The Mystical Positivist: September 2012

Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #87 - 29SEP12

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 Dale & Barbara Ver Kuilen, founders of the Midwest Soto Zen Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Renshin Barbara Ver Kuilen was a student of Buddhism for thirty years prior to her ordination in 1997. She has practiced under the guidance of three Soto Zen priests: Matsuoka Soyu Roshi, Katagiri Dainin Roshi and Rev. Shoken Winecoff. Her experience includes various forms of Buddhist study, including both lay and monastic training. She has blended this continuous practice with careers in education and psychotherapy, and the many responsibilities of a householder - wife and mother. She holds a BA in Education and a MS in Counseling and Guidance. Barbara and her husband Dale, also a Zen priest, co-founded the Midwest Soto Zen Community in 2001, based in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to the Tale of Bho Li, she is also the author of Dokusan with Dogen: Timeless Lessons in Negotiating the Way. With her husband Dale, she co-authored Tending the Fire: An Introspective Guide to Zen Awakening.

Taizen Dale Ver Kuilen has been studying Buddhism since 1967. After practicing a year each at the Chicago and San Francisco Zen Centers he lived at the Long Beach Zen Center and studied with Matsuoka Roshi. He was ordained in 1970 and practiced as a priest assisting and leading introductory workshops on the Method of Zen, as well as performing all the administrative and religious duties associated with running a non-residential urban Zen center. After ten years he pursued a career in business continuing his study as a lay practitioner with Katagiri Roshi. He was re-ordained in 2000. He holds an Associate degree in Electronics and a BS in Management Science.

More information about Dale and Barbara Ver Kuilen's work can be found at:

Firethroat Press website: www.firethroatpress.com
The Midwest Soto Zen Center website: www.mszc.org

Saturday, September 22, 2012

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #86 - 22SEP12

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 Robert McDowell. Robert McDowell is the author of five books of poetry and the Amazon.com bestselling book Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions (Free Press/Simon & Schuster 2008). Robert is also the co-author of two volumes of literary theory, co-translator of a collection of stories by Ota Pavel that has just been reprinted in the eastern European Penguin Classics Series, and the editor of three anthologies. His poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of anthologies and periodicals here and abroad, including Best American Poetry, Poetry, London Magazine, The New Criterion, Sewanee Review, and The Hudson Review. A Woolrich Fellow at Columbia University, a Walter E. Dakin Fellow at the Sewanee Writers Conference, and a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, Robert has led retreats and taught at Esalen, Kripalu, and Pine Manor, and in Bennington College’s low-residency M.F.A. Program, the University of Southern Indiana, UC Santa Cruz, Taos Writers Conference, Sewanee Writers Conference, Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Killybegs Festival in Ireland, West Chester Conference on Form and Narrative, and many other venues.

Robert leads workshops and retreats for beginners and experienced practitioners who want to discover their own hero’s journey through poetry and journaling. He also offers one-on-one editing and mentoring services and enjoys speaking to businesses and groups interested in improving performance and morale by deepening spiritual awareness, listening, communication, writing, and presentation skills.

More information about Robert McDowell's work can be found at:

Robert McDowell's website: www.robertmcdowell.net

Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #85 - 15SEP12

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:

Host Stuart Goodnick offers readings and reflections on his 9/11/01 essay The Practice of Patriotism, material from Fourth Way writer Terje Tonne, and excerpts from E.J. Gold’s Psyche and Essence - Their Nature and Construction.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com
Tayu Meditation Center Website: www.tayu.org/~tayu/
Old Many Rivers Blog: www.manyriversbooks.com/blog1/
FaceBook page for the Festival of Conscious Parenting: FOCP

Saturday, September 8, 2012

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #84 - 08SEP12

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 hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt on Poetry as a Spiritual Practice featuring readings from Robert McDowell's Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions and Thomas Merton's The Way of Chuang Tzu. The second half of the show features a discussion of a special sonic form of meditation called "Alea Meditation" as well a sample recording of an Alea session.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com
Tayu Meditation Center Website: www.tayu.org/~tayu/
Old Many Rivers Blog: www.manyriversbooks.com/blog1/
FaceBook page for the Festival of Conscious Parenting: FOCP

Saturday, September 1, 2012

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #83 - 01SEP12

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 Andy Ferguson, hosted by Nicholas Egan. Andy Ferguson graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Chinese studies from the University of Oregon in 1973. The same year he moved to Kyoto, and subsequently to Taipei, where he studied Japanese and Chinese respectively. He first entered and traveled in mainland China in 1978, before the economic reforms, and subsequently lived in Singapore and Hong Kong where he worked as the Manager for East Asia for a USA company. At that time he began locating and studying a wide variety of Chinese historic cultural sites, especially temples related to the Chinese Chan tradition.

He is the author of Tracking Bodhidharma: A Journey to the Heart of Chinese Culture, which offers a previously unheard perspective on the life of Zen’s most important religious leader, while simultaneously showing how that history is relevant to the rapidly developing super-power that is present-day China. He is also the author of Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and their Teachings, a book in which he translated the teachings of more than 150 ancient Chinese Zen masters. This book is widely used as a reference book in academic and religious culture circles. He has also produced a two hour video DVD about Chinese history and culture, designed for people who didn’t take two semesters of Chinese history in college but want to know about China in depth before they go there. He lectures frequently on Chinese culture to community groups in North America and is one of a few Americans who gives lectures in China to groups on topics of historical interest.

More recently Andy organized a company called “South Mountain China Tours” that offers unique itineraries and perspectives on East Asian Culture. The tours focus on art, history, flower culture, religious history, and other educational and cultural topics. Some of the tours visit and stay at famous Chinese religious monasteries and other places where participants learn about all aspects of Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism in situ. With his long-time friend and renowned translator Red Pine, Andy has photographed sites for virtually all the early Zen masters of the Chinese Chan tradition, from Bodhidharma down through many generations of teachers. He recently was the first American to attend the annual ceremony honoring Bodhidharma at his burial temple, Empty Form, in North China.

More information about Andy Ferguson's work can be found at:

South Mountain China Tours website: www.southmountaintours.com

"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.