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	<title>Infinite Smile</title>
	<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org</link>
	<description>These are the Zen-inspired teachings of Michael McAlister that integrate a relevant philosophy and  spirituality with contemporary living.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:00:09 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<item>
		<title>Video: J. Krishnamurthi</title>
		<description><![CDATA["What is a fact? Really. What is a fact?"]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/20/video-j-krishnamurthi/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile194 - Lafayette ITP Group</title>
		<description><![CDATA["As we look at this process from a high enough altitude, we see that there is nothing we can point to that is not Spirit."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/19/ismile194-lafayette-itp-group/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Video: Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Amazing, watching my teacher's teacher teach the Sandokai. 

 ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/18/video-shunryu-suzuki-roshi/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile193 - Infinite Choice</title>
		<description><![CDATA["The quiet and elegant decision to commit to a stillness practice supports an ever-deepening ability to choose our Path."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/17/ismile193-infinite-choice/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Video: Sri Ramana Maharshi / Ram Dass</title>
		<description><![CDATA["Find the source of the self."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/14/video-sri-ramana-maharshi-ram-dass/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile192 - The Divine Boo-Boo</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If there is an 'I' experiencing the Now, it's not the Now.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/13/ismile192-the-divine-boo-boo/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Video: Nisargadatta Maharaj</title>
		<description><![CDATA["The greatest guru is your inner self."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/12/video-nisargadatta-maharaj/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Meditation Basics</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From YouTube - Approaching Zazen (seated meditation)


 ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/11/meditation-basics/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile191 - Getting Past States</title>
		<description><![CDATA["If our energy is focused on what is... then we can get past the space of states."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/10/ismile191-getting-past-states/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Being Your Own Therapist</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You might like this talk.


 ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/11/02/ven-robina-courtin-offers-a-talk-%c2%bb-awake-in-this-life/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Go Vote</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A reader forwarded me a letter sent out by Gangaji to her followers recently.

    Dear Sangha,
    In 1947 India was in extreme crisis. Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs were
    killing each other. Enforced mass migration was causing anger, fear,
    and despair. The country was [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/10/30/go-vote/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Still working on a site fix</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We're still reeling a bit from the site problems we've been having. 
Stay tuned as they should be fixed soon.
Happy Halloween. ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/10/30/still-working-on-a-site-fix/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Off to Mt.  Madonna</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For the next few days, 25 people will be joining me for what should be a marvelous time at Mt. Madonna Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains. 
Photos to follow.
Bows,
M  ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/10/17/off-to-mt-madonna/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Oops&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Friends,

We are currently in the midst of a rather major series of problems with the website. Kind of a surprise to all of us, but it's good for our practice.

Hopefully things will be back to normal within the week.

Bows,

Michael ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/10/15/oops/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile190 - Back From Silence</title>
		<description><![CDATA["The deep silence reminded me of how difficult this practice can be."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/09/18/ismile190-back-from-silence-2/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Off to sit&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For the next week I will be quieting down at a seven-day meditation retreat called a sesshin in Zen parlance. I'm looking forward to it but will miss my wife, my daughter, and my morning runs with my dog. ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/08/17/off-to-sit/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Discussions of Ken Wilber</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I’ve enjoyed the controversy surrounding the Ken Wilber camp over the past few years. Some people worship Wilber, others can neither tolerate his personality nor his work. Situations like this breed attachment and attachment always leads to interesting situations.

As far as I’m concerned, Wilber has had a significant impact on both the pedagogy and curricular [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/08/13/discussions-of-ken-wilber/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile189 - Perpetual Rest in the Fire of Life</title>
		<description><![CDATA["When we recognize that we are never separate from the Big Self, or Deeper Self, that has always been, we find that the small self is nothing more than an incomplete extension of Truth."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/24/ismile190-perpetual-rest-in-the-fire-of-life/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>A Zen Retreat, A Buddhist Farm Offers A Place Away From Money, Stress And BlackBerrys - CBS News</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This was a nice surprise.

On CBS Sunday Morning, Green Gulch Farm was featured as a way to escape. Of course, if you’re really doing the practice, it’s not about escape, but about facing everything and avoiding nothing. (p.201)

Read the article here.

Share/Save/Bookmark ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/21/a-zen-retreat-a-buddhist-farm-offers-a-place-away-from-money-stress-and-blackberrys-cbs-news/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile188 - Recognizing the One in the Many</title>
		<description><![CDATA["When we open ourselves to the 'Four A's' we are aware, accepting, available, and authentic, we can recognize the One in the many."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/16/ismile188-recognizing-the-one-in-the-many/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Obama&#8217;s Church Search - Lama Surya Das</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In this clip, Stephen Colbert asks Lama Surya Das if it would be hard for Barack Obama to convert from a secret Muslim to a Buddhist.

 ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/15/obamas-church-search-lama-surya-das-2/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Now that the fire has passed - Tassajara Zen Mountain Center</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Tassajara Zen Mountain Center's director, David Zimmerman writes his account of the fire that nearly consumed his temple.

Click here to read the full update.
 ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/14/now-that-the-fire-has-passed-san-francisco-zen-center/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>What about tradition? (from: Awake in This Life)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This link regarding the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, from AwakeinThisLife.com, is worth a look.

Click here for the video clip
 ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/13/what-about-tradition-awake-in-this-life/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>David Deida - Exploring Sexual Stages with Buddhists</title>
		<description><![CDATA[David Deida is very controversial. I often find him to be quite stuck in all sorts of ways. He can be crude, brutal, and at the same time insightful.
 
Take him or leave him, you still might find this audio clip interesting. In it, Deida explains how the three major schools of Buddhist thought reflect [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/12/david-deida-exploring-sexual-stages-with-buddhists/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile187 - Uncovering True Beauty in the Middle of  Hell</title>
		<description><![CDATA["The minute we see ourselves in others and others in ourselves, we move into the space of true beauty from the contracted space of hell."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/07/10/ismile187-uncovering-true-beauty-in-the-middle-of-hell/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile186 - Avoidance, Obsession &#038; Presence</title>
		<description><![CDATA["What does it mean to really contemplate our own mortality?"]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/06/16/220/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile185 - How the Awakened Move in the World</title>
		<description><![CDATA["There is nothing we need to do in order to walk in the world with Awakened steps. There is, however, a lot we need to undo."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/06/10/ismile185-how-the-awakened-move-in-the-world/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Still Suffering</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Blogger Andrew Sullivan offers this post from James Wood's review of Bart D. Ehrman’s God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer:

Heaven, one of the tenderest verses in the Bible has it, is where God will wipe away all tears from our faces. In her novel “Gilead,” Marilynne Robinson [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/06/08/still-suffering/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile184 - Herding Oxes</title>
		<description><![CDATA["While Awakening is not a linear process, the Ten Oxherding pictures are a great guide for how we can map the process of Awakening."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/06/02/ismile184-herding-oxes/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile183 - Welcoming Negativity</title>
		<description><![CDATA["In stillness practices, where we face our lives fully, the negativity that we experience points us directly into the heart of Awakening."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/05/26/ismile183-welcoming-negativity/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile182 - No Thing, No One</title>
		<description><![CDATA["A good teacher never lets your ego play its usual games."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/05/08/ismile182-all-there-all-the-time/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile181 - The Soft Smile</title>
		<description><![CDATA["When we meet situations without flinching, we can operate from places of surrender... and this changes everything."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/05/01/ismile181-the-soft-smile/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile180 - Free of All Stories</title>
		<description><![CDATA["When we adhere to roles, opinions, convictions, or anything else we are simply attaching to stories."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/04/14/ismile180-free-of-all-stories/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile179 - Bringing It All Home</title>
		<description><![CDATA["I'm on this Path just like you.  So are all teachers.  Please remember this."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/03/27/ismile179-bringing-it-all-home/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile178 - When Buddha is Killed</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At the essence of what we're doing, we are uncovering what has always been right here.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/03/10/ismile178-when-buddha-is-killed/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile178 - Today&#8217;s Bodhisattva</title>
		<description><![CDATA["When we know that we can't know, we occupy as space that allows us to help others."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/02/25/ismile178-todays-bodhisattva/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile177 - Getting Done by Meditation</title>
		<description><![CDATA["Living in the world means that we let the world live through us."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/02/18/ismile177-getting-done-by-meditation/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile176 - The Communication of Spaciousness</title>
		<description><![CDATA["There truly is nothing to teach."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/02/11/ismile176-the-communication-of-spaciousness/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile175 - Undoing the Tangle of Karma</title>
		<description><![CDATA["Allow calm infuse the busy, alertness to infuse the distraction, and don't avoid anything.  This is untangled, meditative living."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/01/21/ismile175-undoing-the-tangle-of-karma/</link>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>ISmile174 - Spitting Out Tea Leaves</title>
		<description><![CDATA["Questioning takes ego out of the way of the Universe's impulse to Awaken."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.infinitesmile.org/2008/01/16/ismile174-spitting-out-tea-leaves/</link>
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