Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday Better Wendy Shinyo Haylett

What a delight it is to have James Crews joining me for a conversation about the book, The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace & Renewal, which he edited.
James is the author of the essay collection, Kindness Will Save the World, and editor of several bestselling poetry anthologies, including The Wonder of Small Things, Healing the Divide, The Path to Kindness, and How to Love the World.
He has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and in People Magazine, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, and The Washington Post. He is the author of four prize-winning books of poetry, and his poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, and other journals.
As you will no doubt hear, James is a gentle soul whose conversation about poetry, spirituality, and life is healing … His words and the tender way he speaks them is a balm for our painful and anxious times.
Among other things, we talked about:
How we turn to poetry during difficult times like these precisely because as James expresses it, "poems are such small but spacious containers that hold so much with just a few powerful sensory details" …. And, he says, "Poetry heals because it is so embodied." Poetry as spiritual practice. How poets do what they do with language.

How poetry helps us transcend dualistic thinking.

How poetry creates connection and compassion. Take some time to ease into this episode. I promise you will be soothed and come away craving more poetry in your life, even if you never appreciated it before.
 
Buy the book (Amazon affiliate link):
The Wonder of Small Things book
 
Learn more about James Crews, course offerings, and subscribe to weekly email:
https://www.jamescrews.net/
 
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/james.crews.poet
 
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/crewspoet

 

 
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Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

I am very happy to share the wisdom of Gemma Naturkach, a member of our Everyday Buddhism Community and Sangha. I asked Gemma to join me for a conversation on the podcast, after listening to her share her reflections and insight about her experiences as a refugee from Ukraine. It really helps give us a bigger perspective—a perspective from the real-life experience of a woman trying to make sense of everything that happened to her and her family, who were driven from their home and country because of war.
Gemma is a U.S. Army vet and member of a three-culture family. She is an ICF and iPEC certified coach and founder of Social Media for Coaches. She is deeply committed to using her experiences to champion the voices of those who have been uprooted from their homes. Her wisdom was sharpened through her own experience as she and her family made their way from Ukraine to Wisconsin in February 2022.
After asking her to be guest on the podcast, I found out that Gemma has written a book, called  Surviving Patriotism, targeted for release in 2024.This work serves as a testament to her emotional journey during her and her family's evacuation and subsequent resettlement.
Among other things, we talked about how home and community is where you make it … the complex emotions of hating and then trying not to hate the "enemy" … how rage doesn't think, reflect, or consider … how war is romanticized … and how we feel pressured to pick a side, labeling one as bad and the other as good … and ways we might help when we feel helpless.
I am positive Gemma's reflection on her experience … her honest sharing of what she went through and her thoughts along the way … may help you see war, anger, and propaganda from a broader and clearer lens … a lens outside our cultural or tribal bubbles. I know it did me!
* Note: Correction - Near the end of the episode, I mistakenly referred to Palestine as Pakistan.
 

 
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If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations

 

Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

I am delighted to share this conversation with Roshi Eve Myonen Marko about The Book of Householder Koans: Waking Up in the Land of Attachments, which she co-wrote with Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao. It was released in 2020 but I'm sure glad I finally found it! It's become one of my new favorite books and a real treasure as a practice tool.
Roshi Eve Marko is a Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, with her late husband, the renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman. She is also the resident teacher at the Green River Zen Center in Massachusetts. Roshi has trained spiritually-based social activists and peacemakers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and has been a Spiritholder at retreats bearing witness to genocide at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Rwanda, and the Black Hills in South Dakota. Before that she worked at the Greyston Mandala, which provides housing, child care, jobs, and AIDS-related medical services in Yonkers, New York.
Koans have always been a favorite practice of mine but I had drifted away from them off and on … and off for the last few years until this book. If you've listened to earlier episodes of this podcast, then you may have heard my back-to-back episodes about Zen Koans.
This is unlike any book about koans I've ever read. It drills deep into your "hiding places" … doing what koans do perfectly: They stop you in your tracks, as they mess with your conceptual thinking, and shake your false trust in the stability of what we think we know. Being drawn into questions, without the comfortable ground of "knowing" offers a practice that can help us pause in our everyday rush to stress and anxiousness caused by trying to be somewhere other than where we are at this moment.
I just loved this conversation with Roshi Eve! Among many other things, we talked about…The importance of "not knowing" … About the surprise factor in the situations we find ourselves in life and how they help the mind "make leaps" … And about how we should try to enter life with out whole selves—our bodies, not just our minds.
So, don't miss this one! One of my favorite Buddhist subjects and one of the best books I've read in a very long time.
 
Buy the book, read the reviews, and learn more about Roshi Eve:
 
https://www.monkfishpublishing.com/products-page-2/buddhism/book-householder-koans/
 
Website and Blog:
https://www.evemarko.com/
 
Zen Peacemakers:
https://zenpeacemakers.org/
 
Green River Zen Center:
http://www.greenriverzen.org/
 
Interview with Roshi Eve Myonen Marko:
https://www.zlmc.org/blog/interview-with-roshi-eve-myonen-marko
 

 
Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:
https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism
 
If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations

 

Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

This is a special encore episode with Rev. Marvin Harada, the Bishop of the Buddhist Churches of America. It also includes a new introduction highlighting the upcoming study of The Pure Land Sutras in our Everyday Sangha ... and why sutra study is so important in Buddhist practice. Come join us!

 
In the re-released episode with Rev. Harada, we discuss what makes Shin Buddhism a truly "everyday Buddhism", meditation, mindfulness, chanting, ritual, and about the teachers we have in common and what made them special.
 
I know you'll enjoy this talk with Rev. Harada as much as I did talking with him. He is down-to-earth and delightful, if you can't tell by his giggle! if you've never heard of Shin Buddhism—or don't know too much about it—this episode is for you.

 
Pure Land Buddhism is one of the most widely practiced forms of Buddhism in East Asia, and in Japan, Shin Buddhism, or Jodo Shinshu, is actually the largest school of Buddhism in Japan.
 
CORRECTION TO THE INTRODUCTION OF REV. HARADA: Rev. Harada served as a minister for the Orange County Buddhist Church, but did not serve as head minister throughout the entire 33-year period.
 
Find out more about the Buddhist Churches of America:
https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org/
 
Find out more about the BCA "Everyday Buddhist" program mentioned by Bishop Harada:
https://www.everydaybuddhist.org/
 
 
 

Join the Everyday Sangha:
https://donorbox.org/supporters-bonus-content-membership
 
Join the Membership Community:
https://donorbox.org/membershipcommunity
 
Find out more about or register for the Introduction to Buddhism Course:
https://www.everyday-buddhism.com/p/introduction-to-buddhism-course-and-registration-1/
 
Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:
https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism
 
If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations

 

Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

I am thrilled to share this conversation with Rainn Wilson—Yes, that guy … the actor best known for his role as Dwight Schrute in The Office. In the conversation we talk about his recent book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.
Rainn Wilson is a NY Times Bestselling author and three-time Emmy nominated actor best known for his role in NBC’s The Office. Besides his many other comedic and dramatic roles on stage and screen, he is the co-founder of the media company SoulPancake and host of the docuseries Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss. Rainn is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy, as well as the coauthor of SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions.
Some of this you may already know about Rainn, I'm sure, but something you may not know—but will learn from this conversation—is that, in addition to Rainn being a practitioner of the Baha'i faith, he is deeply spiritual, has studied many religions, and has a unique ability to capture the deepest of existential philosophy and social behavior in common cultural references and everyday language.
Among many other things, we talked about what spirituality is ... what soul is ... who or what God is or isn't ...
The two aspects of spirituality as demonstrated by the 1970's TV shows, Kung Fu and Star Trek ...
What is sacred and where can we find it?
Rainn's new book took me deep into reflection but also kept me giggling. It's the same with our conversation. So, keep listening … I promise Rainn will open your mind, open your heart, and—of course—make you laugh. The conversation starts now …
 
Buy the books (Amazon affiliate links):
Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution
 
Soul Pancake: Chew on Life's Big Questions
The Bassoon King: Art, Idiocy, and Other Sordid Tales from the Band Room
 
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/RainnWilson/
 
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/rainnwilson
 
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/rainnwilson/
 
 

 
Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:
https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism
 
If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations

 

Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism

You're in for a treat in this episode. At least it was a treat for me to have a conversation with Clark Strand. Clark is a former Zen monk, author, Haiku teacher, and communicator of all things spiritual and religious. He has studied and actually practiced within many, many spiritual and religious traditions so he speaks from actual experience.
The focus of today's conversation is on his book, Waking the Buddha: How The Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History is Changing Our Concept of Religion, but Clark is also the author of Seeds From a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey, Now Is the Hour of Her Return: Poems In Praise of the Divine Mother Kali, co-author, with Perdita Finn, of The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, and many other books on poetry, spirituality, and ecology. He is the co-founder of an international, non-sectarian rosary fellowship with members across the world.
I invited him on the podcast to talk about Nichiren Buddhism, Soka Gakkai, and chanting, in general. It is a subject I haven't covered on this podcast and the timing was sparked by the recent passing of Tina Turner who was a very public Soka Gakkai practitioner.
Although the focus of the conversation began with the Soka Gakkai, it became a fascinating journey to many other areas, due to Clark's wide reach and his spiritual depth.
Among many other things, we talked about the folk traditions within all religions. Or, as Clark said, "there is always a religion within a religion." …
About how the Soka Gakkai became virtually the only ethnically and  racially diverse Buddhist organization religion in the world…
About why Clark states that spirituality needs to be about "ecology not theology" and that the reason the thread that runs through his spiritual experience IS ecology and the folk traditions…
And, for fellow Pure Land and Shin practitioners, about how the Pure Land tradition is the only tradition deeply grounded in ecology…
About Haiku…
About the divine feminine, the Divine Mother, and the rosary as a spiritual and NOT a religious practice … and is, essentially, a tantric mantra practice…
About the 12-Steps program…
About chanting and how it gives voice to one's intentions, dreams, or hopes … and is the most ancient form of spiritual practice…
Listen and enjoy the journey...
Learn more about Clark:
https://wayoftherose.org/
 
https://tricycle.org/author/clarkstrand/
 
Buy the books:
Waking the Buddha: How the Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History Is Changing Our Concept of Religion
 
Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey: 25th Anniversary Edition: Revised & Expanded
 
The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary
 
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/clarkstrand/
 
https://www.instagram.com/way_of_the_rose/
 
 
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/clarkstrand/
 
 

 
Become a patron to support this podcast and get special member benefits, including a membership community and virtual sangha:
https://www.patreon.com/EverydayBuddhism
 
If this podcast has helped you understand Buddhism or help in your everyday life, consider making a one-time donation here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-donations

 

Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, Everyday Buddhism