The Mystical Positivist: The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #340

Saturday, October 19, 2019

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #340 - 19OCT19

Podcast:

This week on The Mystical Positivist, we present a conversation pre-recorded on October 13th, 2019 with Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D. Neil Douglas-Klotz is a world-renowned scholar in religious studies, spirituality, and psychology. Living in Fife, Scotland, he directs the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning and for many years was co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion. He is also co-founder of the International Network of the Dances of Universal Peace.

A frequent speaker and workshop leader, he is the author of several books, including Prayers of the Cosmos (1990), The Hidden Gospel (1999), The Genesis Meditations (2003), The Sufi Book of Life (2005), Blessings of the Cosmos (2006), The Tent of Abraham (2006) (with Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Sr. Joan Chittister) and Desert Wisdom (1995, revised 2010). He has also produced three audio series of teachings on the Aramaic approach to Jesus, published by Sounds True.

Known also for his citizen diplomacy work, Neil led several group trips to Russia and the Middle East and in 2004 and cofounded the Edinburgh International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace. In 2005 he was awarded the Kessler-Keener Foundation Peacemaker of the Year award for his work in Middle Eastern peacemaking.

Under his Sufi name, Saadi Shakur Chishti, Neil also offers spiritual retreats combining his work with Native Middle Eastern spirituality with the lineage of Chishti Sufism. He was a long-time student of the Murshid Moineddin Jablonski (d. 2001), the spiritual successor of Sufi Ahmed Murad Chishti (1996-1971). Saadi was recognized as a teacher in the Sufi path in 1981 and a senior teacher, or murshid, in 1993 in the Chishti Sufi lineage.

More information about Neil Douglas-Klotz's work can be found at:

The Abwoon Network website: abwoon.org,

Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning website: eial.org,

Dances of Universal Peace website: dancesofuniversalpeace.org,

Edinburgh International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace website: www.eicsp.org,

European Ruhaniat website: www.ruhaniateurope.org.

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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.