her Return: Poems In Praise of the Divine Mother Kali, co-author, with Perdita Finn, of The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, and many other books on poetry, spirituality, and ecology. He is the co-founder of an international, non-sectarian rosary fellowship with members across the world. I invited him on the podcast to talk about Nichiren Buddhism, Soka Gakkai, and chanting, in general. It is a subject I haven't covered on this podcast and the timing was sparked by the recent passing of Tina Turner who was a very public Soka Gakkai practitioner. Although the focus of the conversation began with the Soka Gakkai, it became a fascinating journey to many other areas, due to Clark's wide reach and his spiritual depth. Among many other things, we talked about the folk traditions within all religions. Or, as Clark said, "there is always a religion within a religion." … About how the Soka Gakkai became virtually the only ethnically and  racially diverse Buddhist organization religion in the world… About why Clark states that spirituality needs to be about "ecology not theology" and that the reason the thread that runs through his spiritual experience IS ecology and the folk traditions… And, for fellow Pure Land and Shin practitioners, about how the Pure Land tradition is the only tradition deeply grounded in ecology… About Haiku… About the divine feminine, the Divine Mother, and the rosary as a spiritual and NOT a religious practice … and is, essentially, a tantric mantra practice… About the 12-Steps program… About chanting and how it gives voice to one's intentions, dreams, or hopes … and is the most ancient form of spiritual practice… Listen and enjoy the journey... Learn more about Clark: https://wayoftherose.org/   https://tricycle.org/author/clarkstrand/   Buy the books: Waking the Buddha: How the Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History Is Changing Our Concept of Religion   Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey: 25th Anniversary Edition: Revised & Expanded   The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarkstrand/   https://www.instagram.com/way_of_the_rose/     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarkstrand/       Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism   If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here: https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations   Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism