Diggin' the Dharma

Send us Fan Mail "Not mine, not I, not myself" is a phrase that appears in various suttas.  It can be a useful reminder to let go.  We cling to material things, people, and of course ourselves. When we lose something or someone, or when that idea of who I am suddenly shifts, it can manifest in significant suffering. In this episode, Doug and Jon discuss how they relate to this sutta and...

Send us Fan Mail What is non-dualism all about?  Is it a practice? Is it a way of looking at the world?  Or is it just words?  Yes and. . .  We'll discuss the dharma and practice of non-dualism. Was it found in the early texts?  How do we understand and use it? Doug's YouTube video on the topic: Non-Dualism and Early Buddhism -- https://youtu.be/43v6lLweukg Support the show Go to our web...

Send us Fan Mail The training called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the late '70s and could be credited with the concept of "secular mindfulness."  It is taught worldwide by hundreds of teachers and has been the topic of well over 1000 scientific research papers.    Is it Buddhist? Is it effective?  Jon Aaron is one of the prominent teachers of...

Send us Fan Mail What are the Buddha's views about views?   How are the ways we hold opinions about politics, people, food, etc, different from clinging to spiritual views?   The Buddha had a lot to say about this but how do we put it into practice.  How does our clinging to views, most importantly views about ourselves,  impede our progress on the path?   Support the show Go to our website t...

Send us Fan Mail The Seven Awakening Factors are a fundamental teaching in the early Buddhist Suttas.    In an active form, these factors can be a valuable antidote to any of the Five Hindrances.    In a passive way, as we meditate, they can act as signposts informing us both where we are and what is needed at any given moment.  Throughout our day, they can work in the same way. Each of these fact...

Send us Fan Mail In Buddhist practice, direct experience is a key component of mindfulness and the development of wisdom.  Can AI actually have direct experience?   And if so, does it actually develop true wisdom?   Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthedharma.com/

Send us Fan Mail With the hyper-driven developments in Artificial Intelligence, we wonder, is AI becoming sentient?  What is sentience anyway?  What are the determining factors? How do we hold these developments in the Buddhist context of Anatta, not self?   Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthedharma.com/

Send us Fan Mail Metta--the quality of unconditional love is considered one of the boundless qualities of the heart.   We often have beings in our lives who embody this quality and have been there for us regardless of how we are, or what we have done.   These beings could be grandparents, an aunt or uncle, perhaps our parents (though most parents knowingly or not have conditions to their love), ou...

Send us Fan Mail As Jon returns from his heart surgery and recovery, we discuss the practice of patience, which is considered one of the Perfections of the Heart (Parami).    While heart surgery itself is miraculous, perfecting the heart by cultivating this quality of patience (among others) is no less so.  We look at ways to develop patience throughout our day. Support the show Go to our website...

Send us Fan Mail We'll discuss a fun early sutta where two ascetics, one practicing as a dog, the other as a cow, come up to the Buddha to ask for his opinion about the merit of their practices.  What does this show us about our own attitude to practice? Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthedharma.com/

Send us Fan Mail Some folks believe that Buddhism requires us to let go of all desires.  This is actually a misinterpretation of the teachings.  There are undoubtedly healthy and unhealthy desires, and if one desire turns into greed, we have crossed the line.  That line is only sometimes as apparent as we might think.   In this episode, we discuss what the Buddha says about this and how what we ha...

Send us Fan Mail This episode will be aired the week Jon faces significant surgery.  It seems like an appropriate time to look into fear and how to work with it.  Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthedharma.com/

Send us Fan Mail One of the various lists of the Dharma is the 10 Fetters. In this episode, we discuss the first five of these and none of them will be a surprise because they are so common.  Despite being common that doesn't make them easy break away.   Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthedharma.com/

Send us Fan Mail For our first episode of the 2023,  we offer support just in case you've resolved to develop a daily meditation practice. Maintaining a daily practice is difficult, so we hope these tips might help the process. Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthedharma.com/

Send us Fan Mail In our final podcast of 2022 we'll take another look at embodied meditation, following a retreat that Jon was just on.  As a special gift, Jon will lead us on a wonderful guided meditation illustrating how seeing this embodiment can work in our practice. Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthe...

Send us Fan Mail Jon has just got back from a long retreat, so we discuss his experiences, as well as offering a few book recommendations for the holidays and New Year. Go to our website for titles and some links! Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://digginthedharma.com/

Send us Fan Mail Is our "Diggin' the Dharma" logo a problem? Doug and Jon react to some recent comments on a thread at Doug's YouTube channel that expressed the concern that the logo was offensive in depicting the Buddha with a shovel.   It's an opportunity to look at the teachings of "rites and rituals" as well as the concept of spiritual materialism. Support th...

Send us Fan Mail "Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, endowed with perception and cognition, that I declare that there is the world, the origination of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the world.”  In this quote from the Rohitassa sutta  the Buddha addresses the knowing  body.  All that we know  and experience is in this body...

Send us Fan Mail As we head out of the week of Thanksgiving we consider eating and food in the context of early Buddhist practices.   For those of who are used to eating three meals a day--a very western European way-- the notion of eating on the early Buddhist monastic schedule  of one basic meal a day before noon would seem rather strange if not impossible to hold to.  Of course, we don't g...

Send us Fan Mail For our listeners in the US, we are beginning Thanksgiving week. It's a perfect time to consider gratitude and how it integrates into our lives.  And if you're not in the US it's still a good time!   As always, thank you all for listening, and for your continued support! Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and...

Send us Fan Mail Perception is one of the Five Aggregates of Clinging and critical to our understanding of self and the world we live in.   It is through mindfulness and our meditation practice that we start to see through the trap of our own perceptions.  We don't see things as they are, we things as we are" (attributed to Anais Nin). Bhante Gunaratana's book is: Meditation on Perc...

Send us Fan Mail With the upcoming election in the US we will look at politics and Buddhism. Should we allow our Buddhist ideals to influence our voting? What would the Buddha himself have said in the midst of so much partisanship and how do the teachings on "holding to fixed views" fit into our own political dialogues?  Jon and Doug have an animated discussion on this important topic wi...

Send us Fan Mail As we record this episode, Elon Musk has recently purchased Twitter. His purchase raises all sorts of questions relevant to Buddhist practice, perhaps most importantly of Right Speech. What should be allowed online? How should we practice on Twitter or other social media platforms?  Does our written communication actually inline with our intent and do we have a sense of how it mig...

Send us Fan Mail The Buddha  became a pretty famous guy, but what did fame mean to him?   Did he even think about it?   Fame was not something he sought.  He just taught and became well known through his teachings.   If he had access to social media would he have used it?    Fame and renown is certainly not the secret to happiness but so many strive for it.  Join us as we discuss this interesting...

Send us Fan Mail Doug and Jon discuss the five hindrances that the Buddha had to overcome on the night of his enlightenment. We find them not only cropping up in our formal meditation practice, but in our everyday lives as well. How should we deal with them? We have lots of tips. Support the show Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:   https://diggi...