The Mystical Positivist: January 2023

Saturday, January 28, 2023

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #409 - 28JAN23

Podcast:

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Carol Squire, Sufi Dervish, Fourth Way teacher, Transactional Analysis (TA) facilitator, Sound healer, Reiki Master, Leader, Woman, Mother and a student just like all of us.

Carol Squire is also the co-founder of the International Akhaldans 4th Way School begun with Akash Dharmaraj in India. Together, they have co-created a unique style of transmission of the Fourth Way work using the movements as a vehicle for Awakening and Transformation. Carol is a loving, compassionate human who cares deeply about the Work and does this work of transmission only because she loves it. Carol has been leading groups all over the world for the past 35 years, integrating Sufi practices and Transactional Analysis into her work with high profile corporate leaders, non-profit organizations, personal groups, individuals, and whoever asks to learn. She has taught the Gurdjieff Sacred Dances in India (including in the Osho Commune in Pune), Israel, Portugal, Ethiopia, Israel and in North America where she is now based. From Whidbey Akhaldans, her center on a beautiful island in Puget Sound, WA, she conducts on-going classes, workshops, weekend retreats, and offers residential opportunities for those who wish a longer exposure to the Akhaldans Way.

More information about Carol Squire's work can be found at:

Akhaldans website: akhaldans.org,

Caroil Squire on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com.

Saturday, January 21, 2023

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #408 - 21JAN23

Podcast:

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with William D. Glenn about his latest book, I Came Here Seeking a Person: A Vital Story of Grace; One Gay Man's Spiritual Journey, published by Paulist Press. William D. Glenn, a psychotherapist and spiritual director, is a longtime leader in the LGBTQ+ community. Influenced by Thomas Merton, Carl Jung, the Society of Jesus and Queer Culture, Bill elucidates moments in his life from his childhood in an Irish Catholic family mid-20th century through his nearly decade as a Jesuit, to his subsequent life as a sober, out, married gay man. Former president of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, executive director of Continuum HIV Services, Bill is currently the chair of the board of trustees of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, an inter-religious graduate university. A co-founder of the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies at the Pacific School of Religion, he has focused on the intersection of queer and soul for the past four decades.

I Came Here Seeking a Person: One Gay Man's Spiritual Journey is Bill's interior-focused memoir: this volume details his complex journey of faith—in practice—over the span of his lifetime. Shaped by loving and courageous individuals and scores of writers—spiritual, intellectual, cultural, psychological, imaginative—whose words have formed, instructed, confronted and healed. His book is invitational, accessible and a true story of grace.

After the main podcast conversation, we include a recording of a book reading event that Bill Glenn gave at Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol, CA, on January 19th, 2023. The segment includes a riveting reading from a chapter of his book as well as an extended question and answer session.

More information about William D. Glenn's work can be found at:

Bill Glenn's website: www.williamdglenn.com,

Bill Glenn at the GTU: www.gtu.edu.

"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.