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

Dr. Jo Lukito of the University of Texas, Austin has made using science to understand political language her life’s work. She joins Jess for the third episode in our ongoing series about the science of democracy in the 2024 election cycle.

War Of The Words

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

Dan Faggella joins the podcast to discuss whether humanity should eventually create AGI, how AI will change power dynamics between institutions, what drives AI progress, and which industries are implementing AI successfully. Find out more about Dan at https://danfaggella.com

Timestamps:
00:00 Value differences in AI 
12:07 Should we eventually create AGI? 
28:22 What is a worthy successor? 
43:19 AI changing power dynamics
59:00 Open source AI 
01:05:07 What drives AI progress? 
01:16:36 What limits AI progress? 
01:26:31 Which industries are using AI?

Dan Faggella on the Race to AGI

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

How are we to make progress on AI alignment given moral uncertainty?  What are the ideal ways of resolving conflicting value systems and views of morality among persons? How ought we to go about AI alignment given that we are unsure about our normative and metaethical theories? How should preferences be aggregated and persons idealized in the context of our uncertainty? 

Moral Uncertainty and the Path to AI Alignment with William MacAskill is the fifth podcast in the new AI Alignment series, hosted by Lucas Perry. For those of you that are new, this series will be covering and exploring the AI alignment problem across a large variety of domains, reflecting the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of AI alignment. Broadly, we will be having discussions with technical and non-technical researchers across areas such as machine learning, AI safety, governance, coordination, ethics, philosophy, and psychology as they pertain to the project of creating beneficial AI. If this sounds interesting to you, we hope that you will join in the conversations by following us or subscribing to our podcasts on Youtube, SoundCloud, or your preferred podcast site/application.

If you're interested in exploring the interdisciplinary nature of AI alignment, we suggest you take a look here at a preliminary landscape which begins to map this space.

In this podcast, Lucas spoke with William MacAskill. Will is a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and is a co-founder of the Center for Effective Altruism, Giving What We Can, and 80,000 Hours. Will helped to create the effective altruism movement and his writing is mainly focused on issues of normative and decision theoretic uncertainty, as well as general issues in ethics.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Will’s current normative and metaethical credences
-The value of moral information and moral philosophy
-A taxonomy of the AI alignment problem
-How we ought to practice AI alignment given moral uncertainty
-Moral uncertainty in preference aggregation
-Moral uncertainty in deciding where we ought to be going as a society
-Idealizing persons and their preferences
-The most neglected portion of AI alignment

AIAP: Moral Uncertainty and the Path to AI Alignment with William MacAskill

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.

AIAP: Moral Uncertainty and the Path to AI Alignment with William MacAskill

Future of Life Institute

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