Claim OwnershipHave You Ever Wondered?
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Description
Podcasts that address life’s issues and how we face them. These podcasts offer specific tools for self-improvement to deal with the emotional challenges life deals us, and offers perspectives from various cultures and traditions, from history, and the study of human behavior, as well as the testimony of personal experience. Encouraging critical and associative thinking, they also are intended to help the listener discover their own interconnectedness with others, and to expand their sense of self to embrace the power of consciousness itself.
11 Episodes
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This episode discusses the current and historical pressures for people to present themselves as being politically correct in their communications, presuming that this is evidence of being socially responsible and considerate of others. But it also looks at the dangers of our compulsions to imply our moral superiority over those who differ or disagree with us, and our tendency to prevent or avoid any discomfort (especially our own). It points out how our cultural tendencies toward narcissism a...
This episode explores the difference between worldly and spiritual awareness, and between our awakening social consciousness and the radical transformation that ensues from true spiritual awakening. What are the key elements, dynamics, symptoms and consequences of spiritual awakening? How do they inform or impact our socio-political and mundane awareness? Can the socio-political pressure to be woke (or to resist being woke) be resolved in a way that supports spiritual health, vitality, ...
This episode explores the so-called Law of Karma— the inescapable cycle of cause and effect, and how it is both shaped by our past actions and may determine our future ones. It addresses common misperceptions and misuse of the word, and examines its centrality in the Asian doctrines of reincarnation as a driving and continuous force, but one that is ultimately ours to control if we so choose. It also explores how the consequence of actions can be mitigated and their roots burned to prevent en...
This episode examines mysticism as an experiential mode of learning that ultimately can harmonize the orthodox penchant for structure with the heretical inclination to transcend rules and regulations, for the greater good. If orthodoxy and heresy are two sides of the same coin, mysticism is the gold from which both are minted. The social and individual benefits that accrue to us through understanding this dynamic are huge, for in the final analysis, the healing of world and personal conflicts...
This episode begins a two-part deep dive into the phenomenology of our notions of heresy and orthodoxy as being far more than a matter of religious history or interest. The tension between our instincts for freedom and transcendence on the one hand, and our need for agreement and security on the other, plays out in both the religious and secular spheres. Moreover, it is as alive today in our politics as it was during the dark days of the Inquisition, the Third Reich, and numerous other state-...
This episode explores the various ways in which our thirst for agreement is not only driven by our desire for security and comfort, but by our fear of things, beliefs, and peoples we don’t understand. The sect or cult creates a sort of bubble of security though the company of like-minded people, but that security can be tenuous and vulnerable to attack if questioned. This episode explores the origins and dynamics of cult behavior, and how it may either inspire or enslave its participants. It ...
This episode explores the widespread and but irrational tendency of people of faith to claim belief in a universal deity, but exclude that deity from all but their own tradition and preferences, and condemn those whose faith expresses itself in alternative forms. It examines the damaging consequences of ignorance, and the lack of critical thinking, both to intercultural and international relations, and to the integrity of the practice of faith itself. It also offers some insights into how, by...
Americans are particularly fond of promoting a notion of our national exceptionalism. Clearly, America can legitimately claim a lot of achievements and contributions to human society, but Americans can also be stunningly insensitive to and ignorant of the virtues and contributions of other cultures. This episode explores how sometimes a simple shift of perspective can have a radical effect on our perceptions, and examines the value of learning to deliberately step outside our habitual frames ...
Grief and loss are universal experiences that everyone will have at some point in their lives. They can be overwhelming and paralyzing. But the occasions that provoke our grief and sense of loss can also be transformed into some of our greatest and most rewarding learning experiences and opportunities for growth. This episode explores our notions of who suffers loss, and what is the nature of what we think we’ve lost. By suggesting a shift in perspective, the tools and practices mentioned her...
This episode looks at frequent patterns of our response to stress, and why they don’t work. It also offers insights into what causes our stress, and what we can do to resolve it. It explores specific transcultural practices that focus our breath, our awareness of vibration, and where we place our attention, as portals to transform our experience. Drawing on neuroscience, physiology, and contemplative practices, this chapter offers concrete tools for stress management and coping with life cris...
This episode explores the fundamental question of who we are, and who we’re not. It addresses the problem of our attachment to limitations, our tendency to label ourselves and others, and identify with those labels, and how to free ourselves from them. Drawing on millennial wisdom of East and West, as well as personal experience, this chapter offers practical tools for expanding both our self-understanding, and our understanding of others by recognizing what ultimately unites us all. &n...
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