Reflecting on the inevitable truth of suffering, JoAnna Hardy explains what we do have jurisdiction over: our action, speech and mind.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, JoAnna Hardy explains:

• Recognizing the first noble truth of suffering all around us
• Breaking down what we cannot control in life
• How resistance toward the inevitable causes suffering
• Reflecting on our ability to control our internal world (priorities, attitudes, etc.)
• How our speech and actions are in our jurisdiction
• Cultivating a wise, steady, and skillful heart and mind
• The mind as our sixth sense
• The way we latch on to the stories we tell ourselves
• How one mind-state can feed into another
• Retraining the phenomena of our habits
• The relief we can feel when we let go of what we cannot control

About JoAnna Hardy:

JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice.

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

“When we sit here and deeply pay attention to this process of the mind, it’s so fascinating. What is under my control, what can I control? Pay attention every time you have a mind moment to what you do with it and to it, and how you hold it, and what you decide your next mind moment is going to be.” – JoAnna Hardy

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ram Dass taught that every moment is the perfect teacher. How is this possible when things are groundless – i.e. uncertain and constantly changing? How is this possible when we find ourselves anxious, angry, too tender, or even working with big traumas?

In this episode, psychotherapist Ralph De La Rosa sits down with Jackie Dobrinska, Ram Dass Fellowship Director, to discuss these questions. Together they look at how we can combine the inner technologies of East and West in a way that allows us to heal and thrive and even find joy in the most challenging of times – by uncovering the boundless qualities of the heart.

This conversation was recorded as part of the Ram Dass Fellowship’s regular online gatherings. To learn more about the Ram Dass Fellowship and sign up to join a fellowship gathering near you, visit RamDass.org/Fellowship.

Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

About Ralph De La Rosa

Ralph De La Rosa (he/they) is a teacher of human spirituality, internationally published author, and trauma-focused psychotherapist. is the author of two internationally published books. He is a psychotherapist in private practice and seasoned meditation teacher known for his radically open and humorous teaching style. He is personally mentored by Richard Schwartz, founder and developer of Internal Family Systems.

Learn more about Internal Family Systems therapy: IFS Institute

Ralph began practicing meditation in 1996 when he first stumbled upon Ram Dass’s “Cookbook for a Sacred Life” in the back pages of Be Here Now. He was a student of Amma’s for 16 years, has studied Buddhism since 2005, and began teaching meditation in 2008.

Learn more about Ralph and check out his latest book, Don’t Tell Me to Relax: Ralphdelarosa.com

About Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an interspiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves.

Learn more about Jackie’s work at asimplevibrantlife.com.

"If we were to escape, if we were to find that way, to just make the switch and go to the joyful end of the spectrum and never, ever, ever or walk on the shady side of the street ever again, we would be missing the biggest opportunity." - Ralph De La Rosa

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Focusing on Sila, Samadhi, and Prajna, Trudy Goodman explains how the Eightfold Path can carry us through all of our life experiences.

In this episode of the BHNN Guest Podcast, Buddhist teacher Trudy Goodman offers a lesson on:

• The Eightfold Path as an expression and fulfillment of awakened life
• Sila, Samadhi, and Prajna
• Establishing ourselves in goodness and the gift of fearlessness
• The bliss of blamelessness when we are free from guilt and regret
• How committing to wise intention naturally improves our life
• Noticing what’s here in the present moment and gathering the fragmented pieces of ourselves
• The limitless portability and applicability of mindfulness
• Mindfulness as the steady and accepting love of grandparents
• Falling in love with the miracle of our own being
• Being drawn into the practice and allowing it to carry us
• Having receptivity to the unfolding of things

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide.

Learn more about Trudy’s offerings at trudygoodman.com

“Mindfulness helps us notice what’s here so that we can start to gather and bring back all these scattered, fragmented bits of ourselves and our experience. As we bring them into our awareness and as we bring them back home to the heart, to more wholeness, these bits and pieces of our life experience and ourselves begin to coalesce and settle down and peacefully co-exist. We can have love, we can aversion, we can have likes and dislikes, and they can peacefully live in the same heart. There doesn’t have to be any conflict.” – Trudy Goodman

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gil Fronsdal discusses having confidence in what the Buddha represents within ourselves and being a refuge for all beings.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal explains:

• How the Buddha defined confidence and fate
• Instructions from the Buddha on making oneself a refuge
• Being a refuge and support for all beings
• Personal worth and finding yourself in community
• The benefit of having confidence in ourselves and in our practice
• The imperfections that stain the mind
• Having confidence in that which the Buddha represents within ourselves
• Reflecting on the times when our minds are not caught
• How the dharma is visible here and now, not there and then
• The balance between responsibility and allowing natural unfolding

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

This 2014 talk was originally published by Dharmaseed.

“The reference point for having confidence or faith or trust in the Buddha is not in the great power and wisdom of the Buddha, but rather something that we can know for ourselves, that we realize is reflected in the Buddha.” – Gil Fronsdal

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Moving through the senses, JoAnna Hardy guides listeners in a meditation to acquire stillness of the mind.

Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, JoAnna Hardy guides us through:

• The benefits of having clarity and a still mind
• The breath-body central focus
• Gaining self-trust
• Paying attention to the sounds and sights around us without assigning meaning
• Working the muscle of awareness
• Reengaging with the breath when the mind gets busy

This recording is from the Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center: Mindfulness for Educators.

About JoAnna Hardy:

JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice.

“It’s important that we start that way, with this breath-body central focus, to really collect, gather, and sustain the capacity of our mind to be more still. From that stillness, this really beautiful self-trust comes. We can trust ourselves more because we are not at the whimsy of that chaotic mind.” – JoAnna Hardy

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Distinguishing commentary from direct experience, Gil Fronsdal helps us break free from the conventions and comparisons that the mind makes.

Today's episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, Gil Fronsdal speaks to listeners about:

• Paying homage to those who have purified their hearts
• Direct experience versus attempting to describe things
• The way that comparison arises
• Self-image and appreciating our own suchness
• Resting in the part of ourselves that is not an idea or a concept
• The conditioning that can happen from society
• Wisdom from sitting with physical pain
• Living in the present moment instead of the stories we tell ourselves
• Letting things be as they are
• Seeing God in our simple, direct experiences
• Coming back to the breath and practicing all throughout the day

This 1998 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

“Most of us know the wonderful smell of a rose, but if you could try to describe in words what that fragrance is, you’d have a hard time I think. The actual sense, the direct experience of smell, is something we can all experience; seeing this flower as it is. In Buddhism, there is a lot of emphasis on seeing things as they are.” – Gil Fronsdal

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Nina Rao interviews Nani Ma about her deep devotion to serving her guru and her service work with Ganga Prem Hospice.

If you are interested in donating to Ganga Prem Hospice, you can do so through a donation to End of Life Care International with a memo specifying you would like it to go to Ganga Prem.

Today’s podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenow

This time on the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast, Nani Ma shares with us:

• Her religious upbringing into Christianity
• Being pulled to India from a young age
• Seeking liberation from suffering and pain
• The story of meeting her guru, Babaji
• The beauty and power of the Ganges river
• Her daily routine and how she meditates
• How to deal with difficulties by watching our breath
• Reaching one-pointedness through chanting single-worded mantras
• Moving through the physical death of a guru
• Forming cancer clinics in India and Ganga Prem Hospice

About Nani Ma:

Nani Ma is from the United Kingdom and sought spiritual enlightenment at a very young age. One day, she realized that serving the multitude and helping the needy is also an aspect of spiritual practice. So, she started taking care of the terminally ill cancer patients in the hospital, guiding the people who are suffering from pain and death to embark on a new journey. Together with Dr. A. K. Dewan, she established the Ganga Prem Hospice. Ganga Prem Hospice is a spiritually-orientated, non-profit hospice for terminally ill cancer patients. The Hospice has been constructed at the foot of the Himalayas on the bank of the river Ganga.

Krishna Das is offering two benefit kirtan concerts in Rishikesh October 2024 - details on KrishnaDas.com/Events

“When we watch our breath, it slows down. The breath and the mind are connected. Either the breath slows down and the mind slows down, or the mind catches hold of one thing, which is the name, and the name has its power by itself. The name has its own power.” – Nani Ma

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.