Infinite Smile

In this Dharma talk, Michael McAlister offers his take on the "fire" needed to keep our spiritual life moving towards deeper and deeper levels of maturity. He suggests that these lives that we're leading are complete as they are and provide us with all the necessary tools needed to live the experiment that leads us to awakening, especially if we can cultivate a healthy relationship with the Eight Winds of experience: praise, blame, happiness, sadness, success, failure, pride and shame. Becoming intimate with the force of the Eight Winds helps us move from a small self perspective into a Big Self orientation. "In the end, it's all Buddha," Michael says. "It's all Christ. It's all the Infinite dancing through us."

In this Dharma talk, Michael McAlister discusses the Buddhist version of supporting an embodied awakening: The Eightfold Path. This methodology, as articulated in Buddhist tradition, was the fourth of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths and shows us how to live a life free of suffering. Consideration is given to how these traditional instructions are built on wisdom, ethical conduct, and the cultivation of our mental development. We are offered direction from here as to how we can constructively engage every aspect of our lives through right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. Issues relating to how we act in the world and how we meet it through the lens of what "right" means, are then addressed in this discussion.

My teacher's teacher, Shunryu Suzuki, offered up this famous spiritual pearl: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few." While its meaning may appear to suggest that we need to cultivate a mind like that of a child in order to successfully walk the path, there is more to what he is saying. "Beginner's mind," at its core, is about allowing "not-knowing" to support our spiritual search. Instead of cultivating a sense of certitude, which only leads to attachment and inhibits our spiritual opening, allowing wonder and curiosity to take a lead role in our individual journeys keeps us on the path. So, as Michael says, "be curious of the whole affair" as a way of staying true to both ourselves as well as the spiritual journey we're taking. With this in mind, what would you ask the Buddha if he or she walked into the room? How might you get to that question in the first place? Four points of practice help us cultivate the spaciousness of a beginner's mind. First, we

In this Dharma talk, Michael discusses the separation and anger he felt in relation to his teacher. At a very specific point during his practice, Michael learned that among the most important thing to do was to question the teaching. He realized that questioning his teacher was critical in moving his practice from an intellectual understanding into an exercise of both body and mind. Getting over-balanced in the area of mind, or in the area of body, distorts our practice. Awakening is not something that the mind can manage. Nor is it something that the body can manage. So what are the steps toward integrating this mind and this body? Michael says we need to recognize and take advantage of the following opportunities as our practice deepens: meditation, contemplation, realization, non-resistance, and love. Of course "luck" can help, as well as a faith that extends beyond belief and continually reveals a deep singularity that includes all things.  

In this Dharma talk, Michael discusses what's required when great doubt begins to pervade our practice as well as our experience. When it feels like we're dying inside and despair arises, he suggests that it is imperative that we keep going with our work, continually engaging an even deeper curiosity and wonder about what is actually happening in each moment. This kind of attention, rather than diminishing one's life force, or "spiritual mojo," can enhance our experience in ways where we express gratitude and generosity in increasingly spontaneous and passionate ways.

In this evening's Dharma talk, Michael presents his view on how the attention paid to the body and the breath offers us a path to an expanse beyond words. It is here we receive an invitation to the truth beyond name and form. The Holy, in other words, reveals itself in the mundane at this very moment of deep attention.

In this evening's Dharma talk, Michael suggests that an authentic spiritual path must begin with the simple act of forgiveness. Uncovering what we can't forgive allows for us to familiarize ourselves with the egoic blocks to deepening our practice as well as any potential for awakening.

In this Dharma talk, Michael addresses what it means to question our motives for participating in a practice with a teaching, teacher and group of spiritual friends. From here an alchemy begins to unfold where the lead of one's day-to-day can reveal itself as spiritual gold.

In this Dharma talk, Michael addresses what it means to be part of a sangha and how attending to this relationship can inform the deepening of our practice.

"When we see that clinging to the idea of freedom inhibits freedom, we start to evolve."

"Any authentic Truth must, by definition, show up beyond your definition of it or THIS definition of it."

I realized that I had an addiction to knowing. I had to know. I had to get it. This was the disaster that got me onto the path.

"There is nothing more frightening to the 'personal' sense of self than awakening to what's always beyond the 'personal' sense of self."

"The student's most important job is to combine a healthy sense of questioning to all teaching."

"Atomization is the new unification."

"The durability of change depends on the consciousness of the activist."

"In a very real sense, generosity is not that different from forgiveness. Living from this spaciousness; this lack of greed, changes the world."

"The echo of the All is happening right now. It's always there, we just have to open consciously to its grace."

"Without stillness there is no such thing as awakening."

"Genuine love, in the spiritual sense, only arises when its inspired by conscious surrender."