Dharma Lessons from 50 Years of Buddhist Practice with Gil Fronsdal | BHNN Guest Podcast Ep. 263

Sharing meaningful stories from a life of practice, Gil Fronsdal chats about the impact of spiritual community, simplicity, and generosity. This week on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal outlines: - Honesty, communication, and understanding as an alternative to LSD - The impact of reading Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, and going to the San Francisco Zen Center - The importance of doing spiritual practice with other people and finding community - Finding freedom within simplicity and generosity - The practice of working through fear and becoming relaxed - Gil’s mindful founding of the Insight Meditation Center, balancing the commercial forces of society - How growing up in wartime inspired Gil’s interest in nonviolence and civil disobedience 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. This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed “When I went to the Zen center, people didn’t participate; they didn’t pick up the cues and act accordingly. They became a mirror for me, and I said, ‘This is fantastic’, to be able to see myself clearly through other people. I wanted that mirroring to be seen. In that time of living at Zen Center, I am very confident that I couldn’t have practiced as much as I have done over the years without the support of the community that I was with.” –Gil Fronsdal