Infinite Smile
300 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsUncovering peace in the midst of busy lives.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
ISmile 105- The Three Levels of Practice
February 28, 2006 20:00 - 32 minutes - 30.6 MBIn tonight's talk, Michael discusses how our practice can be light, medium or deep. Deep practice takes us to the ragged edge of our personal limitations and in the process show us the view of the Impersonal. Questions and comments deal with consciously letting the dharma get us wet; dealing with this practice as well as a partner who doesn't practice; and patience that comes with deep practice.
CommuterZen17 – Traditional Traps
February 23, 2006 04:02 - 5 minutes - 11.2 MB VideoEither click HERE to watch Michael's talk in a new window, or click on the video screen below. 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 Religion & Spirituality list. ____ In this video response Michael addresses the way that traditions can get in the way of Awakening.
CommuterZen16 – Attachment to Faith
February 21, 2006 02:00 - 9 minutes - 21 MB VideoEither click HERE to watch Michael's talk in a new window, or click on the video screen below. Download the new iTunes software and subscribe to this podcast from the Religion & Spirituality list. ____ In this video podcast Michael addresses the issue of attaching to the stories of our mind as well as our religious conditioning.
CommuterZen15 – Witnessing Skepticism
February 20, 2006 01:17 - 4 minutes - 7.57 MB VideoEither click HERE to watch Michael's talk in a new window, or click on the video screen below. Download the new iTunes software and subscribe to this podcast from the Religion & Spirituality list. ____ In this video response Michael addresses the issue of the ever-present witnessing awareness as brought up by one of his listeners known as the Jewish Atheist.
Ismile 104- All Things are Temporary
February 15, 2006 09:40 - 27 minutes - 23.2 MBCan we really count on anything? Anything at all? In tonight's talk, Michael discusses how Nietszche's suggestion that "change is the only constant" holds true for all things. Questions and comments deal with attachment to personal views; and how all of this can relate to koan study.
ISmile 103- Enlightened By all Things
February 07, 2006 18:00 - 29 minutes - 25.2 MBHow is it that we can have experiences of Grace and Awakening but then fall back into the places of contraction? In tonight's talk, Michael suggests that grace and ease in life only arise when there is surrender. This shows itself as generosity and fearlessness. This is how Dogen Zenji's comments about how "when we study the self, we forget the self, and when we forget the self we are enlightened by all things. Questions and comments deal with gratitude; coping with people who are not as cons...
ISmile 102- When Awakening Leaks
February 04, 2006 16:06 - 26 minutes - 22.3 MBHow is it that we can have experiences of Grace and Awakening but then fall back into the places of contraction? In tonight's talk, Michael points out Dogen Zenji's "3 Leaks" as a way for us not to defile our opening to the Deep Singularity. Also recognizing the 3 Leaks helps to inspire a deeper and deeper practice that takes us from the winds of life into the eye of the hurricane. Questions and comments deal with poetic representations of the Infinite; recognizing the that being in nature an...
ISmile 101- Preferences Point to Attachment
January 31, 2006 03:00 - 29 minutes - 25 MBWhat happens when attachments are subtle? In tonight's talk, Michael suggests that giving our full attention to our preferences allows us to walk along what Nagarjuna called the Middle Way. Questions and comments deal with reconciling one's religious upbringing with Buddhist practice; recognizing the simple benefits of a practice; seeing that we're all part of the same tribe; and gratitude for authenticity.
ISmile 100- Working With Pain
January 27, 2006 15:00 - 30 minutes - 26 MBHow can we ever become truly intimate with our emotional and physical pain? Or, in Buddhist terms, how can we welcome Mara? . In tonight's talk Michael suggests that our pain is often a better guide along the Path than pleasure. Countless sages have spoken to this but Michael uses the words of Thomas Merton and Rumi to point out this aspect of our work where "all the buddhas are practicing". Questions and comments deal with the issue of constant physical pain; facing our emotional pain with t...
ISmile 99- Sufferings End
January 21, 2006 14:00 - 33 minutes - 28.1 MBHow can we open our hearts and minds as wide as the night sky? How can we practice being unafraid of not knowing? . In tonight's talk Michael suggests that we meet all positive and negative experiences with total openness. This "non-position" generates a quietude and a pulsating radiance beyond boundaries. Michael also suggests that the story of Beowulf reminds us that this openness can only occur when we enter into the lake of our deepest fear rather than getting tormented and ultimately eat...
ISmile 98- Slowness and Balance
January 17, 2006 16:00 - 33 minutes - 28.8 MBSo how do we become intimate with our moment to moment experience? How can we slow down? As a college student, Michael found that the film Koyaanisqatsi suggested that a way towards balance must be found if we're to live consciously. This is the topic of tonight's talk where Michael suggests an exercise that opens us up to noting our experience with radical honesty and how this can create an expanse in consciousness. This expanse spontaneously brings our lives into balance since we begin to o...
ISmile 97- How the 23rd Psalm Points to the Heart of Awakening
January 14, 2006 02:00 - 9 minutes - 8.59 MBWould Christ and Buddha have agreed that surrendering to the uncertainty of circumstantial living helps us walk with enlightened feet? In this short talk Michael suggests that the 23rd Psalm points to this walk. Creating an intimacy with uncertainty allows us to "not want" for anything and we are then led "beside the still water" and it is here that every "cup runneth over".
ISmile 96- Jumping out of a Perfectly Good Airplane
January 10, 2006 22:00 - 33 minutes - 29.8 MBHow is it that almost everything we do is in the service of feeling greater connectivity? In this talk Michael uses quotes by Plotinus and Suzuki Roshi in order to point us toward that in us which is always connected and never separate from anything. Once this recognition happens, we come back into the world with new eyes, a new mind, and a new heart, all of which are expansive enough to contain the entire Universe. Questions and comments deal with letting go of the dharma talk; deep intercon...
ISmile 95- It Is Not about Intellect
January 07, 2006 09:00 - 25 minutes - 21.4 MBHow can we ever conceive the Truth if it's totally beyond conception? In this talk Michael offers a personal account of his teacher using the koan "Shaoushan's Three Phrases" in order to help him go beyond the mind. Michael also discusses how, in addition, to Shaoushan, the contemporary bodhisattva Fred Rogers supported the recognition of timeless perfection in all beings. Questions and comments deal with letting go of realization, as well as struggling with other practitioners during walking...
ISmile 94- Some Basics
January 03, 2006 23:00 - 25 minutes - 22 MBIs there a way to simplify any of this? What do the basics look like? In this talk Michael breaks these timeless teachings down into some simple themes, beginning with Yasutani Roshi's explanation of our fundamental delusion. From here there is an exploration of the causes of this delusion of separation followed up with an explanation of our Path toward a unity with all things.
ISmile 93- Love
December 19, 2005 16:00 - 29 minutes - 25.7 MBWhat about love? In this talk Michael suggests that Big Love has nothing to do with our understanding and craving of the rush that small love brings. In fact, he uses the words of Rumi to point out how what is really necessary for Big Love to inform all of our circumstances. The unfolding of Big Love and the ultimate surrender to it allows us to live from the roots of Being. Furthermore, the Four Horsemen of Relationship, as articulated by John Gottman, begin to lose traction upon the path of...
ISmile 92- Questioning
December 14, 2005 23:00 - 33 minutes - 29.4 MBZen centers itself around questioning. In this talk Michael suggests that we get past ego's habitual inertia by recognizing its tendency to "fortify itself against vulnerability". From here we allow acceptance and non-attachment to support our spiritual work. In this way, authentic awakening, like Zen itself, is about the questioning that is informed by Unknowing. Questions and comments deal with equanimity surrounding President Bush and Fox News; the difference between questioning and needin...
ISmile 91- Four moves that Keep us from the Absolute
November 29, 2005 23:00 - 33 minutes - 28.8 MBDainin Katagiri Roshi speaks eloquently about authentic stillness in his work Returning to Silence. In this talk Michael, and his students, add commentary to the idea that even in great activity we can uncover a liberating and spacious silence and stillness. The Absolute and conventional levels of experience are addressed, as well as four egoic moves that keep us from this stillness. Questions and comments deal with not understanding anything Michael says; staying still as we deal with the la...
ISmile90- Not Caught by Thought
November 20, 2005 12:00 - 30 minutes - 27.2 MBRecognizing that Awareness is not thought is one of the key steps that all practitioners must take on the Path to Awakening. In this talk Michael suggests that shifting our approach to day-to-day living from thought into Awareness allows us to lose our addiction to the carefully crafted mask of ego. The contemporary Zen-teacher Shunryu Suzuki was once described as being "nothing extra". This lack of extra is the openness that practice supports. Apologies for the volume issues, but questions d...
ISmile89- Spiritual Earthquakes
November 16, 2005 13:00 - 33 minutes - 28.7 MBWhenever the Infinite brushes up against that in us which is contracted we are given an opportunity to Awaken. Realigning our relationship with these "run ins" with the Infinite can bring about conscious participation with each of these spiritual earthquakes that help us along the path. In this talk Michael contextualizes our intentions behind our participation with others along the Path, and reflects upon both shallow and deep levels of consciousness. Questions deal with the realization that...
ISmile88 – No Teacher Can Enlighten You
November 15, 2005 03:00 - 24 minutes - 21.8 MBLike all things, we have a limited amount of time. Or, as the African proverb says, "Two people shouldn't argue when their house is on fire". With this in mind, how should we use our time wisely? In this talk Michael reviews the essential nature of all things: all things are temporary, all things are interdependent, and all things are inherently empty. He then suggests that any authentic spiritual practice will support the recognition of these qualities, and in doing so we develop what he cal...
Commuter Zen: Passion, the Feeling of Surrender, Intoxication, and Frustration
November 14, 2005 03:30 - 25 minutes - 21.9 MBDo authentic spiritual paths leave us without passion? And what does surrender feel like anyway? In this talk Michael suggests practices that support a deeper way of living where life's joys are celebrated and cultivated in ways that wake us up rather than shut us down.
ISmile 87- The Radiant Clarity of Emptiness
November 06, 2005 22:29 - 4 minutes - 4.03 MBSo what does it mean to have a felt sense of our True Nature? What does it mean to cut through the veils of delusion and have a felt sense of the Radiant Clarity of Emptiness? In this talk Michael suggests that we can uncover our deepest Freedom when we carefully study our relationships to our possessions, our circumstances, and our thoughts. In doing this we begin to see that our comparing mind, our addictions, and our convictions gain exposure to a Liberation that frees life. Questions deal...
ISmile 86- Thoughts are Things
October 31, 2005 08:00 - 33 minutes - 27.6 MBHow exactly do we cut through delusion and have a direct experience of the Truth beyond name and form? We begin by studying our resistance so that we can uncover the source of delusion, then we practice letting it go. In this talk Michael points out how we can look at ALL things as aspects of mind, and then how we can deconstruct these aspects. All things, according to the Yogacarra School are temporary, interdependent, and Empty at their essence. Opening to this process consciously supports ...
Ismile 85- The New Relationship to Time and Mind
October 25, 2005 20:01 - 30 minutes - 25.2 MBWhat are we doing here? What is this practice and what are we striving for, especially when the teaching tells us not to strive for anything? In this talk Michael points out that we Awaken when we follow these questions to their core. Opening to forgiveness and to the radically simple impulse of the Universe's evolution, we recognize how living from the delusion of past and future inhibits every chance we might have at opening to Spirit. So we move beyond past and future. In doing this we ...
ISmile 84- Awakening is Play
October 18, 2005 20:30 - 30 minutes - 25.4 MBThe great sage Bodhidharma tells us that "the wise among us" don't attach, and therefore wake up. This Awakening is nothing less than play infused with, and spawned from, the Divine. In this talk Michael points to a map that leads us both to as well as from our soul. The Sufi poet Rumi suggests that activity from our soul is nothing less than joy and living from here is playing with the Divine. Playing with the Divine carries us consciously from our bodies, into our minds, into our souls, arr...
ISmile 83- The 5 Stages of Ego Grieving its own death
October 15, 2005 23:00 - 26 minutes - 22.1 MBEihei Dogen asks us if we can't "find Truth where we are where do we expect to find it". Yet this is difficult to practically apply since usually we live our lives from a position of lack. In this talk Michael suggests that it is this perpetual sense of lack that gets in the way of uncovering Truth. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's Five Stages of Grief are experienced by the ego, however, the minute Truth begins to uncover Itself in our experience. We have to face our lives in ways that lead to the wh...
ISmile 82- Negativity Shows Us Home
October 11, 2005 08:03 - 33 minutes - 27.7 MBNegativity is merely the resistance to what is happening in this very moment. Despite this, in whatever its form negativity points us toward Awakening. Even in the face of horror and tragedy this teaching offers each of us an opportunity to Awaken. In this talk, Michael suggests that watching our resistance to what is going on in the world with our full attention, helps us move beyond the traps and snares of our inner negativity. From here we begin to see how we are invited home to Infinity o...
ISmile 81- Losing Our Enemies
October 08, 2005 22:45 - 29 minutes - 23.5 MBThe words of the Buddhist sage Nagarjuna can suggest that the only way for the Ultimate Truth to become significant to us is if we take great care to know the conventional truth. In this talk, Michael points out that Nagarjuna's words suggest that we need to become intimate with all things, especially our enemies, in order to Awaken. This difficult but necessary step is our opening to Spirit. Nietzsche similarly suggests that "once we stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss stares back". ...
ISmile 80- Being Freedom 2
October 05, 2005 22:09 - 33 minutes - 26.8 MBSo what does it really mean to live in just this very moment? Rumi says that "Past and future veil God from our site", but how do we cut through this veil as we lead contemporary lives? In this talk, Michael suggests that stilling everything that moves offers us a direct path to an experiential relationship with Spirit. Doing this work is something that only we can do for ourselves, however, since no one can ever do it for us. When we fully and consciously give intention to recognizing how we...
ISmile79 – Uncovering the Kosmic Giggle
October 01, 2005 01:15 - 22 minutes - 17.9 MBDespite the fact that the present moment is all that we ever have, we build lives around past wrongs and future wants. In this talk, Michael points toward ways that we can recognize the difference between the contracted, dense, and "heavy self" and the open, vast, and "Infinite Self". From this recognition, our intention in life begins to shift from one to All and the continual revelation of the present moment starts to align itself through our activity. This is the point where we can start t...
ISmile78 – Transforming Not Translating
September 24, 2005 02:01 - 33 minutes - 26.8 MBKen Wilber has written beautifully on the issue of egoic translation being mistaken for Spiritual transformation. In this talk, Michael suggests a path for each of us that supports transformation. When this authentic transformative practice manifests we find that instead of living our life as a series of translations in the realm of gain and loss, we can live from beyond time and mind as a mysterious, open sharing with all beings. In this open sharing we are no longer blown around, as is said...
ISmile 77- Ego’s Etch-a-Sketch
September 20, 2005 22:15 - 32 minutes - 26.5 MBSometimes it can help to look at egoic moves in one of four directions: toward acquisition, toward aversion, toward the past, or toward the future. In this talk, Michael suggests that instead of living our life in this two-dimensionality, we can open to a three-dimensionality, or even multi-dimensionality, once we study our craving and our resistance. Along these lines, Michael discusses the difference between egoic judgment and egoless discriminating awareness. Questions relate to death beco...
ISmile76 – Receiving the Big Fat Kiss
September 16, 2005 00:00 - 32 minutes - 26.1 MBWhat is the "experiencer", the "seer", or the "Witness" of our experience? In this talk, Michael explains how our attention to our experience, if offered fully, allows for a profound expansion in our consciousness. He suggests, as mentioned in the Lankavatara Sutra, that our awareness of Awareness is another name for our consciousness. Viewing our lives from this Awareness allows all of our negativity and resistance patterns to become less and less significant in our conventional, or normal, ...
ISmile75 – Why Meditate?
September 13, 2005 21:54 - 31 minutes - 25.5 MBWhy meditate? Really. Can't we awaken without stillness? In this talk, Michael suggests that awakening can only happen through stillness because it is only in the still spaces between our thoughts that the present moment can ever be accessed consciously. And it is only in this conscious meeting of our circumstances that we can ever be free of our habitual psychological inertia. He points to the simplicity of seeing and accepting life as it is as well as the various moves that ego makes in ord...
ISmile74 – The Full Monty of Consciousness
September 09, 2005 13:00 - 26 minutes - 21.7 MBWhat does it mean to have a life oriented around a radical honesty? This occurs spontaneously as we incorporate stillness into our awareness of what is happening in each moment. Michael uses Rainer Maria Rilke's words to start us off on the relationship between beauty and honesty. In this talk, Michael suggests that being clear about what's really going on in body and mind allows us to fearlessly approach all circumstances. And in this fearlessness wisdom evolves through us. Questions relate ...
ISmile73 – From Eternity to Here
September 06, 2005 13:55 - 21 minutes - 17.4 MBThere have been several requests for some guided meditation. Here we have it. Just sit back and relax as Michael talks us from Eterntity to here in about 20 minutes.
ISmile72 – Popping the Balloon of Ego
September 01, 2005 07:22 - 27 minutes - 22.7 MBHaving the courage to authentically engage in a stillness practice means that we are ready to move past our resistance patterns. This is when we can consciously "pop the balloon" that acts as the boundary of the separate self. In this talk, Michael suggests that only a continual, and fearless, commitment to consciously meeting our life will allow for us to get through our residual patterns of clinging. Questions include issues like the relative size of ego and its relative "pop"; signs of res...
ISmile 71- Not mindless but no mind
August 30, 2005 21:48 - 32 minutes - 26.6 MBMind, or what we might also call ego, can only survive in two places: either in the past or in the future. But what about the space between our thoughts? This openness is what in Zen we call "No Mind". In this talk, Michael suggests that the practice of letting go into, and from, this empty field of No Mind allows for us to source our activity from Spirit. This activity is compassion. Questions deal with what we might do in situations where we feel criticized, and how we can develop a sense o...
ISmile70 – Awakening Begins With Forgiveness
August 25, 2005 05:45 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MBLetting go of everything, and then acting from this place of radical surrender is the manifestation of Awakening. But how do we do this in practical terms? In this talk, Michael offers us a some pointers on how to practice both surrender and forgiveness in ways that lead each of us to orient our lives around an expansive sense of grace and ease.
ISmile69 – The Three Stages of Practice: Recognition, Resistance, & Renunciation
August 18, 2005 06:49 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MBIf it's all only Spirit, why should we meditate? Couldn't it be that meditation is designed to fail in getting us closer to what's already totally present? In this talk, Michael discusses these questions and suggests how practice unfolds along three stages. Beginning with Recognition, where we are essentially invited to the party, ego fuels our search. Following this, practitioners can often lose their footing when the "dark night of the soul" arises in the phase known as Resistance. Crossing...
ISmile 68- The Eightfold Path of Banana Peels
August 11, 2005 09:05 - 32 minutes - 22.3 MBIn Buddhist teaching, we refer to the Fourth Noble Truth as the Eightfold Path. Following this Path shows us a map that leads directly to Awakening. But the Path often seems to be covered, metaphorically at least, with banana peels that cause us to slip and fall as we practice. In this talk, Michael discusses how we can walk the Eightfold Path with an intention supported by ethics and stillness even as we tumble. Questions deal with: the continual showing of delusion's veils; attaching to pra...
ISmile67 – Just Like Me
August 09, 2005 19:35 - 33 minutes - 23.2 MBOur normal state is intertwined with addiction to ego. Yet addiction to non-addiction is not the goal. In this talk, Michael deals with the middle way of practice in which we begin to uncover our ability to unfold as Spirit in Action for all beings AS all beings. This means that all things are ultimately "just like me". From Emptiness all things are simply one and the same. This expression of deep equality in the world of form means that it is at times an appropriate response to participate i...
ISmile66 – Do We Have the Strength?
August 04, 2005 15:08 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MBMeditation is not enough to support an authentic practice. Nor is the reading of scripture. Nor is just listening to Dharma talks. There must be a fire that fuels our meeting of Spirit. In this talk, Michael deals with accessing that very fire. Shunryu Suzuki, Plotinus, and Nisargadatta Maharaj represent Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism in dealing with this apprehension of Spirit. Questions deal with: resistance to sitting; uncovering what we really want; and, our relationship to the "wee...
ISmile65 – Real Living
July 28, 2005 16:17 - 18 minutes - 7.75 MBWhat does it mean to meet your life? How is it that we can really show up in the face of everything? In this talk, Michael discusses how the practice of stillness allows for us to transcend our reactivity to life's circumstances in favor of fearlessly opening to all of its possibilities. Rather than life happening "to us", it happens "within our Awareness". This rearranges our usual relationship with our thoughts, feelings, our past, and future.
ISmile64 – Making Friends With Death
July 14, 2005 17:12 - 26 minutes - 10.8 MBAuthentic spiritual practice takes enormous courage since ultimately we are forced to face the temporary nature of all things... including all of our relationships. In this talk, Michael discusses how the radical acceptance of things as they are leads us into a spaciousness beyond the contraction of fear. This allows us to make friends with change and dance with reckless abandon. Questions relate to grief, the inherent dislike of change, and, of course, being afraid to dance with reckless aba...
ISmile63 – Getting Beyond the Veil
July 12, 2005 06:50 - 31 minutes - 13 MBThe minute we drop our defenses, our awareness begins to fill a deeper context, thus allowing us to see through the veil of our delusion. In this talk, Michael suggests that we take Sri Ramana Maharshi's advice to heart and follow our "I-sense" to its core. Doing this allows us to begin sharing a fearless humility that ultimately helps us cut through delusion. Questions relate to creativity, non-attachment to outcome, bowing to our thoughts, and the discomfort that arises as our practice deep...
ISmile62 – Walking Awake
July 07, 2005 17:01 - 29 minutes - 12.1 MBHow do we bring Awakening into our day-to-day walk through the world? In this talk, Michael offers what mystics have been talking about for centuries: let wisdom inspire compassion, while at the same time let compassion inspire wisdom. When these two components to enlightenment become mutually supportive, we begin to walk through the world with Awakened steps.
ISmile61 – At the Core of Everything: the Ninth Sense
June 30, 2005 06:23 - 29 minutes - 12.1 MBWhat is the Source of all things? In this talk, Michael pushes the limits of language by discussing the nature of Emptiness as it relates to the human experience. How is it that the experience of Emptiness is paradoxically so full, thus inspiring mystical teachings for millenia. And how does the experience of Emptiness relate to our physical senses as well as our sense of time and mind? What is beyond our sense of time and mind anyway? The great sage Nagarjuna offers some guidance along this ...
ISmile60 – The Teachings of an Entire Lifetime
June 28, 2005 22:28 - 33 minutes - 11.5 MBWhat does it mean to embody a continually appropriate response to all that arises in our awareness? In this talk, Michael discusses how everything supports Awakening to the Absolute for ourselves and others as long as we meet our circumstances with deep openness. Anything less is a contraction that limits our ability to respond to life appropriately. When we can face our own and others' deeply singular nature, we can recognize the freedom inherent in all circumstances. So what is an appropria...