Shows
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 Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Glassman Roshi (and a dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax), who founded the Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community in 2017, to be a hub for community-engaged Zen practice in Vermont. 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 metaphorical cooking...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 show2024-10-2555 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 10