Henry Shukman is a poet, author, and Zen master in the Sanbo Zen lineage. Born in the UK, where his parents taught at Oxford, he now resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he’s spiritual director emeritus of the Mountain Cloud Zen Center. He teaches various forms of mindfulness meditation and is the creator of a meditation app called The Way. He tells his personal story in a memoir titled One Blade of Grass, and he’s the author of a new book, Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening...
Sep 16, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 58
Marie Grace B. is a cofounder of, and spokesperson for, Spiritual Emergence Anonymous (SEA). SEA describes itself as "a grassroots world-wide 12-step program for spiritual emergence." The program's purpose is "to support spiritual emergence in individuals whose spiritual transformation is so powerful that they desire assistance and support from a group in integrating their spiritual experience by seeking stability, clarity, and being of greater service in the world." Because SEA is modeled on th...
Sep 02, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 57
We welcome two returning champions to Spirit Matters. James Finley is a clinical psychologist, a spiritual director and a faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Early in his life he was a monk in a Trappist monastery and a novice under the well-known mystic Thomas Merton. He is a recognized authority on contemplative Christianity and mysticism whose books include Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, The Contemplative Heart, Christian Meditation, and The Healing Path. Mirabai Starr is ...
Aug 19, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 56
Francis X. Clooney is the Parkman Professor of Divinity and professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard Divinity School. Prior to that, he taught at Boston College and was the director of Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. He is a renowned scholar of Hinduism and at the same time, a Catholic theologian and an ordained Jesuit priest for more than half a century. He is also a leading figure in the developing field of Comparative Theology, which involves studying traditions other t...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 55
Daniel McKanan is a senior lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, occupying a chair named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Faculty Director for the school’s Program for the Evolution of Spirituality. His scholarly work focuses on religious and spiritual movements for social transformation in the united states and beyond, with an additional focus on the Unitarian Universalist tradition and the Anthroposophical movement, which was founded by Rudolph Steiner in the early 20th century. Professor McKanan...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 54
Dana Sawyer is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and World Religions at the Maine College of Art & Design. The author of biographies of two prominent 20th Century thinkers, Aldous Huxley (2002) and Huston Smith (2017), his primary expertise is in Hinduism and Buddhism. For more than twenty years Dana's work has focused on comparative mysticism, theories of the “perennial philosophy,” and the value of psychedelic experience in the study of mysticism. His most recent books are an analysis of th...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 53
Kaira Jewel Lingo lived for 15 years as an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Plum Village. She now teaches internationally in the Zen and Vipassana traditions, as well as in a secular mindfulness context. Her work is at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, black, indigenous, and people of color, as well as artists, educators, families, and youth. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, interweaving nat...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 52
Paul John Roach is a native of Wales, UK. He earned BA and MA degrees in English from Oxford University and a postgraduate degree in education from the University of Wales. Paul was ordained at Unity Ministerial School in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1988 and served as the senior minister at Unity of Fort Worth until his retirement in 2018. He has also served the Unity movement in other ways, including as a board member of Unity World Headquarters. For 14 years, Paul hosted a program on Unity FM ti...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 51
Acharya Shunya is the first female head of a spiritual lineage that goes back 2,000 years in India. In her teaching, Acharya reinterprets and re-contextualizes Vedic wisdom, the nondual perspective of Advaita Vedanta, the lifestyle principles of Ayurveda, and Yoga philosophy and practices – and in so doing attempts to make the ancient insights relevant to modern sensibilities and needs. She says her purpose is “to create a learning and awakening path for contemporary seekers, empowering people e...
May 29, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 50
Oren Jay Sofer holds a degree in comparative religion from Columbia University and now teaches Buddhist meditation, mindfulness, and communication internationally. A certified trainer of nonviolent communication, he is a practitioner of somatic experiencing for the healing of trauma and the author of several books. They include: Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication and his current book, Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Cris...
May 19, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 49
Swami Medhananda is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and a distinguished academic, currently serving as Senior Research Fellow in philosophy at the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in 2009 from the University of California at Berkeley, and also studied at Humboldt University in Berlin and at Oxford University in the UK. His current research focuses on the global philosophy of religion, the epistemology of mystical experience, cosmopsychism, Indian scriptural hermeneut...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 48
Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, originally David Nowe of Pittsburgh, met Swami Muktananda and received Shaktipat initiation from him in 1975. He spent the next 8 years studying with and working for Muktananda in various ashram settings. Along the way he took initiation as a sannyasi and received the name Brahmananda. He returned to householder life for a period of time, then resumed the swami life. At one point he founded the God Realization Ministry, which taught the principles of siddha yoga in m...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 46
Dr. Alton B. Pollard III is a scholar, author, consultant, and public speaker on the subject of African American and U.S. religion and culture. He is about to join Wake Forest University as the Chair of Baptist Studies in the School of Divinity and professor of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. His prior positions include: President Emeritus of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Dean of the School of Divinity and professor at Howard University, Director of ...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 45
Adam Bucko is an Episcopal priest, a teacher of contemplative spirituality, and an interfaith activist. Born and raised in Poland under a totalitarian regime, his early exposure to spiritual activism greatly influenced his life trajectory. His books and teachings often include collaborations with spiritual leaders and activists from different faith traditions. He is the author of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation; The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Cont...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 45
Kimberley Theresa Lafferty is a teacher-practitioner who specializes in what she calls Constructive Developmental Psychology as well as Indo-Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. She offers private online psycho-spiritual counseling for individuals and couples, and in that work integrates the latest research on adult ego development, contemplative psychology, and other disciplines. She leads multi-year, private spiritual education cohorts through her organization, The Confluence Experience, which is also ...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 44
Beryl Bender has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1971, and has been training yoga teachers through her school, The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute, for nearly 50 years. She’s also the best-selling author of several books on yoga, including Power Yoga; Beyond Bower Yoga; and Yoga for Warriors: Basic Training for Strength, Resilience, and Peace of Mind, which was written especially for active duty military service members and veterans. In her teaching, Beryl addresses the full range of ...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 43
Daaji, aka Kamlesh D. Patel, is the fourth and current spiritual guide of the Heartfulness Institute, a century-old lineage that used to be known as the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. The organization has taught Heartfulness Meditation to several million practitioners in 126 countries. In addition to teaching and overseeing an international organization, Daaji gives keynote addresses and conducts workshops around the world. Formerly a successful pharmacist in New York City for over three decades, he ...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 41
Ann Helmke is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and serves as the faith liaison for the city of San Antonio, Texas. Prior to that she was the director of spiritual services at Haven for Hope, a program that serves homeless people. She has taught theology, has led workshops and retreats, co-founded the interfaith San Antonio Peace Center, and co-authored books. All of her work has focused on social justice through civic engagement. Consistent with that mission, sh...
Feb 26, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 41
Yoshin David Radin is the abbot and founder of the Ithaca Zen Center in upstate New York and he also taught regularly at the Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles. He began Zen practice in 1976, was ordained a monk in 1983, and an Oshō in 1989. He has been published in Tricycle Magazine and some of his writings have been turned into songs or spoken poems that were released in four collections, including "Love Songs of a Zen Monk." He also edited two books by his teacher, Joshu Sasaki, and is the a...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 40
Dr. David. H. Rosmarin is a board-certified clinical psychologist, a peer-reviewed scholar, a professor at Harvard Medical School, and the director of the Spiritual and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital. A leading expert and recognized innovator in the treatment of anxiety, he founded the Center for Anxiety, which has facilities in New York and Boston. He puts that expertise to use in his new book, Thriving With Anxiety: 9 Tools to Make Your Anxiety Work for You. In this conversation, we ...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 39
Neale Donald Walsch is the author of the hugely popular Conversations with God series, seven of which were on the New York Times bestseller list (the first one, in 1995, remained on the list for 134 weeks. In all, his forty books on contemporary spirituality and its practical application in everyday life, have been translated into 37 languages and read by millions around the world. His latest book, and the main topic of our conversation, is Godtalk: Experiences of Humanity's Connections with a H...
Jan 25, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 38
Imam Jamal Rahman is the co-founder of the Interfaith Sanctuary in Seattle. A popular public speaker on subjects related to Islam, Sufi spirituality, and interfaith relations, he has collaborated with a rabbi and an Christian minister as part of The Interfaith Amigos. The trio has toured the country sharing the message of spiritual inclusivity and have been profiled in national media outlets. As an author, Jamal's books include Sacred Laughter of the Sufis; Spiritual Gems of Islam; and The Fragr...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 37
Rizwan Virk is a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, a video game pioneer, a film producer, a venture capitalist, a computer scientists, and an author whose books explore the intersection of science, business, and spirituality. They include Zen Entrepreneurship and two books at the cutting edge of computer science and metaphysics, The Simulation Hypothesis and The Simulated Multiverse. His most recent book is Wisdom of a Yogi: Lessons for Modern Seekers from Autobiography of a Yogi, referrin...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 36
Dean Sluyter is a public speaker, meditation teacher, leader of workshops and retreats, and the author of several critically acclaimed books, including: Natural Meditation, Cinema Nirvana, The Zen Commandments, and his latest, The Dharma Bum's Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics. Dean draws on his studies with a number of teachers from different traditions over many years, and employs his gift for uncovering spiritual teachings in unlikely places, like works of art we do...
Dec 21, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 34
Kimberly Braun spent ten years as a nun in a Carmelite monastic order and then moved on to pursue a multidimensional spiritual path. Now, as a public speaker, author, meditation coach, and ordained minister, she helps guide others closer to the divine presence in a number of ways through her workshops, retreats, and online gatherings. We spoke about her fascinating and compelling journey, which she described in her book, Love Calls, Insights of a Former Carmelite Nun. We also spoke about the spi...
Dec 11, 2023•59 min•Ep. 34
In our proliferating spiritual environment, with easy access to diverse teachings and practices, Kate Sheehan Roach and Jeff Genung are providing services to help all spiritual explorers find what works best for them. Kate was the founding editor or Contemplative Journal and managing editor at Patheos.com. She currently works at ContemplativeLife.org and Prosocial World. As does Jeff, who is managing director of Prosocial World (a non-profit whose purpose is "to consciously evolve a world that w...
Dec 01, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 33
As a professor of religion, Robert Forman acquired a stellar reputation for his pioneering work on spiritual experiences and the study of mysticism. Some of the eleven books he wrote or edited became classics in academia, including: The Problem of Pure Consciousness; The Innate Capacity; and Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness. He's also written non-academic books such as Enlightenment Ain't What It's Cracked Up to Be. After retiring from academic life, Robert founded the Forge Institute for Spiritua...
Nov 21, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 32
J.D. Stillwater is a public speaker, author, and science educator who finds--and helps others find--spiritual insight and inspiration in the empirical, evidence-based discoveries of hard science. An officer of the Religious Naturalist Association and a member of the governing council of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, he shares revelations from natural reality to drive spiritual awakening in his various audiences, and in this interview he shares that sense of wonder and excitemen...
Nov 11, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 30
Christina Donnell has worn many hats over the course of a remarkably interesting life. A clinical psychologist, spiritual teacher, public speaker, and writer, she has not only studied Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, she delved deeply into a shamanic tradition in Peru for thirty years. She's the author of Transcendent Dreaming: Stepping Into Our Human Potential and, recently, Encounters with Living Language: Surrendering to the Power of Words. We explored, among many of things, the spir...
Nov 01, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 30
Steve Farrell was a hugely successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur before transforming his life and devoting his time and energy to service. He's the co-founder and Executive Director of Humanity's Team, a non-profit focused on helping people awaken to their deeper selves and "the divine truth of oneness." The company offers a variety of educational programs on "conscious living" in different spheres of life. We discussed his personal evolution, Humanity's Team, and his new book, "A New Universal...
Oct 22, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 29
