The Heart of Light Podcast

This is my dharma talk on May 20, 2024, about Impermanence. How do we see through our many illusions of permanence? What does impermanence imply how our personalities change throughout our life? How deeply do we acknowledge the profound fragility and vulnerability of human life? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on May 13, 2024, about the Drawing Power of Love. How comfortable are you in allowing love to draw you into emotional intimacy? How do we work with the magnetic pull of our own wholeness? How do we cultivate the experience of Archetypal Love? This Dharma talk fell in the week before the Christian holy day of Pentecost. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on May 6, 2024, about Saying Yes to Life. How heavily do you lean on excuses in your life? How willing are we to experience the full spectrum and depth of all our emotions? What are we willing to risk in order to experience the bliss at the center of our being? This Dharma talk fell a couple days after the Celtic holiday of Beltaine. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on April 22, 2024, about Story Stewardship. How deeply do you treasure the stories of those dear to you? In what ways are the stories that you tell yourself holding you back or keeping you small? Where did we find the stories that call forth our deeper strength and wisdom? This was the final in a series of three Dharma talks about Brené Brown’s Theory of Cultivating Meaningful Connection. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on April 15, 2024, about the Courage to Walk Alongside. How well do you respect your own boundaries and the boundaries of others? How much do you focus on how you can empower others? How attentive are you that all the aspects that make a relationship thrive? This was the second in a series of three Dharma talks about Brené Brown’s Theory of Cultivating Meaningful Connection. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on April 8, 2024, about Grounded Confidence. How deeply have you arrived in yourself? How rigorously honest are you with yourself? How fully do you accept the totality of who you are? This was the first in a series of three Dharma talks about Brené Brown’s Theory of Cultivating Meaningful Connection. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on April 1, 2024, about Facing Difficult Truths. How open and undefended are we in the face of feedback? How do we expand our emotional capacity? How rigorously honest are we with ourselves? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on March 25, 2024, about Surrender. Why do we cling so tenaciously to the illusion of control? How is letting go conducive to our growth, joy, and freedom? How do we learn to trust the deeper and wiser forces that govern our destiny? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on March 11, 2024, about Self-Love. Why is one's level of self-love such an important issue in all areas of one's life? What is the relationship of self-love and self-discipline? How does the path of self-love involve embracing the paradoxes of healing? quote sheet

This is my dharma talk on March 4, 2024, about being a Spiritual Warrior. How deep is the strength of your discipline? How courageous are you in facing yourself? How fiercely do you pursue what you know is best for you? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on February 26, 2024, about White Privilege. For white people, how does the challenge of seeing and unpacking our white privilege resemble many other challenges on the spiritual path? How does Buddhism help us to understand the harm caused by white privilege? How willing are we to embrace all the sacrifices necessary to love all beings? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on February 19, 2024, about Living a Noble Life. What does it mean to move through the world in a noble way? What truly motivates our virtues and our efforts to do good in the world? Why does Buddhism describe the four central truths and the eightfold path as noble? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on February 12, 2024, about Emptying and Emptiness. Why do the world's religious traditions all urge us to empty ourselves out? How does the deep spiritual logic of emptying ourselves run so counter to the stories about consumption and filling ourselves up that are so prevalent in this culture? What is meant by the Buddhist idea of emptiness? This talk fell on the Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on February 5, 2024, about Radical Self-Responsibility. What does it mean to take deep responsibility for how we feel and for our emotional states? How do we embrace responsibility for our boundaries and for how others impact us? Why is it that we cannot find the rich satisfaction that we seek and that we intuitively know we deserve unless we make the decision to grow up fully in life? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on January 29, 2024, about the Archetypal Feminine. How deeply and how well do we receive life? What is our relationship to flow? How do we understand our place in the interconnection of all things? This talk fell during the week of the Celtic holiday of Imbolg. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on January 22, 2024, about the Buddhist path to facing difficulties. What is our attitude toward difficulties? Do we recognize the futility of playing the blame game? What would it look like to embrace deep responsibility in our lives? This is the quote sheet for the talk. This is the blog article quoted in the talk.

This is my dharma talk on January 15, 2024, about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. How just and fair are the “rules” that we follow and that we use to judge others, especially when we’re upset? In what ways are we merely lukewarm in our commitment to what we know is right? How much are we willing to embrace being extreme in the pursuit of what we know is for the highest good? This is the quote sheet for the talk. Letter from a Birmingham Jail full text

This is my dharma talk on January 8, 2024, about starting a meditation practice. What does it mean to commit to meditation? What are the predictable challenges to this commitment that we should expect? What does it mean to trust our capacity for growth? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on January 1, 2024, about commitment. What are the tangible self-care practices, if any, that you practice every single day without fail? Why do we expect rigorous commitment from romantic others, but can manifest nothing like that level of commitment toward ourselves? How is commitment the doorway to our freedom? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on December 26, 2023, about loving the outcast. What is our relationship to people we avoid and/or consider our enemies? What are the parts of life that we completely reject or avoid? Do we have the courage to give a bold YES to absolutely everything that we are, including the places we have long avoided or neglected? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on December 18, 2023, about joy. What does it mean to say that we are responsible for our own joy? What does it mean to trust the joy at the core of our being? What are the practical steps we can take to cultivate joy in our life? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on December 11, 2023, about inner peace. What is the relationship of mental discipline and inner peace? What is the relationship of responsibility and inner peace? How is letting go at many levels essential to inner peace? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk on December 4, 2023, about Hope. How do we hope without falling into the trap of expectations? What does it mean to relate well to the unknown? How do we cultivate a deep sense of hope from our core? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 27, 2023, about Perfection vs. Completion. How is perfectionism a no-win internal hell? What are the many dysfunctional forms of perfectionism? What is so healing about Jung’s contrasting idea of completion? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 20, 2023, about Gratitude. How is taking things for granted such a poison in spiritual life? How does Buddhism help us to appreciate the gift within each challenge? How does gratitude have the potential to fully transform our entire experience of life This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 13, 2023, about the Eightfold Noble Path. To what are we prepared to commit ourselves in life? How intentional are we about how we talk, what we do, and how we move through the world? What is the typical quality of our attention in everyday life? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 6, 2023, about the Four Noble Truths. What is our relationship to fantasy? How are we defended against life? How courageous are we in letting go? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 30, 2023, about the relating with the Unconscious. What is our relationship to control? How deeply do we listen to ourselves? How responsible are we for our projections? This talk fell days before the Celtic holiday Samhain. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 23, 2023, about the Major Arcana of the Tarot as a path of healing. What are the virtues that support the unfolding of the healing process? What do we risk about ourselves when we undertake healing? How does the healing process restore us to a deeper level of innocence? This is the slideshow used in the talk. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 16, 2023, about the book Dancing in the Flames. How do we create our own reality? How do we recognize and pursue the wisdom inside us? What leads us to our wholeness? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 9, 2023, about deep belonging. How do societal messages distort our understanding of belonging? How do we cultivate deep belonging within ourselves? How does our own belonging impact our ability to belong with others? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 2, 2023, about Chinese Bagua as a model of healing. What is the therapeutic value of shock in the healing process? What is the role of gentleness and self-compassion in the healing process? What is required to integrate head-level insights deep into the body? This is the slideshow used in the talk. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 25, 2023, about inner protection. What does the First Noble Truth imply about many of the kinds of protection we seek? What is the role of good boundaries in protecting ourselves? What is the true nature of inner protection? This talk will fall on the Monday before the Christian holiday of Michaelmas. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 18, 2023, about facing the unknown. What is our relationship to the unknown? What stories or motions come up when we face the unknown? How do we relate to the unknown within ourselves? This talk fell on the Monday before the Autumnal Equinox. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 11, 2023, about grief. What is our relationship to grief? What is the cost of avoiding pain? What are the deeper layers of grief that we carry within us? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 4, 2023, about nonattachment to outcome. What is our relationship to the unknown? What is the source of our inner urgency? How do we cultivate a heart ready for anything? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 28, 2023, about Antiracist Work as a Yoga. What are the characteristics of a yoga? What does Resmaa Menakem call the six intelligences of the body? How do we live out the magnanimous love at the core of the antiracist message? This talk fell on the 60th anniversary of Dr. King's “I Have a Dream” speech. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 21, 2023, about rising to a challenge. What is our relationship with risk? How well do we balance what we control with what we don’t? How eager are we to rise to the challenge of whatever the next step of our growth demands? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 13, 2023, about stepping into our power. What are the four principles of personal power? What are the paradoxes of moving toward our power? Why does moving toward our power activate our deepest fears? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 6, 2023, about what Jennifer Welwood calls the true ride. What does it mean to be a grown-up adult? How deeply have we integrated the Buddhist teaching of impermanence? How does trying to avoid pain create even more pain? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 31, 2023, about archetypal masculinity. What does it mean to live from the depths of our psyches? what wisdom does the Chinese yin/yang system offer for modern gender roles? In our present time, what does healthy masculinity mean? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 24, 2023, about a heart ready for anything. What are the ways we resist fully growing up? How does spiritual growth demand letting go? How can we cultivate a heart ready for anything? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 17, 2023, about self-love. What are the misleading misconceptions about self-love? Why is self-love so difficult? Why is self-love essential for the spiritual path? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 10, 2023, about emotional capacity. Why is the size of our capacity such a fundamental moral & spiritual issue? What are the everyday consequences of having a small or large capacity? How do we increase our capacity? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 2, 2023, about the spiritual foundations of America. What does it mean to be American? What does “pursing happiness” mean in the original sense? What wisdom teachings are contained in the Great Seal of the US? How do we align our personal spiritual work with the public good This is the quote sheet for the talk. Great Seal of US, side 1 Great Seal of US, side 2

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 26, 2023, about making friends with Death. What does it mean to have a healthy relationship with death? How does the awareness of mortality support and strengthen all other spiritual values? How does affirming death help us to affirm life fully? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the I-Revolution at East Bay Healing Collective on June 25, 2023, about freedom. What are the limitations of conventional definitions of freeom? What does the psychology of addiction teach us about freedom? How do we work toward genuine inner freedom? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 12, 2023, about abundance. How are we ultimately responsible for our own experience of scarcity? How is abundance about growing up? How do we open ourselves more fully to the Love that is greater than we ever could imagine? This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 12, 2023, about insight (prajna). What are the limits of a head-only experience of Life? How do we connect more genuinely with the wisdom of the body? How do healing, disattachment, and letting-go open up deeper ways of knowing Life? This talk was the sixth in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition. This is the quote sheet for the talk.

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 5, 2023, about concentration. What does it mean to be an excellent listener? What is the inestimable healing value of inner silence? What is the powerful connection between high-quality attention and overall life-satisfaction? This talk was the fifth in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition. This is the quote sheet for the talk.