The World Through Zen Eyes Podcast

MyongAhn Sunim & Dr. Ruben Lambert
  • 5.0 (5)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE

What we do?Once a week we take a look at the going-ons of the world and say something about ‘em.The goal?None, really. Just trying to make heads and tails of the great world roar of Ooommmmmm. Why?To try ‘n keep a modicum of personal sanity. And stay off both the meds and the cool aid.The point? Points are sharp and therefore violent. We just go around, and round….and round.Disclaimer:The views, perspectives, and humor of the speakers and guests of this podcast do not necessarily represent the those of any associated organizations, businesses, or groups, social, religious,cultural or otherwise. The entirety of the podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Topics discussed and views expressed do not constitute medical advice. As the saying goes “Opinions are like bellybuttons, everybody’s got one”.

  1. 1D AGO ·  BONUS

    Bonus Track #9: 2026 Buddha's Birthday Celebration

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion You know how to show respect when it’s obvious and ceremonial. The harder question is what you do when it’s ordinary, messy, and nobody is watching including how you treat your own mind. We start with kongyang, the Buddhist practice of offering, and strip it down to its real function. Incense, fruit, water, flowers, chanting, even the way we present ourselves become training tools for humility, gratitude, and intention. Then we widen the lens: the Buddha’s post-awakening insight that everyone has Buddha nature, which means everyone is a future Buddha. If that’s true, why do we reserve our deepest reverence for a distant ideal, while treating the people closest to us and ourselves with impatience, entitlement, or neglect? The conversation lands on a sharp mindfulness practice: every thought that arises is effectively an offering to your own Buddha nature. So what are you placing on that inner altar all day long? Worry, anxiety, jealousy, anger, self-hate? We talk about ego, preference, and the ways we “split” ourselves into the part we praise and the part we punish, then bring it back to daily life: traffic, chores, relationships, and the moments where practice leaks out the fastest. If temple is the training ground, life is the real ground. If this hit a nerve, subscribe, share this bonus track with a friend, and leave a review with the one “offering” you’re ready to stop giving yourself. Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    32 min

  2. APR 24

    Ep 36. - Poetically torturous or tortuously poetic

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion No guest, no co-host, no listener questions, and somehow we still end up with a full map of the mind. I’m MyongAhn Sunim flying solo while Dr. Lambert is tied up, so I reach for the most honest material I have: a stack of poems and rants that hold my earlier urgency, my current doubts, and the small moments that keep practice real. We start with “The Beast Of Time,” a fierce meditation on impermanence that treats time like a hungry animal and spiritual life like an emergency. Then I step back and name what I hear in that voice: a juvenile kind of spirituality that can wake you up, but can also turn into disgust for ordinary life. The turning point is classic Buddhism and Zen: the lotus grows from mud. No mud, no lotus. If daily life is the mud, then awakening depends on meeting it, not fleeing it. From there we move into poems that celebrate mindfulness in the mundane, the felt weight of responsibility in “Monk’s Robe,” and a fast, funny collision of culture and psychology in “Entangled Minds.” “Life Is An Adventure” turns a normal morning into a monster story, and “Merciless Children” asks the hardest question of all: what happens when we drain the great mother that sustains us. We close with the strange true tale behind “The F Word,” sparked by an email that accidentally sent a single letter and created a whole piece about conflict, forgiveness, friendship, and freedom. If you like Zen, Buddhism, meditation, poetry, and practical spiritual growth that doesn’t pretend life is tidy, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review, then send us the topics or questions you want us to answer next. Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    27 min

  3. APR 17 ·  BONUS

    Bonus Track #8: External and Internal Influences

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion Your mood might not be “you” as much as it is weather, sleep, hormones, and the stories your mind tells about all of it. We dig into the hidden drives that push us day to day and how seasonal change can amplify everything from motivation to irritation, especially during spring and fall. When climate change stacks disruption on top of normal cycles, it gets even easier to confuse external forces for personal intention and then wonder why you feel off. From there, we get practical: meditation isn’t presented as a performance of calm, but as a way to organize the mind so cause and effect becomes visible. When you can name what’s actually driving you, you stop living as one reactive “clump” of self and start making cleaner choices. That doesn’t erase responsibility, it strengthens it, because you can recognize a surge of anger, craving, or stress and still decide not to act it out. We also take on the ego’s favorite habit: turning everyday friction into a conspiracy against you. The rude shopper, the missing cookie, the bad day suddenly becomes a personal attack, and that creates a constant hum of stress. We explore Buddhist psychology around anger at the world, the ways people seek discharge through habits, and the deeper truth that you can’t contort reality, but you can change the world within you. We close with a grounded teaching on the past: let it inform the present without deforming it, keeping the lesson while dropping the guilt. If this helped you see your patterns more clearly, subscribe for more, share the episode with a friend who’s been feeling off lately, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    43 min

  4. MAR 27

    Ep. 35 - A Question About Questions

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion A Zen question isn’t a polite request for information. It’s a blade that can cut straight into the habits that keep us stuck. We talk about the role of questions in Zen Buddhism, from the way sutras begin with someone asking the Buddha, to the strange training stories where a teacher makes you “earn” the right to ask. Why would a master demand effort like 3,000 bows, or tell you to show up at 3 a.m.? We unpack what that kind of obstacle is really testing: sincerity, commitment, and whether you want freedom from suffering or just a comforting explanation. Along the way, we explore what it means to “question the question” and why the source of a question matters as much as the words. We also dig into teacher-student dynamics in spiritual practice. Modern skepticism has real reasons, but if we only seek confirmation of what we already believe, we stop learning. We share Zen training moments where answers are immediate, inconvenient, or even seemingly contradictory, not as word games, but as a way to stop ego posturing and interrupt mind-made stories. Then we connect it to the Buddha’s poisoned arrow teaching and the problem of information overload: more knowledge is not always more wisdom, especially when it feeds anxiety, greed, and mental noise. We close with classic Zen methods like koans, the idea of questions as generosity to others, and the memorable heaven-and-hell challenge that reveals how fast the mind builds its own prison. If you’ve been craving clarity through mindfulness, meditation, or Zen practice, this is a practical reset on what to ask, how to ask it, and what a real answer should do. Subscribe for more, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with the question you’re working on right now. Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    50 min

  5. MAR 20 ·  BONUS

    Bonus Track #7: Cats of the Mind

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion Your mind can make a shadow feel like a fact. We start with a deceptively simple rule from a spiritual teacher about driving and turn it into a Zen-sized key for modern life: greet each moment as if it is the first time, before habit tells you it already knows how everything ends. That shift sounds small, but it changes how we learn, how we love, and how we meet an ordinary day without sliding into “just Wednesday.”  We also dig into a concrete morning practice that reshapes your baseline: when you first wake up, can you see a new day instead of reaching for the phone, the weather, or the news? This is mindfulness as mental hygiene, a way to “air out” complacency and rebuild the kind of awe that makes life feel wide again. Along the way, we talk about how anxiety, depression, and worry can furnish the inner room of the mind until the window is wallpapered over.  A childhood story about searching for a lost black cat shows how quickly perception bends under longing and fear. From there we connect Buddhist language like “flowers in the sky” to what many of us recognize as rumination, catastrophizing, and the sense that our thoughts are unquestionably real. The turning point is meditation: not a clever hack, but breath counting and returning again and again, training attention to stop getting abducted by mental noise and to discover real spaciousness.  If you want a practical meditation practice, a clearer understanding of habit loops, and a grounded way to work with stress and intrusive thoughts, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who overthinks, leave a review, and tell us: what thought pattern are you ready to stop treating as truth? Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    35 min

  6. FEB 27

    Ep. 34 - Relationships - Becoming Each Other’s Friend On The Path

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion Love isn’t broken when it changes; it’s speaking a new dialect. We open a listener’s letter about long‑term relationships and use a Zen lens to rethink what keeps couples close over time. Instead of treating impermanence as doom, we explore it as the engine of growth—why trying to freeze your partner in the honeymoon phase backfires, and how accepting seasons can make bonds stronger, not weaker. We dig into the early chemistry of romance, the projections that paint a fantasy, and the sharp pain of losing an idea rather than a person. From there, we name the “administrative marriage” that consumes many households: conversations reduced to tasks, calendars, and kid logistics. You’ll hear concrete ways to revive friendship—unpressured talks, shared curiosity, and small rituals that bring back play without abandoning responsibility. We also map the big transitions: the squeeze of raising kids while supporting aging parents, and the empty nest that can feel like a cliff or a second honeymoon depending on how you’ve tended the connection. Ego and ownership show up in subtle ways: my spouse as a project, my needs as the law. We offer a different stance—service, reciprocity, and the practice of becoming doban, friends on the path. That means walking each other toward less suffering and more wisdom, not just trading comfort on good days. By balancing novelty with stability and honoring multiple dimensions—physical affection, friendship, shared duties, and spiritual growth—you build the kind of resilient love that bends without breaking. If this conversation gives you language for your own season, share it with someone who could use it, subscribe for future episodes, and leave a review to help others find the show. Have a question you want us to tackle next? Send it our way and let’s explore it together. Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    54 min

  7. JAN 16

    Ep. 33 - New Year Revolution

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion What if “new year, new you” is the wrong frame—and what you really need is a revolution against your own autopilot? We open the door with a tour of many new years—solar, lunar, and the 24 seasonal nodes—and show how older cultures tied renewal to nature’s rhythms, community responsibility, and gratitude for the chain that feeds us. Those rituals weren’t quaint; they were operating instructions for a sane life, where appreciation and awareness weren’t optional but essential. From there, we tackle the modern drift into convenience and distance: running taps, effortless heat, stocked fridges. When stakes are hidden, attention fades, and we only wake up during extremes—injury, conflict, crisis. We share practical Zen tools to reverse that drift, bringing focus back to the ordinary moments where choice actually lives: a turn signal, a breath, a step. That presence is the tiny hinge that swings big doors. Our central claim is bold and simple: trade resolutions for a personal revolution. The opponent is within—fixed views, reflexive reactions, and identity stories that masquerade as “just who I am.” These programs feel like thinking, but they are habits running the show while we sleep, and karma still lands whether we acted mindfully or not. We unpack how to spot these inner regimes, trace their causes, and “cut the fuse” between trigger and blowup. Drop by drop, attention fills the jar; little by little, milk sours. Your choices can compound either way. If you’ve ever asked why change slips away or feared who you’d be without your familiar struggles, this conversation offers a path: clear, compassionate, and doable. Join us for a grounded take on renewal that blends ancient seasonal wisdom, community ethics, and practical mindfulness. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s ready for their own revolution, and leave a review to help others find us. Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    50 min

  8. 12/19/2025

    Ep. 32 - There is no such thing as selfless caregiving

    FAN MAIL - Send us a comment or a topic suggestion What if “selfless caring” isn’t the ideal we think it is? We return from a short hiatus with a provocative lens on compassion, questioning why so much giving feels like loss and how burnout sneaks in when the mind keeps score. Instead of turning care into a transaction—time out for thanks in—We explore a Zen-infused view where helping is not a heroic sacrifice but the natural movement of one body. Think of the candle that lights a thousand candles without dimming, and the hand that scratches an itchy knee without applause. No fanfare. No invoices. Just the right action, arising on its own.We trace the common stages of caring: starting with duty, graduating to “selfless” sacrifice, and finally stepping beyond the subtle duality that still divides helper and helped. Along the way we unpack the “calculating mind,” the hidden ledger that breeds resentment, and we contrast it with the lightness of flow—what athletes describe as being in the zone and what seasoned caregivers embody on tough nights. Heart Sutra insights help us unhook from rigid labels like gain and loss, while keeping both feet on the ground with clear boundaries and practical sense.A story from a hospital cleaner reveals the quiet power of attention that includes both floor and patient—an undercover bodhisattva at work without seeking credit. We celebrate a living sangha that responds like an organism, not a spreadsheet, and we offer simple ways to practice: notice the tally-keeper, return to what’s needed, and let gratitude be free. If you’ve ever felt drained by doing good, this conversation reframes compassion as oxygen, not fuel you must burn.If this resonated, subscribe, share it with someone who could use a lighter way to care, and leave a review to help others find the show. Got a topic you want us to explore? Send it our way. Support the show Dr. Ruben Lambert can be found at wisdomspring.com Ven. MyongAhn Sunim can be found at soshimsa.org

    1h 1m
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5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

What we do?Once a week we take a look at the going-ons of the world and say something about ‘em.The goal?None, really. Just trying to make heads and tails of the great world roar of Ooommmmmm. Why?To try ‘n keep a modicum of personal sanity. And stay off both the meds and the cool aid.The point? Points are sharp and therefore violent. We just go around, and round….and round.Disclaimer:The views, perspectives, and humor of the speakers and guests of this podcast do not necessarily represent the those of any associated organizations, businesses, or groups, social, religious,cultural or otherwise. The entirety of the podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Topics discussed and views expressed do not constitute medical advice. As the saying goes “Opinions are like bellybuttons, everybody’s got one”.

Information

  • Creator
    MyongAhn Sunim & Dr. Ruben Lambert
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    46
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The World Through Zen Eyes Podcast
  • Show Website
    The World Through Zen Eyes Podcast