Today Gia and Karen start the podcast with a new weekly feature: Something Positive. Today’s positive story is about a woman in Philadelphia who learned that her Uber driver had a son competing in the Olympics but couldn’t afford to travel to Rio to watch his performance. So she gathered her friends together and raised the money to pay his expenses and that Dad is on his way to Rio to cheer for his son! We need more people like that woman who take the time to listen to other people’s stories and act with compassion and generosity.

The subject for today is Impermanence and the discussion includes all of the normal changes we experience as we grow through life. These “little deaths” help shape who we are and occur to gradually break down our attachments and prepare for our ultimate death.  But Westerners are resistant to change in general and thoughts of death. We talk about:

• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche and how Buddhists prepare for death throughout their adult lives
• The need to let suffering change us as we journey through life
• The challenges of change for the ego which clings to self-identity
• The importance of seeing the Galaxy view to help us through the ego’s struggles in the Garden
• The best mindset for coping with change and impermanence
• Karen’s new book: The Tao of Death – an adaptation of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching from the perspective of Death; the book can be used as a daily guide for contemplating death and impermanence – a Companion Journal is available with prompts for daily journaling.

Read more about The Tao of Death here.

Get the book on Amazon here.

Get the Companion Journal here.

We love you and send you all our support for your journey through change and impermanence! Be sure to leave reviews for us on iTunes and share our podcast with your friends! Until next week take care!

Gia and Karen

xoxo