8. Noah Rasheta: Life Lessons From Paragliding

Today my guest is Noah Rasheta. He’s a Buddhist teacher, lay minister and author, as well as the host of the podcast, Secular Buddhism. Noah teaches mindfulness and Buddhist philosophy online and in workshops all around the world. He works with others to make the world a better place as he studies, embodies, and teaches the fundamentals of Buddhist philosophy, integrating Buddhist teachings with modern science, humanism, and humor. He lives in Kamas, Utah with his wife and three kids. Noah and I have a very wide-ranging conversation. We talk about his passion for powered paragliding. We get into a little bit about how he’s achieved 2 million downloads on his podcast, what it means to live skillfully versus unskillfully, what it means to be awakened and enlightened. How to see deeply. He talks about in this how to use meditation, not to change yourself, but to befriend who you already are, and then also how mindfulness has helped him to change his relationship with his thoughts. I think that you’ll find something in this that will be very valuable for you.

SUMMARY
00:02:22 – Powered paragliding.
00:04:24 – What’s life about?
00:07:40 – Substitute school bus driver.
00:15:34 – What spurred change.
00:19:05 – A quest for answers
00:24:4 – Non-religious Buddhism
00:26:38 – A clear lesson learned from paragliding.
00:37:21  – Lightning round.
00:42:54 – What are our expectations and where do they come from?
00:48:29 – Meditation and bubbling to the surface.
01:06:28 – 2 million downloads.
01:15:04 – Being asked to write.
01:20:46 – Writing without a team and other details.
01:34:25 – Podcasting details.

LINKS – (In order of appearance)
Paramotor Sport
10% Happier by Dan Harris
The Dalai Lama
Tara Brock
Rebel Buddha by Dzogchen Ponlop
Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
SecularBuddhism.com Podcast
Callisto Media (publisher)
Scrivener, Evernote, Ommwriter
Bookbub
Waking Up Podcast with Sam Harris
Radiolab
Hardcore History podcast with Dan Carlin
Noah recommended podcast links: How To #1 / How To #2
Kiva Loans

7. Steve Zaffron: Three Laws Of Performance

Steve Zaffron is the CEO of the Vanto Group, a global consulting firm that designs and implements large-scale initiatives to elevate organizational performance. Zaffron has directed major corporate initiatives with more than three hundred organizations in twenty countries. Steve sits down with Bryan for a wide-ranging discussion about the meaning of life, Black Box Theory, Steve’s involvement with the Barbados think tank, and his experience writing the national bestseller, The Three Laws of Performance.

SUMMARY
00:00:46 – What is life about?
00:04:51 – Is there a distinction between nothingness and emptiness?00:09:34 – What do you tell other people about yourself?
00:12:06 – The three laws of performance.
00:14:29 – Platinum mine in conflict and the think tank.
00:25:30 – How the book has changed lives.
00:36:31 – Being a leader does not require authority.
00:43:51 – Learning golf from a book.
00:48:57 – Black Box Thinking
00:54:30 – On being a musician.
01:04:19 – Learning from his parents.
01:07:16 – Working with a co-writer.
01:25:48 – Working really hard will make up for shortcomings.
01:30:15 – Customizing methodology.

LINKS – (In order of appearance)
La Nausée by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Three Laws of Performance by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan
Landmark Worldwide
Werner Erhard
Michael C. Jensen
The Barbados Group
Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand
Vanto Group
Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed and Simon Slater
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler, Jamie Wheal, and Fred Sanders