The Heart of Light Podcast

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 quo...

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 fo...

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 she...

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 shee...

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...

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. Thi...

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...