Shows
The Backyard Buddhist PodcastGuided Meditation For Simple AwarenessMeditation is about sharpening your sense of awareness. Over time our conscious awareness gets dulled down and we form attachments to the distractions in our lives instead of the ease of being in the flow of the present moment. Join Ronn Pawo McLane in this skillfully guided meditation to help retrain your attention to your presence.
2024-04-1504 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastEmbracing Community - A Guided Meditation For Gay MenWelcome to the "Embracing Community" guided meditation, designed specifically for gay men on their journey of building intentional and supportive communities. This meditation will help you cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and a deep sense of connection as you embark on this transformative journey. Find a comfortable position, close your eyes, and let us begin. Join Ronn Pawo McLane on this Gentle Journey in Cultivating relationships in your Queer Community.
2024-04-1507 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastCultivating Gay Friendships & Relationships - Guided MeditationThis meditation is designed to help you visualize and manifest your ideal friendships and relationships within the gay community. By cultivating a clear vision and connecting with the energy of what you desire, you can attract and nurture fulfilling connections. Join Ronn Pawo McLane on this gentle journey in the cultivation of great relationships.
2024-04-1507 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastCultivating Compassion Meditation: A Practice for Positive ChangeIn this guided meditation, host Ngakpa Ronn Pawo McLane leads listeners through a journey of self-discovery and compassion. The meditation begins with a body scan and relaxation exercise to release tension and create a calm and peaceful state of mind.
From there, Ngakpa Ronn Pawo McLane guides listeners through a process of cultivating compassion, starting with ourselves and extending to others. Through visualizations and focused breathing, we are invited to recognize and offer love, kindness, and understanding to ourselves and those around us.
With each breath, the compassionate light within us grows stronger, illuminating our...2023-04-1507 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastThe Power of Compassion: How One Small Act Can Change the WorldIn this episode of the Backyard Buddhist Podcast, host Ngakpa Ronn Pawo McLane explores the transformative power of compassion. In today's world of polarization and division, it can be easy to feel disconnected and hopeless. But, as Ngakpa Ronn Pawo McLane reminds us, even a small act of compassion can have a profound impact on the world around us.
Throughout the episode, Ngakpa Ronn Pawo McLane shares practical tips for cultivating compassion, including showing kindness to ourselves, practicing active listening, and volunteering our time. He also shares a true story of how one compassionate conversation saved a...2023-04-1511 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastMeditation: Focusing Your Attention To Find EaseAttentive awareness is the first solid skill that you can learn and sharpen to help ease your mind when you are feeling restless, stressed, or upset. Use this meditation again and again to help you to practice short periods of focused attention where ease is the outcome. The more you do it the easier it becomes. Breath, relax, center, and smile this is your time to be.
2023-01-0706 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastGuided Meditation For Easing The MindExplore this Meditation to help ease your mind when you are experiencing difficulty. Supporting your mental well-being through this mindful practice.
2022-05-1606 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastUsing Meditation For Mental Well-BeingFeelings of being overwhelmed, nervous, anxious, dread, resentment, and anger are all indicators that our Mental Well-Being is off the tracks. Through meditation I have been able to find the common threads for supporting my own well-being. Meditation may not be a cure-all but it is a damn good start.
2022-05-1619 minThe Backyard Buddhist PodcastGuided Meditation: ”Simply Noticing The Breath”In this short meditation with Ronn Pawo McLane we focus on noticing the breath to help retrain our attention to be here in the present moment. Practice this a often as needed grounding yourself in this present moment, no matter what is happening around you.
2022-04-2607 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Noticing Leads You to Enlightenment”I am back and excited to share with you a new season of The Backyard Buddhist Podcast. In this episode let's talk about enlightenment. What is it and how do we get there? Make it simple and cut to the chase! It is your innate right and ability. Go For it!
If you'd like to be on the new season of the BYB to talk about your practice email me directly at urgyenpawo@gmail.com
2022-04-2416 min
What People DoEpisode 26: Ronn Pawo McLane teaches meditationHe studied and worked with Lama Surya Das for years. He's got a cool podcast, online courses, a published set of meditations and he's working on an app. This cat has some cool thoughts and a thoughtful and very ecumenical and open-minded approach to quieting the mind.
P.S. The picture is my daughter from years ago from, and she learned a little meditation with a counselor in a group in elementary school. But she doesn't do it now. I don't think. She should start again. I mean, she just started middle school in person. She's gonna...2021-08-2452 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Reduce All Suffering Here and Now”In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist Podcast we are taking about the root of all suffering and most importantly how to spot it. Once you spot it you can eliminate or at least reduce it's thrall. We often miss the forest for the trees with reactive and repetitive conditioned responses. Don't overlook the key to understanding and eliminating your suffering.
2021-03-2334 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”The Heart of Greatness”What makes a great singer, songwriter, author, poet, actor or teacher? Is there a gene that causes greatness? Oprah says that luck is opportunity meeting preparation. So is greatness the preparation or is it the opportunity? Join Ronn Pawo McLane for his 40th Podcast Episode and this enlightening conversation about the accessibility of greatness.
2021-03-1638 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”How To Remove Obstacles From Your Path”We all have experience situations that feel terrible and you wish them to be gone. We have also all had experiences when we felt that someone or something stood in our way of achieving something or getting somewhere. For me, obstacle removing was the first practice that I learned how to surrender. In this episode explore the secret of obstacle removal and path clearing. Welcome our new contributor Millie, our new Mini Piebald Doxie.
2021-02-2331 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Illuminating Our Truest Nature”In the non-dual teachings of the Buddha we find ourselves faced with "The Two Witnesses", those being relative and absolute viewpoints. In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist we seek to understand both relative and absolute while accessing the pervasive and ever-present unbiased consciousness that illuminates our truest nature.
2021-02-1637 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”The Super Bowl of Bodhichitta”Cultivating awakened heart mind or Bodhichitta can be tricky and challenging. It is more important than ever to find understanding in the challenges of our life experiences and how to navigate those rough waters. When we endeavor to share the merits of our awakening with and for all begins what do we do about those who have treated us poorly and have wronged us? It's kickoff time for the Super Bowl of Bodhichitta meet me on the 50 yard line.
As always, please email if I can be of help or assistance Urgyenpawo@gmail.com
If you...2021-02-0941 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Interrupt Everything!”Everyone of us has been experiencing a divisive time of unrest and discourse. But what is causing the conditions that seem to breed anger, rage and violence? How are we unwittingly participating in the perpetuation of these conditions and how do we make a solid change for ourselves and each other? This week's Backyard Buddhist Podcast has answers and antidotes. Remember this moment that change happens.
2021-02-0242 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Cultivate The Change That Matters”We know that change comes from within but we tend to only go looking for the understanding that brings calm and peace when we are struggling the most. Like a neglected garden we show up looking for a harvest when we are the hungriest. My Dad taught me that to have a good garden you remove the obstacles on and in the ground and work the soil, providing moisture and nourishment and planting the seeds. The garden needs tended daily if even just for a few minutes. Then and only then will you have a harvest enough for yourself and...2021-01-2638 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Spiritual Procrastination”In this episode Pawo is talking specifically about your daily meditation practice. It is the first month of the new year have you set any priorities or resolutions? What are your goals for shaking off what has been holding your down? What is getting in your way? What is it going to take to relieve this daily condition? Let's talk about it.
Check out Pawo's new 28-Day Meditation Transformation at https://www.cultivatemeditation.academy It's only $39 and you can do it over and over as many times as you want.
2021-01-1227 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Happy New You!”In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist Podcast Pawo talks about bringing ourselves to a constant state of awareness as we begin this new year. Altars and offerings are a common practice but what about offering everything in our experience up to our awakened awareness? There is Dharma when others show us exactly where we are stuck. By doing or saying something that provokes us to get "hooked" into a habitual way of reacting with anger, greed and dissatisfaction. We receive the living, breathing gift of the chance to work directly, honestly and compassionately with our own patterns. Remember that...2020-12-2936 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Oh Buddha Tree, Oh Buddha Tree”Our gift to the world is a robust practice of altruistic generosity, ethical self-discipline, compassionate patience, joyous effort, concentrated awareness and the wise and loving actions that result. Tis the season for giving and what better gift than one of kindness and inclusion for all beings. Cultivating a practice of insight, awareness and compassion each and every day is shared with everyone everyday not just for the holidays. The greatest gift to give are the wings of wisdom and compassion. May the efforts of your practiced awareness in this very important moment benefit countless beings in every direction and with...2020-12-2239 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Game Changers”Welcome back after a short break. Look at all the things that have changed in the world around us in just a few weeks. In today's podcast I am answering some great questions from listeners and talking about my own Game Changers. It is important to take a look back from time to time to see the beauty of how our karma ripened to bring us into a new phase and understanding within our individual experiences. So happy to be back!
2020-12-1548 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”The Big Gay Buddhist Episode”On this episode of The Backyard Buddhist my guest Christopher Bayne and I talk about being part of the LGBTQIA and Buddhist communities. How does being gay fit into our practice and how do we use that practice to overcome stresses and fears? You get to hear it first from two Big Gay Buddhists.
2020-10-2749 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Trust & Relief”I have often been asked why Buddhism seems to focus on suffering. My answer to that is that none of us showed up here to find relief from our overwhelming and ever present, persistent joy. So, we focus on finding the relief from our suffering, discomfort, and dissatisfaction not to replace suffering with joy but to find a state of ease and perpetual Okay-ness.
Truth number one is that suffering, discomfort & dissatisfaction exist in our experience even though we find a myriad of ways to distract ourselves from it.
Truth number two is that there is a...2020-10-2036 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Belief in Nowness”I am Ronn Pawo McLane and this is the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I have invited my friend Brooke Beets to join us today in the backyard. Welcome Brooke!
We often find ourselves in a state of dissatisfaction because our wants do not seem to add up to our haves. I, like many of you, did my time attempting to manifest the life and the material things that I wanted only to find myself disappointed with the results. So why does this...2020-10-1340 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”The Refuge of Waves & Water”We all feel separate sometimes. Sometimes we believe we have been forgotten in the middle of no-where. In this episode of the Backyard Buddhist Ronn Pawo talks about the contemplation of self and other. What is relative and what is ultimate? Why does it feel like a vast ocean of separateness?
Are we separate?
2020-10-0628 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Super Buddha”I am Ronn Pawo McLane and this is the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings.
You won’t often find me watching a movie or television show that has uncomfortable chaos or violence. First it just feels disruptive to my experience and second, I have a belief that the experience of watching shows like this lodge them in your experience as real. I am going to admit right here and now that my beliefs about this kind of material contains one small gap and that is th...2020-09-2947 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Forgive and Remember”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane. Regret is a powerful obstacle when we are trying to balance our human experience and relieve suffering. Regret for our own behaviors and resentment associated with trauma caused by others or as a result of events that happened to us. Today we are talking about how to let go of the past. I invited my good friend Christopher Bayne to join me today. Welcome Chris!
2020-09-2248 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Insight Through Hindsight”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane. This week on the Backyard Buddhist Podcast we are talking about cultivating wisdom and compassion through the tools of insight. We have so much to learn and understand but it always begins with understanding ourselves and our human/spiritual experiences. Have you figured out how to access that insight?
2020-09-1536 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Enough IS Enough”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane
The great Yogi Milarepa sang: “My Body is the holy mandala itself wherein resides the Buddhas of all times. With their blessings I and freed from all needs and attachments. By day and night, I offer them up; Happy am I to do without material things. Knowing that all beings in the six realms of samsara are inherently Buddhas, and all the three worlds-the self-creating measureless (Trikaya) palace. Whatever I do is th...2020-09-0836 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Why I Am Not Good Enough”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane
One of my teachers reminded me that the pure light of awareness sanctifies everything. What it means to me is that when I shine the spotlight of awareness on what is causing my suffering, discomfort, and dissatisfaction then I can truly see the condition, the cause, and the cure simultaneously. The part of that which is the most difficult is remembering to flip on the switch of attentive awareness to illuminate tho...2020-09-0127 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”What This is ALL About”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here in the studio alone today Danny has the day off. Today I wanted to talk about what this practice and endeavor is all about.
For me I arrived to a Buddhist practice by accident. I wasn't looking for it specifically but for all the reasons I showed up were the reasons that it made sense to me. It started with a quest to relieve migraine headaches, moved tot a...2020-08-2545 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Dan‘s Big Questions for Pawo”We are happy to publish our 20th episode of the Backyard Buddhist Podcast. We are so happy to have all of our loyal listeners as well as our newest friends joining us. Usually Pawo settles on the topic for the day and Dan doesn't have any idea what we are going to talk about until the podcast begins. Today we are flipping the script and Danny is asking Pawo all the questions. Join in the discussion and email your questions for these fun Q & A sessions.
urgyenpawo@gmail.com.
2020-08-1858 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Offering Awareness to Consciousness”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are talking about the vast view of consciousness and awareness.
This journey to awakening dawns many realizations. First is consciousness and what it actually is, and then through the clarity of that lens we can begin to examine the experience of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations. As our understanding grows, we see our attachment to those experiences and cultivate compa...2020-08-1150 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Finding Natural Awareness”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are talking about Natural Awakening.
Your own spiritual compass starts with awakened awareness. With the lens of that awareness we see the natural state of consciousness as unstained, untarnished, and unaffected by stimulus. Reactions and emotions are constructs of the conditioned mind and therefore are simply the illusions and abstracts concepts of the ego mind. The natural state i...2020-08-0456 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Beyond the Beyond”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are talking about what it means to go beyond.
Our natural state is beyond the dichotomies of like and dislike. Far beyond frustration, anger, grief, and separateness. The masters have provided us shining examples of what wisdom and compassion look like, body speech and mind. Our inner Guru knows and understands what our own skillful and unskillful actions, words and th...2020-07-2852 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Losing My Religion”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are contemplating non-duality and what it means for our practical understanding.
Duality can be a tricky business to understand. In the religious sense this can be the dualistic idea that there is a person outside of ourselves that is the ultimate knower. In the Buddhist sensibility our relative being is simply an aggregate part within the ultimate incandescence of the un...2020-07-2157 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Beyond the Big Golden Door to Enlightenment”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are talking about what is behind the big golden door of enlightenment.
Simple awakened Awareness is the jeweled key to the big golden door of enlightenment. But What is beyond is far more important. This is the realm of enlightened activity where compassionate action is the outcome of this state of awakened being.
2020-07-1448 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Lather, Rinse & Repeat Buddha Style”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are talking about how we continually work at the practice of enlightened and awakened awareness both on and off the cushion.
It is important to remind ourselves that the bulk of our practice is in reconditioning ourselves. Once there has been a response that we engage with that response to intervene with wisdom and compassion. Continually working toward enlightened acti...2020-07-0748 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Enlightenment 101”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are talking about how Enlightenment 101 – How to find your enlightened, interconnected self.
The jeweled key to the golden door is awakened awareness but it is behind the door that the be-ing begins. You already got the job of being you so own the experience of Your Natural Body, Your Natural Breath & Energy, and Your Natural Heart Mind. Stop craving and chas...2020-06-3048 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Finding Enthusiastic Passion In Your Practice”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are talking about the fourth paramita, Joyful and enthusiastic Effort.
In its most positive sense, effort (which we may think of as perseverance or commitment) is the delight you feel with doing what you know is the right thing – which, in the Buddhist context, generally means practicing the teachings. Instead of resisting, you dig in with gusto, knowing that you are...2020-06-2449 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Practice Like Your Hair is ON FIRE!”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy Danny Hobart. Today we are getting right to the heart of our practice and talking about how to be enlightened and why we aren’t already.
The wise master and celebrity drag queen Ru Paul says it best: "If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love anybody else?"
2020-06-1649 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Walking With Wisdom Together - BLM”Welcome to the Backyard Buddhist Podcast where we continually seek everyday enlightenment for the benefit of ourselves and all other beings. I am Ronn Pawo McLane and I am here with my good buddy and path-mate Danny Hobart. Today we are breaking down the Wisdom Path of Awakening.
In Lama Surya Das’ New Millennium Prayer he says “May all beings everywhere, with whom we are inseparably interconnected and who want and need the same as we do. May all be awakened, liberated, healed, fulfilled and free. May there be peace in this world and throughout all realms of existe...2020-06-0946 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”How to Meditate When Things Suck!”Let’s face it, stress is not new to our lives, but this year has produced a few curve balls that are simply unusual. Isolation for some and too much togetherness for others. Finding and keeping a new rhythm that is healthy and fulfilling can be a daily challenge. Today on the Backyard Buddhist we are talking about how to meditate and practice when things suck!
Remember that meditation practice is not just taking a bliss break, we are working toward facing and understanding the nature of our discomforts. By first recognizing that we are experiencing discomfort then se...2020-06-0242 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Ignorance & Compassion Walk Into a Bar”Today on the Backyard Buddhist were talking about cultivating compassion and love for those who oppose us. Kindness and compassion for those who seem to battle against what we feel is the “right” way of being is one of the biggest challenges in our daily experience. Just turn on the news and it isn’t hard to find someone behaving in a manner that just grates against the grain of our own beliefs or path.
Who are we to say that one path is right over another? We have only our own nature and understanding to draw our conc...2020-05-2650 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Your Karma is a Bitch!”Today on the Backyard Buddhist were talking about your karma. Your Karma is a Bitch! Why do all these bad things happen? Shouldn’t all the good in the world counteract all the bad? What happened to create all this chaos?
In our efforts to liberate ourselves from suffering we must address the law of cause and effect. Every action and inaction has an effect as every heartbeat moves blood and every breath moves air. Our responsibility lies within our own body, speech and mind. Mindfully considering each of our contributing actions not through the discernment of like and...2020-05-1951 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Everyday Pack Mentality”Herd, mob or pack mentality describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis. Today on The Backyard Buddhist Podcast Ronn Pawo McLane and Co-host Danny Hobart are talking about this as an active element in our daily experience and pack mentality from a practical aspect.
The wisdom of self-inquiry leads us to wise and complete action by having a wise and complete view and understanding of the truth. Standing in your own confidence of having walked the road of introspection is unshakable. Unskillful are tho...2020-05-1246 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Don‘t Fear The Trolls”I am Ronn Pawo McLane here with my good friend and co-host Danny Hobart. Welcome to The Backyard Buddhist Podcast – Where we seek to bring calm introspection together with skillful action. Today on the Backyard Buddhist were introducing our First HOT ON THE GRILL SEGMENT. This is where we are talking about the relevant hot button issues that were faced with today.
You would have to live in a remote cave to have missed the sharp twist of hatred and polar views these days. No matter what part of the world you are in there are opposing viewpoin...2020-05-0544 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Feeding Your Demons”Some days more than others we have trouble keeping our heads in the game. Persistent thoughts continually knock us off our seat of awareness and the result is often depleted exhaustion and despair. Today on The Backyard Buddhist Ronn Pawo McLane and Danny Hobart are talking about feeding our inner demons and how to transform negative personal afflictions to positive daily growth.
2020-04-2847 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”How To Be a Better Person”We are all trying hard to become better people. We want to be better partners, parents and friends, but end up feeling exhausted and depleted. So how do we balance all that?
The struggle to be better humans in our daily experience gets knocked off track with seemingly every irritation and conflict. By changing our perspective to first supporting ourselves through the tools of compassionate understanding and patience affords and allows us the strength of wisdom to interact with others in a way that is peaceful and understanding. When we can learn to be kind and compassionate, patie...2020-04-2446 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Buddhism Demystified”In this episode join Ronn Pawo McLane and Danny Hobart as they discuss the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, Impermanence, and interconnectedness. How can we use ancient wisdom to help us with our anxiety and depression?
2020-04-2346 minThe Backyard Buddhist Podcast”Buddhist Time TravelerJoin Ronn Pawo McLane and Co-host Danny Hobart in a discussion about being in the present moment and avoiding becoming a time traveler of distraction navigating the waters of a global pandemic.
2020-04-2250 min
The Backyard Buddhist PodcastIntroducing The Backyard Buddhist PodcastJoin Ronn Pawo McLane and Danny Hobart as they discuss how to apply ancient Buddhist wisdom into everyday life and find DIY Natural Awakening.
2020-04-0501 min