A few weeks ago, I was speaking with a friend who thinks the whole thoughts-feelings-actions thing is too cerebral, and she said, “emotions are intelligent and show us deep truths!”

And I thought, totally! They show us our thoughts which show us our most deeply held beliefs -some of which we may not be conscious of. Deep truths.

Emotions and thoughts: They aren’t mutually exclusive.

Karma… it’s not necessarily a concept that many of us think of every day. More than likely, that word pops into our heads when we’ve caught ourselves acting like a bitch to someone who definitely didn’t observe it. “Just wait till karma catches up with you…!”

The limbic brain controls our primitive instincts. It is hard to pause before those “doings.” We need to control and manage threats. Of course, there ARE threats that we should act on/avoid. But we get hooked on that action. We think there is ALWAYS SOMETHING – locked into incessant doing. Just the way the fire needs air and space to burn brightly, for our lives to burn brightly, we also need some space, right?

Today we talk about those times when it’s hard to feel good about other people’s good luck and abundance, and maybe feeling a little – or a lot – jealous. Sometimes we don’t feel good about when a friend gets a new car, or the book deal we’ve been waiting years for, or the soulmate that we still haven’t met. But today you’ll learn that it’s totally normal, and that feeling “sympathetic joy,” or mudita, is one of the hardest qualities for most people to cultivate.

In this episode we explore one aspect of our Dharma, our purpose in life.

People often think this is one thing.

Every now and then I get comments about charging for what I teach. Like how dare I teach certain tools and charge for them. How can I charge to help people to stop overdrinking? Or have less anxiety? Or how to manage their mind? Or how to feel free?

They say it is very “unspiritual” of me, very “un-Buddhist” of me, to earn a living helping people this way.