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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.
Best of Awake in the World: The Good Enough Meditator
This week we 8217 re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode In this talk Michael highlights the hindrances to practice described in line 30 of the Yoga Sutras and then offers some techniques to work with them
Knowing the Unknowable
In this talk on the Third Foundation of Mindfulness from the Satipatthana Sutta Michael covers the Kleshas karma and learning to discern skillful versus unskillful mind states
An Army of Coolness
Michael gives a talk about the Buddha s Fire Sermon and connects it to practice being in relationship and the cultivation of generosity creativity and loving action
A Ball Thrown into a River
In this talk Michael covers part of the Ariyapasasana Sutta the Buddha s own account of his awakening the difference between Patanjali s definition of yoga and the Buddha s Second Truth recognizing and working with or against the momentum
A Case of Mistaken Identity
Michael argues that yoga citta vritti nirodha can be interpreted as the ending of our misidentification with the movement of consciousness and that our attempts to ground or reify our self identity lead to dissatisfaction and anxiety
Stormy Sea and Heaven’s River
Using a Haiku by Basho as a jumping off point Michael continues his exploration of Dogen s essay The Time Being
Best of Awake in the World: Not Picking & Choosing
This week we 8217 re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode Michael uses an old Zen tale a troubled story about him falling in love with his wife and quotes from Shunryu Suzuki to describe the practice
Best of Awake in the World: Seals, Owls, and Letting Go of Destructive Relationships
This week we 8217 re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode Michael explores the sensitive topic of knowing when to pull out of relationships kindness to one s self emptiness love and a story about appreciating that
Whatever is Needed
Michael talks about dukkha self care and activism He also describes several kinds of burnout and some methods to prevent being afflicted by them
Self-Portraits
Starting with Dogen s Self Portrait Michael explores different ways of viewing self hood and argues for a useful doubt in respect to the self not the kind that leads to indecision but the kind that opens us up to
The Whisk, the Staff, Three Heads and Eight Arms
In this talk Michael unpacks Dogen s essay on The Time Being and argues that an unhealthy relationship with time can be one of our biggest discontents
The Problem is the Wanting
Micheal explores the difficulty of being immersed in a culture of desire our tendency to want to be something other than what we are and our notion that practice is going to get us somewhere
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The Community Library will continue as long as we have supporters. The more support we have, the more we can ensure that the teachings Michael left behind can be available for free to anyone in the world.