The Mystical Positivist: January 2017

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:

Roger Walsh's Website: www.drrogerwalsh.com
Roger Walsh at UC Irvine: www.faculty.uci.edu
Roger Walsh on YouTube.com: www.youtube.com

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:

Bandhu Dunham's Website: www.bandhu.info
Bandhu Dunham on the Artful Home Website: www.artfulhome.com
Salusa Glassworks Website: www.salusaglassworks.com

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:

Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com
Conscious Family Festival Website: www.consciousfamilyfestival.org
Tayu Meditation Center Website: www.tayu.org/~tayu/
Old Many Rivers Blog: www.manyriversbooks.com/blog1/

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:

Narasimha Deity Art website: narasimhadeityart.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.