The Mystical Positivist: March 2014

Saturday, March 29, 2014

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #149 - 29MAR14

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 Shinzen Young. Shinzen Young became fascinated with Asian culture while a teenager in Los Angeles. Later he enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Eventually, he went to Asia and did extensive training in each of the three major Buddhist traditions: Vajrayana, Zen and Vipassana. Upon returning to the United States, his academic interests shifted to the burgeoning dialogue between Eastern meditation and Western science.

Shinzen is known for his innovative “interactive, algorithmic approach” to mindfulness, a system specifically designed for use in pain management, recovery support, and as an adjunct to psychotherapy. He is the founder of Vipassana Support International, a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to aid all those who desire to further and deepen their meditation practice. He leads meditation retreats throughout North America and has helped establish numerous mindfulness centers and programs. He also consults widely on meditation-related research, in both the clinical and the basic science domains.

He often says: “My life’s passion lies in exploring what may arise from the cross-fertilization of the best of the East with the best of the West.”

More information about Shinzen Young's work and interests can be found at:

Shinzen Young's website: www.shinzen.org
Basic Mindfulness website: www.basicmindfulness.org
Shinzen Young on Wikapedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinzen_Young

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #148 - 22MAR14

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:

Part 1: A conversation with Cassandra Vieten. Cassandra Vieten, PhD, is President/CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Previously she served as Executive Director of Research. She is a licensed clinical psychologist, co-director of the Mind-Body Medicine Research Group at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, and co-president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the State of California, and several private donors and foundations, her research has focused on spirituality and health; development and pilot testing of mindfulness-based approaches to cultivating emotional balance (primarily in the areas of addiction and pregnancy/postpartum well-being); and factors, experiences, and practices involved in psycho-spiritual transformation to a more meaningful, compassionate, and service-oriented way of life. Her primary interest lies in how psychology, biology, and spirituality interact to affect experience and behavior.

She completed her pre- and post-doctoral research training at The University of California, San Francisco, working primarily on the biological and psychological underpinnings of addiction and alcoholism.

She received her PhD in clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where her clinical training focused on the integration of Eastern philosophy and spirituality into psychotherapy. She has conducted workshops, groups, and individual psychotherapy with victims of trauma, adolescent, adult and pregnant drug addicts, violent offenders, transgendered and HIV+ individuals, and adults seeking personal growth.

She has authored books, chapters, and academic articles, as well as presenting at numerous international scientific conferences, trainings for colleagues and students, and workshops and events for the lay public. She is co-author of Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life and author of Mindful Motherhood: Practical Tools for Staying Sane During Pregnancy and Your Child's First Year.
Part 2: Co-hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt continue a discussion of the themes raised in the first hour of the program.

More information about Cassandra Vieten's work and interests can be found at:

Biography and links on the IONS website: www.noetic.org/directory/person/cassandra-vieten/
Mindful Motherhood online course: Mindful-Motherhood-Course

Saturday, March 8, 2014

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #147 - 08MAR14

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 Purna Steinitz. From a young age, Purna Steinitz stood up for children who were being picked on. He has always been a champion of the downtrodden, and a stand for the truth being told.

In 1975, Purna was found by his spiritual Master Lee Lozowick. Over the next 23 years, with the perseverance and patience of his teacher, he trained in what it means to live a spiritual life. Along the way, he participated in the early 1990s in a workshop called The Game, lead by transactional analyst Ken Windes, who had been in prison for 16 years and was now leading a transformational workshop. At the conclusion of the workshop, Ken invited Purna to train to offer the workshop himself. This lead to twenty years spent leading personal development programs with individuals and organizations. He is the founder of The Event training and the CAMP program, which have touched the lives of thousands of people. Moved by the horror and need of individuals who live in prison in the United States, Purna also founded the CHANGES program which is dedicated to sowing seeds of dignity and self-respect in this environment.

In 1998, Purna was empowered as a teacher in the line of Lee Lozowick spiritual Master Yogi Ramsuratkumar. He started the Trimurti community which is devoted to the transmission of a traditional spiritual path as taught by the Bauls of Bengal, India. As a guide for members of Trimurti, he authored the book Upasritan: Nuts and Bolts. Purna strongly believes in community, not in the sense that people have to live with one another, but rather are working closely together for the sake of transformation. This, he has said, is the true healing force available to us on the path in this time of great turmoil on the planet.

More information about Purna Steinitz's work and interests can be found at:

The Event Training website: www.theeventtraining.com
Crushed By Love Part 1 Podcast: Crushed By Love Part 1
Crushed By Love Part 2 Podcast: Crushed By Love Part 2

"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.