American Buddhist Poetry Radio

Monk Mode Society · Juan Vega

A street-level Buddhist poetry broadcast — American wounds, American compassion, Dharma spoken in fire and stillness. monkmodesociety.substack.com

  1. Jun 14

    American Buddhist Poetry Radio: Mindfulness in America

    Bonus track is above — “The World Is Still Here.” Start there if you want. This episode of American Buddhist Poetry Radio is about mindfulness, but not the way we usually hear it talked about. Not as branding.Not as a product.Not as some little stress tool to help us get back to the machine. This is about what mindfulness still really is. A return.A real breath.Direct contact with life again. The yard.The sky.The wind.Kids playing across the street.Birds before work.Coffee in your hand.That one honest pause where you stop leaving your life and come back to what is actually here. This piece is about what America turned mindfulness into, and what it still is underneath all the noise. If you want to sit with the theme a little longer, the bonus track is waiting above. Welcome. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    American Buddhist Poetry Radio: Mindfulness in America

  2. May 4

    American Buddhist Poetry Radio: The Silence in America

    Bonus track is above — “When the Silence Breaks.” You can start there first if you want. It carries the ache under this whole piece, but also the turn. This episode is about negative silence. Not sacred silence. Not wise pause. Not stillness. The other kind. The kind that lives in the jaw, in the short answer, in the drive home, in the phone glow, in the house where nobody says the real thing. The kind that spreads through a life, a family, a country. This one is about burnout, fear, numbness, moral fatigue, and what happens when people carry too much for too long and start calling shutdown peace. But it’s also about the break. The return. The moment truth comes back through the throat. Start with the bonus track above, or go straight into the episode. Either way, welcome. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    American Buddhist Poetry Radio: The Silence in America

  3. Apr 5

    Something to Carry: Bracelets for the Unseen

    The bonus track is above — “I Came Back for You.” Listen to that first. It came out beautiful, and it says something I’ve been carrying for a long time. In a lot of ways, it’s a song-story about me, about adoption, loneliness, and what it means to come back for the child you once were. This week’s episode of American Buddhist Poetry Radio is personal too. It’s about children living through foster care, adoption rupture, and unstable care. But more than that, it’s about the deeper wound underneath all of it — the loneliness, the emotional disappearance, the way a child learns not to ask for too much, not to expect anyone to stay, not to believe they are really seen. That’s the truth behind Bracelets for the Unseen. This episode is my way of opening that room carefully. Not with pity. Not with performance. Just truth, memory, compassion, and a vow that is starting to take real form. If the song opens your chest, let it. Then go into the episode. And if this lives somewhere in your story too — or if something in you understands why a small thing can matter so much in a child’s life — reach out to me. This mission is only beginning, and I’m building it with intention. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    Something to Carry: Bracelets for the Unseen

  4. Mar 29

    The Future We Were Promised

    The bonus track is above: “Better Than the Promise.” This week’s episode of American Buddhist Poetry Radio sits with a hidden American wound. Not just money. Not just politics. Not just the daily noise. Something deeper. The quiet fear that the future a lot of people were moving toward no longer feels solid. The rent, the groceries, the pressure, the broken promises, the way the old dream keeps slipping further out of reach. For some people, that dream was always partial. For others, it feels like it is cracking in public. Either way, a lot of hearts are carrying the weight of it. This piece is about that grief. It is also about what comes after the grief. What in the dream was sacred. What in it was bait. How we hold the broken promise without becoming bitter, cruel, or numb. How we become deeper, truer, and more human than the thing that disappointed us. If the bonus track above hits you, let it open the room first. Then drop into the episode. American Buddhist Poetry Radio — Episode 14 The Future We Were Promised The broken American dream, hidden fear, and the fight to stay human This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    The Future We Were Promised

  5. Mar 15

    The Loneliest Generation

    Bonus track is above this text. If you want the song first, start there. If you want the commentary first, keep reading. Either way, the bonus track belongs to this episode. Tonight’s episode is The Loneliest Generation. This one is about love, loneliness, and the strange distance between us. About what it feels like to have more ways to reach each other than any generation in history—and still go to sleep emotionally untouched. About the late-night phone glow. The almost-conversations. The people who are surrounded and still starving for something real. This episode looks at modern loneliness through the lives people are actually living: the quiet loneliness a lot of men carry, the different ache a lot of women carry, the pressure of money and performance, the way technology gives us contact without always giving us closeness, and the way the heart keeps asking for something deeper. This is not culture-war talk. It’s not blame. It’s witness. And through the Dharma lens, it’s also a reflection on what happens when we ask love to do too much—when we turn it into proof, possession, performance, or rescue. The bonus track above carries that same ache in song form. If this episode hits you, that makes sense. A lot of people are carrying this quietly. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    The Loneliest Generation

  6. Mar 7

    Anxiety in America

    Bonus track is above: “The Noise Under the Skin.” If you want the feeling first, start there. If you want the words first, keep reading. Either way, this episode and that song belong together. Tonight’s episode is Anxiety in America. Not the trendy version. Not the watered-down version. The real thing. The kind that lives in the chest. The kind that rides with you to work. The kind that shows up in the grocery line, the break room, the rent app, the late-night phone glow, and the moment the war headline hits your body before your mind even knows what to do with it. This one is about fear, overload, and the fight to stay human in a country that keeps teaching the nervous system to brace. A lot of people are not broken. They’re carrying too much. Too much uncertainty. Too much pressure. Too much noise. Too much “keep going” with nowhere clean to set it down. So in this episode, I’m not pathologizing people. I’m naming the atmosphere. And then I’m doing what Street Dharma is supposed to do: meet the suffering honestly, bring it back to the body, and offer one real way through it. The practice inside this episode is simple. Not glamorous. Not fake-deep. Just usable. Because some of us don’t need another quote. We need one clean breath. One unclenched jaw. One moment where we stop abandoning ourselves inside the noise. And the bonus track above, “The Noise Under the Skin,” is the song version of that same truth. The feeling under the headlines. The static under the smile. The part of modern life a lot of people are carrying quietly. If this one hits you, that makes sense. It hit me too. And if you want more of my Dharma work outside of ABPR, you can also find my meditations and talks on Insight Timer. Stillness is rebellion. Compassion is a weapon. Peace is within. Carry all. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    Anxiety in America

  7. Mar 1

    The Drum in the Chest

    Bonus track is at the top of this post (above this text). If you want the full emotional arc—fear → steadiness → courage—start with the bonus track, then drop into the episode. Episode 11 is for anyone feeling that war-drum in the body right now. That tight chest. That quiet panic you don’t say out loud. That scrolling that doesn’t even feel like scrolling anymore—just trying to make sure the world is still here. Tonight I speak for the people carrying it close: the mothers and fathers with loved ones on active duty, the partners waiting on a text, the families trying to stay steady while the headlines keep shifting. And I’m speaking for the people on the other side too—regular families who didn’t ask for war to land in their streets or their sky. This isn’t a news episode. This is a nervous-system episode. We name the fear without feeding it. We clean the anger without turning it into hate. And we practice something real: how to hold your humanity when the world starts sounding like war. If this episode hits your chest, you’re not alone. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    The Drum in the Chest

  8. Feb 21

    FEAR

    Bonus track is above this text. I put it there on purpose—if you want the feeling first, hit play on that before the episode. This episode is about fear—not the fake kind, not the movie kind. The real kind. The kind that crawls into your chest when you wake up, open your phone, and the world is already screaming. It’s not that the phone is evil. It’s a tool. But the way it’s being used right now—by algorithms, headlines, and a nonstop drip of crisis—has a lot of us connected and distracted at the same time. And that matters, because we’re living through events big enough to require movements. Big enough to require people to rise. But fear can turn into a loop: scroll, tighten up, feel helpless, scroll again. So tonight I name it for what it is—fear—and I talk about how it gets into the body, how it keeps us pinned, and how we make the turn without becoming hateful, numb, or lost. Then I read a poem for the moment the thumb stops… and the feet start moving. If you’re feeling it lately—if you’ve been waking up with that tight chest and that midnight dread—you’re not alone. And you’re not weak. You’re human. The question is what we do next. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

    FEAR
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About

A street-level Buddhist poetry broadcast — American wounds, American compassion, Dharma spoken in fire and stillness. monkmodesociety.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Monk Mode Society · Juan Vega
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Monk Mode Society
  • Show Website
    American Buddhist Poetry Radio