After tariffs were broadly imposed by the current American regime (including, apparently on uninhabited islands populated mostly by penguins) causing a nearly unprecedented crash of the stock market, and after attending the lovely and unexpectedly massive protest marches that took place on April 5, Ethan ponders how to deal with extreme states of mind with a world on a roller coaster marked by fear and greed. The key, he says, is to be able to differentiate between arising mental emotions and the awareness that contains and welcomes them, and then to continuously generate compassion for all human beings. He offers two simple questions we can each ask ourselves when we encounter intense states of mind as humanity's roller coaster ride become increasingly topsy turvy—and perhaps increasingly hopeful—in the months ahead.

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Notes:

To find further explanation of the eight worldly winds, check out Ethan's latest book Confidence: Holding Your Seat Through Life's Eight Worldly Winds or the adapted essay in Lion's Roar Magazine.

In light of revelations about the theft of countless authors' work by one A.I. company (guess which one), Ethan finally talks about a topic he's been requested to cover for a while: Buddhist views on artificial intelligence. He begins by positioning the conversation within the frame of View and Intention, asking the question of what "technology" is and why and how we even want it to progress, along with proposing the sacredness of human labor, wisdom and creativity as a basic Buddhist principle, as well as a principle of right livelihood. He also includes a Buddhist understanding of the meaning of consciousness, and why AI might never meet the standard.

Please support the podcast via Substack and subscribe for free or with small monthly contributions. Paid subscribers will receive occasional extras like guided meditations, extra podcast episodes and more!

Check out all the cool offerings at our sponsor Dharma Moon. Free video courses, such as The Three Marks of Existence, are also available for download.

Notes:

To see some of the energy usage date on artificial intelligence, see this link

To see which author's works have been pirated, see The Atlantic's list here.

To read about The "Suzuki Roshi" Chatbot, read here.

An alternate translation of Suzuki Roshi's famed quote to his students is:

“Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.”

Ethan delves further into right action during a time of protest and chaos, using the recent examples of Tesla cars and cybertrucks being set on fire as a launching point. In The Power of Choice episode, he looked into the five precepts as guidelines for empowered and skillful action. In this episode, he looks into actions of mind as our guide: whether our actions are furthering our fixation on the three poisons of greed, hatred and delusion, or whether they are helping us liberate from those confused mentalities. Can we set samsara on fire instead?

Ethan also makes a bad dad joke about using Tesla technology to make fart noises happen on a meditation retreat when our mind wanders or we need to wake up.

Please support the podcast via Substack and subscribe for free or with small monthly contributions. Paid subscribers will receive occasional extras like guided meditations, extra podcast episodes and more!

Check out all the cool offerings at our sponsor Dharma Moon, including the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training, starting March 21 (this week!). Free video courses, such as The Three Marks of Existence, are also available for download.