Beyond the News (The Lotus Institute)

In this episode, Dr. Larry Ward offers insight on how to listen to your body's reaction to the news—before responding. To take a step back and pause so that you better understand the messages your body is receiving and can then respond in a way that doesn't harm yourself or others. Learning to live in the world with your heart undisturbed by the world is not easy, but it is an essential practice to help us live a life with equanimity. It all begins with recognizing, naming and responding to the sensation in the body as we receive the news. Every news story mentioned, whether from the past or current, is a teaching example. 

Go deeper:
Tracking and creating your own language of your body sensations. Create a journal. Call it “Befriending my nervous system”. Write down the times when you notice sensations in your body that are pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Create your own language of these three sensations that you uniquely feel. And note how you want to respond to the information you receive in the news.

Notes:

• Buddhist sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The first being mindfulness of the body in the body.
• The vagus nerve. The longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system in the human body. Carrying signals between your brain, heart and digestive system.
• Somatic practice of tracking bodily sensations.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

There is only so much information that we can cut out from our lives. It is vital that we know what is happening in the world. But we must first learn how to do that work skillfully. That is what Beyond the News is all about. "Beyond" does not mean hiding from or being outside of, it means not being carried away by the stories we hear into reactivity.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

Dr. Ward invites us to study our breath as we encounter the news, noticing how it changes based on the story. By paying kind attention to our respiratory system, we can learn how to calm our breathing in the very moment that we experience a shift. With time and practice, we can learn to let go of stories that harm us.

Go deeper:
In a notebook, write down a few lines that describe the characteristics of your breath as you consume the news. Was the breath long or short?...fast or slow?...excited or flat?...hot or cold?...violent or peaceful? Use this journaling exercise as a way to begin recognizing and naming the different types of breath so that over time you intuitively know when it is time to change the channel.

Notes:

• Titration: Consciously controlling what you receive and consume. To make sure you do not take in more than you can handle. This is a common reference in chemistry and regulating practice in psychology.
• The news stories mentioned in this episode took place during January 2023. The teachings and underlying principles behind the stories are universal.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

In this episode, Dr. Ward discusses ways to study and practice with our feeling tones when consuming the news. A feeling tone is a simple, direct and immediate sensation that we experience in our body and mind. In Buddhist teachings, these feelings are often understood along a spectrum ranging from "pleasant" on one end to "unpleasant" at the other, with a range of intensity between those levels. In the middle of the spectrum is the tone "neutral".

Studying our feelings tones is important, says Dr. Ward, for whether we realize it or not, when we consume the news, we assign a feeling tone to each story. By taking time to recognize and name these sensations, we begin to learn when the stories we read are adding to our wellness or adding to our suffering.

Go deeper:
The next time you watch the news or scroll through your phone's feeds, stop and work through these three steps. Then journal, draw, or meditate about that experience.

(1) Become aware of the tone that is arising in you as you read the news. Where did it feel on the spectrum of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral?
(2) See the tone. Pay attention to the source where it came from. Who was the author or media outlet? What impact does the source have on the feeling tone you recognize?
(3) Look deeper. Ask yourself if that tone is feeding your wellness or your sense of justice and harmony. If it was, great! Lean into that type of experience more often. If it was not, what can you do to be more active in controlling the intake of information? Can you put your phone away and go outside for a walk? Can you change the TV channel? Can you go into your bank of resources that make you feel joy? Like listening to music or meditating. 

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Episode recorded on February 13, 2023. The news stories mentioned in this episode took place around that time period. The teachings and underlying principles behind the stories are universal.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

Continuing the discussion from episode 3, Dr. Ward delves into the societal implications of how we respond to the feeling tones we experience when consuming the news. Feelings of pleasantness, unpleasantness and neutrality are a natural and normal part of being human. Like clouds, they come and they go. 

Yet when we scroll through our social feeds or listen to the news, we can unconsciously develop reactions to these feelings that drive our ego and shape our definition of self and others. The practice is to remain open and aware of the movements of our body and mind, so that we do not get seduced by neutrality or stuck in the pursuit of power and desire.

Notes:

Non-reification: Reification is the act of treating something that is abstract, like an idea or ideology, as if it were a concrete thing. The practice of non-reification helps us to ensure we do not get caught by our feeling tones, that we see concepts and ideas as impermanent. 

Skillful attention: Mindfulness practice of learning about the systems of our body and mind, and how they impact our presence in society.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

"Are you sure?"... Perception, the process of recognizing and interpreting, holds immense power. It shapes our lives, our worldview, and how we interpret the news.

Before reacting to the stories you hear, pause and ask yourself, "Are you sure?" This simple yet profound question became a lifelong practice for Dr. Larry Ward, inspired by his teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, the founder of the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism.

Nothing can happen without our mind being involved in what comes in and what comes out.  And when we cling too tightly to perceptions, says Dr. Ward, we close off the possibility of life itself. True perception is found in a clear mind and an open heart. Release from the thickets of opinions that flow out of modern media.

Go deeper with these practice questions:

• What news stories reinforce your perceptions?
• What challenges how you perceive the world?
• Whose voice is missing from this story?
• What feeling tones were invoked in you when you read the headline? What did you feel in your body?
• Who will feel better, and who will feel worse, as they read the story?

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

Our views are not fixed monuments. They are directional, flexible and open to learning. In this episode, Dr. Ward, invites us to pause, look deeply, and consider how we may change our way of seeing and looking at things so that we may live together in wellness, justice, and harmony. 

To study and observe our views can help us understand how our beliefs and identities are interconnected. And if we are open to changing our views and recognizing their impermanence, says Dr. Ward, we can move together towards individual and societal transformation.

Go deeper with these practice questions:

• What assumptions about your daily life have changed since the Covid pandemic?
• How open is your mind? Are you willing to receive what you've never thought of before?
• What views are you considering to let go of or have already let go of? And why?
• What views do you want to pass on to future generations?

The current events mentioned in this episode took place in March 2023. The teachings behind each story are timeless.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

We turn our attention to thought patterns and the narratives and stories we tell ourselves as we encounter the news. On average, a young adult can have over 6,000 thoughts in just one day. And when we attach an emotion to one of these thoughts, it can become real to us and affect how we feel. By learning how to pause and examine our thoughts more closely, says Dr. Ward, we can gain control over the narratives we create and learn to live with greater equanimity and awareness.

Go deeper with this practice:

In this episode, Dr. Ward mentions the 5-steps to unpack your thought patterns: notice, accept, name, embrace and investigate. First, enjoy 5–10 minutes of mindful breathing and coming home to yourself. Then, as in a guided meditation, invite yourself to look into your heart and mind and ask the following questions:

• Notice: What thoughts arise in you as you hear and see a story in the news? 
• Accept: Can you receive and accept the response that comes up in your body and mind?
• Name: What name can you give to that pattern of thought?
• Embrace: Can you embrace what you discover in yourself? Can you embrace the mirror of your thoughts?
• Investigate: Why was that story so powerful for me? Where did the energy of this one thought pattern come from?

The news stories mentioned in this episode took place around May 2023. The teachings within each story are timeless.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

Close your eyes and picture your mind as a garden. There, planted deep in the soil are seeds or imprints. Imprints like anger, jealousy and hatred, or joy, generosity and compassion. When we listen to or read the news, these seeds have the capacity to rise to the surface and affect how we think, speak and act. 

The practice before us, says. Dr Ward, is to grow our awareness of how to water the wholesome seeds that will lead us to a shared place of justice, wellness and harmony.

Go deeper with this practice:

First, enjoy 5–10 minutes of mindful breathing and coming home to yourself. Then, as in a guided meditation, invite yourself to look into your heart and mind and ask yourself the following 4 questions:

• What beautiful, wholesome fruit has arisen that blesses your life, and the life of others, with goodness?
• What seeds in your life need more attention?
• What seeds have emerged that you do not want present in your life?
• What unwholesome seeds, like anger, fear or jealousy, do not dominate your life?

“If we continue to explore the discovery of self-knowledge that the news can give us, we can discover amazing things about ourselves, and not be carried away by the narrative and rhetoric of the news we encounter.”

—Dr. Larry Ward

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

What role does fear play in defining the limits of your heart and mind?

Our fears, be they related to abandonment, powerlessness or environmental and social crises, can block us from realizing our true potential. They set boundaries to the capacity of our hearts and minds to be creative and free. Doom scrolling and consuming too much distressing news only serves to amplify these fears and anxieties.

In this episode, Dr. Ward outlines the steps we can take to begin moving from fear to freedom. The first step is to develop an awareness of our fears and how they define not our physical limitations, but our inner limits. By understanding how to respond to these fears, we can transform our relationship with them, and begin to overcome the narratives and thought patterns that impede our evolution.

“When you let go of hanging on to your fear, you let go of the limits that are blocking you and you gain a better understanding of what you are here on this planet to help with.”
—Dr. Larry Ward

Practices to go deeper:
Journal about your life and your relationship to the news and current events by using these prompts:

• What are your current fears, and how do they block you?
• How do you stand in the way of the purpose and meaning of your precious life?
• What stories or habits are keeping you from your next adventure?
• What is your mantra for this moment in your life? 

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Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

Self-knowledge is about understanding and opening to the potential that is rising to the surface of your life. In the series finale, Dr. Larry Ward outlines the key takeaways from the past 9 episodes, while sharing a few personal stories and poetic wisdoms along the way.

For Dr. Ward, Beyond the News was a journey of discovery and an invitation to learn to listen to our bodies and minds as we listen to the world through the news. The stories and events in each episode served as a vehicle for a larger teaching: as humans, for us to find resiliency and joy in challenging times, we must change our way of seeing and looking at things.
 
Quotes:

• “Our thinking flows like a river. To master your potential is to understand how you think.”
• “We have within us the potential of all humanity.”
• “If millions of us each make a small change, we can make a huge difference. Do not let yourself be confined by your fears for the world.”
  
  

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.

In this special mini-episode, Dr. Larry Ward shares his wise words and reflections on the 2024 US election, inspired by the teachings and practices of Beyond the News.

As Larry says, "Every election by its nature brings possibility, anxiety, and hope. This is true for society to grow in the improvement of itself for its citizens." As the US election approaches, we invite you to revisit the episodes of Beyond the News so that you may discover practices to help you stay safe, grounded and mindful with how you respond to what you see and hear in the news in the coming days.

BONUS: Larry closes with a new poem, A Message to the Ego That Wants to Rule the World.

Support the show

Beyond the News is made possible through the generous support from Hemera Foundation and the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. You can help us continue our podcast offerings by giving to thelotusinstitute.org/donate. Your generosity is a gift that supports our programs and events, and the Lotus Institute's global community of friends like you. In gratitude.