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A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. This one is called Treasure House. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. This one is called The Stone Mind. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. This one is called The Sound of One Hand. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

This is a short story, entitled "The Gift" by Nancy L. Dahberg. Listen and use the silence that follows as an invitation to explore what resonance the story might have to your own. What are you forgetting? What would it be like to remember? Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

Hello, and welcome to Methods – an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. Today’s focus is the the dark night of the soul. There’s often a misconception about this phrase – the dark night of the soul. You may have heard it increasingly over the past few years, with the exodus of white evangelicals from the evangelical church, and the growth of the post-christian deconstruction culture. But much like deconstruction is used differently than the way Jaques Derrida popularized it, the colloquial meaning of the phrase “dark night of the soul has become foreign to its original use as well. In its common usage, it has come to mean something like a particularly difficult time in life, or is often used in conjunction with the loss or transformation of someone’s faith. But the original meaning of the term had a more mystical context. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

Light is the very basis of Vision, the topic of our current season of meditations. It is a persistent metaphor used in many different spiritual and religious contexts from East to West to convey liberation, understanding, and the elan vital of the universe. Whether it's the Damascus light of St. Paul, the "interior light" of Gregory the Great, the "illuminations of St. Ignatius, the Flowing Light of Mechthild, or the "Living Light" of Hildegaard, the recurring motif is branded on our historical and cultural consciousness in a way that it becomes impossible to ignore. But this light isn't simply the opposite of a polarized darkness, because it can be described as John Ruusbroec calls a "dark luminosity", or a transcendent dialectic that includes the apophatic elements of darkness and the cataphatic elements of light. In this method, we'll explore the ways this metaphor can be used in our practice to let the discursive analysis of our visual faculties gradually dissolve into a non-dual mode of perception, where seer, seeing, and seen are one. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

The idea behind this method is not too dissimilar from the structure found in the 14th century spiritual classic, the Cloud of Unknowing, but conceptually reversed. In “The Cloud of Unknowing”, the anonymous author tells the reader to “continually place a cloud of forgetting between yourself and the creatures or forms of the world, and a cloud of unknowing between you and God.” In short, they’re saying, “let go of all the concepts that tie you to form, and let go of the concepts that you think characterizes emptiness” So that all is left is a naked intent toward the Real. In this method, we use the image of a body of water, with its restless wind and waves at the surface (representing thoughts, feelings, and emotions) and we continually sink down beneath them. As a body of water is tumultuous at the surface, often it is supremely still at the bottom. To get an idea of the type of visual image I’m referring to, take a look at the episode cover for this meditation, which is an original piece of artwork called "Anxiety" done by a good friend, Mike Reynolds. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support

In this episode, we explore the divine vision account from the Bhagavad Gita. After a long collection of extremely dense spiritual teachings, finally Arjuna asks his friend Krishna to see his ultimate form as the Lord of the Universe. Throughout the Bhagavad Gita (The Song of God), Krishna reveals to Arjuna, a warrior, the true meaning and purpose of his existence - to know and be united with Krishna. Although the battlefield is a backdrop, the true subject of the Gita is the war within, israel, the true jihad. As such the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna is not so much an external one but an internal one concerning the supreme science, the brahmavidya which is the knowledge of self. It is a conversation between our egoic human personality always full of questions, and our deepest self, which is Divine. Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon. linktr.ee/methodspodcast www.methodspodcast.com www.patreon.com/methods www.instagram.com/methodspodcast www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/methods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/methods/support