Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver
Buddhism Beyond Belief is a podcast from Susan Piver, a 30 year student of Tibetan Buddhism and founder of the Open Heart Project, an online meditation community with close to 20000 members.
With Susan as a friend and guide, we will look at traditional teachings like the four noble truths and the six paramitas–but not from an academic standpoint. Rather, we will talk about how to make it all personal and relevant in everyday life.
This podcast is not about Buddhist doctrine. It’s about how anyone can bring the profound wisdom of the dharma into their real life: at home, at work, and in love. The foundation for it all is meditation as a spiritual practice, not the latest life hack. Let’s go beyond the science and celebrity testimonials to discover the true power of meditation which is not based in self-improvement but in self-discovery.
Episodes
63 episodes
Four Reminders that Deepen Spiritual Practice
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...
How to Live as a Mystic
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 ...
We Dream on Behalf of Others: Presence, Agency, and Staying Sane
This episode picks up on the sixth principle of spiritual practice from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We ...
The Inexplicable Magic of Cleaning Up After Yourself
“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 ...
The Importance of Spiritual Boundaries
The spiritual path asks you to open up, and the more you do so, the more you feel everything: your tenderness, things you’ve been avoiding, your deepest longings. It’s important to stay open to all of this but being open takes judgment. I know ...
The Wisdom of a Broken Heart
In this episode, I explore one of the most persistent misunderstandings about meditation: that it is supposed to make you feel better. From my experience, meditation does not numb heartbreak or smooth out emotional life. It opens us more ful...
The Way is Personal
In this episode, I reflect on a recent meditation and writing retreat where participants explored grief, heartbreak, violence, loss, and the experiences that shape us most deeply. I talk about why the personal is not an ob...
Ritual Sustains Spiritual Practice
In this episode, I explore why spiritual practice becomes sustainable through ritual, not force. I share the story of a month-long meditation retreat where I discovered an unexpected sense of ease in both meditation and writing, and how that ex...
Starting Over: Meditation for Mystics
In this episode, I reflect on a recent conversation in the Open Heart Project sangha about scientific research on meditation. Yes, meditation can improve brain function and mood. But if we stop there, we may miss the point.Ther...
Do Buddhists Pray?
Here is a new episode after an unexpected pause. I’m moving to a new house and that has stirred disorientation, emotional complexity, and a break from familiar patterns. The truth is, I just didn’t know if I had anything of use to say. Also, I ...
Recap: The Noble Eightfold Path
In this episode, I bring all eight steps of the Noble Eightfold Path together. This teaching is a way of living, not a project of self-improvement. This is about how we relate to experience and how that shapes suffering or freedom.Hig...
The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Eight: Right Samadhi
This week we arrive at the final step of the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Samadhi, often translated as concentration or absorption. If the earlier steps help us see clearly and act with intention, this final step gathers the mind into a unifi...
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Seven: Right Mindfulness
This week we explore Right Mindfulness, the seventh step of the Noble Eightfold Path. While the earlier steps shape how we see and act in the world, this step turns us inward again, toward our direct experience.Right...
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Six: Right Effort
This week we explore Right Effort, the sixth step of the Noble Eightfold Path. While the earlier steps guide how we understand reality and how we act in the world, Right Effort begins to turn inward. It concerns how we work with our own mind...
A Powerful New Take on the Enneagram (from my new book)
This episode, we pause our exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path before returning next week with Right Effort.This week, Shambhala Publications (my favorite publisher) is reissuing my book,
The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Five: Right Livelihood
In this episode, I explore Right Livelihood, the fifth step on the Noble Eightfold Path. We began with Right View and Right Intention, then moved into speech and action. Now we turn to how we earn a living. It may sound ordinary, but the way...
The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Four: Right Action
In this episode, I explore Right Action, the fourth step on the Noble Eightfold Path. We begin with Right View and Right Intention, then move outward into speech. Now we take those steps into how we live and act in the world. Right Action is...
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Three: Right Speech
In this episode, I explore the third step of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Speech, and why it might more accurately be called Right Listening. I begin with a story about the so-called “Marcus Syndrome”, the habit of using someone else’s sp...
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step Two: The Power of Intention
When I first started my own business years ago, I was full of doubt, excitement, fear, and hope, often all at the same time. Out of nowhere, a major opportunity landed in my lap that could have launched everything forward. There was just one...
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The Noble Eightfold Path: Step One: Seeing Clearly
In this episode, I begin a conversation about the Fourth Noble Truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, and its first step, Right View. I review the first three Noble Truths and reflect on how Buddhism is often misunderstood as a tool for stress red...
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Strength in a Time of Crisis: What Helps?
This morning, the Open Heart Project Sangha gathered as we do every day to meditate and reflect together. The group was larger than usual, a clear sign of how shaken many of us are by what is happening in the United States right now.I...
Four Karmas: Actions That Protect the Mind
In this episode, I introduce the Four Karmas—pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying—as practical actions for meeting chaos, conflict, and confusion without losing clarity or heart. In this Buddhist framework, karma means action, n...
Three Qualities of Awakening
As we move into a new year, how do we deepen our understanding: of ourselves, our relationships, and our spiritual practice? In this episode, we explore the three essential steps of learning in the Buddhist tradition: hearing, contemplating,...
Inexplicable Magic: An Excerpt From My Upcoming Book
For the final episode of the year, I am sharing a short excerpt from a book I am writing called Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics. This work grows directly out of the heart of this podcast and its focus on how we actually live...