Janet Ettele
Appearances
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And maybe I took your question and went a different direction with it. I'm not sure.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I think it's a shame we've lost that art. I really do.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
It fits. It fits in terms of we are so distracted by I know people enjoy social media. There's a lot of fun in that too, but I feel like is in so many cases, it's look at me, look what I'm doing. This is what I ate for dinner. This is my new house. This is this. And it's not with the exchange, like a genuine kind of exchange of story of sharing of your actual life.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
but we're distracted by this sort of glittery idea of the attention. It does seem some kind of attention seeking, like a real need of being all eyes on me. And it's a little uncomfortable for me, but I think it doesn't hold up. It doesn't have anything to really sustain anything of any true quality with. Does that make sense?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
What did you mean by outside of our body? I'm not sure I understand.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I think there's a lot to that, really. I also think that to the degree we are of self-absorption, just to being so self-absorbed. In the Buddhist teachings that I've studied, and granted, there are different schools that have Buddhism, I suppose. And the one I'm most familiar with is the Tibetan Buddhist teachings. And that's all about the intention to benefit others.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And I'm sure you've experienced this. When you've done something to benefit someone else and you see that joy or you just are aware of how that benefit has been meaningful to somebody else, that gets you. I think serves that purpose that you were saying people are missing. What do you think?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I think that touches on something that is a real fundamental truth in the studies that I've done is just about interdependence, which isn't unique to Buddhism. We can see it in nature, right? Everything is interdependent. We can't grow things without the sun or the proper soil or the right conditions or the right temperature, right?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
in our lives we are we've become so disconnected to even taking care of ourselves the electricity that lights our homes the fuel that heats them the clothes we're wearing the food that we pick up from the grocery store everything that sustains us is independence on others that we don't even know talk about the kindness of strangers that we don't know, that really inspires gratitude in ourselves.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And that also serves to bring to mind that we're not isolated. We're not living, no matter how independent we think we are, we're not. And I think that sometimes that experience of gratitude really helps open that heart to feeling that connection a little bit more.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Well, I have interacted with him. Only one experience of being in the same room with him, which was pretty phenomenal. just to be in his presence. But one of the things he's said often is, I am just one of seven billion human beings. We see him as, oh my God, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He brings it down to, I am just one of seven billion human beings on this planet.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And each one of us has the potential to develop further and to cultivate our ability to bring more compassion into the world around us to extend that kindness to people who are strangers to us and his presence is pretty pretty remarkable and i do sense that he really seeks to remind everyone of their that kindness What does he say? There's a quote of his that might be appropriate.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
He says, can I read this quote to you? Sure. He goes, we can reject everything else, religion, ideology, all received wisdom, but we cannot escape the need for love and compassion. This then is my true religion, my simple faith. In this sense, there is no need for temple or church.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
mosque or synagogue no need for complicated philosophy doctrine or dharma our own heart our own mind is the temple the doctrine is compassion love for others and respect for their rights and dignity no matter who or what they are ultimately these are all we need
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I think sometimes it's helpful to recognize that everyone has varying degrees of suffering that they're experiencing in their lives. And that's just a fact of being human. And as one of 7 billion human beings, none of us is an exception to that. And I think sometimes even just bringing that to mind is a reminder in a difficult situation or a difficult moment to
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
just take that pause and just recognize that other person's suffering that's in play at that time. And that just brings up compassion and that changes the dynamic of everything in that difficult situation. I'm just pretending of one, but I think we've all experienced them before. When you can bring compassion into any tense situation, it changes it profoundly.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Do I see young males as being uniquely as being adrift compared to young women or?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I don't know that I know that I've raised sons who are both, if you looked at them, you'd think they're a couple of linebackers. They're big, strong men, but they have very compassionate hearts. I'm grateful that they have that balance. But I think that
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Men, I think we all need that cultivating of compassion because, and I think that men should, for having a program like your guest had set up for men, I think is really beautiful because I think there are a lot of, growing up as a young man today has in many ways probably been a little confusing for these kids as they've come up.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I remember when my sons were in grade school, they were confused because they were supposed to feel this guilt of they happened to be born white and they happened to be born male. And they were too young to carry that guilt that they were starting to absorb already even in the classrooms at school. So I think that it's been hard for probably not just them. They're okay.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
They're not scarred for life by that or anything, but I think it's confusing perhaps.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I misunderstood that, but yeah, and I think across the board, this is needed. And I'm curious, what are the methods that he's using to help bring this into the communities?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Yeah, I think I'd love to see that happen. There's a lot of the opposite. And as we were talking earlier about social media, that is a huge distraction to a lot of young people. So to have something like that to help balance that kind of influence would be Huge.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I also think that to the degree we are of self-absorption is the degree of our misery, just to being so self-absorbed. Whereas in the Buddhist teachings that I've studied, and granted, there are different schools of Buddhism, I suppose. The one I'm most familiar with is the Tibetan Buddhist teachings. That's all about the intention to benefit others. And I'm sure you've experienced this.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
It's like that expression where thought goes, energy flows, something like that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Right.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And that's something we were, you were talking with your guests the other day about mindfulness and This is one of the reasons why mindfulness is so important to know where your thoughts are. I've read that the average person here thinks anywhere between 12 and a half thousand to 60,000 thoughts per day. And I did the math.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I thought, all right, even if you were to sleep eight hours a day, you would have 57,600 waking seconds. And you know how fast thoughts
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
move through your mind so it's not stretched to think that you could have even more than 60 000 thoughts per day but what i've also read is that somewhere between 80 and 98 percent of those thoughts are repeated daily so what meditation is a method of familiarizing your mind to something and if what we're doing in this repetition
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
of 80 to 98 of our thoughts repeated daily we're having our very own very wild very unconscious meditation that is deepening and deepening whatever these thoughts are which is why cultivating mindfulness starting to become aware of what are these thoughts and if they're not if they're not conducive to a more peaceful way of life if they're based on things that aren't altogether accurate and true.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
The downside of that and the upside to cultivating awareness of those thoughts.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Right, right. That's well said, very well said. I like your pinball machine metaphor because I think it really fits to the thinking about the choices we make There is something taught in the Buddhist tradition called the Eightfold Path. Have you heard of that?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Yeah, which is right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration, which is what you were speaking about before. And if we can just bring our attention into that in our choices, to check these things. And of course there's more to each of that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
That's like the tip of the iceberg, but it's something that's manageable when you can put it into a context like that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Absolutely. In terms of mindfulness, there is, let's see, in Shantideva, who was the person who did the teaching that my books are based on, there's one verse that I really love that he says, where would I find enough leather to cover the entire surface of the earth? Yet with leather soles beneath my feet, as if the whole world has been covered.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And if that makes sense, it's like this is back in the day when people were traveling on rugged paths and there were thorns and things to get your feet. But it's, if you have leather, you can't cover the whole earth with leather, but if you can put a piece of leather underneath your feet, like those pair of sandals, then you're not going to be hurt by these thorns.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And that's the same way with cultivating mindfulness. We're not going to be able to change the entire world around us, really, as much to the degree that we wish we could. But if we can control our own mindfulness, if we can really cultivate that, we can have a much more peaceful presence that we bring to the world, as well as the way we experience the world.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Well, yes, I can do that. He wasn't eight centuries ago. He was during the eighth century.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I knew that's what you meant, but I just wanted to say that. Yeah, it seems like that. an unkind trick to do, but they really couldn't tell him to leave. They wanted him to be shamed into wanting to leave is the way the story goes. And so they invited him to do a teaching. It should be something that had never been taught before.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And they built this throne, which is not like a royal throne, but a high platform that he would be sitting on so that everybody that attended It was going to be a huge audience could, could hear him and see him. And, but there were no stairs to climb up there. So the story goes that he touched the side of this throne and somehow managed to be transported right onto the seat of it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And he taught this teaching. It was like in song, like poetry kind of form. And it was apparently just so profound everyone. was astonished by the quality of his teaching. And then when he got to the teaching on wisdom, they say that he rose and could no longer be seen by most people unless those who were there had the kind of spiritual attainments that made it possible for them to see him.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And that's the story.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
It's like a myth, isn't it? Mythology that the hero has these very... Yeah, it reminds me of this book right here. I can't believe you brought that up because I was just about to mention that book, The Power of Myth, and Joseph Campbell and his amazing series he did. Who was the man who interviewed him back in the, it was in the 80s?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Yes. You can still see it on YouTube. I think it was done in six episodes. It's brilliant, The Power of Myth. Have you seen it?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Yep. I think Carl Jung wrote a bit about this as well, didn't he?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
It's fascinating. And I guess, again, we realize that as one of 7 billion human beings, our experience is no different. We might have a different setting that we're living these lives in now compared to a few hundred or thousand years ago. But I think it's a lot of commonality, isn't there?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Thank you. Nice to be here.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
When you've done something
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I'm sorry. Wow, that's a big loss. But it sounds like you've got a lot of it still in your mind, a lot of what you learned from this teacher. But I think that Old Testament is really hard to get your mind around, isn't it? The way things are presented, the things that are talked about are hard to, like you said, hard to put to today's times.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
There have been a lot of kind things. But the first thing that comes to my mind is a long time ago, I was 17 years old. I had gone with two groups of friends, two vans to a Grateful Dead concert at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. It was March. It was cold. I had $5 in my pocket. I got separated from my friends. I think I was really eager to get close to the stage.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Is that something you were asking earlier about compassion and the younger people? I thought you were asking about young men earlier and that need for connection and experiencing more compassion in their lives. Is this missing ritual part of what you think it is? perhaps lacking to them,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Yeah.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
That is what I've been trying to do. And I think it's been effective feedback I've heard from people that it's helped them. I think that one of the things beyond just hearing a teaching or reading a book or listening to a talk someplace is really the process of taking that, what you've learned and spending time with it. Teach in Buddhism, the three stages of wisdom. One is listening to a teaching.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
The second is reflection, contemplation. You really take the time to think about it. Does this hold up? Is it relevant in my life? You have to really test it out for yourself. And then the third step is meditation, where you really, that's that concentration, where you've arrived at some understanding and you really bring that in a concentrated level into your
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Practice and meditation, but then the more you rehearse this, remember I was saying meditation is a method of familiarizing your mind to something. The more you rehearse this, the more adept you'll be at being able to put these things into practice. So we don't leave it on the cushion as you often hear people talk about, but we really do. It's just ready to practice.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
be put into practice in your daily life. And I hope that the books that I've written, in particular the character Troy, who's a young man who goes through the series, is beginning to assimilate these teachings into his life and meets challenges that, like I said before, are challenges that are familiar to any of us in one way or another.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Right. Which is a real conundrum for him. He's not sure he can do it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I really wanted to see Jerry Garcia as close as I could. And when it came time to leave, We had all agreed that we would meet by a flagpole outside the venue. And I think what happened is each group of friends assumed, actually, they were friends of my older sibling of my friend. So they didn't really know me really well, the two drivers. And they each must have assumed the other had me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I think when you, in the context of the book that I've written and actually anything is when you realize that there's a genuine benefit to something, your willingness to put that effort in to achieving that, whatever it is you want to do, you're going to be joyful in it because you're pumped, you're excited to do it, right?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
So it's a joyful effort when you know that at the end result is something that is going to be really fruitful or whatever your objective is. In terms of play, I think that, you know, I should probably think about this a little bit more before I answer this, but I think that it feels playful when you're doing something with joy. Creativity, creating art, creating anything.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
There's an element of playfulness with that. That's my first thoughts on that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Well, first of all, that they themselves have studied that you observe in, in the Buddhist tradition, the old books say you should observe a teacher for 12 years before you take them on as your teacher.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
today we're not likely to do that but that was in when that's for a spiritual guide because that's a life path pretty much and so you want to make sure you're on the right path that they live watch them observe them are they living are they walking their talk i think that's important to notice are they patient do they have those qualities of patience and kindness and generosity the things that you
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
would like to be achieving yourself if you were interested in learning carpentry you'd want to look at the quality of work that carpenter you were studying from was producing so i think in the same way it's like the quality of how someone is living is perhaps a little less tangible to and concrete to see but you've got to take some time spend time with that person and
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Just be careful of what makes sense to you. The Buddha said, see my fingers pointing to the moon. Don't mistake my finger for being the moon. It's because of my finger that you can see the moon. And so we want to make sure whoever we're taking on, whether it's a coach or a mentor or a teacher, that they see that and live it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
and can help guide you towards that in a really ethical way and in a kind way.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And the parking lot emptied out and emptied out and it was cold and it was windy and it was dark. And I found a policeman and I said, can you help me? I nobody's here. I live in Connecticut and they said, well, can't help you go to the security office. So I spotted the security office and I knocked on the door and they told me they were closed and they wouldn't help me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And what you said is someone who was two or three steps ahead of you. I forget the word you use, but who's already done it, who's achieved what it is you're
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I think that happens in life organically, like in your situation. And you had that sort of awareness that this is something that you were inspired by what you saw in this mentor. And so like a magnet, you went toward that. That's, again, a choice that you made. I think people have to be It's a way of being proactive, right? You're not passively just sitting in the shadows.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
You put yourself in that environment to learn more closely.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And goes right back to what you were saying we were talking about earlier, that disease of disconnection. Just this is a man who just that's how he lived. And there was that connection. And he created the connection for those that he shared that we sat at the table with and had these conversations. Just a way of being present.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And I of course started to cry. And there was a young man who saw me and must have sensed what was happening. And he said, if you don't mind waiting, and with my brother, he's disabled and his car has a special contraption to it to make it drivable. We have to get it towed. But once we get it fixed, if you don't mind waiting with us, we'll help you. I said, okay.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Well, those are two different questions. Are they feeling stuck or are they feeling they're missing the connection or are they feeling both?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Well, I'd say a few things like thinking about how actually not isolated they are, as I talked about earlier, but just understanding how everything that we have that sustains our lives is as a result of somebody else's work or kindness and get that feeling of gratitude. And you begin to feel that sense of gratitude. It changes your energy feeling. And it's a sort of an opening of the heart.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And I think when we can open our hearts, we can take those little steps, baby steps, maybe initially, but just to have that casual conversation with somebody in the produce section of the supermarket or pick up the phone and call somebody you haven't spoken to for a long time, be the person to initiate that kind of connection.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And I'm not sure what everybody's different, why they might feel that lack of connection. Is it because they are feeling very shy or unworthy? Some could be so many different reasons why they're feeling that lack of connection that I don't know that there's one prescription for that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
But those are the first things that come to mind is just opening your heart, even if that can be a small beginning by just realizing how lucky you are to be in this life and how to remember that things are always in the process of change. And because of that quality of impermanence, always being present, that you're not stuck in any moment or in any state of being.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And we have that potential to influence the change that we would like to create in our own lives through mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness is another way to awareness of what are those thoughts that are running through your mind on a daily basis and how accurate, how truly accurate are they? Because from our thoughts, we generate our feelings. From our feelings, we create our actions.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And from our actions, we receive our results. So there's a lot to it. That's not an easy question, John.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Sure. Thank you. My website is probably the easiest place to find me and to learn anything is my name, Janet Edley, which is spelled E-T-T-E-L-E, JanetEdley.com. My newest book is going to be released on January 28th. It should be available anywhere you buy books. I don't want to specify just one place, but wherever your favorite place is to buy books. That's where you can get it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And off we went in the tow truck with two complete strangers and we'd get to the service station and I called my poor father. As a parent now, I think of what my poor father must have gone through. It's probably 1130 at night. And I told him what happened. And I think he got on the phone with this guy and must have given him the third degree. What's your name? What's your license number?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And the other books are also available. They're How Generosity Works, How the Root of Kindness Works, How Patience Works, and How Joyous Effort Works. Thank you so much for having me here today. It was really wonderful to meet you and to have this conversation.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I've enjoyed them. Thank you.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Stay well. Take care.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
All the questions that father would want to know. I, after the car was fixed, they drove me to grand central station. The guy walked me into grand central, walked me to the train, put me into the train safely. It was like 4 00 AM. A milk train, I think it's called. And gave me a kiss on the cheek and went away and I never saw him again. I don't even know his name. And I made it safely home.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
It could have been gone quite horribly another way. So I think that probably registers up there as one of the kindest things.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
You waited till it was 80s. That's amazing. Did he get an LP? Does he have a turntable and everything?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Well, now I need to know what album did he buy?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
They're all good. I'm just curious which one he bought. So we'll have to follow up with that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
That's wonderful. My son probably knows much more about the Grateful Dead than I do, and he wasn't even alive to see them as a band whole, but I'll let him know that about Uncle John's band.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
It's so interesting.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Well, writing I never did as an author, but I think going way back, when I was probably 15 years old and I had a teacher, I was sent away to school and I had a teacher that encouraged me to journal. And so I began journaling. I also grew up in a time when people still wrote letters and I had a great aunt who was 60 years older than I was.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
So she had the formality of letter writing and it was a beautiful form. So you get into some practice of telling stories through your letter writing. right? Because if this is where I went, this is who I saw, this is what it looked like. So there was that. And then when I went to Berkeley, there was a teacher that was really influential.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I don't think he knows how influential he was for me, but he taught writing poetry. He also was a song lyrics teacher at Berkeley. His name is Pat Patterson. And I took every single one of his courses on writing poetry, as many as I could while I was there. So I had that sort of background in there.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
The music and writing music, I was a composition major, and I do feel that writing music and writing words has a lot of parallels in common. Things like dynamics, theme, motivic development, and things like that. But
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
Then I have to go really far ahead, skipping back up a few decades to when I had gone to New York University's School of Continued Professional Studies, where I was taking a two-year program to become certified as a life coach. And one of the books that was required reading is called The Mindful Coach by Douglas Silsby. And he included in a lot of his books,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
pages, little quotes that were from the Buddha or Buddha's teaching. And everything I've read really struck a chord for me. I thought this makes so much sense. It's just very practical. It's wise. You could just feel the wisdom in it. And I started researching books, reading as many books as I could on the subject. And every book I read said, if you want to
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
use these teachings if you want to bring them into your life in a meaningful way you need to find a teacher long story short it turns out five miles from my house is a tibetan buddhist center for universal peace and that goes back i want to say 16 years ago when i first began going and listening to teachings and continuing to study and read. And in the course of those 16 years, I met someone.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
During one of the classes, we had a break, and we were both talking about how much we wished that these teachings, which are so practical, and even though they're 2,500 years old, they still hold up. And wouldn't it be nice if we could find a way to bring them into Western culture today
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
without having to have people enter a Buddhist Dharma center or even decide to be Buddhist, just to be exposed to some of this wisdom. And I had at that time been writing newsletters to promote my coaching work and was weaving in some of the things I was learning with these newsletters. And so we talked about that. Turns out he was in the publishing business. He had his own
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
off like a very small imprint of his own publishing company that was dedicated to Buddhist teachings. And so he had this idea for a series and invited me to write them. And that's how it started. Yeah, so the first, the series he had in mind was based on a teaching called The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life by Master Shantideva, who was an eighth century Buddhist monk and scholar.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
And so these guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life is also known as the six perfections. So the idea was to have a book for each of the perfections and to write them as fictional, contemporary, with contemporary characters living ordinary lives. And you get to see the main character learn, think about what he's been taught,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
begin to put the teachings into practice in a way that any of us could really relate to. Does that answer your question?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Janet Ettele on How Joyous Effort Transforms Our Lives | EP 614
I agree. I think that there's so much lost by not having the letters any longer in our lives. But in terms of the joyous effort, yeah, I guess in letter writing, usually it's someone you love or at least feel very fondly toward. And it's a joy to share, to be able to read what they're doing and respond and share what you're doing. There's a lot of, you could remain quite close through that.