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

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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

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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.

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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

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Guiding listeners through the seven factors of enlightenment, Trudy Goodman shows us the play of awakening in daily life.

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In this episode, Trudy Goodman holds a talk on:

• Loosening our grip on self-involvement
• Living lovingly and joyfully in our daily lives
• The seven factors of enlightenment
• The things that torment us and connect us
• How nature offers metta to us
• Remaining poised amidst little catastrophes
• Equanimity and being balanced
• Trusting in the unfolding of reality

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.

This 2011 talk was recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation center and originally published on Dharmaseed

“Being a Buddhist or practicing these Buddhist teachings is to live lovingly and joyfully without getting so caught or identified with the suffering self. And not just out in some fantasy mountain cave that we might imagine ourselves in or on meditation retreat at luxurious Spirit Rock or in the monastery, but in the midst of whatever we’re doing.” – Trudy Goodman

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