This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hello, my fellow suffering beings, how we doing?

Today we're going to talk to a fascinating pair of American Buddhist monks about how to get stuff off your chest when you need to vent your spleen, how to live with less shame and regret, how to give feedback without pissing people off too much, how to accept feedback without getting pissed off yourself or getting defensive, how to stay sane in a crazy, never-ending news cycle, why being miserable

about the state of the world doesn't actually help anything, and how to cultivate the opposite

of depression. Let me just say before we get too far into this, that I think there might be a

reflex among some of you to think, well, what do celibate monks know about navigating the complexities of human relationships or about navigating life in the real world? And the answer, as it turns out, is a lot, especially these monks who are quite young and yet incredibly smart

and experienced. Said monks, both go by their formal Buddhist names which start with the word

Ajan. Ajan is the Thai word for teacher or master. So my guest's names are respectively

Ajan Kovi-Lo and Ajan Nisobo.

Together they have founded the Clear Mountain Monastery, which is based in Seattle.

They also host a podcast of their own, which is called the Clear Mountain Monastery Project.

Before we dive in, though, I do want to quickly tell you about a meditation challenge, a free one that we're running over on my new app,

which is called 10% with Dan Harris. This is a five-day challenge inspired by a new

audible book or an audible original. It's an audiobook. It's called Even You Can Meditate,

which I co-wrote and co-recorded with the great 7A Salasi. The challenge starts on March 23rd and alongside the daily meditations

that you'll get from 7A. Sabina, I will also do two live meditation and Q&A sessions. So there's a lot

going on here. There's the release of the audible book, even you can meditate, and then there's the

challenge that runs alongside or is in celebration of the release of this Audible original.

You can get all the details if you go to Danharris.com or you can just download the app wherever

you get your apps. All right. We'll get started with Ajan Kovalo and Ajan Nisabo right after this.

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