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Nirvana and Samsara Are the Same Thing

Robert Thurman — October 6, 2015

Robert Thurman is a prolific author and professor at Columbia University, where he holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies. A close friend of the Dalai Lama, Robert is a cofounder of Tibet House in New York City, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the fragmented culture of Tibet. In this rollicking installment of Insights at the Edge, Robert and Tami Simon discuss how bliss is a fundamental component of our being, as well as how we can tap into that bliss in our everyday lives. They speak on how people can choose a career that keeps them close to their spiritual tradition and some of the pitfalls involved with becoming a full-time spiritual teacher. Finally, Robert and Tami talk about what exactly continues after reincarnation, and Robert clarifies some of the Dalai Lama’s recent comments about his next life. (90 minutes)

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Elena Brower: Following Your Homing Intuition

Elena Brower — October 4, 2016

Elena Brower is a yoga instructor, artist, and designer who is devoted to cultivating meditation as our most healing habit. With Sounds True and coauthor Erica Jago, Elena has published Art of Attention: A Yoga Practice Workbook for Movement as Meditation. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Elena about her upcoming audio offering, The Return Home: Essential Meditation Training for a Vital, Centered Life. Elena talks about the “home frequency” that each of us possesses, as well as how the return to that frequency requires a breaking of compulsive habits and addictions. They discuss the necessity of prayer and forgiveness, and consider the foundational principles of returning to one’s home frequency. Finally, Elena offers a practice for calming and returning to one’s center in the face of stress and overwhelm. (67 minutes)

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Embracing Empathy as Your Superpower

Judith Orloff — March 28, 2024

What do I do when a loved one is suffering? How do I have empathy if I’m getting a divorce or losing my job? If my family treats me unfairly? Or if I’m emotionally overwhelmed or in chronic pain?

If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, I’ve written The Genius of Empathy for you. It also includes a beautiful foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

In the book, I present empathy as a healing force that helps you overcome obstacles in your life with dignity, grace, and power. As a psychiatrist and empath, I draw from my insights and present techniques from my own life and from the healing journeys of my clients, students, and readers. As I say in the book, “Empathy softens the struggle, quiets the unkind voices, and lets you befriend yourself again.”

Empathy doesn’t mean being “on call” 24 hours a day for those in need. Empaths can often wear an invisible sign that says, “I can help you.” However, if you want to heal yourself, have better relationships, and contribute to healing our tumultuous world, you must learn how to set healthy boundaries and observe, not absorb, the energy of others.

To start taking a more proactive role in how much empathy you give others at any one time, I suggest that you keep in mind the following “rights.” They will help you maintain a healthy mindset and prevent or lessen any empathy overwhelm that might arise:

I have the right to say a loving, positive “no” or “no, thank-you.”
I have the right to set limits with how long I listen to people’s problems.
I have the right to rest and not be always available to everyone.
I have the right to quiet peacefulness in my home and in my heart.

Practice: Take a Sound Break to Repair Yourself

Plan periods of quiet to recover from our noisy, fast-paced world. This helps calm your nervous system and your mind, an act of self-empathy.

It’s rejuvenating to schedule at least five minutes of quiet or, even better, complete silence for an hour or more where no one can intrude. As I do, hang a Do Not Disturb sign on your office or bedroom door. During this reset period, you’ve officially escaped from the world. You’re free of demands and noxious sounds. You may also get noise canceling earbuds to block out noise.

If too much quiet is unsettling, go for a walk in a local park or a peaceful neighborhood to decompress from excessive sound stimulation. Simply focus on putting one foot in front of the other, which is called mindful walking. Nothing to do. Nothing to be. Move slowly and refrain from talking. If thoughts come, keep refocusing on your breath, each inhalation and exhalation. Just letting life settle will regenerate your body and empathic heart.

Embracing your empathy does require courage. It can feel scary. If you’re ready to discover its healing power, I would be honored to be your guide to helping you in overcoming your fears and obstacles, and enhancing this essential skill for long-term change.

Though many of us have never met, I feel connected to you. Connection is what fuels life. While empathy is what allows you to find peace. With both, we can make sense of this world together.

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Ignite empathy as a superpower for personal healing, deeper relationships, and more potent work in the world. New York Times bestselling author Dr. Judith Orloff draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, and energy medicine to show us how to access our sensitivities, soothe our nervous systems, and embody our most fierce and authentic selves.

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Nataly Kogan: Living in a Friendly and Joy-Filled Univ...

Nataly Kogan — October 31, 2023

What brings you your greatest joy? How do you access your inner “awesome”? Nataly Kogan has made it her life’s work to help people overcome burnout and break free from endless busyness. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Nataly about her new book, The Awesome Human Journal, and the practical steps we can begin to take right now to shift out of self-defeating thought patterns (and their corresponding emotions), reclaim our energy, and share our gifts with the world.

Tune in as Tami and Nataly discuss insights from neuroscience that everyone should know; the human brain’s negativity bias; creating a better relationship with your thoughts—a key to well-being and emotional fitness; the worst-case scenario exercise; finding certainty in uncertain times; working within your sphere of impact; cultivating agency; freedom from skepticism and mistrust; living an aligned life in a universe that is friendly; energetic self-care; breaking the habit of denying ourselves joy; changing our habitual frame of reference to something positive and supportive; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

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Maggie Smith: Writing in a Way That Is Brave, Real, an...

Maggie Smith — August 8, 2023

Bestselling poet Maggie Smith has a gift for embracing the complexity of our human experience—and for writing about it with piercing intensity, clarity, and beauty. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Maggie about her approach to her craft and to life, and how writing can serve as a pathway to self-discovery and release.

Featuring a reading of the beloved poem “Good Bones,” this insightful episode of Insights at the Edge explores metaphor and life in sensory experience; poetic memoir; Maggie’s “drill-down” exercise; entering the territory of our pain; balancing a creative life and domestic responsibilities; the notion of “containing multitudes”; being an integrated, whole person; intuition and the deep knowing of what is brave, real, and true; sitting with the splinters (instead of sanding them down); allowing “full wingspan” for both individuals in a relationship; endurance versus closure; forgiveness versus acceptance; taking a bird’s-eye view of our experiences; making life more beautiful for everyone; and more.

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Into the Belly of Meditation

Jeff Foster — December 21, 2020

Into the Belly of Meditation

By Jeff Foster

You are weary, friend.

Sit.

You are thirsty.

Here. Drink.

You are hungry. Here. Take this.

A piece of bread.

A small bowl of soup.

See how God has taken form!

It is all I have but it will keep you alive.

I will light a fire that will never go out.

A sacred flame. Unconditional in its burning.

To illuminate us in the darkness.

Oh. I see you are wounded.

Bruised. Bleeding.

Exhausted from the world.

You have suffered much, I know.

Come.

Take off these dirty rags.

Don’t worry. It’s safe.

There is strength in your nakedness.

Here. Wash.

Rub this medicine onto your wounds.

Put on these robes, they are clean and dry.

Lie down. Close your eyes.

I will watch over us tonight.

Listen. You have not failed.

I see new life breaking through.

I see birth. An insurrection.

The sharp edge of hope.

I have no teaching for you.

No wise words.

I only want you to trust what you are going through.

To bring this fire inside of you.

Until the end.

I have known this pain. Yes.

This courage to keep moving. Yes.

This courage to rest, too.

The sacrifice of the known world.

Friend.

Drop into the belly of meditation now.

The place you were always seeking.

The vast silence at the Earth’s core which is your own core.

Breathing into the gut now.

The throat. The chest.

Irradiating the nervous system with unspeakable

tenderness.

Flooding the body with soft, warm light.

Drenching the human form with divine love.

And sleep.

I may not be here when you wake.

We may not meet again in form.

Yet I leave you with all you need.

Food. Water. A bed.

A chance to rest.

A touch of kindness.

And your unbreakable Self.

flowers

This poem is excerpted from You Were Never Broken: Poems to Save Your Life by Jeff Foster.

Jeff Foster shares from his own awakened experience a way out of seeking fulfillment in the future and into the acceptance of “all this, here and now.” He studied astrophysics at Cambridge University. Following a period of depression and physical illness, he embarked on an intensive spiritual search that came to an end with the discovery that life itself was what he had always been seeking.

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Learn More

Sounds True | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

Nirvana and Samsara Are the Same Thing

Elena Brower: Following Your Homing Intuition

Embracing Empathy as Your Superpower

Nataly Kogan: Living in a Friendly and Joy-Filled Univ...

Maggie Smith: Writing in a Way That Is Brave, Real, an...

Into the Belly of Meditation

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