Saturday, December 31, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #246 - 31DEC16

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:
  • This week we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Wendy Garling and Ayya Tathaaloka.

    Wendy Garling is the author of the recently published book Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddhas’s Life, a retelling of the ancient legends of the women in the Buddha’s intimate circle. In Garling’s book, lesser-known stories from Sanskrit and Pali sources are for the first time woven into an illuminating, coherent narrative. The narrative is interspersed with original insights, fresh interpretations, and bold challenges to the status quo.

    Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni is an American-born Theravada nun, scholar and Buddhist teacher. She is the first Western woman to be designated as Theravadan Bhikkhuni Preceptor (Pavattini/Upajjhaya), and she has contributed to the going forth and full ordination of women as bhikkhunis in the USA, Australia, India and Thailand. Ven Tathaaloka currently serves as the founding abbess of both the Dhammadharini Monastery in Penngrove and the Aranya Bodhi Hermitage on the Sonoma Coast in Northern California. She also teaches where invited around the greater San Francisco Bay Area, in other states, and internationally.
More information about Wendy Garling's work can be found at:
More information about Ayya Tathaaloka's work can be found at:

Saturday, December 17, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #245 - 17DEC16

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:
  • This week our guest in the studio is Myosho Virginia Matthews. Myosho Virgina Matthews finds her life support in the three pillars of family life, spiritual practice and her work as dancer/choreographer/teacher. She has been a student of Rinzai Zen master, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki for 40 years, taking ordination in 2000 and dedicating the last 16 years to co-creating family Zen practices and leading women’s retreats. Concurrently she has had a professional dance career and has taught dance to all ages, from 3 to 73. She is the director of The Downtown Dance/Art Space in Sebastopol where she teaches dance, Pilates mat class and offers meditation through Dharma Heart Center. She is a graduate of The Buddhist Chaplaincy Program and is featured in the book, The Unknown She: Eight Faces of Emerging Consciousness. She is in a committed 45 year marriage and the mother of 3 grown sons.
More information about Myosho Virginia Mathews's work can be found at:

Saturday, December 10, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #244 - 10DEC16

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:
  • This week our guest in the studio is Robert Meikyo Rosenbaum, co-editor of the book recently published by Wisdom Press entitled What’s Wrong with Mindfulness (And What Isn’t). Robert Rosenbaum, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist and psychotherapist in the San Francisco Bay area, a Zen practice leader and senior teacher of Dayan Qigong, and a mountaineer. He brings a lifetime of practice to the moment-by-moment harmonization of body, mind, and spirit.

    Bob began Zen practice in 1971; since 1988 he has practiced at the Berkeley Zen Center in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. Bob's dharma name is Meiko Onzen ("Clear Mirror, Calm Sitting"). He was given lay entrustment by his teacher, Sojun Mel Weitsman, in 2010 and has since been active in the Lay Zen Teachers' Association of North America. He is the founding teacher of the Meadowmount Sangha in the Sierra foothills.

    Bob received authorization to teach Dayan ("Wild Goose") Qigong in 1999 from Master Hui Liu of the Wen Wu School in the tradition of Grandmaster Yang Mei Jun. Bob regularly teaches qigong at the Wen Wu school and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Ten years ago he began the first qigong program to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland; since then it has spread to many other medical centers.

    In order to devote himself full time to Zen and Qigong practice, Bob recently retired from 25 years in Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers, working in the Departments of Psychiatry, Behavioral Medicine, and Neurology. While there he served as chief psychologist and as the head of assessment services, and developed a mindfulness-based program for patients with chronic pain. Bob initiated training programs in neuropsychology, hypnosis, and brief psychotherapy and held grants researching dementia and adult attention deficit disorder.

    Bob is the author of numerous journal articles and the books Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy and Walking the Way: 81 Zen Encounters with the Tao Te Ching.

    Bob has been a Fulbright Professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience in Bangalore, India; director of the psychology doctoral program at the California Institute of Integral Studies; and was active in the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration. He has given presentations and workshops around the world, including in Nepal, India, Australia, Japan, Europe and South America.

    Bob has been a lifelong avid backpacker in the Sierras and Cascades. Since 2000, he has spent one or two months each year in the Himalayas. He assisted his friend, Robin Boustead, in the development of portions of the Great Himalaya Trail across Nepal and India. Bob is the proud father of two grown daughters who are enthusiastic climbers, lovers of the outdoors, and committed to social justice.
More information about Robert Meikyo Rosenbaum's work can be found at: