Vipassana teacher Trudy Goodman explores how trusting in the dharma and in ourselves leads to a more peaceful, present life.

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In this episode, Trudy Goodman gives a lecture on:

• The dharma as our reliable refuge
• Trusting the simple process of being alive
• Offering metta (loving-kindness) to ourselves and others
• Practicing mudita, aka, taking joy in the joy of others
• How the principle of sila (ethical conduct) protected the Buddha from his demons
• What to do when we are swayed by temptation
• Concerning ourselves only with what our minds are doing in this very minute
• Living in the way instead of worrying about a result
• Making each thing we do the most important thing in the world
• Using our karma instead of being used by it

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

“Trust yourself then, to this simple process of being alive, letting go of all elaborations and returning to the body, the breath, step by step, moment by moment, just returning to this simple basic fundamental fact of our own aliveness—our embodied being.” –Trudy Goodman

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Exploring the Soto Zen path, Rev. Chimyo Atkinson and Vincent Moore reflect on inclusivity, feminine wisdom, and the beauty of simplicity.

This episode is from the series Paths of Practice. Click here to subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts!

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In this episode, Rev. Chimyo and Vincent Moore chat about:

• Building a Zen Buddhist community in the Southern United States
• Rev Chimyo’s profound experience volunteering at a prison as a Zen priest
• How Rev Chimyo was first introduced to meditation and Buddhism
• The beautiful serenity within taking pause, being still, and doing a Zen practice
• Finding reality in the present moment and realizing that everything else is made up in our minds
• Walking the Soto Zen path and finding depth within simple practices
• Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple and holding space specifically for women in the Buddhist world
• Paying attention to what feminine energy can bring to Buddhist practice and temples
• Inclusive spiritual practice and focusing on the shared elements of life
• The calm and connection that can be discovered through Zen labor
• Loving others and loving the dharma, wishing peace for all people
• Doing all daily tasks with the dharma in our hearts and minds

About Rev. Chimyo Atkinson:

Rev. Chimyo Atkinson is a Soto Zen priest that serves the Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple in Alexander, NC, as well as sanghas and centers throughout the United States and internationally. Rev. Chimyo was ordained by Rev. Teijo Munnich in 2007 and received Dharma Transmission in 2015. She received monastic training at Great Tree Temple and completed two Sotoshu International training periods (angos) in Japan in 2010 and 2011, two additional angos at Aichi Senmon Nisodo in Nagoya in 2012 and one ango at Ryumonji Monastery in Iowa in 2014. Chimyo served as Head of Practice at Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple and volunteered with the sangha at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institute until 2020. For more information, please visit: https://chimyoatkinson.org/

About Vincent Moore:

Vincent Moore is a media specialist and creative consultant at Good for Nothing Ideas based in San Francisco, California. Vincent has over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry as a producer, performer, and writer in stage, film, and television and wrote a children's book titled, You're a Rubber Duck. He also has a master's degree in Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies with a Certificate in Soto Zen Studies. Vincent is also the creator and host of the podcast, Paths of Practice, which features interviews with Buddhists from all over the world. For more information about his work, please visit: www.goodfornothingideas.com

“Just stop, and give not just the breath but the whole being to that stillness, that stop. Be in reality for a minute, for 40 minutes, if you can handle it, 60 minutes. Be in that stop. Experience it. Know there’s reality. Everything else you’re making it up as you go along.” –Rev. Chimyo Atkinson

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Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal explores the concept of the deathless and examines ways to experience life without clinging to impermanent things.

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In this episode of the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil discusses:

• What the Buddha said about attaining the deathless
• Seeking after things that are eternal rather than prone to aging and impermanence
• Three forms of clinging/craving that lead us to suffering: beliefs, becoming, and sensual pleasure
• Considering if there is a ‘you’ beyond thought
• Letting go of our attachments to concepts
• How a fixation on ‘becoming somebody’ prevents us from being
• Avoidance of the reality of suffering due to personal discomfort
• Developing mindfulness over time and having compassion for ourselves when we notice grasping
• The timeless present and the end of separation
• Attentiveness as the path to the deathless
• The American notion of freedom versus the Eastern notion of liberation
• The ultimate goal of Buddhism: to be open-handed, to have a mind without grasping

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

“The deathless is a synonym for Nirvana, for enlightenment, the great peace, the great happiness, for that which is unconditioned, the unborn, the ultimate security, the ultimate safety.” – Gil Fronsdal

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