Zen Advice for the Overwhelmed 

'I will adjust myself to what is and not try to adjust everything to my own desires.' From, 'Just for today.'

"I'm just a victim of circumstance." Curly Howard. Yea, good things can often come out of bad situations. The traditional example, the lotus is rooted in muck.

I think it was Miles Davis who said something akin to the Chinese farmer story. It was along the lines of “It's not the note you play that's the wrong note - it's the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.”...

Brad, I am an Alchemical hypnotherapist. When clients call for a past life session I ask them what their issue is.. They may say, "I don't have and issue, I just want to know who I was in a past life." I then refer them to a psychic. (I have a list.) If they tell me their issue, I will then tell them that I can help them with their issue but they may not end up in a past life. They are always satisfied with the outcome. But occasionally someone does end up in a past life. I cannot explain the weirdness of this. My hypnotherapy teacher refers to the Akashic records. Meaning that if we as "one" we may be into other's memories or it is because the subconscious mind will come up with whatever it needs to in order to help the person heal. I have a bag of very weird stories from these sessions, including one where my client got killed by being hit on the head, which then cause my own nose to shoot blood all over them. Nobody ends up being some famous person. Most end up in dungeons with rats chewing off their feet and other horrible things. Love you, Brad!

A dozen or more times over the last two decades i've bought Brad's books as gifts and I still offer them as Stocking-Stuffers! No budding young Buddhists on the horizon though, it seems one must come to it on one's own. Having it show up Christmas morning isn't the gift I thought it would be. Still, , I pass them on!

Steve Hagen tells that story about the farmer a lot. I first heard it back in my enthusiastic-about-Taoism days. I always liked it.

I'll support your dentist :) Brad, as someone who is always living in the past or the future, it's great to be reminded that I really don't know.

Good talk! The cyclical nature of things (change of seasons, up & down markets, etc.) is another way in which things turn out to be - not as bad (or as good) as you expect them to be. Too much of one thing (or approach) often leads to a turning over.

I appreciate this talk, especially during this time of political turmoil. It reminds me of the Three Tenets embraced by Zen Peacemakers: 1) Not-Knowing 2) Bearing Witness 3) Taking Action. This process helps us live an ethical life free of 'all-knowing judgement', including beating our selves up to solve global problems. Instead, the focus is on local social action (within the means of our ability) as a path of awakening and service.

took notes

Ad Hominem is the phrase you were looking for.

Excellent, thanks !

Thnx for this, Brad...good stuff!

Super helpful

One of your best talks … watched numerous times and it’s been downloaded. So, so, so helpful.

Solid advise. 👍

Thank you.

Thank you for this video, sincerely. It popped up at a much needed time for me.

Loinks!

Thanks Brad, you've just helped me!

Thank you for your compassion 🙏

Firstly, thanks for using one of my favourite quotes from Spinal Tap to end this video. Secondly, this advice is priceless, and for me has been helpful to remember also when I have been underwhelmed, bored or restless. When things are okay, slow, quiet, unproductive, routine, etc, can we resist the impulse to create ripples in a still pond? Would love to read comments.

Thank you Brad, very helpful sound advice. I really appreciate the way you show up and the way you share your personal story and are so open and non egotistical, just the kind of teacher I can relate to and have faith in. I hate to think of the dental bill you have been stung with and hope the donations cover the cost and allow for dog food etc.

the bottom line with intellectual property is the complainant has to be suffering significant financial loss and when you consider legal costs, it has to be "very significant" financial loss unless you are disney or j.k. rowling, don't consider it, i'd just take the dispute public on the web, it will be good publicity, people love a fight

Always enjoy the videos Brad! Could you provide a link or some information to hear the music from your old band mentioned in the video?

I notice that stuff

fundamental wisdom is a model text for translation and interpretation. enjoy it. wish there were also a digital version. on result or no results thats also a big deal in lojong too ? dont expect a result. or applause -liberating

Ad hominem attacks on the writer, say, not the book. Thank you Brad, very interesting as always, stay well :)

This video landed as I was getting off the phone to break up with my long time girlfriend. Something that took deep consideration... and royally sucked. But hopefully it's for the greater good, and this video definitely helped me see it from a "better" perspective.

Gee, that explains why my senior-year history teacher was also the basketball coach. I hope that your advice helped your girlfriend and that she gets through work feeling less overwhelmed. I will try to take your advice to heart because I, too, have felt overwhelmed at work lately. I've found myself, in an attempt to comfort myself, thinking "I just need to get through this week" or "Just a few days more," but I never like having those thoughts, because they have the adverse effect of making me want the time to speed by, and this is a week's time that I will never get back for the rest of my life. So I've tried to slow down, taking it one hour at a time, one minute at a time, one breath at a time if have to -- and I know that eventually it will all pass, all the more peacefully if I bear in mind your suggestions. Thank you!

Damn you’re gonna be rich the first video that appears under Zen

It's sad that in one of the most "advanced" countries in the world, you have to solicit donations via youtube to pay for dental...

*realizes that favorite history teacher was a football coach*

Check the spelling on your pop up for donations. It says loinks

HAHAHAHA. Dude, they still hire coaches. With my PhD, I can't teach grades 6-12 if I can't coach. I could do Revolution Boot Camp.

I say to your girlfriend “Welcome to the Club!”. I’m under extreme variation circumstances and all of them are serious. What am I doing to cope with it?. I’m doing nothing to do something if that “do something” will flow. What do I mean by this?. Imagine for a moment that you were thrown to putrefaction smelling waters with rats running. If you were to panicked, getting hysterical, blocked by fear...in another words entirely attached to all sensations, feelings, images appearing frantically in your mind your situation in the waters will worsened. But if you were taking the action of stopping right there where you were using your mindful in/out breathing, concentrating your attention , acknowledging in other words practicing mindfulness then your mind would gradually start to release its entanglement as attachment to the unpleasant arising objects produced by what is in you in contact with what is around you. It wouldn’t matter much to you then whether you will succeed getting out of those waters or not. Once you were established yourself fully present experiencing, living, flowing with the present moment even when “overwhelming “ were still in you, it wouldn’t lead you to drawn in the waters. But instead you will be swimming in the waters regardless of outcome situation. I leave you with BBC News link for you to read a comment just before this Brad video. If you were reading you will notice how clumsy is my way to communicate something. Not attached a bit to it. Comment only reflects a very tiny part from the various unforeseen circumstances in which my life has turned out. So, what I do is give my best shot when that is possible and if not I stay with it even if that could lead to my own physical death. But it wouldn’t be me as the responsable person who did nothing as I reflected in the comment left an strong denounce. Abuse that can not be denounced anywhere!. So I chose BBC comments. That was a non action in the action in which one is free from fear, attachment...

Is liking a video not zen? Asking for a friend....

Gosh, you just let on that you're on Facebook, interacting. Attention.