Shows
The InterWorld PodcastAlejandra Warden: the Archetypal Feminine and Masculine Energies, Dreamwork, and InterSpiritualityJoin host Yasha S. Wagner on the Interworld Podcast as he delves into a profound conversation with Alejandra Warden, a spiritual mentor and director at the Charis Foundation. In this episode, explore the transformative power of interspirituality, the evolution of consciousness, and the intricate dance between the divine feminine and masculine principles. Alejandra shares her personal journey through challenges and revelations, offering insights into dream work, Sufism, and the path to conscious love. This episode promises to inspire and enlighten, bridging ancient wisdom with modern spirituality. Tune in for a journey of self-discovery and interconnectedness.
2025-09-011h 34
The New MonasticsThe Meal of Life: Cooking & Being Cooked in Zen and Sufism with Joshin Byrnes and Deepa PatelSensei Joshin Byrnes is a Zen priest and teacher in the White Plum lineage of Soto Zen; earlier in life he was in the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church. In 2017 he founded Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community in Vermont and virtually to be a hub for community-engaged Zen practice. Alongside his religious vocation, Joshin spent much of his career working for social change nonprofits in the areas of HIV/AIDS and prevention, child welfare, homelessness, and community based philanthropy.In this episode, Deepa and Daniel center their dialogue with Joshin on the concept of literal and...
2025-05-301h 05The New MonasticsWarrior of the Heart: Exploring Aikido as a Spiritual Path with Robert Wing SenseiRobert Wing Sensei is the founder of the Mountain Warrior Institute, Warrior of the Heart seminars, and the director of Wise Actions. As an Aikido practitioner, Wing Sensei is a student of both Koichi Kashiwaya Sensei and Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan, and founder of the Aikido curriculum at Naropa University, where he continues as the senior teacher of its Aiki-ken and Aiki-Jo club on campus in Boulder, Colorado.In this episode, we talk with Wing Sensei about three types of language (representational, immediate, and structural), Aikido as a structural language, the asking of ‘physical questions’ in the martial arts...
2025-04-2555 minThe New MonasticsAncestral Seeds: Intergenerational Trauma & Healing with Rabbi Tirzah FirestoneRabbi Tirzah Firestone is a fellow student of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, an author and psychotherapist focusing on intergenerational trauma, and one of the senior rabbis of the Jewish Renewal movement. Tirzah is the author of Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma, The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom, and the newly republished With Roots in Heaven: One Woman’s Passionate Journey into the Heart of Her Faith.In this episode, we talk about the evolution of Tirzah's work on intergenerational trauma, pros and cons of the popularization of the concept of 'trauma,' Tirzah's recent teaching trip...
2025-03-2837 minThe New MonasticsCharis Interspirituality: Exploring Interspiritual Life and Practice with Rory McEnteeRory McEntee is the the President and Executive Director of Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality, which he co-founded with Netanel Miles-Yépez and Adam Bucko. Rory holds a Ph.D. in Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion from Drew University, has co-authored The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living, and authored the forthcoming The Sacred/Secular Binary: Challenging the Divide in University Culture and Democratic Societies. In this episode, we look at the different ways in which people are ‘interspiritual’ today and how interspirituality is not separate from historical religious traditions. We also explore...
2025-02-281h 06
Beauty At WorkYearning for Healing with Deepa Patel and Dr. Angel Acosta (part 2 of 2)How do we foster healing in communities impacted by trauma? And how can leaders and educators adopt a healing-centered approach to their work? In this episode, we’re joined by Deepa Gulrukh Patel, a creative facilitator blending arts, sciences, and social justice. Her work spans refugee camps, cultural diversity, bereavement support, and contemplative education, collaborating with organizations like the UNHCR, the London College of Fashion, and the Fetzer Institute to build healing-centered, sustainable initiatives. We’re also joined by Dr. Angel Acosta, a leader in mindfulness, social justice, and healing-centered education. With a doctorate in curric...
2025-02-0428 minThe New MonasticsThe Heart of Interreligious Dialogue: Exploring a Skills-Based Approach to Dialogue with Acharya Dr. Judith Simmer-BrownDr. Judith Simmer-Brown is Professor Emeritx of Religious Studies at Naropa University, where she has been on the faculty since 1978. She has practiced Tibetan Buddhism for almost 50 years and is a direct student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She serves on the steering committee of the American Academy of Religion’s Contemplative Studies Group, and has published widely on Tibetan Buddhism, women in Buddhism, interreligious dialogue, and contemplative studies. In this episode, we explore the ins-and-outs of interreligious dialogue, the historic Buddhist-Christian Dialogues at the Naropa Institute, the retreats held before and after those dialogues, the dialogue of the...
2025-01-311h 11
Beauty At WorkYearning for Healing with Deepa Patel and Dr. Angel Acosta (part 1 of 2)How do we foster healing in communities impacted by trauma? And how can leaders and educators adopt a healing-centered approach to their work? In this episode, we’re joined by Deepa Gulrukh Patel, a creative facilitator blending arts, sciences, and social justice. Her work spans refugee camps, cultural diversity, bereavement support, and contemplative education, collaborating with organizations like the UNHCR, the London College of Fashion, and the Fetzer Institute to build healing-centered, sustainable initiatives. We’re also joined by Dr. Angel Acosta, a leader in mindfulness, social justice, and healing-centered education. With a doctorate in curric...
2025-01-2834 minThe New MonasticsConscious Evolution: Exploring a Radical Spiritual Futurism with Ramon ParishRamon Parish, a returning guest, is associate professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Naropa University and works on climate justice initiatives with his wife Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish.In this episode, we discuss ‘radical futures’—novel ideas of how humanity will evolve into the future—looking at ethno-spiritual futurism (in particular, Afro-futurism, Sun Ra, and the idea of a servant class), the potential impacts of media and AI (artificial intelligence) on human consciousness and development, a spiritually-informed futurism after the Agricultural Revolution, evolutionary and sacred models of human development and maturity, the categories of sacred and the profane, the needs of the i...
2024-12-271h 07
Opening Minds, Opening HeartsS3 EP2: Laying the Foundation for Interspiritual Dialogue with Netanel Miles-YépezWe are excited to kick off our first guest conversation of the season with Netanel Miles-Yépez. He is an artist, philosopher, religious scholar, and spiritual teacher deeply involved in the interspiritual movement. Netanel is also a co-founder of the Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality and has authored several books, including The End of Religion and Other Writings.As the head of the Inayati-Maimuni lineage of Sufism and a leading thinker in the interspiritual and new monasticism movements, he provides profound insights into spiritual identity and the blending of religious traditions.To connect w...
2024-12-0145 minThe New MonasticsNew Monastics Roundtable: Space Travel with Carla BurnsIn this episode, we have a roundtable discussion of spiritual issues with educator Carla Burns. In Part I, we talk about how to slow down and make the ’space’ to hold complexity in our society. In Part II, we discuss the film The Martian and what it has to say about humanity and humanity’s needs. And in Part III, we explore the idea of our planet’s consciousness and how it is expressed today.Charis FoundationGolden Turtle SoundSupport the show
2024-10-2555 minThe New MonasticsNew Monastics Poetry Share: Impotence & The All-Possible with Deepa PatelIn this episode, Netanel plays hooky, and Daniel is joined by Deepa Patel, a teacher of Inayati Sufism, partner of the Charis Foundation, and recurring guest, to share poems close to each of their hearts. In the course of reading and reflecting on the poems listed below, they explore coping with harrowing world events, honoring the preciousness of lost lives, unity consciousness as a reservoir of strength, being lifted out of impotence, the action of stillness, the 'hard work' and courage of becoming oneself, the mental prisons in which we trap ourselves, singing our unique 'song...
2024-09-2757 minThe New MonasticsThe Fullness of the Measure: Unfolding an Interspiritual Dharma with the Venerable PannavatiThe Venerable Dr. Pannavati Bhikkuni is the founder of Heartwood Refuge, an intentional spiritual community in North Carolina, and abbess of Embracing Simplicity Hermitage, a 21st century trans-lineage Buddhist Order. A former Christian pastor, the Venerable Pannavati is often thought to be the only fully-ordained African-American woman in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. She is also ordained in the Mahayana tradition and has Vajrayana empowerments and authorization to teach.In this episode, we explore the Venerable Pannavati’s journey from Evangelical Christianity to a trans-lineage Buddhism, discussing the methods of transformation of consciousness, simple and complex religious pe...
2024-08-301h 10The New MonasticsPsychology East and West: A Retrospective on a Dialogue between Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Ram DassIn this episode, we do a retrospective on a dialogue that took place in 1974 during the first summer session of the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The dialogue was called “Psychology East and West” and explored a number of differences in understanding and approach to the notion of ego between so-called “Western psychology” and what were then thought of as “Eastern” spiritual traditions. The participants included the well-known spiritual teachers, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Ram Dass, as well as the co-founder and Vice-President of Naropa, John Baker, and the therapist, Jim Green. The dialogue was moderated by Duncan Campbell. The...
2024-07-261h 32The New MonasticsNew Monastics Roundtable: Teachers, Caves, and Technology with Lisa ChathamIn this episode, we have a roundtable discussion of spiritual issues with psychotherapist, Lisa Chatham. In Part I, we talk about the complex legacies of brilliant spiritual teachers, like Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who are associated with inappropriate behavior or scandals. In Part II, we explore the spirituality of our most distant past in European and Middle-Eastern cave art and artifacts, and the spiritual futurism and metaphor of Star Wars. In Part III, we discuss the role and importance of technology in our lives and how we can deal with it spiritually.Charis FoundationGolden Turtle...
2024-06-281h 00The New MonasticsRe-rooting in the Worlds: Exploring Societal Healing with Grandmother ArapataBorn in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Grandmother Arapata is a healer who holds the indigenous lineages of both the Maori and Samoan ancestral bloodlines.In this episode we talk about Grandmother Arapata’s upbringing with traditional teachings, the stigmas of colonization, the different challenges of indigenous peoples in the United States and New Zealand, reclaiming lost traditions, trusting chaos and intuition, working with the womb and generational pain (in the seen and unseen worlds), as well as injuries from power and greed. We also discuss appropriation and cultural reclamation among colonizing peoples, treating the whole being, the necessity of...
2024-05-3100 min
The New School at Commonweal2024:04.29 - Deepa Patel - What Does Love Have To Do With It? Bringing Mystery to PeacebuildingThe subject tonight is Love
And for tomorrow night as well,
As a matter of fact
I know of no better topic
For us to discuss
Until we all
Die! - Hafiz
Crisis, war, injustice, and violence have a certain logic—and social change processes working to address these challenges carry a similar, reactionary logic. How can love help us to step out of the perceived reality of “what is possible” in building peace during conflict? Turning points in conflicts and crises are often mysterious, require acts of enormous creativity, and a willingness to risk. Social change is an artistic act, m...
2024-05-221h 25The New MonasticsAccessing Our Divine Nature: Exploring Hindu Tantra with Nataraja KallioNataraja Kallio is a scholar-practitioner of Yoga and Hindu tantra. He is the Chair of the B.A. Yoga Studies program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and the co-designer of Naropa’s M.A. Yoga Studies program.In this episode, we discuss Kallio’s upbringing in an American Hindu spiritual community, his travels in India and meetings with his guru, the origins of Hindu tantra (utilizing “the fecund material of our existence”), the spectrum of tantric deities, the transformation of intense emotions to crack the shell of identity, the pros and cons of asceticism, desire, the story of...
2024-04-261h 13The New MonasticsTuning the Moment: The Spirituality of Hip-Hop and Performance with Lily FangzLily Fangz is a respected Colorado-based hip-hop artist and freestyle performer, who brings an authentic presence to the stage. Her lyrics are playful, introspective, and often spiritually-oriented. Lily is also a talented visual artist and public speaker with a background in science.In this episode, we explore the connections between public artistic performance and spiritual teaching, how each may be responsive to the ‘living moment’ and draw on an unseen source. We also discuss art and ritual, tuning oneself or others to the right ‘frequency,’ training and performance, connecting to the body, ‘subversive spirituality,’ self-purifying inspiration, trust and curiosity...
2024-03-291h 16
The Free Radical PodcastEp #10: A NEW MONASTICISM | feat. Rory McEnteeJoin Swami Padmanabha and Rory McEntee—founder, President, and Executive Director of the Charis Foundation for New Monasticism & Interspirituality, and co-author of The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living—as they discuss a new way of conceiving an ancient way of being. Expanding Raimon Panikkar’s notion of “The Monk” as an archetype, this conversation invites a more inclusive accessibility to the total life commitment to one’s spiritual transformation and journey that was previously reserved for restricted orders within a particular tradition, and recognizes new ways that that commitment can be lived out beyond the traditional form of “monas...
2023-09-091h 41The New MonasticsDialogue of the Heart: Exploring Hasidism and Interreligious Engagement with Rabbi Or RoseRabbi Or N. Rose is a scholar of Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism who is deeply involved in interreligious dialogue. He is the Director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership at Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and co-editor of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Essential Teachings.In this episode, we explore Rabbi Rose’s interest in interreligious understanding, the distinction between interreligious dialogue and ‘deep ecumenism,’ ideals and reality in dialogue, and the dialogue of the head, heart, and hands. We then turn to the relationships between Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and the Reverend Howard Thurman and Father Thomas...
2023-04-291h 28The New MonasticsNew Monastics Roundtable: Silence, Change, and Work with Deepa PatelIn this episode, we have a roundtable discussion of spiritual issues with our friend, Deepa Patel. In Part I, we explore the question of what it means to take a vow of silence in our world, and talk about the value and meaning of silence. In Part II, we talk about the difficulty of changing ourselves or anyone else when we are not necessarily vulnerable to change. And in Part III, we dig into the problems of living a spiritual life ‘in the world’ amid the concerns of work and paying bills, not to mention the corrupting influences of capi...
2023-03-311h 21The New MonasticsThe Interspiritual Mandala: Creating a Personal Path with Edward W. BastianDr. Edward W. Bastian is an American-born filmmaker, scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, member of the Snowmass Conference, founder of the Spiritual Paths Institute, and the author of Interspiritual Meditation and Mandala. In this episode, we discuss how he found his way to Buddhism, the importance of learning-styles in religions, his meeting with Father Thomas Keating and experiences with the Snowmass Conference, the emergence of the interspiritual, the creation of an interspiritual meditation process, the seven steps of Interspiritual Meditation, the structure of tantric practice, interspiritual ‘processes’ versus ‘practices,’ and the mandala as a discernment tool for spiritual seekers. Link...
2023-02-241h 00The New MonasticsThe Architecture of Circles: Exploring the Wild Woman Archetype with Chris MaddoxChris Maddox is the founder of The Wild Woman Project where she teaches women how to utilize the gifts of the Wild Woman Archetype in their everyday lives & how to lead women’s circles in their local communities. She is the organizer and facilitator of the beloved annual WILD WOMAN FEST, a women’s retreat-festival hybrid which fosters a deep connection to nature, a direct experience of the divine feminine, and profound spiritual sisterhood among the women in attendance.In this episode, we discuss Chris's personal journey, her discovery of the Wild Woman Archetype, starting the Wild Woman...
2023-01-271h 10The New MonasticsArt as Revelation: The Artist as a Spiritual Archetype with Netanel Miles-YépezThough a professor of religion at Naropa University, and the author of numerous books on spirituality (and a frequent dialogue partner for our guests), Netanel Miles-Yépez is also a well-known artist, philosopher, and spiritual teacher. On this episode, we have asked Netanel to discuss his life at the crossroads of art and spirituality, the archetype of the artist, the internal origins and ‘midwifing’ of a vision, art as spiritual nourishment, artistic ‘jealousy,’ the essential spirituality of art, the relationship between art and prophesy, the muse and 'revelatory contents,' the difference between talent and training in art and spiritual...
2022-12-301h 00The New MonasticsEarth, A Palace of Deities: Re-Wilding Ourselves with Amelia HallDr. Amelia Hall is a British-born scholar-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and professor in the Department of Wisdom Traditions at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. In this episode, we discuss the issues of taking on a religious tradition that comes from another culture, cyclical and linear orientations, cultural ‘exotification,’ the evolution of Buddhism outside of India, investigations of human relations with non-human beings, sacred landscapes and the health of the planet, personal and place-oriented re-indigenization and re-wilding, accepting the ‘magical’ in the academy, outer-inner and secret understandings, violence against the Earth and its beings, primeval relational consciousness versus the modern utility...
2022-11-251h 01The New MonasticsLet Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Father Adam Bucko and the Path of Engaged ContemplationFather Adam Bucko is a Polish-American Episcopal priest who serves as the director of The Center for Spiritual Imagination at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York. He is a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement, and the author of the new book, Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation. In this episode, we discuss the origins of the book, the work of ‘engaged contemplation,’ Polish spiritual activism, the exemplary compassion of Christ, being a ’new monastic’ or contemplative in the worl...
2022-10-281h 13The New MonasticsEvery Step a Prayer: Walking With All Our Relations with Brenda SalgadoBrenda Salgado is a Nicaraguan-American curandera and Toltec healer, who emphasizes ceremony and traditional circle work for healing conflict and building community. She is the former director of the East Bay Meditation Center, and the current director of Nepantla Healing and Consulting. She is also the author of Real World Mindfulness for Beginners. In this episode, we explore and dialogue on the issues of relationship to the natural world, the ‘wings’ of Eagle and Condor consciousness, the planetary ‘convergence,’ the ‘Peace and Dignity Journeys,’ pan-indigenous interspirituality, authentic representation in ‘inter-mystic’ dialogical spaces, not getting ‘fundamentalist,’ connection to place and our displa...
2022-09-301h 12The New MonasticsThe Earth Wants Us to Be Human: Exploring Human Becoming and Sacred Ecology with Ramon ParishRamon Gabrieloff-Parish is an assistant professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and a leading voice in environmental justice, sustainability issues, contemporary rites of passage, and bringing the sacred into everyday living. In this episode, we explore and dialogue on the issues of sacred ecology, our paradoxical separation from nature, urban living, human divergence and convergence, de-colonized perspectives, industrialization, pandemic wisdom, complex historical legacies, the function of our religious traditions and ongoing revelation, reclamation of our relationship to nature, wilderness detox, contemporary rites of passage movements, being human and educating character for the health of the planet. L...
2022-08-261h 06The New MonasticsSeeding a New World: Visions of Sacred Feminine Wisdom with Alejandra WardenIn this episode we are joined by Alejandra Warden, an educator, interspiritual teacher, and founder of the Essential Oneness Feminine Wisdom Project. We focus our discussion on Alejandra's newest book, Remembrance: A Vision of the Sacred Feminine and the Renewal of the Earth, in which she shares, for the first time, the powerful visions on the sacred cosmic feminine, that she experienced over a period of 7 months, shortly after moving from Argentina to the US. We dive into the context of that period, the contents of her visions, how Alejandra integrated that experience of awakening, and how s...
2022-07-291h 12The New MonasticsConversations in the Spirit: A Retrospective on Lex Hixon’s Interview with Pir Vilayat Inayat KhanFrom the Intro: “In the 1970’s, long before podcasts like our own, there were radio shows whose reach was perhaps more limited, but whose impact was still powerful. Among the best of those shows was “In the Spirit” on WBAI in New York City, in which Lex Hixon interviewed some of the best, most interesting spiritual teachers and thinkers of the 1970s—Alan Watts, Tarthang Tulku, Rabbi Zalman Schachter, Ram Dass. But what made the show really special was Hixon himself, a deep spiritual thinker and practitioner who would soon make his own mark, and whose insight and sincere qu...
2022-06-241h 26The New MonasticsLife, Life, Life: Carmelite New Monasticism, Tolkien, and Interreligious Dialogue with Tessa BieleckiIn this fourth episode (actually our first recorded episode), we interview Tessa Bielecki, former Mother Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute and a Carmelite hermit in Tucson, Arizona. Tessa talks with us about her Polish Catholic background, founding a Carmelite reform movement, and four Carmelite wilderness monasteries. She also discusses her life today as a “urban hermit,” the impact of Fr. William McNamara, the relationship of “Holiness and Vitality,” life-affirming Christianity, the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings on the Spiritual Life Institute, contemplation as “personal passionate presence,” Teresa of Avila and Carmelite spirituality...
2022-05-271h 22The New MonasticsThe Second Axial Age: The Interspiritual Matrix of Abrahamic Spirituality with Matthew WrightIn this episode, we are joined by Reverend Matthew Wright, a leading figure in the dialogue on contemplative life and interspirituality. With Reverend Matthew, we talk about Karl Jasper’s notion of the “Axial Age”and Ewert Cousins’ idea of a “Second Axial Age.” We also discuss the inherently interspiritual matrix from which religions are ‘birthed’ (including Christianity and Islam), and explore the deep and surface connections between the ‘Abrahamic Religions’ (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and the notion of an ‘Abrahamic lineage’ of spirituality. Some of the connections and topics we discussed include: shared forms of prayer, an emphasis on ‘relationality’ vs. i...
2022-04-291h 34The New MonasticsThe Spiritual Menu: Teachers and Guidance on the Path with Deepa PatelIn this episode, we are joined by Deepa Patel, a teacher of Inayati Sufism who works with Charis Foundation on the Future of Religion and Interspirituality dialogues. With Deepa, we explore alternate sources of spiritual guidance (e.g., influential books and family members) which serve to connect us to ourselves, as well as the function of teachers who ‘mirror’ something back to us, helping us take personal responsibility around discipline and discernment. We also look at teachers, like Krishnamurti, who do not claim to be ‘teachers,’ as well as issues of readiness for teaching, making commitments, disappointments with teachers, ‘inner guid...
2022-03-251h 20The New MonasticsThe Growing Edge: New Monasticism and Interspirituality with Rory McEnteeIn this episode, we are joined by Rory McEntee, a leading figure in both the new monasticism and interspirituality movements, with whom we explore the origins of Charis Foundation, ‘old’ and ‘new’ ways of teaching spirituality, the idea of new monasticism and what is ‘new’ about it, interspirituality and its pioneers, the “growing edge” as spoken of by the Rev. Howard Thurman, contemplative life and ways of being interspiritual, the nine new monastic vows as framed by Rev. Diane Berke, goal-oriented spirituality and ‘spirituality for me’, service to others, and stories of interfaith challenge.Rory McEntee is the co-founder of Ch...
2022-02-251h 25