Jun 17, 2018
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Today’s conversation is with Roshi Joan Halifax.
You might know of Roshi from her work in the Buddhist
community. She’s a Zen Buddhist teacher
at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe. But she’s also an
anthropologist, she’s an
ecologist, a civil rights
activist, a hospice caregiver and an
author. Her most recent book is
Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and
Courage Meet.
Roshi practices what’s called socially engaged
Buddhism. She’s very involved with protecting the rights
of others and empowering people. What she’s come
to realize is that those living a virtuous life may find a shadow
side to what they do. What she means is that even when doing good
work, we can go too far, ultimately harming either ourselves or the
person or people we’re trying to help. In this conversation, she
explains exactly what she means by that. In short, she
encourages us to find balance. And this is exactly what
her new book entails – how we can see the big
picture, how we can have compassion but still stay
in balance.
It seems to me her book couldn’t have come out at a better time. A time when so many of us are experiencing outrage and despair over what’s going on in the world but we want to be helpful and try to make things better. And as you’ll hear, I personally found some wisdom and comfort in her words and suggestions for how to deal with our current situation.
Roshi and I met through a mutual friend, Angel Murdock (whom she refers to in this episode). You can go back and listen to my conversation with Angel on episode 38 to get a bit of background on her work.
Connect with Roshi Joan Halifax:
Upaya Zen Center (website) | Facebook (Upaya) | Twitter (Upaya)
Other items/people mentioned:
Standing at the Edge
(Roshi's book)
Thich Nhat
Hanh
Zen Buddhism
(Wiki)
Theravada
Buddhism (Wiki)
Vajrayana
Buddhism (Wiki)
Sharon Salzberg
Jack Kornfield
Insight Meditation
Society
Roxanne
Swentzell
Fyodor
Dostoevsky
Vaclav
Havel
Barbara Kingsolver
Connect with me:
Facebook
Instagram
WanderTours
Be Bold
Facebook Group (women-only)
Twitter
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Be
Bold,
Beth