Diggin' the Dharma
Diggin' the Dharma with Jon Aaron and Doug Smith is a relaxed discussion of the Buddhist dharma between friends. Jon's interest centers around practice, while Doug's centers around scholarship of the early material, so their approaches balance practice with study. Their discussions will be approachable to a broad audience of Buddhists and those curious about Buddhism, and they welcome questions and comments. Jon is a teacher at Space2Meditate and NY Insight Meditation Center and a well known teacher and trainer of teachers of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Doug has a PhD in Philosophy and runs Doug's Dharma on YouTube and the Online Dharma Institute, where he gives courses on early Buddhism. Find them at: https://digginthedharma.com/
Episodes
Silence and solitude are two forms of Buddhist practice of great depth, but also some difficulty for many. Jon and Doug discuss how they appear in the early texts, and how we can practice with them today.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
Joy is an essential aspect of Buddhist practice. And boy do we need joy right now! Jon and Doug discuss how joy can arise for us, and what attitudes and practices can help joy to arise.
Jon's Talk on Joy for Tricycle
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
Jon has been on pilgrimage in India over the last few weeks. He reports in about all he's been experiencing at various Buddhist and other sites.
Links:
Jon's blog posts: JonAaron.net/musings
Where Are You Going: Ajahn Sucitto and Nick Scott https://whereareyougoing.podbean.com/
Doug's video: King Asoka: Buddhism's Great Political Modernist -- https://youtu.be/V4894Ug8Y3c
How do we perceive time, and what can we learn from Buddhist teachings about it? How do we frame the past and the future, not to mention the present? Jon and Doug discuss this topic, inspired by the fact that Jon is currently in India, which is 9.5 hours ahead of the East Coast of the U.S., where Doug is.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.co...
Jon and Doug have a wide-ranging chat with the dharma teacher and peace activitist, Stephen Fulder, founder of Tovana, the Israel Insight Society. We discuss his work in Israel and his new book, How to Thrive in Hard Times.
You can find his book here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Thrive-Hard-Times-Buddhist/dp/1915672740/
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see fu...
What is the role of community in our practice? The sangha is one of the traditional three refuges or jewels of Buddhism. The Buddha also advised at the end of his life to hold the self as our island and refuge, with the dharma as our island and refuge. Jon and Doug discuss how we reconcile these ideals.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
Three key aspects of the seven enlightenment factors are investigation, energy, and joy. What are they, and how can we touch them in our practice?
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
The final aggregate in the set of five is consciousness. What is meant by consciousness/ As an aggregate of clinging, when does it get in the way?
Jon and Doug discuss.
Doug's Video:
The Problem(s) of Consciousness -- https://youtu.be/W1Pn65QZiZs
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
In Buddhism the root of karmic action is in sankharas, a word with many uses in the dharma. As we practice, we can see the sankharas taking shape and then realize we have choices. But even the choices are related to other sankharas and the "wow' of this mind.
Jon and Doug discuss them and how we can view their role in our lives.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further no...
Two days after the US Election, Doug and Jon discuss how they are handling the results. They also discuss how our practice can support us as we look to the future political landscape in the US and the world.
Jon offered this poem by Rilke as a support:
Let This Darkness be a Belltower
Rainer Maria Rilke
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let...
Feeling tone, the pleasure or pain we take in experience, is a central part of dharma. As an aggregate, a foundation of mindfulness, a link in the chain of dependent origination, appreciating, understanding, and directly experiencing Vedana is a key to experiencing freedom.
Jon and Doug have a lively discussion on this topic.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links:...
Doug and Jon continue to explore the Five Aggregates of Clinging (to self) and this week explore Form. How do we cling to form and at what point, does this clinging become suffering? Are doesn't it?
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
Jon and Doug discuss perception and how it's mediated by past experience and the stories we tell. How does it become misperception? How can we work with our perception to live more skillfully and fully?
*this quote is attributed to the Roman poet Phaedrus but it is often used by various Zen teachers
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://...
How does our concept of ourselves and others create suffering? What would it be like to soften this "conceit of self". Understanding and seeing through this conceit, is the last of the higher fetters, which needs to the released before awakening.
Jon and Doug discuss how this comes up in practice.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: ht...
The Buddhist attitude of "nibbidā" or "disenchantment"/"disgust" is central to the early teaching. What is it and how can it help us navigate our lives? Jon and Doug discuss.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
Doug and Jon discuss what forgiveness means in the contact of Buddhism. Is it Buddhist? It's a powerful and important practice but it doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the teachings.
Information on the Class offered by Jon:
Watering the Seeds of Forgiveness
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
Doug has Covid, Jon has a bad microphone, but they're chatting about the Buddha and voting anyway, as well as Buddhist practice and voting. What does 2024 bring for us in the voting booth, and how should we frame our political choices?
To register to vote, and check voter registration in the US:
https://vote.gov/
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further no...
A recent podcast series at the Financial Times discussed serious problems several meditators have had at one popular ten-day Vipassana retreat system. Jon and Doug discuss this and some important work by Brown psychology professor Dr. Willoughby Britton.
Links:
The Retreat — an investigative podcast into the perils of meditation [Financial Times] -- https://www.ft.com/content/b3ec8e57-5cf9-4f96-9267-56c3bcd9c102
Th...
With Jon's impending move to Chicago Jon and Doug discuss the beneficial practice of renunciation. What do we really need?
Video: George Carlin talks about "stuff" -- https://youtu.be/MvgN5gCuLac
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
Silence is so important to Buddhist practice. Jon and Doug discuss how silence impacts practice as well as some of the early tradition around silence.
Go to our website to leave a comment, buy us a coffee, or see further notes and links: https://digginthedharma.com/
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