Trudy Goodman joins the show for a conversation around meeting everything life has to offer with an open heart and harmonize with what is.
Show Notes
It’s All Right Here (Opening) – Trudy talks about the experiences of spiritual opening that awakened her to a new perception of life and the Divine. She shares the journey of seeking answers to the meaning of these experiences through many paths and ultimately finding a way that would harmonize with her.
“I am grateful that it started without my knowing anything about Buddhism or Hinduism. I was Jewish, but not observant in any way. I am grateful because it has shown me that what we would call Buddha nature or awakening really does pervade the whole universe and manifests right here right now as this moment of experience.” – Trudy Goodman
Meeting Suffering from an Open Heart (10:00) – Whether we call it mindfulness, chanting, kirtan or prayer; the practices we do open us more and more to being present with experience and make us more sensitive to everything. Trudy discusses how this sensitivity opens us to the full spectrum of bliss and suffering that we must meet equally with an open heart. She shares stories from her time in Darfur and the opportunity to harmonize with the suffering that existed there.
“I am interested in how do we keep our hearts open, but also find a way to help out when we look around and see the suffering that is in front of us.” – Trudy Goodman
Harmonize with What Is (20:30) – Raghu and Trudy talk about harmonizing the realities of what is going on in American politics and the radical polarization of the American people that has grown increasingly more destructive.
“The words, ‘harmonizing with what is,’ to me means listening and seeing what is and then choosing where to take a stand if the way things are simply cannot line up with my values of what I hold to be true and important in this life.” – Trudy Goodman
Everything is Your Path (27:00) – How do we manage of the intensity of balancing our jobs, relationships and responsibilities while also dedicating ourselves to our spiritual practice? Trudy discusses integrating our practice with everyday life.
Cultivating Community (34:15) – The Buddha said that the most important of the three refugees is that of Sangha or spiritual community. Trudy describes the importance of finding a community that supports and fosters our spiritual practice.
Devotion as Refuge (42:30) – Trudy discusses the concept of devotion as a refuge which can be found within each and every one of us.
Find Trudy at trudygoodman.com and at InsightLA. To further explore meeting suffering with an open heart, check out this episode of the Mindrolling podcast.
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Photo by Aleksandr Kukharskiy