The Mystical Positivist: The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #208

Saturday, January 2, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #208 - 02JAN16

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:

A conversation with poet and Quaker, Jim Wilson, about the life and work of the seventeenth century French Catholic mystic Madam Guyon. Jim Wilson studied Buddhism in Korea, Japan, and the US. He was an ordained monk in the Chogye Zen Buddhist order for six years. He served as a Buddhist Prison Chaplain in an institution for the criminally insane. He also founded and conducted the Sutra Salon, a group reading and discussing the Buddhist suttas and sutras published in English translation. In addition to the Chogye Zen order, he studied in a number of other Buddhist traditions. He is one of the founders of Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol. Since becoming a Quaker, he has published a critical edition of A Guide to True Peace, a manual for the practice of Quaker Silent Prayer that draws on the work of Madam Guyon, the subject of our conversation today. Jim is in the process of preparing An Annotated Edition of A Guide to True Peace, to be published in 2016. Jim is also an accomplished poet, and author of many volumes of poetry, including some of his more recent titles, Shorter Tanka Journeys, Shorter Haiku Journeys, and Shorter Cinquain Journeys. Jim has been a frequent guest on The Mystical Positivist show, learnedly discussing a wide range of topics.

More information about Jim Wilson's work and interests can be found at:

The Guide to True Peace - The 1815 Edition: Guide-True-Peace-1815-Edition
Shaping Words Poetry Website: shapingwords.blogspot.com

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"The Mystical Positivist" Radio Show

The Mystical Positivist is a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP FM 107.3 Occidental, CA, and on the web at KOWS-LP Live Feed, Saturdays from 4 - 6pm PST. Coming up on The Mystical Positivist:

April 20: A pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod, Buddhist teacher and author of the newly released book, The Magic of Vajrayana. In this conversation, we plan to explore a compelling quote from Ian McGilchrist's The Matter with Things: If you had set out to destroy the happiness and stability of a people, it would have been hard to improve on our current formula: remove yourself as far as possible from the natural world; repudiate the continuity of your culture; believe you are wise enough to do whatever you happen to want and not only get away with it, but have a right to it—and a right to silence those who disagree; minimise the role played by a common body of belief; actively attack and dismantle every social structure as a potential source of oppression; reject the idea of a transcendent set of values.

One of the more innovative Buddhist teachers today, Ken McLeod is known for his clear explanations, poetic translations, and pragmatic approach to practice. He is one of the first generation of Western teachers in the Tibetan tradition and one of the few to be authorized to transmit the full scope of these teachings to students. In particular, his approach resonates strongly with those whose path lies outside established institutions.

After graduating with a degree in mathematics, Ken cycled across Europe to Istanbul and then continued his journey overland to India. In 1970 he met his principal teacher Kalu Rinpoche at his monastery near Darjeeling. There Ken began a study and practice in Tibetan Buddhism that lasted more than twenty years. He completed the traditional three-year retreat program two times, translated for many teachers, and helped set up Buddhist centers in Canada and the United States. After his teacher's passing, Ken moved away from the hierarchical structures of Asian Buddhism to explore new approaches.

In 1990, he founded Unfettered Mind in Los Angeles. His approach of one-on-one consultations roiled the Buddhist world in the early '90s, but was quickly recognized as a viable way to teach and guide students in the West. He made individual interviews a central feature of the many retreats he taught in California, New Mexico, and British Columbia. Through numerous small groups in Southern California, he developed the materials that became the encyclopedic meditation manual, Wake Up to Your Life.

Now retired from formal teaching, he lives in Northern California where he hikes and writes. His writings and translations include The Great Path of Awakening (1987), Wake Up to Your Life (2001), An Arrow to the Heart (2007), Reflections on Silver River (2014), A Trackless Path (2017), and The Magic of Vajrayana (2022), as well as a corpus of articles and translations in Tricycle and other Buddhist magazines.