Ep216: Death, Money, & Dharma - Mordy Levine
Mordy Levine is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author of ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Beginners’ with Lama Lhanang.
Available on Youtube, iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Mordy reveals the origins of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, considers the validity of the claims of its supernatural transmission, and pulls back the curtain on his own writing process in collaboration with Nyingma meditation master Lama Lhanang.
Mordy discusses the subject of money and spirituality and recounts his own journey from poverty and avarice to financial and business success and beyond, to a more enlightened view informed by Buddhist doctrines.
Mordy also addresses the range of dysfunctional money attitudes found in American Buddhism such aversive attitudes to money based on beliefs that money is fundamentally unspiritual, immoral, and evil.
00:00 - Intro
01:50 - Tibetan religious teachings about death
02:35 - Why another book on the Tibetan Book of the Dead?
05:04 - Collaborating with Lama Lhanang
08:03- Lineage vs psychedelics and Timothy Leary
10:34 - Does Mordy really believe in Tibetan terma claims?
12:31 - Mordy’s experiences of the supernatural
14:05 - ’God of the gaps’
18:03 - How important are the supernatural claims of the Tibetan Book of the Dead’s transmission?
21:27 - Energetic transmission of spiritual lineage
23:05 - The purpose of energy transmission
24:40 - Perceiving the light body
26:20 - Mordy’s practice of karate
31:55 - Conversion to Buddhism
34:03 - From Zen to Tibetan Buddhism
37:29 - Initial experiences of Tibetan Buddhism and search for a teacher
39:24 - Meeting Lama Lhanang
41:33 - About Lama Lhanang
44:21 - Applying lessons from the business world to dharma organisations
46:42 - Origin of Mordy’s motivation to become rich
48:45 - Addiction to success and money
50:47 - Grasping and clinging to feed one’s identity
53:17 - Childhood programming about money
56:03 - What woke Mordy up to his money addiction?
59:36 - Seeing through the BS of identity
01:02:04 - Addictions and grasping
01:04:04 - American Buddhists’ dysfunctional attitudes to money
01:08:34 - Advice for contemplating one’s relationship to money
01:11:47 - Is money unspiritual?
To purchase ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Beginners’, visit:
To find out more about Mordy Levine, visit:
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James