For episode 244 Valerie Mason-John makes their first appearance on the Metta Hour to speak about their new book, “First Aid Kit for the Mind: Breaking the Cycle of Habitual Behaviors”.

Valerie is a founding facilitator of Compassionate Inquiry and the author of eleven books, including the award-winning book, “Eight Step Recovery.” They are a co-founder of the training program, Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery, and work as a public speaker in the field of Mindfulness for Addiction and Trauma.

In this conversation, Valerie and Sharon discuss:

• How lovingkindness saved Valerie’s life
• How Valerie became the “Bully Doctor”
• Valerie’s journey in recovery
• The importance of community in recovery
• Recovery Cafe
• Gabor Mate’s Compassionate Inquiry
• Thoughts are not facts
• First-Aid Kit for the Mind
• The breath is medicine
• What is still true? What can we rely on?
• Dharma: that which we can rely on
• Thich Naht Hanh’s influence on Valerie
• How to maintain mindfulness
• The role of Storytelling in Valerie’s work
• How story compounds addiction
• Playwriting and poetry as social justice

Valerie closes the conversation with a guided meditation LOVE from their new book, First Aid Kit for the Mind. Learn more about Valarie’s work on their website right here.

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For episode 243, we are continuing the Fireside Chat Series on the Metta Hour with guest Tuere Sala.

This series features intimate conversations with longtime dharma teachers about the early days of their practice and the most impactful moments with their own teachers. Hosted by IMS Online, the third episode in this series. Tuere Sala is a Guiding Teacher at Seattle Insight Meditation Society and the founding teacher of the Capitol Hill Meditation Group. She is a retired prosecuting attorney who has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 30 years. Tuere has been teaching since 2010 and has a long history of assisting others in establishing and maintaining a daily practice. The conversation begins with a guided meditation from Tuere.

In this episode, Sharon and Tuere discuss:

• What drew Tuere to the Dharma
• Tuere’s work as a prosecutor
• Finding steadiness without fixing things
• How sangha supports practice
• Spiritual practice is not just about fixing what we don’t like
• Death is not a failure
• Suffering as poetry
• Sympathetic Joy
• How gratitude cultivates energy
• Tuere’s Christian faith
• The three refuges
• The effects of guilt in our lives
• Tuere’s challenges with compassion
• What Tuere’s practice looks like
• The Thai Forrest Tradition
• Sharon’s favorite Dharma quote

You can learn more about Tuere’s work on her website right here. Learn more about IMS Online right here.

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For episode 242, Emma Seppälä, Ph.D. returns to the Metta Hour to speak about her new book, “Sovereign: Reclaim Your Freedom, Energy, and Power in a Time of Distraction, Uncertainty, and Chaos.”

Emma is a best-selling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker. She teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. She is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. A psychologist and research scientist by training, Emma’s expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection.

In this episode, Sharon and Emma discuss:

• Emma’s definition of the word “Sovereign”
• Self-loathing hiding out as self-criticism
• The toxic relationship with ourselves
• The myths of high-achievers
• Sharon’s story of facing self-imposed beliefs
• How Emma has worked with self-loathing
• Emma’s first meditation experience
• You have to name it to tame it
• Internalizing the stories told about us
• Awareness + courage
• Emma’s definition of the term “self-compassion”
• The disempowerment of shame
• The research around lovingkindness
• How intuition supports sovereignty
• What research reveals about meditation
• The science of happiness
• Emma’s study of breath-work for veterans

Emma closes the conversation with a guided meditation. You can learn more about Emma’s work and get a copy of “Sovereign” on her website right here.

Learn more about the Project Welcome Home Troops right here.

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For episode 242, Sharon speaks with psychologist Zindel Segal, PhD, and neuroscientist Norman Farb, PhD, about their new book, Better in Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your Life.

Zindel is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders, University of Toronto Scarborough. He is a clinical psychologist whose research examines the use of mindfulness meditation in promoting affect regulation skills in people suffering from a depressive and anxiety based disorder. Norm is an Associate Professor, University of Toronto Mississauga and studies the social neuroscience of the self and human emotion, with a focus on how biases in self-representation shape emotional reactions that determine well-being.

In this episode, Sharon, Zindel and Norm discuss:

• How Norm came to this work
• What inspired the new book, Better in Every Sense
• Why people are languishing
• The Default Mode Network versus Sensory Network
• The positives of the “house of habit,” aka DMN
• “Breaking Frame” to solve problems
• Sense Foraging: shifting from thinking to sensing
• The three steps in Sense Foraging
• The role of equanimity in the Sensory Network
• How Interoception relates to empathy

The conversation closes with a meditation breathing practice led by Zindel. You can learn more about Zindel and Norm’s book Better in Every Sense, right here. You can also check out Zindel’s first appearance on the Metta Hour Podcast from 2020 in Episode 144.

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For episode 240, we are continuing the Fireside Chat Series on the Metta Hour with Kamla Masters.

This series features intimate conversations with longtime dharma teachers about the early days of their practice and the most impactful moments with their own teachers. Hosted by IMS Online, the second episode in this series. Kamala Masters is one of the founders and teachers of the Vipassana Metta Foundation on Maui. She teaches retreats in the Theravada tradition at venues worldwide, including being a Guiding Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts. The conversation begins with a five-minute guided meditation from Kamala.

In this episode, Sharon and Kamala discuss:

• How Kamala and Sharon first met
• Kamala’s primary teachers and influences
• Sharon’s first travel to India
• How Kamala first found meditation
• Munindra teaching Kamala a washing dishes meditation
• Munindra’s way of breaking barriers for Sharon
• How Sharon met Dipa Ma
• How Sharon reparented herself with her teachers
• Munindra’s directive to “try harder”
• Distinctions in meditation methods
• How Kamala started teaching
• Sharing what their formal daily practice looks like today
• How they were taught lovingkindness
• Do people need a teacher?
• How to practice the Ten Paramis
• How to use mental noting
• Working with physical ailments and pain
• Perfectionism as a hindrance

You can learn more about Kamala’s work via the website for the Vipassana Metta Foundation on Maui right here.

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For episode 239, Sharon chats with friends Duncan Trussell and Raghu Markus about their new audiobook Moving from the Movie of Me to the Movie of We.

Duncan Trussell is a stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, and actor. He is most known for his podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour. He produced and starred on the Netflix series The Midnight Gospel.

Raghu Markus spent two years in India with Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass. He has been involved in music and transformational media since the early 1970s. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the Love Serve Remember Foundation and hosts the Mindrolling Podcast on the Be Here Now Network.

In this episode, Sharon, Duncan and Raghu discuss:

• How the new book came to be
• The healing is in the return
• Self pre-occupation versus self-love
• The guru in Duncan’s kids
• Raghu’s parents meeting Neem Karoli Baba
• How Duncan first met Ram Dass
• Raghu and Duncan’s first hang
• Finding the mother archetype
• Wanting Jesus “with skin on”
• Ram Dass the therapist
• How to cultivate unconditionality
• Getting real with ourselves
• Duncan’s formal practice
• “Remember Buddha Nature and your SS number” – RD
• 
  

The conversation closes with a guided meditation by Ram Dass on Loving Awareness.

You can learn more about the new book Moving from the Movie of Me to the Movie of We right here.

Listen to Duncan’s podcast and check out his upcoming comedy events right here.

Listen to Raghu’s Mindrolling podcast right here.

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For episode 238 of the Metta Hour Podcast, we are releasing a special extended excerpt of the brand new Lovingkindness Audiobook, set for release by Shambhala on April 23rd, 2024.

This thirty-minute excerpt includes the forward of the book, written and read by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the introduction of the book, read by Sharon and a portion of the first chapter, The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. Lovingkindess was Sharon’s first book, originally released in 1995 in hardcover format. It is now available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

To learn more about the book or get a copy, click here.

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For episode 237, we are launching the Fireside Chat Series on the Metta Hour.

This series features intimate conversations with longtime dharma teachers about the early days of their practice and the most impactful moments with their own teachers. Hosted by IMS Online, the launch of this monthly series is a conversation between Sharon and Jack Kornfield. Jack trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. The conversation begins with a 10-minute guided meditation from Jack.

In this episode, Sharon and Jack discuss:

• Jack’s experience with Thai Buddhist monk Ajahn Chah
• The Buddha statue debate from the early days on IMS
• Jack’s first book “Living Dharma”
• Ajahn Chah’s teaching about the original mind
• Realizing innate qualities versus developing them
• The sign above the door at IMS
• What languages Sharon and Jack learned in Asia
• Sharon’s relationship with teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche
• The role of study in one’s spiritual life
• Dualistic versus non-dualistic teachings
• The necessity of lovingkindness in their early teachings
• Learning to accept help and support
• Sharon’s experiences with Dipa Ma
• Different teachers that Jack has pissed off

The conversation closes with a short sitting. You can learn more about Jack’s work right here and check out his new online course on the eight-fold path available right here.

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