Infinite Smile

Michael asks the audience in this week’s talk, what it is they think that enlightenment will bring them. He then goes forward to suggest that enlightenment will bring nothing to our experience that w…

While several of Michael’s students have gone through the trials and tribulations of going through the shuso ceremony, where students offer up (among other things) their first Dharma talk, David Fitz…

So what is it that gets in the way of Awakening? If we are already Awake, why don’t we feel it?
According to Michael, wisdom traditions seem to offer up some suggestions. Among the most important poi…

If we’re willing to follow our fear and our negativity with our whole being, according to Michael, we are offered an opportunity to awaken. The loosening of our individual consciousness into a univer…

In this talk, Michael walks meditators through the rough stages of spiritual ascendancy. With practice, he shows, the egoic structures as their practice deepens. He goes on to suggest that the felt-s…

Spiritual practice becomes both broader and deeper the moment we can truly forgive. This includes forgiving others as well as forgiving ourselves. Typically our defenses work as attacks against perc…

The Zen saying “Drinking this cup of green tea, I stop the war” offers us a chance to explore our own relationship with war. While it may sound passive and irresponsible on the surface, how we meet e…

“This deep, spiritual work,” according to Michael, “is ultimately, is about resolve.” In Stephen Batchelor’s, Buddhism Without Beliefs, this idea of committed, fearlessness is supported where he sugg…

Whether you are a beginning meditator or a seasoned practitioner, fear can be a useful tool in this work. Practicing, for example, in the midst of our fear shows us a path toward a new perspective w…

Michael works with The Book of Serenity‘s, Case #76 as a way of describing the path of attainment. He also weaves into this description an application of how people come together and separate in rela…

In this evening’s talk, Michael looks at the three components to truly letting go. He first begins with the aspiration for awakening. Secondly, he points to the appreciation of what we have been give…

One of the things that Zen practice leaves out, according to Michael McAlister, is a more direct approach to uncovering the Witness. This simple awareness, is all there ever is, and in this talk, Mic…

When we let ourselves truly recognize what lies beyond our preferences and our attachments, we begin to get a sense of how expansive we really are. This recognition can be an explosive experience tha…

“There is only choice,” as Michael has pointed out. Even not choosing is a choice. Even in spontaneous expressions of joy or pain, we choose how we will relate to the ways in which we meet these expe…

When we commit to directly knowing, as we say in Zen, our True Nature, we have to be willing to give everything up. Everything. Lingering attachments work to insulate us from a full exposure to this …

In this talk, Michael addresses several issues; among them, how we often lose the view we’ve been offered by insight. He’s written about this and calls it “The Rubber Band Effect,” and suggests that …

To begin with, all of us at Infinite Smile offer each of you well wishes as we begin the holiday season. We also are so thankful for all of your support and participation in this project of awakening…