Buddhism Beyond Belief with Susan Piver

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In this episode, I explore one of the most persistent misunderstandings about meditation: that it is supposed to make you feel better. From my experience, meditation does not numb heartbreak or smooth out emotional life. It opens us more fully to our experience. I talk about why vulnerability is not a failure of practice, but a sign that something real is happening. I also share thoughts on heartbreak as a path of awakening, the connection between heartbreak and compassion, and why meditation with eyes open benefits everyday life.
Highlights:
• Why meditation makes you feel more, not less
• The connection between heartbreak and awakening
• Softening toward yourself as the root of compassion
• Why vulnerability is part of the spiritual path
• Reestablishing agency when the mind runs wild
• The difference between looking to receive love and looking to offer it
• How awareness “cuts through” during meditation
• Why I teach meditation with eyes open

Music After Party
I talk about the song “Dark End of the Street” by James Carr and why it remains one of the most heartbreaking songs about longing and love ever recorded.

Also from me on Buddhism and heartbreak: The Wisdom of a Broken Heart
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
New Book & New Program
For more on the topic of meditation and heartbreak, please look for my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics, out June 1. It explores meditation not as self-improvement, but as a spiritual path rooted in ritual, heartbreak, creativity, vulnerability, and awakening in everyday life.

You’re also invited to join Seven Days of Inexplicable Magic, an immersive program exploring how meditation practice can move beyond the cushion and into every aspect of your life. Learn more here.

Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.
Learn more and register here.

If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

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In this episode, I reflect on a recent meditation and writing retreat where participants explored grief, heartbreak, violence, loss, and the experiences that shape us most deeply. 
I talk about why the personal is not an obstacle to spiritual practice but the very material of the path itself. I explore how teachings on egolessness can become distorted into self-erasure, and why real transformation begins by turning toward our experience with curiosity, courage, and love.
 I also answer a listener question about non-duality, discuss why it may be impossible to “understand” intellectually, and share thoughts on how wisdom comes to us through openness rather than effort.
Highlights
Why difficult personal experiences are often the doorway into creativity, insight, and connection
The transformative power of being witnessed and deeply heard
How teachings on egolessness can become confused with shame or self-rejection
Why your suffering, brilliance, confusion, and history are part of the spiritual path
“What you seek does not come from you. It comes to you.”
How ritual creates receptivity in meditation practice
Why spiritual practice does not remove heartbreak, but changes our relationship to it
Non-duality and why it may be experienced rather than understood
Music After Party
I share my love of 1980s reggae and dancehall through Wayne Smith’s “Under Mi Sleng Teng,” a track that helped transform reggae music through its groundbreaking digital riddim.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.
Learn more and register here.

If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail
In this episode, I explore why spiritual practice becomes sustainable through ritual, not force. I share the story of a month-long meditation retreat where I discovered an unexpected sense of ease in both meditation and writing, and how that experience led me to begin teaching meditation and writing retreats myself. 
I also introduce the first principle from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics: We engage in daily ritual. Through the Buddhist teaching of the three jewels, Buddha, dharma, and sangha, I explore how wakefulness, contemplation, and community create the conditions for practice to truly take root.
Highlights
Why meditation retreats can unlock creativity, focus, and flow
How structure and repetition create a container for spiritual practice
The first principle of Inexplicable Magic: we engage in daily ritual
Buddha as wakefulness itself, not just a historical figure
Dharma as reflection, contemplation, and connection to wisdom
Why community, or sangha, is essential for sustaining practice
What really happens when meditation becomes difficult or boring
Simple ways to bring the three jewels into daily life
Music After Party
I share “Uncloudy Day” by The Staple Singers, featuring the extraordinary guitar playing of Pops Staples and the unforgettable voice of Mavis Staples. 
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is coming soon.
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.
Learn more and register here.

If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail
In this episode, I reflect on a recent conversation in the Open Heart Project sangha about scientific research on meditation. Yes, meditation can improve brain function and mood. But if we stop there, we may miss the point.
There’s a much older, deeper body of “research” drawn from lived experience over thousands of years. Meditation is not just about feeling better. It’s about waking up, opening fully to life, and discovering a freedom that goes far beyond conventional thought.
I share seven core principles from my upcoming book Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics that challenge the self-improvement framing of practice.
Highlights:
Meditation is not a tool to fix what’s broken. We begin from wholeness, not deficiency.
Practice is rooted in ritual
The personal is not the problem
Turning toward sorrow opens the door to real compassion
Boundaries are part of spiritual life
Cleaning up your environment strengthens your inner life
We practice for others, not just ourselves
Live as a mystic in everyday life
The middle way is not a compromise but a lived reality beyond rigid frameworks and extremes
This episode is an invitation to look at meditation’s deeper proposition. 
Mentioned in this episode: 
The Middle Way: To learn more, please check out our episode #5.
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.

If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project

Send us Fan Mail
Here is a new episode after an unexpected pause. I’m moving to a new house and that has stirred disorientation, emotional complexity, and a break from familiar patterns. The truth is, I just didn’t know if I had anything of use to say. Also, I was in a bad mood? Needy! It happens! It turns out that this unsettled place provided a good context to consider a question raised in our Open Heart Project sangha: do Buddhists pray? If so, to whom?
In a non-theistic tradition, rather than being directed toward an external deity, prayer becomes a way of relating to awareness itself. The images, rituals, and expressions of devotion are not about reaching for something outside us, but about connecting to the wisdom, compassion, and courage already present.
In this episode, I explore prayer as communion rather than asking, and how everyday acts of attention, care, and listening can deepen our relationship with the divine.

Highlights
What it means that Buddhism is non-theistic
Why you can practice meditation without adopting a belief system
Buddhist deities as reflections of your own wisdom mind
Prayer as communion rather than petition
Everyday life as an expression of prayer
Listening, presence, and awareness as the heart of practice
Send me your questions:
You can keep the conversation going or send your reflections via Instagram DM or through our form — I’d love to include them in future episodes.
Watch this episode on video
If you’d like to watch the podcast, the video version is here.
Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path Retreat 
Join me at Drala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies for a meditation retreat exploring the bodhisattva path and what it means to live with courage, compassion, and clarity in everyday life. Through guided meditation, teachings, and conversation, we’ll reflect on how to recognize and express basic sanity in the midst of our actual lives. All are welcome, and no prior meditation experience is required.
Learn more and register here.
If you enjoyed this episode:
Please rate, review, and share it with a friend who’s curious about mindfulness, spiritual commitment, or the Buddhist path.
For more on Buddhist teachings and how our humanity isn’t necessarily in our way, sign up for my free weekly newsletter or join the Open Heart Project sangha for more connection with community and with me.
If this podcast has been meaningful to you, it would be great if you would subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with a friend. To join or learn more about The Open Heart Project please visit openheartproject.com.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
Produced by Citizens of Sound
Music by: Derek O'Brien

©Open Heart Project