Are you drawn by the spiritual impulse? Do you feel a deep desire to connect with the Sacred? Do you want to discover your essential self and learn how it fits in the cosmos?Me too. I want to understand the spiritual impulse that compels us to explore, guides our growth into ever-better versions of ourselves, and leads us to touch, embrace, and ultimately return to Source.Growth happens slowly over time, especially spiritual growth, because it seeks to transform our fundamental way of being. The spiritual road is a long walk, and we need nourishment along the way.To help nourish and sustain us, I’ve recorded the Stumbling Mystic Podcast. In these conversations with ten thoughtful, dynamic spiritual seekers, we discover ideas and insights that fuel our journey. Over the course of seven episodes, we delve into these questions: The Spiritual Impulse – what is this force that draw us to the Sacred?Trauma – how do the hurts and healing of life propel our spiritual growth?Traditional Religion – is there a place for a modern mystic in formal religion today?Mysticism – how can I engage direct spiritual experience outside words and concepts?Spiritual Practice – what works best for me to support my spiritual life?A World on Fire – what is the spiritual response to a world that is chaotic and troubling?Integrating Spirituality Into Daily Life – how can we live one unified life?Listen in to our conversations on the Stumbling Mystic Podcast. I hope it feeds you.
Do you feel a deep desire to connect with the Sacred? Are you drawn to discover your true nature, your essential self, and how it fits in the cosmos? Are you looking for a direct experience of the Sacred that is not bound by the dogma of traditional religion or the skepticism of secular culture? Me too. I want to understand the spiritual impulse that draws us into exploration, guides our growth into ever-better versions of ourselves, and leads us to touch, embrace, and ultimately return to Source.I’ve interviewed ten friends and colleagues who are experienced and thoughtful spiritual travelers. Over the next seven episodes, they will describe the roads they’ve walked following the spiritual impulse through trauma, healing, mysticism, spiritual practice, and more. Episode one explores the nature of the spiritual impulse and how we can follow it to connect with the Sacred everywhere.
We are all familiar with the twin aspects of life - wondrous joys and beauty living alongside painful wounds and trauma. Knowing how to work through our wounds and integrate their lessons is fundamental to a fulfilling spiritual life.In Episode 2, I spoke with therapists, coaches and healers to understand how trauma shapes both the spiritual descent and ascent, the vital importance of working directly with the body to recover from trauma, and how healing our own wounds allows us to be a healer for others.
Is there a place for traditional religion on the path of a modern mystic? When does religion support spirituality and when does it become an obstacle? Formal religion provides opportunities for profound sacred experience, but many people today reject it because of its dogma and rigid hierarchy. To better understand the role of traditional church-going (or temple, or mosque), I spoke with two friends whose opinions I respect who find deep spiritual expression within the structure of religion. Their struggles, experiences and insights were inspiring.
If you feel lost in the spiritual landscape of modern society, you’re not alone. Many seekers today feel unsupported in their search, caught between the skepticism of secular culture and the dogma of traditional religion. Maybe you are drawn more to the direct experience of the Sacred than the words or theories that describe it. If so, you might be a modern mystic. Like me. Mysticism is not strange or exotic. Ultimately, it is a new way of seeing that makes the whole world Sacred.
We might think of the spiritual journey as moving forward, toward a destination. And it’s true that we want change and growth – we want to be less reactive, more loving, more at peace, more connected to Spirit. But the kind of change we want is different – it’s a change in our way of being. That kind of change is not found through force of intellect or willpower. It happens largely by grace.And we place ourselves in the path of grace by repeatedly entering a state that is receptive, fluid, open to guidance, and ready to surrender the images we have constructed of ourselves. That is what spiritual practice does. It is a habit we form that allows us to enter the doorway to Sacred experience again and again so our way of being can shift.The path is not so much forward, as inward to the levels of our inner dimensions and then outward to connect with the world. Lasting change and spiritual growth takes a commitment to practice.There is a wide variety of spiritual practices, and the decision of what to commit to is personal. In this episode of the Stumbling Mystic Podcast, our conversation covered many ideas that support a spiritual practice, including some that might surprise you.
Any spirituality worth its salt has to help us steer a course through the choppy waters of the world. Our current times are frothy, turbulent and troubling. War, nuclear threats, climate change, social division, and political extremism all seem ominous.How can we respond spiritually in the face of such change, disruption and possible destruction? Is it possible to stay engaged in the world as it is and also maintain our equilibrium?Our conversations this week on the Stumbling Mystic Podcast explore these questions and more. My guests talked about the need to avoid the downward and unproductive cycles of fear that can grip us. They viewed our current troubles as signs of a coming transformation of global systems and perhaps the evolution of human consciousness itself.They were frank in their assessment of our situation but expressed hope for the future and for our ability to grow our spiritual capacity to meet the challenges we face.
We want our spiritual traveling to amount to something, for some growth or change to happen. We want the time we spent reading, or thinking, or meditating, or journaling, or doing any spiritual practice to make a difference in our lives. I think we are hoping that our spiritual life becomes melded into our everyday life, or, we could say, that we end up with one integrated life, helping us deepen and sustain our experience of the Sacred. In this final episode of Season 1, my guests talk about the many ways they integrate the Sacred and the ordinary, including wonder, awe, the healing power of nature, slowing down, exchange with others in your community, subtle energy, and more.