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PODCAST

From the Pure Land Podcast

Impermanence is a core concept of Buddhism, so we understand that our lives can end in the next moment. But it took me 78 years of life and roughly four decades of practicing Buddhism to realize that I"m already in the Pure Land. Come join me there. melpine.substack.com

religion & spirituality buddhism

All Episodes

10:10

How Buddhism Can Help Us in Today's Suffering World

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/07/07

Each of us individually has an effect on the lives of beings around us through the quiet processes going on in our minds. — Robert ThurmanAcquire a peaceful spirit and thousands around you will be saved. — Seraphim of SarovEmotions are contagious. We catch feelings from one another as though they were some kind of social virus. — Daniel GolemanWhen we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. — Victor FranklAfter reading those opening quotations, you won’t need

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2:23

That Warm Breeze You're Feeling Is My Sigh of Relief

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/06/30

On June 7, I announced a one-month sabbatical to finish the narrating and editing of The New Middle Way for Audible. It’s now complete and on sale. If you’ve been waiting for a version you could listen to, you’ll find the audiobook version available on the same Amazon page as the Kindle, paperback, and hardback. Consider listening and leaving an honest review on Audible.I’ll be occupied with family business for another week or so, but I’m planning to resume a steady stream of spiritually oriented

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1:27

86 Seconds of a Work in Progress

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/06/07

For From the Pure Land blog readers, here’s a sample of what’s keeping me busy over the coming weeks. For podcast listeners, you won’t be hearing much from me as I finish the narration needed to release The New Middle Way on Audible.You’ll be reading and hearing more from me in July.Mel’s book, The New Middle Way: A Buddhist Path Between Secular and Ossified - Enlightenment for Regular Folks, is available from Amazon.Subscribe to Mel’s Awakening for Regular Folks newsletter and receive six guided

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83:42

A Book Launch With Prayers and Meditation

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/06/02

How does a spiritual author celebrate a book launch at a time when so many of his friends, readers, and potential readers are deeply concerned about the world’s suffering? My friend Paula Davis and I conceived the idea of "The Middle Way to the Pure Land," a 90-minute program we held earlier today. It featured talks, prayers, and meditations designed to improve ourselves and our world, as well as spread the book’s message.Two additional friends, Timo Spekkens and Michael Rey, co-led with

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7:56

A Sound Teaching From Google Gemini

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/05/31

My morning email contained an announcement from Google about improvements in its Gemini AI engine. I tried it out with two requests. It passed brilliantly, and one result was a teaching on ego as understood in Vajrayana Buddhism.»>TOMORROW!«

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2:02

Discovering What I Have to Teach

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/05/19

This is two minutes from an unscripted talk I gave this morning. It summarizes (informally, conversationally, and imperfectly) the message I’d like people to get from my first full-length book, The New Middle Way.The New Middle Way: A Path Between Secular and Ossified - Enlightenment for Regular Folks is due out on June 1 in Kindle, paperback, and hardback versions, and later in Audible. You can preorder the Kindle version now. You can read a free digital advance copy by agreeing to write and post

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4:14

An Open Letter to Andrew Holecek

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/05/04

Dear Andrew, My Spiritual Friend:In my last blog post, I encouraged living with gratitude, and here I am expressing some of mine. After you helped me find the key to unlock my bodhicitta a year ago, you opened the door wider by taking the time to read my soon-to-be-published book and writing this about it:Mel Pine has distilled a lifetime of learning and packaged it in the most caring heart. This is a delightful book dealing with noble truths that will benefit many.That endorsement from one of the

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7:24

Empathetic Joy: Sometimes a Challenge

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/04/26

The Brahmaviharas, or Four Immeasurables, are guides to infinite love for all beings. As I described them here, they are:* Loving Kindness: An attitude of boundless goodwill toward all beings without attachments or expectations.* Compassion: Arising from loving kindness, it’s the sincere commitment to work to end the suffering of all beings.* Empathetic Joy: Taking delight in the success and happiness of others without envy or resentment.* Equanimity: Remaining balanced and impartial through life’s

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6:41

Am I an Author?

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/04/21

Writing a book has taught me about many things—ego prominently among them.Over an almost 60-year professional career, I had come to think of myself as good at writing, editing, and managing publications—that is, a person with certain skills. As I completed my book manuscript, I began to take on another role—a person who has written a book and is shifting into the business side of publishing it. That involved two labels: author and independent publisher.Labels, though, are fictions. The author label

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25:21

Buddhism's Moral Framework

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/04/17

On April 10, I posted the Epigraph and Introduction of my forthcoming book, The New Middle Way: A Path Between Secular and Ossified, which is scheduled for publication this summer. The book combines explanations of Buddhism for beginners with glimpses of the path that has brought me to a joyful life. The portion I shared on April 10 was largely anecdotal, so I’m now releasing a more teacherish chapter. These two sections will remain available here on my From the Pure Land blog and podcast and on my

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22:47

Epigraph and Introduction: The New Middle Way

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/04/10

The journey toward publishing my first full-length book is progressing better than I had hoped. I now expect a release date no later than August. I’ve begun an author’s email list, website, and Facebook Page. The results from early reviewers are encouraging, with one reader saying:The best book I’ve read on Buddhism…a gift to the world.So, it’s a good time to make the book’s first 2,000 words available to anyone who wants to read or listen to them. Please share this post and podcast with your

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11:08

A Metta Meditation

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/04/01

May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy. May all beings live with ease. May all beings live in peace. May all beings live in pure joy, free from bias and hatred.Words similar to those are expressed out loud or prayed silently thousands, maybe millions, of times a day around the globe. They are known as the metta prayer or blessing, and in meditation, they cultivate loving kindness toward oneself as well as others.Find a favorite place to meditate. Get into your favorite meditation

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7:19

Don't Kill Your Monkey Mind. Befriend It.

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/03/30

The mind, hard to control, Flighty--alighting where it wishes-- One does well to tame. The disciplined mind brings happiness. --The Dhammapada verse 35I realized this morning that, for me, the First Precept…I refrain from taking life.…applies to the monkey mind.What’s the monkey mind? It’s that aspect of your mind that likes to chatter “bada-bada yada-yada” all day. It likes to travel through the branches and vines of your mind, leaping from one to the other while chattering loudly. It says things

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7:19

A Lesson in the Ever-Changing Self

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/03/26

As I drafted the book The New Middle Way over the last eight months or so, my self-image changed. While my roles as husband, father, friend, student of Buddhism, and myriad other things remained, my identity as a writer, blogger, and editor began to change.I was now working on the first full-length book to be published under my own name. As I researched, wrote, and edited my work, my confidence grew. Even though I relied heavily on my A.I. research assistant, Perplexity Pro, I began to own a feeling

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37:18

How Buddhism Prepares Us for Illness and Trauma

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/03/25

When Dominique Side wrote a series on her Substack, The Softer Gaze, about her recent encounter with cancer and the resulting surgery, I thought that would make a great subject for her second From the Pure Land video interview. An expert on Buddhist philosophy, Dominique is a delight to talk with, as I learned in our first discussion.I wanted to hear how her decades of Buddhist experience prepared her for illness and other traumas and share some observations on my own. While we were at it, I learned

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4:53

Oneness

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/03/18

In my March 10 interview with Jordan Bates, he mentioned this quotation from Carl Sagan, the brilliant scientist and communicator:If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard about the interconnectedness of everything—what Buddhism calls dependent origination. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.My former teacher, the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, often said:I think the word interbe should be in

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47:07

For Something Completely Different, an Interview of Me

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/03/15

Since Kenna Day entered my life as my son’s partner, I’ve enjoyed conversations with her, especially the probing questions she asks and the topics she raises on life, writing, and literature. So, I had the brainstorm of asking her to interview me for a video podcast. She accepted, and we both enjoyed doing it. We hope you enjoy watching or listening to it.We did have some technical problems. Because I failed to push a button when I should have, the sound of Kenna’s voice had issues until I

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54:44

Jordan Bates on What's Next for Religion

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/03/10

* What’s ahead for spirituality in the West?* What happens to us after we die?* Is reality real?* Are stories real?* What is reality anyway?* What is Buddhist emptiness?* What is Direct Heart-Opened Experience?* Are “magic mushrooms” an opening to transcendence?* Is there a suprapersonal God?Jordan Bates and I answer those questions and more…Just kidding! We don’t answer them, but we have fun dancing around them (and more) in this 55-minute video. We hope you have fun watching it.Jordan’s Substack

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45:43

Tara Mandala and Its Unique Social Network

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/03/04

It was a joy this morning to spend 45 minutes interviewing Tara Mandala Executive Director Cady Allione and Chögé Lisa Erickson about that worldwide organization, which was created by Lama Tsultrim Allione, who traveled to Nepal and India in 1967 hoping to learn to paint mandalas and ended up with that and much more. She was one of the early pioneers in bringing Buddhism to the West.While Lama Tsultrim is on a solitary retreat, Cady and Lisa spoke with me about Tara Mandala, some of its programs,

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26:49

Meditating with Machig

From the Pure Land Podcast ·

2025/02/24

The essence of my practice is connecting with my pure mind, or my Buddha Nature. Teachers in the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions have pointed the way for me. If you are unfamiliar with the terms, there’s no need to distinguish between these slightly different ways to reach that inherent Buddha Nature. Just find the teacher you’re comfortable with to help guide you.Machig Labdrön (1055-1149) founded several lineages in the Mahamudra Chöd tradition. Chöd literally means cutting through. As a

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