Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver

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...

Send us Fan Mail This morning, the Open Heart Project Sangha gathered as we do every day to meditate and reflect together. The group was larger than usual, a clear sign of how shaken many of us are by what is happening in the United States right now. I began by saying there is nothing I can offer that makes this moment acceptable or less horrifying. There is no teaching that explains it away. What we can do is see and feel the suffering clearly, without denial or false comfort. We talked abou...

Send us Fan Mail As we move into a new year, how do we deepen our understanding: of ourselves, our relationships, and our spiritual practice? In this episode, we explore the three essential steps of learning in the Buddhist tradition: hearing, contemplating, and meditating. Highlights: Why the first step, hearing, is more than listening: it’s opening to what’s being offered without judgment or projection.How contemplating allows teachings to be tested, weighed, and integrated through experien...

Send us Fan Mail As we close out a year many of us are ready to leave behind, this episode reflects on what we might want to carry forward—and what we can gently let go of. I explore the Buddhist teaching of the brahmavihāras, or Four Immeasurables, as a way of giving our hearts a place to live that is honest, resilient, and humane. The Four Immeasurables—loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—are called “immeasurable” because they are not limited resources. They don’t r...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak directly to a question I’m often asked: what can we do when anxiety or panic takes over? While many people associate Buddhism with calming the mind, the path is far more layered than stress reduction. Sometimes the most skillful response is not meditation but something far more ordinary and tender. I share my own experience with severe panic attacks—episodes triggered whenever I felt trapped, especially on airplanes. These attacks arrived suddenly and...