Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver

Episódios

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  How Do You Help Someone Who is Dying? 24.07.2026 16min

  Send us Fan Mail This is a shorter episode, recorded while my family and I accompany my mother through hospice care. I reflect on an instruction I received when I first learned to meditate: resting more fully on the out breath than the in breath. As I prepare to be with my mother at the end of her life, that instruction has taken on new meaning. I share a few experiences that have shaped how I understand death, presence, and what it means to simply be there when a loved one is dying. Highligh...
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  What is Emptiness? 17.07.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail What does "emptiness" actually mean in Buddhism? It is one of the most misunderstood teachings, often taken to mean nothingness or the absence of meaning. In this episode, I discuss emptiness through the Zen koan "Mu," a personal story of heartbreak, and the Buddhist understanding that we are not separate from one another. Rather than pointing to a void, emptiness shows the fullness of all phenomena and the compassion that comes from recognizing it. Highlights: The Zen teachi...
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  Four Reminders that Deepen Spiritual Practice 10.07.2026 27min

  Send us Fan Mail This week I share one of the central teachings in Tibetan Buddhist practice: the Four Reminders that turn the mind toward the dharma. I had a recent conversation with Lama Sonam Rinpoche who said to me multiple times in the course of a few hour conversation: there is no more important teaching than this. In this episode, I try to offer some insights into why a great Lama might say such a thing. Highlights: How the Four Reminders create a trustworthy foundation for spiri...
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  How to Live as a Mystic 03.07.2026 28min

  Send us Fan Mail It’s episode 60! A perfect place to reach a summation of my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics which posits that meditation is not about becoming a better version of yourself. It is a spiritual practice that opens you to the three qualities of the awakened mind: wisdom, compassion, and power. How do these qualities arise from sitting there, doing “nothing”? All I know is that millions of practitioners over thousands of years have reported that it is so. &nbs...
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  We Dream on Behalf of Others: Presence, Agency, and Staying Sane 19.06.2026 24min

  Send us Fan Mail This episode picks up on the sixth principle of spiritual practice from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We Dream on Behalf of Others. Meditation protects our minds from the incessant barrage of those who seek our attention, whether for good or, most probably, for ill. Great forces are vying for agency over your thoughts right now. I hope that doesn’t sound conspiracy theory-y! It just seems obvious that a lot of money is being spent to capture a...
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  The Inexplicable Magic of Cleaning Up After Yourself 12.06.2026 28min

  Send us Fan Mail “The first rule of magic is containment,” said the great Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and many other books. This points to the idea that the world we live in changes the way our minds and hearts work. The more uplifted our world, beginning with our actual home, the more potency we have in our spiritual quest. Why? It’s magic? In this episode, I explore the fifth principle from Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We Clean Up After Ourselves. I also ...
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  The Importance of Spiritual Boundaries 05.06.2026 33min

  Send us Fan Mail The spiritual path asks you to open up, and the more you do so, the more you feel everything: your tenderness, things you’ve been avoiding, your deepest longings. It’s important to stay open to all of this but being open takes judgment. I know people say you shouldn’t judge but I say, hell yes, you’ve got to judge. The deepening vulnerability of the journey requires discernment and self-protection. In this episode, I explore the fourth principle from my new book, Inexplicable...
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  The Wisdom of a Broken Heart 29.05.2026 27min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore one of the most persistent misunderstandings about meditation: that it is supposed to make you feel better. From my experience, meditation does not numb heartbreak or smooth out emotional life. It opens us more fully to our experience. I talk about why vulnerability is not a failure of practice, but a sign that something real is happening. I also share thoughts on heartbreak as a path of awakening, the connection between heartbreak and compassion, a...
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  The Way is Personal 22.05.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I reflect on a recent meditation and writing retreat where participants explored grief, heartbreak, violence, loss, and the experiences that shape us most deeply. I talk about why the personal is not an obstacle to spiritual practice but the very material of the path itself. I explore how teachings on egolessness can become distorted into self-erasure, and why real transformation begins by turning toward our experience with curiosity, courage, and love....
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  Ritual Sustains Spiritual Practice 15.05.2026 20min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore why spiritual practice becomes sustainable through ritual, not force. I share the story of a month-long meditation retreat where I discovered an unexpected sense of ease in both meditation and writing, and how that experience led me to begin teaching meditation and writing retreats myself. I also introduce the first principle from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We engage in daily ritual. Through the Buddhist teaching ...
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  Starting Over: Meditation for Mystics 08.05.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I reflect on a recent conversation in the Open Heart Project sangha about scientific research on meditation. Yes, meditation can improve brain function and mood. But if we stop there, we may miss the point. There’s a much older, deeper body of “research” drawn from lived experience over thousands of years. Meditation is not just about feeling better. It’s about waking up, opening fully to life, and discovering a freedom that goes far beyond conventional thoug...
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  Do Buddhists Pray? 01.05.2026 17min

  Send us Fan Mail Here is a new episode after an unexpected pause. I’m moving to a new house and that has stirred disorientation, emotional complexity, and a break from familiar patterns. The truth is, I just didn’t know if I had anything of use to say. Also, I was in a bad mood? Needy! It happens! It turns out that this unsettled place provided a good context to consider a question raised in our Open Heart Project sangha: do Buddhists pray? If so, to whom? In a non-theistic tradition, rather ...
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  Recap: The Noble Eightfold Path 17.04.2026 42min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I bring all eight steps of the Noble Eightfold Path together. This teaching is a way of living, not a project of self-improvement. This is about how we relate to experience and how that shapes suffering or freedom. Highlights Right ViewSeeing clearly begins in the present moment.Meditation helps us loosen our grip on thoughts and recognize we don’t truly know.What we seek arises when there is space, not through more thinking.Right IntentionIntention matters m...
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  The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Eight: Right Samadhi 03.04.2026 25min

  Send us Fan Mail This week we arrive at the final step of the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Samadhi, often translated as concentration or absorption. If the earlier steps help us see clearly and act with intention, this final step gathers the mind into a unified experience. Right Samadhi is not about forcing the mind to focus. It begins with learning to place attention on one thing and come back when it wanders. From there, it deepens into the ability to give your attention fully to another per...
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  The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Seven: Right Mindfulness 27.03.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail This week we explore Right Mindfulness, the seventh step of the Noble Eightfold Path. While the earlier steps shape how we see and act in the world, this step turns us inward again, toward our direct experience. Right Mindfulness is not about self-improvement or optimization. It is a way of relating to the mind as it is. Through meditation, we begin to see that thoughts are not a problem to solve, but something to notice, release, and return from, again and again. In this e...
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  The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Six: Right Effort 20.03.2026 29min

  Send us Fan Mail This week we explore Right Effort, the sixth step of the Noble Eightfold Path. While the earlier steps guide how we understand reality and how we act in the world, Right Effort begins to turn inward. It concerns how we work with our own mind and inner life. Right Effort does not mean pushing harder or forcing yourself to improve. It begins with a commitment not to give up on yourself. From there, it becomes a practice of directing your energy wisely, caring for your inner wor...
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  A Powerful New Take on the Enneagram (from my new book) 13.03.2026 50min

  Send us Fan Mail This episode, we pause our exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path before returning next week with Right Effort. This week, Shambhala Publications (my favorite publisher) is reissuing my book, The Buddhist Enneagram. I’m so proud this is happening and I wanted to take this chance to share thoughts on the two wisdom streams that have shaped my life for more than three decades: the Buddhadharma and the Enneagram. Highlights: Why compassion is central to Buddhist teaching and wh...
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  The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Five: Right Livelihood 06.03.2026 26min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore Right Livelihood, the fifth step on the Noble Eightfold Path. We began with Right View and Right Intention, then moved into speech and action. Now we turn to how we earn a living. It may sound ordinary, but the way we work, relate, and exchange value in the world can either bind us more tightly or support liberation. I share three lenses from the Buddhist tradition to investigate what Right Livelihood might mean for us now. Highlights Why your jo...
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  The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Four: Right Action 27.02.2026 26min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore Right Action, the fourth step on the Noble Eightfold Path. We begin with Right View and Right Intention, then move outward into speech. Now we take those steps into how we live and act in the world. Right Action is not a fixed rulebook. It is nuanced, relational, and always evolving. I share three lenses from the Buddhist tradition that help us investigate what right action might mean in our lives right now. Highlights Why Right View is about seein...
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  The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Three: Right Speech 20.02.2026 26min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore the third step of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Speech, and why it might more accurately be called Right Listening. I begin with a story about the so-called “Marcus Syndrome”, the habit of using someone else’s speaking time to prepare your reply. From there, I revisit Right View and Right Intention, and how the way we hold our inner world naturally shapes the words we send out into the world. We look at the classical categories of unskillful speec...