Shambhala SunSpace » Rod Meade Sperry

Author Profile: Rod Meade Sperry

Shambhala Sun Audio: An interview with “How To Be Sick” author Toni Bernhard

Shambhala SunSpace readers recently had the pleasure of meeting Toni Bernhard via a guest post called “Why would a law professor write a Buddhist book on chronic illness?” Toni’s expertise, of course, isn’t merely scholarly: she actually has a chronic illness, and her new book, How To Be Sick, offers her hard-won lessons on living with that illness, many of which are informed by her Buddhist practice.

In this exclusive Shambhala Sun Audio interview, Toni speaks about how she’s come to find joy despite the pain and limitations caused by her sickness. She also offers a practice that she uses “every day, in every way” — and that she considers “the greatest antidote to clinging.” Click though to listen. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

September 1, 2010 – 3:09 pm

| Tagged Audio, Happiness, Health & Healing, Your Practice | Comments (2)

Meditation: So, what’s YOUR story?

Photo: kinworks.net

Recently a “Facebook friend” — though I bet he’d be my “in-person friend” if we lived near each other — posted what seemed to me to be an especially intriguing status update:

Meditation at Navy Medical Center this morning. After meditation one guy said, “Wow, thank you… I had no idea my mind moved so fast!”…It was the process of watching the mind that allowed him to see how much it jumps. It was his first ever meditation.

I didn’t quite get the context for this inspiring little story, but I knew I wanted to hear more. And then I got to thinking how much I’d like to know if our readers might share their own stories of first-ever or otherwise breakthrough meditation experiences — large and small. Sure, it’s a personal thing to talk about — but maybe doing so will help us help each other keep up the energy and will it sometimes takes to keep meditating.

After the jump: Facebook friend Jeffrey Zlotnik shares the background on his above anecdote, and in so doing shows that “TMI” can sometimes be a fine, fine thing. (It’s not what you think.) Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

August 30, 2010 – 12:47 pm

| Tagged Dharma Centers, Meditation, Mindfulness, Your Practice | Comments (2)

Watch a movie with friends — and help save the people and culture of Zanskar

“Don’t film us,” exhorts a parent in the new film, Journey from Zanskar: A Monk’s Vow to Children. [Trailer below.] “We look like corpses.”

But a monk responds: “The rest of the world will see how things are in Zanskar.”

And it’s a good thing, too. The residents of Zanskar don’t have it easy and, too often, are forgotten. Zanskar, you see, is a sort of No Man’s Land.

Found in Northern India on the border of Tibet, Zanskar was once part of Tibet, but became part of Kashmir when the British drew the region’s borders. China, Pakistan, and India have repeatedly since tried to claim Zanskar — often through bloodshed. Buddhists in the region are flanked by non-Buddhists and so are largely ignored when it comes to attention and aid.

“There are no phones, no hospitals, no running water or sewers, no public electricity,” Richard Gere narrates in the film. “There is also no universally affordable education that teaches Tibetan language, culture, and history.”

That, says Geshe Lobsang Yonten, “is why we bring kids from Zanskar all the way to Manali” — where there is a school that teaches those subjects, along with others. Manali, however, is 180 miles away, through the mountaintops. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

August 26, 2010 – 9:50 am

| Tagged Activism, Dharma Centers, Parenting, Tibet, Tibetan, Video, Youth | Comments (1)

Remembering Robert Aitken (1917-2010)

Robert Aitken, one of American Zen’s great pioneers, has died.

Aitken was brought to Zen in great part thanks to time detained in Japanese internment camps (due to his presence as a worker in Guam at the start of World War II). In one such camp he met R.H. Blyth, whose presence and scholarly work would have a life-changing influence on Aitken.

Aitken would go on to become a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage of Zen Buddhism, and to co-found Honolulu, Hawaii’s Diamond Sangha. His influence, as seen in books on Zen practice and ethics like Taking the Path of Zen, Encouraging Words, and The Mind of Clover, would become widespread. Aitken also dedicated himself to social justice throughout his life and work, as one of the co-founders of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and a stalwart voice of social tolerance and healing.

As of today, Aitken Roshi’s website reads “Aitken Roshi passed away today, Thursday, August 5, 2010, at around 5:30 pm at Straub hospital in Honolulu. He was 93.” More telling is the wording of the title of that post: “Goodbye Dad, Grampa, Papa, Friend, Teacher, Scholar, Educator, Author, Roshi…” Our thoughts go out to all the many who knew Aitken Roshi in any of these capacities.

Please feel free to share your thoughts about Aitken Roshi here.

Audio: Thich Nhat Hanh on practicing what the Buddha taught

In this second clip culled from our July 2010 feature interview with Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen master and mindfulness proponent explains, simply, how to make sense of the various Buddhist traditions and practices available to us today.

Click this player to listen:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can hear our previously posted installment of Melvin McLeod’s conversation with Thich Nhat Hanh, in which the Zen master discusses mindfulness as the path to happiness, here — and there will be more to come. In the meantime, you can browse the entire July 2010 issue here, or listen to previous installments of Shambhala Sun Audio, here.

By Rod Meade Sperry on

June 26, 2010 – 8:37 am

| Tagged Audio, Buddhist concepts, Mindfulness, Teachings, Zen | Comments (1)

New video: Palden Gyatso on maintaining compassion in the most difficult of times

The other day we pointed you to Heidiminx’s fantastic series of interviews with Palden Gyatso. Here now is the newest, in which her subject answers the question, “How do you maintain peace of mind and your ability to forgive after 33 years as a political prisoner?”

Click through to watch; we dare you to not be moved. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

June 16, 2010 – 1:07 pm

| Tagged Buddhist concepts, Tibetan, Video | Comments (3)

Heidiminx: “The most important interview I have ever done” (Video; updated)

…and that’s saying something. After all, has interviewed the Karmapa and quite a lot of other fascinating people. But this interview with Palden Gyatso — Part 1 of 6, and a heartbreaker to be sure — is very much worth your time.

Click through to view further installments of Heidiminx’s interview with Palden Gyatso. Parts Two through Four are now online. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

June 12, 2010 – 10:15 am

| Tagged Activism, Tibet, Tibetan, Video | Comments (2)

Thich Nhat Hanh on why mindfulness is the true way to happiness (Shambhala Sun Audio)

If you’ve seen our new issue, you know that it features Zen master and mindfulness proponent Thich Nhat Hanh — first, in a profile by Andrea Miller, and then, in “Love & Liberation,” a new full-length interview conducted by Shambhala Sun editor in chief Melvin McLeod.

In it, Melvin speaks to Thay (as he is affectionately known) about true love, the benefits of suffering, and why insight will set you free.

In this Shambhala Sun Audio clip, they discuss happiness — and why mindfulness may be the only true way to it.

Click this player to listen:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

We’ll have more clips from Melvin’s discussion with Thich Nhat Hanh for you soon. In the meantime, you can browse the entire July 2010 issue here. Or, listen to previous installments of Shambhala Sun Audio, here.

By Rod Meade Sperry on

June 9, 2010 – 3:52 pm

| Tagged Audio, Happiness, Mindfulness | Comments (9)

Shambhala Sun Audio: Listen to music from Buddhism’s new generation

With the release of Dhamma Gita: Music of Young Practitioners Inspired by the Dhamma, Northampton, Mass’s More Than Sound Productions seeks to present “manifestations of the timeless, formless wisdom that arises from young artists who practice Buddhism.”

So, what might the music of Buddhism’s new generation sound like? It’s far more adventurous and varied than some might suppose. From rock, to jazz, to instrumental and more, Dhamma Gita paints a picture of diversity through sound.

We’ve got three samples from Dhamma Gita — from contributors Michaela Lucas, Jay Harper, and Heather Maloney — all right here for you to listen to online on Shambhala SunSpace.

To listen and to read about the musicians and their songs, just click through here. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

June 1, 2010 – 10:15 am

| Tagged Audio, Music, Youth | Comments (1)

Shambhala Sun Audio: Noah Levine in his own words, Part One

levine-wp Noah Levine has come a long way: from troubled young man to well-known Buddhist teacher. His no-bull, direct approach — as manifested in his books, Dharma Punx and Against the Stream — has not only helped put meditation on the map for a new generation, but has been well-received by his elders in the teaching community.

In this Shambhala Sun Audio exclusive, re-presented here in light of our coverage of Buddhism’s next generation, Noah talks about the refreshingly organic way this all transpired, how his life has changed, and more. Click through to listen. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

April 1, 2010 – 11:00 pm

| Tagged Audio, Dharma Centers, Insight, Theravada, Vipassana, Youth, Zen | Comments (12)

Shambhala Sun Audio: David Grubin, director of PBS’s “The Buddha” speaks

The April 7th debut of PBS’s The Buddha may just mark a major moment in the intersection of Buddhism and the popular culture: viewers-to-be have been flocking to the show’s Facebook page in droves, and the show itself will of course introduce the Buddha and his teachings to millions of Americans in one fell swoop.

Filmmaker David Grubin, who made PBS’s acclaimed “American Experience” biographies, as well as “Healing And The Mind with Bill Moyers,” spoke with the Sun’s Melvin McLeod for a Q&A in our new May 2010 issue. In this Shambhala Sun Audio clip from their conversation, Grubin explains how the Buddha came to be his latest subject, what Buddhist teachings mean to him, and what they might mean to us all. Click through here to listen. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

March 30, 2010 – 12:40 pm

| Tagged Audio, Buddhist concepts, Dalai Lama, Meditation, Movies, Pop Culture, Psychology | Comments (6)

Chogyam Trungpa: “Buddha is Everywhere”

“Buddha can’t be avoided. Buddha is everywhere. Enlightenment possibilities are all over the place. Whether you’re going to get married tomorrow, whether you’re going to die tomorrow, whatever you may feel, that familiar awake quality is everywhere, all the time. From this point of view, everything is a footprint of Buddha, anything that goes on, whether we regard it as sublime or ridiculous. Everything we do — breathing, farting, getting mosquito bites, having fantastic ideas about reality, thinking clever thoughts, flushing the toilet — whatever occurs is a footprint.”

– Via Ocean of Dharma, and found in The Pocket Chogyam Trungpa.

By Rod Meade Sperry on

March 7, 2010 – 11:55 am

| Tagged Buddhist concepts, Teachings, Your Practice | Comments (1)

Is this a “bigoted” view of Buddhism?

Here we go again. The issues brought up in the Tiger Woods/Brit Hume affair are still roiling, and unlikely to settle down any time soon. Now a Southern California pastor, Greg Laurie, has told his flock: “Here’s the problem with Buddhism: they don’t believe in a personal God that is there to forgive a person.”

Is that a problem? (More after the jump.) Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

February 22, 2010 – 9:55 pm

| Comments (10)

Shambhala Sun Audio: Edward Espe Brown on mindfulness in the kitchen

Mindful cooking is not detached or subdued, says Edward Espe Brown in “Let Your Passion Cook,” from our March 2010 “Mindful Living” issue. It’s cooking with your whole being engaged — mind, body, and emotions.

In this new Shambhala Sun Audio clip, the author of The Complete Tassajara Cookbook talks with Shambhala Sun Associate Editor Andrea Miller about the aesthetics of food, cooking “in the dark,” his relationship with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, “insipid tomatoes,” and more.

Click through to listen, and to read “Let Your Passion Cook” in its entirety — along with a favorite Brown recipe.

Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

February 5, 2010 – 8:12 am

| Tagged Audio, Food, Health & Healing, Mindfulness, Your Practice, Zen | Comments (4)

Shambhala Sun Audio: Steve Silberman on living mindfully in an increasingly wired world

Our March 2010 “Mindful Living” issue features “Did You Get the Message?”, an article about mindful living in the “wired world” by our redoubtable online ally (and frequent Shambhala Sun contributor) Steve Silberman.

In this new Shambhala Sun Audio clip, Steve talks with me about the hows and whys of bringing mindfulness with us as we enter and exit the online realm. Click through to listen, and to read “Did You Get the Message?” in its entirety. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry on

January 26, 2010 – 10:35 am

| Tagged Audio, Mindfulness, Pop Culture, Science, Your Practice | Comments (4)

Author Profile: Rod Meade Sperry

Shambhala Sun Audio: An interview with “How To Be Sick” author Toni Bernhard

Meditation: So, what’s YOUR story?

Watch a movie with friends — and help save the people and culture of Zanskar

Remembering Robert Aitken (1917-2010)

Audio: Thich Nhat Hanh on practicing what the Buddha taught

New video: Palden Gyatso on maintaining compassion in the most difficult of times

Heidiminx: “The most important interview I have ever done” (Video; updated)

Thich Nhat Hanh on why mindfulness is the true way to happiness (Shambhala Sun Audio)

Shambhala Sun Audio: Listen to music from Buddhism’s new generation

Shambhala Sun Audio: Noah Levine in his own words, Part One

Shambhala Sun Audio: David Grubin, director of PBS’s “The Buddha” speaks

Chogyam Trungpa: “Buddha is Everywhere”

Is this a “bigoted” view of Buddhism?

Shambhala Sun Audio: Edward Espe Brown on mindfulness in the kitchen

Shambhala Sun Audio: Steve Silberman on living mindfully in an increasingly wired world

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