The Mystical Positivist: The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #106

Saturday, February 16, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #106 - 16FEB13

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 Kenneth "Bear Hawk" Cohen, author of the critically acclaimed classic, Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing. He is a health educator, a traditional healer, and scholar of indigenous medicine. Bear Hawk is the recipient of the Alyce and Elmer Green Award for Innovation and Lifetime Achievement in Energy Medicine. Although best known for his pioneering work in Chinese healing arts (qigong), he has followed the "red road" of Native American wisdom as his personal spiritual path for more than thirty-five years.

Of Russian Jewish ancestry, Bear Hawk is an adopted member of a Cree family from Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Canada and teaches with the blessings and support of traditional elders of many Nations. He is an initiate of the Red Cedar Circle and various medicine societies. Bear Hawk was an apprentice to Cherokee spiritual teacher Keetoowah Christie, from 1977-87. He also trained with elders from the Northeast, Northwest, and Northern Plains.

In his quest for the common root of healing, Bear Hawk was initiated into Filipino oracion, prayer healing and psychic surgery, after a five year course of study. He studied African medicine with the Zulu sangoma, Ingwe, in the lineage of the Holy Man, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, and is a keeper of the sacred "bones" used in divination. Bear Hawk was one of four North American students of a master healer of the Igbo Tribe, Nigeria, and is an initiated dibia (priest/diviner).

In addition to writing Honoring the Medicine, Bear Hawk is the author of "Native American Medicine" in Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This was the first work on Native American medicine to be included in a U.S. medical school textbook. He is also the author of Native Wisdom: 7 Keys to Health and Happiness (Sounds True, audio CD) and more than 200 journal articles on health and spirituality.

More information about Ken "Bear Hawk" Cohen's work can be found at:

Honoring the Medicine website: www.sacredearthcircle.com
Ken Cohen's website: www.kennethcohen.com
The Qigong Research & Practice Center website: www.qigonghealing.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.