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Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich,

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and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

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Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

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At the cornerstone of Buddhism are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma,

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and the Sangha. If life was a sport, then the coach would be the Buddha,

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the game would be the Dharma, and the players would be the Sangha.

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It makes sense that Buddhism is called a practice, and we are the practitioners.

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As such, we exercise mindful conduct, speech, resolve, livelihood, effort, and so on,

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the same way athletes exercise their skills between games.

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We are not perfect, but even professional basketball players don't make every shot.

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Discipline is the practice of repeatedly

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choosing what we want most over what we want on impulse.

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And much like a muscle, our discipline gets stronger the more often we exercise it.

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As part of my personal mindful consumption discipline, I practice intermittent fasting,

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for example, and I haven't had any alcohol or cigarettes for more than 20 years.

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I say it takes discipline because what I really

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want sometimes isn't to fast, it's an entire bag of chips in the middle of the night.

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And believe me, when life gets extra

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challenging, I'm tempted to abandon my practice altogether.

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That's exactly what happened when Thich Nhat Hanh died in January. 

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An unexpected wave of anger came over me that I know was masking the hurt underneath.

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I suddenly had the urge to drink, smoke, and over-eat in order to escape the pain.

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I wanted to breathe fire!

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To quote Fight Club: I wanted to put a bullet 

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between the eyes of every Panda that won't screw to save its species.

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That's how angry I was.

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And when I expressed this to my friends the same way I am telling it to you now,

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a few were confused and said, "But you're a Buddhist," as if that makes me immune.

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Let's be clear that neither Buddhism nor Catholicism, Veganism, or any other "-ism"

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makes us perfect, but our practice DOES make us disciplined.

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And it's thanks to our practice that I didn't drink, smoke, or over-eat.

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I honestly don't know where I would be without you, my teammates.

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We lost our star player and we may be down a few points, but this is not the time to give up.

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The best way to honor him is to live as he did. The clock hasn't run out. We are still in this.

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In order for us to evolve, it's more important than ever that we practice, because if we

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don't, then we are just wasting the most precious gift we have ever been given:

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the gift of time.

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We have not been left alone. We have each other. If Thich Nhat Hanh has taught us

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anything, it's that life's challenges make us stronger and more beautiful.

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Or, as he put it: "No Mud, No Lotus."

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I am grateful for his teachings

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and thank you for being Soldiers of Peace in this Army of Love.

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May he rest in peace...

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and may we live in peace.

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Namaste.

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Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless

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and Buddhist Boot Camp.

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For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com,

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where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project,

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watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode, 

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and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions.

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Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼