222 - Holding Two Things at Once

Secular Buddhism

Noah Rasheta

Society & Culture, Spirituality, Secular, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Buddhism, Meditation

4.8 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, I explore the concept of holding two things at once, a practice that has become central to my own experience, especially during a recent personal transition. I discuss how we're often conditioned to assign a single emotional label to any given moment, leading us to suppress or feel guilty about other valid feelings that arise simultaneously. The core teaching is that life, in its most meaningful moments, is rarely simple and often involves a complex interplay of emotions and experiences, such as joy and grief, or love and resentment. Key takeaways include recognizing that our "story" layer often simplifies experience, while the raw experience itself is multifaceted, and that every moment is both a first and a last, making it precious. This practice is relevant to navigating life's complexities, from personal relationships and major life events to our own self-perception, by allowing us to be fully present to complicated moments without needing them to be anything else.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Secular Buddhism podcast is now on 8Foldpath.com, with transcripts, AI chat, and more.
0:08.2	Visit 8foldpath.com.
0:26.6	Hello and welcome to another episode of the Secular Buddhism podcast.
0:29.8	This is episode number 22.
0:32.2	I am your host, Noah Rochetta.
0:43.1	Today I'm sharing a talk that I gave earlier today to my podcast community on the topic of holding two things at once and sharing a personal life update that I wanted to share not only
0:50.9	with my Sunday call community, but with the podcast listener community in
0:57.2	general. I know many of you have been on this journey with me for many years, many since the
1:03.7	very beginning of the podcast. So I wanted to share this update with you. Without further ado,
1:10.1	this is the audio I recorded earlier, and I want to thank you for being
1:15.5	on this journey with me.
1:18.5	Before we jump into the topic for today, I want to share a quick personal family update with all of you.
1:28.4	I think many of you have walked alongside my journey for a long time
1:34.5	since the early days of the podcast,
1:37.1	and it feels right to share this directly with you in this space.
1:43.0	And that's that after a lot of thought and reflection and deep respect for the life
1:49.0	that my wife, Jezelle, and I have built together, we've made the mutual decision to separate.
1:57.3	And it's not a sudden or a simple choice.
2:01.1	It's something that we've arrived at together after many years of effort and honesty
2:09.7	and a real desire to navigate our differences.
2:16.9	And we've come to understand that we each need something that the other can't quite fully
2:23.6	provide.
	...

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