Robert A.F. Thurman is joined by Sharon Salzberg from the Annual New Year's Tibet House US Dharma and Yoga Retreat held at Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia, New York for a special teaching on the Buddha's Eight Fold Path.

Opening with a dedication to Sharon Salzberg for her selfless history of teaching, on helping to establish the Tibet House US center Menla and how she was transmitted the "Equal Exchange of Self for Other" teachings by Lama Khunu on her first visit to India, Professor Thurman leads a discussion and guided meditation on the Buddhist Eight Fold Path for people of all traditions, backgrounds or levels of interest.

Podcast includes a discussion of emptiness, motivation, reincarnation, the centrality of causation to understanding the Eight Fold Path, a re-telling of the myth of the Buddhist Kingdom of Shambhala, highlighting it's multi-faith, inter-sectional diversity, a recommendation of the Bill Murphy movie "What About Bob?" and an exploration of how shifting the traditional translation away from an moral framing of right/wrong to realistic/unrealistic (i.e Right Livelihood vs Realistic Livelihood) can help reveal the spiritual path as the Buddha taught to mendicants, merchants and all sensitive beings of his time.

Second half of this week's episode is a complete introduction to the Eight Fold Path by Robert Thurman with a break down of each of it's branches, including the mental and physical aspects in modern language.

In this week’s Bob Thurman podcast poetry segment Gary Gach reads the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Menla and the Buddha's Eight Fold Path - Ep. 193 was excerpted from the Tibet House US Member Archive’s Annual New Year’s “Real Love Meditation & Yoga Retreat” with Robert A.F. Thurman & Sharon Salzberg recorded Dec 2015 at Menla in Phoenicia, New York.

To learn about this annual event, please visit: www.menla.us.

This week’s episode’s of the Bob Thurman Podcast was brought to you in part through the support of the Tibet House US Membership Community and Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia, New York.

Gary Gregory Gach is an author, translator, and editor living in San Francisco. A dynamic speaker and teacher in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism his works include the anthology “What Book!? Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop” and the forthcoming “