Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck with David Nichtern

From wrathful love to Buddha-nature, Noel Coakley and Victoria ‘Vee’ Wikler discuss the next generation of Buddhism and waking up the ‘sleepy Buddha’ in us all.
In this episode, Noel, Vee, and David explore:
The creation of Noel’s book, Wake Up Sleepy Buddha
The concept of ‘wrathful love’
Inherent goodness and the Buddha-nature within us all
Living with both relative and ultimate truth
Taking a feminist perspective on Buddhism
Looking to the next generation of Buddhas
Direct practice as the real teacher
Blending together psychology and Buddhism
Therapy as an external mindfulness practice
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About Victoria ‘Vee’ Wikler:
Victoria B. Wikler (Vee) is a mindfulness meditation teacher, peer counselor, doula, tattoo artist & Thai-American witch. She has over 10 years of training in Mindfulness and Zen meditation, 6+ years of Tarot consulting experience, and expertise in supporting altered state experiences. Check out Vee on Instagram.
About Noel Coakley:
Noel is a mental health counselor (LMHC) with a Master's degree in Counseling from Lesley University and Special Education from UMass Boston. He is also a certified yoga instructor, supporting a holistic, mind & body approach to wellness. His experience from years as a special education teacher benefits his ability to support differentiated learning styles and needs. Noel has been practicing meditation since 1996, beginning initially with the Indo-Tibetan traditions and then the Yundrung Bön tradition since 2013. Over the years, Noel has been fortunate to learn from over 100 teachers, including HH the Dalai Lama and HH the 34th Menri Trizin. Noel recently authored the book Wake Up Sleepy Buddha, which provides a 600+ page, fully illustrated guide to Buddhist practice beyond mindfulness. Noel’s book bridges ancient wisdom, modern psychology, and everyday life.
“We all feel weird and alienated when we’re in this story of not realizing our Buddha nature…but we’re just hidden from our Buddha nature. I think about this in my psychotherapy. Anybody I meet with, the task is: can I see their already perfectness, their level of being where nothing needs to be improved or changed?” – Noel Coakley
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Founder of Shambhala Publications, Samuel Bercholz, reflects on a lifetime of dharma and encourages us to challenge our often distorted perceptions of reality.
Check out Dharma Moon’s free online talk this September, Light & Shadow on the Spiritual Path.
This time on the CSM podcast, Samuel and David explore:
Samuel’s new book, Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path
Shaking up our concepts of reality and social phenomena
Working with our addictions and habits
The unpredictability and spontaneous manifestations of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Learning how to walk the Bodhisattva path
Intergenerational dharma and having an enlightened family
Practical Buddhism and simply being ‘dharmic and decent’
How Buddhism has traveled from East to West
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About Samuel Bercholz:
Sam Bercholz is the founder of Shambhala Publications, one of the leading independent publishers of Buddhist and Eastern spiritual literature. He started the company in Berkeley in the late 1960s and later moved it to Boulder, Colorado, where it grew into a major publishing house for authors like Chögyam Trungpa and Pema Chödrön. A senior teacher in the Nyingma and Kagyu lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, Bercholz studied closely with both Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, who empowered him to teach dharma. He has taught Buddhist philosophy and meditation across North America, Europe, and Australasia for over forty years, and is also the author of the new book, Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path.
“The way I perceive and most humans perceive is 180 degrees from the way things actually are. For the most part, we live in a fantasy world of make-believe, and we believe it.” –Samuel Bercholz
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Reflecting on a lifetime of practice, Joseph Goldstein explores how an intimate investigation of suffering can open the doorway to liberation.
Join Dharma Moon for a free online talk Key Elements of Teaching Mindfulness Meditation
In this week’s episode, Joseph and David explore:
Joseph’s spiritual lineage and tying the concept of bodhicitta to his motivation for practice
The inseparability of compassion and emptiness
Holding an intense interest in whatever we are experiencing
A tip from Joseph: ‘Don’t waste your suffering’
The mental energy it takes to investigate our suffering
Teaching from the heart of Buddhist suttas
‘Tuning in’ to the gratitude channel and thanking the universe for the blessings of our lives
Utilizing Ram Dass’s concept of ‘how can I help?’ as the north star of life
Join Dharma Moon this fall to learn about The Business of Teaching Meditation.
About Joseph Goldstein:
Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Check out Joseph’s podcast on Be Here Now Network or one of his numerous books.
“When my mind is distressed in some way or other, it piques my interest. I want to understand what the cause of the suffering is. That’s a little different than enduring it until we get to a happier place; it’s using the suffering as fuel and as the impotence to investigate.” –Joseph Goldstein
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Honoring both psychological and spiritual work, Trudy Goodman explores how she built resilience through years of dharma practice.
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In this week’s episode, Trudy and David explore:
Trudy’s voiceover work on The Midnight Gospel, playing ‘Trudy the Love Barbarian’
How meditation and dharma practice strengthen resilience
Both Trudy and David’s work in Buddhist Psychology
Looking inwards through both therapy and mindfulness
The three personality types within Buddhist Psychology: deluded, greedy, and aversive
Hitting the “jackpot”: Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman’s love story
Reflecting on life as an answered prayer and Trudy’s upcoming memoir
“To come back to resilience, I really credit the dharma. I think through meditation and dharma practice, we open our consciousness, our hearts, our awareness.” –Trudy Goodman
Join Dharma Moon this fall to learn about The Business of Teaching Meditation.
About Trudy Goodman:
Trudy Goodman, PH.D., is the founding teacher of InsightLA and cofounder of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She has taught at universities and retreat centers worldwide for over 40 years. Trudy has trained in Insight meditation and Zen since 1973, holds a graduate degree in developmental psychology from Harvard, and was one of the first teachers of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Jon Kabat-Zinn. She is a senior Buddhist teacher in the U.S., a faculty member at Blue Spirit Costa Rica and a psychotherapist who is widely known for her role as the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series "Midnight Gospel”. Trudy is a contributing author: Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness (Springer, 2008); Compassion and Wisdom in Psychotherapy, (Guilford Press, 2011); Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, (Guilford Press, 2013). Learn more about Trudy at TrudyGoodman.com.
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Contemplative Scholar Andrew Holecek joins David Nichtern to delve into the powerful practices of dark retreat, bardo yoga, and dream yoga.
Grab a copy of Andrew’s book, Total Eclipse of the Mind, to discover more about the power of darkness for creativity, healing, and transformation.
In this episode, Andrew and David explore:
An inquiry into the nature of mind and reality
How asking questions is much more important than having answers
Going into dark retreat and practicing bardo yoga
Entering spiritual teachings as if immersing into a different realm
The Buddha as the ultimate lucid dreamer
Dream interpretation and liminal dreaming for insights into the self
Working mindfully with artificial intelligence
The balancing principle that darkness represents
Becoming sensitive to other beings and archetypes when in dark retreat
Join Dharma Moon to learn about The Business of Teaching Meditation
About Andrew Holecek:
Andrew Holecek is an interdisciplinary scholar-practitioner in Tibetan Buddhism and other nondual wisdom traditions. He is the Resident Contemplative Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, and a research consultant for the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Northwestern University. His work involves studies on dream yoga and the practice of dark retreat. Dr. Holecek is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the author of nine books, and a concert pianist. He has completed the Tibetan Buddhist three-year retreat and is a frequent subject in scientific studies on meditation and lucid dreaming. His work integrates ancient wisdom traditions with contemporary perspectives, aiming to help individuals navigate spiritual challenges and end-of-life experiences. He is currently writing two books on dark retreat. Holecek holds degrees in classical music, biology, and a doctorate in dental surgery. Learn about his upcoming retreat events.
“I have died so many times with psychedelic experiences, with extended meditations; I’ve been doing dark retreat for 30 years. This is what dark retreat is largely about; it’s fundamentally a bardo yoga designed to bring about highly concordant experiences with the death process.” –Andrew Holecek
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