Earth Witness

Joel Tagert considers the fifth limb of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, samyag ajiva. Usually translated as Right Livelihood, it is, in short, what you do to live, how you gain sustenance for yourself and offer it to others. In this, bees provide a powerful example. 

Joel Tagert examines Samyak Karmanta, True Action, both from the traditional Buddhist perspective of ethical restraint, and as the embodied practices of meditative walking and dancing.---Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO

Joel Tagert considers samyag vāc, True Voice, the third limb of the Buddha's Eightfold Noble Path, both as Right Speech and as vibrational practice. ---Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO

Zen teacher, professor and author David Loy discusses his book Loving the World as Our Body: The Nondual Path in a Dangerous Time. He traces the evolutionary origins of our ideas of good and evil, shows how transcendence in Axial Age religions both offered humanity new freedoms and wrought the devaluation of the natural world, and finds hope in the nondual traditions of the world's major religions and in the dialogue between them. 

Joel Tagert reflects on Samyak Sankalpa, the second limb of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. In practicing True Intention, we purify the source of action. ---Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO

Joel Tagert considers the meaning of sangha (or community) as a force for social, political and economic transformation, in the face of the growing and interlocking crises of the modern era.--Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO

Joel Tagert explores the first limb of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, samyag drishti or True Seeing. Living consciously begins by paying attention - and actually, it begins by paying attention to the act of paying attention, to understanding where and how and why we direct our gaze. ---Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO

If you wander, you might just find it. ---Cover photo by Elizabeth Delap.---Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO

This is the first episode of a series exploring the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path as an embodied, energetic practice. Beginning with the Buddha's very first sermon ("Turning the Dharma Wheel"), Joel unpacks the deep symbolism of the dharmachakra, including a close look at the word dukkha, usually translated as "suffering" but more precisely indicating misalignment: a wheel spinning out of true. The Eightfold Path, then, is how we true the wheel of our lives.Joel also considers the links between the Buddhist path and yogic traditions, arguing that traditional commentaries and common English translations have stripped these teachings of their somatic depth, turning a whole-body practice into an intellectual checklist. This series aims to restore that somatic dimension, approaching each of the eight limbs as embodied and energetic training. ---Cover art is "Turning the Eight-Limbed Wheel" by Joel Tagert.---Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO

What does it mean to touch the earth? In this inaugural episode, Joel Tagert explores the story of the Buddha's enlightenment beneath the bodhi tree, and what that ancient gesture has to tell us about our relationship to the living world.Drawing on a pilgrimage to Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India, Joel reflects on how place is fundamental to consciousness. Along the way, he traces the tree as symbol through Buddhist history and art, considers the role of trees in the life of our planet, and invites listeners back to the most important place there is - wherever you are right now.--Music is "Daybreak" by Kite Flight.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/daybreakLicense code: NRFTD5MYWAJXYKHO