Immersing listeners in hope and optimism, author Anne Lamott helps listeners cultivate resilience through stories of honesty and service.

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In this episode, Anne Lamott holds a talk on:

• Service to others and selflessness as a clear path to hope
• Listening to the one-man band of our inner selves
• The Three A’s in the 12-step program: Awareness, Acceptance, Action
• Allowing ourselves to feel the pain all around us, in the world, in our families, etc.
• Remembering that there is a solution to everything and that it is always spiritual
• Reframing death as a step to new life and regeneration
• Generosity as a natural human tendency that can be tapped into
• Talking to ourselves as if we are our most cherished friend
• Paying attention to the beauty in life and within ourselves

Check out the book recommended by Anne, A Distant Mirror.

"Service is always a path to hope. When we can get out of ourselves and be there for others, it's what heaven will be like—what heaven on earth is like." – Anne Lamott

About Anne Lamott:

Anne Lamott is the New York Times best-selling author of many books, including collections of essays, novels, and long-form non-fiction, including the classic writing manual Bird by Bird and child-rearing memoir Operating Instructions. In addition to being a novelist and nonfiction writer, Lamott is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Keep up with Anne on Instagram.

This episode is also brought to you by Dharma Moon.

Join Senior Buddhist Teacher David Nichtern for a provocative and playful online discussion exploring the profound practices of mindfulness and the journey of becoming a meditation teacher.

Learn more and sign up for a free online talk about becoming a meditation teacher with David at dharmamoon.com/deepening.

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Opening our hearts in practice, Trudy Goodman takes us through her Jellyroll meditation to encourage the expansion of metta from the self to others.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, Trudy Goodman illuminates:

• The heart’s natural capacity to love and heal—reclaiming our birthright to compassion
• Beginning metta (lovingkindness) practice with those we deeply love and who love us in return
• Feeling into the warmth, care, and well-wishes from those we visualize in our meditation
• Softening the mental walls that block us from receiving love and emotional support
• Powerful metta phrases to offer ourselves and others
• Embracing radical self-love—accepting ourselves just as we are
• Expanding lovingkindness to those we feel neutral about, widening our circle of care
• Extending compassion and goodwill even toward those we struggle with
• Using the power of imagination to radiate boundless love to all beings everywhere

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

“It's also a great practice to offer some loving kindness to the difficult parts of yourself. The parts you wish you could just have an 'ectomy' and get rid of them. A shame-ectomy or a blame-ectomy, whatever parts of yourself you find difficult to love, just hold them in some tenderness and care." – Trudy Goodman

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Gil Fronsdal reflects on Anicca, the Buddhist teaching often translated as impermanence, and offers a more precise lens for Western minds to understand its meaning.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, Gil offers wisdom on:

• How to create inner conditions that support the natural arising of wisdom
• Understanding inconstancy as a flow of coming and going, not a fixed state of change
• A powerful fable: The Emperor of China’s quest for a painting that embodies peace and wisdom
• Calming the agitated, restless mind through meditation and mindful awareness
• Discovering true peace and safety within ourselves, rather than chasing it in the external world
• The value of noticing the flow of change and where our minds are caught
• Knowing that it is not just the world that constantly changes, but also our perception of the world
• Floating in the river of change rather than trying to swim against it
• Seeing Anicca through the lens of insight meditation

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

"The mind is like a waterfall, furious and violent. There's not much peace in it. In that state, there's not much wisdom, not much clarity. This is one of the functions of meditation: to help us quiet the mind, settle it, and show the mind that there is an alternative to being restless and agitated. Teach the mind that the safety that it's looking for is found within.” – Gil Fronsdal

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