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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.
Core Belief Pruning
Michael describes sitting practice as a place where we can work with our aversion, anger and blame, and where we can “prune the dead ends” of our habitual thought patterns. (Unfortunately, the recording ends abruptly, but we still felt it
Best of Awake in the World: Symptoms of Trauma
This week we’re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. Michael details fear, dissociation, and shame, and how they impact the body, mind, and relationships. Very clear talk about the strategies we use to protect ourselves and create
Best of Awake in the World: How to Work with Strong Moods
This week we’re revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. Michael discusses Chapter 5 of the Shantideva and the way negative emotional mood swings cannot hold together for very long without thoughts. How we have to inject stories
A Journey Through the Wilderness
Michael begins this podcast with a quote from Marcel Proust about the path to wisdom being “a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us.” Michael compares yoga asana to
Now Is the Teaching
In this talk on the first few lines of the Yoga Sutras Michael explains that the present moment is the teacher. He argues that the “chitta vrittis” are sacred and not meant to be eliminated, but rather it’s our relationship
I Don’t Care About Your Enlightenment
In this short talk Michael describes non-harming (ahimsa) as the natural response to understanding interdependence, and states that yoga must become a form of ecological and social awareness—otherwise it’s not helpful.
The Internal Practice of Ashtanga Yoga
This wide-ranging talk, delivered in Vienna (2007), covers the internal, psychological and potentially transformative aspects of Ashtanga practice. Touching on Freud, the yamas, karma, interdependence and impermanence Michael argues for a yoga of relationship, creativity and change.
Sudden, Ready, Uninhibited
In this 2008 talk on the nature of the self Michael considers a framework of “four selves,” the Buddha’s teachings on not-self, and Hakuin’s assertion that, with practice, the self becomes wisdom and compassion–as spontaneous as “beads rolling on a
A Journey of Return
In this talk Michael covers our tendency to compose narratives that create a separate self (and then judge it), and a paradox: we have to take care of ourselves in order to forget ourselves.
This Posture Can Support You
Michael leads a thirty-minute meditation mainly focused on feeling the body.
What Are You Committed To? Part Two
Michael explains ahimsa, the importance of attention, the role of asana, and the meaning of samadhi. (The talk ends abruptly. We suspect the recorder ran out of battery).
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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.