Explore every episode of the podcast Dharma Talks and Sangha Shares

Your brain is literally divided in two — and according to one neuroscientist, the wrong half has been running the show. In this fascinating and wide-ranging sangha share, Nick Burlin brings together cutting-edge neuroscience and 2,500-year-old Buddhist wisdom to reveal why we suffer — and why our meditation practice may be the most powerful antidote we have.

Drawing on Iain McGilchrist's landmark book The Master and His Emissary, Nick explores how the brain's two hemispheres don't just divide tasks — they create fundamentally different worlds. The left hemisphere narrows, analyzes, labels, and grasps for control. The right hemisphere opens wide, perceives wholes, dwells in the present, and knows through felt experience. Both are essential — but they're meant to work together in a very specific relationship. In modern Western culture, that relationship has been turned upside down, and we are quietly paying the price.

Here's the stunning part: the Buddha diagnosed this exact problem millennia before neuroscience existed. The teachings on papañca (conceptual proliferation), impermanence, not-self, and the middle way all point toward the same imbalance McGilchrist describes — and Vipassana meditation, it turns out, is precisely the training needed to restore it.

Whether you're a longtime meditator or simply curious about how the mind works, this talk offers a genuinely fresh lens on why we sit — and what we're actually doing every time we return to the breath.

About Nick Burlin

Nick is a Houston area educator who has taught history, government, economics, and philosophy for over a decade. Nick has a deep curiosity about human nature and the human mind and loves being part of the IMH Sangha.

What if the secret to a fearless, open heart isn't one practice — but four, working together? In this deeply nourishing talk, Ginger Clarkson explores the Buddha's four Brahma Viharas — the Divine Abodes of the heart — and shows how loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity don't just stand alone, but actively protect and strengthen each other.

Drawing on the wisdom of Nyanaponika Thera, the Dalai Lama, and the archetypal compassion of Kuan Yin, this episode guides you through each of the four sublime states with brief, accessible meditation practices — and reveals why the Buddha taught that we need all four to truly mature and liberate the heart.

You'll learn how loving-kindness keeps compassion from tipping into aversion, how sympathetic joy prevents compassion from drowning in the world's suffering, and why equanimity is nothing like indifference. Whether you're new to these teachings or deepening an existing practice, this talk offers both insight and a practical path to living with greater warmth, wisdom, and inner peace.

About Ginger Clarkson

Ginger Clarkson is a Community Dharma Leader certified by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where she studied under the mentorship of Jack Kornfield and completed the Dedicated Dharma Practitioner program with Eugene Cash and other senior teachers. Learn more here.

What are you really leaning on when life feels shaky — and is it actually helping?

In this warm and deeply personal talk, teacher Lisa Murphy invites us to look honestly at where we seek refuge, and whether those refuges are truly setting us free.

Drawing on her own experience of a moving retreat ritual — a red string tied with three knots, one for each of the Three Refuges — Lisa explores what it means to consciously take shelter in the Triple Gem: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. This isn't a scholarly lecture; it's an intimate reflection on how these ancient teachings come alive in the texture of ordinary life.

You'll discover why the Buddha isn't about worship but about trusting your own capacity to awaken, why the Dharma is only real when we actually live it, and why community may be the most underestimated spiritual practice of all. As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, the Buddha of the 21st century may not be an individual — but a sangha practicing loving-kindness together.

Simple, honest, and quietly profound — this episode is an invitation to stop seeking refuge in what only numbs, and to begin returning, again and again, to awareness, truth, and love.

About Lisa Murphy

Lisa has been practicing meditation for a number of years. She found her way to Insight Meditation Houston (IMH) through a friend's recommendation. She is deeply thankful to IMH teachers, Ginger and Travis, and her heart is full of love and gratitude for this sangha. Lisa appreciates the opportunity to share from her practice.

Joy isn't a distraction from the spiritual path — according to the Buddha, it's an essential part of it. In this talk, Ginger Clarkson guides the group through mudita, or sympathetic joy, the third of the four brahmaviharas, exploring why it may be the most challenging of the heart practices to cultivate.

Ginger reflects honestly on how easy it is to feel genuine warmth toward strangers while still harboring judgment toward others, and how mudita asks us to celebrate the good fortune of others even when we ourselves are struggling. The talk includes a guided meditation sending appreciative joy to others and to oneself, followed by an interactive partner practice where participants share something good in their lives and receive it with an open heart.

About Ginger Clarkson

Ginger Clarkson is a Community Dharma Leader certified by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where she studied under the mentorship of Jack Kornfield and completed the Dedicated Dharma Practitioner program with Eugene Cash and other senior teachers.

Alexander technique is a body awareness and reeducation method from the 19th century that embodies many principles that overlap with mindfulness meditation and insight through observation. In this talk Tom connects to define practical application while sitting walking and standing as well as meditating.

About Tom Lev

Tom Lev is a teacher and community builder who has evolved from air traffic control to dance to meditation, guided by the conviction that wisdom must be lived rather than understood. His background in dance taught him that presence and empathy transcend words, a principle he carries into all his teaching and work. He focuses on cultivating stillness and emotional awareness as ongoing practices, offering grounded instruction oriented toward helping people live with more ease and kindness. He serves on the board of Insight Meditation Houston.

In this second talk on mindfulness of the body, Travis Hicks picks up where he left off, covering three more practices from the Satipatthana Sutta: working with postures and energy, mindfulness of the four elements, and contemplation of the body's decay.

Travis explores how the choice of posture — sitting, standing, walking, or lying down — relates directly to the energy of the mind, and offers practical ways to bring awareness into everyday movement. He then walks through the elements practice, recategorizing bodily sensations as earth, water, fire, and air — a method he finds particularly alive when practiced outdoors. Finally, he touches on the contemplation of death and decomposition, one of the more challenging practices in the tradition, and offers a simple, grounded way to approach it.

About Travis Hicks

Travis Hicks has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1995 and teaching since 2005. He completed a two-year teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of senior teachers in the Theravada tradition. Travis brings a warm, accessible style to the dharma, drawing on both classical Buddhist teachings and contemporary psychology. He leads weekly sittings, daylong retreats, and occasional residential retreats for the IMH community.

The body is always here which makes it one of the most reliable anchors for meditation practice.

In this first of two talks on mindfulness of the body, Travis Hicks introduces the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and walks through several of its core practices: mindfulness of the breath, awareness of postures, and the body scan.

Drawing on the Satipatthana Sutta, Travis explores how the breath makes impermanence tangible, why standing and walking deserve as much attention as sitting, and how bringing awareness to everyday movement, walking to get a glass of water, lying down, even eating, can extend practice well beyond the cushion. He also touches on the body scan as a way of observing the body impartially, without the opinions and attachments we tend to carry about it.

A practical and grounded introduction to a practice the Buddha described as leading, on its own, all the way to nibbana.

About Travis Hicks

Travis Hicks has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1995 and teaching since 2005. He completed a two-year teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of senior teachers in the Theravada tradition. Travis brings a warm, accessible style to the dharma, drawing on both classical Buddhist teachings and contemporary psychology. He leads weekly sittings, daylong retreats, and occasional residential retreats for the IMH community.

Our phones are designed to capture our attention and they're very good at it.

In this talk, Travis Hicks reflects on his annual Lenten practice of giving up social media, and what it reveals about how digital habits shape the mind.

Drawing on his own experience with Reddit, a remote monastery retreat, and some statistics about phone use, Travis connects the pull of apps and notifications directly to what we're trying to cultivate in meditation practice: the ability to notice where our attention goes and choose it more intentionally. He looks at how algorithms are built to trigger fear and anger, how novelty-seeking shows up in the mind, and how a period of stepping back can help us see which digital habits actually serve us and which ones are just filler.

The talk ends with some practical suggestions and a handful of apps that genuinely support practice, rather than compete with it.

About Travis Hicks

Travis Hicks has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1995 and teaching since 2005. He completed a two-year teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of senior teachers in the Theravada tradition. Travis brings a warm, accessible style to the dharma, drawing on both classical Buddhist teachings and contemporary psychology. He leads weekly sittings, daylong retreats, and occasional residential retreats for the IMH community.

Travis Hicks explores how the Buddha's teachings on reincarnation and samsara show up throughout the suttas, and what they ask of us in daily life.

Drawing on vivid similes from the Pali Canon, Travis looks at how these teachings are meant to spark samvega — a sense of spiritual urgency — alongside a deep recognition that in an endless cycle of rebirth, every being has at some point been our mother, our child, our closest friend. He doesn't ask anyone to accept reincarnation as fact, but invites an open mind about what it might mean for how we practice and how we treat the people and beings around us right now.

About Travis Hicks

Travis Hicks has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1995 and teaching since 2005. He completed a two-year teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of senior teachers in the Theravada tradition. Travis brings a warm, accessible style to the dharma, drawing on both classical Buddhist teachings and contemporary psychology. He leads weekly sittings, daylong retreats, and occasional residential retreats for the IMH community.

Is there actual evidence for reincarnation — or is it just a matter of belief?

In this second of two talks, Mark Ryan picks up where he left off, moving from past life regression therapy to what many consider more compelling ground: children who spontaneously remember previous lives.

The centerpiece of this talk is the work of University of Virginia psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, who spent four decades systematically investigating over 2,500 cases worldwide. Mark walks through what these cases have in common — children speaking of past lives between ages two and six, memories that could often be verified, and in some cases birthmarks matching fatal wounds from a previous personality. He shares two detailed case studies: a young boy in Sri Lanka whose memories led investigators to a specific man who had died six months before the child's birth, and James Leininger, a Louisiana boy whose vivid World War II nightmares were eventually traced to a real pilot killed at Iwo Jima.

Mark closes with reflections on the spiritual significance of reincarnation, including a personal account from Jack Kornfield, and leaves the question open — not asking listeners to believe, but simply to consider.

About Mark Ryan

Mark Ryan holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, where he was on the faculty and a dean of students for 21 years. Subsequently, he was professor and Dean of the Colleges at the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, Mexico. His writings on transpersonal matters include the book A Different Dimension: Reflections on the History of Transpersonal Thought and several articles in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology.

Do our lives continue after death — and is there any real evidence for it?

In this first of a two-part sangha share, Mark Ryan takes look at reincarnation, tracing its presence across cultures from ancient Greek philosophy and early Christianity to Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous traditions worldwide.

Drawing on his background facilitating Holotropic Breathwork, Mark shares compelling case stories — including one man whose vivid visions of a 16th-century Irish fortress turned out to match an obscure historical battle he had never knowingly encountered. He also explores the work of psychiatrist Brian Weiss, whose skepticism about past lives was overturned by his own clinical experience with a patient whose symptoms vanished after recalling apparent past-life traumas under hypnosis.

Mark doesn't ask us to believe — he simply presents the evidence, acknowledges the alternative explanations, and lets us sit with the question.

About Mark Ryan

Mark Ryan holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, where he was on the faculty and a dean of students for 21 years. Subsequently, he was professor and Dean of the Colleges at the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, Mexico. His writings on transpersonal matters include the book A Different Dimension: Reflections on the History of Transpersonal Thought and several articles in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology.

The Noble Eightfold Path is one of Buddhism's most essential teachings — but what does it actually look like in daily life?

In this talk, Travis Hicks walks through the Eightfold Path in a practical, grounded way, drawing on his year of Upasaka training with Birken Forest Monastery and two books he has returned to again and again: Bhikkhu Bodhi's The Noble Eightfold Path and Bhante Gunaratana's Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.

Rather than going factor by factor, Travis groups the path into its three main areas — ethical conduct, meditative concentration, and wisdom — and shows how they support and reinforce each other over time. He covers how we speak to others and ourselves, how the five precepts show up in everyday choices, and why livelihood is part of a spiritual path at all. The weekly meditation practice we do together, he reminds us, is just one piece of a much larger whole.

This is a good introduction for anyone new to Buddhist teaching, and a useful refresher for those who have been practicing for a while.

About Travis Hicks

Travis Hicks is a certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher through the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, trained under Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, and has completed the Upasika program for dedicated practitioners at Birken Forest Monastery under Abbot Ajahn Sona. He has been offering talks and leading retreats at Insight Meditation Houston since 2017 and has served as its Guiding Teacher since 2025.

Every year on the full moon of May, Buddhists around the world celebrate Vesak — the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha, all said to have occurred on the same day. In this talk, Travis Hicks marks the occasion with a walk through the life of Siddhartha Gautama, from his sheltered upbringing in a noble household to his eventual enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

Travis traces the familiar arc — the Four Heavenly Messengers, the failed ascetic practices, the decision to simply sit and not move until he found the answer — but tells it in a grounded, unhurried way that brings the human side of the story forward. He closes with the Buddha's final weeks and last words, which return, as always, to the same simple teaching he offered for 45 years: all compounded things pass away, so practice with diligence.

A good introduction for those newer to the tradition, and a worthwhile revisit for anyone who hasn't heard the full story told in one sitting.

About Travis Hicks

Travis Hicks has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1995 and teaching since 2005. He completed a two-year teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of senior teachers in the Theravada tradition. Travis brings a warm, accessible style to the dharma, drawing on both classical Buddhist teachings and contemporary psychology. He leads weekly sittings, daylong retreats, and occasional residential retreats for the IMH community.

What would it mean to move through daily life with genuine generosity — not as a transaction, but as a way of being?

In this talk, Ginger Clarkson reflects on the Zen precept "Do not be stingy," exploring generosity through small moments of kindness, unexpected gestures, and the simple act of paying attention to others.

Drawing on Buddhist teachings on dana, a Zen meal chant, the image of Indra's net, and a vivid poem by Rumi, Ginger weaves together personal stories — from smiling at airport workers to her hospice visits with her service dog Amanda — to show how generosity flows in both directions and costs less than we think. She also gently points to what withholding does to the heart, and what opens up when we let go of the impoverished mindset that says there isn't enough to give.

About Ginger Clarkson

Ginger is a Community Dharma Leader certified by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where she studied under the mentorship of Jack Kornfield and completed the Dedicated Dharma Practitioner program with Eugene Cash and other senior teachers.

Most of us sit down to meditate and jump straight into watching the breath — but what if a few minutes of preparation made the whole practice easier? In this talk, Travis Hicks explores the idea of preliminary practices, drawing on Mahasi Sayadaw's recommendation of six things worth doing before formal meditation begins.

The six include reflecting on your own virtuous conduct, recalling the benefits of practice, cultivating confidence in the teachings, bringing to mind the qualities of the Buddha, practicing a little loving-kindness, and recollecting death as a nudge toward urgency. Travis shares honestly how he has been experimenting with these in his own practice, and makes a case especially for two: metta as a way of softening the heart before settling the mind, and the simple reflection on good things we have done — something our culture, he notes, doesn't make particularly easy. The talk is practical and personal, with a bug catcher making a memorable appearance along the way.

About Travis

Travis Hicks has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1995 and teaching since 2005. He completed a two-year teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of senior teachers in the Theravada tradition. Travis brings a warm, accessible style to the dharma, drawing on both classical Buddhist teachings and contemporary psychology. He leads weekly sittings, daylong retreats, and occasional residential retreats for the IMH community.

Even a dedicated meditation practice can quietly become a routine — and that's exactly when renewal matters most.

In this talk, Rafi Rahman reflects on what it means to bring freshness back to practice, not by starting over, but by loosening the grip of what we think we already know.

About Rafi Rahman

Rafi was born and raised in Bangladesh and has been practicing Insight meditation since 2015. He has been part of the Insight Meditation Houston (IMH) community since 2018 and currently serves as Chair of the IMH Board. He is passionate about helping build a warm and welcoming practice community.

His path has been shaped by silent retreats, the loss of close family members, and a lifelong curiosity about what it means to live with wisdom and compassion. Alongside Buddhist practice, he enjoys studying Jungian psychology and exploring the meeting place between Eastern and Western approaches to awakening and healing.

By profession, he is an engineer, and outside of work he enjoys listening to bamboo flute music, taking walks at Memorial Park, and sharing meaningful conversations with friends.