Shows
Western Baul Podcast SeriesSpiritual Practice in a Human Body (Myosho Ginny Matthews)Zazen is a practice that involves the body in ways such as working with the breath. Joshu Sasaki Roshi came up with the phrase, “Buddha is the center of gravity.” Rooting ourselves to the earth through the hara, the abdominal area, is an aspect of Chan or Chinese Buddhism that came to be known as Zen in Japan. We unconsciously absorb negativity that denigrates the body in our culture. There is a symbiotic relationship between spirit and the body in ancient systems like yoga, tai chi, and qigong. There is a traditional analogy of a chariot (the body), horses (our...2024-04-2559 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Power of Identification (Red Hawk)Identification is the great law that governs all human life. We are enslaved and quickly swept away by it as it captures and consumes our attention, which is what we are in essence. Yet, we are blind to it and believe we are free. All human problems are caused by identification. Imagination and identification are identical twins that work together. We are powerless to hold attention for long before being captured by imagination. We are identified with the body and ego structure and by attachment to objects, people, ideas, belief systems. A root of identification is self-importance when we...2024-04-111h 01Western Baul Podcast SeriesWhat the Heck Is a Guru? (Rick Lewis)Rick Lewis talks about the mystery of the Guru through telling stories of his experience with his Guru, Lee Lozowick. He discusses circumstances that brought him to his first Guru, Bhagwan Rajneesh (Osho), to meet Lee after Osho’s death, and to search to escape from the anxiety of human separation through spiritual attainment. Altered states that feel incredibly profound can be used to maintain a separate sense of self, as if we are getting closer to enlightenment. Stories are told about how Lee fanned the flames of this spiritual pursuit, which began to unravel after Lee’s death. The...2024-03-281h 04Western Baul Podcast SeriesCalling in Our Angels: Protectors, Friends, Guides and Midwives for Transitions Through Life and Death (Regina Sara Ryan)It's interesting to consider that there are larger forces at play in creation than we know. Angels are part of the Abrahamic cultures (Moslem, Christian, Hebrew). There are similar entities—dakinis, demigods, spirits—in Buddhist, Hindu, and Native traditions. Einstein’s great question was, “Is this a friendly universe or not?” We can look at the qualities of angels in history, art, and theology and find them in living persons. Calling in our angels has many dimensions to it: a cosmic dimension of finding our rightful place in the universe and welcoming good company that provides help in our lives. Ang...2024-03-1456 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesGurdjieff's Aphorisms: Essence of a Teaching (Carl Grimsman)The aphorisms of G. I. Gurdjieff are an accessible concentration of many of his ideas and basic teaching. Nine of the 38 aphorisms are considered in this presentation on the life of Gurdjieff, who appeared in Moscow in 1912 after a 20 year search for knowledge. His quest produced a system that became known as The Work. Gurdjieff used the tumult of life that presented itself to teach, including world wars. All outer work can be used for inner work. Some students who helped Gurdjieff establish, manifest, and disseminate his teaching are discussed: the Ouspenskys, de Hartmans, de Salzmanns, and Orage. Work...2024-02-291h 02Western Baul Podcast SeriesAn Ethical Will: What Values Can We Pass on to Future Generations? (Elise Erro/e.e.)An ethical will is about what we wish to pass on to future generations. Native American tribes think seven generations ahead in terms of what to leave behind. An ethical will has been part of the Jewish tradition. Ethics is about acting according to conscience, while morality is more about following widely shared norms, sometimes unthinkingly. When we consider who our ancestors were, we learn about ourselves. How have things that happened in the past brought us to the spiritual work we’re doing now? Some of us on a spiritual path have been exposed to higher laws such as...2024-02-1545 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Gospel of Thomas (David Herz)The Gospel of Thomas was found in 1945 in a jar buried in the ground in a small Egyptian town, Nag Hammadi, in a region where monks had meditated in solitude. Its origin dates back to the first few centuries and possibly to the time of Christ. In the accepted Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus is presented as an utterly unique being or as the only begotten son of God. Thomas means twin in Latin. One interpretation of the Gospel of Thomas is that we are identical twins of Jesus at a deep level, children of God...2024-02-0155 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesStaying in Love (Vijaya Fedorschak)Love is a stable state of being that can be seen as the culmination of the path. What is required of us for this state to come about? Love is about more than one relationship. We can consider love in coupled relationship, with others that we associate with, and in relationship to life. What is usually meant when we say we love someone is that we want to be loved by them. We can have expectations of a partner and others and become resentful if they do not meet our expectations. What do we really want? If we had...2024-01-181h 05Western Baul Podcast SeriesThreshold: Spirituality and Ecology, Here at the Changing of the Guard (Mary Angelon Young)We are living in wild times, in a shifting world in which we don’t know what’s going to happen. How can we find and live with reality in a world that is so predominantly unreal? Our karmas have to ripen all the way for us to become more fluid, open up, and let go. An essential tenet of tantra is non-rejection, taking whatever is arising as our path. Pratyahara, a teaching in the Yoga Sutras, is about freeing ourselves from identifications and attachments, including spiritual ones. The path is a living stream that keeps giving us new chal...2024-01-041h 00Western Baul Podcast SeriesWhatever Happened to Enlightenment? (Matthew Files)Enlightenment may or may not be a goal for people, but why would we get on the path unless we wanted something? With age, there seems to be less talk about pursuing enlightenment, which takes attention and energy to sustain. Is it natural for the pursuit to continue with less intensity? Or have we been distracted by all the problems of life so that the focus of attention that some of us had in our younger years has gone elsewhere? Maybe spiritual heroics are not needed on the path, which may be a very gradual, persistent process that goes...2023-12-1446 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesShadow and Luminosity, Descent and Transcendence (Nachama Greenwald)The metaphorical aspect of darkness can refer to the dark night of the soul, to a deep descent within ourselves, our individual or collective shadow, a time of transition, grief, or depression—whenever we’re suffering. We have a bias towards light. The sacred nutrients of wisdom, creation, and transformation dwell in darkness. Darkness has a fertile, receptive, feminine quality because something wants to be birthed from it, as from the womb. The talk is not about glorifying darkness or trying to be free of it but healing through darkness. The greatest courage is to see and be with all...2023-11-301h 05Western Baul Podcast SeriesThe Direct Path: Taking the Backwards Step (Peter Cohen)The direct path is a refined articulation of the principles of nondualism, and the backward step is the actual practice of it. The mind feasts on complication. One of the features of the direct path is its simplicity. It does not involve lineage, guru, or ritual. We are always looking at things, but what are we looking out of? When we look at what we are looking out of, we are taking a step back into ourselves. Awareness is empty of anything solid so when we take a backward step we are no longer relating as one thing to...2023-11-1655 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Value and Necessity of Suffering (Red Hawk)We need help to continue to grow. The name of a God-realized being invokes the Divine. We can make efforts to return to the present, to ground the attention. Attention is crucial in learning to use suffering so that suffering does not use us up and can become food for growth. Two kinds of attention are possible for a human being: mechanical attention which is an unconscious survival mechanism, and a second or conscious attention which makes self-observation possible and is different than the mind observing the mind. Yogi Ramsuratkumar said that if we are born, we suffer. The...2023-11-021h 04Western Baul Podcast SeriesOne’s Face on the Path (Jocelyn del Rio)The expressions of certain faces in spiritual paintings or sculpture and of genuine spiritual teachers in photographs or in-person can communicate our own basic goodness or organic innocence when we are in an open state. Something in us responds to a face that dances to the rhythm of creation, that exudes the peace of surrender. We are hard-wired for connection, which gets made through the face—for example, by babies. As we get older, layers of defense show up in a mask, as tenson in the face. We use our faces to create an identity. There’s a lot of i...2023-10-1955 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesWhat If? An Exploration of Transformational Possibility (Regina Sara Ryan)All failure to live life richly and fully is based on the feeling that love is scarce. We may sense at times that love is the ground of all being. What if we lived on the basis of this truth? There is so much music and poetry that reflects on our inner longing. Those in attendance at the live talk were asked to write down sayings, mantras, or mahavakyas (short sentences of wisdom teachings) that came to mind. They were then asked what they thought would happen if they realized the truth of what they had written. “What if?” can...2023-10-0552 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesCultivating Transparency: Realizing the Emptiness of the Stories You Tell Yourself and Others (Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick)We could say that all we know about ourselves cognitively are stories we tell ourselves. These are not necessarily obvious to us because they play so constantly. We respond to the universe through the stories that filter our experience. How do we work with this since we can’t think ourselves out of this box? Transparency hints at a different way of relating to stories. Many stories we identify with are cultural views. Stories in and of themselves are not a problem; they are a feature of what it is to be human. It’s when we hold onto stor...2023-09-211h 02Western Baul Podcast SeriesIt’s Not the Fall That Kills You: A Talk on Groundlessness (Juanita Violini)We are always already living in groundlessness. This can be scary since we tend to approach life in a fear-based way, but we can be groundless and focused on our delight. Groundlessness is not linear; it has no direction as we are always moving and changing. Children trust that their needs will be met until we give them a different message. We get into the habit of identifying, and holding onto any identity keeps us stuck. A distinction can be made between figuring ourselves out, which involves digging into the past to understand and fix ourselves, and knowing ourselves...2023-09-071h 03Western Baul Podcast Series”What’s Your Pleasure? Poetry and Perspectives on Pleasure on the Spiritual Path” (Karen Sprute-Francovich)In the Yoga tradition, Shiva represents unitary consciousness and Shakti represents the many forms that God takes in the world. One such form is pleasure. Kamala is a goddess and manifestation of Shakti, whose power is known as Shri, the fullness of pleasure. The word pleasure is boxed in by meanings we’ve given it in English, but Shri is a Sanskrit word for something deeper, a primordial vibration that gives rise to the creation of the world and is always present. We’re always tuned in to some frequency, which is a matter of habit and where our atte...2023-08-171h 01Western Baul Podcast SeriesWomen Talking: Power, Dominance, and Agency in the Age of ‘Me Too’ and on the Path (Elise Erro)The plot of the movie “Women Talking,” which was nominated for Best Picture in 2023 and won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, is summarized and its relevance considered in our world and on the path. In the movie, after women begin to speak about their experience with abuse in an isolated religious colony, others tell their own stories at meetings that are scribed by a male who is trusted in the community. Part of spiritual work today involves relating with issues of power and dominance—even when there is an intention to serve a higher purpose. There is discussion of man...2023-08-0353 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesRemoving Obstacles to Our Heart’s Desire (Lalitha)What is our heart’s desire and what are we willing to pay for it? What coin do we have available as payment? Is our heart’s desire our top priority? We can identify our worldly heart’s desire, but we can go deeper into what is possible for us. Obstacles have a lot to do with identity. Are we willing to have our identities shaken up? It can be scary to give ourselves to our heart’s desire since it will change us. We are not comfortable with the unknown. It is possible to re-language our heart’s desire as...2023-07-201h 04Western Baul Podcast SeriesLosing the Taste for Drama (Bandhu Dunham)There are dramatic things that happen to us in life, but we have some control over how we respond. Seeing drama for what it is—something self-imposed that we often create for ourselves—is a big step in loosening its grip. What we call fate may be something that came from our unconscious. Through reverse engineering, we can inquire if there was something that we did to set up drama. It’s all in the set-up and we set things up that we will experience later. Passive techniques for setting up drama include filters through which we see reality and ju...2023-07-0658 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesConscience and the Law of Identification (Red Hawk)We need to verify the truth of something through direct experience. Every problem that we face as humans can be seen as the result of identification. There’s only ever one problem: the need to cease all identification. The only hope to loosen its hold is to awaken conscience. Conscience absorbs and subsumes identification. We come from greatness and we return from whence we came. The primary aim of self-observation is to reveal that in us which blocks our true nature, which is love. First there is identification, then imagination takes hold and we are lost to reality, the pr...2023-06-1555 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesWorking with Money as Spiritual Practice (Regina Sara Ryan, Tom Lennon, Vijaya Fedorschak)An act of faith that the Divine will provide what we need is behind a vow of poverty taken in some religious orders. Generosity is primary in bodhisattva practice. By paying a little more, we sometimes end up supporting someone rather than getting the best deal. We can track ways we are stingy—with our love, power, graciousness, money. Consumer culture has a big part in creating our personalities and view of money. We can observe how we are with money without judgment. Are our lives more important than money or is money more important than our lives? Spiritual pr...2023-06-011h 01Western Baul Podcast SeriesThe Shadow on the Path (Vijaya Fedorschak)The shadow is a concept first advanced by Carl Jung to describe those parts of ourselves that we reject and repress. Everyone has a shadow. If we have some sense of what it is, we can work with it; if we don’t, it can run our lives in unseen ways. The failure to work with the shadow is at the root of many interpersonal and organizational problems, and on a mass scale it has a lot to do with the tragedy we see in the world today. Shadow behaviors are incongruent with religious and spiritual ideals, but psychological tru...2023-05-1853 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesMy Last Bully Is Me (Rick Lewis)We are a particular kind of machine that protects itself at all costs. There’s no chance of escaping the machine; it’s what we have to work with. The only way to really work with the machine is to completely leave it alone and stop trying to change it. Liberation isn’t liberation into anything else—it’s liberation from identification. We might not remember a lot of the bullying we experienced, which may have left us with shame. We take over the bullying process from imprints we get as children and can spend a huge amount of time and e...2023-05-0455 minWestern Baul Podcast Series”Honey in the Heart: The Rasa of Enjoyment, Delight and Celebration on the Path” (Nachama Greenwald)The phrase “honey in the heart” is taken from a book by Martin Prechtel. The word “rasa” means taste or essence in Sanskrit. The heart is an alchemical vessel, capable of transmitting, radiating, and metabolizing. The elixir distilled from this process is like honey. When we meet reality as-it-is with an open and undefended heart, we celebrate all aspects of our lives. We become one with all of life in the moment, and our hearts break from sorrow and from joy. Creation is an outpouring of divine love. In celebrating and finding delight in our lives, we align with the hear...2023-04-2055 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesDeep Dharmic Doo-Doo: Resistance is Futile… But So Also Is Acceptance (Peter Cohen)The term “dharma” has been used generically in the West to refer to any real teaching of contemplative spirituality. “Doo-doo” has to do with being stuck in our spiritual endeavors. A quote attributed to St. John of the Cross is, “In order to come upon that which you know not, you must go by a way in which you know not.” There are many things to benefit from in the domain of the known, but the spiritual path is about the domain of the unknown. The “now” that is spoken about by Realizers is outside of time, outside of the known. Peace...2023-04-0656 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesWisdom Teachings of the Ancient World: Celtic Spirituality and Tantra (Mary Angelon Young)Maha Shivaratri is the annual Hindu celebration of the union of Shiva and Parvati, the symbol of the timeless and the world of time. All the great traditions recognize the meeting point between timelessness and time, heaven and earth. The Celtic cross represents the union of spirit and matter. Another Celtic symbol is the Triskelion, an image of three universal forces flowing into each other. Three forces are also part of other traditions, such as creation, preservation, and destruction in Hinduism. The Celts were animists who had a deep relationship to the divinity in all things. They had a pr...2023-03-161h 03Western Baul Podcast SeriesLies We Tell Ourselves (Karl Krumins)The talk focuses more on self-deception—not knowing we’re lying to ourselves—than on lying as intentional untrue statements. Little children do not lie to themselves. We learn lying from things society and our parents tell us that aren’t true. We may think our wants are needs. A lot of lying occurs because perception is limited. We selectively perceive things that have survival value for us and tend not to register other things that don’t have payoffs. The Work involves developing diffuse rather than selective attention if we gradually train attention to free itself from being magnetized...2023-03-0249 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesHow Do We Enter the Heart, and What Do We Find When We Enter? The Way of the Pilgrim and the Prayer of the Heart (Regina Sara Ryan)The gesture of bowing the head is a ritual in all traditions that acknowledges the wisdom of sinking the mind into the heart. The Christian mystical tradition is ancient and includes writings such as the Philokalia (which dates back to the Desert Fathers), The Cloud of Unknowing, and The Way of the Pilgrim. The heart can only be experienced. If there is the tiniest urge to explore this depth, it is the Divine asking to be explored through and as us. The Christian Prayer of the Heart in the West is not all that different from the repetition of mant...2023-02-161h 01Western Baul Podcast SeriesImpermanence: Living with Reality (Bhadra Mitchell)Virtually everything about the path is covered when we consider impermanence: death, rebirth, linear time, eternity, presence, change, transition, attachment, identification, freedom, unity, fear, projections, denial, the divine path of growing old, groundlessness, surrender, grace, etc. Is it life or attachment that we wish to prolong? We are not able to fully profit from the path until we face death. Nothing exists as a permanent entity, but we suffer when we do not live this truth. Bhadra Mitchell, a long-time spiritual practitioner, discusses the learning that occurred for her in the process of living with cancer and having her...2023-02-0251 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Rough Road to Self Awareness: Intention, Attention, and Risk (Juanita Violini)The only way to access our birthright of a glorious and magnificent life is to know ourselves. The only way to know ourselves is by becoming self aware. Otherwise, we are machines, slaves to forces acting upon us. What we see and are told about the world as children are different things. We go from having an open and unprotected heart to numbness and repression. To live beyond our conditioning, we must know our motives, urges, and reactions. Dependence on an authority and not thinking for ourselves blocks us from being true to ourselves. Studying books and teachings can...2023-01-1954 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Restoration of Love (Elise Erro)The Soul comes to Earth to learn how to restore love. We can only do this by being present to relationship in all of its forms and textures. The task is to struggle to remain present and to "eat impressions." To "eat" emotions, reactions, and judgments does not mean to suppress them but to remain present to them and allow the body to transform the energy. The "practice of presence" is not a philosophy; it is a practice which restores relationship. This only seems unnatural, at first, because of a lifetime of learned habits to avoid relationship. If we...2023-01-0554 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesEating Bears: Notes on How to Go About It (Jocelyn del Rio)Transformation on many levels is what living things are designed for by the creation. We are embodied souls, on earth to experience, learn, and develop through the body. Nothing is static. We don’t know how systems work until we start looking. In the system we are in, everything is a form of food. We have an obligation to serve the system and pay for our existence through what we take in and give out. We can take in more if we are “empty.” Creation can take care of its own transformation when we get out of our own way an...2022-12-151h 07Western Baul Podcast SeriesSpiritual Bypassing and Adulthood on the Path (Deborah Auletta)Spiritual Bypassing, a phrase coined by John Welwood, is the tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks. We have to develop the ego before it can be transcended. When one is committed to the spiritual process, psychological and spiritual work cannot be separated. It’s possible to become narcissistically fascinated with psychological process. There are a lot of things about the spiritual supermarket that can be misleading. States that are not ordinary can be confused with spiritual experience. Real spiritual work is for something greater th...2022-12-0154 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesPairs of Opposites (Bandhu Dunham)“Discriminate and integrate” is a traditional spiritual motto. We can look at different teachings and find what is useful to integrate in our practice. Spiritual principles can be found everywhere, including in creative work. A list of opposites, “good theft” versus “bad theft” is considered, which contrasts getting inspiration from other people’s work, digesting it, and making it our own versus pretending it’s ours. We can look beneath the surface and discern whether our activity is dynamic or dramatic. Creativity is dynamic, but there is often resistance to this in distraction which pulls us away from creative work or the work...2022-11-1750 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesEscape From the General Law (Red Hawk)The first three “obligolnian strivings” referred to in the Gurdjieff Work are the strivings for what is needed for the planetary body, for perfection of the being (which has two qualities, presence and attention), and for understanding of world creation and maintenance. It is said that we are rigidly governed by 48 laws on Earth, so that almost everything we do is mechanical and automatic. The nature of the General Law is that all beings feed on those levels below them and are fed upon by those above them in scale. There is a great need for organic life to prod...2022-11-031h 07Western Baul Podcast SeriesThe Obstacle Is the Path (Chris McMaster and Debbie Hogeland-Celebucki)“The obstacle is the path” is a Zen proverb. Usually when we encounter obstacles we go around them. But on the spiritual path the only way around is through. Our neuroses can be obstacles. Our work with them is but 1% of the process even if it feels like a huge amount to us; the other 99% comes from grace. We don’t have to fix neurosis, which is just energy that can be used for transformation. Every neurotic manifestation has a complement which can be transformed into something that serves. We can bring practice to every form our lives take. At the...2022-10-2056 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesWe’ll Never Be Prepared for Life—We Might as Well Start Living It (Rick Lewis)The same energy we pour into attempting to prepare for and control life can be applied to serving a vision, helping others, and our spiritual development. Rick speaks about having the trajectory of his life interrupted by the pandemic after having worked as a keynote speaker in the events industry for twenty-five years. He talks about his experience of continuity of place and relationship with his family that had not occurred before. When preparation for something is not possible, presence or panic has to take its place. We can be impacted in unexpected ways if we say yes and...2022-10-0651 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Recognition of Our Heart (Karen Sprute-Francovich)This talk involves a discussion of the relevance in our lives of the Pratyabhijna Hridaya, a sutra text written about 1,000 years ago during a flowering of practice and tantra in India. It was written in Sanskrit and contains twenty sutras, which are short statements or pearls of spiritual wisdom. It rests on the view that manifestation arises out of consciousness which steps itself down into form. Many in the West have the experience of growing up and learning that we are not enough and so constantly strive for improvement. But we suffer when we identify with our limited circumstances. T...2022-09-221h 00Western Baul Podcast SeriesTiming Is Everything: Opening to Windows of Opportunity in Life and on the Path (Vijaya Fedorschak)We tend to think of time as a constant, but it’s not immutable. Our three-dimensional perceptions of time and space are limited. As our understanding of the universe has evolved, we’ve learned that the faster we move through space or the more gravitational pull we are under, the slower time goes. The hermetic spiritual principle “as above, so below” posits that smaller systems like our bodies are miniature versions of a larger system like the universe and that by understanding the body we understand the universe. Something is drawing us to align with the movement of the universe...2022-09-0857 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesFourth Way Magic: How Hermetic and Indigenous Traditions Interface with the Gurdjieff Work (Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick)The Fourth Way is a Western spiritual tradition founded by George Gurdjieff, a mystic of Greek and Armenian origin who taught in Russia, Europe, and America and died in 1949. The system he developed out of his own spiritual search which is shrouded in mystery was completely unique and geared toward working with a modern mindset of “waking sleep” in the West. The Gurdjieff Foundation purports to be the holder of his legacy which in some ways may be true and in others not. It has often been considered to be humorless and dogmatically committed to a rigid system of prac...2022-08-2559 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesStop the World, I Want to Get Off (Regina Sara Ryan)Many of us feel that we want to stop the world and get off given the suffering that we see all around. But without conflict and adversity, how would we have the opportunity to practice compassion? And where would we go if we got off? There is the implication that there is a place to go away from “what is.” It’s useful to look at our escape fantasies. While resistance is sometimes demonized on the path, it is a normal part of life. What is the world that we want to stop? We are in and out of worlds...2022-08-1158 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesBasic Trust: The Soul’s Key to Being (Peter Cohen)Basic trust is a term used by A.H. Almaas. It manifests as the willingness to leap into the unknown. Basic trust is different than our ordinary sense of trust that is dependent on external circumstances. It is an implicit trust that reality is ultimately good, that the universe will take care of us, that everything is OK and that what is optimal will happen. Almost no one has this basic trust--though some have more of a taste of it than others. One definition for enlightenment could be perfect basic trust. All activities of ego are evidence of a...2022-07-2848 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesKneel and Kiss the Ground: The Poetics of Presence and Purpose (Mary Angelon Young)“There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” This is the last line of one of Rumi’s poems. Fear, anxiety and grief are natural responses to the world as-it-is, which is full of poison and full of nectar. There are 3 ways of working with the poison of today’s world: we can reject it, we can gorge ourselves without discrimination, or we can partake in healthy doses through the discernment of a middle path. When at a crossroads, the unknown requires us to be fluid and shapeshift. We can hold the tension between what Jung called t...2022-07-141h 08Western Baul Podcast SeriesDo You Want to Be Right or Do You Want to Be in Relationship? (Matthew Files)A difficulty that shows up in relationship is not voicing our considerations to another person. If we don’t speak such things, we may stop talking and lose affinity. The quality of relationship does not depend on the circumstances or the content of the relationship. It depends on what we create, the promise we make about it. There is often an assumption that there is a problem if we disagree about things, but the disagreement can be there without affecting the overall quality of the relationship. When there is disagreement, we can engage each other—unless one person is comm...2022-06-3053 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Benefit of Good Company on the Spiritual Path (Tom Lennon)Good company is that which we experience with those companions who are a beacon of light by nature of their vision, commitment, practice, enduring love, and personal sacrifice. It feeds our deepest essence and longing and can keep reminding us of what the necessity is in our lives. Good company is a mood, a context that creates and sustains an energetic field that is necessary for any work on the path. It is an experience of the nature of elegance, service, kindness, compassion, and generosity and of being with those who are reliable about these commitments. We can derive...2022-06-1657 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesWar: What Is It Good For? (Bandhu Dunham)When there is misunderstanding, hostility, and aggression, the question is, “Why?” We would like to think that we are not capable of such things as occur in war, but we can consider that “what’s going on out there is what’s going on in here.” There are qualities such as vigilance that are needed in war that are also needed in spiritual work. A feeling of self-righteousness tends to go along with aggression; it can be like being possessed. The practice of self-observation is perhaps the most powerful thing we can do in our work. Internal conflict is a universal...2022-06-0252 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesCultivating Spiritual Maturity: An Honest Look at Our Commitments (Lalitha)We’ve got to have necessity to cultivate spiritual maturity. The foundation that we need for maturing is always being built stronger. What do we expect from our spiritual practice? What are we willing to pay for it in terms of our attention, time, and necessity? When we cultivate spiritual maturity, we open up senses we don’t even know we have and develop the capacity to “eat” the “substance” of necessity. What kind of risk can we sustain—not to our life—but to our comfort zones, beliefs, opinions? We may say ‘no’ to many things, but we can say ‘yes’ to a o...2022-05-191h 13Western Baul Podcast SeriesWriting as a Transformational Path (Mary Angelon Young and Regina Sara Ryan)Writing is an inroad into our deepest self. Sometimes it is painful because we all have wounds and obstacles that we work with over a lifetime. There is a healing quality to writing—we can tell the truth about our experience. Developing or honing a writing practice, whether we are skilled writers or not, is an invaluable means of telling our stories and bringing greater objectivity and insight into our journeys. If we can fully digest and integrate our experience, it becomes wisdom. When we write we take refuge in our creativity. We can tap into a flow of li...2022-05-0555 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesLiving From Paradox (Juanita Violini)We live in the world of duality, the linear world of opposites, and non-duality, the non-linear world of unity outside of time and space. Paradox is when two things seem to contradict each other but are both true. In order to grow, we need to be comfortable with paradox, embrace it and live from it. Paradox holds the key that shows us that life works if we let it. Duality is both real and illusion. When we view duality from paradox it allows us not to identify with what is happening in duality and for a much more magical...2022-04-2158 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesHospitality: The Practice and the Art (Regina Sara Ryan)True hospitality is emotionally powerful and touches something very deep in us. As hosts, we drop mechanicality about how we should do something and are present. A statement by the teacher EJ Gold is discussed: “Hospitality is the greatest law given to man. If he knew how to obey this one law he could overcome his imperfections.” It is not limited to food or drink, but also involves giving our attention and time for energetic exchange. The highest law in the Moslem tradition is hospitality. Hostellers who provided hospitality in Christian monasteries were chosen for their understanding that they were...2022-03-3148 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesUsing Death as an Advisor: What Death Can Teach Us About Living (Vijaya Fedorschak)This talk references teachings from the writings of Carlos Castaneda and material from the book The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseski. Holding on to things goes against nature since everything ends. In our culture, we seek to have death affect us as little as possible. Another option is to look at and show up for death when it crosses our path so that it informs our lives. If we push death away, transformation is not possible. Suzuki Roshi said, “We die, and we do not die.” How are we to understand this? On one level we are terrified of deat...2022-03-171h 04Western Baul Podcast SeriesGrace and Mercy: Return of the Goddess (Angelon Young)It is difficult for us to relate to cosmic forces and energies, and so it is useful to see them personified in human form. Myth helps us to make the leap from ego, from our small window on the world, to a much bigger reality. In the Hindu tradition (as in others including the Celtic tradition), the Divine is inclusive of three primal forces—creation, preservation, and destruction. These forces are associated with the three primary deities in the Hindu pantheon and their shaktis without whom they can do nothing: Brahma and Saraswati, Vishnu and Lakshmi, and Shiva and Pa...2022-03-031h 03Western Baul Podcast SeriesStill Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For... Why? (Matthew Files)A conversation with Bono about the meaning of U2 lyrics is parodied in this talk about the spiritual search. Matthew wants to know why Bono still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. The search is rooted in dissatisfaction, a feeling that something is incomplete or missing—whether it be about mundane things like money or relationship or the spiritual search for God. We can lament or be proud of the search, which can be a racket that we enroll others in. It is a human condition that seems normal since everyone is involved in it, but it perpet...2022-02-1746 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesGiving Ourselves to Love (Nachama Greenwald)Love shatters three abiding illusions: that we can construct an invulnerable life, that our hearts will remain unbroken, and that we can know life’s outcomes from where we stand now. A distinction can be made between loving and giving ourselves to love, which involves being willing to go wherever love takes us. Love is always fresh and new. It unravels and then reconfigures us—we are never the same after experiencing it. Love brings out the best and worst in us. It reveals our woundedness, but healing is possible by reclaiming our projections. In loving, we project our deep...2022-02-031h 03Western Baul Podcast SeriesNonduality: Speaking the Unspeakable (Peter Cohen)Nonduality is another way of saying God, Reality, Truth, "Father," or that consciousness is all that is. The human mind is a dualistic machine; it can only think in terms of opposites, of subjects and objects. Nondual (direct) teachings are specifically focused on the nature of reality and questions such as, “Who are you? What is ultimately real?” Behind all passing phenomena is an aware presence. “Pointers” are ways to consider the unspeakable nature of reality, such as the false sense of authorship of our lives, the illusion of being the doer and of cause and effect given that everythi...2022-01-2053 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesKnow Your Character: Who’s Running the Show? (Elise Erro/e.e.)Our inner state is difficult for us to see. One of the hardest ideas to understand in spiritual work is that we are not unified beings, always and everywhere the same, but a self divided into a multiplicity of I’s or parts of ourselves that are in conflict with each other. We must verify this for ourselves. When we loosen up and become more playful, things can be revealed more easily. In studying ourselves, we will find things that are not so playful, but we can refrain from trying to change or run away from what we do no...2022-01-0650 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesAwakening Conscience: The Potential Value of Not Expressing or Suppressing Negative Emotions (Panel Discussion with Red Hawk, Clelia Lewis, and VJ Fedorschak)Conscience is an internal uniting force that acts as a compass, always orienting us toward non-judgmental love. Though everyone in human form has a mustard seed of conscience, it must be developed. Buffers are mechanical habits that negate the influence of conscience and blind us to our contradictions to the positive qualities we like to identify with. We have to train attention to recognize conscience. Negative emotions are the ground of the buffer system, and the non-expression and non-suppression of negative emotion is one of the fundamental principles of work on self. This is different than suppressing unresolved trauma...2021-12-231h 13Western Baul Podcast SeriesBeing Where We Are: Grounding Spiritual Teaching in the Body (Bandhu Dunham)Embodiment can be considered in different ways: bringing something into physical reality from a more subtle dimension, as when creative ideas are manifested through art, and being fully present and inhabiting the body, as when spiritual qualities such as compassion become grounded in the body. The mind tends to grasp and hold ideas like a possession. The superficial mental satisfaction of feeling like we’ve understood something we’ve read or studied can keep us from incorporating it in the body and in our lives. We are not the “doer,” but we can be instruments for bringing the unknown into the...2021-12-0957 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesEverything is Food: A Gourmet’s Guide to the Spiritual Path (Regina Sara Ryan)There is a saying in Sanskrit, “Sarvam Annam,” which translates as “Everything is food.” Tibetan Buddhist teaching tells us that every setback can be brought to the path and used for the purpose of liberation. If we argue with reality, we waste a huge amount of energy. No real transformation can take place unless a great amount of energy is saved. We fritter away our vital life force in many ways such as spending it on unnecessary emotions. Gurdjieff described three sources of food: that which feeds the physical body, the air we breathe, and impressions which we are always re...2021-11-2556 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesSun. Moon. Tantra. Navigating the Ocean of Chaos and Coherence (Angelon Young)There are deep religious programs that go back thousands of years that tell us that we need to get away from the body and the senses. Tantra arose in response to repressive religious structures, but all indigenous and tribal cultures have their versions of tantric principles. Tantra asks if we have to abandon our earthly existence, the body, and pleasure in order to realize the bliss of the Self. The meaning of the word tantra has to do with continuity. No aspect of reality including sex is to be rejected, and the phenomenal world is co-essential with transcendental reality—th...2021-11-111h 06Western Baul Podcast SeriesLove and Longing: May the Heat of Suffering Become the Fire of Love (Vijaya Fedorschak)We generally model relationships that are dysfunctional in some way since we grow up in situations where conflict and relational instability are common. That’s where we start, but we can take relationship—with whoever it is that we have love for—deep into the heart of love. There is something archetypal, that we all resonate with, about the relationship between love and longing. The mood of love that is produced in separation from a beloved is the theme of epic stories in many traditions and cultures. The tales of Romeo and Juliet, Layla and Majnun, Krishna and the gopis...2021-10-281h 02Western Baul Podcast SeriesConscience: The Transformative Effect of Working with Inner Conflict (an interview with Clelia Lewis)The happiness of others fulfills the deepest need of the heart. Conscience develops with remorse, which is different than guilt. It involves the capacity to feel multiple contradictory things, conflicting parts of ourselves, at the same time. The “real war” is with sleep and unconsciousness and is about becoming a participant in life with one’s whole heart and self. Music makes a communication that can bypass the mind. (Two Attila the Hunza songs are played during the interview.) There is “no magic pill” in spiritual work. Buffers are physical, emotional or mental tendencies that lessen or negate the impact of f...2021-10-1458 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Way of the Wise Woman: A Deeper Dive into the Awakening of the Mother Spirit (Red Hawk)One must leave the mind and all of its knowledge at the gate of the Mother Spirit, which dwells in the present only and is a still field of vibratory awareness. We then enter into completely unknown territory. Awareness of the breath is an objective feedback mechanism that lets us know when we are present and awake in the body. The most fundamental, primal, and ancient of all longings is to return to the Mother, which is stillness. Active stillness is a masculine move that involves the active movement of attention from the head-brain into the body that allows...2021-09-231h 02Western Baul Podcast SeriesEnlightenment? (Jocelyn del Rio)Enlightenment does not exist as a thing that can be achieved or acquired. We can see its effect, which cannot be grasped. There is a Buddhist perspective that there is no enlightened person, only enlightened activity. Knowing the truth of reality is irrelevant if our behavior does not serve reality. Impermanence can be known as an advantage, as a blessing and not a threat. The person is continually in process, fluid, connected, and not the collection of memories that we call ourselves. There is a chance to live as freedom for something rather than to see the process as...2021-09-0954 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesUnderstanding the Persistence of 'Sleep' (Unconsciousness) (Matthew Files)One way of allowing a topic to go deep is not putting it in a box of what we assume we already know. Through self-observation, we can see that we are not free but that we react constantly to circumstances in the environment. We can't get beyond this state of sleep because of the place we live life from: the context of scarcity and survival (which involves self-image, our identity, who we take ourselves to be). Scarcity is the deeply held belief that there is never enough. Everybody's story of sleep/unconsciousness is the same in principle, which is...2021-08-2642 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesSpiritual Warriorship and the Undefended Life (Nachama Greenwald)A defended life is defined by survival, overreactivity, the drive to territorialize and control, to dominate and always be right, which has a cost in that we live in a narrow and confined range of experience and perception. When we relax our defenses, a sense of awe and reverence for life can arise. We are often defended not only from the outer world but also from the inner world of our own feeling. When we are undefended, there is fluidity, flexibility, creativity, and a greater intimacy with reality which allows room for life to touch us. We also need...2021-08-1257 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesA Deeper Yoga: Moving Beyond Image to Wholeness and Freedom (Christina Sell)A deeper yoga implies a surface to the experience of life, which can be beautiful, and a depth, a deeper reality. Regular immersion into practices and behaviors that move us into the depth of who we are is like jumping into the ocean. When we come out we bring some of the ocean with us into ordinary life so that the depth informs the surface. The stages of “clean up, grow up, wake up, show up,” discussed by Ken Wilber and Richard Rohr, are not linear. Even in the midst of cleaning up our lives, in brokenness, we can be o...2021-07-291h 12Western Baul Podcast SeriesFaith: How Necessary is It on the Spiritual Path? (Karl Krumins)Many in the spiritual traditions have weighed in on the subject of faith. We are already deeply immersed in the world of belief and faith based on cultural assumptions that we take for granted. What distinctions can be made between faith and belief? We can consider faith in terms of people who are faithful, having faith in something, or as a state of being. Do we have faith in practice, teachers, God, the process, ourselves? Confusion can be seen as a gift. While it is difficult to stay in the field of ambiguity and doubt, this can be precious on...2021-07-1552 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesContemplating Continuity—A Conversation with Spiritual Friends (Barbara Du Bois)Because we are inseparable from truth we are always in resonance with it, and thus at some level we have certainty that truth exists. This is the basis for seeking, for path, for realization. We already are that which we aspire to become, so our practices on the spiritual path are to sweep away the grasping for “self” that keeps us from recognizing the true nature. Bodhicitta, the altruistic intention to liberate all beings, gradually takes us over, opening the door from dualistic consciousness to awareness of continuity, lifetime after lifetime, and to ultimate continuity: union of absolute and rela...2021-07-011h 08Western Baul Podcast SeriesCreative Life: The Art of Getting Out of Our Own Way (Bandhu Dunham)If we have a creative idea and let the steam out of it, perhaps by talking about it prematurely or by not respecting the sacredness of creative energy, it can dissipate. As in life, artists start down a path, get themselves in trouble, and need to creatively find their way. Our initial creative inspiration can seem perfect, but then there is resistance in manifesting the vision. We can make many excuses for not being creative. It’s safe to observe things from a distance, but it's another matter to be on the field of life manifesting creativity. The work ma...2021-06-1755 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesNot What Should Be But What Is (Regina Sara Ryan)One of the formulas for practice on the spiritual path, which came from the Hindu Bengali master, Swami Prajnanpad, and which was part of the teaching of the French master, Arnaud Desjardins, is “not what should be but what is.” A distinction can be made between emotion (which is a reaction) and feeling (which arises when ego is not in control). Suffering occurs through identification with emotions and the thoughts associated with them. Internal or external complaining is a way of holding on to the idea that “this should not be” or that “this should be,” which expends a huge amount...2021-06-0358 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesCultivating Resilience and Inner Strength on the Spiritual Path (Angelon Young)Life is inherently a spiritual path, whether we know it or not. We can consider the degree we are participating, present, and committed to the Great Process of Divine Evolution that all of life is involved in. This has everything to do with resilience, which we are given at birth and begin to understand through instinct. Yet, resilience and inner strength needs to be cultivated. We don’t know that we have it until we are challenged. We will need to re-create ourselves; life goes on and so do we. Re-creation is magical and mysterious—it happens on a prim...2021-05-201h 13Western Baul Podcast SeriesYogi Ramsuratkumar: The Godchild, Tiruvannamalai (Caylor Wadlington)In 1970, at 19 years of age, Caylor went searching for spiritual help in India. What he found was a beggar (Yogi Ramsuratkumar, 1918-2001) who showered blessings and divine love on all who came upon him and who came to be recognized as one of the great masters of the last century. In this talk, Caylor describes some of the bewildering circumstances that he witnessed and teaching lessons that he received on a spiritual journey in the company of Yogi Ramsuratkumar in and around the town of Tiruvannamalai in south India. Yogi Ramsuratkumar’s timeless joy, liberation, and continuous work for al...2021-05-061h 13Western Baul Podcast SeriesLove What You Do Not Love: The Doorway to Ever Present Peace (Vijaya Fedorschak)A discussion on teachings of Arnaud Desjardins. The spiritual path is the search for what is indestructible in us, but we seek comfort from that which is destructible. “What is the cause of my suffering?” is the most important question we can ask. Reactions and thoughts are imposed on us by interdependent forces. Ever present peace is not dependent on external circumstance and is always in us. When there is emotion we do not see situations as they are. We cannot be in a condition of peace if we have a non-loving attitude toward anyone. It is possible to do a...2021-04-2255 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself (Matthew Files)Fear is built into the organism, but by trying to eliminate fear we double it and cause more trouble for ourselves. Being with fear rather than trying to do something about it allows it to pass over us and not take root in us. The root of fear is incarnation. There is an assumption that is made that we are separate from what sustains us, which is the context of scarcity and survival that we are born into. All the fear we have about there not being enough is not based on an event or some bad thing that...2021-04-0844 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Alchemy of Grief and Love (Nachama Greenwald)Grief strongly and powerfully undermines the illusory belief that life is permanent and solid. It purifies anything that stands in the way of reality. Grief takes us to the great mystery, to a place of not knowing, and it is possible to rest there. It can thaw any part of the heart that is frozen, allowing it to open and show its secrets. Sometimes the mind tells us that we understand something, but we really don’t get it. There is an apparent dichotomy between the pristine non-dual dharma and life in its rawness and messiness; they are actually in...2021-03-251h 07Western Baul Podcast SeriesMaintaining Presence in the Midst of Chaos (Bandhu Dunham)If our concept of order doesn’t match with nature’s higher concept of order, we may question nature rather than our concept. We seek power over chaos out of fear and denial to hide from the fact that mortality is real. In order for us to work with what we consider to be chaos, we have to cultivate a quality of restraint. The mind is meant to be part of a system under the control of our being, our "Real I." Coming back to our center in an age where we are constantly distracted by conflicting information involves work...2021-03-1157 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesPanel Discussion: Exploring the Depth of Spiritual Tradition (Barbara Du Bois, Carl Grimsman, and Vijaya Fedorschak)Real spiritual traditions have power based on the influence of rare teachers who have undergone transformation and then taught what they realized about the nature of reality and who we are beyond identification. While traditions have different forms and practices, there are essential elements that they have in common. Traditions can provide an influence that can support us to deepen our highest spiritual intention, which we might not cleave to on our own. Barbara is a longtime practitioner and teacher of Buddhadharma. She is author of Light Years: A Spiritual Memoir and Brave, Generous, and Undefended: Heart Teachings on...2021-02-251h 10Western Baul Podcast SeriesWhat’s Love, and What’s Love Got to Do with It? The Eternal Questions and Easy Misunderstandings (Regina Sara Ryan)Love is a present phenomenon only; it is only alive in the present. The deep imprints of those we have loved are accessible to us in the present. We can touch the timeless, expansive experience of love beyond the limitations of the physical body. There are different kinds of love such as the love of a mother, friend, brother or sister, agape love, erotic love. This plane of existence is a school of love, which is the essence of the Path, the core of existence, the defining element of creation. Love is always available, not scarce, but the doorway...2021-02-1144 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesContemplation: Awareness and Presence in Ordinary Life (Angelon Young)We all have an innate need to cultivate the sacred within ourselves. Contemplation creates the possibility of opening to the effortless flow of life and to our imagination and creativity. Self-knowledge is an ongoing process that we can nurture at each stage of our lives. We can build our capacity to be a vessel for awareness and an intention for transformation for the benefit of ourselves and others. Obstacles to contemplation and the distinction between rumination and contemplation are discussed in this talk—along with the value of staying present during times of pain, despair, or depression. Angelon is a...2021-01-281h 04Western Baul Podcast SeriesThe Transformative Power of Guarding One’s Speech (Bandhu Dunham)We set up our lives through our speech, which reinforces existing thought patterns and makes our perspective seem more solid. It also expresses the confusion of our thoughts and the clarity of our attention. We can bring awareness to our speech and to the ways that we “leak” energy through it. Grounding our speech is about restraint, as opposed to suppression, so that we can build energy for the intention and greater tasks that we have. Bandhu is author of Creative Life and an internationally recognized glass artist and teacher.
2021-01-1458 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesLiving Life with Gratitude (Debora Hogeland Celebucki)Joy and gratitude are central elements of all spiritual traditions. We can feed that which survives death by building gratitude and finding divinity in ordinary life. It is risky to be vulnerable and to accept a gift since this puts us in touch with our interdependence. Over time, we may come to recognize the way that loss and struggle have brought us to be who we have become. Debbie is an advocate for the wisdom of community, an early-childhood educator, and a mother who has led workshops on conscious parenting. She is author of Widening the Circle: Inspiration and...2020-12-2444 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesCan’t Get There from Here: The Overlay of Mind on Reality (Bala Zuccarello)As children, we take in everything and are not generally introduced to the idea of thinking about what we are thinking about. Our thinking is constant and we tend to repetitively think about the same things. Thinking overlays reality. Mind creates identification, is wary of everything as a threat, and seeks to survive at all costs. Throughout our lives, it looks for something to make things better while being averse to recognizing that something is not quite right. The best way to consider reality is to work with accepting what is as it is here and now, including our...2020-12-1044 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesDeepening Compassion in Times of Groundlessness, Uncertainty, and Fear (Nachama Greenwald)Feeling groundless is common when there is a great deal of instability in the world or in our personal lives. At such times, our attention may be heightened so that all suffering people are felt as our companions. We can bodily experience the need for the world to cherish feminine qualities of receptivity and compassion, and we may also discover within ourselves a greater capacity for letting go. Nachama is a physical therapist, editor, and musician who for seventeen years was a member of the Shri blues band which performed Western Baul music.
2020-11-2656 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesDig into the Mud to Get to the Sky (Karuna Fedorschak)Part of the human condition is that there are parts of ourselves that we don’t see or want to see about ourselves. It may seem counterintuitive that real freedom, healing, and innocence is only possible in descent, and that the underworld (personal and archetypal) is a doorway that holds the key to real change and transformation. Whatever is buried carries creativity and life force and by learning to relate with it we can come to accept the full spectrum of life. Karuna was a singer and musician in the Western Baul bands LGB and Small Change and author of...2020-11-121h 03Western Baul Podcast SeriesCultivating the View that Everything is in Transit: A Consideration of Death in the Spiritual Traditions (Vijaya Fedorschak)The reality that we see around us shows us that everything changes. Death brings an end to everything relative. But the spiritual traditions indicate that it is possible to know, or perhaps to build, something that continues beyond the separate self that we identify as. If we are to come in contact with our true nature at death, we can prepare ourselves in life. We can practice being with and moving through transitional states that are occurring all the time, as they will be more magnified at death. VJ is author of Shadow on the Path and Father and...2020-10-291h 00Western Baul Podcast SeriesWonder and Radical Amazement: Relearning the Forgotten Language of the Soul (Regina Sara Ryan)There is a human quality which allows us to be aware that there is a potential in us yet to be realized. Rabbi Abraham Heschel’s consideration that the goal of life is to live in wonder and radical amazement is explored in this talk. We can enliven this approach which nourishes the soul; without this, the experience of the Divine is diminished in the world. Regina is the author of Igniting the Inner Life, The Woman Awake, Praying Dangerously, and Only God. She is a workshop leader, editor of Hohm Press, and a former Catholic nun.
2020-10-151h 04Western Baul Podcast SeriesThe Tyranny of the Past (Angelon Young)We are attached and identified with everything we have experienced from the past. The present moment is defined by the past so that we react instead of respond, cling to the familiar, and fear the future that is unknown. But the past is not the enemy. The issue is that we become crystallized and fixated in believing that our accumulated identity from the past is who we are. Angelon is a workshop leader, editor, and author of As It Is, Under the Punnai Tree, The Baul Tradition, Caught in the Beloved’s Petticoats, On the Road to Enlightened Duality (e...2020-10-011h 15Western Baul Podcast SeriesThere is a Crack in Everything—That’s How the Light Gets In: The Myth of Self-Perfection (Matthew Files)This iconic lyric from a song by Leonard Cohen hints at the cracks in our self-image: the wounds, weaknesses, and apparent flaws which we usually want to ignore or cover up. Rather than trying to fix ourselves or perfect some image that we have, can we simply see the cracks for what they are, let the light in, and allow the light within us to shine out? Matthew has facilitated spiritual groups that support people to look deeper into their process, formulate their own questions, and become responsible for their choices.
2020-09-1752 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesMy Body is a Temple: Creating a Life of Practice (Christina Sell)The body as a temple is a metaphor in many spiritual traditions. We can build a temple of the body dedicated to our heart's intention, inner freedom, and self-knowledge through a life of practice. But how can any practice we engage shift us from perfectionistic notions towards greater compassion for ourselves and others? True practice needs a solid foundation and to focus on the highest spiritual principle. Christina has been teaching yoga for over twenty years and is the author of three books on yoga and body image: Yoga from the Inside Out, My Body is a Temple, and...2020-08-271h 13Western Baul Podcast SeriesBe Kind, Be Generous, Be Tender-Hearted (Rick Lewis)There is a tendency to judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions. But we can learn to extend the kindness that we have within us to others, despite any fear and insecurity, in order to embody that which we intend to be. We can explore mechanics that continue to separate us and keep us in a comfort zone. Rick provides inspirational presentations for conferences and events. He has been deeply involved in a few spiritual communities and is author of You Have the Right to Remain Silent, The Perfection of Nothing, and 7 Rules You Were Born...2020-08-1352 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesNeither Attracted nor Repelled—The Value of Cultivating Equanimity (Nachama Greenwald)Equanimity is a principle that is woven into the dharma of many different traditions, including Buddhism and yoga. We are all subject to what attracts and repels us, what we push away and what we grasp for. Our daily experience of life is our mirror, gauge, and training ground. We can learn to ride the waves of experiences of fixation and reactivity in a world of polarities, develop discrimination, and live in a bigger world. Nachama is a physical therapist, editor, and musician who was a member of the Shri blues band for seventeen years
2020-07-301h 10Western Baul Podcast SeriesFollowing a Path with Heart—Reflections on Castaneda’s Literature (Karl Krumins)Castaneda’s stories about his experiences with his teacher, Don Juan, illustrate spiritual principles through use of specific language that we can consider in self-study: tonal and nagual (which comprise the totality of ourselves), seeing, death as an advisor, losing self-importance, stalking, stopping internal dialogue, dreaming, assemblage point, warriorship, omens, man of knowledge, etc. Karl Krumins has been a spiritual practitioner for forty years. He lived in India for seven years and has a passion for considering the essential similarities of spiritual traditions.
2020-07-1658 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesTraps on the Path (Karuna Fedorschak)It is inevitable that we bring our conditioning, beliefs, and life experience to the path, but inner work involves an examination of the way that we relate to spiritual teaching through the filters of mind. This talk covers six basic traps outlined by Lee Lozowick: unrealistic expectations, a tendency to idolize, mistaking intellectual understanding for bodily knowledge, the seduction of peak experience, thinking one is a special case, and needing approval rather than trusting one’s work. Karuna Fedorschak was a singer and musician in the Western Baul bands LGB and Small Change and author of Parenting: A Sacred Ta...2020-07-0144 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesConfirmation Bias (Bandhu Scott Dunham)Working with confirmation bias, the tendency to look for validation of our worldview, involves examining assumptions we make about ourselves and reality and the inclination to seek, interpret, and remember information which confirms our particular perspective. But the spiritual traditions point to an underlying Organic Innocence or openness to life and the possibilities that lie beyond our own biases. We can learn to be vigilant and courageous and to step outside the limits we have created to have a deeper experience of the world. Bandhu Dunham is author of Creative Life and an internationally recognized glass artist and teacher.2020-06-1848 minWestern Baul Podcast SeriesThe Possibility of Inner Freedom through Recognizing Ego Insubstantiality (Vijaya Fedorschak)Survival is the first concept that a child is impressed with when he or she is born. This talk considers the formation of ego, principles of ego functioning and the search to substantiate itself, practical work with our condition of assumed separation, and the spiritual freedom pointed to in the traditions. Only the universal process that can resolve the human dilemma; yet, something is required of us to open to a deeper truth. VJ is author of Shadow on the Path and Father and Son.
2020-05-291h 21Western Baul Podcast SeriesTantra and Ordinary Life (Angelon Young)Tantra works with both duality and non-duality, with both the immanent and transcendent aspects of the Divine. It involves gathering and focusing one’s energy toward a specific aim. The whole purpose of tantra is to be in relationship with Truth. In this talk, Angelon Young discusses principles of tantra, one of the most misunderstood teachings of the East. Angelon is a workshop leader, editor, and author of As It Is, Under the Punnai Tree, The Baul Tradition, Caught in the Beloved’s Petticoats, On the Road to Enlightened Duality (e-book), and Krishna’s Heretic Lovers, a novel.
2020-05-011h 17
Western Baul Podcast SeriesSpiritual Authority (Regina Sara Ryan)“What Is Spiritual Authority? How to Recognize and Use It.” While taking responsibility for our lives is a necessary part of the spiritual process, there is also a need for help to realize the presence of the divine and who we are beyond our identifications. In this talk, Regina Sara Ryan considers the question of our own trustworthiness and the trustworthiness of spiritual authority on the path. Regina is the author of Igniting the Inner Life, The Woman Awake, Praying Dangerously, and Only God. She is a workshop leader, editor of Hohm Press, and a former Catholic nun.
2020-04-0552 min