The One Open Door Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Contains an overview of spiritual practice as I offer it and as I practice it myself. The podcast begins with a description of our fundamental effort in practice to reside in a place of simple being and pure awareness. I then go on to outline the Five Centering Tools we may use in order to free ourselves from the various fictions and illusions we are subject to when we become entangled within conditioned mind. Simple, practical, and easy to remember.

Is it possible to live in peace in in this terribly confused and troubled world? Yes, it is--though that effort requires, for most people, a radical reorientation.  In this podcast I explore that reorientation, and the one simple but difficult way we may save ourselves from suffering as individuals, and also as a species, if we choose.   

For information about the practice David facilitates, about the community, and about the supports for awareness practice that are available, go to:

website: www.theoneopendoor.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoneopendoor
Daily Dharma private Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailydharma
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_edOCF0OcOdyCqIcFK_IbA
Instagram: @theoneopendoor

David McKay entered a Zen Buddhist monastery at the age of twenty-nine and spent the next eighteen years training there in silence. Over time he became a skilled facilitator and counselor, offering retreats and workshops at the monastery and across the country. David left the monastery in the fall of 2014 to further explore life and spiritual practice back in the world. He currently supports awareness and personal transformation in the form of retreats, workshops, and one-on-one spiritual mentoring.

The title says it all. Enjoy!

For information about the practice David facilitates, about the community, and about the supports for awareness practice that are available, go to:

website: www.theoneopendoor.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoneopendoor
Daily Dharma private Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailydharma
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_edOCF0OcOdyCqIcFK_IbA
Instagram: @theoneopendoor

David McKay entered a Zen Buddhist monastery at the age of twenty-nine and spent the next eighteen years training there in silence. Over time he became a skilled facilitator and counselor, offering retreats and workshops at the monastery and across the country. David left the monastery in the fall of 2014 to further explore life and spiritual practice back in the world. He currently supports awareness and personal transformation in the form of retreats, workshops, and one-on-one spiritual mentoring.

This podcast is something of a follow-up to the previous one. This time I go deeper into the ways in which we may live as Life Unfolding. The backbone of the podcast is some text from a book by Thomas Merton (the Jesuit monk, mystic, and writer) about Chuang Tsu (the ancient Taoist master). I hope you will find it to be interesting.  

About the art of making decisions from the place of consciousness and awareness. How to practice letting go of conditioned mind and follow the Guidance of Life moment by moment.

For information about the practice David facilitates, about the community, and about the supports for awareness practice that are available, go to:

website: www.theoneopendoor.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoneopendoor
Daily Dharma Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailydharma
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_edOCF0OcOdyCqIcFK_IbA

David McKay entered a Zen Buddhist monastery at the age of twenty-nine and spent the next eighteen years training there in silence. Over time he became a skilled facilitator and counselor, offering retreats and workshops at the monastery and across the country. David left the monastery in the fall of 2014 to further explore life and spiritual practice back in the world. He currently supports awareness and personal transformation in the form of retreats, workshops, and one-on-one spiritual mentoring.

About the Divine Essence that rests behind all appearances; the truth that this essence is who we each most fundamentally are; and about the profound teaching that emptiness (the Divine Essence) is not different from form, and form is not different from emptiness.

Containing the abbreviated story of my spiritual life before, during, and after my time at the monastery, plus some thoughts about what spiritual practice is and has been for me. 

In our practice we often talk about conditioned mind (the set of unconscious processes that create and maintain the illusion of a "self" that is separate from Life) in a way that implies it has real agency. We'll say stuff like "conditioned mind wants this" or "conditioned mind is doing that", as if it has actual  intelligence, an independent will, and the desire to cause us suffering in a myriad of ways. People sometimes balk at that sort of language, and they ask me if I actually see conditioned mind as a real thing, as a real entity that is living inside our minds. I made this podcast in order to explore that question. The answer, I'll tell you now, is "yes" and "no"--it depends upon the place you're looking from. Check out this podcast for more. 

For information about the practice David facilitates, about the community, and about the supports for awareness practice that are available, go to:

website: www.theoneopendoor.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoneopendoor
Daily Dharma private Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailydharma
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_edOCF0OcOdyCqIcFK_IbA
Instagram: @theoneopendoor

David McKay entered a Zen Buddhist monastery at the age of twenty-nine and spent the next eighteen years training there in silence. Over time he became a skilled facilitator and counselor, offering retreats and workshops at the monastery and across the country. David left the monastery in the fall of 2014 to further explore life and spiritual practice back in the world. He currently supports awareness and personal transformation in the form of retreats, workshops, and one-on-one spiritual mentoring.

How did it come to be  that we, as individuals and as an entire species, have traded our innate capacity for joy, happiness, and connection for the survival system we call "conditioned mind"?  What are the origins of the separate self? And what might we learn from our origins about the future of humanity? Check out this podcast for an exploration of these and other related topics.

For information about the practice David facilitates, about the community, and about the supports for awareness practice that are available, go to:

website: www.theoneopendoor.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoneopendoor
Daily Dharma private Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailydharma
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_edOCF0OcOdyCqIcFK_IbA
Instagram: @theoneopendoor

David McKay entered a Zen Buddhist monastery at the age of twenty-nine and spent the next eighteen years training there in silence. Over time he became a skilled facilitator and counselor, offering retreats and workshops at the monastery and across the country. David left the monastery in the fall of 2014 to further explore life and spiritual practice back in the world. He currently supports awareness and personal transformation in the form of retreats, workshops, and one-on-one spiritual mentoring.

Is thinking useful? At first glance the question seems ridiculous, but if we look into the effects of our habitual ways of thinking on individual human happiness (really detrimental), and on our ability to live in harmony with each other and with the other living beings on our planet (really, really detrimental), the question becomes more and more relevant. Thinking is useful, in the sense of helping us to live happy, healthy, deeply experienced lives--but only if it's coming from a centered place. In this podcast I explore the sorts of thinking that are not helpful, the sorts that are, and how to know the difference. Enjoy!

For information about the practice David facilitates, about the community, and about the supports for awareness practice that are available, go to:

website: www.theoneopendoor.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoneopendoor
Daily Dharma private Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailydharma
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_edOCF0OcOdyCqIcFK_IbA
Instagram: @theoneopendoor

David McKay entered a Zen Buddhist monastery at the age of twenty-nine and spent the next eighteen years training there in silence. Over time he became a skilled facilitator and counselor, offering retreats and workshops at the monastery and across the country. David left the monastery in the fall of 2014 to further explore life and spiritual practice back in the world. He currently supports awareness and personal transformation in the form of retreats, workshops, and one-on-one spiritual mentoring.