Saturday, May 31, 2025

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #431 - 31MAY25

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Neil Douglas-Klotz about his latest book, The Aramaic Jesus Book of Days – 40 Days of Contemplation and Revelation, published this year by Hampton Roads. This latest volume offers new translations from Jesus’ native language in the form of a meditation a day, an oracle, or a guide for a 40-day retreat. Through expansions of Aramaic’s multiple meanings as well as guided contemplations, The Aramaic Jesus Book of Days provides a guide to transformation through the way of the prophet. It shows how the deepest teachings of Jesus address contemporary challenges, such as our relationships with nature and each other, as well as the purpose of life itself.

In short chapters, the book takes up life themes you’re facing and offers meditations to address them. Each chapter is introduced with a short saying and keyword of Jesus, heard with “Aramaic ears,” and then proceeds to show how this applies to a life issue today. This book offers a unique perspective on Jesus’s teachings that can help you to connect with them on a deeper level and live a more authentic, fulfilling, and compassionate life.

Neil Douglas-Klotz is an internationally known scholar in the fields connecting religious studies (comparative Semitic hermeneutics) and psychology as well as a poet and musician. He is the author of Revelations of the Aramaic JesusPrayers of the Cosmos, and The Hidden Gospel and coauthor of The Tent of Abraham with Sister Joan Chittister and Rabbi Arthur Waskow. He is the past chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion.


More information about Neil Douglas-Klotz's work can be found at:

The Abwoon Network website: abwoon.org,

Dances of Universal Peace website: dancesofuniversalpeace.org,

Neil Douglas-Klotz on Facebook: www.facebook.com,

Neil Douglas-Klots on The Mystical Positivist - 2022: mysticalpositivist.blogspot.com,

Neil Douglas-Klots on The Mystical Positivist - 2019: mysticalpositivist.blogspot.com.

Saturday, May 17, 2025

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #430 - 17MAY25


This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with David Brazier (aka Dharmavidya), author of many books including The Dark Side of the Mirror: Forgetting the Self in Dogen's Genjo Koan, Authentic Life: Buddhist Teachings and Stories, and The Feeling Buddha: A Buddhist Psychology of Character, Adversity and Passion. In this wide ranging discussion we cover Dharmavidya’s spiritual biography and his work with teachers such as Kennett Roshi and Thích Nhat Hanh, the Pure Land Buddhist tradition, other-powered practice versus self-powered practice, Dogen's Genjo Koan, and much more.

David Brazier, PhD, born 1947, is a Buddhist teacher and an authority on Buddhist psychology. Revelations that came to him in childhood set him on a unique course and his long career has included much travel, study, and spiritual practice leading to teaching, writing books, founding a Buddhist religious order, being a psychotherapist, doing social work and community development, aiding refugees, protesting war and the arms trade, promoting inter-religious harmony, and many other turns. His often unconventional ideas are products of this experience and of learning at the feet of some of the leading spiritual masters of our times. Reading his books will give you plenty to think about and may open doors to a fresh understanding of the heart and mind, grace and freedom.


More information about David Brazier's work can be found at:
 
Dharma Cloud Temple website: eleusis.ning.com,
 
Buddhist Psychology website: buddhistpsychology.ning.com.