David often shares how meeting the Dahli Lama changed his life and actually gave him permission to begin showing up authentically both in his life and on stage.
His guest today reminds him of the sense of joy that he felt that day.
- Acclaimed as a Buddhist with a sense of humor, Mary Paterson is the author of THE MONKS AND ME: How 40 Days in Thich Nhat Hahn’s French Monastery Guided Me Home
- While not everyone would think visiting a Buddhist monastery would hold the answers to a life crisis, Mary Paterson discovered that was exactly what she needed. Unsettled by the deaths of her parents and accompanied by a too-heavy suitcase, she bravely entered Plum Village in France, the monastery of Noble-Prize nominated monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
- This witty guest will entertain and enlighten your audience as she reveals what she learned after spending six weeks living with the Sisters and Brothers.
- The Monks and Me – The Monks and Me makes Bookspan’s “Top 12 Books of 2012″ to be translated into 11 languages.
She’ll share:
- Right Effort: how in our culture we work with the wrong kind of effort
- “no shit no flower” Buddist teaching of interdependence: teachings stating you need mud and dirt to grow flowers….a metaphor of life, and the challenges we face; we can’t experience happiness without our sorrows
- Gratitude: a fun story about pomegranate seeds
- The way a monk washes his face and why it’s important.
- How she learned patience from skinning a bowl of nuts and acceptance from a man who stole her headphones.
- What she learned from eating with Buddhist nuns in silence.
- Ways dragging around an overstuffed suitcase taught her how to surrender.
- What an 84-year-old monk taught her about finding refuge from life’s storms.
- Her experience getting sick
- She is the founder and director of Toronto’s Lotus Yoga Centre. She has studied and taught internationally in India, England, France, Mexico, Costa Rica and the United States.
- Mary is an accomplished speaker who has been interviewed for numerous magazine and newspaper articles in Elle Canada, the Toronto Star, and the Globe and Mail.
To learn more about Mary, and to buy her book or her Kundalini Yoga DVD’S please visit her website:http://www.lotusyogacentre.com/
Her book is also available in major book stores across Canada and the U.S,
