Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver

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The Five Buddhist precepts may sound straightforward, even familiar: don’t kill, steal, lie, engage in inappropriate sexual conduct, or use intoxicants. But there is more to these standards of behavior than what you read on the surface. I explore how the precepts invite us to pay attention to what sustains or diminishes life, how we treat others, and the many ways we distract ourselves from what is true.

The precepts, as I was trained, are not permanent vows of perfection, but daily commitments we can consciously review and renew. I also look at the three stages of ground, path, and fruition to understand what constitutes breaking a precept.

Highlights:

• The Five Precepts:

• Refraining from killing as a commitment to preserving life force in ourselves, others, and the situations we encounter.
• Learning not to take what has not been offered
• Practicing truthfulness by pausing to examine what we actually know before we speak.
• Looking beyond obvious sexual misconduct to consider the ways we take advantage of others for our own satisfaction.
• Recognizing intoxication in its many forms, from alcohol and drugs to compulsive scrolling and attachment to our own opinions.

• A daily commitment: the precepts are renewed each day, rather than treated as permanent vows that leave no room for human complexity.
• Ground, path, and fruition: Exploring the three stages that must come together to break a precept.

Podcast After Party Music

A tribute to Magic Sam, the influential blues guitarist, and his instrumental track Looking Good from West Side Soul.

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

New Online Workshop on The Five Buddha Families

Join Kevin Townley for Full Fathom Five: The Buddha Families & Creative Expression, a 4–hour workshop on November 14th at 11am et. Kevin will guide you through the Five Buddha Families and how the difficulties or confusion states that we might experience can actually fuel our creativity. There will be time to work on artmaking in real time.

Learn more and register here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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In this episode of Buddhism Beyond Belief, I explore The Five Buddha Families, a mandala that maps five forms of wisdom and their corresponding expressions of confusion. From the sharp precision of Vajra to the spacious awareness of Buddha, each family offers a way to understand our own patterns, recognize the gifts and challenges in ourselves and others, and cultivate greater compassion. I also share examples from everyday life to bring these energies into focus.

Highlights:

• Why non-dualistic thinking is beyond conception and how mandalas can help us navigate the non-conceptual
• The Five Buddha Families:

• Vajra: How anger is connected to precision.
• Ratna: Pride, richness, generosity, and the wisdom of equality.
• Padma: How longing is a form of discriminating awareness and sensitivity to nuance.
• Karma: Anxious speed and the ability to accomplish what is meaningful.
• Buddha: How spaciousness and wakefulness can also express themselves as unfocused and spacey.

• How recognizing these five energies in ourselves and others can deepen compassion and support the path to liberation.

Podcast After Party Music

I share why I love the distinctive guitar playing of Steve Cropper on Booker T. & the M.G.'s Green Onions, and how his spare, stinging style echoes the influence of Lowman Pauling.

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.

New Online Workshop on The Five Buddha Families

Join Kevin Townley for Full Fathom Five: The Buddha Families & Creative Expression, a 4–hour workshop on November 14th at 11am et. Kevin will guide you through the Five Buddha Families and how the difficulties or confusion states that we might experience can actually fuel our creativity. There will be time to work on artmaking in real time.

Learn more and register here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

A 2026 Atlantic article explored “The Dark Side of Mindfulness.” They published a similar article in 2014 that also discussed negative results from meditation practice, “The Dark Knight of the Soul”. (Not sure why “knight” was used, tbh.)

In this episode, I look at both articles and talk about the risks that I’ve seen arise, not from meditation per se, but from meditation practiced without the guardrails provided by such time-tested (though by no means foolproof) sources such as lineage and profound spiritual insights provided by true teachers (aka realized beings who won’t also try to get you to take off your pants or give them all your cash.)

I share my own experience with PTSD and how it has shown up in my decades of meditation practice. I talk about how Buddhist teachings differ from self-help and how to approach meditation with the compassion of self-love rather than the aggression that may accompany the wish to “fix” ourselves.

Highlights:

• Meditation amplifies our inner state rather than calming it which may be why, for some, suffering deepens
• How Buddhist meditation practice differs from “mindfulness” marketed as self-help
• Why trained teachers, lineage, and sangha (community) matter
• How silent retreats and intensive practice entered into without preparation and care may become disorienting
• The difference between meditation as self-help and meditation as a spiritual practice
• The importance of holding compassion for ourselves and others as a central purpose of practice

Podcast After Party Music

“Think” by The Five Royales showcases Lowman Pauling’s epic, stinging, minimalist guitar style, a style that influenced many. Though he has remained relatively unknown, you’ve heard his influence on players from the 60s, 70s, and beyond. Respect and all hail, Lowman Pauling!

Mentioned in this episode:
The Dark Side of Mindfulness (Atlantic Magazine, September 2026)

The Dark Knight of the Soul (Atlantic Magazine, June 2014)

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.

New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity

Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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In this episode, I look at The Four Dharmas of Gampopa, four short sentences I've recited as part of my daily Buddhist practice for more than thirty years. Together they sketch the whole path: connecting my mind with truth, deepening realization, clarifying confusion, and finding that confusion is not separate from wisdom. You certainly don't need to be a Buddhist to explore this formula.

Highlights

• What "grant your blessing" can mean outside religious belief
• Finding your lineage in the people you admire and want to emulate
• Bringing the mind into line with truth
• How realization deepens as you travel the path
• How the path can clear up confusion instead of adding to it

Mentioned in this episode
The Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Gampopa

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity

Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

How we arrange our outer world can have a surprising effect on our inner state. In this episode, I talk about how creating an environment of stability, simplicity, and respect for objects can help us meet a difficult world with more confidence and strength. I share four simple ways to work with our environment: creating a ritual, caring for our space, wearing clothes that feel good to us, and eating food that nourishes us.

Highlights:

• Why working with our environment influences how we work with our minds
• Creating a personal ritual to connect with what matters
• How cleaning and caring for our space can restore a sense of dignity
• How our clothing affects our state of mind
• Nourishing our bodies as an expression of self-love
• How our environment can become a source of stability and strength

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity

Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

How do we work with strong emotions when the world feels frightening, divided, and uncertain? I look at three Buddhist approaches to difficult emotions: pacifying them, recognizing them as gateways to compassion, and discovering the wisdom within them. The key is learning to let go of the story and feel the feeling.

Highlights:

• Three Buddhist approaches to working with strong emotions
• When stepping away is helpful, and when it becomes self-aggression
• How difficult emotions can deepen compassion for others
• Finding wakefulness, focus, and wisdom within anger
• The difference between experiencing a feeling and repeating its story
• How meditation trains us to bring attention back to our lives

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity

Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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In Part Three of my conversation with my longtime teacher and spiritual friend Sam Bercholz, we talk about the strange and wonderful ways teachers can enter our lives, and how meditation can help us become more receptive to what is already here. We talk about devotion, wakefulness, Buddhist deities, and faith as something we investigate and put into practice rather than simply believe.

Highlights:

• How Sam and I became spiritual friends more than 30 years ago
• Recognizing a teacher through experience rather than analysis
• How meditation can make space for clearer seeing
• Deities as expressions of awakened qualities
• Faith as investigation, verification, and practice
• Why the Dharma is about waking up, not self-improvement

Mentioned in this episode
Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path by Samuel Bercholz

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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In this episode, I continue my conversation with Sam Bercholz. We talk about bringing the dharma into the modern West without reducing it to either cultural imitation or scientific validation. We discuss the three yanas, emptiness and fullness, egolessness, and devotion. Sam shares a way to understand devotion as appreciation for wakefulness and a willingness to be guided by someone who embodies it.

Stay tuned for Part Three next week.

Highlights:

• Why dharma does not require scientific validation
• The three yanas
• Emptiness as fullness, not nihilism
• What egolessness actually means
• Devotion as appreciation, trust, and openness to guidance
• How a teacher-student relationship forms through investigation and experience
• How Sam met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
• Why he named his business Shambhala Publications

Mentioned in this episode
Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path by Samuel Bercholz
Inexplicable Joy: On the Heart Sutra by Susan Piver
Meditation in Action by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

I talk with my longest time spiritual friend, Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and author of the new book, Rude Awakenings. It was written at the request of his second root teacher, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, who asked Sam to write a book containing everything he learned from his first root teacher, the great and mysterious Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

For me, this book lives up to its subtitle: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path. It was written by someone who has known and published almost all of the great Buddhist (and other) masters of our lifetime, checked everyone’s sincerity and realization, and drawn, as far as I can tell, impeccable conclusions about the true dharma and who and what to trust.

I trust him deeply. In addition to his extraordinary accomplishments, he is my closest spiritual friend. Sam taught me how to meditate more than 30 years ago and is still my meditation teacher. He gave me the refuge vow (by which one formally commits to the Buddhist Path), taught me how to give this vow, and, most importantly, introduced me to my root teacher, Tulku Thondup Rinpoche.

In this first of 3 short episodes, we talk about his beginnings as a practitioner, the centrality of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal, wakefulness, lineage, and why the relationship with a teacher is so important in Vajrayana Buddhism. We also look at how to find a teacher without becoming confused by cultural forms or an individual’s charisma.

Highlights:

• Why did Sam write this book?
• Who are Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal and how do you invoke them?
• What is the 7-Line Supplication?
• How do you find a teacher? What qualities do you look for?
• The relationship between teacher, lineage, and awakened mind
• Why a teacher is indispensable in Vajrayana practice
• How to investigate a potential teacher with both intelligence and heart
• The difference between Buddhist teachings and the cultures in which they developed
• For more on my personal thoughts about Chögyam Trungpa and other teachers who have influenced me, please listen to episode 8, “Who Can You Trust in the Spiritual World?”

Mentioned in this episode:

Traleg Kyagbon Rinpoche

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

Ogyen Chowang

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available - in print and in audio format
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

Heartbreak can make our usual strategies for managing pain useless. It can also show us what is true about being human: everything changes, everything ends, and love is precious because it cannot be held onto. In this episode, I look at how heartbreak itself can become part of the spiritual path.

Highlights:

• Bringing heartbreak to the path without trying to turn it into a lesson
• How impermanence shows us the preciousness of each moment
• Why heartbreak reveals our deep connection with other people
• Heartbreak as love unbound from an object
• Being with what is, without trying to change it

Mentioned in this episode:

My book, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available - in print and in audio format

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

When heartbreak is overwhelming, the instinct is often to make it stop. But what if the practice is not to fix what we're feeling, but to learn how to be with it? In this episode, I continue looking at three ways Buddhism offers us a path through heartbreak. The second way is practicing loving-kindness.

Highlights:

• Learning to make space for a racing mind instead of trying to shut it down
• Working with the intensity of heartbreak without insisting that it disappear
• How loving-kindness can turn suffering into compassion
• Extending our wish for relief for ourselves, those we love, strangers, difficult people, and all beings
• Why caring for others can bring back a sense of strength and agency

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available - in print and in audio format

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

Heartbreak is something we have the tendency to want to get rid of as quickly as possible. But some heartbreaks cannot be “fixed” or hurried. In this episode, I look at how Buddhist teachings can help us when heartbreak has a life of its own. We start with the mind: learning to be with what is happening rather than trying to change it. Meditation is a way to let the mind settle naturally in times of emotional upheaval.

Highlights:

• Why some heartbreaks cannot be solved or pushed away quickly
• The three yanas as three different ways to work with heartbreak
• The first step is learning to work with your mind
• What heartbreak can show us about love, compassion, and being of benefit

Mentioned in this episode:

My book, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart

More on the yanas in this podcast episode, Episode 26, How to Choose a Meditation Teacher

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

How do we recognize a true teacher? In this episode I talk about the outer teacher, the inner teacher, and the secret teacher. Along the way I share a story from teaching the Heart Sutra, reflect on an unexpected lesson about joy, and use a piece of music to show how wisdom can reach us through content, direct experience, and the context in which it all unfolds.

Highlights:

• What the outer, inner, and secret teacher represent in Buddhist practice
• Why real learning is often based in recognition rather than picking up new information
• How expectations color the voice of the inner teacher
• A story from a Heart Sutra retreat and an unexpected teaching on joy
• How music shows three different ways of knowing
• Why the outer teacher's job is to point us toward the wisdom we already have

Mentioned in this episode: The Heart Sutra

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

It's no secret that many forces are competing for your attention, especially online. Some are noble and righteous. Some are not. Trying to track it all is...exhausting.

The need for boundaries around our hearts and minds has never been more important. We must preserve our energy so that we can continue to care, dream, and love.

Meditation helps establish mental and emotional boundaries. This is not about bypassing. It is about retaining life force to fight the good fight and respond to your world with intense clarity, compassion, and purpose.

Please have a listen to this episode to learn more.

Highlights:

• Why meditation helps set strong mental boundaries
• Reclaiming your attention from distraction and overwhelm
• How working with the breath builds discernment and agency
• Why protecting your attention is a radical act
• The difference between reacting to the world and responding on purpose
• How protecting your energy lets you be of greater benefit to others

Referenced in this episode: Buddhist Cosmology: The Six Realms of Being (Episode 12)

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

This is a shorter episode, recorded while my family and I accompany my mother through hospice care. I reflect on an instruction I received when I first learned to meditate: resting more fully on the out breath than the in breath. As I prepare to be with my mother at the end of her life, that instruction has taken on new meaning. I share a few experiences that have shaped how I understand death, presence, and what it means to simply be there when a loved one is dying.

Highlights:

• Why my meditation practice rests on the out breath
• The link between breathing out and letting go
• My own near-death experience and how it colors the way I am accompanying my mother
• The impossibility of knowing what is right during such moments

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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What does "emptiness" actually mean in Buddhism? It is one of the most misunderstood teachings, often taken to mean nothingness or the absence of meaning. In this episode, I discuss emptiness through the Zen koan "Mu," a personal story of heartbreak, and the Buddhist understanding that we are not separate from one another. Rather than pointing to a void, emptiness shows the fullness of all phenomena and the compassion that comes from recognizing it.

Highlights:

• The Zen teaching of "Mu"
• A story of my own broken heart that pointed out the nature of emptiness
• Why emptiness does not mean meaninglessness
• Mind as relational
• The link between emptiness and compassion
• Why meditation is about more than improving your thoughts

Listener Question
How do you work with someone who pushes your buttons? I share Pema Chödrön's advice “to feel the feelings and drop the story,” and why staying with the felt experience can change how we relate to difficult situations.

Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.

Music
This week's song is Along Comes Mary by The Association, a pop classic with astonishing lyrics, unforgettable harmonies, and what may be the greatest handclaps ever recorded.

Mentioned in this episode:

My book The Wisdom of a Broken Heart: How to Turn the Pain of a Breakup into Healing, Insight, and New Love

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

New course: 30 Days of Dharma

For 30 days, beginning September 13th, I’m offering a chance to practice all of this together with a small group of people who want to take the dharma off the cushion and into ordinary life. We'll create a personalized daily routine, meditate, study the teachings, and look at how wisdom, compassion, and power actually show up at home, at work, and in our relationships. Every participant will have one-on-one time to consult with me and my co-teacher, Crystal Gandrud, about your practice before, during, and following the program. You don't need to be a Buddhist. You only need a willingness to begin where you are and be yourself. Space is limited. Learn more here.

Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat

Let’s practice together in person at Drala Mountain Center, up in the Colorado Rockies, for a retreat on the bodhisattva path: what it takes to live with real courage and an open heart in the middle of our ordinary, chaotic, beautiful lives. We'll talk honestly about how to recognize and rouse basic sanity right where we already are. Everyone's welcome, and you don't need any prior meditation experience.Learn more and register.

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

This week I share one of the central teachings in Tibetan Buddhist practice: the Four Reminders that turn the mind toward the dharma. I had a recent conversation with Lama Sonam Rinpoche who said to me multiple times in the course of a few hour conversation: there is no more important teaching than this. In this episode, I try to offer some insights into why a great Lama might say such a thing.

Highlights:

• How the Four Reminders create a trustworthy foundation for spiritual practice
• Why your life really, really matters
• How impermanence brings clarity to everyday living
• A practical way to understand karma
• The weird way that acknowledging suffering actually helps
• How these contemplations can deepen any meditative or contemplative practice

Listener Question
Can we get so focused on spirituality that we lose touch with the “real world”? I talk about the difference between real practice and spiritual bypassing, and why the path is never separate from ordinary life.

Ask me a question
You can send your questions via Instagram DM or through our form.

Music
This week's track is "Okie Dokie Stomp" by the musical miracle known as Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.

Mentioned in this podcast: Episode 12, Buddhist Cosmology: The Six Realms of Being

Also mentioned: great contemporary blues artist Sue Foley’s live version of Okie Dokie Stomp

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

New course: 30 Days of Dharma

For 30 days, beginning September 13th, I’m offering a chance to practice all of this together with a small group of people who want to take the dharma off the cushion and into ordinary life. We'll create a personalized daily routine, meditate, study the teachings, and look at how wisdom, compassion, and power actually show up at home, at work, and in our relationships. Every participant will have one-on-one time to consult with me and my co-teacher, Crystal Gandrud, about your practice before, during, and following the program. You don't need to be a Buddhist. You only need a willingness to begin where you are and be yourself. Space is limited. Learn more here.

Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat

Let’s practice together in person at Drala Mountain Center, up in the Colorado Rockies, for a retreat on the bodhisattva path: what it takes to live with real courage and an open heart in the middle of our ordinary, chaotic, beautiful lives. We'll talk honestly about how to recognize and rouse basic sanity right where we already are. Everyone's welcome, and you don't need any prior meditation experience.Learn more and register.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

It’s episode 60! A perfect place to reach a summation of my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics which posits that meditation is not about becoming a better version of yourself. It is a spiritual practice that opens you to the three qualities of the awakened mind: wisdom, compassion, and power. How do these qualities arise from sitting there, doing “nothing”? All I know is that millions of practitioners over thousands of years have reported that it is so.

In this episode, we look at the seven principles of living as a mystic, hiding in plain sight.

In this episode:

• Why meditation is a spiritual path, not a self-help project
• A common misconception about meditation and how it keeps people from practicing
• How your everyday life provides the perfect gateway to magic
• An introduction to a Buddhist teaching, the three kāyas, and how it all relates to the magic of meditation
• Sensing what is under the surface is just as “real” as whatever is on the surface
• How meditation helps us relate to ourselves, others, and the world

Music

This episode closes with "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson, a recording that seems to come from somewhere else.

Send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

New course: 30 Days of Dharma

For 30 days, beginning September 13th, I’m offering a chance to practice all of this together with a small group of people who want to take the dharma off the cushion and into ordinary life. We'll create a personalized daily routine, meditate, study the teachings, and look at how wisdom, compassion, and power actually show up at home, at work, and in our relationships. Every participant will have one-on-one time to consult with me and my co-teacher, Crystal Gandrud, about your practice before, during, and following the program. You don't need to be a Buddhist. You only need a willingness to begin where you are and be yourself. Space is limited. Learn more here.

Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat

Let’s practice together in person at Drala Mountain Center, up in the Colorado Rockies, for a retreat on the bodhisattva path: what it takes to live with real courage and an open heart in the middle of our ordinary, chaotic, beautiful lives. We'll talk honestly about how to recognize and rouse basic sanity right where we already are. Everyone's welcome, and you don't need any prior meditation experience. Learn more and register.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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 attention spans as so much consumerist fodder. What could possibly go wrong?! Besides everything!

In this episode, I talk about the importance of maintaining sovereignty over your inner world, in no small part because it enables you to keep dreaming…visioning…imagining…remaining connected to what is possible–not as a means of escaping reality but of laying the ground for creating a new reality, one that includes decency, sanity, and care for others.

There are many who simply cannot dream right now, and for very understandable reasons. Many are under siege. Homeless. Hungry. Living in a fire of rage.

Right now, we are able to dream. This may not always be so, but while it is, we could dream on everyone’s behalf. Because what we cannot imagine, we cannot build.

Highlights:

• In the Heart Sutra, the Buddha's meditative absorption stirs a student, Sariputra, to ask an important question.
• Because none of us is truly separate, your practice affects everyone around you.
• Plenty of beings cannot dream right now because they are besieged, hungry, sick, or without a home, so the rest of us can hold dreams for them.
• If we cannot dream something, we cannot build it, and there are forces that would rather their dreams of money and power become ours. Don’t do it!!
• Meditation is how I keep my own mind: I notice a thought, call it a thought, and come back to the the present.

Listener question

From Kim, a parent who wants to stay informed for the sake of conversation with her children, but is deeply disturbed by all the things happening in 2026 America..

Send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.

Music

"A Girl Like You" by Edwyn Collins, a mid-90s hit I love for its weird, fuzzy guitar tone. Idiosyncratic guitar playing FTW.

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat

Come practice with me at Drala Mountain Center, up in the Colorado Rockies, for a retreat on the bodhisattva path: what it takes to live with real courage and an open heart in the middle of our ordinary, chaotic, beautiful lives. We'll talk honestly about how to recognize and rouse basic sanity right where we already are. Everyone's welcome, and you don't need any prior meditation experience.Learn more and register.

If this one meant something to you

Please subscribe, leave a rating or review, and/or send it to someone who's curious about meditation, spiritual practice, or the Buddhist path. Or just feeling better, really.

Free meditations: myfree weekly newsletter

Come be in community: theOpen Heart Project sangha

More about all of it:http://openheartproject.com

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail

“The first rule of magic is containment,” said the great Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and many other books. This points to the idea that the world we live in changes the way our minds and hearts work. The more uplifted our world, beginning with our actual home, the more potency we have in our spiritual quest. Why? It’s magic?

In this episode, I explore the fifth principle from Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We Clean Up After Ourselves. I also answer a listener's question about why the Buddha described friendship, not as helpful along the way, but as the way. And for the podcast after party, we check in with the great Ini Kamoze.

Highlights

• Why caring for your environment is a spiritual practice
• How the "container principle" shapes meditation and daily life
• What it means to clean up after yourself — in your space and in your relationships
• Repairing small moments of disconnection
• Why the Buddha taught that spiritual friendship is the whole of the path
• The role of sangha in practice

Music

Listen to "Here Comes the Hotstepper" by Ini Kamoze and tell me you somehow remained seated.

Mentioned in this podcast: Fake Buddha Quotes

My new book is now available

Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom.

Learn more and buy your copy here.

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.

Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.

New 7-Day Program Starts June 14th

Seven Days of Inexplicable Magic is a chance to immerse yourself in post-meditation practice, aka the rest of your life. What happens when practice follows you into your relationships, home life, bill-paying, creative pursuits? Together, we will find out.. The program follows the arc of my new book, and I'm co-leading it with my friend, Crystal Gandrud.Come find out more.

Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat

Come practice with me at Drala Mountain Center, up in the Colorado Rockies, for a retreat on the bodhisattva path: what it takes to live with real courage and an open heart in the middle of our ordinary, chaotic, beautiful lives. We'll talk honestly about how to recognize and rouse basic sanity right where we already are. Everyone's welcome, and you don't need any prior meditation experience.Learn more and register.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.

For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.

If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit https://openheartproject.com/.

Thoughts? Email us at info@susanpiver.com

Produced by Citizens of Sound

Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project