Allan Lokos tells the terrifying story of being on board a plane on Christmas Day when it crashed and exploded in flames. Lokos talks about the 4 Noble Truths, Karma, and how his mindful practice was instrumental to his recovery from the plane accident.<\/p>\n
Show Summary<\/p>\n
A: \u00a0VIDEO: It\u2019s hard to imagine that most people\u2019s worst nightmare could be viewed as a gift.\u00a0 Listen to how Allen\u2019s views this accident as a gift \u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=13m12s<\/a>\u00a0 and how in retrospect he looks back with no regrets due to what he\u2019s learned and experiences in his life post-accident http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=32m1s<\/a>.<\/p>\n A: VIDEO: Often when we face adversity, we ask \u201cWHY\u201d, \u201cWHY ME?\u201d, revenge, or we get angry and go to unhelpful mind states.\u00a0 Allen describes more here\u00a0 http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=14m39s<\/a>.\u00a0 Allen explains how staying present during the critical moments while jumping out of the plane may have saved his life: http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=21m35s<\/a><\/p>\n A: VIDEO: Allan explains our common misunderstanding about karma. \u00a0Allan explains that Karma is about causes and conditions and how Karma applied to the plane crash http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=15m55s<\/a>).<\/p>\n A: VIDEO: The Four Noble Truths were the Buddha\u2019s initial teaching about the \u201cmiddle way\u201d and how it was the way to alleviate suffering and be happier. Allen explains the Four Noble Truths (http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=23m18s)<\/p>\n A: VIDEO: Allan describes when his real dukkah happened during his recovery (http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=28m22s<\/a>) and how he wanted his old life back to return to what it used to be. \u00a0\u00a0Allan describes how he ended his personal suffering.<\/p>\n A:VIDEO: Allan describes how acceptance doesn\u2019t mean neutrality or passivity, and how it\u2019s about having the wisdom to help differentiate between what is acceptable and not acceptable http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=35m31s<\/a>.\u00a0 How Allan never felt resignation and how each day was about feeling determination to move forward: \u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/7GhZI_uwr94?t=39m28s<\/a><\/p>\n Allan Lokos<\/b> is the founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center<\/a> located on New York City\u2019s upper west side. He is the author of Pocket Peace<\/a>: Walking the Path of Inner Peace, Lasting Happiness (Tarcher<\/a>\/Penguin; Winter, 2010), and his newest book Through the Flames.<\/a><\/p>\n He began his study and practice of meditation with Thay Thich Nhat Hanh<\/a> in the nineties and later founded A Joyful Sangha based on Thay\u2019s teachings. Other teachers have included Sharon Salzberg<\/a>, Joseph Goldstein<\/a>, Stephen Batchelor<\/a>, Larry Rosenberg<\/a>, Andrew Olendzki, Corrado Penza, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche<\/a>, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. He has also attended a number of weeklong teachings with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lokos is an ordained Interfaith minister and Co-Founder\/Spiritual Director of The Community of Peace and Spirituality<\/a>. He is a graduate of The New Seminary<\/a> and is a guest teacher there as well as at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and Marymount Manhattan College. His writing has appeared in Tricycle Magazine<\/a>[1]<\/a> and his essay, The Spiritual Practice of Creativity, appears in the anthology, Audacious Creativity: 30 Ways to Liberate Your Soulful Creative Energy [2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier in this life Lokos was a professional singer appearing first with the American Savoyards<\/a> and then in the original Broadway productions of Oliver!<\/a><\/i> and Pickwick<\/a><\/i>, as well as the Stratford Festival<\/a>\/ Broadway<\/a> production of The Pirates of Penzance<\/a>. He wrote more than 100 articles on various aspects of performance that appeared in a variety of publications including Backstage Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Allan Lokos tells the terrifying story of being on board a plane on Christmas Day when it crashed and exploded in flames. Lokos talks about the 4 Noble Truths, Karma, and how his mindful practice was instrumental to his recovery from the plane accident. Show Summary What we can learn from Allan Lokos, a Buddhist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[475,465,64],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[6229,6220,6223,6227,6225,6222,4277,6232,6221,6228,1657,6226,6216,6217,6218,6230,6219,6215,6224,6231],"class_list":["post-20859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eastern-practices","category-meditation","category-self-awareness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/600x400-noble-truths.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20859"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20865,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20859\/revisions\/20865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20859"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireitupwithcj.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How can a Buddhist frame of mind help shift us out of seeing ourselves as a victim when facing adversity?\u00a0 How do we rise above seeing ourselves as a victim?<\/h2>\n
How does Karma apply to our unpleasant life events? \u00a0Is bad karma why bad stuff happens to us?<\/h2>\n
What are the four noble truths?<\/h2>\n
\n
How can we apply the 4 noble Truths to recovering from a tragic or hard life experience?<\/h2>\n
How can we \u201clet go\u201d but not fall into feeling a sense of resignation or being pessimistic?<\/h2>\n
\u00a0More on Allan Lokos – Buddhist Teacher, Founder of Community Meditation Center<\/h2>\n