Planet Dharma - The Launch Pod

How do we heal the splits within? In this 5 minute podcast episode, Achariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei elaborate on this question. They share that complete or wholesome effort is when we are in the moment and not distracted by conflicting emotions or primitive thinking. “The more wholesome we are, the more complete our effort is. It is this wholesomeness in conjunction with our experience that heals the splits within.” This talk was from “Right Effort – Healing the Splits Within”, a webinar series offered by Planet Dharma in 2017, as part of the "Year of Victory" study program.  To find out more about Planet Dharma's teachings and programs please visit us at Planet Dharma.

Letting the study of nature and consciousness inform your vision and career Catherine Sensei begins this episode explaining, “The natural cycles of nature are in essence the same as the natural cycles of dharma, karma and consciousness."  There's a natural wisdom and compassion we can access both studying nature and studying consciousness.  Doug and Catherine Sensei discuss that society`s number one function is “to free people to explore.” However, because of our busy lives and our clinging to security, very few people take the time to map out and study how their mind works, how their consciousness works. “  Our ego looks for security which leads us into anxiety and missing the wonder.  "You need a vision bigger than your lifetime and bigger than yourself.  Otherwise the ego will always feel insecure", Doug and Catherine explain.   This excerpt was taken from the “Right Effort – Career and Creativity” talk, session 1 from the “Year of Victory” classes 2017, at Clear Sky Retreat Center in B.C., Canada. To register for our mailing list visit us at www.planetdharma.com  Our "Body of Truth" creative visualization retreats are an excellent way to spend focused time studying the interplay of nature and consciousness.  See http://www.planetdharma.com/events/category/retreats/  to see our upcoming schedule.

In this podcast Achariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei expand on the six perfections (Paramis) of Generosity, Discipline, Acceptance, Effort, Concentration, Insight and share “If you can perfect generosity, all the rest will follow.” When we do not apply these principles, we move into unnecessary suffering. Achariya Doug states, “If you`re not doing it for yourself, the teacher can talk about it until the cows come home home and it won`t make particularly much difference in your life because its not being applied.” However, when applying these principles in our everyday lives unnecessary suffering cannot arise.   “These Paramis are precious and awesome,” says Catherine Sensei, “to the point where we teach a course on it called “Becoming a Work of Art.”  This excerpt was taken from the “Right Effort – Healing the Splits Within” series given as part of the “Year of Victory” program in 2017, and recorded at Clear Sky Retreat Center in B.C., Canada. To register for our mailing list or to attend any upcoming events, please visit us at www.planetdharma.com

"Lama Rinpoche, to you I supplicate." Even if you're fully awakened, you still say that. Why? To overcome pride, which is very subtle! podcast.clearskycenter.org http://www.planetdharma.com/

Test Podcast - please ignore.

To combat pride, which is very subtle! http://clearskycenter.org/teachings/dharma-podcasts.html http://podcast.clearskycenter.org

How do you live and move and recognize in your world? What are the patterns and structures of how the mind works, whether hunger/gatherer or food grower or living in the modern world? --- Doug Sensei gives an interview on an upcoming talk he will give on traditional wisdom in Australia in December 2013. podcast.clearskycenter.org http://www.planetdharma.com/

Doug Sensei teaches on traditional wisdom in Australia in December 2013.

The spiritual teachings are focused on drawing your attention to the awakened/awakening consciousness. The real purpose of awakening is it puts you in a position where it's just much easier to learn without a lot of baggage. --- From an interview conducted in October 2013 with Doug Duncan Sensei...   Transcript: Well again, it's mapping, it's patterning. I won't go into those particularly, but pattern recognition. It's what the human consciousness is particularly good at. "Oh, winter's coming. Oh, nuts are under the snow. Hmmm…. let's build a shed, put the nuts in the shed. I can get to the shed. I can't get under the snow." It's a kind of pattern recognition. So, cabbalistic teachings, Christian teachings, Islamic teachings, Buddhist teachings… it's all about pattern. It's all recognizing pattern, seeing how things work, how things tie together -- psychology, science, mysticism. It's all patterns. "Occult" means "hidden" -- that which is hidden -- so if you're an occultist, you're studying that which is hidden. Science is "anti-occultism." You're studying that which is apparent. Although, I suppose if you're a quantum physicist the distinction starts to (laughs)… starts to fall away. So, everything is teaching. Everything is a potential teaching -- human relationships, psychology, marriage -- again, pattern. What kind of patterns evolve in relationship? Guru/student, teacher-guide/adept relationships. What's the patterning? How does that patterning work? Who gets the high seat? Who gets the low seat? What pattern is involved in that? So, when one is hurt, one tends to see other people's patterns as being abusive. When one is in a state of loving-kindness, one tends to see other people's patterns as being abusive, but not so much to oneself as to others...well, to oneself and the person who is suffering. So the idea is that as you become more and more conscious of patterns, you become more and more conscious of the interconnecting factors in those patterns. You see that more and more everything is a teaching -- science, art, music, relationship. The spiritual teachings are teachings that are focused particularly on trying to draw your attention to the awakened/awakening consciousness. And from many perspectives, the real purpose of awakening is it puts you in a position where it's just much easier to learn without a lot of baggage. So, if you were going to take a shower, would you go in with your clothes on? Or would you go in naked? The idea is you go in naked, because it's much easier to get clean that way and much easier to have that experience. So, too, the transcendent nature is getting naked to life so that you can be washed or have the experience more fully. Having clothes on in the shower, you might get cleaner than you were when you went in, but there's a lot of unnecessary dukkha/struggle in that. The nature of spiritual teachings is to bring you closer to fundamental patterns of how consciousness works and how the self, the ego, gets structured and therefore caught up, and so on. So, whether it's caballistic teachings or Buddhist teachings, or whatever, the idea -- the core understanding -- remains the same. "What is this thing called 'transcendent consciousness'?" "How do I recognize it and how do I live it?" And from there you go to other teachings, like science, art, music, and so on… business. podcast.clearskycenter.org http://www.planetdharma.com/

From an interview conducted in October 2013 with Doug Duncan Sensei... Transcript: Well again, it's mapping, it's patterning. I won't go into those particularly, but pattern recognition. It's what the human consciousness is particularly good at. "Oh, winter's coming. Oh, nuts are under the snow. Hmmm…. let's build a shed, put the nuts in the shed. I can get to the shed. I can't get under the snow." It's a kind of pattern recognition. So, cabbalistic teachings, Christian teachings, Islamic teachings, Buddhist teachings… it's all about pattern. It's all recognizing pattern, seeing how things work, how things tie together -- psychology, science, mysticism. It's all patterns. "Occult" means "hidden" -- that which is hidden -- so if you're an occultist, you're studying that which is hidden. Science is "anti-occultism." You're studying that which is apparent. Although, I suppose if you're a quantum physicist the distinction starts to (laughs)… starts to fall away. So, everything is teaching. Everything is a potential teaching -- human relationships, psychology, marriage -- again, pattern. What kind of patterns evolve in relationship? Guru/student, teacher-guide/adept relationships. What's the patterning? How does that patterning work? Who gets the high seat? Who gets the low seat? What pattern is involved in that? So, when one is hurt, one tends to see other people's patterns as being abusive. When one is in a state of loving-kindness, one tends to see other people's patterns as being abusive, but not so much to oneself as to others...well, to oneself and the person who is suffering. So the idea is that as you become more and more conscious of patterns, you become more and more conscious of the interconnecting factors in those patterns. You see that more and more everything is a teaching -- science, art, music, relationship. The spiritual teachings are teachings that are focused particularly on trying to draw your attention to the awakened/awakening consciousness. And from many perspectives, the real purpose of awakening is it puts you in a position where it's just much easier to learn without a lot of baggage. So, if you were going to take a shower, would you go in with your clothes on? Or would you go in naked? The idea is you go in naked, because it's much easier to get clean that way and much easier to have that experience. So, too, the transcendent nature is getting naked to life so that you can be washed or have the experience more fully. Having clothes on in the shower, you might get cleaner than you were when you went in, but there's a lot of unnecessary dukkha/struggle in that. The nature of spiritual teachings is to bring you closer to fundamental patterns of how consciousness works and how the self, the ego, gets structured and therefore caught up, and so on. So, whether it's caballistic teachings or Buddhist teachings, or whatever, the idea -- the core understanding -- remains the same. "What is this thing called 'transcendent consciousness'?" "How do I recognize it and how do I live it?" And from there you go to other teachings, like science, art, music, and so on… business.

Suffering continues because you want it to.

Suffering continues because you want it to.

The first step in spiritual awakening is becoming aware of our ego structure -- actually perceiving the particular beliefs and images that we have identified with and taken to be true -- then dissolving that, letting go of that part of one's identity. --- Doug Sensei teaches on the enneagram, drawing from this source: Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas by A.H. Almaas, 1998; Chapter 4, Basic Trust Search inside: http://books.google.com/books/about/Facets_of_Unity.html?id=gdTz5Mt0WtgC&redir_esc=y Extended paraphrase: The ego is a psychic structure that is based on crystallized beliefs about who we are and what the world is. We experience ourselves and the world through the filter of this structure. Spiritual awakening involves connecting with those dimensions of experience obscured by ego structure. The first step is becoming aware -- actually perceiving the particular beliefs and images that we have identified with and taken to be true -- then dissolving that facet of the ego structure. This means letting go of part of one's identity, which can be painful or frightening because the old sense of your identity crumbles and you don't know what will take its place. Letting go of what has felt real feels like jumping into an abyss. The jumping can be easy or difficult depending on the presence of "basic trust" -- the sense that whatever happens will ultimately be fine. The ego's perspective arises out of a lack of this trust. It is based on distrust, paranoia, and fear that the universe will not take care of you in the ways that you need. Basic trust is a confidence that the universe and human nature is fundamentally good and loving, that life is fundamentally benevolent. It will help you take that plunge. You don't need assurances that things are going to be okay because you implicitly know things are going to be okay. Basic trust gives you the capacity and willingness to let go of the identifications, beliefs and concepts -- remnants of the past -- that make up the ego. If you don't have basic trust, you will react to what arises in accordance with your conditioning and will want things to go one way or another, rather than to just be, without reacting, which is allowing the ego to die. The more that basic trust is present, the more smoothly the process of realization and transformation can proceed. If we lack basic trust, it is important to develop it. With basic trust, our lives have a sense of freedom. The desire to know where things are going arises out of simple curiosity rather than a desire to control the unfoldment. Tension and stress from constantly struggling and fighting with our reality become relaxed into a sense of peace that allows a spontaneous and natural unfoldment of one's being. A new outlook emerges, allowing us to see that whatever happens is right even if it's painful. Things that we had thought were bad turn out not to be bad. podcast.clearskycenter.org http://www.planetdharma.com/

Doug Sensei teaches on the enneagram, drawing from this source: Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas by A.H. Almaas, 1998; Chapter 4, Basic Trust Search inside: http://books.google.com/books/about/Facets_of_Unity.html?id=gdTz5Mt0WtgC&redir_esc=y Extended paraphrase: The ego is a psychic structure that is based on crystallized beliefs about who we are and what the world is. We experience ourselves and the world through the filter of this structure. Spiritual awakening involves connecting with those dimensions of experience obscured by ego structure. The first step is becoming aware -- actually perceiving the particular beliefs and images that we have identified with and taken to be true -- then dissolving that facet of the ego structure. This means letting go of part of one's identity, which can be painful or frightening because the old sense of your identity crumbles and you don't know what will take its place. Letting go of what has felt real feels like jumping into an abyss. The jumping can be easy or difficult depending on the presence of "basic trust" -- the sense that whatever happens will ultimately be fine. The ego's perspective arises out of a lack of this trust. It is based on distrust, paranoia, and fear that the universe will not take care of you in the ways that you need. Basic trust is a confidence that the universe and human nature is fundamentally good and loving, that life is fundamentally benevolent. It will help you take that plunge. You don't need assurances that things are going to be okay because you implicitly know things are going to be okay. Basic trust gives you the capacity and willingness to let go of the identifications, beliefs and concepts -- remnants of the past -- that make up the ego. If you don't have basic trust, you will react to what arises in accordance with your conditioning and will want things to go one way or another, rather than to just be, without reacting, which is allowing the ego to die. The more that basic trust is present, the more smoothly the process of realization and transformation can proceed. If we lack basic trust, it is important to develop it. With basic trust, our lives have a sense of freedom. The desire to know where things are going arises out of simple curiosity rather than a desire to control the unfoldment. Tension and stress from constantly struggling and fighting with our reality become relaxed into a sense of peace that allows a spontaneous and natural unfoldment of one's being. A new outlook emerges, allowing us to see that whatever happens is right even if it's painful. Things that we had thought were bad turn out not to be bad.

In order for you to move to your next understanding -- the next stage of unfoldment -- how you position yourself in relationship to your world has to change. --- Spiritual unfoldment talk transcript: "The important message that I want to convey tonight is: in order for you to move to your next understanding, your basic position about how you position yourself in relationship to your world has to go, has to change...in order for you to make the next step of unfoldment. It can't not go to the next level. And if you watch teachers, they do it throughout their lives. I watched it with my teacher. He reinvented himself, not in terms of just giving classes -- that's what he did, that was his job -- but in the way he imaged himself. Every decade it would go through a whole new turn -- a whole new person there if you had the eyes to see it. Outwardly it didn't look all that different. But he went from a stern Theravadin into a yahoo-ey Vajrayana to kind of an interesting epicure, connoisseur-y, renaissance-y kind of guy, to the gentle, relatively gentle, old man. But with each change the appearance changed. So if you look at the pictures of my teacher through the ages it almost looks like 15 different people, even though my experience of him, and I knew him for 30 years... he in some ways struck my ego as kind of the same. But if you look the pictures of him over time: completely different personic imagings. So, for you, (fill in your name), for you to make the next step in your spiritual unfoldment, unless you've already done it just recently, [you need a] complete shift and change in the environment. Why not? If someone else did it, it would be okay, right? 'But not me.' That's the point. Not that you have to do that, but why is it that you can't?" Talk originally given on Oct. 19, 2009 in Kyoto, Japan. Doug Sensei's teacher was the great Canadian lama, Namgyal Rinpoche. podcast.clearskycenter.org http://www.planetdharma.com/