Dr. Sylver Quevedo and Raghu jam on psychedelic preparation and integration, the MAPS MDMA studies, a Ram Dass ketamine story in India, and how 'love, serve, remember' connects to Indigenous wisdom.

“One of the cardinal features that's been learned in the second psychedelic renaissance in the clinical trials has been the importance of two things that were not really understood that well in the 1960s—that is, preparation and integration. By contrast, one of the things that really was discovered early on and articulated very well by Ram Dass and Timothy Leary, was the importance of 'set and setting.' That has survived. It was figured out early on, never went away, and has been rediscovered over and over again.” – Dr. Sylver Quevedo

Raghu and Sylver dive into:
- Taos, New Mexico; the Pueblo people; and the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram in Taos which houses the radiant and emotive Hanuman murti who jumped the ocean from India with Ram Dass and friends back in the day
- Working with MAPS (The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) on their monumental MDMA for PTSD trials
- Psychedelics and love in the 1960s compared to psychedelics and science in the 2020s
- Ram Dass giving the "yogi medicine" LSD to his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji)
- How Ram Dass and Maharaj-ji's lessons of "love, serve, remember" applies to Indigenous wisdom
- The transformational neural-plasticity and heart-opening properties of tryptamines and phenethylamines
- A fascinating Ram Dass on ketamine in India story, and Sylver's out-of-body revelation on ketamine

"In the 1960s, we were mostly young and naive kids. But on the other hand, the ideals that came through there were real, even if we were misguided and naive about a lot of things like psychedelics. Now that science is part of the reality, in terms of the truth: the love and unity that we were pursing in the 1960s was a worthy cause." – Raghu Markus

About Dr. Sylver Quevedo:
Dr. Sylver Quevedo is a psychedelic researcher who has practiced medicine for over 40 years and played major roles in world health projects. He is currently working with MAPS (The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) on their monumental MDMA for PTSD trials.

Raghu Markus – Mindrolling – Ep. 497 - Psychedelic Preparation & Integration w/ Dr. Sylver Quevedo

Wrapping the world in the heart of loving kindness, Jack offers a meditation to help us into presence, relaxation, & loving awareness.

Jack originally shared this guided meditation for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. If you would like to join Jack online for his next livestream, register at http://go.spiritrock.org/SR021924

"Living in loving kindness opens the doorway to happiness and joy." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack leads a guided meditation to help us:

- Enter into presence, relaxation, kindness, and loving awareness
- Wrap the world and our experiences in the heart of loving kindness
- Learn what it feels like to truly wish well for others and yourself
- Use the power of our imagination to visualize and experience transformative blessings
- Gradually and incrementally extend our metta to encapsulate all sentient beings
- Offer our hearts and direct our loving kindness to those suffering throughout the world
- Take the "advanced class" by extending our metta to those causing suffering
- Listen to our intuition and allow our heart to direct itself
- Live in happiness and joy, and bring loving kindness to all we touch

"Extend the feeling of loving kindness across the world, to those in difficulty, the families the children who are fleeing danger in so many places—Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, Palestine, Israel—across the world. You picture them—the families the children—and send rays of love, metta, and strength, 'May you be safe and protected, may you find ease and graciousness, may you be held in loving kindness, and in whatever ways you can, may you be happy.'" – Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 224 – Loving Kindness Guided Meditation

Nina Rao and Chandra Easton join Raghu to talk about embodying the goddess Tara through chanting.

Interested in seeing Nina and Chandra? Here are two upcoming events on the East Coast: Tibet House, NYC, May 11 and Kripalu, MA, May 12-17

Raghu, Nina, and Chandra spend this episode discussing:

Chandra’s Buddhist upbringing
The deity Tara and the sacred feminine
Nina and Chandra’s collaboration with chanting and mantras
An acapella chant offered from Nina
Tara for harmony
Tantra and spirituality for the people
The 21 praises to Tara
Durga, Saraswati, and other feminine deities we can invoke through mantras
The eighth Tara as a fierce and invincible embodiment
The mara of doubt
About Nina Rao:

Nina Rao is a devotional singer. She tours with Krishna Das, playing cymbals, singing, and acting as his business manager. Nina has two of her own albums, “Antarayaami – Knower of All Hearts” and “Anubhav”. Nina regularly leads kirtan, workshops, and retreats in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York and beyond. Together with Chandra and Genevieve Walker, Nina operates the 21 Taras Collective. You can keep up with Nina on her website or find her on Instagram @nina_rao and on Facebook @NinaRaoChant.

About Chandra Easton:

Chandra Easton is a teacher, scholar, practitioner, and translator of Tibetan Buddhism. She has taught Buddhism and Hatha Yoga since 2001. In 2015, she was given the title of Vajra Teacher, Dorje Lopön, for Tara Mandala Retreat Center by Lama Tsultrim Allione and H. E. Gochen Sang Ngag Rinpoche. Seeking to bring forth the voice of the empowered feminine in Buddhism, Lopön Chandra regularly leads retreats and classes on Tara for various organizations, develops programs and curricula for Tara Mandala, and teaches nationally and internationally. She has also co-written melodies and recorded music for the twenty-one-Taras mantras found in her new book, Embodying Tara: Twenty-One Manifestations to Awaken Your Innate Wisdom. You can find Chandra on Instagram & Facebook @loponchandra.

“The main purpose of doing this aspect of the 21 Tara’s practice through chanting and more of a kirtan style is to uplift people, just like kirtan does. To bring joy, open people’s heart to the blessings of these Taras and to Devi and to the universal way. And also to help them remember the mantra, because some of them are pretty long they can be a little challenging to remember.” – Chandra Easton

Ep. 528 - The 21 Taras With Nina Rao & Chandra Easton

For episode 233, Dr. Jenny Taitz returns to the Metta Hour. Jenny is a clinical psychologist and an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jenny completed her fellowship in psychology at Yale University School of Medicine and achieved board certifications in cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. In addition to treating clients in her private therapy practice, LA CBT DBT, she is the author of How to Be Single and Happy and End Emotional Eating. Her new book, Stress Resets: How to Soothe Your Body and Mind in Minutes, is now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

In this episode, Sharon and Jenny discuss:

- Jenny’s new book, Stress Resets
- Acute versus chronic stress
- Learning how to put stress down
- The distinction between stress and trauma
- How stress affects the body
- Preventing a stress snowball
- Cultivating agency in dealing with stress
- The role of acceptance in stress
- Working with causes and conditions
- Stress resets versus stress buffers
- Emotions come in waves
- Coherent breathing
- Creating an anti-depressant lifestyle
- Jenny closes the conversation with a guided mindfulness practice.

You can learn more about Jenny’s work and get a copy of her new book, Stress Resets, on her website: https://drjennytaitz.com/

Sharon Salzberg &  Dr. Jenny Taitz – Metta Hour Ep. 233

Illuminating the deepening levels of spiritual practice, Jack explores how to let life breathe while setting your heart on gold.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

“What we’re doing in practice is feeling the actuality of how life is pulsing, moving, flowing and swirling, fast and slow, rhythmically, within our own body, within our own direct experience.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

- How to let life breathe while setting your heart on gold
- The importance of balancing our concentration, effort, and equanimity
- How the quality of presence can help the gold of the heart and mind shine
- Riding the body’s rhythm of breath as our main focus of attention and rest
- To feel of how life is pulsing, moving, and flowing through our experience
- Working with our loneliness, suffering, grief, fear, and longings
- Awakening into the present moment to see past the body of fear
- How recognizing spaciousness and impermanence helps us overcome our difficulties
- The power of trust, letting go, and letting life breathe

“People sometimes feel like it’s not worth it to practice. In the beginning it seems like you’re here 2% of the time, but if you continue and look honestly, you might be here 4% of the time. In one way, that’s discouraging statistically that you’re off 96%, but in another way it says you are now here alive and present twice as much as you were two days ago.” – Jack Kornfield

“The insight into the true path comes when we discover that we’re not trying to hold onto a single thing, not a perception, not a pleasant experience, not the calm of meditation—those are all parts of the waves of experience that rise and pass in space. The idea isn’t to hold your breath when you get something good to see how long it can stay, that doesn’t work very well. The idea is to let all of life breath. As we do, we let go moment by moment, more fully. We learn to trust, like the goldsmith, blowing on it, sprinkling water, softening, cooling, and a lot of time just giving presence so it’s beauty can start to show.” – Jack Kornfield

This episode from 10/09/1983 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 225 - Letting Life Breathe

In this essential talk from 1987, Ram Dass uses his life experience to guide us through the process of taking off our spacesuit of identity and embracing the curriculum our lives offer us.

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on February 27th at 3 pm EST.

This episode of Here and Now is from a classic talk given in April 1987.

Using his journey as a guide for this talk, Ram Dass explores the spacesuits of ego and identity we wear in our lives. He tells us how ill-fitting this spacesuit felt for him, and the feeling of freedom he found when he was first able to take it off. 

Ram Dass describes how he began to chase the high of not wearing the spacesuit through the use of mind-altering chemicals and spiritual practices. Eventually, though, those things became a different kind of suit he was wearing. Through the advice of a wise friend, he realized he needed to take the curriculum that everyday life has to offer and not just live with his head in the clouds.

Once the object of the game shifted from getting high to getting free, Ram Dass chose to stop pushing away all of the things that brought him down. Instead, he embraced the many forms of suffering in the world, working with prisoners, AIDS patients, and people going through the process of dying. To get free, we need to embrace it all, the good and the bad.

“As I took off the suit, I felt at home, I felt present. It felt extremely familiar to me, even though as an adult in society I didn’t remember having been in this space before. I was always constantly checking everybody to see if I was enough ‘somebody’ so that I would be allowed to exist.” – Ram Dass

Ep. 245 – Taking Off Our Spacesuit

Whether it is Christ, a guru, a loved one, or neighbor, RamDev helps us find the object of our devotion in each passing moment.

In this episode of Healing at the Edge, RamDev explains:

The inner and outer guru
Letting go of identification with suffering
Seeing the forest versus getting lost in the trees
The grace within devotion
How our psychological integration determines what level of intimacy we will have with God
Inhabiting the body and opening the heart
Worshiping God in every form
Conscious grieving and deepening devotion
Spaciousness and non-grasping as an antidote to fear
“The guru isn’t just something outside that we’re in relationship with. Its everything, it’s the whole universe. And, it’s the practitioner. It’s you, it’s me. It’s not something that’s only there when we’re feeling holy and sacred. Suppose you’re saying a mantra, you’re saying ram ram ram. From the standpoint of tantra, each time you say ram, it is ram. Each time you look in the mirror, it is ram. Each time you look at your partner or your child or your neighbor, it is ram. It is the mother.” – RamDev

Finding the Object of Your Devotion with RamDev – Healing at the Edge Podcast Ep. 107

Exploring mental constructs, Gil Fronsdal describes how we construct the relationships to our experiences.

This recording from the Insight Meditation Center was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

On this episode of the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal talks about these topics:

A four line Buddhist chant in Pali
The impermanence of all constructed things
Mindfulness and the practice of noticing
Exploring one’s relationship to the present moment
Moving our attention with a deliberate calmness
Meditation instruction as the antidote to relating negatively
Our attitudes and how they affect our experiences
Non-reactive awareness in order to avoid new constructions
Identity and the stories we tell about ourselves
Allowing “I am” to stand by itself
About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

“To quiet these constructions is happiness. To be able to question these things, and slowly perhaps, maybe even imperceptibly, to allow these constructs to calm down, relax, not buy into them as much. Maybe not buy into them as much because we notice them.” – Gil Fronsdal

Mental Constructs with Gil Fronsdal - BHNN Guest Podcast Ep. 162

Dan Harris & Sharon Salzberg – Metta Hour Podcast Ep. 234

Illuminating the subtle but crucial difference between codependence and compassion, Jack outlines how to set boundaries and live from our unique truth.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"Codependence means being an accomplice, a kind of complicity with someone who's acting in a self-destructive way, being dependent on their behavior, or supporting it somehow for your own security." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack sheds mindful light on:

- The subtle but crucial difference between compassion and codependence
- Trying to fix it or save someone instead of allowing them to taste the fruits of their karmas
- Feeling locked into supporting someone's destructive behavior
- The lack of feeling secure leading to needing to over-control
- Needing to fix someone else's problems because we can't live with it in ourself
- How we are all accomplices to a codependent society
- Mother Teresa and seeking to love the world instead of trying to fix it
- The necessity of balancing compassion practice with equanimity practice
- The spiritual importance of disharmony and the value of suffering
Boundaries and the ability to say "no"
- Ownership, possessiveness, and the trouble with believing our roles
- The Bhagavad Gita and acting from our hearts without attachment to the fruit of the action
- Living our our unique truth amidst the mystery

Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18, here: https://bit.ly/JackPath

"We are all heirs to our own karma, we have created our own lives. We can love and assist others, but in the end, no one can create a life for someone else, no one can change another person's fate. We are the ones that create what will happen for us." – Jack Kornfield

"Can we seek to love the world instead of trying to fix it? It is possible to be in a codependent relationship with the ills of the society, so we have to start looking within ourselves. What does it mean to do good? Mother Teresa taught in her work in Calcutta in the death and dying centers, 'We're not social workers. Our work is not to take people off the streets and clothes them and feed them. The government could do that. Our work is to bring to the people that we touch the spirit and the love of God that has touched us. The rest of it is just the vehicle to communicate that spirit.' It's a very different way of approaching solving a problem.'" – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk from 9/1/1989 at was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 227 – Codependence And Compassion, What's the Difference?

Explaining the ways our minds can be seduced, Joseph Goldstein teaches us how to let go into non-clinging.

This 2007 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed.

In this episode, Joseph Goldstein teaches listeners about:

Letting go into the wisdom mind of non-clinging
Awakening to the nature of the mind
Working with the hindrances of mind
Noticing how the mind can be seduced
Skeptical doubt and being frozen in indecision
The ways that doubt can masquerade itself as wisdom
Telling ourselves that it is okay not to know
Resting in experience rather than being caught in thought loops
Investigating our aversions and their hold on the mind
Seeing everything with perfect wisdom
Transforming our attitudes about our aversions
Being inclusive to our difficult experiences
“Struggle is a great feedback because it signifies non-acceptance of something. Because if we were accepting, we wouldn’t be struggling. Whenever we’re in that sense of striving, of struggle, of tension, take that as a feedback, not as a problem. That’s telling us something. That’s saying something is going on in the body, in the mind, in the emotions, in the thoughts, in our external experience, something is going on that we’re not open to, that we’re trying to exclude, and that’s why we’re struggling.” – Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein: Sudden Awakening & Gradual Cultivation of Buddhist Practice – Insight Hour Ep.193

In a conversation on the healing power of ketamine, David Romanelli and Madison Margolin discuss re-wiring the brain and overcoming trauma.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenow

This time on Set and Setting, Madison and David dive talk about:

David’s journey with yoga
The healing power of psychedelic therapy
David’s work with Daytrip, a spa-like ketamine experience
Birdsong psychedelic retreat center
Re-wiring the brain through psychedelics
David’s connection to the Grateful Dead
Working with psychedelics to treat Trauma, PTSD, and suicidal ideation
Ketamine versus other psychedelics
Reframing our somatic experiences and how we carry emotions
The ways that kids are already psychedelic and keeping the magic alive
Reconnecting to our sense of belief
About David Romanelli:

David Romanelli is a leading health and wellness innovator. He has pioneered the art of fusing ancient Eastern practices with modern sensibilities. His unique wellness projects such as Yoga + Chocolate and Yoga for Foodies have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, the New York Times, Newsweek, and O, the Oprah Magazine. His first book, Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment, reached #1 on Amazon’s Self-Help List. David offers many guided meditations and recently began working with Birdsong, a psychedelic healing center. Discover more about David’s offerings at yeahdave.com.

“I realized the way my brain was wired needed to be reset, because I was already prone to worry, and anxiety, and nervousness. I realized that I needed to change that, I needed a new perspective. The psychedelic therapy really showed me that you can unplug, and plug back in. ‘Control, Alt, Delete’ if you will and come to life in a way that doesn’t require you to worry, where it’s not your default setting.” – David Romanelli

Resetting the Brain with Ketamine – David Romanelli & Madison Margolin – Set and Setting Ep. 39

Philosopher, author, and activist Peter Singer joins Raghu to chat about his new book, The Buddhist and the Ethicist.

Pick up your copy of Peter Singer’s book HERE

This week on Mindrolling, Peter and Raghu have a comprehensive conversation on:

Singer’s coming of age in the 60’s
The background of Venerable Shih Chao-Hwei
The ethical outlook of utilitarianism
Examining the consequences of our actions
The problems that come with not thinking about the future
The Bodhisattva tradition
Bhakti Yoga and merging with the supreme being
Having compassion for those that suffer, human and non-human
Looking at theories of human nature and basic goodness
Karma’s compatibility with utilitarianism
The ways that we leave traces in the world
About Peter Singer:

Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher and Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He also is also an author, and is best known for his writings about poverty and liberating animals. He wrote the book Animal Liberation, in which he argues for vegetarianism and co-founded the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, now Animals Australia, the country’s largest and most effective animal organization. Most recently, he published a book of eye-opening dialogues with Venerable Shih Chao-Hwei, a Taiwanese Buddhist monastic and social activist. Learn more about Peter Singer on his website.

“Compassion is one way of looking at how we ought to be thinking about all sentient beings. We ought to be thinking about them with concern for their well-being. When you use the term compassion, at least to westerners, that suggests a feeling, an emotion, something like we might say empathy that we have with them. That’s something that utilitarians would want to encourage because we need to think about what its like for other beings in the various possible states of the world that could result from our doing a variety of things.” – Peter Singer

Ep. 531 - The Buddhist And The Ethicist With Peter Singer

Going back to the basics, Jack explores how we can skillfully navigate our dynamic mood states by experiencing them as clouds of the mind.

Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18! Register here: https://bit.ly/3T7Aafp

"Moods are actually kind of mysterious and quite impersonal. They're like the weather. It's been kind of cool this year, then we get our rainstorms, and the sun comes in between, and the wind comes and dies down, and we don't have any control over it whatsoever. It just comes. It's due to certain conditions." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack compassionately illuminates:

- Experiencing moods as clouds or weather—arising and passing naturally from impersonal sets of conditions
- The six flavors of experience in Buddhism
- Finding the middle ground between acting on feelings and suppressing them
- The "vipassana romance" and understanding the "siren call" of desire
- Diffusing desire with humor, mindfulness, and noting
- Moving past attachment and aversion by leaning into them
- Techniques for overcoming doubt
- Letting go and becoming more happy and more live

"The optimist wakes up and says, 'Good morning, God!' And the pessimist wakes up and says, 'Good God! Morning...' It's the same experience, but the mood somehow changes it." – Jack Kornfield

"One sits and practices, and let's these experiences come and fill us. We bow to them, name them, soften in the heart and say, 'Okay, show me your stuff, give me the whole thing.' And you know what happens after a while? If you make this spaciousness in the heart and that still point, at some point it ends. Because everything does. You say, 'Wow that was a big storm of desire, wasn't it?' And there you are, and there's this sense of freedom that comes that that's not who we are most fundamentally." – Jack Kornfield

The Dharma Talk from 4/1/1988 at was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Jack Kornfield - Heart Wisdom - Ep. 228 - Clouds Of The Mind

In this classic talk from 1987, Ram Dass explores working with suffering, keeping our hearts open, finding the intuitive heart space, and being responsive rather than reactive.

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on March 12 at 8 pm EST. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information: https://www.ramdass.org/fellowship/#soulpod

Ram Dass: How to Be Responsive, Not Reactive

Sarah Anderson joins Raghu to explore her new book, The Lost Art of Silence, and how we can reconnect to the beauty of quiet.

In this episode, Sarah and Raghu delve into:
- How crucial and nurturing silence can be
- Sarah’s childhood trauma
- Silence’s relationship to the inner journey
- Sarah’s investigation into the art of silence
- Silence as the link between so many religions and traditions
- The way that being quiet makes us a better listener
- Raghu’s story of meeting Ram Dass
- How nature can teach us about silence
- The fear caused from sensory deprivations
- Becoming aware of God through silent meditation
- Concerns for our youth and the loudness of technology

About Sarah Anderson:
Sarah Anderson founded the Travel Bookshop in London in 1979, the shop later featured in the film Notting Hill. She studied Chinese at the London University college of SOAS, and at Heythrop, where she earned an MA in the psychology of religion. She has taught travel writing at City University, writes regular travel pieces, reviews books, and gives talks worldwide. Also an artist, Sarah’s paintings have been exhibited throughout London. Sarah is the author of several books. Her most recent book, The Lost Art of Silence, celebrates the power in being quiet.

“Even in the cacophony of going into the woods, of the birds singing, animals speaking to each other, in that cacophony is a delightful silence. Because the real silence, to me, is that your mind stops turning out this avalanche of thoughts and stories.” – Raghu Markus

The Lost Art of Silence with Sarah Anderson and Raghu Markus – Mindrolling Ep. 532

Talking Kabir, breakups, LSD, & Ram Dass, Jack shares how we can unfurl from the suffering our expectations in order to live the mystery.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"Awareness has this quality of allowing change or openness to take place, because you're not trying to make it a certain way... you're observing it." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

- Kabir and waking up in this very life
- Grief, breakups, disappointment, and letting go
- How expectation creates suffering
- Meditation and "manufacturing the light"
- Expectations, battling reality, and opening to the mystery
- How the mind measures, but the heart loves
- What Ram Dass told Jack about dealing with the death of his father
- Moving past the content of mind, and truly experiencing life
- The essence of Buddha's practice of mindfulness
- Labeling/noting feelings as a way to release them
- Albert Hoffman and LSD
- Relationships and how to make commitment without expectation

Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield. The live version begins March 18! Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3T7Aafp

"Now, what's interesting to discover in meditation, is as you pay attention inside, it's the mind which measures, the mind with thought. The heart doesn't measure, the heart doesn't have that capacity, actually." – Jack Kornfield

"This is an amazing thing—bodies, and life, and cars, and planets hanging in space, and big balls of fire that we name stars and no one knows where they come from...beetles, insects, and strange things. What is this? So we sit and make ourselves a little bit quiet in order to turn the heart and the mind together to face directly this reality, this changing reality of birth and death, of change of life." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk from 10/10/1988 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 229 – Expectations

In this Q&A session, Ram Dass talks about transcending dualism, the significance of clairvoyance, how reincarnation is part of our dreams within dreams within dreams, and more.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on March 26th at 3 pm EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

This week’s episode of Here and Now is taken from a Q&A session in 1987. 

Ram Dass begins by answering questions about his Mala beads, his spiritual lineage, and psychedelics. He shares stories about giving his guru the “yogi medicine.”
Taking on a question about struggling with the polarities of positive and negative, light and dark, and good and evil, Ram Dass explores transcending dualism. He talks about how before he’d experienced transcendence, he had a lot of trouble with the idea of good and evil.
What’s the significance of clairvoyance? Ram Dass talks about the very rigid set of rules we base on what our senses tell us, and how he loves sharing stories of miracles because they push everybody’s buttons. 
Ram Dass answers questions about cultivating the Witness, why there is so much blind suffering, and connections that span multiple lifetimes. He talks about how reincarnation is as real as anything on this plane of awareness because it’s all just dreams within dreams within dreams.
“Everybody doesn’t have a guru or a physical plane guide, many people have inner guides that they experience as their inner voice, which could be their inner voice or it could be another being helping them. There are many levels of this game. Each person gets their ‘karmuppance.’ They get just what they need, just when they need it.” – Ram Dass

Ep. 247 – Dreams Within Dreams Within Dreams

Jack shares miracle stories and personal lessons from Dipa Ma – the luminous, compassionate and unshakeable spiritual master.

Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield. The live version begins March 18! Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3T7Aafp

"You had a sense from this very sweet, mild-mannered old lady of a kind of unshakable inner strength, an incredible sense of stillness and strength in her being." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack lovingly reflects on:

- His times with the great yogi and spiritual master, Dipa Ma Barua
- Miracle stories and spiritual lessons of Dipa Ma
- How the suffering in Dipa Ma's life drew her to Buddhism and meditation
- Dipa Ma's siddhis (spiritual/psychic powers) and compassionate shining heart
- A life-changing story of Jack being blessed by Dipa Ma
- Her grandmotherly loving kindness
- Dipa Ma's favorite spiritual questions


"Dipa Ma's teaching was to always keep people in your heart, to give of your love to the people, and the earth and the world around." – Jack Kornfield

"Of all of the possibilities that one can do with the heart and mind, Dipa Ma was a great master of them." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk from 11/01/1989 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 230 - The Inspiration Of Dipa Ma

In a dharma talk on relative and ultimate reality, JoAnna Hardy discusses how to hold the complexity of life.

This lecture was recorded at the Insight Meditation Retreat for 18–32 Year Olds and originally published by Dharmaseed.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenow

In this episode, JoAnna Hardy offers a talk on:

How and why we keep returning to our suffering
Dominant paradigms and what is out of our control
The way that the Buddhist experience introduces us to ultimate reality
Relative reality and what is happening on the ground
How we are all invited to be free via the Four Noble Truths
The ways we struggle with trying to control other people
Anatta, identity, and the way we hold onto our self-hood
How we show up in the world through our speech, actions, and thoughts
The Eightfold Path as the things we can control
Paying attention to who we spend our time with
About JoAnna Hardy: 

JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice. 

“I’ve really worked on this practice of looking at a person; I’m not only looking at them. I’m looking at probably thousands of people who stand behind them, who have created them, who have created their way of thinking, their way of being. Every teacher, every friend, every person they come into contact with creates this being that is in front of us.” – JoAnna Hardy

Ep. 164 - How To Hold The Complexity Of Life With JoAnna Hardy

Expanding our notions of love to a universal state, ecologist and peace-pilgrim, Satish Kumar, joins Raghu to talk about his new book, Radical Love.

Get your copy of Radical Love HERE

This time on Mindrolling, Satish and Raghu journey through these topics:

How Gandhi was a great influence on Satish’s life
Loving people with whom we do not agree
The ultimate love, knowledge, and heroism we receive from our mothers
The feminine motherly quality we can find in gurus
Satish’s experience in the Jain tradition
Negative consequences from materialism, consumerism, and the industrial way of life
Pollution, global warming, and harm to bio-diversity as our collective karma
Why everyone should take a Hippocratic oath
Remembering we are all human beings and can all practice love as our primary religion
Science, gravity, and the capacity to understand the non-physical reality
How love holds together the spiritual world
Unilateral love and not waiting to love another until they love us
Gandhi’s concept of Sarvodaya, or the uplifting of every living being without exception
About Satish Kumar:

Satish Kumar is a peace-pilgrim, ecologist, life-long activist and former monk who has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. A world-renown author and international speaker, Satish founded The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity that seeks to inform and inspire a just future for all. Satish has been the guiding spirit behind several other internationally respected ecological and educational ventures. He co-founded Schumacher College which he continues to serve as a Visiting Fellow. He appears regularly on podcasts and on radio and television shows and continues to teach, run workshops, and write about reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity. Check out Satish’s book offerings HERE.

“Do no harm to yourself, do no harm to other people, do no harm to nature. That is the Hippocratic oath a doctor takes. I would like to suggest that everybody should take that. Politicians should take that. Scientists should take that. Economists should take that. Business and industrial leaders should take that. Do no harm. If you do no harm to yourself, and you do no harm to other people, and you do no harm to nature, then you can have a more positive karma. The consequence will be a more harmonious relationship, and a more peaceful world, and a better relationship among all humans.” – Satish Kumar

Ep. 534 - Expanding Our Notions Of Love With Satish Kumar

Shining light on the Divine Abodes, Jack shares how we can navigate the world from the goodness of our hearts.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"Luminous, says the Buddha, is this heart and mind." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

- The Divine Abodes (Brahmaviharas) as qualities of the Awakened Heart
- Navigating the world from the goodness of our hearts
- Loving kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity/peace
- What is possible for us as human beings
- Discovering who we really are and what really matters
- Stories of Jack's Buddhist teacher, Maha Ghosananda
- The spirituality of neuroscience's "Mirror Neurons"
- Sharon Salzberg, Metta practice, and the power of attention
- Ram Dass, and the heart as the doorway to love

Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practice to Cultivate a Wise Heart. Register here: https://bit.ly/JackandDan

"What we give our attention, that place will flower and blossom. So if we give our attention to love, it grows." – Jack Kornfield

"Loving Kindness is like the rain that falls on all things, the just and the unjust, equally without discrimination. That love, when it grows within our heart, has a quality of nurturance, moisture, opening, sweetness and constancy to it. It's an expression of the heart that's unencumbered by fear." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk from 12/10/2007 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom 231 – Navigating The World From The Goodness Of Our Hearts

For episode 236, Sharon is in conversation with Sameet Kumar, Ph.D. Sameet is the clinical psychologist for the Memorial Cancer Institute.

Sameet specializes in working with cancer patients and their caregivers. He is the author of Grieving Mindfully, The Mindful Path Through Worry and Rumination. He is part of a new anthology, coming out in May of 2024 from New Harbinger Publications, How to Grieve What We’ve Lost.

In this episode, Sharon and Sameet discuss:

How Sameet came to grief counseling
American culture’s denial of the first noble truth
The human experience of pain/pleasure
Grief is whatever it is to you
The non-existent timeline for grief
Widening the scope of what losses affect us
The tools of ACT, CBT and Mindfulness for grief
Sameet’s new anthology book
Dampening the grief  stress response 
Sameet’s support of COVID front-line workers
Working with add-ons 
The role of Ram Dass in Sameet’s life
Sameet closes the conversation with a guided meditation on the refuge tree.

Ep. 236 – Sameet Kumar

Speaking to issues of ecology, politics, and social action, Ram Dass shares stories of compassionate action and explores patterns of interdependency we can recognize in the world.

Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on April 9th at 8 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

This episode of Here and Now is from a 1992 talk in Edgartown, MA.

Ram Dass discusses our looming ecological crisis, politics, and living in the age of the Kali Yuga. There is change happening all around us. For Ram Dass, what’s interesting is where one stands in relation to change.
How do we respond in an appropriate way to all the suffering in the world around us? Ram Dass shares classic stories of compassionate action and talks about the constant dialogue between the mind and the heart.
Ram Dass explores how moving through different planes of reality can help us recognize the incredible patterns of interdependency in this world. By acknowledging that these other planes exist, we can find a way to be fully in the world and simultaneously not be trapped by it. In this way, we’re able to keep our hearts open in hell.
“When you experience the plane of reality where everything is interdependent, it includes you, you’re part of it all. If you flip the dial and go to another plane of reality, you see that behind all of the forms, which are like cloud patterns, there’s only one of it. There’s one stuff. There’s one stuff that keeps going into these incredible patterns.” – Ram Dass

Ep. 248 – Patterns Of Interdependency

Ramin Nazer and David Nichtern explore the individual’s place in an ever-changing and technologically-advancing world.

This time on CSM, we hear about: 
Technological advancement and the collective mind
Sci-Fi and fear vs. hope for the future
The unsustainability of bliss
Eternalism and the hellscape of pointlessness
The dystopia of A.I and ChatGPT
Safe zones versus growth zones
Creativity and trying to guess what the world wants to see
Creating a balance in a chaotic world
The fundamental experiences that ground us
Psychedelics as a liberating disruption
Simulations, robots, and ‘I am-ness’
The dynamics of polarity

“According to Buddhism, the solution is you maintain your status as a human being who has ups and downs, who has lungs, and disappointments, yet there’s a seed of real depth of wisdom and understanding and compassion in it. You bypass the God realms.” – David Nichtern

About Ramin Nazer:
Ramin Nazer is a multi-talented artist, podcaster, comedian, game creator and musician based out of LA. He is best known for his consistent stream of unique, psychedelic-spiritual, bite-sized art for the social media age, as well as his podcast, with comedian Shane Mauss, Mind Under Matter, where they take a hilarious and scientific approach to human behavior. You can tap into Ramin’s steady flow of art on his Instagram, tap into his solo podcast Rainbow Brainskull, and peer into his myriad offerings at RaminNazer.com.

Eternalism and A.I. with Ramin Nazer & David Nichtern – CSM Podcast Ep. 51

For episode 237, we are launching the Fireside Chat Series on the Metta Hour.

This series features intimate conversations with longtime dharma teachers about the early days of their practice and the most impactful moments with their own teachers. Hosted by IMS Online, the launch of this monthly series is a conversation between Sharon and Jack Kornfield. Jack trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. The conversation begins with a 10-minute guided meditation from Jack.

In this episode, Sharon and Jack discuss:

Jack’s experience with Thai Buddhist monk Ajahn Chah
The Buddha statue debate from the early days on IMS
Jack’s first book “Living Dharma”
Ajahn Chah’s teaching about the original mind
Realizing innate qualities versus developing them
The sign above the door at IMS
What languages Sharon and Jack learned in Asia
Sharon’s relationship with teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche
The role of study in one’s spiritual life
Dualistic versus non-dualistic teachings
The necessity of lovingkindness in their early teachings
Learning to accept help and support
Sharon’s experiences with Dipa Ma
Different teachers that Jack has pissed off
The conversation closes with a short sitting. 

You can learn more about Jack’s work right here: https://jackkornfield.com/

Check out his new online course on the eight-fold path available right here: https://jackkornfield.com/product/walking-the-eightfold-path-with-jack-kornfield/

A Fireside Chat with Jack Kornfield & Sharon Salzberg – Metta Hour Podcast Ep. 237

Exploring the great mystery of life and existence, Jack shares enlightening insights on the playful nature of wisdom.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to recieve 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"The beautiful thing is, wisdom is gracious." – Jack Kornfield

Fresh from an adventure in Costa Rica, Jack offers wisdom on:

- Spelunking the great mystery of life
- Wisdom as inherently gracious and playful
- Balancing compassion with emptiness
- How to speak with suffering people
- Joanna Macy and the "Great Turning" of human civilization
- Ram Dass, Ajahn Chah, and Stephen Levine
- "Central Casting" and the human experience
- How Jack and his colleagues handle their own aging

"It's all empty and it all matters." – Jack Kornfield

"Meditation is not about gaining or attaining something, it's about seeing the world with the heart of wisdom." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk was originally recorded on 2/19/2024 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. Register to join Jack's next livestream at JackKornfield.com/events

Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey starting April 15, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to Cultivate a Wise Heart. Join here: https://bit.ly/JackandDan

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 233 – Wisdom Is Playful

In an enthralling discussion on the archetypes, myths, and symbols within the 12-step recovery program, Kikan Massara joins Chris Grosso.

This time on The Indie Spiritualist, Chris and Kikan dive into: 

A.A. and Chris’s journey with recovery
The ways that everyone can benefit from the 12-steps of recovery
Living an accountable life filled with integrity
Kikan’s work making recovery more accessible for all
Seeing universal principles within the steps
Admitting powerlessness and recognizing this as a human experience
Reading through Kikan’s interpretation of all of the 12 steps
The beauty of having a community on a recovery journey
Turning our will over to God and learning to ask for help
How the ego can get in the way
Making emotional decisions and why people end up in addictive processes
Getting well for ourselves so we can help others
Get your copy of Kikan’s book, The 12 Steps — Symbols, Myths, and Archetypes of Recovery, HERE

About Kikan Massara:

Kikan is a psychotherapist, author, and creative. A passionate researcher of consciousness studies, meditation, and emotional health, she has long used visual arts, symbols, and myths in her practice to facilitate access to the empowering resources of the inner world. Her new book, The 12 Steps — Symbols, Myths and Archetypes of Recovery was published by TASCHEN in November 2023. Learn more about Kikan on her website.

“Admit powerlessness. Who hasn’t felt powerless over something in their lives? Who hasn’t been in despair over something they couldn’t change? Who hasn’t felt like an utter failure when they couldn’t change something by willpower alone? We’re not talking about helplessness here, which is so often learned in childhood, we’re talking about just the limits of being human.” – Kikan Massara


Ep. 127 - Symbols, Myths, and Archetypes of Recovery Kikan Massara

In this exploration of suffering, death, and love, Ram Dass talks about resting in change and handling the balance and tension of inhabiting multiple planes of reality simultaneously.

Subscribe to The Here and Now Podcast with Ram Dass on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app! Proudly presented by the Be Here Now Network, home of official podcasts from thought leaders like Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield and more!

Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on April 23rd at 3 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

This episode of Here and Now  is from a 1992 lecture in Edgartown, MA. and is a continuation of the talk started in Here and Now Ep. 248 – Patterns of Interdependency: https://youtu.be/h1qJM-_tXZY 

Exploring his work with death and people who are dying, Ram Dass talks about how he’s learning to live simultaneously on multiple planes of reality and consciousness. To him, the art form of being human is the ability to open our hearts to suffering and acknowledge that it hurts like hell, while also appreciating the awesome nature of the mystery, which includes suffering and death.

Ram Dass addresses aging and the nature of change. He talks about resting in change and handling the balance and tension of inhabiting multiple planes of consciousness simultaneously.

Ram Dass opens up about the trouble he has keeping his heart open to certain people. He talks about the collaborative nature of creating environments where people won’t get trapped in their roles.

Ram Dass ends the talk with some reflections about love and not living out of a deprivation model. He shares his classic story about the state trooper who just might have been Krishna in drag as an example of living on more than one level at one time.

“When you are able to simultaneously live on those planes of consciousness and handle that tension and that balance, then your every act towards other human beings brings to bear with it equanimity, spaciousness, and joy.” – Ram Dass

Ram Dass: Balance and Tension – Here and Now Podcast Ep. 249

Inviting in calm, strength, and steadiness, Jack leads a guided meditation into the heart of mindful loving awareness.

This guided meditation was originally recorded on 2/19/2024 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. Register to join Jack's next livestream at JackKornfield.com/events

"Feel the weight of your body, gravity, and how the earth completely supports you when you let go into your seat. You're met by the strength and steadiness of the earth itself. You can rest on her. – Jack Kornfield

In this fresh episode, Jack leads a guided meditation for:

- Inviting in a sense of ease and calm
- Relaxing into mindful loving awareness
- Finding a steady, grounded, rooted posture
- Keeping a natural, soft, and flowing breath
- Quieting the mind and watching experience unfold
- Noticing the arising and passing away of all phenomena
- Allowing yourself into rest, trust, and relaxation

Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to Cultivate a Wise Heart. Register at https://bit.ly/JackandDan

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 234 – Guided Meditation: Mindful Loving Awareness

Jaymee Carpenter returns to Mindrolling for an expansive talk with Raghu on addiction, luminous darkness, and loving the mystery in it all.

In this episode of Mindrolling, Jaymee Carpenter and Raghu Markus explore:

Jaymee’s work with addiction counseling
Adding to our own suffering / the second arrow in Buddhism
How Jaymee’s struggles with addiction have become doorways to connect with people
Hanuman, Christ, and love of the divine
The high of being on a retreat
Finding light within the darkness
Sweat lodge ceremonies and being reborn
Being beyond identity when dealing with addiction
Raghu’s experience with the charnel ground in India
Getting comfortable with the unknown
Mother energy and unconditional caring
All of the possibilities included in the mystery
Relationships and being secure in love
Navigating through our traumas
About Jaymee Carpenter:

Jaymee Carpenter is a highly revered spiritual teacher and psychospiritual counselor based in Ojai, CA, with a background of 13 years of multi-faceted professional experience in the field of addiction and mental health treatment.

Homeless and addicted on Los Angeles’s skid row district at the age of 26, Jaymee was gifted an opportunity in 2003 to enter state-funded addiction treatment and utilized the time to reassess and repurpose himself for the benefit of humanity. The result is a man who has since risen from the ashes of his former ignorance into a life and career of unique service, while simultaneously and ceaselessly engaging in comprehensive spiritual exploration.

He is a 16-year meditation practitioner and teacher within the oldest lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma), which is his primary source of his own recovery and mental clarity. Jaymee spent 3 years recently as an apprentice to a Lakota shaman, co-facilitating sweat lodge ceremonies for hundreds of participants on sacred land blessed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. He is additionally a master-level communicator and storyteller, and one of the world’s great listeners.

Follow Jaymee Carpenter on Instagram and check out his podcast, Love is the Author

“All of my drudgery and all of the things that formerly hurt are now doorways to connect with people. My Tibetan Buddhist study and practice and immersion, I’m a sucker for the dharma because it has done me so well.” – Jaymee Carpenter

Love the Mystery with Jaymee Carpenter & Raghu Markus – Mindrolling Ep. 537

Robert Thurman joins Dr. Svoboda once again for a vast discussion on his lineage, karma, and the chain of being.

Get a free 50-page ebook, Analyzing Karma: Fate or Free Will, by Dr. Svoboda here: https://streaklinks.com/B7BjUWWgINvM9lv2VQtcSLeh/https%3A%2F%2Fdr-robert-svoboda.ck.page%2Fa976295aa3

In this episode, Dr. Robert Svoboda and Robert Thurman converse about:

Robert Thurman’s lineage, upbringing, and young adulthood
Robert’s experience losing his eye and having a spiritual vision while in the hospital
Robert’s journey to and through India and finding home with the Tibetans
Robert’s instruction to bring Buddhism to those seeking enlightenment through psychedelics
Karma producing an effect of biological evolution
The danger of solipsism and how we have all been everything
Living in inter-tangled subjective fields
Astrology and the Zodiac

About Robert Thurman:
Robert Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University and President of the Tibet House U.S., and is the President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies. His new book, Wisdom Is Bliss: Four Friendly Fun Facts That Can Change Your Life, is now available.
About Dr. Robert Svoboda:

Dr. Robert Svoboda is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. During and after his formal Ayurvedic training he was tutored in Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, Tantra and other forms of classical Indian lore by his mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda. He is the author of twelve books including Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution and the Aghora series, which discusses his experiences with his mentor during the years 1975 – 1983.

In the years since 1986, Dr. Svoboda has traveled extensively, spending three months per year on average in India. He often speaks on Ayurveda, Jyotish, Tantra and allied subjects in locales across the world.

About Paula Crossfield:

Paula Crossfield is Vedic astrologer and Business Coach dedicated to helping a million spirit-led entrepreneurs make more money and impact so they can bankroll the change they want to see in the world. Her insights on astrology and business strategy have helped her clients build sustainable five figure+ per month incomes while still embodying their values.

For more information on 1-on-1 opportunities and group coaching programs with Paula, go to www.weaveyourbliss.com, where you can also get the 2023 Astrology Guidebook

“I consider karma to be Buddha’s Darwinian theory.” – Robert Thurman

================
The Chain of Being with Robert Thurman & Robert Svoboda – Living with Reality  Ep. 49  - https://youtu.be/cDgvmeon3v0

Robert Svoboda – Living with Reality – Ep. 49 – The Chain of Being with Robert Thurman - https://beherenownetwork.com/robert-svoboda-living-with-reality-ep-49-the-chain-of-being-with-robert-thurman

================
Make sure not to miss a single video podcast from Be Here Now Network! Click here to Subscribe:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1lvEoC5PZWm-MzgUfJQfg

Follow Be Here Now Network:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeHereNowNetwork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beherenownet
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beherenownetwork

================
Be Here Now Network
Podcasts, Courses, and Articles to help you live a Life in Balance.
Heart-Centered wisdom from Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Krishna Das + many more!
Get a Free Guided Meditation from Sharon Salzberg when you first sign up at: 
https://beherenownetwork.com/

The Chain of Being with Robert Thurman & Robert Svoboda – Living with Reality  Ep. 49

Fantastic Fungi's visionary director, Louie Schwartzberg, joins Jack to explore the profound connection between psychedelics and mindfulness. 

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

“You can’t separate psychedelics from life.” – Jack Kornfield

In this fresh conversation, Jack and Louie spelunk the depths of:

-The connection between psychedelics and spirituality
- Psychedelics as a gateway to wonder, curiosity, and the sacred
- How tripping on psychedelics informed Louie’s filmmaking
- Albert Einstein and psychedelics as the intersection between art and science
- The universe and life as a constant transformation of light energy
- Buddha’s “Flower Sermon” and Zen Master Suzuki Roshi’s “Beginner’s Mind”
- Jack “exchanging maps” with famous LSD researcher, Stanislav Grof
- Studies showing the combination of psilocybin mushrooms and Louie’s time-lapse nature imagery as a powerful therapeutic tool for helping addiction and PTSD
- The importance of “set and setting,” community, and integration
- How psychedelics actually fit into the Buddhist precepts
- Honoring biology and the feminine aspects of nature
- The gifts of sacred attention and loving awareness
- Finding beauty wherever you are, and how Louie’s films heal by sharing patterns of nature for the soul to connect with

“A lot of the work I do is to make the invisible visible. And that’s the perfect description of what a psychedelic journey is like, making the invisible visible.” – Louie Schwartzberg

“We live in a culture that’s almost defined by the absence of the sacred. And so we feel this yearning, this intuitive wish to connect—whether it’s going high in the mountains, or making love, or taking psychedelics, or meditating.” – Jack Kornfield

This conversation was originally recorded on 3/29/24 by Banyan Together – an online mindfulness community started by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. To join the community and learn more, visit BanyanTogether.com

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 235 – From Psychedelics To Mindfulness With Louie Schwartzberg

Who are you? What are you doing here? In this classic talk about identity and attachment, Ram Dass asks where you could possibly stand in a world filled with pain and suffering to ‘eat it like it is?’

Subscribe to The Here and Now Podcast with Ram Dass on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app! Proudly presented by the Be Here Now Network, home of official podcasts from thought leaders like Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield and more!

Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on May 7th at 8 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

Today's episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: https://magicmind.com/products/ramdass

In this talk from Austin, Texas, in the early 1990’s:
Ram Dass recalls a family saying from his youth, “Eat it like it is,” and asks how we can possibly apply it to the current world filled with pain and suffering.
Exploring the nature of identity, Ram Dass talks about how we have to become somebody in order to become nobody. He discusses his experiences with expanded states of mind and how the game shifted from how to get high to wondering why he came down.
Ram Dass talks about how the impeccable warrior is someone who exists on all planes simultaneously. He explores the nature of attachment and reads from Swami Ram Tirth, who helps us understand there is a place we can stand where we can see everything as the unfolding of law. This is the place where we can ‘eat it like it is.’

“The signs point to Armageddon. It looks like it’s really hit the fan. Where could you stand that you could ‘eat is like it is?’ Or you could love it as it is? Where could you possibly stand? Where could you allow that it is what it is? What perspective, what vector view would you need to have? Who would you be if you were seeing it that way?” – Ram Dass

Ram Dass: Eat It Like It Is – Here and Now Podcast Ep. 250

Jack and the ‘Grandfather of Gratitude,’ Brother David Steindl-Rast, delve into sacred reflections on death, where Buddha meets Jesus, the power of compassion, the positive side of grief, and beyond.

Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of free offerings by signing up for his email newsletter teachings at JackKornfield.com/newsletter

“The process of grieving that breaks this little heart, which closes itself in itself, opens us to the heart that we all share, the one heart that we all have in common.” – Brother David Steindl-Rast

In this sacred dialogue, Jack, Brother David, and Frank Ostaseski reflect on:

- How Christianity and Buddhism fit together spiritually
- The compassionate smile of Buddha meeting the sacred heart of Jesus Christ
- The positive side of grief: opening to the collective heart
- Death and grace in both traditions
- Deconditioning from a difficult mother
- Harnessing the power of your common sense
- A funny story about the Pope, and how to awaken to who we already are
- Jack’s journey to the Temple of the Coconut Monk
- How to handle pain like a Burmese Master
- How to forgive yourself and overcome remorse
- Diffusing suicidal tendencies by cultivating self-compassion
- Guided meditations and sacred chants from Jack and Brother David

“In a meditative way, one of the big pieces of being able to love, or touch, or open, or live, is really the work of forgiveness, grace, and receiving yourself in all of your complexity and loving.” – Jack Kornfield

“Compassion, loving kindness, and understanding are our true nature, our true state.” – Jack Kornfield

This conversation recorded on 6/30/1988 was originally published on DharmaSeed.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom 236 – Sacred Reflections w/ Br. David Steindl-Rast & Frank Ostaseski

Highlighting the intersection between love and awareness, Rhonda V. Magee joins David to discuss real change in a culture of separation.

This time on the CSM podcast, David and Rhonda converse about: 

Rhonda’s background and personal definition of love
Real change through love, inspiration and a sense of connection
The inter-being of mindfulness and metta
The principle of loving everyone and telling the truth
What happens when truth is met with resistance or denial
Living in a time where we have constant reminders of fear and anger
How our culture has reduced us and objectified us
Intergenerational phenomena and walking through many phases of life
What we leave behind for the next generation and what we can learn from youth
Real and perceived differences
Deepening our own well-being so that we can be there for others
About Rhonda V. Magee:

Rhonda V. Magee is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and a leading mindfulness teacher and practice innovator with a focus on applying mindfulness to the hardest challenges of our times. She is an internationally-recognized teacher, guide and mentor, focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law and social change work. A prolific author, she draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act and live better together in a rapidly changing world. Keep up with Rhonda on her website or on social media.

“I fully believe, for most of us, especially in the West, grounding in a quality of love and care as how we experience awareness is pretty important because we have so much healing to do. We’ve been so alienated from ourselves, each other, from the planet.” – Rhonda V. Magee

Ep. 52 – The Intersection of Love and Awareness with Rhonda V. Magee

In a lecture on symbolic reality versus real reality, Alan Watts explains the importance of total sensory awareness and looking at our motivations.

You can subscribe to the Being in the Way Podcast with Alan Watts on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app! Proudly presented by the Be Here Now Network, home of official podcasts from thought leaders like Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield and more!

"Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality" is part of Flow, a three-part session in the TAO for NOW series of talks that you can listen to in full over at the Alan Watts Streaming Channel: https://play.alanwatts.org/

This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts discusses:

Being aware of all sensory inputs while meditating
Allowing oneself ‘to be’ in a non-conceptual way
Confusing the world of symbols for reality
The limits to what we can enjoy in a material sense
The uselessness of guilt
Money, tithes, and western religion versus gurus
Why our motivation and intention matters
Experiencing life naked and directly
The Taoist approach to letting go of your body-mind
Using all five of our senses to witness our surroundings
This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

“The point is to be wide, wide awake and aware of your total sensory input without confusing it with the symbolic world of words and concepts so that you experience life naked and directly. Experience YOU naked and directly, without having in your head the concept of who you are a a role player, as a personality, as an ego.” – Alan Watts

Alan Watts on Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality – Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 30

Joseph Goldstein meets us at the constellation of self, the duality of self, and the need for mindfulness.

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein gets into: 

Duality and how it relates to our meditation practice
The fundamental split of object and subject
Limitations from perceiving our selves as separate
Persona and the identification we have with the world
The progression from fullness/oneness to constriction
Having compassion for the shadow side
How fear desire, and attachment, make us more attached to our sense of self
Being imprisoned and conditioned by dualistic perception
The integration of mind and body and love for all experience as the connector
From the ego center to the zero center
Being totally honest with what is happening
Mindfulness as the tool to stop identification
The power of renunciation and restraint
This 2005 dharma talk was originally published by Dharmaseed

“As long as we are identified with that sense of self in the mind, that identification creates fear, attachment, separation, comparing. If there’s an “I”, if there’s a self, then we have to defend it, we have to protect it, we have to gratify it, and our whole lives revolve around this particular identification.” – Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein: Self And Selfless – Insight Hour Podcast Ep. 199

Distinguishing commentary from direct experience, Gil Fronsdal helps us break free from the conventions and comparisons that the mind makes.

In this episode, Gil Fronsdal speaks to listeners about:

- Paying homage to those who have purified their hearts
- Direct experience versus attempting to describe things
- The way that comparison arises
- Self-image and appreciating our own suchness
- Resting in the part of ourselves that is not an idea or a concept
- The conditioning that can happen from society
- Wisdom from sitting with physical pain
- Living in the present moment instead of the stories we tell ourselves
- Letting things be as they are
- Seeing God in our simple, direct experiences
- Coming back to the breath and practicing all throughout the day
- This 1998 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“Most of us know the wonderful smell of a rose, but if you could try to describe in words what that fragrance is, you’d have a hard time I think. The actual sense, the direct experience of smell, is something we can all experience – seeing this flower as it is. In Buddhism, there is a lot of emphasis on seeing things as they are.” – Gil Fronsdal

Ep. 168 - Big Flower, Small Flower with Gil Fronsdal

The Be Here Now Network is dedicated to the gathering and dissemination of spiritual talks, podcasts and writings of master teachers of Spirituality, Mindfulness and Meditation. Our core teachers and thought leaders include Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Lama Surya Das, Krishna Das, Joseph Goldstein, Danny Goldberg, Chris Grosso and the Mindrolling Podcast.

At BHNN we strive to produce quality podcasts, talks and lectures as well as text and films generated by a network of spiritual teachers and thought leaders on topics like mindfulness, service, social action, compassion, devotion and meditation.

Popular tracks by Be Here Now Network