The Mystical Positivist: June 2019

Saturday, June 22, 2019

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #329 - 22JUN19

Podcast:

This week on the Mystical Positivist, we speak in the studio with LGBTQ+ community leader and Kundalini Yoga practitioner, Jacob Rudolph. Jacob Rudolph made international headlines in 2013 when a video of him coming out in front of more than 300 of his classmates went viral with over 2,000,000 views on YouTube. Soon after, Jacob was featured on national TV interviews with Anderson Cooper, Thomas Roberts on MSNBC, Don Lemon on CNN, and with Joy Behar, as well as in the LA Times and other print media. Inspired to continue speaking up, Jacob successfully assisted local civil rights groups that same year in passing a state law that bans conversion therapy on LGBTQ youth in New Jersey. Since then, he has been selected for the Point Foundation Scholarship, the John Lewis Fellowship for diversity and activist change, and was selected as the student commencement speaker at his college graduation-- University of Miami, 2017. He currently serves as the Executive Director of The Pride Network, which offers young LGBTQ+ leaders opportunities for personal transformation and professional development to create change within themselves and in our communities.

Jacob is also known as Manush Baldr, a name given to him by his spiritual teachers Trinity Devi and Sotantar Suraj. Founded by Master Gong Avatar, Sotantar Suraj, in Newport Beach, CA, the Gong Avatar Academy is a growing community around the world. In addition to the original community in CA, the GAA has also expanded to the East Coast with trainings in Miami, FL led by Trinity Devi and in Switzerland led by Sekhmet Mera. Through a process of direct apprenticeship, Jacob has dived into a journey of self-study of the Force Within and in All. Using the Gong as a mirror, Jacob studies and applies ancient and modern practices to awaken himself within the matrix, using the principles of nature and the universe, sound and vibration to enjoy the totality of who we are.

The Gong Avatar Academy is a journey towards Awareness and Self-Empowerment; raising participants in consciousness as individuals and collectively; discovering a beyond mastery state; commanding and accepting all our thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions; cultivating the Avatar State; and embracing the One and the All.

Jacob/Manush is a loving friend, spiritual student, and a passionate advocate for LGBTQ empowerment as the foundation of a compassionate American society.

More information about Jacob Rudolph/Manush Baldr's work can be found at:

The Pride Network Website: www.thepridenetwork.org,

The Gong Avatar Academy Website: gongavataracademy.com,

Saturday, June 1, 2019

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #328 - 01JUN19

Podcast:

This week on the show, hosts Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick discuss some of the spiritual practice issues that they have been examining in their personal lives, within the context of their Tayu Meditation teaching responsibilities, and that have arisen in some of the Mystical Positivist shows over the last few months. In particular they dive deep into the sense and meaning of the Ephemeral and the Transcendental, and they discuss to what extent it makes sense to configure spiritual practice as a systematic shifting of attention from the Ephemeral to the Transcendental. Also on the show is a discussion of some recent material on Physicalism versus Idealism and the epistemic cost associated with a commitment to a materialistic (physicalist) point of view.

Rob Schmidt, Ph.D., and Stuart Goodnick co-direct Tayu Meditation Center, owner and operator of Many Rivers Books & Tea. They studied intensively with Tayu founder Robert Daniel Ennis, and are working to complete a book of his teachings this year called, Living Life As A Work Of Art: The Spiritual Work of Robert Daniel Ennis.

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/.

"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.