Podcasts

This podcast was originally offered in June of 2005. ___ What is the Source of all things? In this talk, Michael pushes the limits of language by discussing the nature of Emptiness as it relates to the human experience. How is it that the experience of Emptiness is...

In this video-taped Dharma talk, Michael McAlister explains how we can lie lives rooted in deep, or radical, honesty. Once we start to do this we can find that there is no longer a compulsion to either establish or cling to an identity. Once we lose our grip on our...

In this Dharma talk, Michael discusses how we can begin to look at pain as an invitation to deepen our perspectives on how we live. This isn't always easy, but it's at the core of everyone's Dharma practice. When we know, in other words, that some disaster is...

In this Dharma talk, Michael McAlister starts by pointing out how the PBS NewsHour's Mark Shields helped contextualize the killings in Tuscon, Arizona. In doing so, we find that there may be some significant reminders of how tribal-centrism can be extended toward...

In this Dharma talk, Michael McAlister offers his take on the "fire" needed to keep our spiritual life moving towards deeper and deeper levels of maturity. He suggests that these lives that we're leading are complete as they are and provide us with all the necessary...

In this Dharma talk, Michael McAlister discusses the Buddhist version of supporting an embodied awakening: The Eightfold Path. This methodology, as articulated in Buddhist tradition, was the fourth of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths and shows us how to live a life free...

In this Dharma talk, Michael McAlister breaks form a bit. Instead of offering up pointers showing us a path to freedom, he describes how to best keep ourselves from ever developing an open heart. He also discusses how ego is not the root of all evil; how focussed...

My teacher's teacher, Shunryu Suzuki, offered up this famous spiritual pearl: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few." While its meaning may appear to suggest that we need to cultivate a mind like that of a child in...

There are several things, according to Michael McAlister, that can get in the way of realization as we deepen our spiritual practice. Among the issues, sleepiness, insomnia, arrogance, fear, doubt, attachment, pain, restlessness, boredom, and avoidance. Getting caught...