Episode 152 - Examining Attachment To Our Self
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
Release Date: 10/25/2022
Episode 186 - Change your view and everything changes
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
Within Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhists are sometimes referred to as "inner beings." What this means is that we turn inward. We learn to cultivate happiness and solve problems by changing our thoughts and actions. Like a sculptor with clay, our mind shapes our experiences. By observing thoughts, feelings, and habits, we gain insight into the workings of the mind. With this awareness, we can transform mental mental states to alleviate suffering. Understanding that the source of a problem is inside a person doesn't imply blame but highlights our potential for growth and transformation....
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Episode 185 - How to Transform through Buddha's Teachings
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
Learning how to listen to teachings and having respect for the teacher create the right conditions for your mind to change. In this episode, we explore Je Tsongkhapa’s instructions on “How to listen to the teachings by relying on the Six Ideas. Your mind opens when you feel the teaching is medicine that can cure your specific suffering or difficulty. Buddhist Teacher JoAnn Fox explains how to put these instructions into practice with some struggle you're currently experiencing. When you receive Buddhist teachings in a formal setting and see the teacher being prostrated before or...
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Episode 184: The Art of Ethical Living
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
This episode explores the art of ethical living, guided by the practice of restraint. Restraint involves intentionally moderating and controlling one's actions, speech, and thoughts. We cultivate restraint to minimize the harm we cause and to build the foundation for spiritual development. A good guide for our practice of restraint is the Five Precepts. The Five Precepts were given to his lay (not ordained) followers as ethical guidelines that include the vow to abstain from killing, stealing, engaging in sexual misconduct, lying, and becoming intoxicated. How to practice the ethical...
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Episode 183 - How to prevent anger
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
This episode explores the question “Where does anger come from?” Buddhist teacher, JoAnn Fox, also provides several practical ways to prevent anger from arising (when it typically would)! Anger doesn’t come from another person or a situation. Anger comes from our thoughts. Specifically, when we pay inappropriate attention to an unpleasant object and dwell on its faults, we work ourselves up until anger arises. That point at which anger is manifest is when the mind is unpeaceful and uncontrolled. A very sad aspect of anger is that this mental state has the wish to harm. The...
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Episode 181 - Radiating Compassion
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
The primary motivation behind wanting to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings is boundless compassion. This unconditional love and concern for the well-being and liberation of all sentient beings, without exception, takes effort to cultivate. A bodhisattva is someone who, out of compassion, vows to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. The wish itself is called "bodhicitta." What marks becoming a bodhisattva is that their intention to become a Buddha is unmovable (meaning they've developed bodhicitta). While the Bodhisattva Vow is central to the Mahayana...
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Episode 180 - Practicing Kindness Toward Ourselves
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
Metta meditation, also known as loving-kindness meditation, is a fundamental practice in Buddhism that cultivates feelings of love, compassion, and goodwill towards oneself and others. The word "Metta" is a Pali term that translates to "loving-kindness" or "benevolence." In this meditation, practitioners typically sit in a comfortable position and focus on generating feelings of love and kindness. The practice involves silently repeating phrases or affirmations that express well-wishes, such as "May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be safe, may you live with ease." The...
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Episode 179 - Work with your greatest afflictions first
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
The Lojong slogan "Work with your greatest defilements first" emphasizes the importance of addressing the negative habit that is most deeply disturbing our inner peace and happiness. Lojong, which means "mind training" in Tibetan, is a set of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism aimed at developing compassion, wisdom, and the ability to transform adverse circumstances into opportunities for spiritual growth. Central to Lojong are short, pithy instructions called "slogans," like "Work with your greatest defilements first." By working with the habit that causes us the most problems first, we can make...
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Episode 178 - Seeking The True Nature of Reality
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
In this episode we look at the practice of wisdom. In particular, this refers to wisdom realizing the true nature of reality. Little by little we touch reality as we gain wisdom. We come to understand why we suffer, where our problems truly come from, and how to solve our problems inwardly. Buddha's guidance remains as practical for his followers today as it was when he first shared it. This is a journey of finding peace and understanding, accessible to all who seek it. The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths to provide a clear framework for understanding the nature of our suffering and...
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Episode 177 - Thirst
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
"The rain could turn to gold and still your thirst would not be slaked' the Buddha said. In this episode we explore the connection between the Buddhist teachings of emptiness and craving. Understanding this connection is fundamental to understanding the nature of suffering and the path to liberation. Emptiness (Shunyata) Emptiness refers to the fundamental nature of reality, which is devoid of inherent, fixed, or independent existence. The empty nature of all things is the opposite of how we normally perceive reality. If we see something as beautiful, we do not think our mind has anything to...
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Episode 176 - Light up this world like a moon set free
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
The Buddha said that an earnest practitioner, even when just beginning the path to enlightenment, "lights up this world like the moon set free from a cloud." This episode explores how to relate to being this light in our world, specifically through the practice of metta, or loving-kindness. Metta practice involves cultivating a heartfelt attitude of unconditional love, benevolence, and goodwill towards oneself and all sentient beings. Metta meditation is a practical way to strengthen these qualities. It can be done in formal meditation or "off the cushion" with the simple recitation of a...
info_outlineAttachment to the self causes suffering, just as suffering invariably follows attachment to any object. In general, attachment arises when we perceive an object we find attractive and become fixated on it; we exaggerate its qualities until we become glued to the object, so that it is painful if we are separated from it. For example, attachment to self might arise as a fixed sense that we have a certain quantity, like intelligence. We are attached to being perceived as intelligence so that when someone slights our intelligence in some way, we feel pain and might become angry and defensive.
The following experiences come from attachment to our self:
- anxiety
- feeling defensive
- depression, self-loathing, guilt
- pride
- defense mechanisms
A suggested mindfulness practice is to watch our mind for a week, attempting to notice when we experience any of the symptoms of attachment to self. Other ways to gain knowledge about your own attachment is to observe what triggered the attachment to arise. Or determine what exactly you're attached to in that moment. Observe any pain or problems this attachment causes. Discover what ways your attachment to self most often arises, In the next episode, we will explore ways to lessen the attachment to self that most often plagues you.
Sorrow grows Like grass after rain
For anyone overcome by this miserable craving
And clinging to the world. (335)*
Sorrow falls away Like drops of water from a lotus
For anyone who overcomes this miserable craving
And clinging to the world.
This I say to you: Good fortune to all assembled here!
Dig out the root of craving
As you would the fragrant root of bīrana grass.
Don’t let Māra destroy you again and again,
As a torrential river [breaks] a reed. (337)
Just as a felled tree grows again
If the roots are unharmed and strong,
So suffering sprouts again and again
Until the tendency to crave is rooted out.
-Buddha, The Dhammapada
References and Links
Buddha.The Dhammapada. Translated by Gil Fronsdale. (Kindle). Shambala, Boston and London, 2011. (Link)
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