#8: Barry Gillespie
Social Distancing from a Buddhist Perspective
Barry Gillespie is a wood worker, painter, and meditation teacher, in Boulder Colorado. He’s become my primary meditation teacher, and I highly recommend his teachings and his meditation retreats. Here is his meditation background, lifted from his website:
I was formerly introduced to meditation in 1978, when I took mantra initiation in the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta lineage of Swami Vishnu Devananda. I struggled with this practice for over 20 years. Then I took a silent, week-long Ashtanga Yoga and Vipassana retreat with Richard Freeman and Wendy Zerin. One of the books on the reading list that Wendy suggested was The Experience of Insight by Joseph Goldstein.
I read the book a few years after this retreat, and it quite literally changed my life. I had that feeling we sometime are lucky to have, “This is what I’ve been looking for”.I sat three 10-day retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in 2003-2004, two of them with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzburg, and then started sitting one month or longer retreats in 2005, eventually connecting with my primary teacher Guy Armstrong. I’ve sat 7 month-long retreats at Spirit Rock in CA and two 6-week retreat at IMS in MA. I strongly believe that, at least for me, the way to learn the practice is through this sort of intense retreat. What is practiced and taught at both these places is Theravaden Buddhist meditation and philosophy in the Burmese/Thai Tradition.I practice and teach meditation/Buddha Dharma in Boulder and sometimes travel and teach in other places when I'm invited.
You can find Barry’s writing, recorded dharma talks, and teaching schedule on his website.
This episode was recorded on March 21st, 2020, soon after the United States began taking drastic steps to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Barry offers a Buddhist perspective for how to respond to the coronavirus. We cover the following topics:
The imperative of social distancing, and the mental challenges that arise in response.
The three poisons of mind (greed, hatred and delusion).
The power of mindfulness as a response to this moment.
Reframing social distancing as an opportunity.
The power of Metta (loving kindness) practice.
The pitfalls of self-judgment and perfectionism.
Drugs, alcohol and tv in moderation.
Poetry as a method of practice.
Resources Mentioned
Dharmaseed.org - Free dharma talks recommended by Barry
Loving Kindness - The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salsberg
Insight Meditation - The Practice of Freedom by Joseph Goldstein
Go In and In by Danna Faulds
Connect with Barry
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