The Mystical Positivist: The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #193

Saturday, August 22, 2015

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #193 - 22AUG15

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:

An in-studio conversation with Rick Whitney, author of AlignIt: A Tale of a New Civilization. This sophisticated utopian novel, set in an imagined context on San Francisco Bay, posits a kind of reformed university that brings together ancient sacred sciences with contemporary, cutting edge sciences. The novel discusses many alternative ideas about economics, society, community, human nature, and the ultimate concern of human life.

Rick Whitney is a pseudonym adopted for publication of AlignIt. Regarding the adoption of a nom-de-plume, on the AlignIt website Rick writes: “I chose a pseudonym to keep a fire wall between my public role at the university I work for and my private interest in writing and developing the ideas expressed in AlignIt…. At the university, I have a public role as director of an office. It's an externally facing role. People around the world Google me or look me up on LinkedIn prior to calling or meeting. And I have colleagues at the university itself, of course. It seemed prudent to keep the two distinct--my professional life and my writing life… AlignIt is fiction, not a guide for how I run the office, do my work, or meet with guests…. I articulated expansive views in AlignIt, including alternative models of university structure, research and technology transfer. They're experimental, hypothetical, fictional. To me, this is a worthwhile private endeavor. ”

More information about Rick Whitney's work can be found at:

The AlignIt website: alignit.blogspot.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.