The Heart of Light Podcast

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.01.11

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 11, 2021, about walking toward the fire.  In what ways does antiracist work, especially for white bodies, dovetail powerfully with transformational healing and the demands of the wisdom traditions?  How does courage shape the arc of an entire life? What are we willing to face in ourselves for the sake of growth and for the sake of others we love?  This talk was inspired by the ideas of Resmaa Menakem

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2021.01.04

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 4, 2021, about our relationship with time.   How does the quality of our attention affect our experience of time?  How can we have a more abundant experience of time?  How can we open more intentionally to the experience of timelessness?     

 

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.12.28

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 28, 2020, about abundance.  How do we move beyond the grasping unsatisfiable hunger of ego-mind to the expansive perspective of love and healing?  How do we bring healing to those parts of us clinging to scarcity narratives?  How do we open to the natural abundance of the present moment?     

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.12.21

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 21, 2020, about the archetype of the Winter Solstice, the birth of light at the heart of darkness.  How do we allow healing to transform our most disconnected inner places? How do we bring vivifying hope to the places within that have been most locked out from the flow of life? 

This is the sheet with images. 

This is the poem quoted.       

This is the quote sheet for the talk. 

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.12.14

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 14, 2020, about power vs. control.  How can we distinguish the neurotic control that disconnects us vs. the healthy self-control that aligns us with our authentic power? How can we cultivate the deep surrender that allows this power to emerge?

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.12. 07

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 7, 2020, about innocence.  What does this magical and misunderstood quality offer us?  What would it mean to see ourselves, others, and the whole world through the eyes of wonder?  How can we take steps to move toward this core simplicity at the center of our being?

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.11. 30

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 30, 2020, about the holiday blues.  The winter holidays can be a focal point of emotional challenges for many, and the COVID period only heightens the sense of disconnection.  How do these struggles look in the lens of Buddhism? What would it mean to embrace our experience with the kind of deep self-compassion and self-allowing that supports genuine healing?

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.11.23

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 23, 2020, about joy.  In a world that offers us the glitter of endless distractions, the message that joy is part of our inmost nature may seem incongruous.  Paradoxically, running after everything we want leads us away from abiding joy.  With all the challenges of life, how can we touch the ground of this perennial joy within us?  

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.11.16

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 16, 2020, about hope. What does it mean to live with hope in a time of uncertainty? What does it mean to cultivate hope without expectations? How do we ground hope not on attachment to future fantasies but on the experience of vitality in the present moment? 

This is the quote sheet for the talk.  

Mike’s Dharma Talk, 2020.11.09

This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 9, 2020, about loving one’s enemies.  This prominent Christian ideal from the Gospel of Matthew of course finds profound resonance in the Buddhist tradition.  What does it mean really to love an enemy?  What is the deep inner work required to reach beyond the boundaries of otherness and live out fully this noble ideal?

This is the quote sheet for the talk.