Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver

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In this episode, I reflect on a recent conversation in the Open Heart Project sangha about scientific research on meditation. Yes, meditation can improve brain function and mood. But if we stop there, we may miss the point.
There’s a much older, deeper body of “research” drawn from lived experience over thousands of years. Meditation is not just about feeling better. It’s about waking up, opening fully to life, and discovering a freedom that goes far beyond conventional thought.
I share seven core principles from my upcoming book Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics that challenge the self-improvement framing of practice.
Highlights:
Meditation is not a tool to fix what’s broken. We begin from wholeness, not deficiency.
Practice is rooted in ritual
The personal is not the problem
Turning toward sorrow opens the door to real compassion
Boundaries are part of spiritual life
Cleaning up your environment strengthens your inner life
We practice for others, not just ourselves
Live as a mystic in everyday life
The middle way is not a compromise but a lived reality beyond rigid frameworks and extremes
This episode is an invitation to look at meditation’s deeper proposition. 
Mentioned in this episode: 
The Middle Way: To learn more, please check out our episode #5.
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.

If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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Here is a new episode after an unexpected pause. I’m moving to a new house and that has stirred disorientation, emotional complexity, and a break from familiar patterns. The truth is, I just didn’t know if I had anything of use to say. Also, I was in a bad mood? Needy! It happens! It turns out that this unsettled place provided a good context to consider a question raised in our Open Heart Project sangha: do Buddhists pray? If so, to whom?
In a non-theistic tradition, rather than being directed toward an external deity, prayer becomes a way of relating to awareness itself. The images, rituals, and expressions of devotion are not about reaching for something outside us, but about connecting to the wisdom, compassion, and courage already present.
In this episode, I explore prayer as communion rather than asking, and how everyday acts of attention, care, and listening can deepen our relationship with the divine.

Highlights
What it means that Buddhism is non-theistic
Why you can practice meditation without adopting a belief system
Buddhist deities as reflections of your own wisdom mind
Prayer as communion rather than petition
Everyday life as an expression of prayer
Listening, presence, and awareness as the heart of practice
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.
Learn more and register here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail
In this episode, I bring all eight steps of the Noble Eightfold Path together. This teaching is a way of living, not a project of self-improvement. This is about how we relate to experience and how that shapes suffering or freedom.
Highlights
Right ViewSeeing clearly begins in the present moment.
Meditation helps us loosen our grip on thoughts and recognize we don’t truly know.
What we seek arises when there is space, not through more thinking.

Right IntentionIntention matters more than outcome.
Pause and examine what is driving your actions.
Let care for others be part of every decision.

Right SpeechPractice real listening rather than simply reacting.
Avoid harming self and others through your words.
Ask: Is it true, beneficial, clear, and timely?

Right ActionNo fixed rules, but the five precepts offer guidance.
Act with care, compassion, and awareness.
Letting go reduces the tendency to create more suffering.

Right LivelihoodYour work is part of the path.
Avoid harm and consider how you relate to others in the work you do.
Integrity at work supports the spiritual journey.

Right EffortRather than pushing harder, Right Effort means not giving up.
Build daily patterns that supports what matters most.
Include yourself and others in that commitment.

Right MindfulnessNot a tool for optimization.
Practice presence with precision and openness.
Be with experience as it is.

Right ConcentrationTrain attention by returning to a single focus.
Over time, attention becomes steady and connected.
Offering full attention is not separate from enlightenment.

Conclusion
This path isn’t linear or something to complete. It’s something to live.
Test it for yourself. Bring your own intelligence to what you hear.
Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for Fearless Creativity, a meditation and writing retreat offering dedicated time for creative work alongside guided meditation and conversation. Writers of all genres and levels are welcome, with no prior meditation experience required. 
Learn more and register
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail
This week we arrive at the final step of the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Samadhi, often translated as concentration or absorption. If the earlier steps help us see clearly and act with intention, this final step gathers the mind into a unified experience.
Right Samadhi is not about forcing the mind to focus. It begins with learning to place attention on one thing and come back when it wanders. From there, it deepens into the ability to give your attention fully to another person. And eventually, it points beyond both of those, toward a loosening of the sense that there is a separate “you” paying attention to something else.
In this episode, I explore Right Samadhi through three lenses: foundational, relational, and transformational.
Highlights
What Right Samadhi actually means beyond “concentration”
Why the ability to focus is becoming rare and why it matters
Meditation as training attention
Attention as the basis of love
What it means to truly listen to another person
The challenge of stepping outside self-focused attention
The possibility of awareness without a subject or object
Right Samadhi as the culmination of the Noble Eightfold Path
Music After Party
This week I share “Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears” by A Winged Victory for the Sullen.
You can also listen here.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.
Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Get your copy of The Buddhist Enneagram
From March 10 – April 10, you can receive 30% off the new physical edition of The Buddhist Enneagram when you order directly from Shambhala Publications. Use code ENNEAGRAM30 at checkout. If this book has been on your reading list, or if you know someone who might benefit from this perspective on the Enneagram, this is a great time to pick up a copy. Buy yours here.
If you’d like a free chapter, sign up for my weekly meditation newsletter here.
Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail
This week we explore Right Mindfulness, the seventh step of the Noble Eightfold Path. While the earlier steps shape how we see and act in the world, this step turns us inward again, toward our direct experience.

Right Mindfulness is not about self-improvement or optimization. It is a way of relating to the mind as it is. Through meditation, we begin to see that thoughts are not a problem to solve, but something to notice, release, and return from, again and again.
In this episode, I explore Right Mindfulness through three qualities that arise in practice: precision, openness, and spaciousness.

Highlights
Why mindfulness is not a tool for fixing yourself
The simple meditation formula: notice, let go, come back, begin again
Why thoughts are not the problem
Precision as the foundation of practice
Openness to allowing experience to be as it is
Spaciousness for the true nature of mind
The shift from identifying with thoughts to recognizing awareness itself

Music After Party
This week I share “I Won’t Cry” by Doug Sahm, a true Texas legend. 
You can also listen here.

Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.
Thoughts?
You can send your questions or reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Get your copy of The Buddhist Enneagram
From March 10 – April 10, you can receive 30% off the new physical edition of The Buddhist Enneagram when you order directly from Shambhala Publications. Use code ENNEAGRAM30 at checkout. If this book has been on your reading list, or if you know someone who might benefit from this perspective on the Enneagram, this is a great time to pick up a copy. Buy yours here.
If you’d like a free chapter, sign up for my weekly meditation newsletter here.
Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for Fe
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project