How do we navigate our lives in the midst of uncertainty? How do we bring our deepest intentions together with our actions? What is the purpose of spirituality? How can we accommodate both the beauty and the pain of life? These questions may never find a definitive answer, but they are questions to live by. At OQ we feel that if you have a genuine question you should explore it, continue to ask it, and then pay attention.
I am Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, a Buddhist student and teacher. Please join me as I share some intimate and rich teachings on The Middle Way.
Elizabeth offers these podcasts free to thousands of listeners around the world. The podcast is produced by The Middle Way Initiative, a non-profit organization founded by Elizabeth. We depend on donations to continue producing and distributing them.
In episode 601, Across the Valley, Elizabeth uses the analogy of two communities situated on opposite sides of the valley where she lives to consider our tendencies towards fundamentalism and rightness. “What happens” she asks, “when everyone feels absolutely right?” The Bodhisattva Vow is a commitment to create connection with others, without bias, by looking inward at the mechanisms of reification, and then applying the Buddha’s Middle Way Beyond The Extremes.
Read MoreIn this episode Elizabeth reflects upon the provocative poem composed by the renowned contemporary teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, entitled, “Looking Into the World.”
“It’s not a cozy poem,” says Elizabeth, “It’s a reflection on loneliness. It is an incantation to distrust. It is a tribute to the freedom and confidence that comes from standing on our own two feet.” Put your familiar and conventional views aside for this wonderful exploration.
Read MoreIn Episode 504, Elizabeth explores devotion, one of the many aspects of faith. Through stories and inquiry, she brings us through various meanings of devotion. Elizabeth examines devotion as an experience, along with cultural and interpersonal challenges that can arise through misunderstanding the teacher/student dynamic. When understood more clearly, devotion hastens the process of spiritual awakening for the student.
Read MoreAll great spiritual lineages point us back to that which defies concept and language. Authentic practitioners describe awakening as being touched by a sense of awe, overcome by the beauty, fierceness and power of being. To be in AWE is a natural human experience. Ironically, so is the discomfort that leaves us restless with the experience, making it almost impossible to bear. Our inability to bear the ineffable gives rise to dualism and our conflict with faith.
Read MoreAt 7:15 am on August 7th, 1974, 1,300 feet above a gathering crowd, French high wire artist, Philip Petit, renowned for his unauthorized public stunts, stepped onto a 131-foot wire rigged between the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center. In this episode, Elizabeth recalls Petit 's "impossible" display of human courage and confidence as an analogy for faith, why we need to cultivate it, what it is, and how it works.
Read MoreIn this episode, Elizabeth takes us on a journey through the term ‘faith.' We may assume we know what faith is, but most of us have never truly explored its nuance or spectrum of meanings. We often use the term faith to refer to: dogma, fundamentalism, doctrine, confidence, devotion, conviction, just to name a few. In the context of contemporary culture, there are those who suggest that we replace the world faith with spirituality, but Elizabeth requests us not to write-off faith so glibly. Faith carries with it the undeniable tension between our search for security and the limits of our ability to know. Faith keeps us connected to the heart of the human condition.
Read MoreIn episode 405, Elizabeth tells the classic Buddhist story of Avaloketeshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. She asks us to contemplate this story carefully, adding, “because something similar could happen to you.
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In previous episodes we engaged in the liberating practice of looking and not finding, as we searched for something singular or independent. In this episode, Elizabeth explores the topic of permanence - the 3rd in this triad of classical Middle Way inquiries.
Read MoreIn episode 403, “Into the Watery Depths,” we will continue on with our theme: The Self: Walking the Middle Way Path, by introducing the second Century spiritual genius, Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna is considered the father of the Middle Way school, because he was responsible for re-energizing and clarifying the authentic meaning of the Prajnaparamita (Transcendent Wisdom) Sutras, which are concerned with accurately discerning reality.
Read MoreIn this podcast Elizabeth introduces us to the Buddha’s most essential insight: “dependent arising,’”and leads us through a classic Middle Way investigation: “Can you locate where your mind ends and where the world begins?” leading us to a deeper understanding of mind and its world.
Read MoreIf one were to ask, “What did the Buddha teach?, it would be accurate to reply, “The Middle Way. Middle Way wisdom challenges the unexamined assumptions we have about things,
what the Buddha called ‘extreme views.’ In this podcast Elizabeth introduces the meaning of ‘extremes' and the 'Middle Way' in the context of living and dying.
Read MoreOur life - our world - can be rich…and it can also be a bitch. We walk the terrain of multiple - maybe infinite - grounds. We move in and out of these overlapping spaces.They are not geographical territories, but rather various ways we encounter our human condition as our mind and its world engage in the playful exchange we call, ‘experience.’
In this episode, I would like to invite you to walk the terrain of four grounds with me.the haunted ground; the playground; the training ground; and the sacred ground.
Read MoreWhat do you see when you think about the world?
You might picture a rainforest or desert, You might envision people pushing their way through a crowded subway terminal on their way to work. You might imagine a household or a war zone.
You might think to yourself: “the world is a mess,” or feel touched by the beauty of this place and the beings that inhabit it.
Where exactly is “the” world?
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In Open Question Podcast Episode 303, Sacred World: The Shimmering Apparition, Elizabeth explores the power of words and what it means to go beyond them in the tradition of Prajnaparamita.
"Words ground us in our quest for meaning, and give us avenues for communication with others. As a lover of words, I want to pay tribute to this shimmering apparition we call language.
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When we honestly assess our human condition, we find that our aspiration for wellbeing can be selfishly driven.
We often fail to connect the dots between our innermost longing and the way we move through life. To bring our actions together with our true intentions requires discernment, or prajna, in Sanskrit. Prajna is an inherent resource - but if we don’t recognize, develop, and use it, it will remain dormant.
The question we need to ask ourselves is: “How do we wake it up?”
Read MoreMost spiritual traditions offer teachings on “sacred world” - the promise of a life beyond struggle - the search for a place of ease. This is a noble human quest. And yet, the ‘sacred' often seems to be a place other than where we find ourselves now. How do we reconcile the tension between the spiritual and temporal aspects of life? This is our conundrum. And presents us with a genuine opportunity to explore something crucial to our human being.
Read MoreMarc Andrus is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California. His leadership is focused on key issues related to peace and justice, civil rights, and the environment. Bishop Andrus has just released a new book: Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. In this interview, Elizabeth and Bishop Marc discuss the powerful connection between spirituality and activism, the nature of interdependence, and bodhisattvas in our world.
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In this episode, Elizabeth shares her love of the most quintessential text of Mahayana Buddhism: The Heart Sutra. She weaves her heartfelt comments through a musical composition of the text, performed by Chime Mattis. The episode is an insightful and devotional presentation that can be used for both practice and contemplation.
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In this episode, Our Human Being, Elizabeth shares how, as electronic communication, machine intelligence and global culture become more a part of our world, she is feeling a deep personal need to examine and clarify what it means to be human. She brings her inquiry into the Buddhist context by questioning what the Buddha meant when he said that it is in the human realm that we have the great potential for awakening.
Read MoreIn this episode, Elizabeth and her son, Dungse Jampal Norbu, discuss his project the "Everybodhi Podcast". In his podcast, and this interview, Dungse Jampal offers a fresh and contemporary look at one of Mahayana Buddhism's seminal texts - "The Seven Points on Mind Training", or as it's more commonly known, Lojong. Elizabeth and Dungse la discuss several of Lojong's 59 pithy and playful slogans which were intended to challenge, open and counter our ordinary, habitual mind. It is easy to misinterpret these short slogans and misunderstand their sometimes provocative tone. Dungse Jampal shares his deeply reasoned appreciation of the many precious commentaries available to dharma students today.
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