Pobsa’s Dharma Lounge

Inspired by a conversation with some students and remembering a song from the Sex Pistols, Pobsa shares about problems and how to work with their inevitability. This episode ends with a somewhat humorous and quite telling story of the Buddha and a Brahman who sought relief from his 85 problems.

I think you will enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Barrie Risman as much as I did! Prompted by a Facebook post, I reached out to Barrie and she gracefully accepted my invitation to chat about some of the philosophical aspects of the Yoga Tradition(s).

Barrie is an internationally-recognized yoga teacher, public speaker, and author. Her book, Evolving Your Yoga: Ten Principles for Enlightened Practice, is a guide for yoga teachers and continuing students to deepen, expand, and integrate the benefits of yoga in their lives. I'm pretty sure, as I make my way through her book, that I will be inviting Barrie for further exploration.

Barrie’s alignment-oriented approach to postural practice is grounded in principles of healthy, functional movement. Her events weave together the technical precision of alignment-based practice with principles of yoga philosophy distilled from decades of intensive study and made accessible and relevant to practitioners from all walks of life.

Inspired by the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in this episode, Pobsa examines the Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist understanding of atonement. He ends by sharing the Zen Buddhist Gatha of Atonement. 

In this first conversation-based episode of Pobsa's Dharma Lounge, recorded on June 2, 2022, I had the delight in reconnecting to my dharma brother, Muhan Jose Palma. We met over 20 years ago when we were both students of the Korean Son (Zen) Master, Samu Sunim. While I was on the Dharma Teacher track, Muhan was on the track to become a priest. After his ordination, he went on to train with Joan Halifax Roshi at Upaya Zen Center where he also received the new dharma name, Shinzan.

It’s been argued that contemporary mainstream western Buddhism has been co-opted by neo-liberal ideology. In this episode I use the deconstruction of the description of an online course offered by a celebrity Buddhist teacher and hosted by Tricycle, the Buddhist journal as a way to expose and critique the neo-liberal assumptions that permeate so much of contemporary Buddhism and the secularlized mindfulness movement, as well as contemporary yoga and "new-age" spirituality.

It was his engaging with the realities of aging, illness, and death that led the man who would become known as "the Buddha" to take up Dharma practice. After his awakening, he created the powerful practice of "The Five Remembrances" to help us wake up from complacency and denial in order to embrace reality and to live our life fully and intimately.

After a 17 minute introduction to the practice, I present a 16-minute guided practice of The Five Remembrances.

In the last ten days, I've learned of the death of three folks close to me or others whom I love, and just as I finished recording this episode, I saw the news that the composer Vangelis has died. I dedicate this episode to the memory of Kris Schaefer Rogers, Catherine Chai, and Jane Howard Baker and all those touched by the lives they have lived.