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This week on The Mystical Positivist, hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt feature two episodes from the Western Baul Podcast Series recorded earlier this year. In the first hour we present the talk, Cultivating Transparency: Realizing the Emptiness of the Stories You Tell Yourself, and in the second hour we present the talk, Languaging Nonduality. The podcast descriptions are as follows:
Cultivating Transparency: Realizing the Emptiness of the Stories You Tell Yourself
We could say that all we know about ourselves cognitively are stories we tell ourselves. These are not necessarily obvious to us because they play so constantly. We respond to the universe through the stories that filter our experience. How do we work with this since we can’t think ourselves out of this box? Transparency hints at a different way of relating to stories. Many stories we identify with are cultural views. Stories in and of themselves are not a problem; they are a feature of what it is to be human. It’s when we hold onto stories that they capture our energy and attention so we don’t come back to the present and to the next event gifted to us by the universe. Transparency involves listening, seeing, generosity of spirit to others and ourselves, without reactivity to a story. This is not trivial work and a tool we have is self-observation, which is an energetic and not an analytical act. One feature of mature practice is relaxation of the tense form of attention we compulsively hold. This can allow for humor and for different kinds of spaces or chambers to be created. Belief is an emotional relationship with a lie. When a story turns into a belief, we can’t put it down. Resistance manifests differently in the three centers that are discussed in the Gurdjieff work. It is a rich vein to mine to reclaim energy of attention we’ve invested in story. Conscious suffering is the willingness to be present with resistance. Practice can be seen as an offering rather than as a story with an agenda to wake up. Creativity is an end in itself, the universe doing what it most wants to do. When not bound by our stories, we can accept the universe’s invitations to engage in higher work.is a Western spiritual tradition founded by George Gurdjieff, a mystic of Greek and Armenian origin who taught in Russia, Europe, and America and died in 1949. The system he developed out of his own spiritual search, which is shrouded in mystery, is completely unique and geared toward working with a modern mindset of “waking sleep” in the West. The Fourth Way Tradition has been considered by some to be humorless and dogmatically committed to a rigid system of practices and ideas, but this ignores Gurdjieff’s own flexibility ranging from playfulness to penetrating compassion. Today’s speakers are dharma heirs of Tayu Meditation Center’s founder Robert Daniel Ennis, whose teachings were anchored in the Fourth Way but ranged widely beyond that source material. 
Languaging Nonduality
Grounded practice gives us direct experience of the pervasiveness of the mechanical, identified mind. Before we have direct experience of something, linguistic representations are ineffective at transmitting what it is. There is a distinction between results and practice. A teaching can be the result of practice, such as loving our neighbor, but we may consider it as a practice that we are unable to embody without having cultivated the necessary quality of being. Seeing the world as non-dual is a result, not a practice. When nonduality is taken as an intellectual proposition, mind pastes over experience and co-opts the spiritual process, which is not realization. There are poets like Ursula Le Guin who use language to “point at the moon” or the sacred. There has to be some work with mind for the intuition and depth of nonduality to take root and inform all aspects of our lives. We may not be in a new paradigm of spiritual practice, but we are in a new paradigm of access to information and teachings. Nonduality is one way among others to talk about reality. Different spiritual approaches work for different people. For many, something has to be dislodged from its static position around the heart. There’s truth to being non-dual and to being dual, which is paradoxical and indicative of a greater mystery. We can be grateful for language that brings our attention to something bigger than the small self. It’s not words but the carrier wave, where someone is coming from, that transmits what words point to. It’s helpful to hang out with people who share spiritual intention. Everyone doesn’t need to be involved in formal spiritual practice; lives are equally valid.
The Western Baul Podcast Series features talks by practitioners of the Western Baul path. Topics are intended to offer something of educational, inspirational, and practical value to anyone drawn to the spiritual path. For Western Bauls, practice is not a matter of philosophy but is expressed in everyday affairs, service to others, and music and song. There is the recognition that all spiritual traditions have examples of those who have realized that there is no separate self to substantiate—though one will always exist in form—and that “There is only God” or oneness with creation. Western Bauls, as named by Lee Lozowick (1943-2010), an American spiritual Master who taught in the US, Europe, and India and who was known for his radical dharma, humor, and integrity, are kin to the Bauls of Bengal, India, with whom he shared an essential resonance and friendship. Lee’s spiritual lineage includes Yogi Ramsuratkumar and Swami Papa Ramdas.

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick are the spiritual directors of Tayu Meditation Center. Rob has made contributions to the practice of anthropological archaeology and currently runs Tayu’s spiritual bookstore in Sebastopol, California, Many Rivers Books & Tea. Stuart is an engineer in a Fortune 500 company and plays the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) as a spiritual practice.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com,
Western Baul Podcast Website: westernbaul.org.

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This week on the show we feature a prerecorded conversation with OM C. Parkin on the challenges and paradoxes around languaging Non-Duality and how to tune into the silence between the words when engaging with a sacred text.

OM C. Parkin is a renowned European wisdom teacher and the founder of the mystery school, Enneallionce, and Gut Saunstorf, a modern monastery. His books also include Intelligence of Awakening - Navigating the Wisdom Path, The Birth of the Lion, and The Digital Age - A Critical View from a Wisdom Perspective.

OM embodies in his work the link between Eastern non-duality and Christian mysticism, of depth psychology and philosophy, beyond the limits of religions and confessions. He often references the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, which has been revived in the 20th century by Shri Ramana Maharshi, Shri H.W.L. Poonja, the American Gangaji, and others. OM acts in the tradition of these teachers and by being rooted in early Christian teaching. His work in the tradition of silence can be described by three functions: teacher (of wisdom), healer (of the soul), seer (of the heart). He has been supporting people to find their true nature for more than 30 years and founded the modern Satsang movement in Europe.

More information about OM C. Parkin's work can be found at:
OM C. Parkin website: www.om-c-parkin.com,
Gut Saunstorf website: www.kloster-saunstorf.de,
OM C. Parkin at Gateways Books & Tapes: www.gatewaysbooksandtapes.com,
OM C. Parkin previously on The Mystical Positivist on 27JAN24: mysticalpositivist.blogspot.com,
OM C. Parkin previously on The Mystical Positivist on 24SEP22: mysticalpositivist.blogspot.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Theresa Dintino, co-author of the newly published ebook, The Oscan Oracle: from the Ancient Janarra of the Moon. In this wide ranging and remarkable conversation, we discuss her latest book, the nature of lineage, Dagara Stick Divination as a way to connect people to their true lineages, cultural appropriation and ways to hold and practice an indigenous tradition, and the ethics of divination and interaction with non-corporeal beings.

Theresa Dintino is the author of nine books and serves as a guide and spiritual mentor to many. While attempting to reclaim and restore her ancestral medicine lineage, the Italian Strega tradition, Dintino was surprised to be “claimed” by the West African Dagara tradition of stick divination. Honored by this invitation, Dintino pursued it, and in 2011 was initiated into this potent form of divination. Besides her family and daughter, this turned out to be the greatest gift of her life.

Stick divination helped Dintino find her way back to her own lineage and enables her to help others find and restore theirs. This beautiful practice of Dagara stick divination continues to offer countless gifts. In multiple divination sessions, Dintino was taught about the spiritual membranes that protect, nurture, and inform lifesystems.

More information about Theresa Dintino's work can be found at:

Strega Tree Divination website: stregatree.com,

The Ritual Goddess website: ritualgoddess.com,

Nasty Women Writers website: www.nastywomenwriters.com.

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This week on the show we converse by telephone with Roger Lipsey, a biographer, art historian, editor, and translator. Roger Lipsey earned both his MA (1966) and Ph.D. (1974) from New York University. His Ph.D. was in the history of art at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU. Dr. Lipsey has served as the director of the Society for Myth and Tradition, the publisher of Parabola magazine. He is also the author of Coomaraswamy: His Life and Work; An Art of Our Own: The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art; Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton; Make Peace Before the Sun Goes Down: The Long Encounter of Thomas Merton and His Abbott, James Fox; and Hammarskjöld: A Life, which has been hailed as the definitive biography of Dag Hammarskjöld. For many decades, he has been a participant in the Gurdjieff teaching. His newly released Shambhala book, Gurdjieff Reconsidered - The Life, the Teachings, the Legacy is the subject of this episode's discussion.

More information about Roger Lipsey's work can be found at:

• Gurdjieff Reconsidered at Shambhala: www.shambhala.com
• Roger Lipsey at Parabola: parabola.org
• Roger Lipsey's Dag Hammarskjöld website: www.dag-hammarskjold.net

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This week on the show on the show we present a Skype conversation with Brad Warner. Brad Warner is the founder and head teacher of Angel City Zen Center and Dogen Sangha Los Angeles. He is the author of the popular Hardcore Zen blog as well as several books on Zen Buddhism including Hardcore Zen - Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth About Reality; Sit Down and Shut Up - Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, & Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye; and Don't Be a Jerk - and Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master. He plays bass in the hardcore punk band Zero Defex (0DFx), is the star of the movies Shoplifting From American Apparel and Zombie Bounty Hunter M.D., was director of the film Cleveland’s Screaming! and is a former vice president of the US branch of Tsuburaya Productions, the company founded by the creator of Godzilla.

More information about Brad Warner's work can be found at:

• Hardcore Zen website: hardcorezen.info
• Angel City Zen Center website: www.aczc.org
• Brad Warner on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org
• Brad Warner on Twitter: twitter.com
• Brad Warner on Facebook: www.facebook.com
• Hardcore Zen on Facebook: www.facebook.com
• Brad Warner on YouTube: www.youtube.com

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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/

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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

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This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with Robin Bloor about his latest book, Gurdjieff & Kundabuffer – Food for the Moon. Bloor writes: “The idea that mankind is ‘food for the moon’ seems, when you first encounter the idea, to be ridiculous. Nevertheless, it may well be so… To understand this theory, one needs on the one hand, to examine it from a scientific perspective, and on the other, to study Beelzebub’s Tales deeply to uncover what Gurdjieff says about it and also what he relates about the implanting of the organ Kundabuffer in Man – and the subsequent consequences of its remarkable properties.”

Robin was born in 1951 in Liverpool, UK. He obtained a BSc in Mathematics at Nottingham University and took up a career in the computer industry, initially writing software. From 1989 onwards, he became a technology analyst and consultant. He has thus been a writer of a kind ever since. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in Computer Science by Wolverhampton University in the UK. He currently resides in and works from Austin, Texas in the USA.

In 1988, Bloor met and became a pupil of Rina Hands. Rina was a one-time associate of J. G. Bennett, a student of Peter Ouspensky's, and later, a pupil of George Gurdjieff. Following Gurdjieff's death, she remained part of J. G. Bennett's group for a while. Subsequently, she formed groups both in London, where she lived, and in Bradford in the North of England - initially in conjunction with Madame Nott. She was an accomplished movements teacher and an inspirational group leader. She died in 1994 and is buried next to Jane Heap in a cemetery in North London.

Robin leads a regular group, The Austin Gurdjieff Society, in Austin, Texas. He produces a monthly newsletter, The Lost Herald, and runs the website, ToFathomTheGist.com. He also organizes multiple on-line study groups to Gurdjieff’s writings and Gurdjieff’s Objective Science. Robin has written or edited nine books about the Work including the To Fathom the Gist series and Gurdjieff’s Hydrogens – Volume 1: The Ray of Creation.

More information about Robin Bloor's work can be found at:
Austin Gurdjieff Society Website: austingurdjieffsociety.weebly.com,
To Fathom the Gist Website: www.tofathomthegist.com,
Robin Bloor on YouTube: YouTube.com,
The Lost Herald Website: The Lost Herald,
Robin Bloor's email address: robin.bloor @ gmail.com.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod, Buddhist teacher and author of the newly released book, The Magic of Vajrayana. In today’s conversation, we explore four ways of working in spiritual practice sometimes characterized by the archetypal forms of the King, the Warrior, the Magician, and the Lover. We discuss how these ways, Compassion, Will, Insight, and Ecstasy, can be brought into balance for a richer and more complete spiritual engagement with life.

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.


More information about Ken McLeod's work can be found at: 
Unfettered Mind website: www.unfetteredmind.org.

• Podcast:
  

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod, author of the newly released book, The Magic of Vajrayana. The Magic of Vajrayana weaves original translations of instructions, insightful commentary and context about key practices, and authentic personal experiences into a powerful transmission of this vibrant tradition of mystical practice.

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.

After the main podcast conversation, we include a recording of a book event that Ken McLeod gave at Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol, CA, on March 23rd, 2023. The event includes an extended moderated question and answer segment with a live audience.

More information about Ken McLeod's work can be found at: 
Unfettered Mind website: www.unfetteredmind.org.

• Podcast:
  

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Jason Shulman, author of the 6-book series, Practical Guides to Enlightenment, Awakening, and Healing. Jason is an American spiritual teacher whose original work springs from his Judaic and Buddhist background. He is the founder of A Society of Souls: The School for Nondual Healing and Awakening, based in the United States and the Netherlands. There he teaches the distinctive body of nondual work he has developed to awaken the human spirit: Nondual Healing, Impersonal Movement, and the Work of Return. Jason’s main concern has been to develop paths of healing the mind, body, and spirit based on his own understanding of the difficulties inherent in the human condition.

Through his studies and practice, Jason has developed a unique perspective on human consciousness and the nature of existence. His work seeks to translate this perspective into a replicable and clearly-delineated path for other seekers of truth to follow. He has been especially interested in applying personal spiritual work to methods of transforming society at large. To that end, he has created the MAGI Process, a nondual method of working with conflicts between people, institutions and governments. He is the author of numerous monographs and books, and several albums of his work as a singer and songwriter.

More information about Jason Schilman's work can be found at:
A Society of Souls website: www.societyofsouls.com,
The Foundation for Nonduality website: www.nonduality.us.com,
Nondual Healers Association website: nondualhealersassociation.org.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Bernardo Kastrup, philosopher and author of many books and essays including, The Idea of the World: A Multidisciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality and More Than Allegory: On Religious Myth, Truth, and Belief.

Bernardo Kastrup is the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another Ph.D. in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence). As a scientist, Bernardo has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the 'Casimir Effect' of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). Formulated in detail in many academic papers and books, his ideas have been featured on Scientific American, the Institute of Art and Ideas, the Blog of the American Philosophical Association and Big Think, among others.

More information about Bernardo Kastrup's work can be found at:
Bernardo Kastrup's website: www.bernardokastrup.com,
Essentia Foundation website: www.essentiafoundation.org.

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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.

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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.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Henry Schoenfield, ordained minister, spiritual director, and ICF certified professional coach, about the arc of his spiritual journey, the tension between an inner calling and the outer form that calling may take, and the challenges of inspiring modern American Christian congregations in the possibilities of deep contemplative Work on Self.

Henry Schoenfield is a life-long spiritual seeker and mystic. He was born into a family of mixed religious and cultural backgrounds — his father’s family of English and German-Jewish descent and his mother’s family of Scots-Irish and Cherokee descent. Raised in the Episcopal Church, he was formed and ordained as a Roman Catholic priest. He left the priesthood seeking greater integrity in his life and work as a gay man. This search led him to the United Church of Christ — the liberal Protestant denomination in which he currently serves. All the while, the grounding spiritual relationship in his life has been the experience of the Divine in prayer, meditation, and liturgy. He has worked in parishes and congregations; in hospital and hospice spiritual counseling; and clinical education of spiritual care providers at major trauma centers and teaching hospitals in Seattle and New York City. Currently, he serves in interim congregational ministry in Lowell, Massachusetts, while also working with individuals in spiritual direction and coaching as well as leading workshops and retreats. His joy is to companion others as a teacher and guide through times of disruption and transformation. He is a certified professional coach through the International Coaching Federation and a student of The Fourth Way and Christian Contemplative path in the lineage of the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault.

More information about Henry Schoenfield's work can be found at:
Henry Schoenfield's website: www.henryschoenfield.com,
Henry Schoenfield on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com.

• Podcast:
  

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Mary Angelon Young about her recent book, The Art of Contemplation, published in 2021 by HOHM Press. In this compassionate and resourceful book, Angelon gently guides the reader into a larger awareness, reminding us of simple ways to stay grounded in the present moment and connect with what is real in an increasingly unreal human world. With personal narrative, meditative reflections and invitations to creative expression, she draws us into the garden of her inner world. Here we witness how it is possible to transform the suffering we experience in ourselves and others into a nourishment that feeds our essential being.

With a background in Jungian studies and counselling, and decades of life within a contemplative community, Mary Angelon Young draws from a wide range of faith traditions as well as from transpersonal, psychosomatic and archetypal psychologies. She fearlessly engages both the soul and the shadow elements of our human nature, inviting us to confidently welcome the potential for self-understanding contained without our dark moods, doubts and even our despair.

More information about Mary Angelon Young's work can be found at:
Mary Angelon Young's website: www.maryangelonyoung.com,
The Art of Contemplation at HOHM Press: www.hohmpress.com.

Podcast:

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod, Buddhist teacher and author the recently released book, The Magic of Vajrayana. In today’s conversation, we discuss Ken’s recent English translation of The Diamond Sutra from the Tibetan and his development of a new commentary. The Diamond Sutra is one of the most influential early Mahayana sutras that has been central to a number of Buddhist traditions such as Chan and Zen. It describes a way of being and acting that is not mediated by the conceptual mind. Ken’s approach to his translation and his upcoming commentary is less about understanding the meaning of The Diamond Sutra and more about how to engage with the text so that its magic can infuse and inform the Being of the practitioner.

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.

More information about Ken McLeod's work can be found at: 
Unfettered Mind website: www.unfetteredmind.org.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Bruce Miller about his latest book, Uplift: How to Harness the Hidden Engine of Continuous Renewal, published this year by Miller eMedia.

After studying filmmaking and screenwriting at UCLA, Bruce Miller has spent his career as a brand strategist, media producer, writer, and marketing partner in an Atlanta brand development agency.

Beginning the 1970s, Bruce’s spiritual search led him to English author, performer, and teacher, Reshad Feild, as well as to his subsequent long-term relationship with Dr. Bhagwan Awatramani. This journey, as well a number of personal life challenges along the way, are told in UPLIFT in the context of the principle of the Octave.

Bruce and Reshad, with others, started The Institute for Conscious Life, the Mevlana Foundation, and later, Chalice Guild. In these schools, Bruce helped bring the work of Jalaluddin Rumi to America, now considered “the best-selling poet in the US.” This story is recounted in Bruce’s second book, Rumi Comes to America. Bruce also collaborated and edited Steps to Freedom, Discourses on the Essential Knowledge of the Heart based on talks given by Reshad Feild.

Bruce has led residential seminars on Sapelo Island in Georgia and Mendocino, CA on the knowledge of the Octave and Enneagram, ideas brought forth by P.D. Ouspensky and G.I. Gurdjieff, and the Law of Hazard, an understanding of risk and uncertainty from the work of J.G. Bennett.

Bruce’s first book, FORTUNE, Our Deep Dive into the Mysteries of Love, Healing, and Success, explored the karmic mystery of why stuff happens. Bruce has also written business books. Brand Story™ – How to Position Your Shoestring Start-Up Like a National Brand, draws on his decades-long professional career. He also co-authored Seven Superpowers, a parenting guide by Dr. Maria Gilmour.

Bruce is an avid sailor, yoga enthusiast, and has taught the turn of the Whirling Dervishes. His wife Karen is an ordained minister and chaplain educator.

More information about Bruce Miller's work can be found at:
Bruce Miller's I-Thou website: ithou.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Neil Douglas-Klotz about his latest book, Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus – The Hidden Teachings on Life and Death, published by Hampton Roads.

Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D. is a renowned writer in the fields of Middle Eastern spirituality and the translation and interpretation of the ancient Semitic languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. He was for many years co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion. He currently lives in Scotland.

A frequent speaker and workshop leader, he is the author of several books. His books on the Aramaic spirituality of Jesus include Prayers of the Cosmos, The Hidden Gospel, Original Meditation: The Aramaic Jesus and the Spirituality of Creation, and Blessings of the Cosmos. His books on a comparative view of ‘native’ Middle Eastern spirituality include Desert Wisdom: A Nomad’s Guide to Life’s Big Questions and The Tent of Abraham (with Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Sr. Joan Chittister). His books on Sufi spirituality include The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish and A Little Book of Sufi Stories. His biographical collections of the works of his Sufi teachers include Sufi Vision and Initiation (Samuel L. Lewis) and Illuminating the Shadow (Moineddin Jablonski). He has also written a mystery novel set in the first century C.E. Holy Land entitled A Murder at Armageddon.

He also recently edited five “Little Books” published by Hampton Roads, four devoted to a new selection of the work of Lebanese American writer, poet, and painter Kahlil Gibran, and one dedicated to Wild Wisdom, a collection of early ecological writers and mystics.

More information about Neil Douglas-Klotz's work can be found at:
The Abwoon Network website: abwoon.org,
Dances of Universal Peace website: dancesofuniversalpeace.org,
Neil Douglas-Klotz on Facebook: www.facebook.com,
Neil Douglas-Klots on The Mystical Positivist: mysticalpositivist.blogspot.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with OM C. Parkin about his upcoming October West Coast US visit and his recent book, Intelligence of Awakening - Navigating the Wisdom Path, published by Gateways Books & Tapes.

OM C. Parkin is a renowned European wisdom teacher and the founder of the mystery school, Enneallionce, and Gut Saunstorf, a modern monastery. His books also include The Birth of the Lion and The Digital Age - A Critical View from a Wisdom Perspective.

OM embodies in his work the link between Eastern non-duality and Christian mysticism, of depth psychology and philosophy, beyond the limits of religions and confessions. He often references the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, which has been revived in the 20th century by Shri Ramana Maharshi, Shri H.W.L. Poonja, the American Gangaji, and others. OM acts in the tradition of these teachers and by being rooted in early Christian teaching. His work in the tradition of silence can be described by three functions: teacher (of wisdom), healer (of the soul), seer (of the heart). He has been supporting people to find their true nature for more than 30 years and founded the modern Satsang movement in Europe.

OM will be touring the West Coast of the US in October. Public and semi-public events include a book reading at Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol, CA, on October 8th, 2022, at 7pm, a private darshan at Tayu Meditation Center in Sebastopol, CA, on October 9th at 3pm, a gathering at the Ojai Retreat Center on October 13th, and a visit to Triveni Ashram in Paulden, Arizona.

More information about OM C. Parkin's work can be found at:
OM C. Parkin website: www.om-c-parkin.com,
OM C. Parkin upcoming US visit: OM C. Parkin West Coast US Tour,
OM C. Parkin at Gateways Books & Tapes: www.gatewaysbooksandtapes.com,
OM C. Parkin previously on The Mystical Positivist: mysticalpositivist.blogspot.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest Ken McLeod. Among the topics explored in this conversation are the engagement in spiritual practice with beings and deities, how to negotiate when entering into the ontology of a spiritual system, how to pray, the valuation implicit in focused attention, and the release of control in the deepening of a spiritual practice. This episode is another installment in an extended conversation that we have been having with Ken over the last couple of years.

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 founder and director of UnfetteredMind.org. He 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.

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This week on The Mystical Positivist, hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt feature a podcast they recorded on July 9th, 2022, for the Western Baul Podcast Series entitled Fourth Way Magic: How Hermetic and Indigenous Traditions Interface with the Gurdjieff Work. The podcast description is as follows:

The Fourth Way is a Western spiritual tradition founded by George Gurdjieff, a mystic of Greek and Armenian origin who taught in Russia, Europe, and America and died in 1949. The system he developed out of his own spiritual search, which is shrouded in mystery, is completely unique and geared toward working with a modern mindset of “waking sleep” in the West. The Fourth Way Tradition has been considered by some to be humorless and dogmatically committed to a rigid system of practices and ideas, but this ignores Gurdjieff’s own flexibility ranging from playfulness to penetrating compassion. Today’s speakers are dharma heirs of Tayu Meditation Center’s founder Robert Daniel Ennis, whose teachings were anchored in the Fourth Way but ranged widely beyond that source material. In recent years, Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick have explored and adopted practices from the western hermetic magical traditions and indigenous traditions including African and native Californian. In this talk they will discuss how the work from these traditions can enrich and expand the indispensable foundation they honor from the Fourth Way.

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick are the spiritual directors of Tayu Meditation Center. Rob has made contributions to the practice of anthropological archaeology and currently runs Tayu’s spiritual bookstore in Sebastopol, California, Many Rivers Books & Tea. Stuart is an executive in a Fortune 500 company and plays the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) as a spiritual practice.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:
Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com,
Western Baul Podcast Website: westernbaul.org.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest, Zen teacher, Brad Warner, about his latest book, THE OTHER SIDE OF NOTHING: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being, published this year by New World Library. In the West, Zen Buddhism has a reputation for paradoxes that defy logic. In particular, the Buddhist concept of nonduality — the realization that everything in the universe forms a single, integrated whole — is especially difficult to grasp. In THE OTHER SIDE OF NOTHING, Brad untangles the mystery and explains nonduality in plain English. To Brad, this is not just a philosophical problem: nonduality forms the bedrock of Zen ethics, and once we comprehend it, many of the perplexing aspects of Zen suddenly make sense.

Drawing on decades of Zen practice, he traces the interlocking relationship between Zen metaphysics and ethics, showing how a true understanding of reality — and the ultimate unity of all things — instills in us a sense of responsibility for the welfare of all beings. When we realize that our feeling of separateness from others is illusory, we have no desire to harm any creature. Warner ultimately presents an expansive overview of the Zen ethos that will give beginners and experts alike a deeper understanding of one of the world’s enduring spiritual traditions.

Brad Warner is the also the author of numerous other titles including Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen, Don’t Be a Jerk, and Hardcore Zen. A Soto Zen teacher, he is also a punk bassist, filmmaker, and popular blogger who leads workshops and retreats around the world. In addition to his books, his writing appears in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma, and Alternative Press. He also hosts The Hardcore Zen Podcast and talks about Zen almost every day on his YouTube channel.

More information about Brad Warner's work can be found at:  
  Hardcore Zen website: hardcorezen.info,
  Brad Warner on YouTube: www.youtube.com,
  THE OTHER SIDE OF NOTHING at New World Library: www.newworldlibrary.com,
  Brad Warner on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org,
  Brad Warner on Twitter: twitter.com,
  Brad Warner on Facebook: www.facebook.com,
  Hardcore Zen on Facebook: www.facebook.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Dean Sluyter, author of The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature, published this year by New World Library. Some of us were lucky enough to have one passionate, funny, inspiring English teacher who helped us fall in love with books. Add a lifetime of teaching Dharma — authentic, traditional approaches to meditation and awakening — and you get award-winning author Dean Sluyter. With droll humor and irreverent wisdom, he unpacks the Dharma of more than twenty major writers, from William Blake to Dr. Seuss, inspiring readers to deepen their own spiritual life and see literature in a fresh, new way: as a path of awakening.

Dean Sluyter (pronounced “slighter”) has led meditation workshops and retreats throughout the US since 1970, at venues ranging from Ivy League colleges to maximum-security prisons. For thirty-three years he taught English and Literature of Enlightenment at the Pingry School. He lives in Santa Monica, California, where he sings with the Threshold Choir, plays old songs on the ukulele, and happily zips about on his Vespa.

More information about Dean Sluyter's work can be found at:  
Dean Sluyter's website: deansluyter.com,  
The Dharma Bum's Guide at New World Library: www.newworldlibrary.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Roger Jackson, author of Rebirth: A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World, published this year by Shambhala. This first-ever guide to ideas and practices surrounding rebirth in Buddhism covers the historical context for the Buddha’s teachings on the topic, explains what Buddhists believe is actually reborn and where, surveys rebirth-related practices in multiple Buddhist cultures, and considers whether all Buddhist traditions agree about what happens after death. The book also addresses interpretations of rebirth in modern Buddhist contexts and recent scientific attempts to document reincarnation in conversation with Buddhist beliefs. It is, in short, the first truly comprehensive overview of rebirth across the major Buddhist traditions, written by a leading scholar and teacher of Buddhism.

Roger Jackson is Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies and Religion at Carleton College. He has nearly 50 years of experience with the study and practice of Buddhism, particularly in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. His special interests include Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and ritual; Buddhist religious poetry; religion and society in Sri Lanka; the study of mysticism; and contemporary Buddhist thought. Roger is a highly respected and beloved scholar, Dharma teacher, and writer. He has authored many scholarly books and articles, and is a frequent contributor to Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, and Tricycle magazines.

More information about Roger Jackson's work can be found at:  
Rebirth at Shambhala Publications: www.shambhala.com,  
Roger Jackson at Lion's Roar: www.lionsroar.com,  
Roger Jackson at Tricycle: tricycle.org,  
Roger Jackson at Carleton College: apps.carleton.edu,  
Roger Jackson on The Mystical Positivist: mysticalpositivist.blogspot.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Dr. Asa Hershoff about his development of what he calls the 5-Element Energy Healing and Elemental Psychology system. This system posits a three-self model of the human being (Spirit, Essence, and Persona) in which the Essence has five modes of being corresponding to the five traditional elements (Ruler, Creator, Lover, Warrior, and Guru). These modes are in turn reflected in the Persona as expressions of Empowerment, Loss, and Shadow. One therapeutic aim of this system is to support practitioners in moving from a Persona-centered life to an Essence-centered life.

Asa Hershoff has practiced Mindbody medicine and Vajrayana concurrently for 40 years. Completing the traditional Tibetan 3-year meditation retreat under the auspices of Kalu Rinpoche, he was later ordained as a lay Lama. A pioneer in the Canadian holistic health movement, he is founder of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (1978) and currently author of 3 books on holistic health. Asa has developed Elemental Psychology as an integration of Vajrayana, humanistic psychology, bioenergy medicine, and a pan global perspective on the 5 elements. This transformative methodology of self-healing, therapy, and spiritual growth is represented in his many current book projects, You: True & False and The 5 Ways of Wisdom.

More information about Asa Hershoff's work can be found at:  
Asa Hershoff's website: www.asahershoff.com,  
The 5 Wisdoms website: www.the5wisdoms.com,  
5 Element Energy Healing website: www.5elementenergyhealing.com,  
Asa Hershoff's Healing Practice website: www.drasahershoff.com,  
Asa Hershoff on Facebook: www.facebook.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest Ken McLeod in which we continue our ongoing discussion about the degree to which a transactional mode of being permeates our lives, relationships, and spiritual practice. We explore goals in relationship, the transactional as the currency of the Horizontal Realm, what a non-transaction way of living might be, and the unconditioned nature of the Vertical Realm.

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 founder and director of UnfetteredMind.org. He 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.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Moss Campion aka Peter Cohen, author the newly released book, Blindspot: Through the Wormhole of Science and Religion. Blindspot exposes the unseen distinctions that exist among the ways that people seek the Big Answers to the questions posed by life, the universe, and everything. When most people speak about God or Truth or the Divine, Campion asserts, they aren’t actually talking about anything divine or godly at all – whether they are believers, unbelievers or undecided. Whatever their posture toward these matters, they betray an almost universal “unseeingness” about what the entire spiritual enterprise is actually about – its rules, codes, even its final aim. They are blind to what the great sages of the world’s religious and philosophical traditions have pointed to forever – which also happen to converge with the discoveries of contemporary science as it grapples with the nature of consciousness.

At its core, this book is about the blind spot that prevents us from knowing who we are. In revealing this obliviousness, the author dives into the perspective that is commonly known as “nonduality,” the principle that lies at the core of all world Wisdom traditions, including the scientific ones. The reasons for what Campion has dubbed “Blindspot” may be understandable, yet as he shows in brilliant, and often humorous detail, its costs to the individual, to humanity in general, to the planet as a whole, are high, indeed. In a word, confusion. In another word, suffering.

Moss Campion is a qualified commentator, having immersed himself in the mystery of consciousness all his life, both in the context of his personal circumstances and also in his work with patients in the hospital setting. Along the way he studied with many esteemed teachers and guides, in both the animal and plant kingdoms.

While growing up on the mist-shrouded coast of Maine, Moss Campion would eagerly await the arrival of Halloween all year long, already demonstrating a strong interest in the mystical side of life. Even as he later worked in fields as varied as music, skiing, nursing, and journalism, he continued his involvement with spiritual teachings, studying with a number of esteemed teachers and mentors. He holds a masters degree in journalism and has collected numerous credits in specialized magazines. His biography of the Bavarian sage Lothar Weichert was published in Germany. Along the way he received awards and fellowships from University of Michigan, University of Colorado, and the Ucross Foundation.

More information about Moss Campion's work can be found at: 
Moss Campion's website: mosscampion.com.

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This week on The Mystical Positivist, we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest Stephen Aronson about his new book, The Search for Meaning and the Mystery of Consciousness – A Psychologist’s Journey Through Gurdjieff and Jung, published by Karnak Press in 2022. This book explores the existential questions of reality, one’s purpose for existing, attention, consciousness, and the nature of the Universe all from a scientific and psychological perspective grounded in over 40 years of practice in the Gurdjieff work.

Stephen Aronson is a psychotherapist with an eclectic training background ranging from cognitive behavioral therapy to the alchemical approach of Carl Jung. His spiritual life has been a search for verification of a deeper reality underlying the ordinary world of our senses. His personal aim has been to find a reconciliation between science and spirituality which would allow reconciling the concepts of Universal Intelligence with rationality. The arcane language of specialized methods, although necessary for advanced training, is often a barrier for those seeking an initial understanding. After dozens of years in Jungian analysis and four decades of study and practice in the system of transformational psychology introduced to the West by G. I. Gurdjieff, he has sought to find an approach to illustrate these deep and complex ideas and methods in common language and universally shared experiences.

Steve lives in rural Maine where he retired in 2013 from forty-three years in the private practice of psychotherapy, education, and training. He has published on the work for G. I. Gurdjieff in Proceedings of the Annual All and Everything International Humanities Conference as well as in Parabola, a magazine dedicated to myth, tradition, and search for meaning.

More information about Stephen Aronson's work can be found at:
The Seekers Café website: seekerscafe.org,
Stephen Aronson at The Gurdjieff Club: Preparation for the Third Line of Work,
Stephen Aronson on The Mystical Positivist: Show 350 - 08FEB20, and Show 332 - 20JUL19.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest Ken McLeod in which we delve more deeply into the nature of the Vertical and Horizontal dimensions of life, what this means in the context of spiritual practice, the nature of transaction as the currency of the Horizontal realm, how we might relate to a spiritual practice in non-transactional terms, and what it means to say that a spiritual path is a “way of living”. This episode is another installment in an extended conversation that we have been having with Ken over the last couple of years.

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 founder and director of UnfetteredMind.org. He 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.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Michael Allswang, author of Symbolism: Modern Thought and Ancient Egypt. After much study, reflection, and also visits to many ancient Egyptian monuments, Michael has come to the conclusion that the development of consciousness was the essential project of the priests of ancient Egypt, and that one of the means they used to achieve this end was the expression of spiritual truths by means of symbolism. Modern thought and ancient Egypt are both based on symbolism.

Michael Allswang, after obtaining degrees from UCLA and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, made his career as manager of Documentation Services for software companies in the U.S. and France. At the same time, he was, and still is, an independent writer, translator, and researcher in the fields of ancient civilizations, Egyptology, psychology, and spirituality. He has published various articles on these themes in European periodicals. He is also the translator of Pierre Gordon's The Original Revelation. He now makes his home in both Paris and Provence in France.

More information about Michael Allswang's work can be found at: 
Michael Allswang on BookBaby: store.bookbaby.com,

Michael Allswang on Facebook.com: www.facebook.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Elliot Cohen, author of The Psychologisation of Eastern Spiritual Traditions: Colonisation, Translation and Commodification. This essential book critically examines the various ways in which Eastern spiritual traditions have been typically stripped of their spiritual roots, content, and context, to be more readily assimilated into secular Western frames of Psychology.

Dr. Elliot Cohen is a Chartered Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Social and Interdisciplinary Psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He worked as a Psychotherapist for several years and then worked in Psychiatric units and therapeutic communities in and around Manchester; specializing in Psychodrama, Dramatherapy, Music Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Therapies. He is the current Secretary of the British Psychological Society’s Transpersonal Section and an active member of the Discourse Unit, which promotes more critical/radical approaches to Psychology. Elliott has traveled extensively around the Far East where he studied Daoist, Buddhist, and Hindu philosophy. He is an authorized teacher of Buddhist meditation and Mindfulness-Based Approaches from the Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Academy.

More information about Elliot Cohen's work can be found at: 
Elliot Cohen at Leeds: www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk,

Elliot Cohen on Academia.edu: leedsbeckett.academia.edu,

Elliot Cohen on Facebook.com: www.facebook.com,

The Psychologisation of Eastern Spiritual Traditions at Routledge: www.routledge.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Steve Taylor, author of Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation. In this book Steve shares dozens of amazing stories of individuals who “woke up” to profound transformation following bereavement, deep depression, suicide attempts, addiction, military combat, imprisonment, or other intense encounters with mortality. Along with the amazing stories of shifters he shares throughout the book, Taylor uncovers the psychological processes that help explain these miraculous awakenings.

Steve Taylor is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, and the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. His other books include The Clear Light, Out of the Darkness, Back to Sanity, The Calm Center, The Leap, and Spiritual Science. He also writes blog articles for Scientific American and Psychology Today.

More information about Steve Taylor's work can be found at: 
Steve Taylor's Website: www.stevenmtaylor.com,

Steve Taylor on Facebook: www.facebook.com,

Extraordinary Awakenings at New World Library: www.newworldlibrary.com.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Richard Payne, editor and contributor to the 2021 Shambhala publication, Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition. This collection of essays explores how secular values impact Buddhism in the modern world, what versions of Buddhism are actually being transmitted to the West, whether it is possible to know if a given interpretation of the Buddha's words is correct, and whether "Secular Buddhism" is purely a Western invention. Contributors to this volume include Bhikkhu Bodhi, Kate Crosby, Gil Fronsdal, Kathleen Gregory, Funie Hsu, Roger R. Jackson, Charles B. Jones, David L. McMahan, Richard K. Payne, Ron Purser, Sarah Shaw, Philippe Turenne, and Pamela D. Winfield.

Richard K. Payne is the Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. During his dissertation research into tantric fire ritual (Homa) on Mt. Koya in Japan, he also completed training as a Shingon priest (ajari). Clustering around his core research program on tantric ritual are broader theoretical concerns about the conduct of such research. This includes the study of ritual across cultural boundaries and over long durations, and the use of language in tantric Buddhist ritual. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the institute's annual journal, Pacific World, and is the chair of the Editorial Committee of the Pure Land Buddhist Studies Series. His other publications include, Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An Anthology, co-edited with Georgios Halkias (2019); Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan: Indic Roots of Mantra (2018); and Homa Variations: The Study of Ritual across the Longue Durée, co-edited with Michael Witzel (2016).

More information about Richard Payne's work can be found at: 
Richard Payne at the Institute of Buddhist Studies: www.shin-ibs.edu,

Richard Payne's Blog: criticalreflectionsonbuddhistthought.org,

Secularizing Buddhism at Shambhala: www.shambhala.com,

Mystical Positivist episodes with contributors to Secularizing Buddhism and related guests: 
Gil Fronsdal,

Stephen Batchelor,

Roger R. Jackson,

Kate Crosby.

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This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest Ken McLeod in which we discuss the role of Imagination in spiritual practice, the distinction between the Vertical and Horizontal dimensions of life and the modern struggle to imagine the Vertical dimension, how we might imagine a non-transactional embodiment of spiritual practice, and much more.

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 founder and director of UnfetteredMind.org. He 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.

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This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with author, Peter Russell, about his latest book, Letting Go of Nothing: Relax Your Mind and Discover the Wonder of Your True Nature (An Eckhart Tolle Edition). Peter Russell is an author, speaker, and leading thinker on consciousness and contemporary spirituality. He believes the critical challenge today is freeing human thinking from the limited beliefs and attitudes that lie behind many of our problems — personal, social, and global. His mission is to distill the essential wisdom on human consciousness found in the world’s various spiritual traditions and to disseminate it in contemporary and compelling ways. Russell earned a first-class honors degree in theoretical physics and psychology — as well as a master’s degree in computer science — at the University of Cambridge, England. He also studied meditation and Eastern philosophy in India. He coined the term global brain with his 1980s bestseller by the same name in which he predicted the internet and the impact it would have on humanity. He is the author of twelve books including Waking Up in Time and From Science to God.

More information about Peter Russell's work can be found at:
Peter Russell's Website: www.peterrussell.com,
Letting Go of Nothing page: Letting Go of Nothing,
Online course on Meditation: How to Meditate - Without Even Trying.

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This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with author, Pamela Logan, about her latest book, Compassion Mandala – The Odyssey of an American Charity in Contemporary Tibet. Pamela Logan can usually be found with her head in the clouds, moving uphill. At the age of 19 she took up karate while pursuing an engineering degree at Caltech. She later got an aerospace PhD from Stanford; but then left her career as a scientist to investigate the warrior tribes of the eastern Tibetan plateau, in a region known as Kham. Not long after that, she worked for the China Exploration & Research Society restoring Tibetan temples and probing Silk Road ruins. In 1996, Dr. Logan was named Woman Explorer of the Year. The following year she started Kham Aid Foundation, a nonprofit that operated for 14 years assisting people in eastern Tibet with their needs for education, health care, cultural preservation, and economic opportunity.

In 2007, Logan started a third career when she took a job with the US federal government as a cleaner-upper of radioactive contamination at the Hanford site in Washington State. Later she moved to a different agency where she her job is to stop federal contractors from gouging American taxpayers. In her spare time, she still teaches karate and continues to advance the cause of assistance to Tibet through publication of books and articles that raise awareness of the needs of Tibetans. She now holds the rank of fifth degree black belt and teaches at Boulder Shotokan Karate. In 2020, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Logan began producing a series of training videos called “Karate at Home, Alone.”

Logan is also the author Among Warriors and Tibetan Rescue. She is an accomplished public speaker, having delivered invited lectures at Columbia University, Wellesley College, Royal Geographical Society of Hong Kong, Asia Society, Explorers Club, Foreign Correspondents Clubs in Hong Kong and Beijing, and others.

More information about Pamela Logan's work can be found at:
Pamela Logan's Website: www.pamela-logan.com.

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This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with Zimbabwan healer, Mandaza Augustine Kandemwa. Mandaza is a spirit medium and medicine man from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. In Shona, his native tongue, he is known as a Mhondora, Svikiro, and Gombwa. He was initiated through the tradition of the njuzu, the water spirits. Mandaza carries with him in his heart the Central African spiritual tradition of healing and peacemaking. He is known internationally for his loving presence and for his preservation of the old ways. He stands for Truth, Love, Justice, and Peace in this world. Mandaza was raised in a Christian home, trained as an educator, school administrator, and police officer in Apartheid Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. During this time, he became actively involved in the liberation struggle.

Currently, Mandaza travels internationally offering teachings and healing counsel in churches, schools, prisons, and hospitals. He co-authored, with Michael Ortiz-Hill, Twins From Another Tribe, one of the few books that discuss Shona cosmology and traditional practices.

More information about Mandaza Kandemwa's work can be found at:
Mandaza's Website: www.mandaza.com,
Mandaza on Dharmagiri: www.dharmagiri.org,
Mandaza online seminar series: www.pathwayteaching.com.

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This week on the show we feature feature a pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod, Buddhist teacher and author the newly released book, The Magic of Vajrayana. In today’s conversation, we unpack a compelling quote from Ian McGilchrist’s book, 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.


More information about Ken McLeod's work can be found at: 
Unfettered Mind website: www.unfetteredmind.org.

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This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with Fiona Denzey, a long-time practitioner and teacher of the Gurdjieff Movements. Born into the Work, Ms. Denzey’s parents were founding members of the Gurdjieff Foundation of Toronto. At an early age, she was introduced to the Gurdjieff movements and received direct training from Mr. Gurdjieff's designated Movements teachers, Alfred Etievan and Jessmin Howarth. Ms. Denzey’s mother, Elsa, was an accomplished pianist who worked with many musicians from all over the world in a series of seminars exploring how to accompany sacred dance. Fiona Denzey, herself, has over 50 years of experience in the direct communication of Mr. Gurdjieff's Movements.

Of the Gurdjieff Movements, the Foundation of Toronto writes:

In the early years of his search, Gurdjieff spent time in various hidden monasteries and temples in Central Asia, where he experienced ritual dances and ceremonies. In studying their essential structure, he came to the understanding that these dances were being used as a language to express knowledge of a cosmic order. This language is a very exact one. Everything in it is measured, every movement has its right place, duration and weight. Combinations and sequences are mathematically calculated. Positions are arranged to produce definite, predetermined emotions or states. In the creation of such movements, every small element matters. Each detail has meaning, nothing is left to chance. Nothing is the result of mere imagination. There is only one possible gesture, attitude and rhythm to represent a given human or cosmic situation. Another gesture, another movement would strike a false note, would not produce the impression of truth. Should there be the slightest miscalculation in the composition, the truth is altered, the dance desecrated, and fantasy has taken the place of knowledge. In a lifetime devoted to study and questioning, Gurdjieff mastered the principles of this art and was able in his turn to use the movements as a vehicle for the transmission of his understanding.

(Note: the audio quality of the podcast is limited at times due to some connectivity issues)
More information about Fiona Denzey's work can be found at:
Gurdjieff Foundation of Toronto: Society for Arts and Ideas Website: www.gurdjiefftoronto.com.