Here’s part two of our conversation with Mushim Ikeda of the East Bay Meditation Center. We jump right in from where we left off in the last episode, trying to answer the question of “Why Buddhism?†(Spoiler alert: it’s gotta do with the ego.) A lot of our conversation meanders around different experiences in the Zen Buddhism and Shin Buddhist traditions, but in a really cool twist, we find common ground in the Golden Chain, a reading all of us have had some experience with. Mushim has some fantastic insights into its resonance with broad Buddhist ideas of interconnectedness and compassion which grounds this conversation in the realm of ethics, the bodhisattva path, and the challenges inherent in trying to discern “right†from “wrong.â€

Part One and Part Three of our conversation with Mushim Ikeda.