Saturday, April 1, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #255 - 01APR17

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 on the show, co-host Rob Schmidt flies solo for the second of two weeks while Stuart Goodnick, the Mystical Positivist, is away on business in Europe and India. Rob offers an eclectic mix of musical selections plus inspirational quotations from the world’s great spiritual literature, and what books he has have been reading lately.

    Dr. Robert Schmidt, spiritual director of Tayu Meditation Center, met and began intensive, 24-hour study with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis in 1977. After five remarkable training years, he received ordination as a minister of Tayu, and co-taught with his teacher until Mr. Ennis’ death in 1998. His work with Mr. Ennis included co-writing and publishing a book entitled God Is Gay: An Evolutionary Spiritual Work. Rob succeeded Mr. Ennis as Tayu spiritual director, a post he still holds, in collaboration with yours truly. With Stuart Goodnick and Jim Wilson he co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol in Sebastopol, CA, in 2002.

    Currently he’s collaborating with Stuart Goodnick on an edited volume of talks and writings of Tayu Meditation founder, Robert Daniel Ennis. Along the way, Rob completed a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology at UC Berkeley, where he was co-editor with his grad student colleague Barbara Voss of the award-winning Archaeologies of Sexuality, the first academic edited volume to examine the phenomenon of sexuality as a object of knowledge in archaeological contexts.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, March 25, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #254 - 25MAR17

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 on the show, co-host Rob Schmidt flies solo for the first of two weeks while Stuart Goodnick, the Mystical Positivist, is away on business in Europe and India. Rob offers an eclectic mix of musical selections plus inspirational quotations from the world’s great spiritual literature, and what books he has have been reading lately.

    Dr. Robert Schmidt, spiritual director of Tayu Meditation Center, met and began intensive, 24-hour study with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis in 1977. After five remarkable training years, he received ordination as a minister of Tayu, and co-taught with his teacher until Mr. Ennis’ death in 1998. His work with Mr. Ennis included co-writing and publishing a book entitled God Is Gay: An Evolutionary Spiritual Work. Rob succeeded Mr. Ennis as Tayu spiritual director, a post he still holds, in collaboration with yours truly. With Stuart Goodnick and Jim Wilson he co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol in Sebastopol, CA, in 2002.

    Currently he’s collaborating with Stuart Goodnick on an edited volume of talks and writings of Tayu Meditation founder, Robert Daniel Ennis. Along the way, Rob completed a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology at UC Berkeley, where he was co-editor with his grad student colleague Barbara Voss of the award-winning Archaeologies of Sexuality, the first academic edited volume to examine the phenomenon of sexuality as a object of knowledge in archaeological contexts.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, March 11, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #253 - 11MAR17

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 on the show, we speak by telephone with Robin Bloor. Mr. Bloor was born in Liverpool, England in the 1950s, studied Mathematics at Nottingham University, and eventually became a computer consultant. Aside from his consultancy work he has established a reputation as an international speaker on technology topics and as a writer by virtue of many magazine articles and technical publications. In April 1999 he published his first book, The Electronic B@zaar, which was about the dot com revolution. Much to his surprise it was a UK business best seller and was published a year later in the US, just as the dot com boom turned to bust. It received several accolades, being referred to as "a classic" by Publisher's Weekly in the US.

    He has been involved in The Gurdjieff Work since 1982. In 1988 he met and became a pupil of Rina Hands, an accomplished Gurdjieff Movements teacher, and an inspirational group leader, who died in 1994. In recent years Mr. Bloor has turned his attention to writing about The Gurdjieff Work, and is widely regarded as an expert on Gurdjieff's writings. His series of books under the common title of To Fathom The Gist deal directly with the inner meaning of Gurdjieff's writings. They are gradually being rolled out year by year. Robin is also an attendee and participant in the All & Everything International Conference which takes place every year and focuses on Gurdjieff's writings.

    Robin immigrated to the US in 2002, settling in Texas. In 2003 he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in Computer Science by Wolverhampton University in the UK in recognition of 'Services to the IT Industry'. From 2004 to 2007 he participated in writing three Dummies books on technology: Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies, Service Management for Dummies and Cloud Computing for Dummies.

More information about Robin Bloor's work can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, February 18, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #252 - 18FEB17

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 on the show, we speak in the studio with Beverly Lanzetta, a theologian and spiritual teacher of new traditions of contemplative wisdom. Her career began almost forty years ago with her study of emerging religious paradigms, and their relationship to mystical theology, spiritual healing, energy medicine, and soul guidance in the world’s religions. She was a respected spiritual teacher before receiving her doctor of philosophy degree in theology and contemporary religious thought from Fordham University. Subsequently, she joined the faculties of Villanova University, Prescott College, and Grinnell College, offering courses that honored the rich heritage of the world’s mystical religions and new interfaith, interspiritual traditions emerging in our time.

    Beverly also is the author of seven books on global spirituality and new monasticism, which have won praise for their wisdom, eloquence, and mystical insight, including Nine Jewels of Night: One Soul’s Journey into God; Path of the Heart: A Spiritual Guide To Divine Union; Radical Wisdom: A Feminist Mystical Theology; Emerging Heart: Global Spirituality and the Sacred; and The Other Side of Nothingness: Toward a Theology of Radical Openness Beverly recently formed Blue Sapphire Books to publish works that deepen the contemplative life and bring practical relevance to people exploring an integral, embodied spirituality.

    Dedicated to a vision of theological openness and spiritual nonviolence, Beverly has worked and taught widely, founding a number of religious and monastic initiatives, including the Interfaith Theological Seminary and the Community of a New Monastic Way. She is actively involved in teaching, writing, sacred art, and the formation of (new) clergy, spiritual directors, and monks.

More information about Beverly Lanzetta's work can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, February 4, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #251 - 04FEB17

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 on the show, co-host Rob Schmidt flies solo as Stuart Goodnick, the Mystical Positivist, is away on business. Rob offers an eclectic mix of musical selections plus inspirational quotations from the world’s great spiritual literature, and what books he has have been reading lately.

    Dr. Robert Schmidt, spiritual director of Tayu Meditation Center, met and began intensive, 24-hour study with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis in 1977. After five remarkable training years, he received ordination as a minister of Tayu, and co-taught with his teacher until Mr. Ennis’ death in 1998. His work with Mr. Ennis included co-writing and publishing a book entitled God Is Gay: An Evolutionary Spiritual Work. Rob succeeded Mr. Ennis as Tayu spiritual director, a post he still holds, in collaboration with yours truly. With Stuart Goodnick and Jim Wilson he co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol in Sebastopol, CA, in 2002.

    Currently he’s collaborating with Stuart Goodnick on an edited volume of talks and writings of Tayu Meditation founder, Robert Daniel Ennis. Along the way, Rob completed a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology at UC Berkeley, where he was co-editor with his grad student colleague Barbara Voss of the award-winning Archaeologies of Sexuality, the first academic edited volume to examine the phenomenon of sexuality as a object of knowledge in archaeological contexts.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #250 - 28JAN17

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 on the show, we speak in the studio with Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D. DHL. (Doctor of Humane Letters). Born and raised in outback Australia, Roger graduated from Australia’s Queensland University with degrees in psychology, physiology, neuroscience, and medicine, and then came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar. He is now at the University of California at Irvine where he is professor of psychiatry, philosophy, and anthropology, as well as a professor in the religious studies program.

    Roger’s research and writings span several areas. These include the nature of psychological health and well-being, meditation and contemplative practices, religion and spirituality, wisdom and other virtues, integral studies, and the psychological roots of our current global crises. He is deeply immersed in contemplative practices as a student, researcher, and teacher.

    Roger’s books include Paths Beyond Ego (one of Common Boundary’s “Most Influential Books”), Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives (which received the “Outstanding Academic Book of the Year Award”), Essential Spirituality: The Seven Central Practices with a foreword by The Dalai Lama, and The World of Shamanism. He is currently editing The World’s Great Wisdom: What Sages Say about Living Wisely and Well.

    Collectively, Roger’s writings and research have received over two dozen national and international awards and honors, while his teaching has received one national and six university awards. He recently received the University of California at Irvine’s Distinguished Writer Award.

    In his other lives, Roger was formerly a circus acrobat, as well as a record holder in high diving and trampolining. Recently, he graduated from the San Francisco Comedy College and tried his hand, rather unsuccessfully, at stand-up comedy. He is married to the psychologist Frances Vaughan and together they have co-authored several books.
More information about Roger Walsh's work can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, January 21, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #249 - 21JAN17

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 on the show, we speak by telephone with Bandhu Dunham, author of Creative Life: Spirit, Power and Relationship in the Practice of Art. An internationally respected glass artist, author and teacher, Bandhu's work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums in the US and abroad, and his Contemporary Lampworking books are the authoritative, standard instructional texts in the field. Our conversation will focus on his book Creative Life, about the interface of art and spirituality in everyday life. In language that is both elegant and streetwise, compassionate and tough, the author takes issue with the self-indulgent devolution of much contemporary art. His reflections about the nature of "spirit" - which he defines not in terms of religious dogma but as creative inspiration - affirm, moreover, that art is meant to be shared.

    Painters, dancers, sculptors, musicians and other artists throughout the ages have used their creative work for greater self-knowledge, exploring the motivations, moods and meanings that affect a human being. For many artists, their expressions have provided an entry point to a deeper, objective, more ultimate dimension of life - which they have commonly identified as the "numinous" or "spiritual." Creative Life presents practical ways and means whereby any serious artist can use his or her life and practice for developing greater clarity, dignity, generosity, and more profound insight.
More information about Bandhu Dunham's work can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, January 14, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #248 - 14JAN17

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 on the Mystical Positivist hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt review a recent talk entitled The Chaos of Karma that they gave at Many Rivers Books & Tea on Thursday Jan. 12, 2017. They discuss various themes on the subject of karma: what it is, what it isn’t, and why it is beneficial and important for spiritual practitioners to develop clarity about this concept.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, January 7, 2017

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #247 - 07JAN17

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 spiritual artist, Narasimha. Narasimha (Marcus Allsop), a longtime student of Indian spirituality under the guidance of Baul Khepa Lee Lozowick and his guru, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, was educated in the north of England, and studied fine art at Newcastle College of Arts and Technology. He has been painting Deities for over twenty years. Nara paints in both the Hindu and Vajrayana Buddhist sacred art traditions. He trained with renowned artist and writer Robert Beer for five years. Nara travels to India for darshan (sacred sighting) of her various Deities on a regular basis and currently resides in rural Arizona where he helps facilitate a retreat center by cooking, chanting, and meditating.

    In additional to his considerable artistic work, Nara is also the author of several books including Western Sadhus And Sannyasins In India, We Like Our Teeth, and We Like To Help Cook. This conversation was recorded at Triveni Ashram in Northern Arizona.
More information about Narasimha's work can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

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:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

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:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

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:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, November 26, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #243 - 26NOV16

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 Stephen Batchelor, a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. In particular, he regards the doctrines of karma and rebirth to be features of ancient Indian civilization and not intrinsic to what the Buddha taught. Buddhism has survived for the past 2,500 years because of its capacity to reinvent itself in accord with the needs of the different Asian societies with which it has creatively interacted throughout its history. As Buddhism encounters modernity, it enters a vital new phase of its development. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism's role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer.

    Stephen was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1953. He grew up in a humanist environment with his mother Phyllis and brother David in Watford, north west of London. At the age of eighteen, he travelled overland to India, settling in Dharamsala, the capital-in-exile of the Dalai Lama, and studied at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives with Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. He was ordained as a novice Buddhist monk in 1974. He left India in 1975 in order to study Buddhist philosophy and doctrine under the guidance of Geshe Rabten in Switzerland, and in the following year he received full ordination as a Buddhist monk. In 1979 he moved to Germany as a translator for Geshe Thubten Ngawang at the Tibetisches Institut, Hamburg. In April 1981 he travelled to Song-gwang-sa Monastery in South Korea to train in Zen Buddhism under the guidance of Kusan Sunim. He remained in Korea until the autumn of 1984, when he left for a pilgrimage to Japan, China and Tibet.

    He disrobed in February 1985 and married Martine Fages in Hong Kong before returning to England. From 1990 he has been a Guiding Teacher at Gaia House meditation centre in Devon and since 1992 a contributing editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. In August 2000, he and Martine moved to Aquitaine, France, where they live in a small village near Bordeaux with their cat Zoë. While at home he pursues his work as a scholar, writer and artist. For several months each year, he travels worldwide to lead meditation retreats and teach Buddhism. He is the translator and author of various books and articles on Buddhism including the bestselling Buddhism Without Beliefs and Living with the Devil: A Meditation on Good and Evil. His most recent books are Confession of a Buddhist Atheist and After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age.
More information about Stephen Batchelor's can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, November 19, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #242 - 19NOV16

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 on the show an in-studio conversation with author Theresa C. Dintino, an ancestral Strega (Italian wise woman), Earth worker, and initiated diviner. For more than 20 years Theresa has studied and practiced an Earth-based spirituality. In 2011, she was initiated as a diviner in a West African tradition. She currently helps others reclaim their personal lineages through her divination work. Theresa is the author of the Tree Medicine Trilogy which includes: The Amazon Pattern: A Message from Ancient Women Diviners of Trees and Time, Notes From a Diviner in the Postmodern World: A Handbook for Spirit Workers, and Teachings from the Trees: Spiritual Mentoring from the Standing Ones. Theresa is also the author of The Strega and the Dreamer, a work of historical fiction based in the true story of her great grandparents, Ode to Minoa and Stories They Told Me, two novels exploring the life of a snake priestess in Bronze Age Crete, and Welcoming Lilith: Awakening and Welcoming Pure Female Power.
More information about Theresa Dintino's can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, November 12, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #241 - 12NOV16

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:
  • With regular host, Stuart Goodnick, the Mystical Positivist, out of town once again this week, co-host Rob Schmidt flies solo on today’s show. He writes:
  • With Stuart’s absence, and as responses to the 2016 US national election emerge all around the world, on this week’s show I have decided that continuation of last week’s focus on “something different” is in order for this installment of the show. As I said last week, the conversation about who’s up and who’s down in our social hierarchies and distribution of power distracts us from contemplation of those questions that will always remain larger than the ups and downs of wins and losses. I don’t at all mean to suggest that the political questions at stake in the aftermath of the election are trivial; far from it. What I want to create in this installment of the show is a reminder that there are contexts even bigger than politics, bigger than the zero-sum game of human social hierarchies, the game where I believe that if I win, you must lose, and vice versa. So instead of our usual fare of conversation, this week the Mystical Positivist offers an eclectic mix of music, interspersed with readings of short quotes and longer passages from books, literature, and sacred texts that I appreciate. I’ve brought along a big bag of books, and a bag of cds, and don’t know what I’ll play and what I’ll read. We’ll let ourselves discover all that together in each moment during the next two hours. For now, I invite listeners to relax in whatever way seems appropriate, and let a more contemplative, generous space open among us.
Dr. Robert Schmidt, spiritual director of Tayu Meditation Center, met and began intensive, 24-hour study with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis in 1977. After five remarkable training years, he received ordination as a minister of Tayu, and co-taught with his teacher until Mr. Ennis’ death in 1998. His work with Mr. Ennis included co-writing and publishing a book entitled God Is Gay: An Evolutionary Spiritual Work. Rob succeeded Mr. Ennis as Tayu spiritual director, a post he still holds, in collaboration with yours truly. With Stuart Goodnick and Jim Wilson he co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol in Sebastopol, CA, in 2002. 
Currently he’s collaborating with practitioners of many spiritual traditions to create the Conscious Family Festival, a community event scheduled for October 2016 in Santa Rosa, CA. Along the way, Rob completed a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology at UC Berkeley, where he was co-editor with his grad student colleague Barbara Voss of the award-winning Archaeologies of Sexuality, the first academic edited volume to examine the phenomenon of sexuality as a object of knowledge in archaeological contexts.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, November 5, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #240 - 05NOV16

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:
  • With regular host, Stuart Goodnick, the Mystical Positivist, out of town this week, co-host Rob Schmidt flies solo on today’s show. He writes: 
  • With Stuart’s absence, and as the paroxysm of the 2016 US national election draws to its close this coming Tuesday, I have decided that something different is in order for this installment of the show. The national conversation about who’s up and who’s down distracts us from contemplation of those questions that will always remain larger than political wins and losses. I don’t at all mean to suggest that the political questions at stake in this election are trivial; far from it. In fact I am persuaded that the great dis-ease of politics we are currently experiencing, in both the US and abroad, offers both profound dangers as well as enormous possibilities for the future. Yet I also want to create in this installment of the show a format that can be helpful to remind us that there are contexts even bigger than politics. So instead of our usual fare of conversation, this week the Mystical Positivist offers an eclectic mix of music, interspersed with inspirational short quotes and longer passages from some of my favorite spiritual/religious literature. I’ve brought along a big bag of books, and a bag of cds, and I am not even sure, at the moment, what I’ll play and what I’ll read. We’ll let ourselves discover all that together in each moment during the next two hours. For now, I invite listeners to relax in whatever way seems appropriate, and let a more contemplative, generous space open among us.
Dr. Robert Schmidt, spiritual director of Tayu Meditation Center, met and began intensive, 24-hour study with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis in 1977. After five remarkable training years, he received ordination as a minister of Tayu, and co-taught with his teacher until Mr. Ennis’ death in 1998. His work with Mr. Ennis included co-writing and publishing a book entitled God Is Gay: An Evolutionary Spiritual Work. Rob succeeded Mr. Ennis as Tayu spiritual director, a post he still holds, in collaboration with yours truly. With Stuart Goodnick and Jim Wilson he co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol in Sebastopol, CA, in 2002. 
Currently he’s collaborating with practitioners of many spiritual traditions to create the Conscious Family Festival, a community event scheduled for October 2016 in Santa Rosa, CA. Along the way, Rob completed a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology at UC Berkeley, where he was co-editor with his grad student colleague Barbara Voss of the award-winning Archaeologies of Sexuality, the first academic edited volume to examine the phenomenon of sexuality as a object of knowledge in archaeological contexts.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, October 29, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #239 - 29OCT16

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 in the studio with Ken McLeod, a senior Western translator, author and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He received traditional training mainly in the Shangpa and Kagyu lineages through a long association with his principal teacher Kalu Rinpoche, whom he met in 1970. Under Kalu Rinpoche’s guidance McLeod learned the Tibetan language and completed two, traditional three-year retreats (1976-83). In the years that followed, he traveled and worked with Kalu Rinpoche on various projects and became a respected interpreter and translator of Buddhist texts.

    After Kalu Rinpoche’s passing in 1989, McLeod established Unfettered Mind in Los Angeles as a place for those whose path lies outside established institutions. In the early ’90 his private practice model of one-on-one consultations on Buddhist practice roiled the Buddhist world, only to become an accepted model for Buddhist teaching in the West. McLeod has always been concerned with translation, including the translation of texts, of rituals, of practices and of teaching methods. Currently his interest is in presenting traditional Buddhist teachers to bring out their mystical basis and orientation. His books include The Great Path of Awakening (1987), Wake Up to Your Life (2001), An Arrow to the Heart (2007), Reflections on Silver River (2014) and most recently A Trackless Path (2016).
More information about Ken McLeod's work and interests can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, October 22, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #238 - 22OCT16

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 Alexandra Pfohlmann. Alexandra Pfohlmann has over twenty-five years experience in the study and practice of Buddhist philosophy and meditation. For the last fifteen years she has lectured at the Buddhistiche Academie Berlin-Brandenburg and for the last three years she has also served as a meditation teacher at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. Now, through workshops and lectures, she offers a range of guidance and perspective for people engaged in spiritual practice. In doing so, she takes a highly individual approach. She writes: "For a long time, I felt that Buddhist practice, and more generally spiritual practice, had to take place within the spheres defined by the great spiritual traditions. While I have a deep respect for these approaches, the circumstances of my life have shown me that at a certain point, one has to embark on one's own path, and it is that transition that interests me in my work with people today."
More information about Alexandra Pfohlmann's work can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, October 15, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #237 - 15OCT16

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 on the show we converse in the studio with Kalia Chan, author of the recently published novel A Treasure of the Heart: A Journey of Satsang, Awakening, and Evolution. In 2003, after sitting with Adyashanti for a couple of years, Kalia Chan experienced a “recognition”. He continued to sit with Adyashanti for another five years. In 2009, the skillful means of Vajrayana awoke an ongoing process of energy and penetrating awareness. A few years ago, another “recognition”, this one brilliant luminosity, occurred in the presence of Ammachi, the “hugging saint.” Kalia currently lives near Sebastopol, California with his cat, Lion.
More information about Kalia Chan's work can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA

Saturday, October 1, 2016

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #236 - 01OCT16

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 on the Mystical Positivist, hosts Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick speak about the upcoming Conscious Family Festival happening on Saturday Oct. 8 in Santa Rosa, California. In the second hour, riffing on some of the themes emerging from the first hour, they discuss personal, institutional, and spiritual authority. How do spiritual practitioners identify their own impulses toward bullying others, and toward being complicit in others bullying them?

    Dr. Robert Schmidt, spiritual director of Tayu Meditation Center, met and began intensive, 24-hour study with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis in 1977. After five remarkable training years, he received ordination as a minister of Tayu, and co-taught with his teacher until Mr. Ennis’ death in 1998. His work with Mr. Ennis included co-writing and publishing a book entitled God Is Gay: An Evolutionary Spiritual Work. Rob succeeded Mr. Ennis as Tayu spiritual director, a post he still holds, in collaboration with yours truly. With Stuart Goodnick and Jim Wilson he co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol in Sebastopol, CA, in 2002.

    Currently he’s collaborating with practitioners of many spiritual traditions to create the Conscious Family Festival, a community event scheduled for October 2016 in Santa Rosa, CA. Along the way, Rob completed a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology at UC Berkeley, where he was co-editor with his grad student colleague Barbara Voss of the award-winning Archaeologies of Sexuality, the first academic edited volume to examine the phenomenon of sexuality as a object of knowledge in archaeological contexts.

    Stuart Goodnick, the Mystical Positivist, has been a practitioner of Tayu Meditation since 1985 and a Tayu Meditation instructor since 1993. He holds degrees in Physics from Caltech and UCSC, and has been an engineering manager in the electronics and software security industries since 1989. Stuart has also been a student of the shakuhachi (Japanese Bamboo flute) under Master Masayuki Koga since 1996. In recent years Stuart has been applying the principles of spiritual practice and transformation in daily life as a senior executive in both Silicon Valley start-ups and global industrial manufacturers. He co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea with Robert Schmidt and Jim Wilson in Sebastopol in 2002.

    A frequent writer and speaker on spiritual topics, Stuart maintains that rationality is no way the antithesis of deep mystical experience, but is in fact a necessary ally. He is currently working on a compilation of some of his essays and transcriptions of talks to be released later in 2016.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
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Location: Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA
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