venerable

“Anger is the response, when attachment doesn’t get what it wants,” says our guest the Venerable Robina Courtin. This week, Robina helps the guys understand what the Buddha can teach us about mental health and our views of the world around us. 

The Buddha was an expert of the mind. The mind being the cognitive process of learning about our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. Via self awareness and mindfulness we can start to unpack ourselves and that’s when the real work begins. 

We can mold our minds into any form we choose. We spend our lives often changing the outside in order to make us feel good on the inside.  Learning to reinterpret all that happens  allows us to reconfigure the way we see the world.  We must learn to observe all the thoughts and take back our power in order to be in charge of our lives. The Buddha helps us see, this is possible.

You may not be able to change the outside, but you can change the inside. The first step is for you to believe it’s possible. Your body and your speech are the servants of your mind, not the other way around.  You can’t change anyone but yourself. No more mindless headlock. 

The Venerable Robina Courtin has been an ordained nun of the Mahayana Tradition since 1978. You can find Robina Courtin  be  at the links below:

https://robinacourtin.com

https://www.facebook.com/robinacourtin

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZZvRQmnXU5SrxRFyHBM9UQ

https://twitter.com/RobinaCourtin

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Until next week, get well, be safe, stay Above

Ven. Pomnyun's Answer to "I Have Internal Conflicts As a Pharmacist”

Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at Bethesda Chevy Chase Regional Service Center in Washington D.C. (September 18, 2019)

Kyel and Matt discuss ways they struggle with becoming too immersed in things of this world, leading to a kind of self-enforced slavery.  An epic quote-off ensues, professional dart throwing is discussed, and the big takeaway is the discovery that the word "materialism" is a 6 syllable word.  Subscribe, rate the show, and leave a comment!  Kyel and Matt can be reached at laymentality@gmail.com. 

S2E10

A brief discussion of the ol' venerable Bedey and I talk at length about one of the best bands ever: Mineral.

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Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded in one hour by @thejaymo

Ven. Pomnyun's Answer to " How Can We Incorporate Letting Go into Our Life?" Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at Jogye-sa Temple, Seoul, South Korea (June 15, 2018)

I'm an Australian university student and I come to Korea to see my parents because they moved here two years ago, after every semester. So I've lived in Australia since age one until now and I study there. The issue that I'm facing is that I love Australia, but I keep feeling that I am less Australian now compared to my peers and my friends. Because my new home is in Korea now. And after I catch a plane to go home and everyone else lives down the road. I am facing a bit of an identity problem because of that as well. So I don’t know how I should deal with that.

This episode stars Matt Rowan (Big Venerable, Why God Why) and Joseph G. Peterson (Twilight of the Idiots, Beautiful Piece). It was recorded at Sheffield's in Chicago, IL in July 2015.

Every year on Lunar New Year's eve, Thay recites a poem and gives a dharma talk with insights into Vietnamese poetry, culture, and tradition. This year, as our teacher receives treatment in the hospital, Venerable Thich Phuoc Tinh continues the tradition. He recites a poem of Thay's and gives us a rare glimpse into the life of our teacher. 

Dear friends,

This week, we take a break from Thich Nhat Hanh's talks to bring you another great teacher, the Venerable of Deer Park Monastery, Thich Phuoc Tinh.  Here in California, it's fall and the Venerable begins by sharing a folk song in Vietnamese and French about autumn leaves falling.  He shares that we can choose the way that we are in touch with the things inside of us and around us.  The emotions and mental formations that arise in our heads are like the seasons of the year, rising and falling.   As practitioners, we can become observers, whether of the changing leaves of fall or changing feelings in our hearts, rather than being defined or overwhelmed by them.  We are not these emotions, we are the energy of mindfulness that peacefully watches them float by on the stream of our lives.

We're grateful to have Sister Mat Nghiem translate the Venerable's talk into English for us.  Our monastic brothers and sisters do so much at Deer Park Monastery to create a peaceful refuge for us where we can share from our heart and listen deeply to their teachings.  Right now, the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation is urgently raising funds to build new living quarters for the nuns.  Currently, the sisters' living quarters are not winterized and unsafe to the point that some sisters are living outside in tents.  The foundation has raised only $400,000 of the $1.7 million needed to build environmentally-sensitive straw-bale buildings for the nuns and a new hut for Thay. Over 40% of the estimated cost is for basic infrastructure needed even before building the nunnery.  

If you are able to donate this holiday season, please go to deerparknunnery.org.  Even the smallest amount will help them to have enough funds to break ground this winter.  The Dharmacast team is made completely of volunteers and in place of asking for donations for the podcast, this holiday season please consider donating so that the Deer Park sisters have a warm and safe place to lay their heads.  For more information and to help, go to deerparknunnery.org.

The Dharmacast team wishes you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and holiday season.  We are always here for you at dpcast.net, on Facebook, iTunes and Twitter.  Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.