Adventures in Meditating – What in the world is the world we want to live in—and how are we going to get there? Jessica Morey and Jonathan Roberts bring you no-drama dhamma for meditating moderns, wherein we contemplate the Big Ideas gifted us by life through a Buddhist lens, and then take an even deeper dive, in discussion with amazing mindfulness instructors.

07 | 09 | 23

Season 2, Episode Five: “Resting Buddha Face.”

In today’s episode, we begin by discussing the subtle art of preparing dhamma talks for meditation retreats. Later, we ask, Do humans have an instinctual orientation towards compassion, kindness, and love—or do we only get there by pushing past our darker impulses? Still later, we explore exactly how much we should trust our children, and… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Five: “Resting Buddha Face.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:23 — 69.0MB)

07 | 09 | 23

Meditation: An especially safe space.

Jess leads us in a riff on “metta” or “loving-kindness” practice, in which we are invited to imagine an ideal mother figure, as a way of calling forth the ideal maternal qualities that may be hiding in our own minds and hearts. Then, we use those qualities to establish a secure base for how we… Continue reading Meditation: An especially safe space.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:37 — 10.6MB)

04 | 30 | 23

Season 2, Episode Four: “Talk, Monkey!”

In today’s episode, I seem to have no idea what I’m getting myself into when I ask Jess and Cara to comment on whether my son’s insistence that I speak to him through a monkey-shaped hand-puppet is a peculiarity capable of revealing any dhamma-adjacent truths. Before long, we’ve delved into a doctrinal debate about whether or… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Four: “Talk, Monkey!”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:54 — 36.5MB)

04 | 30 | 23

Meditation: A place to rest the mind.

Jess gifts us with a meditation especially designed for parents, who may already feel like they’re figure-skating on the edge of a razor blade, and don’t need their meditation practice to be one more veldt they have to hack through. Hell, this meditation is one you can even do in bed, or wherever you happen… Continue reading Meditation: A place to rest the mind.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:28 — 10.5MB)

03 | 04 | 23

Season 2, Episode Three: “The Toilet-Mat Tantra.”

Today’s episode is a conversational free-for-all; or maybe a conversation in freefall? Jess and I crack open a veritable candy-sack of topics related to the dhamma of parenting. How do our children alert us when we’re not being mindful enough? What are the things we’re letting ourselves let go of, in hopes of becoming better parents?… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Three: “The Toilet-Mat Tantra.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:48 — 53.8MB)

03 | 04 | 23

Meditation: Connecting with the profound impermanence of our children.

Jess offers a meditation on learning to love this giant impermanent thing called parenting.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:08 — 8.4MB)

01 | 05 | 23

Season 2, Episode Two: “Whose Body is This?”

Today’s episode is a sonic rocket ride to the past. Back, in fact, to a series of conversations which Jess and Jon recorded in the final few weeks before Jess’s son was born. This is a snapshot view of how a dhamma teacher in the throes of the pregnant condition deals with the realization that the… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Two: “Whose Body is This?”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:36 — 81.8MB)

01 | 05 | 23

Meditation: “This wild, raw, and magnificent world.”

Jess offers a guided equanimity meditation that riffs on the dialogue we were having during Episode Two of Season 2, specifically, how sensations of anxiety, even terror, that might crop up around aspects of one’s own pregnancy; over the state of the world; over our knowledge that we have so little control over what happens… Continue reading Meditation: “This wild, raw, and magnificent world.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:25 — 14.3MB)

11 | 16 | 22

Season 2, Episode One: “Finding the Chanda in the Tanha.”

We’re back, baby! Now that Jess has joined Jon on his long walk down the long pier of parenting, we’ll be taking a different angle on the discussions this season: What does it mean to bring dhamma practice into parenting, and parenting into dhamma practice? Our super special guest: Cara Lai, a dhamma teacher teetering… Continue reading Season 2, Episode One: “Finding the Chanda in the Tanha.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:24 — 87.1MB)

11 | 15 | 22

Meditation: Cara Lai.

Cara leads us in a meditation on the care and feeding of the present moment. “Slowly, we develop a taste for being present for our lives. We give our attention the opportunity to see for itself what it really wants to be with. What else is happening in the real, tangible, here and now world that… Continue reading Meditation: Cara Lai.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:46 — 16.2MB)