Creativity, Presence & The New Year with Buddhist Teacher Gil Fronsdal | BHNN Guest Podcast Ep. 237

Explaining how imagination creates both beauty and suffering, Gil Fronsdal offers a skillful way to tap into inspiration without becoming lost in a dream. This week on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal dives into: - The poem “Thursday” by William Carlos Williams - Transformation through presence during mundane experiences - Dreaming as an important part of being human - How the imagination helps to create connections - The Zen principle of present moment awareness - Allowing reality to move through the world of our imagination - Not becoming lost or stuck in a dream - The Buddha as a man of tremendous imagination - Imagining the possibility of being freed from suffering This episode was originally published on Dharmaseed About Gil Fronsdal: Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma. “Dreaming, I think, is a very important part of being a human being. The imagination that can imagine possibilities, potential, that can create wonderful connections between things.” –Gil Fronsdal