Saturday, September 26, 2015

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #197 - 26SEP15

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • An pre-recorded conversation with Jim Wilson, Quaker practitioner, poet, former Zen monk, abbot, and chaplain at an institution for the criminally insane. Jim is a co-founder of Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol, CA. We discuss with him the topic of becoming familiar with silence. Jim writes: “The practice of interior silence is a subtle spiritual path. Most of us have experience with exterior silence from hiking in nature or times of chosen solitude. How do we find the peace and serenity of exterior silence within, when our minds are so busy and raucous? The way of interior silence is simple and accessible to anyone: scholar and worker, monastic and layperson. It is a type of prayer that one can engage with at any time, under any circumstances.” Based on the Quaker tradition of silent prayer, and integrating other traditions' approaches to interior silence, Jim discusses his own journey into that realm of true peace.
More information about Jim Wilson's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, September 19, 2015

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #196 - 19SEP15

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • An in-studio conversation with Russell Delman, founder of The Embodied Life School and The Mentorship Program. Russell began his study of body/mind perspectives and human potential in 1969 as a student of psychology. His lifelong commitment to awareness and freedom began consciously at this time along with his practice of Zen meditation. Through workshops at The Esalen Institute (1971), living at the Gestalt Institute of Canada (1972), travels in the jungles of South America (1973), being trained as a yoga teacher (1974) and studying Gestalt therapy with Dr Robert Hall (1975-1978), he deepened his self-knowledge. His training and deep personal relationship with Moshe Feldenkrais began in 1975, during the first professional training program offered in the U.S. In 1984, Russell became one of the first people in the world authorized to lead Feldenkrais® Professional training programs. Since that time he has taught in more than 40 of these programs internationally and directed or designed 10. Russell has helped in the training of more than 2500 Feldenkrais teachers. In addition, he maintains a private practice at his home in northern California and teaches public workshops throughout the world.

    Along with his wife Linda, also a Feldenkrais trainer, he created the Feldenkrais-India Project that brought the method to India for the first time. Through work at Mother Teresa's Missions, particularly in Calcutta, the Delmans taught the "Sisters of Charity" to work with brain-injured children. During this time they were blessed and influenced by numerous private meetings with Mother Teresa.

    In addition to all the above, perhaps the strongest influences on Russell's life are his more than 30 years of relationship with Linda and the journey of fathering his daughter, Lily. The formation of The Embodied Life™ School and The Mentorship Program is the fruition of a life-long trajectory.
More information about Russell Delman's work can be found at:

Saturday, September 5, 2015

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #195 - 05SEP15

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • An in-studio conversation with Tim Burkett, Ph.D., author of the recently published volume Nothing Holy About It – The Zen of Being Just Who You Are, and Wanda Isle, editor of Nothing Holy About It. The concise summary of Zen teaching Burkett presents in this book is expressed precisely in terms of what he found right in front of him: beginning with the delightful non-holiness he experienced in the presence of his original teacher, Shunyru Suzuki, and continuing through a lifetime of further teaching experiences.

    Tim Burkett, began practicing in spring 1964 with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi while attending Stanford University. At Suzuki's urging, Tim began a weekly sitting group on the San Francisco peninsula later that year, which Suzuki regularly attended. As this group grew in size, it was moved to the converted garage of a sangha member. Suzuki's talks to that group were later edited and published as Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, which has become a classic text and the gateway for many to enter Zen practice. After completing his BA at Stanford, Tim attended the maiden practice period at San Francisco Zen Center's Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 1967 with his wife Linda, whom he met at San Francisco Zen Center. In 1970, Tim and Linda moved to Minnesota, where Tim continued his sitting practice. He was an early member of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center (MZMC) and was ordained by Dainin Katagiri Roshi in 1978. Tim was president of MZMC from 1978 to 1983, became a dharma heir of Karen Sunna in the Katagiri lineage in 2000, and succeeded Karen as abbot in 2002. He is also a licensed Ph.D. psychologist and director of an agency that supports people with mental illness. He and Linda have two grown children and two grandchildren.

    Wanda Isle's interest in Eastern thought and practices began in the early 1980's. She started a regular meditation practice at MZMC in 2005 and was ordained in 2009. She received Dharma Transmission in 2015. Wanda was drawn to the quiet, inward-looking nature of Zen. Her focus as a Zen teacher is helping people cultivate the capacity to express themselves completely by seeing through emotional barriers and opening up to the natural compassion and original freedom innate in each of us.

    Besides being the editor of Nothing Holy About It, Wanda is co-author of the upcoming book, Creating Awesome: Radiant Health as a Spiritual Practice, which focuses on mind/body healing. She is also currently editing a second book on the mystical teachings of Tim Burkett.
More information about RTim Burkett and Wanda Isle's work can be found at: