51 episodes
Kitchen Sink Dharma Walter Young
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- Religion & Spirituality
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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How ancient teachings help us to navigate modern life. Every week a new episode offers 15 minutes of sanity, drawing from early Buddhist teachings, designed to wake you up from your stress and misery.
It can be hard to believe that doing something as simple as practising mindfulness will free us, but it will. Don’t imagine that there are secret teachings out there somewhere that you need to go and find. The answer is much closer to home. You’ll find it right here in this very moment. It’s always here and it’s always available. If you’re too busy looking for transcendent experiences you’ll miss it. You can find it in the washing of a cup, the sound of a bird, a conversation with your son, your daughter, your mother, your friend. You can find it in the sensations in your body as you work and rest and live and breathe.
Just listen with your body, heart and mind.
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A bundle of energy
When we meditate, we find out things about ourselves, like how easily we’re distracted. Sometimes when we have difficulty concentrating, we’re simply unwilling to accept what’s happening right now. What’s really going on is avoidance.
By sensing into the energy in the body, we’re tuning in to the present moment. We’re saying ‘this is what’s happening, right now, and it’s fine’. -
Gratitude
As humans we have a natural negativity bias. We’re acutely sensitive to things that upset or trouble us.
Our capacity for gratitude and appreciation counteracts this. Acknowledging the good in our lives supports our sense of wellbeing and makes us less prone to depression.
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There's nothing missing
Expecting pleasant feelings to remain stable means fighting against reality. Everything that arises passes; feelings change, often within a few seconds.
And yet still we react and cling as though our lives depend on it. -
A gift to the collective
We’re not meditating so that we can rise above all that’s wrong in the world. Sometimes we have to engage with it. Sometimes we have to speak out against what’s unjust, and not from a place of hate and anger, but with openness and compassion.
This is the challenge of our lives. -
Goodwill protects us
In our culture, saying someone is harmless isn’t necessarily considered a compliment, but it’s a big deal in early Buddhist teachings.
There’s a protective quality to the teachings on goodwill and non-harming. Harming other beings harms us, just as helping others helps us. The consequences of our karma, in other words our actions, can be long term.
This talk was offered to Insight North East in April 2024 -
Equanimity
Your habits aren’t who you are. When you notice yourself reacting to something, it’s just a pattern, a movement of energy. It’s not who you are, it’s a fleeting reaction. One minute it’s there, the next it’s gone. You don’t have to identify with it.
To see that is to be free.