Podcasts
ISmile329 – At Peace With Death
It’s about meeting every experience without avoidance or greed. In this radical honesty fearlessness will always reign.
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ISmile328 – Fear On The Path
Whether you are a beginning meditator or a seasoned practitioner, fear can be a useful tool in this work. Practicing, for example, in the midst of our fear shows us a path toward a new perspective where we no longer end up getting paralyzed by fear but instead are...
ISmile327 – Karma’s a Bitch
Michael works with The Book of Serenity's, Case #76 as a way of describing the path of attainment. He also weaves into this description an application of how people come together and separate in relationships. By using the phrase, "The moon sets, midnight going...
ISmile326 – How To Let Go
In this evening's talk, Michael looks at the three components to truly letting go. He first begins with the aspiration for awakening. Secondly, he points to the appreciation of what we have been given in this life. Thirdly, he points to the need for there to be a...
ISmile325 – Video: Comparing Christian and Buddhist Versions of Love
In this video, Michael discusses the idea of love as inspired by Paul's letter to Corinthians, Chapter 13. He then compares the Christian version of love to a decidedly Buddhist interpretation, drawing on the idea that love can be seen as a simple, felt sense of the...
ISmile324 – When Practice Deepens
One of the things that Zen practice leaves out, according to Michael McAlister, is a more direct approach to uncovering the Witness. This simple awareness, is all there ever is, and in this talk, Michael uses a piece by Ken Wilber in order to point out this constant...
ISmile323 – The Enormity of What You Really Are
When we let ourselves truly recognize what lies beyond our preferences and our attachments, we begin to get a sense of how expansive we really are. This recognition can be an explosive experience that rattles us to our core, scaring us from continuing our practice. In...
ISmile322 – Conscious Choice
"There is only choice," as Michael has pointed out. Even not choosing is a choice. Even in spontaneous expressions of joy or pain, we choose how we will relate to the ways in which we meet these experiences. When we open to the truth that all things are temporary, our...
ISmile321 – It All Starts With Forgiveness
In this evening's talk, Michael discusses the opportunity that each and every life event, no matter how great or how small, how wonderful or how dark, gives each of us the chance to awaken. He points to what is always prior to any experience and equates this...
ISmile320 – Living Without Insulation
When we commit to directly knowing, as we say in Zen, our True Nature, we have to be willing to give everything up. Everything. Lingering attachments work to insulate us from a full exposure to this very life that we are leading, according to Michael in this evening's...