The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #323 - 06APR19

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This week on the show we feature an in-studio conversation with Antonio Ramirez Hernandez. Antonio Ramirez started learning about shamanism in 1982 when he started to have experiences that were difficult to understand with rational logic. He started to seek guidance until he found the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He studied with Michael Harner, taking several workshops including the Three Year Program in Advanced Shamanism. Antonio eventually found Medicine Person, Lorin Smith, from the Kashaya Pomo tribe. He became a student, and Lorin expanded Antonio's views about shamanism. Their relationship lasted until Lorin's death on January 15, 2019. Part of Antonio's training has included with plant medicine in the Amazon, in the Mazatec mountains, and with Huichol healers. He is currently writing two books: one about learning from Lorin Smith and another called Contemporary Shamanism.

Antonio holds a Master's degree in Psychology with a concentration in Drama Therapy and a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology (both from CIIS). He is nationally and internationally recognized for creating CECEVIM, a methodology for working with Latino men to teach them how to stop violence to their partners. He is the author of Violencia Masculina en el Hogar (Masculine Violence in the Home) (2000 - Editorial Pax, Mexico) and of the chapter "CECEVIM - Stopping Male Violence in the Latino Home" for the book Programs for Men Who Batter (2002 - Civic Research Institute). In addition to his shamanic work, Antonio's academic interests include gender studies, especially concerning masculine identities; the psychological impacts of culture on individuals and families; and transpersonal psychology.

More information about Antonio Ramirez's work can be found at:

California Institute of Integral Studies website: www.ciis.edu,

EMAVoicesOfTheEarth interview with Lorin Smith on YouTube: www.youtube.com.

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #322 - 30MAR19

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This week on the show we present a pre-recorded conversation with Terri Daniel. Rev. Terri Daniel, MA, CT, CCTP is a clinical chaplain, certified trauma specialist and end-of-life educator certified in death, dying and bereavement by the Association of Death Education and Counseling. The focus of her work is to assist dying and grieving individuals to discover a more spiritually-spacious understanding of death and beyond.

Terri conducts workshops throughout the U.S. to help the dying and the bereaved find healing through meditative, ritual and therapeutic processes that focus on inner transformation rather than external events. Her work is acclaimed by physicians, hospice workers, grief counselors, clergy and the bereaved for its pinpoint clarity on the process of dying and grieving, and its heartfelt depiction of consciousness beyond the physical body.

Terri's interest in the journey of the soul through birth and death began at age 12 when she began having mystical visions that sparked a lifelong interest in spirituality. But it wasn't until the death of her 16 year-old son in 2006 that she immersed herself in studying multi-cultural religious traditions and metaphysical practices that help the dying and the living find healing through meditative and ritual processes that open a conduit to other dimensions. Her unique form of "radical mysticism" incorporates elements of Buddhism, Shamanism, ancient pagan practices, gnostic Christianity and other spiritual traditions to break down limiting beliefs about forgiveness, divine judgment and negative experience.

Terri is the author of three books on death and the afterlife: A Swan in Heaven: Conversations Between Two Worlds (2007), Embracing Death: A New Look at Grief, Gratitude and God (2010), and Turning the Corner on Grief Street: Loss and Trauma as a Journey to Awakening (2014)

She is also the founder of the Afterlife Education Foundation and producer of the annual Afterlife Awareness Conference. Her academic credentials include a B.A. in Religious Studies from Marylhurst University, an M.A. in Pastoral Care from Fordham University, and a DMin [Doctor of Ministry] from the San Francisco Theological Seminary.

More information about Terri Daniel's work can be found at:

Spirituality and Grief website: www.spiritualityandgrief.com,

The Afterlife Awareness Conference website: afterlifeconference.com,

Conscious Grieving: Turning Loss into Light talk at Many Rivers Books 7 Tea: www.manyriversbooks.com.

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #321 - 23MAR19

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This week's podcast features:This week on the show we converse in the studio with Wu Ming Chuan (aka Jacob Newell), an ordained Daoist priest with a quarter century experience with Buddhist and Daoist meditation & qi-cultivation. He resides with his family in Santa Rosa, California and is the author of These Daoist Bones, a book of contemplative poetry. He writes the blog, Daoist Blog of Nameless Stream, and runs Old Oak School of Dao. On the website for Old Oak School, he writes:

“My wuweidao teacher was Liu Wen Ming, a Euro-American who inherited an aristocratic family tradition from northern China. I was also ordained into an offshoot of the Dragon Gate school, and I am closely connected to the Ruyu Taiji School and Korean Zen. I am also an avid student of Russian Systema. Thank you so much to all my teachers!” 

More information about Wu Ming Chuan's work can be found at:

Daoist Blog of Nameless Stream website: www.oldoakdao.org/blog/

Old Oak School of Dao website: www.oldoakdao.org

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #320 - 16MAR19

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This week's podcast features:

This week on the show we converse by telephone with Shawinigan Ungaia (aka Guillaume Gauthereau), Shamanic healer and founder of The Sanctuary Healing Center in the Catskill Mountains of New York. In this conversation we cover Guillaume's unique spiritual path, shamanism, trauma & healing, and the depth of the calling when we feel our soul pushed for another life.

After a career that scaled the heights of corporate success as a CEO of global companies, Guillaume reached a turning point in his life – material success and trappings had not necessarily made him really happy or fulfilled. He had the big degree, big job and success that most people aspire for, but he was not happy. Guillaume decided to completely change his life and embarked on a journey of self-exploration and meditation that took him from working with Mother Teresa’s mission in India, to the jungles of Peru in search of finding meaning in life and fulfillment beyond the material demands of society today. Through seeking to transform his own life to live with a higher purpose, Guillaume made a life-changing commitment to helping others in their search for peace, harmony and happiness.

During his last 10 years of transformative journeys across Asia & South America, Guillaume had rare opportunities to study and meditate with master healers and teachers of all faiths. He is trained in Shamanism, Plant Medicine, Medical Reiki, Sufi Healing, Sound Healing, Meditation, and Herbalism.

In 2015, Guillaume opened The Sanctuary Healing Center on his property in the Catskills where he does in depth work with clients, hosts workshops, and cultivates the land for organic vegetable farming, plant medicine, and honey bees. Born and educated in France, Guillaume also holds a PhD in Veterinary Medicine & Surgery from Maisons-Alfort, France. Guillaume resides at The Sanctuary in the Catskills and travels to New York City and all over the world for his work. 

More information about Shawinigan Ungaia's work can be found at:

The Sanctuary website: www.thesanctuaryheal.com

Shawinigan Ungaia on Facebook: www.facebook.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #319 - 09MAR19

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This week's podcast features:

This week on the show on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Christopher Ives, a professor of religious studies at Stonehill College, and author of the recent title from Wisdom Press: Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage. In his teaching and writing he focuses on ethics in Zen Buddhism and Buddhist approaches to nature and environmental issues. His other publications include Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics; Zen Awakening and Society; Divine Emptiness and Historical Fullness; a translation (with Abe Masao) of Nishida Kitaro’s An Inquiry into the Good; and a translation (with Gishin Tokiwa) of Hisamatsu Shin’ichi’s Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics and is serving on the steering committee of the Religion and Ecology Group of the American Academy of Religion. In this wide range discussion we cover the question of ethics and Buddhism especially as it arises in contexts such as Imperial Japan. We also go deeply into the subject of pilgrimage and our opportunities to encounter the sacred in natural settings. 

More information about Christopher Ives' work can be found at:

Zen on the Trail website: zenonthetrail.com

Christopher Ives at Stonehill College: www.stonehill.edu

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #318 - 02MAR19

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This week's podcast features:

This week on the show on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with The Very Rev. Donald P. Richmond, Doctor of Divinity, a Priest-Oblate with the Reformed Episcopal Church and Order of Saint Benedict. He is a graduate of several colleges and seminaries as well as the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies and the Maryvale Ecclesiastical Institute. Having trained in Byzantine Iconography, Father Richmond has a keen interest in the intersection of Theology & Liturgical Arts. Author of chapbooks and over 500 published articles, poetry and art in a wide array of respected periodicals and journals, Father Richmond has published extensively on the Ancient Future Faith Network under either "The Abbey" or "The Inner Monk" and at seedbed.com. 

More information about Rev. Richmond's work can be found at:

Rev. Donald Richmond on the SARTS website: www.societyarts.org

Rev. Donald Richmond on the Ancient Future Faith Network: www.ancientfuturefaithnetwork.org

Rev. Donald Richmond on Seedbed: www.seedbed.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #317 - 26JAN19

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This week's podcast features:

This week we feature a pre-recorded talk that Mystical Positivists, Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick, gave at Many Rivers Books & Tea on Thursday Jan. 3, entitled To Create and Sustain a Habit of Open-Heartedness. The pre-talk publicity describes the talk this way: 

The meme of our time is obsession with human perfection. Focusing upon perfection, we soon find how pervasively we fall short of our high standards. Unconscious acceptance of this meme leads to fixation on our compulsive habits, faults and failures, along with the existential despair that asserts compassion and love are simply words people use to manipulate one another. It leads to a gnawing sense of restlessness operating just below the surface of awareness. 

For some, redirecting attention toward drugs, video games, careers, or other distractions more or less succeeds in numbing the growing restlessness with the gulf between ideal and real. Another common strategy to address this restlessness imagines that its resolution will be found in the application of the latest quick fix technique of mind or body. The industries of 'personal growth,' 'healing,' and 'transformation' focus upon 'consumers' seeking immediate change. By so doing, these consumers strive to experience bliss, joy, and satisfaction by attuning themselves to readymade truths linked to a variety of modalities and practices deriving from spiritual and therapeutic traditions. For such industries, quick fixes are the stock-in-trade. Yet how many customers truly find what they seek?

Authentic training in the Alchemy of the Heart that transforms unconscious habits into food for a genuine expansion of consciousness requires time, commitment, sweat, discomfort, and persistence. It cannot be bought, but must be paid for. Join us for a discussion of how a sustainable habit of open-heartedness, in contrast to a habit of grasping after growth, might be created.

After the talk, Rob and Stuart add some concluding observations from the studio.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com

Tayu Meditation Center Website: www.tayu.org/~tayu/

Old Many Rivers Blog: www.manyriversbooks.com/blog1/

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #316 - 19JAN19

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This week's podcast features:

This week on the show on the show we converse in the studio with Tibetan Buddhist nun Ani Samten Palmo. Ani Samten Palmo is a monastic at Lotus Mountain Gompa and a student of Lama Lena (aka Yeshe Kaytup) and Lama Wangdor Rinpoche of Tso Pema, India, both teachers of Direct Mind Perception Meditation and lineage holders of several Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Ani-la has been a monastic since 2001. She offers one-on-one teachings and sessions with smaller groups. Her teachings focus primarily on mind training and how we create our own reality in combination with open heartedness, compassion and connecting with other beings. This includes some emphasis on the somatic experience of trauma and emotions to help in the process of letting go and release. Such an approach benefits our ability to open up and stay in the moment, to stay in the heart. A native of Lucerne, Switzerland, Ani Palmo holds a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from the Life University in Marietta, GA, and currently lives in Guerneville, CA 

More information about Ani Samten Palmo's work can be found at:

Ani Samten Palmo on Facebook: www.facebook.com

Lama Lena Teaching Archive: lamalenateachings.com

Venerable Wangdor Rimpoche website: www.customjuju.com

Ani Samten Palmo email address: anipalmo @ gmail.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #315 - 12JAN19

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This week's podcast features:

This week on the show on the show we converse in the studio with Hal Blacker, founder of Real Dharma, an organization dedicated to helping people find inner freedom through directly recognizing their true nature. Hal teaches nondual wisdom and meditation and has until recently lead a meditation and study group in Marin County, California. Hal believes that direct liberating knowledge of one’s true nature is available to everyone without the need for dogma, priests, authoritarian structures, ritual or elaborate practice. This kind of liberating knowledge is not the end but is a new beginning for most of us–the beginning of a life lived without the bondage of fear and unnecessary sorrow.

Hal has been authorized to teach in the traditions of Advaita Vedanta and Tibetan Buddhist Nyingma Dzogchen. Recently he has primarily focused on teaching traditional Advaita Vedanta, which he studied under Dr. Carol (Radha) Whitfield and her guru, the late Swami Dayananda Saraswati. He also was initiated by and studied Advaita Vedanta under Sri Ranjit Maharaj, a master in the lineage of Sri Siddharameshwara and Nisagardatta Maharaj.

Hal studied Nyingma Dzogchen primarily under Anam Thubten and was authorized as a holder of that lineage in 2010. He began his studies of Buddhism under the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, in the early 1970s. 

More information about Hal Blacker's work can be found at:

Real Dharma: realdharma.wordpress.com

Anam Thubten and Dharmata Foundation: www.dharmata.org

Arsha Kulam Advaita Vedanta site: arshakulam.org

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #314 - 29DEC18

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This week's podcast features:

This week we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Hokai Diego Sobol. Hokai started practice and study of Buddhism in 1985. After 10 years of exploring Buddhist thought and practicing martial arts, while broadly learning from sources Eastern and Western, mainstream and fringe, Hokai became a practitioner and eventually instructor in the Shingon esoteric tradition of Japanese Vajrayana, under private tutelage of Ajari Jomyo Tanaka. Hokai founded the Mandala Society of Croatia in 1999. Continuing to explore and cultivate his own Buddhist practice, Hokai maintains an ongoing conversation with a number of teachers and senior practitioners. Starting from 2012, he focuses on mentoring individuals to deepen their practice in the context of their lives – those who pray, learn to meditate; and those who meditate, learn to pray. Hokai’s areas of special interest include mystical principles and esoteric practices in daily life, sacred apprenticeship, and deep semiotics. He is based in Rijeka, Croatia. 

More information about Hokai Diego Sobol's work can be found at:

Hokai Sobol's website: hokai.eu

Hokai Diego Sobol on Twitter: @hokaisobol

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #313 - 22DEC18

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This week's podcast features:

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with spiritual teacher J. Jaye Gold, author of Justin Time: Autobiographical Stories from an American Spiritual Master, Another Heart in His Hand: A Spiritual Anomaly, and Highway of Diamonds. In his younger years, J. Jaye Gold studied at a 500-year-old experimental Naqshbandi Sufi school in northeastern Afghanistan. He believed that the methods he learned in this school needed to be modified for people in affluent Western cultures. He took on this challenge, developing tools, dynamics, and explorations of consciousness to help lead Westerners toward “intimacy with the ultimate reality, in order to become true servants.” J. Jaye Gold has been assisting people in their search for inner meaning for 35 years.

He is currently living in the Sierra foothills of Northern California where he works with several dozen seekers of truth. Over the years he has deliberately resisted the trend to become a “traveling guru” with thousands of followers around the world in favor of preserving an element that he considers precious — that of maintaining opportunities for developing an actual teacher/student relationship. He is available to anyone who seeks his guidance. 

More information about J. Jaye Gold's work can be found at:

J. Jaye Gold's website: justingold.net

J. Jaye Gold on YouTube: www.youtube.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #312 - 15DEC18

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This week's podcast features:

This week on the show our subject is the recently published book, The Fragrance of Emptiness: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra. We replay an interview recorded two weeks ago with the author, Tibetan teacher Anam Thubten, and then we continue the discussion with a live interview in the studio with the editor of the book, Laura Duggan.

Anam Thubten grew up in Tibet and at an early age began to practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the founder and spiritual advisor of Dharmata Foundation, teaching widely in the U.S. and abroad. He is also the author of various articles and books in both the Tibetan and English language. His books in English also include No Self, No Problem; The Magic of Awareness; and Embracing Each Moment: A Guide to the Awakened Life. The Fragrance of Emptiness: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra is his latest book.

Laura Duggan has been a student and practitioner of Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, and currently Tibetan Buddhism for the past 38 years. She actively engages in self-inquiry and meditation on a daily basis, and loves to discuss the application of philosophy to daily life. She currently is the volunteer retreat coordinator for meditation retreats with Anam Thubten in the Bay Area. She is the author of An Inquiring Life: Weekly Contemplations, and editor of The Fragrance of Emptiness. 

More information about Anam Thubten's work can be found at:

Dharmata Foundation website: www.dharmata.org

Anam Thubten on Facebook: www.facebook.com

More information about Laura Duggan's work can be found at:

Inquiring Life website: www.inquiringlife.com

Nicasio Press website: www.nicasiopress.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #311 - 08DEC18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature an in-studio conversation with Joshua Leavitt. Joshua Leavitt has pursued spiritual practice intensively since the late 1980s. He has spent extended periods of time in Israel and India; lived for five years on an ashram in the U.S.; and worked closely with spiritual teachers from the Baul tradition, which originated in Bengal, India. He holds a Masters Degree in Religious Studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and was chief editor of the spiritual journal Who’s Rowing Your Boat? In his business life, Joshua is the Managing Partner of New Line Consulting, a leadership and strategic planning firm that works primarily with leaders in the National Park Service. His creative writing has won national awards and been featured in Parabola Magazine and various literary journals. He currently divides his time between Bozeman, Montana and the newly founded In Cahoots Artist Residency in Petaluma, California.
  
  

More information about Joshua Leavitt's work can be found at:

• New Line Consulting website: new-line-consulting.com
• In Cahoots Artist Residency website: incahootsresidency.com
• Society for Arts and Culture of South Asia website: sacsouthasia.org

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #310 - 01DEC18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature a telephone conversation with Menas Kafatos, Ph.D., an American physicist of Greek descent and a writer on spirituality and science, in which we discuss his recent collaboration with Deepak Chopra (You Are The Universe) as well as his engagement with the Shaivist spiritual tradition. Kafatos has written and lectured extensively promoting discourse between science, spirituality, and religion. He has held numerous positions at institutions including Chapman University, George Mason University, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He is currently the Fletcher Jones Endowed Professor of Computational Physics at Chapman University in Orange, CA. He received his B.A. in Physics from Cornell University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. He is the Founding Dean of the Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman University, serving as dean in 2009 – 2012. He directs the Center of Excellence in Earth Systems Modeling and Observations.
  
  Kafatos has nearly 40 years of experience in undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. He has published 15 books including The Conscious Universe, The Non-local Universe (with Robert Nadeau), Principles of Integrative Science (with Mihai Draganescu), and his most recent book You Are The Universe with Deepak Chopra; and more than 300 articles in computational science, astrophysics, Earth systems science, hazards and global climate change, regional impacts of climate change, environmental issues, general relativity, cosmology, quantum mechanics, and consciousness.
  
  

More information about Menas Kafatos' work can be found at:

• Menas Kafatos' website: www.menaskafatos.com
• Menas Kafatos at Chapman University: www.chapman.edu
• Menas Kafatos at Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #309 - 24NOV18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature an in-studio conversation with Duane Elgin, an internationally recognized speaker, author, and social visionary exploring the deeper trends that are transforming our world. In 2006, Duane received the International Goi Peace Award in Japan in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.” His books include: The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (2009); Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future (2000), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (2010, 1993 and 1981), and Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (1993). With Joseph Campbell and other scholars he co-authored the book Changing Images of Man (1982). In addition, Duane has contributed chapters to twenty-two books, and has published more than a hundred major articles and blog posts.
  
  In the early 1970s, worked as a senior staff member of a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on the American Future looking ahead from 1970 to 2000. He then worked as a senior social scientist with the think-tank SRI International where he coauthored numerous studies of the long-range future; for example, Anticipating Future National and Global Problems (for the President’s Science Advisor), Alternative Futures for Environmental Policy (for the Environmental Protection Agency), The Future of the Automobile (for the Ford Motor Co.), and Limits to the Management of Large, Complex Systems (for the President’s Science Advisor).
  
  As a speaker, Duane has given more than 300 keynotes and workshops with audiences ranging from business executives and civic groups to churches and college students. For the past three years, he has been the executive director of a project that has brought together more than a dozen “Great Transition Stories” that offer new cultural narratives for our collective imagination and that can serve help guide us toward a sustainable and meaningful future. He is now developing a growing number of collaborations with organizations in business, film and media, colleges and universities, and more.
  
  He has an MBA from the Wharton Business School, an MA in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania, and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for work in “ecological and spiritual transformation” from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Over the past thirty years, Duane has co-founded three non-profit organizations working for media accountability, citizen empowerment, and a trans-partisan ‘community voice’ movement using the television airwaves legally owned by the public.
  
  

More information about Duane Elgin's work can be found at:

• Duane Elgin's website: duaneelgin.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #308 - 10NOV18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature an in-studio conversation with Ken McLeod. Topics include a continuation of the discussion started three weeks ago with Ken and Jim Wilson on the relationship of cosmological views to a given spiritual practice and the distinction between belief and faith. The conversation is fueled in part by some detailed email feedback Ken shared from a European associate responding to our most recent conversation. As the discussion deepens, we get into the nature of Mythos and its role in deepening one's experience of the Mystical Heart. In particular, we explore how a relationship with Mythos is crucial in spiritual practice, how this relationship has been lost in the West, and how a Western practitioner can recover it without devolving into naïve belief.
  
  After learning Tibetan, Ken McLeod translated for his principal teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, and helped to develop Rinpoche’s centers in North America and Europe. In 1985, Kalu Rinpoche authorized Ken to teach and placed him in charge of his Los Angeles center. Faced with the challenges of teaching in a major metropolis, he began exploring different methods and formats for working with students. He moved away from both the teacher-center model and the minister-church model and developed a consultant-client model. Ken is the author of Wake Up to Your Life: Discovering the Buddhist Path of Attention, The Great Path of Awakening, An Arrow to the Heart, Reflections on Silver River, and his most recent book, A Trackless Path.
  
  

More information about Ken McLeod's work can be found at:

• Unfettered Mind website: www.unfetteredmind.org
• Ken McLeod's Blog: musingsbyken.blogspot.com
• Unfettered Mind Podcasts: itunes.apple.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #307 - 27OCT18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature a pre-recorded talk that Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick gave at Many Rivers Books & Tea in September called What Is Spiritual Freedom? To value, admire, and revere freedom is the price of admission to American identity. Yet that price implies little or no commitment to ask ourselves what we mean by “freedom”. Is freedom a simple matter: the right to get to do what we want, perhaps unhappily balanced by considerations of freedom for others? What about the many species of freedom: freedom of expression, religious freedom, economic freedom, political freedom, social freedoms like the freedom to marry? While the evening’s discussion may touch on these questions and others, we will focus upon what “spiritual freedom” might mean. More importantly, we will consider what an examination of spiritual freedom can accomplish in the experience of our lives in the world. For example, how meaningful is it to imagine freedom in the realm of spirit that is somehow disengaged from the experience of living in and as a human body? Is it part of the mind’s delusion for people to manifest a version of spiritual freedom that is somehow unrelated to the embodied realities that we live out day by day? If so, how might we remedy that? Is spiritual freedom balanced by a corresponding responsibility to pay attention to both our interior and exterior lives? The commitment underlying this discussion is to contemplate serious questions, leavened at times by humor that does not take serious questions too seriously.
  
  After the talk, Mystical Positivist, Stuart Goodnick, concludes with some reflections on the themes raised in the talk and a discussion of a spiritual perspective on the question of Free Will.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

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

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #306 - 20OCT18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature an in-studio conversation with two of our favorite guests, Ken McLeod and Jim Wilson. Topics include Ken's work in progress on an expression of Vajrayana practice without reliance on a particular cosmological framework, the relevance of cosmologies in general to the transmission of spiritual traditions, the distinction of Faith and Belief, and spiritual traditions as a set of practices versus as a set of beliefs. We also have an extended discussion on rebirth, the differences in our views, and the relationship of such beliefs to practice.
  
  After learning Tibetan, Ken McLeod translated for his principal teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, and helped to develop Rinpoche’s centers in North America and Europe. In 1985, Kalu Rinpoche authorized Ken to teach and placed him in charge of his Los Angeles center. Faced with the challenges of teaching in a major metropolis, he began exploring different methods and formats for working with students. He moved away from both the teacher-center model and the minister-church model and developed a consultant-client model. Ken is the author of Wake Up to Your Life: Discovering the Buddhist Path of Attention, The Great Path of Awakening, An Arrow to the Heart, Reflections on Silver River, and his most recent book, A Trackless Path.
  
  Jim Wilson was a monk and abbot under the direction of his teacher Seung Sahn, a Korean Chogye sect Zen master. He served as a Buddhist Prison Chaplain, studied western philosophy, co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol, conducts a website devoted to syllabic form Haiku, and has penned and published many books of poetry. In recent years his spiritual practice has centered on the Quaker Christian tradition. In addition to his many poetry volumes, he has published several books on spiritual matters, including On Trusting the Heart, a commentary on a famous poem by the third Zen patriarch, and An Annotated Edition of a Guide to True Peace.
  

More information about Ken McLeod and Jim Wilson's work can be found at:

• Unfettered Mind website: www.unfetteredmind.org
• On Trusting the Heart - A Commentary on the Xin Xin Ming: On Trusting the Heart
• An Annotated Edition of a Guide to True Peace 2nd Edition: Guide to True Peace
• Shaping Words Poetry Website: shapingwords.blogspot.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #305 - 13OCT18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature a conversation in the studio with Rev. Terri Daniel, MA, CT, a clinical chaplain, ordained interfaith minister and end-of-life educator certified in death, dying and bereavement by the Association of Death Education and Counseling. The focus of her work is to assist dying and grieving individuals to discover a more spiritually-spacious understanding of death and beyond. Terri conducts workshops throughout the US to help the dying and the bereaved find healing through meditative, ceremonial and therapeutic processes that focus on inner transformation rather than external events. Her work is acclaimed by physicians, hospice workers, grief counselors and clergy for its pinpoint clarity on the process of dying and grieving, and its heartfelt depiction of consciousness beyond the physical body. She is the author of three books: A Swan in Heaven: Conversations Between Two Worlds, Embracing Death: A New Look at Grief, Gratitude, and God, and Turning the Corner on Grief Street: Loss and Bereavement as a Journey of Awakening.
  
  

More information about Terri Daniel's work can be found at:

• Spirituality and Grief website: www.spiritualityandgrief.com
• The Afterlife Awareness Conference website: afterlifeconference.com
• Conscious Grieving: Turning Loss into Light talk at Many Rivers Books 7 Tea: www.manyriversbooks.com

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #304 - 06OCT18

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.

• Podcast Part 1
  
• Podcast Part 2
  

This week's podcast features:

• This week we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Alan Ramos, a former evangelical youth pastor, and subsequently, an Orthodox Christian priest. After struggling for decades with homosexual impulses, he eventually left ministry when he could no longer ignore the promptings of his inner life in the context of his role as a priest and confessor. The conversation touches on Alan's evolution from an Evangelical pastor to an Eastern Orthodox priest, the contrast between the Western Christian tradition and the Eastern Christian tradition, and the nature of authenticity in both giving and receiving confession.
  
  

More information about Alan Ramos's work can be found at:

• Alan Ramos Fitness Trainer at Coaches Corner in Sebastopol, CA: coachescornerfitness.com