Mind & Life

In this episode, Wendy speaks with researcher, translator, and Buddhist teacher, Cortland Dahl. Cort's work integrates science, psychology, meditation, and Tibetan Buddhism. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• how meditation helped with his social anxiety as a young person;
• benefits and challenges in the dialogue between Buddhism and science;
• customizing meditation practice in the Healthy Minds app;
• understanding the diversity of contemplative practice;
• analytical meditation;
• meditation as a treatment for mental health problems;
• transcending the conceptual mind, and loosening concepts of self;
• seeing the limits of science;
• looking at well-being through the lens of learning;
• the key role of social connection;
• and moving forward with intellectual humility (knowing that we don't know).

Full show notes and resources

 

In this episode, Wendy speaks with author, Zen priest and Buddhist teacher, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel. Zenju's work highlights how the various facets of our identity can become "fertilizer" for growth on the path of spiritual and personal development. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• growing up in the Christian church, and the questions it raised for her;
• her unusual path into Buddhism;
• how to work with your identity while moving beyond the self;
• the truth of interdependence and cause & effect;
• two truths (relative vs. absolute) in relation to identity;
• bringing together spirituality and social justice;
• the central importance of embodiment;
• integration with nature;
• how contemplative science should proceed;
• and the dance between delusion and enlightenment.

Full show notes and resources