- So many people! No wonder there’ve been waves of migration, resulting in Chinese people all over the world
- Scale and speed of development is quite amazing. Where a few decades before there was farmland, now there are highrises
- Very nearly a cashless society: every day business is done on smartphones, using apps like Didi and WeChat
- Security is everywhere. I never could quite figure out why there were cops in the Metro, for example, seemingly with nothing to do
- Big cities are clean! Much cleaner than places like Paris or Mexico
- Communist state? Maybe, but I didn’t see it. What I saw where lots of people hustling, intent on making a buck (sorry, RMB)
- Chinese national narrative begins with Mao. Visiting the CCCP museum in Shanghai for Chinese is like visiting Independence Mall for Americans
- Underdeveloped country? Maybe, but what I saw didn’t look that way to me. I didn’t go to the countryside or any poor cities, but cities like Shanghai seem ultra-sophisticated, with high society districts in the West. Chinese high-speed trains seemed to me slicker than anything I’d seen anywhere. Here’s my travelogue:
Sunday, February 09, 2025
I spent a couple of months in China last fall. A few newbie observations and a
video travelogue:
Friday, July 19, 2024
Message of the Day: Long Wave, Short Wave
green coloured trails of light
Today's message is called Long Wave/Short Wave and focuses on the realm of sound waves and their impact on our consciousness.
The Short Wave carries the everyday sounds that constantly bombard us, akin to the AM radio band – reaching far but often filled with static. These are the fleeting conversations, the news cycle, and the general noise of daily life.
The Long Wave resides on a higher frequency than the short wave, and often requires effort to access. This is the realm of the Sound Current, often experienced through practices like meditation, prayer, and chanting. Tuning into this long wave can bring profound benefits, including:
- Reduced stress and increased peace of mind: By shifting our focus from the constant chatter of the short wave, we can find inner calm and tranquility.- Access to higher forms of knowledge: The long wave carries subtle information that transcends the mundane, offering insights into deeper truths and wisdom.
Breaking Free from the Short Wave: Like many, I often find myself caught in the short-term filter of information overload. However, moments of clarity break through occasionally, revealing the fleeting nature of my preoccupations. These glimpses inspire me to spend more time seeking the long wave and tune my inner ear to higher frequencies.
Your Journey to the Long Wave: Does this long form/short analogy resonate with your experience?
And if it does, what practices or activities help you connect with the long wave?
https://bit.ly/3WrRlKf
Friday, July 12, 2024
Acceptance
Today's message focuses on acceptance, a concept that's easy to grasp but often difficult to put into practice. At its core, acceptance is about embracing whatever life throws our way, whether it's a personal flaw we dislike, an infuriating encounter with a stranger, or an unexpected compliment. It's about acknowledging reality as it is, without resistance.
However, our natural inclination isn't always to accept. We often deny or react defensively to what we encounter. We might tell ourselves we're not lazy, just unmotivated. We might lash out at a driver who's trying to pass us, nearly causing an accident. Or we might brush aside a compliment, dismissing it as insincere.
In essence, we deny what is.
Many of us struggle with self-acceptance. We might readily acknowledge some aspects of ourselves while stubbornly resisting others. We might intellectually understand that denying our flaws only gives them more power, but still find it difficult to embrace ourselves completely, warts and all.
Deepak Chopra, the renowned physician and lecturer, offers a helpful perspective on acceptance. He suggests that we begin by recognizing the inherent duality within us. Our inner being, burdened by karmic baggage, is a complex tapestry of opposing energies. It's a place where the saint and the sinner, the sacred and the profane, the divine and the diabolical coexist. Accepting this duality, embracing the full spectrum of our being, allows us to release the need to judge others.
This idea is beautifully illustrated by the allegory of the man and his shadow. Haunted by his shadow, the man tries to outrun it, but every step he takes only creates more shadow. He runs faster and faster, ultimately exhausting himself to death. He fails to realize that simply standing under a tree would have eliminated his shadow, or that stillness would have prevented it from growing.
The allegory highlights the futility of denying our shadows. We all cast shadows; it's an inevitable part of being alive. The real challenge lies in choosing how much power we give to those shadows. Can we stand firm and allow the light of acceptance to shine through?
Chopra's insights also reveal a connection between self-acceptance and our ability to accept others. The greatest gift we can offer another person is to accept them for who they are, without trying to change them. This can be especially challenging with those closest to us, but it's a gift worth striving for.
Today's message encourages us to cultivate a deeper sense of acceptance, both for ourselves and for others. In doing so, we're liable to find a profound sense of peace and inner harmony.
https://bit.ly/4cSWU9K
Monday, November 21, 2022
Sleep Medicine: the Practice of Yoga Nidra
Restorative yoga practioner Jennifer Piercy explains the philosophy of yoga nidra, leads participants through a yoga nidra session, and answers questions about dreams, sleep and rest.
This is a recording of the 11/19/22 Sacred Inclusion Network Managing Dark Spaces exploration.
The yoga nidra practice starts about 16:14, goes for approximately a half-hour, and is followed by questions and answers.
Piercy’s sleep meditation tracks on the Insight Time app have been played more than 21 million times. An experienced Restorative Yoga Practitioner, she’s studied with Dr. Rubin Naiman, a pioneer in integrative sleep and dream medicine, and has spent thousands of hours in her 16+ years as a yoga practitioner guiding people in the impactful and neglected art of slowing down.
Links:
- Piercy's site
- Article on yoga nidra
- Podcast interview with Jennifer
- Recommended resource (see Chapter 15, Dreams and Multidimensional Reality)
- Sacred Inclusion Network
- Sacred Inclusion Network's Facebook Group
- Sacred Inclusion Network's YouTube Channel --
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Sleep Medicine: the Practice of Yoga Nidra
Restorative yoga practioner Jennifer Piercy explains the philosophy of yoga nidra, leads participants through a yoga nidra session, and answers questions about dreams, sleep and rest.
This is a recording of the 11/19/22 Sacred Inclusion Network Managing Dark Spaces exploration.
The yoga nidra practice starts about 16:14, goes for approximately a half-hour, and is followed by questions and answers.
Piercy’s sleep meditation tracks on the Insight Time app have been played more than 21 million times. An experienced Restorative Yoga Practitioner, she’s studied with Dr. Rubin Naiman, a pioneer in integrative sleep and dream medicine, and has spent thousands of hours in her 16+ years as a yoga practitioner guiding people in the impactful and neglected art of slowing down.
Links:
- Piercy's site
- Article on yoga nidra
- Podcast interview with Jennifer
- Recommended resource (see Chapter 15, Dreams and Multidimensional Reality)
- Sacred Inclusion Network
- Sacred Inclusion Network's Facebook Group
- Sacred Inclusion Network's YouTube Channel --
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Sleep Medicine: the Practice of Yoga Nidra
Restorative yoga practioner Jennifer Piercy explains the philosophy of yoga nidra, leads participants through a yoga nidra session, and answers questions about dreams, sleep and rest.
This is a recording of the 11/19/22 Sacred Inclusion Network Managing Dark Spaces exploration.
The yoga nidra practice starts about 16:14, goes for approximately a half-hour, and is followed by questions and answers.
Piercy’s sleep meditation tracks on the Insight Time app have been played more than 21 million times. An experienced Restorative Yoga Practitioner, she’s studied with Dr. Rubin Naiman, a pioneer in integrative sleep and dream medicine, and has spent thousands of hours in her 16+ years as a yoga practitioner guiding people in the impactful and neglected art of slowing down.
Links:
- Piercy's site
- Article on yoga nidra
- Podcast interview with Jennifer
- Recommended resource (see Chapter 15, Dreams and Multidimensional Reality)
- Sacred Inclusion Network
- Sacred Inclusion Network's Facebook Group
- Sacred Inclusion Network's YouTube Channel --
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Sleep Medicine: the Practice of Yoga Nidra
Restorative yoga practioner Jennifer Piercy explains the philosophy of yoga nidra, leads participants through a yoga nidra session, and answers questions about dreams, sleep and rest.
This is a recording of the 11/19/22 Sacred Inclusion Network Managing Dark Spaces exploration.
The yoga nidra practice starts about 16:14, goes for approximately a half-hour, and is followed by questions and answers.
Piercy’s sleep meditation tracks on the Insight Time app have been played more than 21 million times. An experienced Restorative Yoga Practitioner, she’s studied with Dr. Rubin Naiman, a pioneer in integrative sleep and dream medicine, and has spent thousands of hours in her 16+ years as a yoga practitioner guiding people in the impactful and neglected art of slowing down.
Links:
- Piercy's site
- Article on yoga nidra
- Podcast interview with Jennifer
- Recommended resource (see Chapter 15, Dreams and Multidimensional Reality)
- Sacred Inclusion Network
- Sacred Inclusion Network's Facebook Group
- Sacred Inclusion Network's YouTube Channel --
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Wednesday, November 09, 2022
Activating Egyptian Spirituality
African cosmologist, independent scholar and multimedia artist Marques Redd discusses African spirituality, the legacy of Egypt, and the tradition of the gatekeepers.
Redd here explains he first became interested in African spiritualty, his academic studies on the influence of ancient Egypt on Plato's philosphy and 19th century literature, and how these studies became the basis for his intellectual, artistic, and spiritual work.
"The reason why I'm attracted to African spiritual systems is that within them you can still see the remnants of these early understandings of what it means to be human, and conceptions of the Divine that, in a deeper sense, made us human, and made us into the beings and creatures that we are today." he says.
Redd will facilitate the Sacred Inclusion Network's 10/15 Online Community Exploration, in which he'll provide a map for activating ancient Egyptian rituals that can be used in one’s individual practice. The workshop will be grounded in guided meditations and an exploration of how to use hieroglyphics as shamanic tools.
- For more information about Redd's work, visit https://marquesredd.com For information about the 10/15 Activating Egyptian Spirituality event, visit https://egyptian-spirituality.eventbrite.com.
- For information about his 10/21-10/23 Esalen Institute workshop, visit https://www.esalen.org/workshops/harnessing-the-power-of-creation-through-african-ritual
- To learn more about the Sacred Inclusion Network, visit https://sacredinclusion.com
Bridging Together Indigenous and Modern Science
The sacred pipe, the Raven, and a peyote ritual were three touchstones of the path of Dr. Apela Colorado, traditional cultural practitioner and indigenous scientist of French and Oneida descent.
In this podcast, she shares stories of how each of these elements formed an essential part of her journey, from growing up as a mixed-race child in rural western Wisconsin to founding in 1989 the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN).
As she relates in this podcast and in her recently published book, Woman Between the Worlds, she as a teenager followed her grandfather’s advice and attended college, an action that rare for native women at the time. But while climbing the academic ranks and eventually attaining a Ph.D. from Brandeis University, she always remembered another part of her grandfather’s counsel: “Remember the pipe,” he told her, another way of saying “remember your roots.”
In this podcast, Colorado relates milestones from her remarkable journey, from her involvement in Indian Movement, through her encounters with indigenous elders in the south of France, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Central Asia. She also sheds light on native ritual and symbolism, such as the role of the sacred pipe in ceremony.
She also shares some lessons she learned from elders along the way, and mystical encounters with real and allegorical ravens, and how a peyote ceremony transformed her perception of life.
Dr. Colorado is in equal measure shaman and academic, and her accomplishments are many. She's a Ford Fellow, who in 1982 received a PhD from Brandeis University, and went on to create the world's first doctoral program in traditional knowledge at the California Institute of Integral studies. She also directed the Indigenous Mind Program, which for 20 years taught students into ways of exploring their ancestral and earth-based holistic consciousness within an academic framework.
Links:
- Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN)
- Woman Between the Worlds Amazon page
- Sacred Inclusion Network
- Sacred Inclusion Network's Facebook Group
- Sacred Inclusion Network's YouTube Channel --
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Activating Egyptian Spirituality (Excerpt)
Marques Redd on African spirituality, the lure of Egypt, and what to expect during the 10/15 Sacred Inclusion Network exploration.
Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/BHlxqvV6iac
Archiving the Impossible
Within the halls of academia, the exploration of paranormal activity is for the most part off-limits to serious scientific inquiry. There are a variety of reasons for this, says religious scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal: the rise of behaviorism; the belief that the brain is in essence a biological computer; and the concurrent belief in physicalism - that there is nothing over and above the physical dimension of life.
Kripal here explains why he’s devoted his professional life to taking this phenomenon seriously. He’s one of a small, but increasing number of scholars who believe it’s as important to look at reality from the inside out as it is to examine it from the outside in.
Kripal, the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, is the author of eight books, including Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion, and Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred.
Here he explains his latest project, Archives of the Impossible, which is both an actual archive of paranormal materials and a March 2022 Rice University conference.
He also details the evolution of his own interest in the paranormal; his view on the importance of the humanities; and what-he-calls “the flipped” experiences of materialists who changed their perspective to embrace the view or that mind or consciousness is primary and the material world is secondary.
The plenary speakers at the March 2022 Archives of the Impossible conference include Jacques F. Vallée, PhD, the founder of Documatica Research; Leslie Keen, author of the best-selling Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife and UFOs; Whitley Strieber, author of Communion and many other books; Diana Pasulka, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington; John Phillip Santos, Rhodes Scholar, writer, journalist, and documentarian; Edwin C. May, president and founder of the Laboratories for Fundamental Research, Palo Alto, California. and Sebastiano De Filippi, Italian-Argentinian musician, author and scholar.
Links:
- Archives of the Impossible (conference page)
- Kripal's website
- Sacred Inclusion Network
- Sacred Inclusion Network's Facebook Group
- Sacred Inclusion Network's YouTube Channel --
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
A Sufi Approach to Business
Fourth generation entrepreneur Mark Silver is a pioneer in the integration of spirituality and business. He believes that commerce doesn’t need to involve hype or manipulation but instead can be based on transparency, integrity and heart. In this podcast, he describes how life circumstances led him to embrace the Sufi path, his belief that right business practice is inherently spiritual, and how when done correctly marketing can be a form of healing.
The founder of the Ithaca, New York-based Heart of Business company, Silver also discusses how political activism informs his sense of spirituality, common misconceptions of Islam, and his belief that capitalism is a both distortion of business practice and a root of many of the world's social problems.
He also describes the essence of his daily spiritual practice, the Sufi heart-centered process of Remembrance.
Links:
- Heart of Business
- Sufi Remembrance
- Diversity and Spirituality Network Events
Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
The Poet, the Buddhist, the Trans Warrior
Esteemed poet Diana Goetsch talks about anti-gay and anti-trans attitudes within the American Buddhist community, how people fiercely protect the gender divide, and how her Vajrayāna practice sustained her during her transition.
In between discussing these and other topics, she reads poetry from her eight collections, including the poem, Black People Can't Swim, which merited her the 2012 Pushcart Prize. Because of this and others work, Diana's been cited as one of the few white poets willing to write on the subject of race. She also reads from The Diana Updates, a series of letters to friends about her transition that was republished in The American Scholar.
In reaction to her American Scholar letters, she received supportive letters from people in all walks of life. "We are all, I was learning, in transition, people between people, longing to be fully ourselves. The only essential difference with my deal is that it’s glaringly obvious and can’t be hidden from anyone."
A former varsity athlete and concert jazz dancer, poet with award-winning collections, a dedicated meditation practitioner and instructor, Goetsche is a multifaced advocate for America's newest visible minority.
Links:
- Diana Goetsche's site
- Her Life in Transition letters
- Diversity and Spirituality Network
- Record a comment about the episode
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon
Christianity, Christian Denial, and the Future of the Men's Movement
It took a series of relationship failures to cause Dmitri Bilgere to embrace Christianity. Rather than giving the universe a kind of laundry list of what he wanted in a partner, he instead asked God to send him the right woman. This simple change of perspective brought him the love of his life, forms the basis of his personal faith, and is central to how he his work with the men he coaches or encounters in his workshops.
Bilgere (BILL-GERE) here describes his personal journey, the five mental errors that stop Christians from experiencing spiritual fulfillment, and the evolution of the men's movement. He also discusses what women are looking for from men in the post #MeToo era, how men's issues have changed since the founding of the mythopoetic men's movement, and his own approach to spiritual practice.
Bilgere is the author of Gateways to God: Remove Your Roadblocks and Live his Love, the co-founder of Inner King Training and Shadow Work seminars, and a life and relationship coach.
Links:
- Dmitri's site
- Inner King Training
- Diversity and Spirituality Network
- Record a comment about this episode
Like the podcast?
- Support us on Patreon!
From Diversity 101 to Radical Inclusion
One of the founders of the Diversity and Spirituality Network talks about the integration of diversity and spirituality; the need for diversity and inclusion work to evolve; and the role on inclusive, spiritually-oriented networks such as the Diversity and Spirituality Network in in an increasingly secular age.
Show Notes:
- PEW Research Center on "spiritual but not religious" Americans
- 2017 Global Shapers Survey
- Our Spiritual, But Not Religious podcast
- Record a comment or ask a question about this episode
- Diversity and Spirituality Network upcoming events
Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
New Religious Movements
Pejoratively called "cults" by some, there are by some estimates more than 300 New Religious Movements in the United States and tens of thousands worldwide. These include offshoots of established religions, congregations with unique scriptures, and "New Age" churches that claim celestial origins. Some of these groups last less than a decade, whereas others span generations.
W. Michael Ashcraft, the Philosophy and Religion Department Chair of Truman State University, has been studying New Religious Movements for most of his professional life. The author of the recently published book, A Historical Introduction to the Study of New Religious Movements, Ashcraft here discusses the anticult movement that flourished in the '60s and '70s, why some groups survive and others don't, and the similarities between New Religious Movements of the nineteenth century and those of the present day. He also draws distinctions between those groups with negative cult-like tendencies and those that are more benign.
In addition to his most recent book, Ashcraft is the co-author with Eugene V. Gallagher of the five-volume set, Introduction to New and Alternative Religions n in America.
Links:
A Historical Study of New Religious Movements (most recent book)
Ashcraft's Academia.edu page
Diversity and Spirituality Network
Diversity and Spirituality Network Facebook Group
Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon
Travel, Religion and Spirituality
Psychotherapist, author and world traveler Greesh Sharma talks about the transformative aspects of travel; how to trek without being a tourist; and how religion influences national culture. He shares stories from his visits to some 150 countries that illustrate the diversity of human experience, how religious practice differs from place to place, and how spending time abroad has expanded his sense of self.
Sharma sees travel as a form of spiritual practice and one that paradoxically provides a vehicle for inner exploration. It's helped him become more open to others, sharpened his decision making skills, and generally broadened his view as to what it means to be human.
He experience of traveling to countries with and without national religions had shaped his opinions on the differences between religions, the relationship between religion and spirituality, and the roots of interfaith conflict.
"Travel to me is so transformative that I think even before people pay lots of money to pay a a psychologist for therapy, I think they should travel," Sharma says. "They will grow much faster and it will be much cheaper."
Links:
Greesh Sharma's Website
Sharma's Amazon author page
The Diversity and Spirituality Network
Support our podcast on Patreon
From Near-Death Survivor to Legend in Diversity
Although he grew up with privilege and an unconscious sense that he was better than others, a near-death experience caused Lewis Brown Griggs to see things differently. While hovering between life and death, he was "told" that he needed to come back and to "do his work." This meant overcoming what he saw as his principal weakness: learning to bridge the gaps between himself and other people. He's been helping others do this through diversity and inclusion work for more than 25 years.
Since surviving his near-death experience, Griggs has worked with companies all over the world, written three books and a host of multimedia projects, and been formally recognized as a "legend of diversity" from the International Society of Diversity and Inclusion Professionals.
But he's more that simply a diversity trainer and entrepreneur. He's also is a co-active leadership coach, a relationship coach and a facilitator of Spiritual Consciousness gained form Near Death Experiences and Recovery.
In this podcast, Griggs talks about his near-death experiences and how they motivated him to cross-cultural work, how the diversity movement has evolved in the past 25 years, and the importance of coming to terms with death for both valuing diversity and growing spiritually.
Links:
The Gift of Near Death (Ted Talk)
Beyond Our Sight (documentary about near-death experiences)
Diversity and Spirituality Network
Diversity and Spirituality Network Facebook Group
Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon
"About US" - A Foundation Story
Cindy Franklin interviews Angelo John Lewis, the co-founder of the Diversity and Spirituality Network. Lewis talks about his own mixed race identity and his eclectic spiritual journey. He explains his understanding of the Sound Current and experience with groups such as the Movement of Spiritual Awareness and the Emissaries of the Divine Light. He ends by sharing his vision for the Diversity and Spirituality Network.
Links:
Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness
Emissaries of the Divine Light
Diversity and Spirituality Network
"Shared Mystery" - the Unifying Thread
Philosopher F. Samuel Brainard previews his new book, "Reality's Fugue," and explores the unifying thread between diverse religious and scientific perspectives. He explores the critical role of philosophy in today's discourse and what he sees as the built-in limitations of both religion and science.
Links:
Diversity and Spirituality Network
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