Mitchell Rabin Interviews Environmental Journalist Richard Schiffman

Tibetan Buddhist teacher who is credited for having ‘planted the seeds’ of Tibetan Buddhism in the West (as described in the book When the Swans Came to the Lake), Chogyam, Trungpa Rinpoche“the student of meditation, the spiritual warrior, lives with a broken heart…” he was suggesting that while so much of life can be so rich, vibrant and alive, there remains a fundamental suffering across the planet, the heartbreak of humanity.  People without water, food, shelter, medicine.  There are many other aspects of suffering but the above are fundamental to virtually all humans.  So when one sees this, we appreciate the joy that is also available, the love and the beauty that is also all around us.  When we understand the suffering however, one can understand some of the bizarreness and pathology that shows up virtually everywhere in our society–the body politic, business, religion, even science and sports!  What’s the common denominator?  Humans!!  Wonderful as we can be, as a whole and with brilliant exceptions, we lack balance between the elements, we lack reason and emotional intelligence, which is actually the basis of reason.  In today’s show, Mitchell and environmental health journalist will explore this level of psyche as well as both practical issues and solutions we have in hand to those issues.