Infinite Smile
300 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsUncovering peace in the midst of busy lives.
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Episodes
ISmile364 - Getting There From Here
November 29, 2018 21:45 - 40 minutes - 65.4 MBMichael discusses how it is that we can carry a practice that allows for us to "get there" in terms of waking up. Among the most necessary approaches to this process is to deconstruct the reality we live in from a personal perspective, at least. This is most easily done by exploring the 5 senses (sight, taste, touch, hearing, and feeling) followed by the 6th sense (Asian teaching points to thought on this sense). The 7th sense involves our sense of time (past and future), the 8th sense involv...
ISmile363 - Thanksgiving, Giving Thanks & Suffering Lite
November 25, 2018 20:51 - 79.2 MBThis evening's talk spans poetry, rock 'n roll, awareness, friendship, and how we can meet our experiences during the Holiday season with care and purpose. In fact, Michael argues, "awareness itself, is gratitude."
ISmile362 - Friendship, Fearlessness, and Focus
November 11, 2018 21:02 - 49 minutes - 93.4 MBAmong the most important aspects of spiritual work is our sense of community. It can inspire us and keep us focused on the needs of the moment. It can also remind us of how necessary it is to make friends with our fear, thus allowing for our actions to be sourced from an undivided sense of purpose.
ISmile361 - It's About About Recognition Not Creation
June 28, 2018 12:50 - 50 minutes - 80.9 MBSo often we find ourselves working to build things that we see as beneficial: a life, a relationship, a home, or even a philosophy that might work to offer us shelter from the chaos of contemporary living. In this talk, Michael offers us a chance to examine this process and consider an alternative. Recognizing what is always, already, in play can shed light on recognition as opposed to creation.
ISmile360 - Tangled Silk
June 25, 2018 13:00 - 50 minutes - 80.4 MBAs the poet, Atticus points out, we are often very complicated beings. This shows up especially in relationships. While any relationship can be a challenge, our intimate relationships are especially good at helping us uncover our attachments. This is at once a challenge and a gift, in terms of spiritual practice. In this talk, Michael discusses relationships and how they offer us opportunities to integrate spiritual teaching.
ISmile359 – Loss
June 21, 2018 13:00 - 51 minutes - 79.7 MBWhat is loss and where does the fear associated with it come from? What about anger? What is grief? How do we best cope with these general attributes of loss and the negativity that it inspires? This evening's podcast goes to the heart of this very human experience.
ISmile358 – Body As Vehicle
June 19, 2018 21:01 - 53 minutes - 80.1 MBIt all happens here, in this very body. While it's critical we not get lost in its desires, enlightenment doesn't happen in any other place. Alex Grey
ISmile357 – Opened By Life
December 19, 2017 11:15 - 51 minutes - 93.4 MBSo often we can feel closed off from ourselves, the world, and those around us. In this talk, Michael discusses another option that leads us on a decidedly different spiritual and psychological trajectory, even when situations are difficult.
ISmile356 – Love And Big Love
December 18, 2017 17:40 - 46 minutes - 85.2 MBIt's all about relationships. Seriously. Everything is related, interdependently, to everything else. Enjoy the podcast of this talk.
ISmile355 – Difficult Gifts That Rock
December 14, 2017 16:58 - 51 minutes - 93.5 MBTopics such as dealing with negativity, difficult people, and situations that challenge us are covered in this talk.
ISmile354 – The 8 Fold Path and Trump
December 12, 2017 16:58 - 54 minutes - 88.7 MBEnjoy this evening's talk on the integration of spirituality into real life experiences, including shopping and politics.
ISmile353 – Lighting Up Darkness
November 16, 2017 23:58 - 58 minutes - 80.9 MBEnjoy this evening's talk, spanning a wide range of spiritual topics.
ISmile352 – Without the Slightest Error
September 21, 2016 22:35 - 53 minutes - 73.9 MBEnjoy this evening's talk on how perfection shows up in the strangest ways.
ISmile 351 – When Hopelessness Rules
September 20, 2016 21:16 - 56 minutes - 77.3 MBThis evening's talk covers a range of topics but centers around the idea that hopelessness offers us freedom. This is covered by Pema Chodron in her book, When Things Fall Apart.
ISmile350 – Stopping the Chase
February 19, 2014 04:59 - 25 minutes - 11.8 MBWhat happens when we really stop? Really. Stop. This question can guide us into an openness that may fundamentally alter our lives. Imagine life without the sniff & scurry, the shake, rattle & roll. Imagine a life where we get past our tendency to chase our own tails. Breaking our addiction to movement, that so many of us have, helps us get past suffering... which is at the core of the Buddha's teaching.
ISmile343 – Checking ID
September 12, 2013 22:44 - 44 minutes - 20.4 MBThis evening’s discussion centers around Michael’s proposal that our identification with ideas, objects, feelings, our bodies, our histories and our perceived destinies will always block any kind of stable awakening.
ISmile 342 – The Qualities of Awakening
May 27, 2013 02:00 - 44 minutes - 20.4 MBIn this evening’s talk, Michael describes the benefits of sangha as a shortcut to uncovering our pre-existing enlightened mind. He further goes into the ways that Awakening manifests in each of us as a series of qualities that show up as being at once conscious and, at the same time, spontaneous. In other words, this talk describes how qualities of flexibility, not knowing, questioning, simplicity, the recognition of what is always prior to mind and body, surrender, patience and discipline. A...
iSmile 341 – No Such Thing As A Mistake
May 23, 2013 01:58 - 51 minutes - 58.5 MBIn this evenings talk, Michael describes the benefits of sangha as a shortcut to uncovering our pre-existing enlightened mind. He further goes into the ways that Awakening manifests in each of us as a series of qualities that show up as being at once conscious and, at the same time, spontaneous. In other words, this talk describes how qualities of flexibility, not knowing, questioning, simplicity, the recognition of what is always prior to mind and body, surrender, patience and discipline. A...
ISmile 340 – Like Your Own Eyes
May 18, 2013 08:57 - 25 minutes - 11.8 MBIn this mashup of two talks, Michael uses the phrase from Dogen Zenjis, Instruction to the Cook, where he suggests that each grain of rice be handled carefully, as if it were your own eyes. Treating our lives this way helps us awaken to the truth that any Tathagatha, or person who actually sees reality, can embody. This embodiment is a gift. Something referred to hal in Arabic, or satori, in Zen is this very gift. But we must earn it. We do this by being open and available vessels that car...
ISmile339 – Dealing With Conflict
January 08, 2013 10:10 - 49 minutes - 22.6 MBWhat happens when we are in the midst of disagreement? This can apply to a marriage, a friendship, a community or (perhaps especially) a legislative debate or an election. The Buddha had some thoughts on this as noted in the famed Quarrel of Kosambi, where he offers some guidance. Engaging in the practice of right speech and right thought can do wonders, according to the teaching. The same applies to the ways in which we deal with our own practice. There are several blocks, by the way, that ...
ISmile338 – If It’s Generous It’s Love
November 23, 2012 09:23 - 46 minutes - 21.1 MBMichael asks the audience in this week's talk, what it is they think that enlightenment will bring them. He then goes forward to suggest that enlightenment will bring nothing to our experience that we don't already have. But its realization can fundamentally alter the course of our lives. Weaving this in to the beauty and the stresses of the holidays the Dharma talk centers around how it is that we can offer up, as Yunmen suggests, an "appropriate response" in the midst of it all.
ISmile337 – David’s First Talk
November 13, 2012 08:35 - 47 minutes - 21.9 MBWhile several of Michael's students have gone through the trials and tribulations of going through the shuso ceremony, where students offer up (among other things) their first Dharma talk, David Fitzgerald was the first to have his inaugural talk to the community recorded. An artist, a father, a retired informational technologist, a poet (as you'll soon hear) and an all-around great guy, David's talk is a reflection of deep wisdom and timeless beauty. Cheers and nice work, David.
ISmile336 – The Fourth Turning of the Wheel of Dharma
October 24, 2012 10:06 - 49 minutes - 22.5 MBSo what is it that gets in the way of Awakening? If we are already Awake, why don't we feel it? According to Michael, wisdom traditions seem to offer up some suggestions. Among the most important pointer is stillness itself. Without stillness there can be no authentic awakening. Period. This simple fact, according to Michael, points us, at least in Buddhist terms, toward the 4th Turning of the Wheel. In his talk he references Ken Wilber's recording titled, The Five Reasons You're Not Enlight...
ISmile335 – Living Dangerously
October 01, 2012 10:01 - 30 minutes - 14.2 MBIf we're willing to follow our fear and our negativity with our whole being, according to Michael, we are offered an opportunity to awaken. The loosening of our individual consciousness into a universal awareness is the byproduct of an authentic meditation practice that helps us face these fears and negativity with grace. Watching the bondage inherent in our individual consciousness, he continues, allows for the Freedom of universal awareness to open through us. Practicing this "watching" sup...
ISmile334 – Engaging Life As Its Witness
September 04, 2012 10:05 - 51 minutes - 23.5 MBIn this talk, Michael walks meditators through the rough stages of spiritual ascendancy. With practice, he shows, the egoic structures as their practice deepens. He goes on to suggest that the felt-sense of what's real is what we call, "love." Also, he talks about the spiritual journey, from his own writing, where he suggests that we have a chance to recognize that everything is an extension of who and what we think we are. We see, as he suggests that from the nondual perspective, we are exte...
ISmile333 – The Practice of Forgiveness
August 03, 2012 09:11 - 45 minutes - 21 MBThe more we can forgive, the deeper our practice becomes.
ISmile332 – Dealing With War
July 30, 2012 09:11 - 50 minutes - 23 MBThe Zen saying "Drinking this cup of green tea, I stop the war" offers us a chance to explore our own relationship with war. While it may sound passive and irresponsible on the surface, how we meet even the most basic activities internally, supports how we meet things, especially conflict, externally. So how do we meet war? Are we "anti-war" and, thus, at war with war? Or are we "pro-peace," where we are not at war with war? This exploration is especially relevant in today's world, where its ...
ISmile331 – Healing Ourselves, Healing the World
July 27, 2012 10:31 - 50 minutes - 23 MB"This deep, spiritual work," according to Michael, "is ultimately, is about resolve." In Stephen Batchelor's, Buddhism Without Beliefs, this idea of committed, fearlessness is supported where he suggests that we continually take accurate stock of our lives and then live from this place of honesty with resolve. While these suggestions are simple, they are not necessarily easy. Accepting as Suzuki Roshi says, "Things as it is," and then acting consciously from this recognition. Anything less se...
ISmile330 – Love’s Fire
July 10, 2012 09:00 - 31 minutes - 14.3 MBMichael points out, in this talk, how we must be willing to let go of our old habits in order to develop new ones. As Joseph Campbell says, "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come." With this in mind, the issue of love and it's fire unfold in the Dharma talk. Do we have the strength, so to speak, to truly let go; to allow for the Universe to have its way through us? A prac...
ISmile329 – At Peace With Death
June 25, 2012 08:25 - 51 minutes - 23.5 MBIt's about meeting every experience without avoidance or greed. In this radical honesty fearlessness will always reign.
ISmile328 – Fear On The Path
June 20, 2012 11:23 - 40 minutes - 18.6 MBWhether you are a beginning meditator or a seasoned practitioner, fear can be a useful tool in this work. Practicing, for example, in the midst of our fear shows us a path toward a new perspective where we no longer end up getting paralyzed by fear but instead are inspired by it. This may sound counter-intuitive but when we get to know our fear intimately, we are offered the chance to see through it. In these moments of transparency, we begin to recognize the temporary nature of fear as well ...
ISmile327 – Karma’s a Bitch
April 05, 2012 10:28 - 46 minutes - 21.2 MBMichael works with The Book of Serenity's, Case #76 as a way of describing the path of attainment. He also weaves into this description an application of how people come together and separate in relationships. By using the phrase, "The moon sets, midnight going through the marketplace," he points toward the teaching that there is a peace underneath whatever tangle, or karma, that we might face. With this in mind, he then pushes forward into the realm of his own situation, where he and his wif...
ISmile326 – How To Let Go
March 13, 2012 21:12 - 42 minutes - 19.4 MBIn this evening's talk, Michael looks at the three components to truly letting go. He first begins with the aspiration for awakening. Secondly, he points to the appreciation of what we have been given in this life. Thirdly, he points to the need for there to be a resolve when it comes to practice itself. In this letting go, freedom, fearlessness and joy tend to arise of their own accord, even when situations might not be to our liking. Michael points to a deep unity that we can feel when we c...
ISmile325 – Video: Comparing Christian and Buddhist Versions of Love
February 22, 2012 14:47 - 51 minutes - 604 MB VideoIn this video, Michael discusses the idea of love as inspired by Paul's letter to Corinthians, Chapter 13. He then compares the Christian version of love to a decidedly Buddhist interpretation, drawing on the idea that love can be seen as a simple, felt sense of the Infinite. Michael's inspiration for this talk came out of a visit to his childhood church and a discussion he had with his friend and minister of this organization.
ISmile324 – When Practice Deepens
February 17, 2012 09:00 - 48 minutes - 22 MBOne of the things that Zen practice leaves out, according to Michael McAlister, is a more direct approach to uncovering the Witness. This simple awareness, is all there ever is, and in this talk, Michael uses a piece by Ken Wilber in order to point out this constant Witness as a way for deepening a practice. Following this part of the talk, Michael goes on to describe what can be expected as practice deepens and what meditators can expect as the process unfolds.
ISmile323 – The Enormity of What You Really Are
February 10, 2012 08:30 - 37 minutes - 17.4 MBWhen we let ourselves truly recognize what lies beyond our preferences and our attachments, we begin to get a sense of how expansive we really are. This recognition can be an explosive experience that rattles us to our core, scaring us from continuing our practice. In this talk, Michael encourages us to stay the course, and as he points out in his book, Awake in This Life, letting the magnitude of what we are work its mystery through us. Doing so tends to break down all sorts of areas of iden...
ISmile322 – Conscious Choice
January 13, 2012 08:00 - 39 minutes - 17.9 MB"There is only choice," as Michael has pointed out. Even not choosing is a choice. Even in spontaneous expressions of joy or pain, we choose how we will relate to the ways in which we meet these experiences. When we open to the truth that all things are temporary, our choices begin to take on a different kind of quality; one in which we consciously begin to see that all of our choices either take us into the light of awakening or away from it. With this in mind, Michael points out the ways i...
ISmile321 – It All Starts With Forgiveness
December 21, 2011 09:00 - 49 minutes - 22.7 MBIn this evening's talk, Michael discusses the opportunity that each and every life event, no matter how great or how small, how wonderful or how dark, gives each of us the chance to awaken. He points to what is always prior to any experience and equates this "priority" to the teaching at the core of the Zen koan: What did your face look like before your parents were born. From here the talk points to our tendency to cling to all aspects of our mind: our memories, our convictions and our plans...
ISmile320 – Living Without Insulation
December 07, 2011 16:08 - 44 minutes - 20.4 MBWhen we commit to directly knowing, as we say in Zen, our True Nature, we have to be willing to give everything up. Everything. Lingering attachments work to insulate us from a full exposure to this very life that we are leading, according to Michael in this evening's talk. "When awakening happens," he says, "there is the realization that all form is experienced within the emptiness of the True Self... this is Buddha." To what extent are we committed to uncovering this realization? Do we he...
ISmile319 – Rubber Bands and Shortcuts
November 30, 2011 21:37 - 39 minutes - 18.2 MBIn this talk, Michael addresses several issues; among them, how we often lose the view we've been offered by insight. He's written about this and calls it "The Rubber Band Effect," and suggests that we take pains to examine its source. Doing so helps us see not only how practice helps us develop a greater steadiness as we meet the world, but also our meditation helps to cultivate deepen our acceptance of what is actually happening in each moment. He also addresses an article that was shared ...
ISmile318 – Thanksgiving and Emptiness
November 24, 2011 10:46 - 38 minutes - 17.6 MBTo begin with, all of us at Infinite Smile offer each of you well wishes as we begin the holiday season. We also are so thankful for all of your support and participation in this project of awakening. Recognizing our gratitude elevates our experience as human beings, so taking this time to appreciate all of the blessings each of us has seem appropriate. The fact that you listen and support us as a community makes a difference to many people. With this in mind, we seem to be trained in this c...
ISmile317 – Stepping Beyond Heart and Mind
November 18, 2011 16:05 - 42 minutes - 19.4 MBRegardless of our tradition, we can reduce our spiritual practice to its component pieces and find that Buddhism's Four Noble Truths offers us a path toward freedom. We first recognize our anguish, we then see it's cause as our clinging, we then realize a freedom from our clinging is possible and finally we see that there is a teaching that helps support a stabilization of this realization of freedom.
ISmile316 – Meditating Through Life’s Mess
November 09, 2011 11:51 - 45 minutes - 20.8 MBMichael begins this talk with the following quotation from Rilke's Duino Elegies: For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to destroy us. This sets up his talk by making the point that it's in our desire to categorize and compartmentalize experience that we defile what's being offered. He goes on to say that "if we don't mess with suffering we free ourselves from suffering's mess." While this may so...
ISmile315 – The One Precept: Do No Harm
October 26, 2011 14:20 - 46 minutes - 21.4 MBIn this talk, Michael speaks about how the One Precept of "Doing No Harm" can actualize the potential of awakening in any situation. Along these lines, Michael openly shares how he and his wife have separated so that their marriage might be exposed to a more powerful expanse of clarity. He relates this shared decision to the One Precept and how both he and his wife wanted to make sure that the resistance patterns that arose out of their ten-year relationship didn't adversely affect their kids...
ISmile314 – Poetry, Laughter, Love and Levels of Consciousness
October 19, 2011 15:00 - 48 minutes - 22.4 MBActively meeting inspiration through poetry can make a huge difference as we move through the world. The same applies to uncovering the things that crack us up. Laughter matters since it is a celebration of the unexpected and defines an unattached space that we can enjoy if we're available to it. Similarly, being available to love changes us in that it allows for a felt sense of the Absolute. This felt sense of the Absolute leads us onto the path of an expanding consciousness that can be map...
Encore: ISmile100 – Working With Pain
October 11, 2011 10:39 - 30 minutes - 26 MBClick here or on the title in order to listen to Michael's talk. To subscribe to this podcast, paste this address directly into a podcast aggregator. This will automatically download new discussions on a regular basis. The easiest option is to download the new iTunes software and subscribe to this podcast from the Buddhist and/or Philosophy sections of the Religion & Spirituality list. ____ How can we ever become truly intimate with our emotional and physical pain? Or, in Buddhist terms, h...
ISmile313 – Losing Spirituality’s Training Wheels
October 05, 2011 11:57 - 44 minutes - 20.6 MBThere comes a point in our practice where we consciously let go of everything that has supported our work. It's not that we reject or avoid anything but rather that we stop holding on to all that's familiar. This is especially true when we let go of our personal stories of right and wrong; of who we are and who we aren't; of who is with us and who is against us. Getting past all of this mind activity tends to open us in interesting ways. We begin to see that there is nothing to hold on to, bu...
ISmile312 – Vanity and Other Wars With Reality
September 22, 2011 13:22 - 44 minutes - 20.4 MBWhen we can accept reality as it is, we can no longer find ourselves to be at war with it. There is nothing to resist, in other words, when we are no longer clinging to any expectation that things should turn out a certain way. When we can rest in this space, we open to our True Nature. When we can live from our True Nature, we find that we always have everything that we could possibly need with us all of the time. This takes practice and discipline. It takes a fearlessness that allows for u...
ISmile311 – When Seeking Ends
September 15, 2011 10:00 - 41 minutes - 19 MBWe often begin our spiritual journey because we're at the end of our rope. We seek ways to avoid our discomfort. Unfortunately, when our practice centers itself around seeking we find that our progress along the path is continually blocked. Authentic spiritual work helps us shift our perspective in radical ways, especially when it comes to seeking. Rather than our meditation helping us to develop the strength necessary to hang to our rope, so to speak, with greater efficiency, we find that ...
ISmile310 – The Heart of Trust
September 07, 2011 16:01 - 51 minutes - 23.8 MBKanshi Sosan's work, The Mind of Absolute Trust, offers us some great guidance in relation to meeting our lives fully. Michael leads the sangha in a reading and brief interactive analysis of the text, pointing out how we might best integrate the meaning of the text within our day-to-day lives. "Learning to trust the Universe," Michael says, "means we can trust ourselves. In trusting ourselves, we can begin to trust others more fully."