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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 not thoughts should always be shuttled to the side in meditation practice, or whether there might be a tangible benefit to taking those thoughts out for a little air. Later, we ask what it even means to have a formal meditation practice, and whether not having an overt one should be considered problematic for a dhamma professional? Finally, Jess gifts us with a meditation especially designed for parents; 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.

Topics touched upon for your consideration:

Three little words. | Cara Lai is willing to say what’s on your mind. | The smoking butts of dhamma practice. | Buddhist Brunch at the Golden Nugget. | Peanuts in the shit of life. | Pastor of Muppets. | Hard times with soft toys. | This thing of darkness I call Monkey. | Jessica Morey is a crypto-traditionalist. | Orienting towards the process, not the content. | I of the Monkey. | Cultivating the relational field. | Monkey/Pa. | There’s one hand holding both puppets. | Shock the (sock) monkey. | Talk, body! | Radical traditionalism. | A port from which to depart and explore. | Feeling available to the world.