Category: Podcast Episodes

The Yappari Japan Podcast!

Rich Pav 1 Comment

Thersa Matsuura and I are starting a new podcast called “Yappari Japan.” Right now it’s in “Minimum Viable Product Mode.” I just submitted it to iTunes so it won’t show up for another few days. Here’s the description:

“The Yappari Japan podcast is a weekly, 10-20 minute show where Rich Pav and Thersa Matsuura walk and talk together while separated by hundreds of kilometres and share with you their experiences and insights as long-term expats in Japan.”

The cool thing is it’s a BINAURAL 196kbps MP3! (3x the quality that Herro Flom Japan used to be.) If you listen to it wearing headphones, you hear exactly what we hear. A bird flies overhead, a neighbor says good morning or a truck drives by and it sounds like you’re right there.

If you know how to subscribe to a podcast using the RSS feed URL, here it is:

http://www.yapparijapan.com/feed/podcast/

Some behind the scenes info: We use super-sensitive stereo cardioid lavalier mics from Giant Squid Audio Lab and the Zoom H1 recorder. We each record separately while using Skype to talk to each other. (That’s a lot of gadgets and wires we’re both wearing.) After our daily morning walk, Terrie uploads her gargantuan WAV file to our FTP server. I download it, sync it with mine in Audacity and send the mix to Terrie as an MP3. We both listen to, log it, and discuss which parts are the best. Once a week I gather them up and paste them into a 10-20min weekly podcast. The end.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:51 — 24.5MB) | Embed

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Maitri, mudita, karuna, and upeksanam

Rich Pav 10 Comments

The Buddhist definition of true love, which to me sounds a lot like true friendship.

  1. Maitri: Loving kindness; the ability to make someone happy. That “someone” can be:
    1. Yourself
    2. Someone you’re very fond of
    3. Someone you have sympathy for (I forgot to mention that one)
    4. A neutral person
    5. An enemy; someone you perceive as the cause of your suffering
  2. Mudita: transformation of pain
  3. Karuna: joy
  4. Upeksanam: equanimity, freedom, the opposite of imprisonment or forcing yourself on another person.

What I find interesting is what’s not on the list: passion, obsession, lust, obedience, dominance, jealousy…lots of things I’ve known people from all over the world define as true love (especially jealousy) but to me never seemed right.

And if you don’t believe it, that’s OK, because there is no dogma in Buddhism. There’s nothing that Buddha taught that you must believe or else be damned for all eternity. If it’s true for you, then it’s true.

Podcast (audio): Play in new window | Download (6.8MB) | Embed

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