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The joke used to be that every time Michael opened his mouth what he said was archived here. We couldn’t be more grateful for that now because it is one of the best ways Michael’s teachings will live on.
The Awake in the World Podcast is the heart of the Community Library. Talks are on a wide-range of topics, including: bringing mindfulness and meditation practice into daily life; personal and community issues regarding mental health; and social change.
This podcast has been created so that anyone can have instant access to Michael’s teachings. It has been made possible due to generous donations from members of the community. In the six years that the podcast has been available, over half a million people have pressed play as a way to be more—like the name says—awake in the world.
Each podcast is between 30-60 minutes long. As always, you’re encouraged to follow along weekly as part of your practice. The podcasts were recorded at live events so you might hear coughing, airplanes, cars, sirens, laughter, and peoples’ questions—all part of the intimate experience.
In that Lump of Flesh and Bones
In this talk Michael argues that yoga and mindfulness are best practiced via the body versus striving for the attainment of philosophical or intellectual concepts. He encourages trusting that the body is the natural world and listening with the heart,
Best of Awake in the World: Ahimsa (Non-harming)
This week we’re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. Michael interviews Pat Smith, physician and abortion provider, on the precept of non-harming. Michael and Pat discuss ethics versus political ideologies, the relationships between how we are in
The Walls of the Mind
Michael explores the line in the Heart Sutra: “With no hindrance in the mind. No hindrance therefore no fear.” He covers the three “traditional” hindrances: karma, the kleshas and anaya, and talks about creativity, groundlessness and the importance of community.
To Stop the Estrangement Between Us
In this talk about the Heart Sutra Michael explains how it functions to counter what John Cage calls “the authoritarian structures” of our minds, including the tendency to create “frames” and contract around our sense of separateness.
Best of Awake in the World: Fear, Dread & Anxiety – The Buddha in the Forest
This week we’re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. On retreat, Michael speaks about the Buddha’s instructions for practicing alone in the wilderness, how past actions haunt the body, how to turn towards anxiety, and a moving
Working with Wanting
In this talk to clinicians Michael focuses on mindfulness of feeling (the second foundation) and in particular, the feeling of wanting or craving.
Best of Awake in the World: The Creative Task of Performing One’s Life
This week we’re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. Michael provides a reflection on the retreat with Stephen and Martine Batchelor. He speaks to making a practice of our lives where all our roles, our actions are
The Secular Buddha: Part Seven
Martine Batchelor explains and explores ceremonial offerings in Korean Zen practice. Martine Batchelor, a former Buddhist nun, studied Zen Buddhism under the guidance of Kusan Sunim and is the author of several books.
The Secular Buddha: Part Six
Stephen Batchelor reflects upon secular Buddhism and revisits the Four Noble Truths, primary Buddhist ideals, assumptions, and dogmas.
The Secular Buddha: Part Five
Martine Batchelor leads a meditation practice based on a Korean technique, using the question “What is this?” as an object to come back to.
The Secular Buddha: Part Four
In this talk Stephen Batchelor muses about the Buddha’s “breakthrough” and his embrace of first person analysis (based on attention, introspection and reason) to reveal a fundamentally contingent world.
The Secular Buddha: Part Three
Guest teacher Martine Batchelor explains how the point of contact between sense and sense object is the moment when the choice between grasping and not grasping takes place. Not grasping allows for creative engagement—an attitude of stability and openness, so
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