Do you remember the TV ads for Reverend Robert Schuller? “Don’t just sit there! Do Something!”
TV evangelists estranged me from organized religion, but I thank them for guiding me to my spiritual path.Who knew you could shame a child away, while creating a lifelong quest to find God through meditation?
In today’s interview, renowned Buddhist meditation teacher and author Lodro Rinzler turns Schuller’s quote on its head:
”In Buddhist circles, the saying goes: Don’t just do something. Sit there." - Lodro Rinzler
In yoga we call this Right Action— taking whatever contemplative time necessary to focus our action, with efficient, surgical precision. Sitting there (in meditation) helps quiet the mind from the persistent voice of doubt. I spoke to a former coaching client and author for a major publisher. She’s in the long middle of writing her third book. Meanwhile, I’d kill to be back in the saddle writing my second.
Lodro, meanwhile, has published eight books over the last 14 years. Whatever you may be called to create, it helps to look at your motivation. We’ve all fallen into traps of striving and proving. When we quiet our minds, we can shift back into creativity and service. Lodro’s conversation took me back to our first interview in 2018. I’ve become an author since then, and my entire life looks different.
I asked him to share a “pilot light” story from his new book. It’s an ancient Buddhist parable:
A forest catches fire. A parrot could fly away to safety, but she hears the cries of fellow creatures. She dips her feathers in a river and flies back, shaking droplets over the flames. Back and forth, getting burned herself.
The gods laugh at her futility. Indra, king of the gods, flies down as an eagle and tells her to give up. The parrot replies: “You’re a much bigger bird than I am. I don’t need your advice. I need your help.”
Indra weeps—his divine tears extinguish the fire and heal the parrot’s feathers into brilliant colors. The parrot is said to be a past life of the Buddha.
Lodro Rinzler is, by every external measure, a teacher. And yet his Buddhist tradition says the path is about becoming a perpetual beginner. The moment you think you’ve arrived is the moment you’ve lost the thread.
Today’s polarity is the balance of being a Teacher and Student. It’s about the confidence to guide others, and the willingness to be cracked open by a two-year-old, a mistake, or a moment of doubt.
1-min Clip: The Lesson from The Parable
About Today’s Guest
Lodro Rinzler has been teaching Buddhism for 25 years, meditating for 30 plus years. He’s written eight books, has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, named one of 50 innovators shaping the future of wellness. The man is by any measure a teacher.
And then his daughter Ruby showed up and doesn’t care at all about her dad’s credentials. She just wanted him to be present. Today we’re exploring the polarity of teacher and student and Lodro’s excellent new book, which drops today on March 24th, You Are Good, You Are Enough, which argues that underneath all our doubt and striving, we were gold the whole time.
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Connect with Lodro and his work:
* Here on Substack: The Laundry, with Lodro and his wife Adreanna
* You Are Good You Are Enough on Shamabala Publications
* Order the brand new book: You Are Good, You Are Enough: Free Yourself from the Trap of Doubt and Return to Basic Goodness
* Here on Substack: The Laundry, with Lodro and his wife Adreanna
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