The Heart of Light Podcast

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.05.31

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 31, 2021, about memory in spiritual life.  How can our memory and our memories be a means of freedom rather than a burden? How do we build the capacity to remember how we want to live?  How does remembering who we are at a soul level help us to gather ourselves into wholeness?  This talk took place on Memorial Day. 

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.05.24

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 24, 2021, about balance in spiritual life.  How do we thaw out the stuck patterns in our life?  How do we vitalize those parts of life that are dry and uninspiring?    How do we align with the healing currents of our deeper nature?  This talk occurred on the Whitsuntide Monday, the day after the Christian holiday of Pentecost.

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.05.17

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 17, 2021, about enthusiasm.  How conscious and intentional are we about what drives our behavior?  How much do we deaden life by taking things for granted? How do we unlock the transformative energy of enthusiasm within us?

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.05.10

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 10, 2021, about self-blame.  Why do we treat ourselves so differently from the way we treat others?  How does blame short-circuit both healthy responsibility and healthy vulnerability? How does self-blame arise from unhealthy attachments to control?

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.05.03

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 3, 2021, about patience.   How do we cultivate this much-admired and hard-to-embody quality?  How are we abandoning ourselves when we lack patience? How is impatience a potent mirror that reveals to us everything we are not willing to face in ourselves?

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.04.26

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 26, 2021, about the unsettling quality of the Sacred.    How attached are we to who we think we are?  What are the intuitions about our greatness that we dread or seek to avoid?  What do the chaotic and uncontrollable aspects of Life reflect to us about who we really are?  This talk took place in the week leading up to the Celtic holiday of Beltaine. 

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

This is the painting cited.

This is the poem quoted.

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.04.19

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 19, 2021, about emptying and emptiness.  Why is emotional emptiness such a widespread feeling in the modern world?  How does the clenched fist of scarcity prevent us from contacting our inner plenitude, and how does spiritual self-emptying lead us towards it?  How do other spiritual practices of inner cleansing and emptying find their culmination in the Buddhist idea of emptiness?  This talk was given during the sacred month of Ramadan.

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.04.12

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 12, 2021, about anger.  How do we hold well this potent form of vitality?  How do we honor the truths of anger?  How do we follow the thread of anger to our rawest places of vulnerability?

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Title: Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.04.05

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 5, 2021, about the greater life we are called to live.  What are the fears that stand in the way of our inner power?  What are the deep attachments that keep us trapped in our small self?  What are we willing to risk in order to be free? 

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.03.29

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 29, 2021, about the Teaching.  How does a pattern of meaning enfold our lives?  What are the sources of wisdom that shine through from behind the events in our lives?  What are the potent lessons to be drawn from our most impactful experiences?

This is the quote sheet for the talk.