This will be my last episode for a while.  I’ll be placing the podcast on hiatus to pursue my other interests of writing, working with individual students, and spending more time with family and friends as the pandemic lessens.  It’s been a wonderful experience creating and hosting this podcast and I’m very proud of the work.  The episodes will remain available on all the major podcast platforms as well as the Unconditional Healing website, so please share the podcast with any friends who might benefit. 

This episode is a commentary on the 5-line Aspiration for Unconditional Health that I wrote many years ago when first offering the Healing Circles. The Aspiration follows:      
                                                          ----        
                                      Aspiration for Unconditional Health

 Grant your blessing that I remain gentle, awake and strong in the midst of pain.
May I see beyond my own pain and become a beacon to others who are suffering.
May I utilize illness and adversity to develop my mind and heart, and realize my true character.
May I manifest compassion and fearlessness in all my activities,
And never waver on the path of unconditional health and well-being.  
                                                         ----

In this episode, I describe the origin and the intention of the Aspiration, and then its meaning and implications line by line.  It describes a path that views the painful circumstances in our lives as opportunities for growth and transformation, rather than outright calamities. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Francesca Leo and Bobby Hughes, who served as my excellent producers,  helping me put together these many episodes.  Francesca served in that role initially, and then as she left to pursue an MBA, Bobby seamlessly took on that role for the duration of the show.  This podcast would not have been possible without them. 

I’d especially like to thank all of the listeners of the show! I truly hope that you benefited from the teachings presented here by myself, and by my outstanding guests who unhesitatingly shared their real-life experiences and wisdom.  I wish you a life of self-kindness and freedom from fear, and as the Aspiration invites, may you utilize illness and adversity to develop your mind and heart and realize your true character.
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If you enjoy this episode or any other, please share this podcast with one other friend. Thank you! 

To learn more about Unconditional Healing, please subscribe to our newsletter here.

Jeff also hosts a twice-monthly online meeting called the Healing Circle. It's free, and you’ll find like-minded folks with whom to learn and practice meditation and share the journey toward unconditional health and well-being. Note: You needn't be sick to benefit.

If you’d like to help support Jeff's spiritual work and teachings, please consider becoming a patron by checking out Jeff's Unconditional Healing Patreon Page. 

Jeff welcomes Toni Bernhard to talk about her journey with chronic illness, the loss of identity and self-blame that inevitably follow, and her dive into writing. To her surprise, that innocent endeavor spawned four Buddhist-inspired books -  three on living well with illness and chronic pain, and one on walking the Buddhist path.  Two of those books are on the Unconditional Healing recommended reading list.

We begin with Toni’s trip to Paris with her husband in 2001, where she shockingly developed a viral illness that continues to this day and changed her life dramatically.  Initially dropping her Buddhist practice to focus on fixing her body, Toni had a “thunderbolt moment” when she consulted with noted Buddhist author Sylvia Boorstein who advised  ‘Your body is sick, your mind isn’t sick'.  From that moment, Toni related to her illness in a completely different way and her healing journey began in earnest.

 She began to write as a way of checking in and touching her own pain, but Toni soon found that her writings had a universal value that would become her first book, How to Be Sick. In that book, Toni calls upon Buddhist teachings and resources as her guide, while also developing her own unique approach and practices to benefit those who are ill.

 Some of the many gems from Toni that were “mined” in this episode:

 Compassion as an antidote to suffering -  “What I recommend that people do is to focus on the actual facts in their life that are the source of suffering and bring compassion to it by crafting phrases that address that. I have found nothing alleviates suffering more than being able to speak, silently or whispering, to yourself about whatever is a source of suffering for you at the moment.”

On working with the medical system -  “What I recommend about any kind of illness is gather information. Instead of just grabbing at the first thing you hear and then shutting down around it.” 

The loss of self-identity that accompanies a serious illness -  “I would lie in bed and say, ‘if I’m not a law professor, who am I?’ I just felt worthless.  And it’s interesting that what I learned from that is not to attach to any identity.”

The present moment as a refuge – “When you bring yourself to the present, there’s no suffering, even if you’re in pain there’s no suffering. Because all there is, is what you’re experiencing right now.”

Thoughts on death and dying -  “One thing the Buddha taught me was to rely on my experience. And I don’t have experience of it (dying). I think it can be comforting for people to believe that there’s a continuation of some sort at death and I think that’s wonderful, but I can’t force that on myself, so I’m left with ’I don’t know',  and trying to be ok with that.”

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If you enjoy this episode, please share this podcast with one other friend. Thank you! 

To learn more about Unconditional Healing, please subscribe to our newsletter here.

Jeff also hosts a twice-monthly online meeting called the Healing Circle. It's free, and you’ll find like-minded folks with whom to learn and practice meditation and share the journey toward unconditional health and well-being. Note: You needn't be sick to benefit.

If you’d like to help support this podcast and Jeff's work and teachings, please consider becoming a patron by checking out Jeff's Unconditional Healing Patreon Page. 

This episode is another solo show, featuring a talk Jeff gave at a Healing Circle in June of 2021. The full title is “Meditation is Not Therapy, Sanity is Not What You Think”.  Jeff chose this topic because in our materialistic society, everything gets filtered through the idea of winning, betterment, and constant improvement.  Which at its face makes sense - no one intentionally wants to lose or trend downward.  Except there is a flaw in that thinking which is an inability to bravely face the truth about ourselves in the present, always being driven by future benefits. 

This attitude completely misses the point when applied to meditation practice, which objectively acts as a mirror reflecting back our current state of mind to us, rather than one more self-improvement tool.  Lately, meditation is being appropriated by some corporations that bring meditation in-house. Ostensibly promoted as a way to help employees deal with stressors and anxiety, it’s often used by management to improve the productivity of their employees and enhance the bottom line. 

On a personal level, meditation can of course benefit us, but as a byproduct of being more present with our feelings and our thought process, rather than as the goal in itself.  Focusing on the goal or outcome of who’d we like to become in the future is simply materialism wrapped in satin brocade. 

The second part of Jeff’s talk asks, “What exactly is sanity?”  We are so dependent on our thought process for everything we do, that we assume it’s the source of sanity or wisdom.  But that type of conceptual sanity is a relative notion, dependent upon who is asking, how we were brought up, where we live in the world, local customs, etc., rather than an objective reality. Is there such a thing as sanity without a thinker, without a relative reference point? 

These are some of the questions tackled in this episode, where the question IS actually the answer.

If you enjoy this episode, please share this podcast with one other friend. Thank you! 

To learn more about Unconditional Healing, please subscribe to our newsletter here.

Jeff also hosts a twice-monthly online meeting called the Healing Circle. It's free, and you’ll find like-minded folks with whom to learn and practice meditation and share the journey toward unconditional health and well-being.

If you’d like to help support this podcast, please consider becoming a patron by checking out Jeff's Unconditional Healing Patreon Page. 

Thoughts?  Guest suggestions?  Email me at jjrubin@gmail.com.