Buddhism Beyond Belief is a podcast from Susan Piver, a 30 year student of Tibetan Buddhism and founder of the Open Heart Project, an online meditation community with close to 20000 members.
With Susan as a friend and guide, we will look at traditional teachings like the four noble truths and the six paramitas–but not from an academic standpoint. Rather, we will talk about how to make it all personal and relevant in everyday life.
This podcast is not about Buddhist doctrine. It’s about how anyone can bring the profound wisdom of the dharma into their real life: at home, at work, and in love. The foundation for it all is meditation as a spiritual practice, not the latest life hack. Let’s go beyond the science and celebrity testimonials to discover the true power of meditation which is not based in self-improvement but in self-discovery.
Site
RSS
Apple
Data updated on 30/10/2026
Recent rankings
Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.
Shared links between episodes and podcasts
Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.
In this episode of Buddhism Beyond Belief, I explore The Five Buddha Families, a mandala that maps five forms of wisdom and their corresponding expressions of confusion. From the sharp precision of Vajra to the spacious awareness of Buddha, each family offers a way to understand our own patterns, recognize the gifts and challenges in ourselves and others, and cultivate greater compassion. I also share examples from everyday life to bring these energies into focus.
Highlights:
Why non-dualistic thinking is beyond conception and how mandalas can help us navigate the non-conceptual
The Five Buddha Families:
Vajra: How anger is connected to precision.
Ratna: Pride, richness, generosity, and the wisdom of equality.
Padma: How longing is a form of discriminating awareness and sensitivity to nuance.
Karma: Anxious speed and the ability to accomplish what is meaningful.
Buddha: How spaciousness and wakefulness can also express themselves as unfocused and spacey.
How recognizing these five energies in ourselves and others can deepen compassion and support the path to liberation.
Podcast After Party Music
I share why I love the distinctive guitar playing of Steve Cropper on Booker T. & the M.G.'s Green Onions, and how his spare, stinging style echoes the influence of Lowman Pauling.
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
New Online Workshop on The Five Buddha Families
Join Kevin Townley for Full Fathom Five: The Buddha Families & Creative Expression, a 4–hour workshop on November 14th at 11am et. Kevin will guide you through the Five Buddha Families and how the difficulties or confusion states that we might experience can actually fuel our creativity. There will be time to work on artmaking in real time.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
A 2026 Atlantic article explored “The Dark Side of Mindfulness.” They published a similar article in 2014 that also discussed negative results from meditation practice, “The Dark Knight of the Soul”. (Not sure why “knight” was used, tbh.)
In this episode, I look at both articles and talk about the risks that I’ve seen arise, not from meditation per se, but from meditation practiced without the guardrails provided by such time-tested (though by no means foolproof) sources such as lineage and profound spiritual insights provided by true teachers (aka realized beings who won’t also try to get you to take off your pants or give them all your cash.)
I share my own experience with PTSD and how it has shown up in my decades of meditation practice. I talk about how Buddhist teachings differ from self-help and how to approach meditation with the compassion of self-love rather than the aggression that may accompany the wish to “fix” ourselves.
Highlights:
Meditation amplifies our inner state rather than calming it which may be why, for some, suffering deepens
How Buddhist meditation practice differs from “mindfulness” marketed as self-help
Why trained teachers, lineage, and sangha (community) matter
How silent retreats and intensive practice entered into without preparation and care may become disorienting
The difference between meditation as self-help and meditation as a spiritual practice
The importance of holding compassion for ourselves and others as a central purpose of practice
Podcast After Party Music
“Think” by The Five Royales showcases Lowman Pauling’s epic, stinging, minimalist guitar style, a style that influenced many. Though he has remained relatively unknown, you’ve heard his influence on players from the 60s, 70s, and beyond. Respect and all hail, Lowman Pauling!
In this episode, I look at The Four Dharmas of Gampopa, four short sentences I've recited as part of my daily Buddhist practice for more than thirty years. Together they sketch the whole path: connecting my mind with truth, deepening realization, clarifying confusion, and finding that confusion is not separate from wisdom. You certainly don't need to be a Buddhist to explore this formula.
Highlights
What "grant your blessing" can mean outside religious belief
Finding your lineage in the people you admire and want to emulate
Bringing the mind into line with truth
How realization deepens as you travel the path
How the path can clear up confusion instead of adding to it
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity
Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
How we arrange our outer world can have a surprising effect on our inner state. In this episode, I talk about how creating an environment of stability, simplicity, and respect for objects can help us meet a difficult world with more confidence and strength. I share four simple ways to work with our environment: creating a ritual, caring for our space, wearing clothes that feel good to us, and eating food that nourishes us.
Highlights:
Why working with our environment influences how we work with our minds
Creating a personal ritual to connect with what matters
How cleaning and caring for our space can restore a sense of dignity
How our clothing affects our state of mind
Nourishing our bodies as an expression of self-love
How our environment can become a source of stability and strength
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity
Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
How do we work with strong emotions when the world feels frightening, divided, and uncertain? I look at three Buddhist approaches to difficult emotions: pacifying them, recognizing them as gateways to compassion, and discovering the wisdom within them. The key is learning to let go of the story and feel the feeling.
Highlights:
Three Buddhist approaches to working with strong emotions
When stepping away is helpful, and when it becomes self-aggression
How difficult emotions can deepen compassion for others
Finding wakefulness, focus, and wisdom within anger
The difference between experiencing a feeling and repeating its story
How meditation trains us to bring attention back to our lives
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity
Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
In Part Three of my conversation with my longtime teacher and spiritual friend Sam Bercholz, we talk about the strange and wonderful ways teachers can enter our lives, and how meditation can help us become more receptive to what is already here. We talk about devotion, wakefulness, Buddhist deities, and faith as something we investigate and put into practice rather than simply believe.
Highlights:
How Sam and I became spiritual friends more than 30 years ago
Recognizing a teacher through experience rather than analysis
How meditation can make space for clearer seeing
Deities as expressions of awakened qualities
Faith as investigation, verification, and practice
Why the Dharma is about waking up, not self-improvement
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my or join the for more connection with community and with me.
Conversation with Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and my meditation teacher, Part Two
In this episode, I continue my conversation with Sam Bercholz. We talk about bringing the dharma into the modern West without reducing it to either cultural imitation or scientific validation. We discuss the three yanas, emptiness and fullness, egolessness, and devotion. Sam shares a way to understand devotion as appreciation for wakefulness and a willingness to be guided by someone who embodies it.
Stay tuned for Part Three next week.
Highlights:
Why dharma does not require scientific validation
The three yanas
Emptiness as fullness, not nihilism
What egolessness actually means
Devotion as appreciation, trust, and openness to guidance
How a teacher-student relationship forms through investigation and experience
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Conversation with Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and my meditation teacher, Part One
I talk with my longest time spiritual friend, Samuel Bercholz, founder of Shambhala Publications and author of the new book, Rude Awakenings. It was written at the request of his second root teacher, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, who asked Sam to write a book containing everything he learned from his first root teacher, the great and mysterious Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
For me, this book lives up to its subtitle: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path. It was written by someone who has known and published almost all of the great Buddhist (and other) masters of our lifetime, checked everyone’s sincerity and realization, and drawn, as far as I can tell, impeccable conclusions about the true dharma and who and what to trust.
I trust him deeply. In addition to his extraordinary accomplishments, he is my closest spiritual friend. Sam taught me how to meditate more than 30 years ago and is still my meditation teacher. He gave me the refuge vow (by which one formally commits to the Buddhist Path), taught me how to give this vow, and, most importantly, introduced me to my root teacher, Tulku Thondup Rinpoche.
In this first of 3 short episodes, we talk about his beginnings as a practitioner, the centrality of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal, wakefulness, lineage, and why the relationship with a teacher is so important in Vajrayana Buddhism. We also look at how to find a teacher without becoming confused by cultural forms or an individual’s charisma.
Highlights:
Why did Sam write this book?
Who are Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal and how do you invoke them?
Heartbreak can make our usual strategies for managing pain useless. It can also show us what is true about being human: everything changes, everything ends, and love is precious because it cannot be held onto. In this episode, I look at how heartbreak itself can become part of the spiritual path.
Highlights:
Bringing heartbreak to the path without trying to turn it into a lesson
How impermanence shows us the preciousness of each moment
Why heartbreak reveals our deep connection with other people
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
My new book is now available - in print and in audio format
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
When heartbreak is overwhelming, the instinct is often to make it stop. But what if the practice is not to fix what we're feeling, but to learn how to be with it? In this episode, I continue looking at three ways Buddhism offers us a path through heartbreak. The second way is practicing loving-kindness.
Highlights:
Learning to make space for a racing mind instead of trying to shut it down
Working with the intensity of heartbreak without insisting that it disappear
How loving-kindness can turn suffering into compassion
Extending our wish for relief for ourselves, those we love, strangers, difficult people, and all beings
Why caring for others can bring back a sense of strength and agency
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
My new book is now available - in print and in audio format
Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the for more connection with community and with me.
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.
New Program: 7 Days of Fearless Creativity
Join me and Crystal Gandrud for 7 Days of Fearless Creativity (October 18–25), a week of daily meditation and creative practice for writers, artists, and anyone with something they've been putting off making. No plan or talent required — just curiosity and a willingness to show up. Learn more and register here.
My new book is now available - in print, e-book, and in audio formats Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
How do you find a teacher? What qualities do you look for?
The relationship between teacher, lineage, and awakened mind
Why a teacher is indispensable in Vajrayana practice
How to investigate a potential teacher with both intelligence and heart
The difference between Buddhist teachings and the cultures in which they developed
For more on my personal thoughts about Chögyam Trungpa and other teachers who have influenced me, please listen to episode 8, “Who Can You Trust in the Spiritual World?”
Watch this episode on video If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
My new book is now available - in print and in audio format Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, is available for purchase. Explore the spiritual path through 7 principles which run counter to conventional wisdom on mindfulness.
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Discover shows related to Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
