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Best of Awake in the World: Patience is a Practice of Attunement
This week we’re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. Long-term practice requires patience more than discipline. Practice frustrates our results oriented mind. You need patience to stay with life for the long haul. The paradoxes of karma.
Eliminate “Why”
In this Remembrance Day talk Michael considers the relationship of stillness and action, bearing witness, non-violence and letting go of “why?”
Heart Sutra: Vacuum Cleaner (eBook)
In this talk, Michael discusses how life is imperfect, how the Buddha was enlightened and had problems, and that our job is to engage the circumstances of our life.
Heart Sutra: Why Other People Suck (eBook)
Here is the second installment of Michael’s Heart Sutra series transcribed, edited, and designed into a booklet. You can listen along here. In this talk, Michael explains that engaging in the practice of emptiness means working on a physical, psychological,
Mindfulness & Situational Ethics
In this podcast episode, Michael discusses how mindfulness applies to situational ethics, exploring in practical detail the two wings of the practice: calming (samatha) and insight (vipassana). This lecture was part of an older version of Michael’s online course, Embodying
Poetry Night
In November 10th, 2009 Michael hosted a poetry reading night and invited author, Sarah Selecky, and poet, Erin Robinsong, to choose and read poems that highlight the importance of art to spiritual practice. He opened the evening by talking about
This Is the Way It Is
In this guided meditation practice Michael provides suggestions for cultivating equanimity and radical acceptance. The instructions last approximately fifteen minutes, followed by fifteen minutes of silence before the bell.
A Culture of Awakening
In the face of our global environmental crisis Michael argues that it’s not enough to only work with our individual greed, anger and delusion–we must create a culture of awakening that integrates individual practice, a cultural recognition of interdependence (deep
What Are You Going to Let Go Of?
Starting with a poem by Hafiz about haggling with God, Michael offers insights about ways to simplify and deepen practice, giving and receiving, renunciation, and ideas we need to let go of.
Form That You Can See Through
In this talk Michael covers balancing form and creativity in practice, the trouble with ideas of purity and accomplishment, and how the five koshas might be applied within asana practice.
Clouds in the Sky
This thirty-minute guided meditation focuses on noticing and letting go of commentary.
A Pilgrimage Inside Body and Mind
This talk, given to a group of clinicians, begins with a meditation practice (ending at [12:07]). What follows is a wide-ranging discussion about mindfulness techniques, their origin in the Satipatthana Sutta, and participants’ experiences and insights. The talk ends with
About the Community Library
Michael was a great archivist and the Community Library was—and continues to be—a labour of love. Everything in the Community Library is available for free. Anyone, anywhere can have instant access to material that will help them deepen their practice and contribute to a culture of compassion and collaboration.
Libraries are places where we gather alone together. They are known to be places of refuge for seekers, as well as those who are marginalized. This library is no different. It helps us nourish our beautiful, international community without walls. Now, it will also help keep Michael’s legacy alive.