Steve Hagen is the founder and teacher of the Dharma Field Zen Center in Minneapolis, MN and the author of several books on Buddhism, including Buddhism Plain and Simple which is one of the top five best selling books on Buddhism in the United States. In this episode, Steve teaches us about several Buddhist concepts that are often misunderstood: Wholeness vs Unwholesomeness, Perception vs Conception and Belief vs Knowledge. Knowing the true meaning of these ideas will give you great freedom as you seek the enlightenment that is your true nature.

This episode is sponsored by Health IQ and Casper

In This Interview, Steve Hagen and I Discuss...

The Wolf Parable
His book, Buddhism Plain and Simple
The Horse and the Farmer parable
Wholeness vs Unwholesome
Consider the welfare of other beings in all you do
Awareness
Perception (the immediate, direct experience) vs Conception (our construct of things)
Belief vs Knowledge
That we can't arrive at truth through conception
That enlightenment is with us all of the time, we're just not aware of it
That enlightenment is our natural state
The idea of "stream" as self, the Buddha said
That the way things appear to be is more of a construct than a reality
How picking and choosing is the mind's worst disease
Noticing how the mind leans a certain way
That a Buddha is a person who is awake
The power of simply observing something about ourselves rather than trying to put a stop to it or judging it
The Story about the 84 Problems

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Steve Hagen on Perception, Conception, and Enlightenment