Infinite Smile

In tonight’s talk, Michael offers us his rather unorthodox interpretation of Zen’s Ten Oxherding pictures.

In tonight’s talk, Michael talks about how our everyday mind points us toward Awakening. Putting ourselves into an alert space means that we can’t allow ourselves to simply become numb to life. Nor c…

Falling into our habitual patterns can get in the way of any meaningful practice. In tonight’s talk, Michael suggests that we explore these slips since they, like all other situations, offer us awake…

“You want the shortcut?” Michael asks in tonight’s talk. “Let go of all things personal and watch all the things that the small self is doing on the stage of mind.” This awareness is whole, complete …

“The stories that we’ve been told, as well as the stories we tell ourselves, can hinder Awakening to the Truth beyond the stories,” Michael says in tonight’s talk. Opening to a practice that puts us …

“The rarefied air forces us to let go of the stuff we don’t need,” Michael says in tonight’s talk. “Truth beyond name and form shows up as we climb higher up the Mountain of Spirit and turn up the he…

“Everybody has everything they need for enlightenment,” says Michael in tonight’s talk. “You’ll never find Awakening to happen any place other than right here.”
The minute we see and meet things as t…

“Don’t throw your preferences out the window,” says Michael in tonight’s talk. “Study them in order to see how they lead to attachment.”
Michael further explains how we get in the way of Awakening by…

As important as a good teacher is, we also must consider how critical a meditation practice is as we walk the Path. In tonight’s talk, Michael explains how we can help this process along by being car…

The whole of deep spiritual teaching is essentially the communication of space. In tonight’s talk, Michael explains how we can participate with the world instead of avoiding it. He also talks about w…

Living from a place of calm, alert presence that doesn’t allow us to avoid anything untangles the knots of Karma. In tonight’s talk, Michael explains how we can learn to change our relationship to wh…

While in a monastery in Nepal, Michael learned to drink around the leaves of the unstrained tea he was served. What Michael discusses in tonight’s talk, among other things, is how we can learn to rel…

Stillness, quietude and openness are key to any authentic practice. Once we practice these three qualities, according to what Michael tells us in tonight’s talk, we begin to realize a purification th…

Being without speaking is a beautiful way of expressing our selves totally. This happens when we give our mind an open field in which to graze. We have two major paths to meditative awareness: Big Fi…

This podcast is a recording made by members of the Infinite Smile, expressing their gratitude for the Sangha, as a way of asking for all who have been touched by this teaching to give. Thank you in a…

Unlike his normal dharma talks, this podcast is a recording of a presentation he gave to the Walnut Creek, California, Integral Transformative Practice group. For the most part Michael describes the …

Is it possible to gain enough perspective on our wants and desires that we can actually become free of them, as the Buddha taught?
In tonight’s talk, Michael addresses this issue by pointing out that…

How is it that Eihei Dogen’s suggestion that when we “forget the self, we are enlightened by all things” apply when we welcome new life into the world?
In tonight’s talk, recorded just two days after…

How can we possibly stabilize any type of spiritual practice or realization in the face of all the crap that the world throws our way?
In tonight’s talk, Michael addresses this issue by suggesting th…

What happens when we truly forgive?
In tonight’s talk, Michael discusses how the simple release that comes with real forgiveness allows us to let the Universe evolve through us consciously. Meeting o…