Soul Search

Join Meredith Lake and Brother Phap Hai on a mindful walk around Mountain Spring Buddhist monastery – a community of mostly Vietnamese monastics in the Plum Village tradition, founded by the late Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2020.

What does it mean to be fully alive? Elizabeth Oldfield has ditched the conventional script of what life can look like — instead choosing to live in what she calls a "micro-monastery".

National NAIDOC Week has its roots in the public theology of William Cooper, but what does it mean to do Christian theology on Aboriginal land?

Over 600,000 Australians visited Japan in 2023, and most of them visited a temple or shrine — even though they wouldn’t normally do that back home. But what's the etiquette when visiting a sacred place, and what do Japanese people think? 

Christians often use the word "ministry" to describe the work of the clergy, but in Aboriginal contexts, its meaning is more expansive. There are hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples right across these lands now called Australia engaged in ministry work, but much of it is unpaid, and might not fit into non-Indigenous ideas of what ministry looks like.

How do we make and find meaning alongside one another, in community? We live in a society that's becoming increasingly atomised in all kinds of spheres. But what might it look like if we, instead, paid attention to the social — and spiritual — dimensions of life together?Sharon Hollis and Charissa Suli each have unique life experiences that speak to this question, and they are both prominent leaders of one of Australia's largest faith communities.

What does it mean to live skilfully in a world that's constantly changing? And what wisdom can Chinese philosophy offer to this question? We meet a philosopher and a master calligrapher, who have a go at tackling these big questions.

Today, we're taking a break from all the noise and distraction –  to pay attention to the quality of silence. Why is so precious in so many of the world's spiritual traditions? And where, or how, do we find it?An artist shares her encounter with a transforming silence in Antarctica, and a Quaker shares her habits around seeking silence. 

How do you cultivate curiosity? That mindset has propelled Amy-Jill Levine through a lifetime of discovery. She's learned about all kinds of things, but especially about sacred texts, and the people who read them.Today, Amy-Jill is a distinguished professor of New Testament and Jewish studies. 

When Donna Mulhearn quit her job to go travelling, she found herself on an unusual path. First, to an Irish monastery, then to Baghdad during the Iraq War where she volunteered as a human shield. Later, she would break into a highly secure facility in Australia's Red Centre, all in the name of peace — and her pilgrimage isn't over yet.Donna Mulhearn is a labyrinth facilitator, pilgrim and storyteller. A former journalist and political advisor, when she discovered a contemplative spirituality it changed her religious outlook and set her on a new journey. She is the author of Ordinary Courage, which tells the story of her time in Iraq as a human shield.

"It's not coming out, but inviting in." For Benjamin Oh, storytelling is an act of courage and hospitality, sharing his multilayered identity: gay, Chinese, Catholic. Benjamin has been an advocate for LGBTIQ+ people inside the Catholic Church and beyond for 20 years.Benjamin Oh is co-Chair of Equal Voices, a national ecumenical alliance of LGBTIQA+ Christians and allies in Australia. He is also the Chair of Rainbow Catholics Interagency Australia and Convenor of the GLBTIQA+ Interfaith & Intercultural Network (GIIN) and national Convenor of the Asian Australian Alliance.He is a contributor to Blessed Are Those Who Mourn, a collection of Chinese Tongzhi Catholic's tales and the Amplify Queer Faith portrait collection.

How much stuff is too much? It's a question rarely asked here in the 'Lucky Country', but it has become central to the life of Jonathan Cornford, a political economist and theologian exploring new ways of thinking about money and consumption.Dr Jonathan Cornford is a political economist, historian and theologian. He's also the co-founder of Manna Gum, a ministry in 'good news economics' exploring alternative economic ethics. His most recent book is Ecology and Everyday Economics.

The nature of consciousness is a subject of enormous interest to both science and religion. Modern, secular mindfulness techniques have their foundation in ancient Buddhist thought, but it's only recently that neuroscientists have given serious attention to what actually happens in the brain when we meditate.Dr Sara Lazar is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and leads the Lazar lab for Meditation Research at Massachusetts General hospital. She is one of the world's leading researchers into the impact of mindfulness techniques on the brain, and has been a yoga and meditation practitioner since 1994.The Venerable Thubten Dondrub is resident teacher at Buddha House in Adelaide and has been an international teacher with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition for nearly 50 years.

Keerthik Sasidharan grew up with stories from the great Indian epics. They fired his imagination, and they've stayed with him through all kinds of changes — including moving from India to New York City. Now he is reimagining the Mahābhārata, one of the major Sanskrit epics of ancient India.Keerthik Sasidharan is an author and essayist based in New York City. His first book is The Dharma Forest, published by Penguin India in 2019.More infoRead Keerthik Sasidharan's piece in Aeon magazine, The Way of DharmaListen to the episode of Soul Search mentioned in this episode, The music of doubt, grief and transformation

Thirty years after the Rwandan genocide, Rwandans are working towards a better future for the country, and each other — including the perpetrators of the violence. Also, an Australian doctor works tirelessly all over Africa to heal women of fistulas — a medical condition related to childbirth that's almost unheard of in wealthy countries.Emmanuel Kwizera is a Partnership Facilitator with Compassion International and a former sponsor child. He survived the Rwandan genocide at the age of five and has since become a leader of the Rwanda alumni association, with over 10,000 Compassion alumni who support children in poverty. He is also a children's pastor at his Pentecostal church.Dr Andrew Browning AM is Medical Director at the Barbara May Foundation. His book is A Doctor in Africa: The Australian surgeon changing the lives of women in Africa. He has completed over 8000 free fistula operations all over Africa. He is the nephew of Valerie Browning, who appeared on Soul Search in 2022.

What role does faith play over the course of a lifetime? Three Christian women, each from a different generation, engage in an honest conversation about faith.

How can one nurture the soul? Or seek the divine in times of suffering and violence? These aren't new questions, but as 1.9 billion Muslims approach the peak of Ramadan, we meet a poet and a professor wrestling with these questions. Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM is the Founding Director of the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE) at UniSA. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of Islamic Studies.Yahia Lababidi.is a writer, poet and aphorist. His forthcoming collection of poems Palestine Wail, is dedicated to his grandmother, who had to flee her home in Jerusalem nearly 80 years ago.Further information:"Love that makes devils weep", "Ramadan", "What Tragedy Teaches" ©️ Yahia Lababidi 

Jesus is a film star. He’s graced the big screen since the beginning of cinema — you can probably picture him: robed and long-haired, but that’s only one way to imagine Jesus. In fact, the conversation about the image of Christ goes back a whole lot further than the story of cinema — to the earliest Christian era. There are multiple depictions of Jesus in the Bible, and artists have been giving expression to the Christ figure in different ways across time.Dr Adrian Rosenfeldt is a Lecturer and Head Tutor in Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University. He has a particular interest in sociology of spirituality expressed in film and music as well as New Atheist identities in a post 9-11 world. He is the author of The God Debaters: New Atheist Identity-Making and the Religious Self in the New Millennium and an upcoming article in the Human Studies journal titled, The “Spirit” of new Atheism and Religious Activism.Dr Katharine Massam is Professor of History at the University of Divinity and the author of a new study of the Australian writer Kylie Tennant, whose depression-era novels offer a disruptive vision of Christ in the midst of the workers' movement.

Rituals mark moments moments throughout our lives, big and small. They are also used to draw attention to political injustice and social inequality, to express lament and to reorient the participants in the ritual toward wholeness. What role might rituals play in our lives and our politics, and who might we find participating beside us?Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, poet and NYT bestselling author. She is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation, where she serves as Curator. Her books include This Here Flesh and Black Liturgies.Dr Molly Farneth is Associate Professor in the Religion Department of Haverford College. Her research and teaching focus on American and European religious thought (19th century to the present), with particular attention to religion and politics, ethics, rituals, and feminist and gender studies in religion. She is the author of The Politics of Ritual.

Perhaps you've heard it said, "We are what we repeatedly do". The early Christian ascetics knew this, but you don't have to be a monk to cultivate good habits, replace bad ones, and — hopefully — become a better person.Dr Jonathan Zecher is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at the Australian Catholic University. He is a historian of Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Empire with a special interest in monastic literature and early Christian culture.Andrew Hill is the CEO of Steiner Education Australia and a member of the Anthroposophical Society.