{"id":23759,"date":"2025-01-17T15:26:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T22:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources2.soundstrue.com\/?post_type=transcript&p=23759"},"modified":"2025-01-17T15:26:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T22:26:44","slug":"the-energizing-force-of-compassion","status":"publish","type":"transcript","link":"https:\/\/resources2.soundstrue.com\/transcript\/the-energizing-force-of-compassion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Energizing Force of Compassion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_print\"Print Transcript<\/span><\/a><\/div>

UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT:<\/b> The following transcript is provided in its raw, unedited form and may contain errors. We have not proofread this transcript, so it may include typographical errors or other mistakes due to inconsistencies in audio quality, background noise, or other factors. We cannot guarantee its precision or completeness. We encourage you to use this rough transcript as a supplement to your own notes and recollection of the session.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tami Simon:<\/b> Hello, friends. My name\u2019s Tami Simon, and I\u2019m the founder of Sounds True. And I want to welcome you to the Sounds True podcast, <\/span>Insights at the Edge<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also want to take a moment to introduce you to Sounds True\u2019s new membership community and digital platform. It\u2019s called Sounds True One. Sounds True One features original premium transformational docuseries, community events, classes to start your day and relax in the evening, special weekly live shows including a video version of <\/span>Insights at the Edge<\/span><\/i> with an aftershow community question-and-answer session with featured guests. I hope you\u2019ll come join us, explore, come have fun with us, and connect with others. You can learn more at join.soundstrue.com.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also want to take a moment and introduce you to the Sounds True Foundation, our nonprofit that creates equitable access to transformational tools and teachings. You can learn more at SoundsTrueFoundation.org. And in advance, thank you for your support.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this episode of <\/span>Insights at the Edge<\/span><\/i>, my guest is Cortland Dahl. Cortland is a scientist, Buddhist scholar and translator, and a meditation teacher under the guidance of the Tibetan meditation master Mingyur Rinpoche. Cortland Dahl cofounded Tergar International, a global network of meditation centers on six continents, and he currently serves as the executive director of Tergar International.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cortland is also actively involved in scientific research on meditation and human flourishing. He\u2019s the chief contemplative officer at Healthy Minds Innovations, working with Dr. Richie Davidson and his team at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison to develop the Healthy Minds mobile app. Cortland is also the author of a new book. It\u2019s called <\/span>A Meditator\u2019s Guide to Buddhism: The Path of Awareness, Compassion, and Wisdom<\/span><\/i>. Cortland, welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dr. Cortland Dahl:<\/b> It\u2019s an honor to be with you, Tami. Thank you so much for having me on.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS:<\/b> One of the things I learned in your new book, <\/span>A Meditator\u2019s Guide to Buddhism<\/span><\/i>, is that you often like to begin a new project or a meditation session, a practice period, with a declaration of a compassionate motivation, a rousing of a compassionate motivation. And I wonder, do you start a new project that way? Could we start a podcast that way?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD:<\/b> We absolutely can. In fact, I did it a few minutes before we popped on, so I\u2019m happy to lead a little micro practice. I always actually like to start this tuning into the heart and forming a compassionate motivation with a little space of being. In fact, we\u2019re at the new year and it\u2019s interesting how in a new year we oftentimes think of all the stuff we want to do or not do, and one thing we oftentimes neglect is being, so maybe we could just start off this new year with a little space of being and then inject a little compassion into that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So to just begin this conversation with a few moments of meditative experience, let\u2019s just take a moment, a few moments to simply be, to shift from doing to being. So all of you out there listening, you can just take a moment to let go and rest your mind. You don\u2019t even need to meditate. Just give yourself permission and space to simply exist as you are for just a few moments. Just tune in to your inner experience. And from this space of being and effortless presence, see if you can tune in to all these subtle details of experience that we normally miss. Just notice what you\u2019re hearing, what you\u2019re feeling. No effort required, just noticing for a few moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now let\u2019s bring into this quality of being a little warmth, a little heart energy. One of the simplest ways you can do this is to think to yourself, I\u2019m now going to engage in something. In this case we\u2019re going to spend a little time in conversation. May whatever comes of this not only benefit my own life, but may this, may the benefit, ripple out and touch the lives of others. May it touch the lives of countless beings. May it send out ripples of happiness, of well-being, out into the world. So in whatever way resonates with you and inspires you, you can form an openhearted compassion motivation for being here tonight.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS:<\/b> Thank you, Cortland. Interestingly, just pointing out that we can tune in to the energy of our heart, it does seem to introduce this warmth immediately just by that shift of attention. I wonder if you could speak to that.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD:<\/b> Yeah, so much of the path of meditation when we come to it, we think it\u2019s about improving. We think it\u2019s all about self-improvement. It\u2019s about fixing something, something we don\u2019t like about ourselves. And I think a lot of what many of these traditions, the world\u2019s wisdom traditions and meditative traditions, open up for us is just this inner universe of experience and it becomes less about self-improvement and more about self-discovery, and part of that is the heart space. We\u2019re so up in our heads in the modern world and we\u2019re filled, we\u2019re bombarded, with information all the time, and this quality of being just allows us to drop into that wider space of experience. It\u2019s like we\u2019re just widening the aperture of our awareness so we can take more of that in and then we just start noticing a lot of that texture and a lot of that is just that we\u2019re built for relationship more than anything else. Our DNA, our brains, our nervous systems, our biology, certainly our minds, we\u2019re just wired to be social. We\u2019re wired for connection with each other, so we\u2019re just giving ourselves space for that to emerge and to play out an experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS:<\/b> Cortland, you\u2019ve had such a remarkable life adventure that\u2019s been so dharma filled, meeting great teachers and studying in Asia for over a decade. But from learning more about your life story, it sounds like earlier in your life as a teenager you really suffered with debilitating anxiety. That has been a huge catalyst for your life discovery process, and I wonder if you can share a bit about that.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD:<\/b> Yeah, I wish I could say I was some spiritual prodigy and meditating when I was eight years old or something like that, but it was just straight-up suffering. As you said, Tami, that got me started on this. I was wound really tight as a teenager. I had a lot of anxiety and in particular\u2014it\u2019s just one of the great ironies in my life that I do a fair amount of this kind of stuff now, because I never in a million years would\u2019ve believed that to be true when I was younger of the anxiety that I had. One of the things that I was most afraid of was public speaking. I had a complete and genuine phobia, public speaking, so much so that I fainted onstage when I was a teenager.<\/span><\/p>\n

And just to point out that I\u2019m not exaggerating for dramatic effect. I literally fell face-first flat, kind of flat out on my face in front of my entire school when I was a teenager. So you can imagine my coolness factor, whatever it was before that, it took quite a nose dive on that particular day. So I was wound pretty tight, and I got to college and that the anxiety I had that just the restlessness just went up through the roof. And it got to the point where it became really debilitating, but in many ways that was such a blessing in my life because it got me looking. It got me searching for help and just a different way to live. I just knew this was not sustainable, the path that I was on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And as luck would have it, I stumbled upon the practice of meditation. I didn\u2019t know anybody who meditated, but I was a bit of kind of an introvert by nature. So I started reading books, and it changed my life. It completely changed my life. It changed everything, not just gave me some tools to work with the anxiety, but completely changed the way I saw myself and saw the world in a very deep and profound way.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS:<\/b> Can you speak specifically and especially bring in, if you would, your experience as a neuroscientific researcher in terms of addressing anxiety, what works?<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD:<\/b> Yeah, that\u2019s a great question. In fact, I was just having a conversation today about that. I was at a retreat and was sitting over lunch with some psychologists and people who work at the frontlines of mental health. And we were just talking about this. A lot of the best treatments we have these days for depression and anxiety and other challenges like that are really not very good. A lot of them are not very effective, and when they are effective, it\u2019s for a relatively small percentage of people. There\u2019s many people who aren\u2019t helped by what are considered the gold standard treatments. So that\u2019s the bad news. The good news is that I think we\u2019re starting to see more and more new treatments, new modalities, new approaches, psychedelics for one, contemplative meditative approaches. There\u2019s just new things, there\u2019s new innovation happening, and it\u2019s quite exciting what\u2019s happening in research these days.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the things that we\u2019re finding in our research\u2014you mentioned the Healthy Minds program and the Healthy Minds app\u2014we\u2019ve now done really rigorous scientific studies with thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people have used the app, and we have all this data, kind of quantities of data that typically you don\u2019t have for this kind of research. And what it\u2019s showing is that very small amounts of practice, of learning the kinds of stuff that we\u2019re talking about, that you learn through everything that you do with Sounds True, in all of your courses and publications. I mean all these practices and principles that just put us in touch with our own minds and help us to explore what\u2019s going on in our own minds and emotions, that actually it doesn\u2019t take much. In fact, our research shows that you see after even a single week of people just doing four to five minutes a day, you start seeing these statistically significant improvements in things like depression, anxiety, and in positive things like feelings of connection versus loneliness and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then if you follow that through for a month, or even beyond that to three months, that these positive effects seem to last and they seem to endure and it really doesn\u2019t take a lot. So there\u2019s a lot we can say on what kinds of training work for what people under what circumstances, and these are the questions that we\u2019re really researching. But the data these days is really, really hopeful. And I think it shows that even the busiest people, the most stressed-out people, can make use of these practices and they can start having a positive impact right away. So there\u2019s lots\u2014I could share a lot more about the research, but it\u2019s very, very giving us a lot of hope and promise for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS:<\/b> Just to get more specific, and especially because you were so involved in the creation of the Healthy Minds curriculum and the app design,<\/span> you said four to five times a week, four to five minutes, doing what specifically?<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD:<\/b> So in the Healthy Minds app, it\u2019s based on this scientific framework that we created based on both contemplative traditions and research. And it highlights four key dimensions of well-being. We call them like the four pillars of a healthy mind. They are awareness, connection, insight, and purpose. And we liken these to skills. They\u2019re not just things we have or we don\u2019t have. We tend to think of if you feel connected to other people, it either just happens or it doesn\u2019t happen, but actually they\u2019re skills. They\u2019re things that you can really practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So in the Healthy Minds app, it\u2019s a mixture of these short, kind of podcast-style lessons that are usually like 10 minutes or so. And then we have practices, and the practices\u2014there was a lot of experimentation, because we actually wanted to do research. And so you can actually select different ways to practice. So you can do everything as a sitting meditation. You could sit down and choose a 5 minute or 10 minute. You can choose the length from 5 to 30 minutes, but you can also do what we call active practices. So the skill is exactly the same. It might be a mindfulness practices, it might be appreciation, but you could do it as a sitting meditation or you could do it when you\u2019re commuting to work. In fact, that\u2019s one of the ways I really love to do the practices. You could do it when you\u2019re doing the laundry; you could do it when you\u2019re walking your dog. You could do it when you\u2019re out going for a jog or for a walk. And basically it\u2019s just taking a simple skill, and there\u2019s a whole repertoire of skills, and you just practice them one by one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So appreciation, just to give an example, it might be this very simple thing of noticing the positive.<\/span> That\u2019s basically what appreciation is. So if you\u2019re listening to this right now, you can be practicing this. You can just notice I\u2019m looking at you, Tami, and just thinking, wow, here\u2019s this remarkable person who has touched so many lives. Think of all the books, all the courses, all the recordings. I mean, back in my own journey, I mean there\u2019s so many books and recordings and cassette tapes back in the day. I mean, I have more memories. You\u2019ve touched my life. You\u2019ve touched so many lives. So again, it\u2019s that little shift where you just consciously orient yourself to the positive and you just treat that like a skill. So you can practice it formally for a few minutes, but then you practice it throughout the day. You take that into your\u2014when you\u2019re at lunch or a dinner or at work with colleagues, whatever, and you just kind of treat that as something you just practice in short moments many times throughout your day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS<\/b>:<\/b> Well, first of all, the appreciation feels really good, so thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD:<\/b> It feels good for me. It feels good for you. It\u2019s a win-win.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS: <\/b>Well, yeah, and I\u2019m going to practice and appreciate you. And the thing that I\u2019m going to appreciate in this moment is that right here at the beginning of our conversation, you\u2019re addressing something that was important to me to ask you about, which is what about for those people who just aren\u2019t drawn to meditation, sitting meditation? I found through my work communicating with the Sounds True audience, people raise their hands. They\u2019re like, \u201cTami, I just don\u2019t like to meditate.\u201d And my response always is, \u201cDon\u2019t let that stop you. That\u2019s fine.\u201d I\u2019m wondering what you have to say about that.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD: <\/b>Yeah, I mean, even as I said just a moment ago, anybody who\u2019s listening or you, Tami, if you do what I just encouraged us all to do, notice something positive or take a different skill like mindfulness, take a breath, just take a breath. Notice what that feels like, you just meditated. I think what people don\u2019t like oftentimes is sitting still, and there\u2019s good reason for that. We live in an always-on culture right now, and we are simply not used to having time and space just to be. And I experienced this in my own life. I, as I said, I was very kind of high strung, well and pretty tight, high energy. I mean everybody in my family was shocked when I started meditating. I was like the last person anybody thought would ever learn to meditate. I was hyperactive, running around, really easily bored, restless.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so it\u2019s very natural. I think for a lot of people when you try to sit down, all you feel is discomfort. You experience distraction; you experience the boredom. That\u2019s just the residue of doing, of just this compulsive doing and an absence of being. We as a culture have erased the cultural rituals that virtually all cultures have around being, and we\u2019ve replaced it. The closest we get to being is binge watching our favorite TV show or something like that. So it\u2019s normal that people feel that kind of discomfort when they just sit. The beauty is that meditation doesn\u2019t have to be just sitting in discomfort for half an hour. You can meditate while you\u2019re going for a walk. You can meditate, as I said, while you\u2019re doing the laundry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What inspired me with the Healthy Minds app, when Richie Davidson and I were first kind of just hatching the idea of this, and we had the idea of this active practices, not just formal sitting meditation. Actually the inspiration for me was when my son was born. And I was living in Asia at the time. I was doing months of retreat every year. I was a really hardcore meditator at the time, and then suddenly I have this little being in my life and everything about my spiritual path just went out the window. And I suddenly had to figure out, now what is meditation when I can\u2019t sit down? I might not get five minutes just to sit quietly, but I have all this time with this little beautiful creature on my shoulder or lying down. One of my rituals was I laid down with him every time he went down for a nap. I laid down with him for three years. I did that literally every time. I mean, it was one of the most precious things in my life. Why can\u2019t that be meditation? That can be my practice. And so I was thinking about that as just one example. I mean, people have many different versions of that, but why not make the things you already do the vehicle for this inner journey? It doesn\u2019t have to be some departure from your life. It could be your life, but just living it in a meditative way. And now we\u2019ve been researching that, and it shows that actually it seems to be just as effective in promoting well-being and human flourishing as the formal sitting practices are. So we\u2019re really researching this to see how does it help people? How does it help people? But that was the impetus for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS:<\/b> I want to talk more about that in terms of braiding in this compassionate wish and inspiration into the activities we do in our daily life, because that\u2019s one of the things I got from your book <\/span>A Meditator\u2019s Guide<\/span><\/i>, and it was really moving to me. And it\u2019s moving to me to hear you talk about lying down and napping with your son. You say, \u201cI often suggest to fellow householder yogis, people like you who are practicing in the midst of your daily life, that the most essential thing for daily life is just to make a habit of linking all the steps we go through in our everyday routine with compassion. Compassion can become the energizing force that motivates you and inspires you.\u201d So you\u2019ve given us a couple of examples already, appreciating people, but there are more. So take me through a day and give me as many examples as you can think of where you bring in this compassionate motivation into the activities you do.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD: <\/b>Yeah, I\u2019m so happy you\u2019re asking about this. This is very traditional. I mean, this is all over the Tibetan tradition, which I\u2019ve been very steeped in and been, I would say, by far the most transformative part of the journey for me is this. And it wasn\u2019t the natural part. I can\u2019t say I was Mr. Empathy as a kid or anything. I mean, it was something I learned. So one of the keys to this is what in Buddhist terms you call \u201cthe view,\u201d which is to say your perspective. And in this case, it\u2019s this simple idea that actually compassion is innate. It\u2019s actually already here. It\u2019s kind of just there beneath the surface, and we\u2019re just learning to bring it into focus. We\u2019re learning to just kind of bring it up to the surface of conscious experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So take a simple example to answer your question.<\/span> You get up in the morning. You stumble into the bathroom and begin your morning routine. Maybe you brush your teeth or whatever. Normally we do this completely\u2014it\u2019s autopilot. We do it every day. We don\u2019t even think about it. You can use these little moments without even stopping what you\u2019re doing. You can use that as a moment to bring this compassionate, innate, compassionate impulse into focus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So it could start by just reflecting on, why am I brushing my teeth? Why do we even want to do that? And you probably could go through two or three different little layers. It might be like, well, I want to be healthy, or I don\u2019t want my teeth to look gnarly, or whatever the motivation might be. If you keep going a little bit deeper, well, why do I want that? Why do I want that? Almost always you\u2019ll end up at something rooted in love and compassion. I want to be healthy because I want to be there for the people who I really care about. I want to be there. I want to be healthy so I can do the things that are meaningful to me in life and so that I can do the things that nourish me and that hopefully nourish the people around me. And then you can spread that out, that little act a brushing my teeth now becomes an act of love. It becomes an act of compassion. And then you can take it even further and think there are people all over the world doing this and countless other things, similarly motivated by this underlying innate movement of care and compassion. And so suddenly what you\u2019re seeing is this seemingly mundane thing you\u2019re doing, like brushing your teeth now is part of this current of love and kindness and care in the world, and it becomes meaningful, it becomes nourishing, it becomes rewarding.<\/span><\/p>\n

So you could do that. You go down to your kitchen and again, the same thing all over again. And it might be as simple as may, whatever I\u2019m doing right now, may it be a benefit. I\u2019m making toast. Even if it\u2019s for yourself, may this nourish my body so I can be of service to others. May I clean my kitchen so my family has a nice clean home that they can enjoy. I mean, you can just go on and on. It\u2019s just a little, it\u2019s not changing the things you do, it\u2019s changing your perspective on the life you already lead. And again, it only takes an instant to do that, but then everything, your whole world is transformed just by shifting your perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS: <\/b>I really love it, Cortland. And I\u2019ll just say briefly, after reading <\/span>A Meditator\u2019s Guide to Buddhism<\/span><\/i> and hearing you talk about this, you use the example in the book of doing the dishes as a gift to the other people in your household. And I usually do the dishes in our house, and most of the time I do it, I just like the kitchen to be clean. And I think to myself, well, at least I get to put that in my column with my\u2014it\u2019s in my column. That\u2019s good. That\u2019s some good. But today, when I did the dishes, I said, \u201cI am doing this as a gift to my partner, and this is an offering of my heart and love.\u201d And it changed actually this thing and made it\u2014I wasn\u2019t quite as kind of bitchy about doing the dishes. Instead I was generous doing the same amount of dishes. What a thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD:<\/b> Yeah, everything becomes a gift then. And that\u2019s another piece of this in giving that gift, I mean, the attitude of generosity puts us in touch with a part of ourselves. It\u2019s like an inner richness that can never be exhausted. It\u2019s like the more you give, the more you feel like, oh, I have so much to give, rather than when we\u2019re always thinking about our needs. Exactly. The dishes are a great example like, oh, OK, is my partner doing their share? And suddenly you\u2019re in this calculation. It\u2019s now in the spirit of generosity. It just creates a totally different space, and then you feel enriched rather than impoverished. So the gift, we\u2019re the biggest recipients in a way of the gift, even though that\u2019s not our intention in doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> Now, we hear so much about the research, if you look into it from how it\u2019s changing our brain when we practice something like a mindfulness meditation practice. But I haven\u2019t heard as much, at least about the research that says, when we do these kinds of acts of generosity and focus on compassion practice, how does that change our wiring? And I\u2019m curious what is behind that.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CD:<\/b> Yeah, yeah. It\u2019s fascinating. There hasn\u2019t been as much work, but there\u2019s some. In fact, one of the reasons we published this scientific framework, and there was another paper that I and some of my colleagues wrote where we were really attempting to create a roadmap for scientists to understand the broad range of meditative practices. For a long time, I was very focused on mindfulness, which is beautiful and really powerful, but it\u2019s just one of hundreds if not thousands of kinds of meditation. And we wanted just to broaden open the lens a little bit wider. And it turns out with the research that\u2019s been done that these practices, not surprisingly perhaps for meditators, have completely different effects on the body, the mind, and the brain. So if you take something like compassion practices, what you\u2019ll find is that they activate completely different networks in the brain than mindfulness practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

And even within the realm of social emotions, empathy and compassion even are very different networks in the brain. So for example, say we\u2019re talking here and something happens. I suddenly see you get you\u2014something happens to your neck, or I can see you\u2019re in pain, and I observe that. What will happen in me, assuming I have an empathetic response, is that the pain network in my brain will activate. Your pain network will obviously be activated. You\u2019re experiencing physical pain, but I simply by observing you will also be almost simulating that experience in my own mind, and it\u2019ll be activating a similar network. So if it\u2019s pain, I\u2019ll be activating a lot of those same brain regions that will be active in you. Well, that of course is a depleting experience. And so you hear terms \u201ccompassion fatigue\u201d in the world of healthcare, for example. Actually what\u2019s going on is it\u2019s empathy fatigue. Because empathy, especially in relation to suffering, whether it\u2019s physical or emotional suffering, it tends to be experienced as a difficult emotion, as a depleting experience. Compassion, however, activates a completely different set of brain regions, what we call the \u201ccare network,\u201d and it has some overlap with another network that we call the \u201creward network.\u201d This is actually the reward, the network of pleasure. If you eat a bite of chocolate or something that elicits an experience of pleasure, actually it\u2019s some of those same brain regions. So we experience compassion as an uplifting emotion. It feels positive. It feels nourishing. It activates networks of the brain that are kind of the active\u2014it\u2019s not just a passive, fluffy state of mind. It\u2019s a highly engaged state of mind, meaning we\u2019re ready and willing to help if the situation calls for it. So the research shows that we can literally train ourselves to activate these networks in the brain.<\/span><\/p>\n

And even if we have a moment of empathy, for example, we\u2019re feeling a little depleted and we feel that kind of we\u2019re vibrating at the same frequency, but we\u2019re feeling a little overwhelmed by it, we can actually train ourselves to shift into compassion. Or what scientists call \u201cempathic distress\u201d we can shift to empathic concern. So these again, are just skills. We just need to learn them and then we can practice them in simple ways throughout our day, and it just rewires our whole nervous system and the way our brains are functioning even. So again, it\u2019s really, really amazing how this works.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TS: <\/b>Just to make that very real for people, let\u2019s say someone is experiencing empathic distress. Maybe it\u2019s for someone in their family. And they\u2019re like, I\u2019m feeling\u2014how would they shift that into empathic concern or an actual engagement with the compassion part of themselves?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD:<\/b> Yeah, fantastic question. So again, let\u2019s take this conversation right now and imagine that one of us suddenly had a moment of physical pain. And often what happens is you and I are talking and we\u2019ve got some connection, we\u2019re having a dialogue here, and we\u2019re in this sort of relational space. We\u2019re social creatures by nature. So we do this quite naturally with one another. And then you have, say you have that painful moment, and I observe that if it\u2019s a strong one. I mean, if it\u2019s something minor, this probably wouldn\u2019t happen. But say you have a strong, it\u2019s clear you\u2019re having a really strong reaction. Oftentimes what\u2019s going to happen if I empathize with you is that I have a kind of mirror or almost simulate a similar reaction. I feel that ouch. I feel whatever that emotional impact is. If it\u2019s strong, then actually the relational field gets lost and I contract into my own reaction. Rather than being able to be there and comfort you, I\u2019m suddenly having to take care of myself, having my own reaction. I suddenly have to take care of myself. And suddenly that relational\u2014it\u2019s almost like the relationship gets severed and I\u2019m now in my own space. You\u2019re in your own space.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So part of as a practice, if you think about is what\u2019s the skill here? What do you actually do? The first thing is just to notice that it\u2019s not that you\u2019re trying to stop the reaction\u2014it\u2019s the most natural thing to have that\u2014but it\u2019s to reestablish that caring relational space. So in this case, it might be simply bringing my attention back to you. And a simple way to do this in this\u2014is in many meditative traditions, this is all over the place in Buddhist meditation, is you can simply bring online a thought process where I not only recognize that you are in pain or suffering, and I simply wish that you\u2019d be free of that. I can simply even repeat a phrase in my mind, oh, Tami is suffering. May she be OK, may she be safe, may she be whatever. It\u2019s just bringing online a caring response. It\u2019s shifting back into the relationship, kind of moving out of the contracted space and then injecting into that field of connection, kind of a caring, like the warmth of care. And again, you can do that by repeating a phrase. You can do the practice of tonglen; many people might\u2019ve heard about. It\u2019s this where you use the breath. You imagine you\u2019re sending out, when you breathe out, you could imagine you\u2019re just sending out warm, healing light, energy. When you breathe in, you breathe in like you\u2019re taking on the suffering of the other person. It\u2019s completely against the logic of the ego. Normally we want to breathe in the stuff we want, and we want to get rid of the stuff we don\u2019t want. This is almost the opposite, right? You\u2019re like, no, I can hold it. You\u2019re suffering. I got this, I want it. So it just takes you back into that caring space again. There\u2019s many different ways to do it. This is in the Healthy Minds program. There\u2019s a whole series of trainings on different techniques to do it, but they just take a moment. They just need practice. They\u2019re just little inner movements that you get used to and then you can apply them very easily in relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> I\u2019m curious if you can take us behind the curtain for a moment. And what I mean by that is as I was learning about you, I learned about how you are a translator of Tibetan texts. But then I thought to myself, actually, he\u2019s a translator of the tradition into a contemporary format via an app and via a language and a practice style that fits for our contemporary world. That\u2019s a huge act of translation. So the behind-the-curtain is to understand when you and the team at Healthy Minds Innovation looked at, how are we going to create this app with these four different categories, what was the process that you went through?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD:<\/b> Yeah. Well, you\u2019re a very astute observer because it\u2019s true. Oftentimes, as I said to you before we went live, whenever people ask me what I do, I never know what to say because I have five different job titles for three different organizations, and it\u2019s hopelessly complicated. I confuse myself with my own professional identity, but actually what I often say is that, at heart, I\u2019m a translator. That\u2019s very exactly what you just said, because I\u2019m just one of these people that is standing between worlds and helping them make sense of one another and hopefully helping wisdom flow between these worlds. And how that played out with the Healthy Minds program, it was a very long conversation, in particular with Richie Davidson, who, who\u2019s a really brilliant scientist, one of my dear friends and mentors, and we had this shared aspiration to just want to put some of these other practices on the map scientifically to, as I said earlier, just widen the scientific agenda to include things like compassion and some of the wisdom practices that you find in these traditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the easy part, forming that intention, the how of it was not at all easy, and actually a lot of the key insights came from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, actually. We had a series of conversations with him where he gave us some really amazing advice, actually, about how to actually do this. So one of the key pieces was how we would marry science and these meditative traditions in a way that was not doing injustice to either of them, hopefully bringing the best of some of these traditions together, but in a way that would actually work for people that wouldn\u2019t feel overly religious to people who had no interest in that, but wouldn\u2019t feel like overly theoretical to people who really needed practical tools in their lives. And there was one particular meeting\u2014he actually had visited Madison.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, there was this whole funny episode, which maybe I can share, where I found myself in the very odd position of having to give a public presentation to the Dalai Lama about meditation. I was teaching the Dalai Lama, as though the Dalai Lama needs somebody to tell him about the ins and outs of meditation, but somehow I found myself in that position.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But in any case, it was on the same visit that we spent some time with him, and we asked him, we said, \u201cWe really want to take some of these important ideas from the world\u2019s wisdom traditions, but present them in a way that anybody could benefit from them regardless of whether they\u2019re atheist, agnostic, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever. But we\u2019re kind of a little befuddled as to how to actually do that.\u201d And so we asked him about, there\u2019s all these Buddhist ideas like emptiness and no self, and we\u2019re like, \u201cShould we try to put this in everyday language? What do you think? How should we actually do that?\u201d And right away he almost cut us off and was like, \u201cNo, no, no, no. That\u2019s Buddhist business.\u201d<\/span> He said something like that. \u201cAll that stuff\u2019s Buddhist business. Don\u2019t worry about that.\u201d He said what you need to do is take the meditative approach and use the insights of science. Basically take the contemplative, experiential meditative approach that we find in Tibetan Buddhism, for example, but bring that together with some of the insights that you have that you\u2019re gaining from science. So people can translate some of these insights that are there in the scientific tradition, but translate that into experience, not just theory as normal as you get.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And that was it for us. That was the light bulb went off and we\u2019re like, ah. And that\u2019s basically what the Healthy Minds app is. Everything that we\u2019ve done basically came out of that conversation. So it\u2019s really bringing together interesting insights from research, but in a way that people can actually experience, how would you actually practice that? So it\u2019s taking all these meditative techniques, but in sort of the language that we understand, because for better or worse, we\u2019re kind of, science is sort of the religion of the modern world in many ways. So that\u2019s basically how we did it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then it was just a lot of dialogue, and we worked with some of the most brilliant designers, people who just know how to make stuff really, really well. I learned so much from working with these people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And a lot of that was just trying things with people, seeing how it landed. And it could be little things like in a guided meditation, for example, seeing that people really don\u2019t seem to, when you depersonalize language, there\u2019s this meditative habit when you do a guided meditation where you say \u201cthe breath, the body\u201d instead of \u201cyour breath, your body.\u201d And there\u2019s kind of philosophical reasons for that. But when we talk to people, they\u2019re like, \u201cWell, that feels cold. It doesn\u2019t feel warm and personal.\u201d And we\u2019re like, oh, OK. Even though that might make sense, theoretically, it\u2019s not landing with people well. So that\u2019s just one example. So a lot of it was just trial and error and really just trying to hear from people who tried these things and to see what actually would work for them. And now we\u2019ve done all these tons of research. We published a bunch of papers, but a lot of that has just been through the grinder of trial and error.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> One of the things I\u2019m curious about has to do with personal motivation because one of the things I\u2019ve seen is that, at this point, people have listened to gosh knows how many podcasts and have read gosh knows how many books, and probably have gosh knows how many apps on their phone, and they kind of have a lot of knowledge about little things they could do. And yet sometimes we do these things and often we don\u2019t. What\u2019s the motivation to do it?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my own inner chewing on this, I came up with four sources of motivation, but I\u2019m curious what you and the tradition has to say. Then what can further our motivation? The first is you talked about how your own anxiety was a catalyst in your journey, and I thought, well, the first thing that motivates people is pain. They want to get out of pain. The second thing that motivates people is they discover the pleasure of some of these new behaviors. Like, wow, this is really rewarding. I feel better. So we have pleasure and pain that motivates people. The other, and I thought, I wonder how many people really are motivated by this, is where we started our conversation together, which is actually wanting to be of service to other people and knowing that if we do do these practices repeatedly, we will be of more service to other people. Does that motivate some people a little? And then the last idea I had was that sometimes you meet a model, you could say a teacher or you read a great story, and something in you is just like, gosh, I want to be like that. I want to be like that. I\u2019m so inspired by that. So those were the four things I thought of. And I wonder if you have more to add to that, and then what can you say to help us accelerate our motivation, if you will?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD:<\/b> That\u2019s beautiful. Yeah, I think that\u2019s lovely. And I think the way I would see it is that it\u2019s not as though necessarily we graduate from one of those to another. Actually, we have all of those, and I think it\u2019s almost like we\u2019re sort of slowly expanding the scope, but it\u2019s not as though we finished first grade and now we\u2019re in second grade. For example, compassion. For me, it was definitely not the driving motivation, as you said, as you just pointed out. It was suffering, right? I was looking for something. I would say it was a mixture of the suffering and curiosity, but it was about me, right? I wanted it for my life. I was not thinking, how can I benefit others? But at a certain point, it really did become about that, but it wasn\u2019t as though I was subtracted at that point. I didn\u2019t care about myself anymore. And I was now just all about, it was more like, yes, of course I still want to be happy. I want meaning in my life, and now I see that it\u2019s this bigger thing too. I really see that the world needs this, and it\u2019s helped me so much, and maybe my life could in part be a bridge so other people could benefit from this as well. And then it becomes a positive loop because that also is not only beneficial to others, but it is also nourishing to oneself. So compassion is\u2014as I mentioned earlier, the research shows this as well\u2014it\u2019s tremendously nourishing. It\u2019s tremendously energizing and uplifting, so it becomes this positive feedback loop. So we\u2019re kind of gradually expanding that.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think all of those, to me definitely ring true. I would say another one I feel a little hidden, but can be there very, very early on. But oftentimes unconsciously, it was definitely unconscious for me, but it was very much there is that we, in addition to being social creatures by nature, we are always on the hunt for meaning and purpose, even if we\u2019re not thinking about it in those terms. So at the beginning, my anxiety, for example, was the demon. It was a thing I wanted to get rid of. And at a certain point I started to see that actually all the things I\u2019m looking for are not in the absence of this inner demon. They\u2019re actually found within it and around it. It\u2019s actually that became my gateway. And suddenly working with the anxiety and working with this painful stuff in my life, it suddenly became meaningful. It allowed me to open the doors to my own inner experience and just start exploring this whole inner universe. And I think it was that, again, I wasn\u2019t thinking about this at the time, but things that had been painful, inner demons in my life, became meaningful and rewarding. Not easy. There were still\u2014pain is always pain, but it became meaningful pain. It became transformative pain. And I think that\u2019s another piece of this too, is that the motivation\u2014kind of like a subterranean motivation oftentimes is we are just looking for meaning. Our lives can feel so devoid of meaning at times. Everything seems mundane. Why are we doing all this stuff? And again, we think we need to live some different fantasy life. But what this is showing is, no, even just a shift in perspective, even forget about mundane stuff. Even the painful stuff actually can be deeply meaningful. You don\u2019t have to look farther than Nelson Mandela or Malala, the great heroes of our world. And it\u2019s almost always adversity and pain and their perspective on that stuff that led them to be who they are. So we can see that in our own lives too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So anyways, there\u2019s all sorts of layers of motivation, but I think as you\u2019re doing kind of bringing that up to consciousness so we can be more aware of it, and when you\u2019re aware of it, then you can start nurturing those things. You\u2019re more conscious of it. You can kind of strengthen that as a conscious experience. So yeah, I love all four of those points.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> And now the fifth one, I have some sense that there\u2019s more to life than this. There\u2019s more meaning that\u2019s available to me. But if I heard you correctly, what you\u2019re saying is becoming aware of what motivates us automatically increases the motivation. Is that what you said? Just that awareness like, oh, this is my\u2014because I mean, look, you\u2019re in the transformation business. You designed the Healthy Minds app. I\u2019ve been focusing on human transformation now for four decades, and I\u2019m still trying to understand, what could I do to help motivate people more? What could I do?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD:<\/b> Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do think the meaning. I think being aware of these things has a power in and of itself. In the Tergar community, this thing that we did at the beginning of our conversation where you just reflect on, why am I even doing this? In many ways that is as important, if not more important than all the other elements of the practice. I think, in fact, if you were to ask the Dalai Lama like, \u201cHey, what\u2019s the most important part of all these teachings that are there in your tradition?\u201d I doubt he would say mindfulness. I doubt he would say being more focused. He certainly would not start talking about altered states of consciousness. I think he would say it\u2019s compassion. I think he would say it\u2019s compassion. Just try to do good in the world. That one thing. It doesn\u2019t have to be some esoteric, mystical thing. We all want some blissful, tranced out, whatever. That might happen, it might not, but compassion is the real marker. It\u2019s, at the end of the day, it\u2019s wisdom and compassion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So I think the beauty of making it conscious is just that you can then nurture those experiences. They become more nourishing when we\u2019re aware of them and conscious of them. It becomes like an active force in our life versus something that\u2019s kind of behind the scenes that it\u2019s sort of there, but it\u2019s almost like we don\u2019t benefit as much from it because it\u2019s not conscious. So that\u2019s just to make that itself part of the practice, make that the motivation. The practice itself actually is the motivation.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> Now, I want to track back for a moment to your anxiety, and I\u2019m going to go out a little bit on a limb here. I\u2019m someone who has dealt with anxiety in various ways my whole life. And I remember at one point when a Buddhist psychotherapist, Bruce Tift\u2014I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re familiar with his work, lived and practiced in Boulder for many years\u2014and in a recording that we made called <\/span>Already Free<\/span><\/i>, he shared anxiety is groundlessness from the ego\u2019s point of view.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I remember writing that down and really focusing on it and thinking to myself, God, I wonder if there\u2019s some\u2014this is where I\u2019m now going out on a limb. I haven\u2019t gone out there yet, but now I\u2019m going out there\u2014if there\u2019s some connection between the anxiety that as a person I\u2019ve felt a lot and this kind of shaky openness, sense of possibility, I feel so much groundlessness. There\u2019s a positive openness, but then it can get interpreted as anxiety if I\u2019m looking at it from a certain perspective of self-protection. And I wonder how you relate to this.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD: <\/b>Yeah, I think that\u2019s very true. One of the principles of the approach that in this strand of teachings from the Tibetan tradition and also very much woven into the Healthy Minds app is this view that, as I said earlier, the things we\u2019re looking for in life, whether it\u2019s just being at home in the world, not being anxious, feeling content, whatever, being happy or more spiritual sense, awakening, enlightenment, wisdom, compassion, whatever fancy terms we want to put on it, that these things are actually found within whatever present moment of experience we\u2019re having, especially the painful ones and the challenges in our lives. We tend to think that pain and discomfort equal suffering. And so therefore, since that\u2019s kind of our unconscious, that little formula\u2019s almost unconsciously driving our behavior, we think, oh, we need to get rid of the pain and discomfort. And so a lot of our effort is to get rid of the bad stuff and to get the good stuff. And then we think if we do that right, eventually we\u2019ll be happy or content or whatever. All the good stuff will happen. And this is just a totally different paradigm. It\u2019s saying, no, it\u2019s actually not. Pain and discomfort do not equal suffering. It\u2019s oftentimes the resistance. It\u2019s all the layers of stuff that surround the pain and discomfort, but often there\u2019s tremendous wisdom within all of these emotions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I know you\u2019ve explored the idea of the Buddha families in the Tibetan tradition, this idea that there\u2019s sort of this wisdom energy within even what otherwise might feel like toxic emotion. So a great question to pose. We\u2019re talking about anxiety right now, but you could swap out anything, whatever. You\u2019ve got a short temper, you get depressed, you have a lot of grief, whatever it might be, rather than thinking, how can I get rid of this thing, open up and explore that, and where is the beauty in that?<\/span><\/p>\n

And it might feel almost antithetical, like, no, there\u2019s nothing good about anxiety. Why would you want to do that? But actually, if you take\u2014as you\u2019re saying right now, anxiety oftentimes is operating in this space of uncertainty. Human beings, in fact, not only beings, animals in general, hate uncertainty. There\u2019s horrible animal studies in my mind, highly unethical. But one of the things that it showed is that if you induce uncertainty in lab rats, for example, they basically will get depressed. Uncertainty is one of the quickest roots just to create anxiety and depression in any animal, not just us as humans. So we just have a fundamental, we just don\u2019t process that well, and this is how we respond. But instead of trying to get rid of that, I think the first thing is seeing anxiety and depression actually are completely predictable natural responses to this insane world that we live in currently. Our biology just simply is not built to cope with the amount and kind of information we\u2019re dealing with. So the first thing is just, it\u2019s normal. It feels like a personal failing if you get anxious, right? There\u2019s something wrong with me. Nothing\u2019s wrong with us. Something\u2019s wrong with the world, perhaps. But then you can start saying, OK, am I stuck with this? And the answer I would say is no.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So as you\u2019re saying, when you kind of open up to it and you can see, actually, this is kind of a beautiful response to that, and there\u2019s tremendous care actually in anxiety. It\u2019s simply our system trying to adjust to uncertainty. And so within that, you can almost just open up into that energy, and it\u2019s oftentimes when we contract into the emotion is where the pain is, but if we can kind of expand and allow the emotion to be there, not trying to change it or get rid of it, but we can sort of expand the scope of our experience, and then you can feel your way back into that unique energy of that.<\/span> There\u2019s sort of like the anxious vibration in the body-mind that comes with anxiety, and there\u2019s the loop of thoughts that\u2019s playing. You can start seeing, actually, there\u2019s a lot of beauty and richness in that, and it\u2019s simply the contraction that\u2019s painful about it. When you can expand, actually, you can unlock all sorts of good things from within that that don\u2019t call you to experience anything other than what you\u2019re actually experiencing in that moment. And again, you can say the same thing for anger, for grief or whatever. It\u2019s just, how do we just sort of open up and just hold space for that? And then, yeah, again, so many really, really beautiful, amazing things can happen from that.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> Can you give me another example, Cortland, perhaps from your own life, perhaps from something in the last couple years, of something that first appeared like this is an unwanted X, Y, Z, but you were able to find the beauty in the experience?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD:<\/b> Yeah, yeah. I mean, I can think of a lot of examples, but one that really comes to mind was my father passed away about two and a half years ago, and I was quite close to him. He had a big role in my life, and we had a very complicated relationship. I think a lot of parents and kids. I had tremendous love and affection for him, and he could be a royal pain in the ass. I\u2019m sure I was a royal pain in the ass to him at various points in my life as well. And it was really interesting. He passed away unexpectedly. It was right at the end of COVID, and he wasn\u2019t sick. He went to sleep one night and didn\u2019t wake up. And it was very interesting how that played out. You never know how you\u2019re going to respond to these kinds of things until they happen when you lose somebody really close to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it was very interesting because I could see sort of the contraction that can happen, of course, the most understandable thing in the world. And of course, you have a lot of training as a meditator, just how you can work with that, and especially with this approach of not like, oh, I don\u2019t want to feel the grief. I don\u2019t want to get overwhelmed by it. A lot of this, the training I\u2019ve had has been exactly what we just talked about, which is let it all be there and where\u2019s the beauty in this? And what I noticed was there, of course, was just this atmosphere of sadness, right? He wasn\u2019t there anymore, and there were so many moments from the first day, even now I just feel like I want to call him, or I want to, this just sort of impulse and like, oh, and then you remember, oh, I can\u2019t call him.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so there\u2019s just this sadness, just the loss, just the sadness of the loss. But I think what the opening created space for was that I felt so much gratitude. Actually my dominant experience when he passed away, strangely\u2014and I never would\u2019ve guessed this, actually\u2014it was gratitude. It was like all the complications and the squabbles and things over the years, it\u2019s like all of that\u2014it\u2019s not like I erased it. That\u2019s just part of our history. But I just thought of all the things he brought into my life, all the ways he supported me, all the things. It just created this space for gratitude, but within the space of sadness. I was still sad. It was something about that, seeing the contraction and just allowing the opening to happen, letting the sadness move through without needing, just letting it do what it needed to do. But it just created the room for other things to be happening as well. And it was quite profound, profoundly healing in a way, the way that played out in that moment. So that just came to mind as one example.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> A final question for you. In <\/span>A Meditator\u2019s Guide to Buddhism<\/span><\/i>, you talk about the power of pith instructions, these short, on-the-spot meditative insights that we can draw on to help us in situations and how it\u2019s valuable to have a few in your back pocket, so to speak, that you can pull out when you need them. Share with us a pith instruction that you rely on.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD:<\/b> Yeah, I mean, the first thing that came to mind that\u2019s a\u2014many times, I would say not only every day, probably every hour, many times\u2014is the simplest thing, which is just look at your mind. Look at your mind just right now, every moment, not needing to do anything, not to fix it, not to improve it, not to change it. It\u2019s really just this. I think what that instruction invites to me is just an attitude of curiosity and having just kind of a curious, a love affair filled with curiosity with your own mind. And that\u2019s something that came early on in my practice. And it\u2019s not a theoretical thing. It\u2019s just taking a quick weather check like, OK, what\u2019s going on right now? And curiosity has\u2014short circuits the hardening. Like, I got this, right, got it figured out. Or all the layers of interpretations that we bring to every experience, it has a way of short-circuiting expectations, or at least just brings, it makes them conscious versus unconscious assumptions and expectations that may or may not be true. So that\u2019s one. I think just getting curious and just that phrase \u201clook at your mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another one related to that that has been profoundly helpful in a very different way is this thing actually that came from Ramana Maharishi, the great sage in India in the 20th century. And I actually don\u2019t know, I haven\u2019t been a student in that tradition, and I can\u2019t even say I\u2019ve read that widely. I\u2019ve been listening to some of his teachings here and there, but I read something that he, in early in life, he just sat down outside this temple nearby where he lived and just kind of sitting outside and he just was asking, who am I? And that was it. It was just that question, who am I? And just relentlessly asked himself that question. And I\u2019ve really taken that\u2014I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve done it anywhere nearly as relentlessly as he probably did. But I find that question opens so many interesting doors, and it\u2019s never like, what happens? What I tend to do is just ask that. And then it\u2019s kind of the look at your mind thing. OK, it\u2019s just opening some space in my own inner experience. And then what emerges, who actually am I right now? I\u2019m having this conversation. Who is this guy Cort who\u2019s doing all what? I mean, it just short-circuits the rigidity of the identity. So that\u2019s another one that it\u2019s more about the question than the answer and related, I think, still to that attitude of curiosity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then the other one is one we\u2019ve talked about for the whole hour, which is really just always coming back to compassion. Just refresh that driving force. Just nourish that. Just treat it like a small little seedling that you\u2019re just protecting from the harsh elements and just never let it perish. And that\u2019s one that I think has been a huge, huge thread throughout my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> And I\u2019d love to end on that note. I would like to call our conversation \u201cThe Energizing Force of Compassion.\u201d And with that in mind, give us a little energizing completion here to this hour that we\u2019ve spent together.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD: <\/b>Yeah. Well, we could even do another short micro practice. But just to say the fact that, Tami, you\u2019ve initiated this conversation, that people have taken time to listen to this. I mean, it\u2019s so easy to underestimate the good in the world we\u2019re doing just by taking time. There are so many things we could have been doing with this hour of our lives. We could have been\u2014the world has a million different distractions. We have perfected the art of distraction in the 21st century. Nevertheless, we\u2019re all doing this right now. We\u2019ve taken the time to do this right now. This is incredible. This is compassion. This is us all collectively nurturing this little seedling together. We\u2019re actually doing this right now. This is not only for ourselves. Hopefully, this is useful to us and to everybody who\u2019s listening, but whatever conversation you have next, whatever you do next in your day, or just going to sleep, the sleep that you have and whatever you do tomorrow, these little things shape our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

So one of the things I like to do is almost not getting caught up in the theory of it, but just almost viewing ourselves like we\u2019re all these little stars, these little suns, and we\u2019re just kind of feeling that warmth of compassion within ourselves and just allowing it, not even needing to make it radiate out, but just noticing that warmth and allowing it just to radiate out in our lives, and just carry that into whatever you do next. Whether that\u2019s just you on your own or you see somebody or you send somebody a text. Just infusing all of that with that warmth of compassion and just feeling almost like you are that star and you\u2019re just radiating it in all directions. Wherever, whatever happens to enter your little orbit, you\u2019re just kind of radiating that out. It doesn\u2019t have to be some grand exercise, and I can promise you there\u2019ll be nothing more rewarding in your life than just putting that at the center.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> I\u2019ve been speaking with Cortland Dahl, author of <\/span>A Meditator\u2019s Guide to Buddhism<\/span><\/i> and the chief contemplative officer who helped with the design and creation of the Healthy Minds app. Cortland, I have really loved talking with you. Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CD: <\/b>Yeah, thank you so much. It\u2019s been an honor.<\/span><\/p>\n

TS:<\/b> And if you\u2019d like to watch <\/span>Insights at the Edge<\/span><\/i> on video and participate in the aftershow Q&A session with our guests, come join us on Sounds True One, a new membership community featuring award-winning original shows, live classes, community learning, guided meditations, and more with the leading wisdom teachers of our time. Use promo code PODCAST to get your first month free. You can learn more at join.soundstrue.com. Sounds True: waking up the world.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"class_list":["post-23759","transcript","type-transcript","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Energizing Force Of Compassion - Transcript | Sounds True<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read the full transcript from this Sounds True conversation with The Energizing Force Of Compassion. 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