dhammapada

  A student asked Nanquan, “The buddhas of the past, present, and future don’t know it; cats and oxen do know it. Why is it that the buddhas of the past, present, and future don’t know it?”
  Nanquan said, “They still knew something before entering the Deer Park*.“
  “Why is it that cats and oxen do know it?“
  “How could you possibly doubt that they would?“ answered Nanquan.

-from Entangling Vines, Thomas Yuho Kirchner, trans


*The Deer Park is where the Buddha, after his awakening under the Bodhi Tree, gave his first sermon and gained his first disciples.

In this podcast episode, I talk about the feelings that accompany the death of a loved one: loss, grief, guilt, and the search for answers. My inspirations for this episode came from my own struggle with the death of my mother, and a book called "Tyson's Gift: How an 8-Pound K9 Became a Man's Greatest Spiritual Guide", by Brandon Wainwright. Learn more about Brandon and his book at https://tysonsgift.com/about.

For those who prefer a video format, see https://youtu.be/eAfBHreGnKk.

You can see more episodes and blog posts at the Spiritual But Not Religious website at https://www.spiritualbnr.org/.

Background music: "Rain Cloud Music" by Emily A. Sprague

Find SBNR episodes and more on the Spiritual But Not Religious Website and connect with me on Mastodon and YouTube!

It’s been a very disturbing few weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine. Coincident with the initiation of war, clinician, author and dharma teacher Lisa Dale Miller taught two weeks in a row at Marin Sangha. These two dharma talks explore, from a Buddhist point of view, what it means to be wise, compassionate, and even awakened in the midst of difficult circumstances. The second talk, which starts at 27:00, dives deeper into what the Buddha called, the rod of violence, as well as its causes and alleviation. May these talks benefit all beings everywhere and contribute to the end of all war and violence.

In this episode, Mikey Noechel discusses the first verse of the Dhammapada and how suffering is made in the mind.

"All dhammas are preceded by the mind.

They governed by the mind and formed by the mind.

If one speaks or acts with an impure mind

suffering follows from there from

just as the wheel of the cart follows the ox that pulls it.'