{"id":4650,"date":"2015-03-19T18:05:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T18:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=4650"},"modified":"2015-03-19T20:23:03","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T20:23:03","slug":"actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Actor Bill Murray’s Dharma talk: “What’s it like to be you?” [Audio]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Bill — photo by Paul Sherwood (Flickr C.C.<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Call it a Dharma<\/a> talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world. Whatever it is, it\u2019s something worth hearing and reflecting upon. As *On Being\u2019s<\/em>* Trent Gillis notes<\/a>, this was recorded last August after a screening of Murray\u2019s recent film, *St. Vincent<\/em>.<\/p>\n*
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When asked by the interviewer, \u201cWhat\u2019s it like to be you?\u201d \u2013 a question that could easily go in any number of directions \u2013 Murray avoids a quick or flippant response and turns the question over to the audience:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #222222;\">\u201cLet\u2019s all ask ourselves that question right now: What does it feel like to be you?\u00a0<\/span><em style=\"color: #222222;\">What does it feel like to be you?<\/em><span style=\"color: #222222;\">\u00a0Yeah. It feels good to be you, doesn\u2019t it? It feels good, because there\u2019s one thing that you are \u2014 you\u2019re the only one that\u2019s you, right?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Murray then directs us toward mindfulness of the body, suggesting we, \u201c<span style=\"color: #222222;\">Think about how much each person here weighs and try to feel that weight in your seat right now, in your bottom right now. Parts in your feet and parts in your bum. Just try to feel your own weight, in your own seat, in your own feet. Okay? So if you can feel that weight in your body, if you can come back into the most personal identification, a very personal identification, which is: I am. This is me now. Here I am, right now. This is me now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The meditation (or answer to the question) concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #222222;\">So,\u00a0<\/span><em style=\"color: #222222;\">what\u2019s it like to be me?<\/em><span style=\"color: #222222;\">\u00a0You can ask yourself, \u201cWhat\u2019s it like to be me?\u201d You know, the only way we\u2019ll ever know what it\u2019s like to be you is if you work your best at being you as often as you can, and keep reminding yourself: That\u2019s where home is.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To try some of your own body scan meditations, try:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/secularbuddhism.org\/2012\/12\/03\/body-scan-guided-meditation\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Secular Buddhism Association<\/a> \u2013 a guided body-scan meditation by Mark Knickelbine<\/p>\n<p>Two meditations by Tara Brach:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a style=\"color: #373d5b;\" href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/tarabrach\/2015-02-18-Meditation-Body-Scan-Living-Presence-11min-TaraBrach.mp3\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Meditation: Body Scan \u2013 Living Presence (11 minutes)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a style=\"color: #373d5b;\" href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/tarabrach\/2015-02-18-Meditation-Body-Scan-Living-Presence-TaraBrach.mp3\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Meditation: Body Scan \u2013 Living Presence<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sharonsalzberg.com\/realhappinessblogambikabody-scan-meditation-and-other-resources\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">body scan resources<\/a> via Sharon Salzberg\u2019s website.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Call it a Dharma talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world. Whatever it is, it\u2019s something worth hearing and reflecting upon. As On Being\u2019s Trent Gillis notes, this was recorded last August after a screening of Murray\u2019s recent film, St. Vincent. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":4652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-buddhism","category-buddhism","category-meditation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Actor Bill Murray's Dharma talk: "What's it like to be you?" [Audio]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Call it a Dharma talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Actor Bill Murray's Dharma talk: "What's it like to be you?" [Audio]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Call it a Dharma talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-19T18:05:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-19T20:23:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2015\/03\/3914014238_fc1398f2d6_z.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html\",\"name\":\"Actor Bill Murray's Dharma talk: \\\"What's it like to be you?\\\" [Audio]\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-19T18:05:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-19T20:23:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"Call it a Dharma talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Actor Bill Murray’s Dharma talk: “What’s it like to be you?” [Audio]\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Actor Bill Murray's Dharma talk: \"What's it like to be you?\" [Audio]","description":"Call it a Dharma talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Actor Bill Murray's Dharma talk: \"What's it like to be you?\" [Audio]","og_description":"Call it a Dharma talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html","og_site_name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","article_published_time":"2015-03-19T18:05:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-19T20:23:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2015\/03\/3914014238_fc1398f2d6_z.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Whitaker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Whitaker","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html","name":"Actor Bill Murray's Dharma talk: \"What's it like to be you?\" [Audio]","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-19T18:05:30+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-19T20:23:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9"},"description":"Call it a Dharma talk, a guided meditation, existential philosophy, or just a bit of calm and sanity in our too-often superficial sound\u00a0bite\u00a0driven world.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/actor-bill-murrays-dharma-talk-whats-it-like-to-be-you.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Actor Bill Murray’s Dharma talk: “What’s it like to be you?” [Audio]"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/","name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9","name":"Justin Whitaker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Justin Whitaker"},"description":"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}