Episode 19: A Buddhist Approach to AI
Nov 9, 2026 · 26 min · 11 segments
This episode is a little different. It’s a dharma-like talk I gave to a small sangha at Radiance Yoga this past Saturday. It was a windy fall morning, with the leaves coming off the trees and change…
This episode is a little different. It’s a dharma-like talk I gave to a small sangha at Radiance Yoga this past Saturday. It was a windy fall morning, with the leaves coming off the trees and change literally in the air. Trees handle impermanence with ease. Most of us, myself included, struggle with it, especially when the change is unwelcome, and AI has become one of the most unwelcome changes in many people’s working lives. I walk through how I came to Plum Village practice, from a childhood of iron Buddhas and incense to the retreat Caitlin brought me to, and why impermanence stuck with me through the years.. Staying relevant across 30 years of technology change, from fax machines to the web to AI, turned out to have very little to do with technology and everything to do with mindset. I also share how last year’s business collapse and my father’s death two weeks later sent me back to the mat, and how those morning sits became Now Is Gone. From there, I apply the Four Noble Truths to AI. We suffer when we cling, whether to absolutes like “I will never touch this” or “we’ll cut 30 percent of our workforce,” or to the way our kids, our bodies, and our careers used to be. I can’t stop every software company from bolting on a chatbot or every data center from going up without care for its community. I can voice my dissent, and I can use the technology where it genuinely helps, like supporting underfunded global health work in India and Africa. My hope is that we pause, reflect, and use AI only where it serves our North Star, like water finding its way to the sea. Listen today on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! 1:36 AI as the latest change at work 3:37 Why staying relevant isn’t about technology 4:46 Impermanence and the Four Noble Truths 10:38 Surrender and letting go of what was 11:36 Dukkha: suffering and clinging 16:18 What I can’t stop about AI, and what I can do 18:27 Letting go of absolutes and binary thinking 21:43 Pause, reflect, and respond from your North Star 23:23 Taking stock and discarding what doesn’t serve you
This episode is a little different. It’s a dharma-like talk I gave to a small sangha at Radiance Yoga this past Saturday. It was a windy fall morning, with the leaves coming off the trees and change…
