Jack Kornfield and Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi explore how facing suffering with love can awaken the courage to heal our world.

Ep. 309 – Love Binds All Things: What We Can Do to Help the World with Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi

Raghu sits down with clinical psychologist and meditation teacher Dr. Tucker Peck to explore the meeting point of dharma and psychotherapy.

In this episode of Mindrolling, Raghu and Tucker discuss:
- Tucker’s first mind-altering meditative experience on the beach
- Including the dharma in psychotherapy and Tucker’s work in meditation as a therapeutic modality
- How Tucker developed a relationship with Sharon Salzberg and learned mindfulness techniques from her
- The eccentric story of Grandma Allegra: enlightenment, humor, and being in love with the world 
- The question of psychedelics—are they ‘necessary’ for elevating consciousness?
- Working with the mind and the difference between content and process 
- The pros and cons of the ego and why we need to first know ourselves -before dissolving the self
- The Elephant Path, a nine-step practice for building concentration, insight, and awakened awareness

“For all of us heavily repressed westerners, one of the effects of meditation is to show you what you’re feeling.” –Tucker Peck, Ph.D.

About Tucker Peck, Ph.D.:
Dr. Tucker Peck is a meditation teacher, clinical psychologist, and bestselling author of Sanity and Sainthood.  His specialties include working with advanced meditators and using meditation to help those suffering from psychological disorders.  He hosts the podcast Teaching Meditation. Tucker began formal training in meditation in 2005 and has studied with, among other teachers, Sharon Salzberg and Upasaka Culadasa.Tucker received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Brown University, and he received his Masters and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the College of Science at the University of Arizona. Tucker is a published author on the scientific study of meditation, focusing on how meditation affects the brain. He is a former faculty member of both the University of Arizona Department of Psychology and College of Medicine, and he is the founder and former Director of Palo Santo Psychotherapy & Wellness.  He is the founder, treasurer, and past president of the Open Dharma Foundation, which provides scholarships to meditation retreats, and for four years served as the president of the Tucson Community Meditation Center.  Keep up with Tucker and his upcoming retreats HERE.

“The trouble is, the ego is trying to protect you from threats and it is very, very unclear on what does and doesn’t constitute a threat. It tends to think any sort of emotion constitutes a threat, any sort of insight into how the mind or perceptual system works is more than you can handle, so what you want is to slowly get to know yourself.” –Tucker Peck, Ph.D.


Integrating Meditation and Psychotherapy with Tucker Peck, Ph.D. & Raghu Markus | Mindrolling Ep.619

RamDev shares how to make every moment a living prayer, carrying the essence of mantra and devotion into both the sacred and the mundane. 

This week on Healing at the Edge, RamDev explores:
- RamDev’s personal struggles with integrating practice into his daily life
- Bringing heartfulness into mundane activities as a form of ceaseless prayer/practice
- Practicing out of richness, abundance, and adequacy, rather than out of need, separation, and inadequacy 
- Making connectedness ongoing and constant, rather than something we struggle to find
- The compelling story of Raghu Markus and an answered prayer from Maharaj-ji
- Prayers of adoration, rejoicing, and gratitude 
- Receiving direction and guidance through our prayers
- ‘Good pain’, aka, the pain of being released and of tension going away
- Trusting in the divine and surrendering in each moment 

“Every moment is open to one of these kinds of prayer. How much can we trust integrating a prayerful attitude, heartfelt surrender to the divine into each moment, whether it’s a moment of gratitude, grief, intercession, thanksgiving, so many different possibilities.” –RamDev 

About Dale Borglum:
RamDev Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co­author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman and Dwarka Bonner of Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook, Bantam Books and has taught meditation since 1974.

RamDev offers lectures and workshops on the topics of meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life ­threatening illness, and on caregiving as spiritual practice. He has a doctorate degree from Stanford University. RamDev’s passion is the healing of our individual and collective fear of death so that we may be free.

How to Make Prayer And Mantra Constant with RamDev | Healing at the Edge Ep. 130

Through a retelling of classical Indian stories, Dr. Robert Svoboda pays homage to the most beloved saint of Maharashtra, Jnaneshwara.

Ep. 52 – The Life of a Saint- Jnaneshwara

Connecting to the timelessness of the present moment, Gil Fronsdal offers practical steps towards the only source of true happiness: contentment.

This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal explores:
- Seeing the timeless present through photographs 
- Enjoying the preciousness of our limited time here on earth 
- How corporate, capitalist America prefers people who are discontent
- What the Buddha said about the vital importance of contentment 
- How many desires often dissipate on their own if you ride them out
- The ways in which desire alienates us from ourselves 
- The embodied quality of contentment and being in touch with ourselves
- Freedom in the Buddhist sense: freedom ‘from’ rather than freedom ‘to do’
- Cultivating contentment by valuing it and seeing it as an important part of life
- Activities which encourage contentment versus remaining frantic
- Facing discontentment head-on so that it does not drive us 
- This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

“Contentment is a falling away of anxiety, restlessness, reaching forward, fear, being fragmented, and disconnected. It is a kind of settling. If we’re driven by desires, fears, preoccupations, or fantasies, often our energy, our center of attention, is upwelling in an unhealthy way. As we are contented, we feel the settling down, settling down into the center of gravity.” –Gil Fronsdal 

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. 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.



Contentment On The Buddhist Path with Gil Fronsdal | BHNN Guest Podcast - Ep. 232

Speaking across the decades from the 1960s to the 2010s, Ram Dass shares stories about his mother and father, and explores what it means to honor our parents and incarnation. 

This episode of Here and Now is a compilation of Ram Dass discussing what it means to honor our parents and our incarnation. 

We begin in 1969 at the family farm in New Hampshire. Ram Dass talks about how most of our efforts to help other people are simply high drama. He tells a story about wanting to speak with his mother about dying when she was going through that process, but she had to be the one to open the door to the conversation.

The next stop is the 1970s at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, New York. Ram Dass explores how part of the spiritual journey is about honoring incarnation and honoring our parents. He shares stories about spending time with his father, and how moments of intimacy between them were born of Ram Dass not trying to be someone special anymore.  

We move on to a 1985 Seva benefit in San Rafael, California. Ram Dass discusses moving back home at 50 to care for his aging father. He then tells the story of being called home from a meditation retreat to help his sick stepmother, and a moment of anger he felt towards his guru about what was happening.

Up next is a trip to the 1990s at the Conscious Aging Retreat in Clearwater, Florida. Ram Dass responds to a question about helping a child awaken. He talks about how you have to become somebody before you become nobody, and recalls a memory where he and his mother overcame their roles of parent and child for a brief moment.

Finally, we end with a conversation between Ram Dass and John Welshons on Maui in 2011. Ram Dass tells the story of a meditation retreat that turned into a therapy group, which triggered a memory from when he was a young child and his mother was holding him down during a temper tantrum. Ram Dass tries to reconcile this memory with the moment when his guru told him his mother is a very high soul. 

The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.

“Now, I’ve done this, being with my father once a month now, for several years, because I said to myself, ‘Look, you have to honor your incarnation. And one of the aspects of your incarnation is that you are your father’s son.’ And even though, on some level, that seems kind of funny, it happens to be part of what it’s about. Just like I have to honor the fact that I am an American. I have to pay my taxes. I have to do a lot of stuff. And this is one of the things, I must honor it. And then I have to figure out—what does it mean to honor it? What does it mean to honor it? What does it mean to honor parents?” – Ram Dass

About Ram Dass:
Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him. Learn more at ramdass.org.

Ram Dass on Honoring Parents and Incarnation Ram Dass | Here & Now Ep. 291, Across the Decades

Defining the nature of Bodhicitta, Joseph Goldstein explains that enlightenment is inevitable when compassion and emptiness coexist.

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein thoughtfully articulates:
- Bodhicitta: the heart-mind of awakening and working for the benefit of all beings
- Living in the world while still remembering the truth of non-self and impermanence
- The beauty of selflessness embodied through Dipa Ma’s life and teachings
- Regularly reflecting on impermanence as both a reality check and a spiritual practice
- The nature of the mind as intrinsically empty and naturally radiant 
- Coming out of our mind-drama and entering into the empty luminosity of the present moment 
- Compassionate responsiveness to the needs of others
- Forgiveness as one of the most profound ways to respond with open-hearted compassion

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“This responsiveness is compassion, not as a meditative stance, but rather it is the responsiveness of an open heart, of an open mind. It can show itself, this compassionate responsiveness, in so many different ways. It can manifest very beautifully as forgiveness.” –Joseph Goldstein 

Buddhist Teachings on Emptiness, Luminosity & Responsiveness w/ Joseph Goldstein | Insight Hour 255

Raghu Markus and Psychoanalyst Dr. Jeffrey Rubin unpack how mindfulness, empathy, and self-understanding connect the worlds of Buddhism and Western therapy.

In this Mindrolling episode, Raghu and Dr. Rubin discuss:

- Jeffrey’s traditional upbringing and the unexpected spiritual experience he had during a basketball game
- Key parallels between Western psychotherapy and Buddhist wisdom
- How “hovering attention” and mindfulness support both therapists and clients
- Identifying pure presence in numerous activities, from chanting to sports and beyond 
- The marriage of Buddha and Freud: moment-to-moment non-judgmental, non-interfering presence 
- Why some Buddhist practitioners can be “one with experience” but struggle to articulate what that truly means
- Viewing our symptoms as beautiful gateways to transformation rather than obstacles
- Putting practice into everyday life and helping people truly live differently
- Empathetically understanding those we disagree with 
- Becoming open to feedback and growth instead of shutting down new ideas 
- The ways in which we maladaptively try to cure ourselves 
- What real, sustainable transformation actually looks like in practice

About Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin:
Dr. Rubin practices psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy and teaches meditation in New York City and Bedford Hills, New York. Widely regarded as a leading integrator of the Western psychotherapeutic and Eastern meditative traditions, Dr. Rubin created Meditative Psychotherapy based on decades of study, teaching and helping people to flourish. Dr. Rubin is the author of six books and numerous publications. He has taught at universities, psychoanalytic institutes and Buddhist and yoga centers. Dr. Rubin lectures in the US and has given workshops at the UN, the Esalen Institute, the Open Center and the 92nd Street Y. His pioneering approach to psychotherapy and Buddhism has been featured in The New York Times Magazine.​ Sign up HERE for a workshop on self-transformation with Dr. Rubin

“I call it the marriage of Buddha and Freud. It’s any practice that cultivates moment-to-moment, non-judgmental, non-interfering presence. That can be qigong, prayer, or Sufi dancing. I don’t want the audience to think it has to be Buddhist; it can be many things. It just happens to be very well done in Buddhism. It’s any sincere path that will help you focus, concentrate, have more self-compassion and compassion for others.” –Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin

Where Psychotherapy Meets Buddhism with Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin & Raghu Markus | Mindrolling Ep. 621

Offering listeners a way to live life fully, Trudy Goodman explores how to overcome the brain's negative bias by inclining the mind toward appreciation. 

In this episode, Trudy Goodman gives a lecture on:
- The mind’s tendency to view things negatively 
- How evolutionary wiring shapes what we notice and what we miss
- A powerful teaching from loved ones at the end of life: do all things with joy
- Remembering that our heart is inclined toward that which we pay attention to
- How micro-moments of mindfulness accumulate into lasting transformation
- Building new neural pathways through steady, repeated practice
- Living fully with both joy and difficulty instead of moving into denial
- Ensuring that we do not overlook that which will grow our spiritual wealth
- Realizing that both our feelings about a situation and the situation itself do not really matter
- Why the Buddha wanted us to look deeply at our suffering and to question it
- Taking in the goodness of your very own being

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

About Trudy Goodman:
Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

“This took me so long to understand in my practice: that what I think about what’s happening doesn’t matter. Actually, what’s happening doesn’t even matter. All that matters is do we know it? Can we be with it without being hard on ourselves, shaming ourselves, blaming somebody else? All that matters is our quality of attention to it.” –Trudy Goodman

Live It Up with Trudy Goodman | BHNN Guest Podcast Ep. 233

It's well-established in the AI alignment literature what happens when an AI system learns or is given an objective that doesn't fully capture what we want.  Human preferences and values are inevitably left out and the AI, likely being a powerful optimizer, will take advantage of the dimensions of freedom afforded by the misspecified objective and set them to extreme values. This may allow for better optimization on the goals in the objective function, but can have catastrophic consequences for human preferences and values the system fails to consider. Is it possible for misalignment to also occur between the model being trained and the objective function used for training? The answer looks like yes. Evan Hubinger from the Machine Intelligence Research Institute joins us on this episode of the AI Alignment Podcast to discuss how to ensure alignment between a model being trained and the objective function used to train it, as well as to evaluate three proposals for building safe advanced AI.

 Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Inner and outer alignment
-How and why inner alignment can fail
-Training competitiveness and performance competitiveness
-Evaluating imitative amplification, AI safety via debate, and microscope AI

You can find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2020/07/01/evan-hubinger-on-inner-alignment-outer-alignment-and-proposals-for-building-safe-advanced-ai/

Timestamps: 

0:00 Intro 
2:07 How Evan got into AI alignment research
4:42 What is AI alignment?
7:30 How Evan approaches AI alignment
13:05 What are inner alignment and outer alignment?
24:23 Gradient descent
36:30 Testing for inner alignment
38:38 Wrapping up on outer alignment
44:24 Why is inner alignment a priority?
45:30 How inner alignment fails
01:11:12 Training competitiveness and performance competitiveness
01:16:17 Evaluating proposals for building safe and advanced AI via inner and outer alignment, as well as training and performance competitiveness
01:17:30 Imitative amplification
01:23:00 AI safety via debate
01:26:32 Microscope AI
01:30:19 AGI timelines and humanity's prospects for succeeding in AI alignment
01:34:45 Where to follow Evan and find more of his work

This podcast is possible because of the support of listeners like you. If you found this conversation to be meaningful or valuable, consider supporting it directly by donating at futureoflife.org/donate. Contributions like yours make these conversations possible.

Evan Hubinger on Inner Alignment, Outer Alignment, and Proposals for Building Safe Advanced AI

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change.

The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions.

FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.