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Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Monday, October 14, 2019
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Spirituality and Earth-based Feminism
Walking the conventional path was only briefly in the cards for Staci Bodin, who these days proudly calls herself a “mama-bear, life-guide energy teacher.”
While in law school 25 years ago, it didn’t take long for Bodin to realize that she was less interested in legalism, then following in the footsteps of people like Starhawk, a pioneer of the goddess movement and earth-based feminism.
So she dropped out of law school and enrolled in the California Institute of Integral Studies’ master’s degree program in women’s spirituality. She later became a certified Doula, studied non-ordinary states consciousness training through the Center for Sacred Studies, and established a counseling and facilitation career focused on helping people integrate the spiritual with the practical.
In this podcast, Bodin talks about earth-based spirituality, the contrast between talk therapy and energy work, and the role of ceremony in transformation and healing.
Bodin is the author of Turning Dead Ends into Doorways: How to Grow through Whatever Life Throws Your Way.
Links:
- Staci’s site
- Her book
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
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Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Finding Spirituality in Business
Clients of business trainer and consultant Mark Silver seek to achieve business success by integrating spiritual principles in their pursuit of profit. They want to change the paradigm of business so that it doesn’t incorporate the negative aspects of extreme capitalism, such as the disregarding of social consequences, income inequality, and exploitation of labor.
As he explains in this podcast, the mission of Silver’s Heart of Business (HOB) company is to support spiritually grounded marketing and business people who want to run a small business in a way that isn’t slimy or insincere.
Although he’s a fourth generation entrepreneur, it wasn’t until he began his studies in Islamic Sufism two decades ago that he truly understood that business isn’t something that needs to be separate from spirituality. Prior to that, he’d been attempting to apply New Age principles to his business, but that approach really wasn’t working for him.
About that time, he encountered Dr. Ibrahim Jaffee, the renown physician, Sufi, and pioneer of Medical Spiritual Healing “Yes, we can use this (work) for physical healing,” Jaffee explained, “but we can also use it for relationships, for groups and …for business.” What he learned from Jaffee, other Sufi teachers, and his lived experience formed the basis of Silver’s Heart of Business.
In this podcast, Silver explains what he’s learned in the eighteen years since he founded his company, HOB’s evolution from a primarily fixed-fee enterprise to a “pay from the heart” practice, and Silver thoughts on the destiny of Islam.
Links:
- Heart of Business
- Dr. Ibrham Jaffee’s site
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
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Friday, September 20, 2019
This Saturday, explore the connection between art and spirituality...
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Quick Reminder: Explore Spirituality and Art Saturday: bit.ly/spiritart
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Tuesday, September 17, 2019
This Saturday, explore the connection between spirituality and creativity: http://bit.ly/33u9Fos
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Monday, September 16, 2019
Monday, September 09, 2019
The Wounded Leader
Ten years ago, Laura Tucker participated in the now infamous Spiritual Warrior retreat in which three people died. These deaths lead to the conviction of the retreat’s leader, James Allen Ray, of three counts of negligent homicide, and became a case study of the excesses of charismatic leadership. The story of that infamous event is chronicled in the CNN documentary, “Enlighten Us: The Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray.”
A leadership coach, Tucker here talks about what she learned from the incident, how to recognize authentic forms of leadership, and the forces that might cause well-intentioned charismatic individuals to veer to the dark side.
Although it’s easy to ghettoize the Ray’s behavior as specific to New Age or self-help communities, Tucker reminds us that inappropriate leadership exists everywhere, and is endemic in political, religious and corporate life. “We all have the capacity to slide down the continuum from authentic leadership to the egotistic, hubristic kind,” she says.
In addition to sharing her beliefs about leadership, Tucker here talks about how her practice of self-care helped ease her passage back to post-retreat life, how encouraging others to practice self-care is central to her coaching practice, and her newest project, “The Summer of Self Care.”
Links:
- Laura’s site
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
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Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Friday, August 16, 2019
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Sunday, August 11, 2019
At the Charles Wang Center for the Applied Improvisation Network Conference
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Selfie !! At Charles Wang center for the Applied Improvisation Network conference
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Friday, August 09, 2019
The inimitable Thiagi (www.thiagi.com). Proud to declare him to be one of my mentors. True genius.
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Tuesday, July 02, 2019
Healer, playwright and activist
Peruvian Miguel Angel Pimentel is a theater director, a playwright and human writes activist, who is also a traditional Andean healer, or “paco.” In this podcast, he shares the thread that unites these pursuits, explains how he views play and creativity as part of his spiritual path and expands on the importance of theater as a means of creating community. Pimentel’s current project is the creation of a forum to bring these threads together in his native city of Cuzco, Peru. The community forum he envisions will include both indigenous and non-indigenous people.
Links:
- Email: miguelpipa@gmail.com
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Monday, July 01, 2019
My conversation with Jess Lederman, author and former atheist
My conversation with Jess Lederman, author and former atheist
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Thursday, June 13, 2019
An Atheist's Conversion
When he was young, Jess Lederman was an atheist and thought people who believed in God were fools. But one day, his wife heard a radio interview with Francis Collins, the eminent geneticist and devout Christian who like the Ledermans spent the earlier part of his life as a nonbeliever.
Lederman in some respects followed the same path that Collins walked by reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. He delved deeper by reading and the works of George MacDonald, the 19th century Scottish author, who was one of Lewis’ mentors. MacDonald’s writings had the same effect on Lederman as they had on Lewis. They formed the groundwork for his conversion to Christianity.
In this podcast, Lederman traces his religious journey and the factors that led him to write his new book, Hearts Set Free. The characters in the book wrestle with many of the issues that he’s wrestled with: the reconciliation of science and religion, the journey from doubt to faith, and the practical implications of living life as Christians.
Links:
- Jess Lederman’s site
- The works of George MacDonald
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
My answer to As a coach, what material do you bring to prepare for your sessions? http://bit.ly/2Eo5mjO
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Friday, May 17, 2019
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Monday, April 22, 2019
Improvisation and Mindfulness
One of the founders of the improvisation and mindfulness movement talks about improvisation as a life practice, the connection between spiritual practice and improvisation. and what it means to live an improvised life.
Back in 2013, Ted DesMaisons assembled a group of improvisors at a San Francisco Zen monastery to explore the many connections between spirituality and improvisation. That event helped spawn the creation of a worldwide coalition of mindfulness improvisors and an array of improv-based practices for enhancing mindfulness.
In this podcast, DesMaison explains why some people have difficulty improvising, the importance of play for both spiritual practice and improvisation, and why the appreciation of mystery is central to both. He also shares the improvised path that led him from teaching English to becoming a professional improvisor, shares his own definition of spirituality, and plays a live improv “word-at-a-time” activity.
“We’re improvising all the time,” DesMaisons says. “Why not learn to do it well?”
DesMaisons is the author of the new book, Playful Mindfulness and the founder of Anima Learning. He holds an MTS from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University. He’s taught mindfulness with renown meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn, taught and performed improvisation internationally, and studied acting and voice with Patsy Rodenburg.
Links:
- Anima Learning business site
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Religion in an Increasingly Secular World
What does society lose when religion no longer is a safe topic for discussion in public spaces? How has the role of religion changed in parts of the world that are increasingly secular? What are the unexpected consequences of laws designed to prevent discrimination based on religious preferences?
These questions are explored by Coreene Archer and Mark Argent, two UK-based organizational development consultants with deep roots in faith traditions. Although they both understand why governments feel compelled to pass religious nondiscriminatory laws, they believe such laws have unexpected consequences.
“Faith for me and lots of people is a core value,” says Archer, Principal Leadership Coach and Organisational Development Consultant at the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations. “To have to have a work face and a private face is a bit of a shame. It damages all of us if we’re hidden and can’t speak to who and what we are.”
“Carl Jung came up with the very useful idea that progress in the West has come about at the expense of our ability to feel,” says Argent, a spiritual director, organization development consultant, and Elder in the UK's United Reformed Church. “If you compare the West with bits of the world that are often described as underdeveloped, you see something very rich going on (in these less developed countries) that we’ve sort of lost sight of. There’s a price we’re paying for our technological progress.”
In this podcast, Archer and Argent talk about their faith traditions, challenges of working both in secular and faith organizations, and their sense as how religion plays out in the public sphere.
Links:
- Mark Argent’s site
- Coreene Archer at the Tavistock Institute
- “Religion: Hard to Talk About” event
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Teaching diversity as Miss North Dakota (and beyond)
Rosie Nestingin is an African-American woman who grew up in North Dakota, one of the whitest states in the U.S. Because she grew up in a multiracial household, and went to daycare with international children, she was shocked to discover that hers was one of the only black faces in her elementary school. As a result of this, she began at an early age to start to observe, respond and dispel false assumptions others made about her based on her appearance. From a very early age, she became, in effect, an exemplar of inclusion, teaching her classmates and teachers what she had already learned about diversity growing up.
After graduating college, she won the title of Miss North Dakota. Her platform was “Celebrate Diversity: One Nation, All People,” and she she spent a year traveling throughout the state, carrying the message of inclusion. In this podcast, she shares some of the insights she gleaned during this process.
Nestingin credits her deeply religious parents with instilling her with a commitment to welcoming everyone with love. These days, she continues to embrace and extend this commitment, while at the same time forging a spiritual path.
Links:
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
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Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Jules Munns on Improvisation Jules Munns, the Artistic...
Jules Munns on Improvisation
Jules Munns, the Artistic Director of the UK’s Nursery talks about improvisation in a presentation for the Diversity and Spirituality Network’s monthly online community exploration. Munns is one of three facilitators of Waking Up! The Improvisation and Spirituality Weekend, to be held in the UK in spring 2019. http://bit.ly/wakeupimprovvia Tumblr http://bit.ly/2IOf168
"What Color is Your Soul?"
Cultural Agility Strategist Niambi Jaha-Echols talks about the roots of racism, why it’s historically been difficult to dismantle, and the role of ancestral healing in curing its wounds.
Racism, Jaha-Echols says, is a sickness that can’t be cured by that operating on the same vibrational level of its cause. Eradicating it requires understanding its causes, engaging in ancestral healing, and a willingness to embrace that part of us that is vested in spiritual healing and reconciliation.
Author of the new book, What Color is Your Soul, Jaha-Echols here describes her childhood, what led her to found the African-American girl-power Butterfly Movement, and the influence of Native American spirituality on her understanding of ancestral healing.
Jaha-Echols is the principal of Cross-Cultural Agility, LLC, the author of Project Butterfly, Inspiring The Souls of Our Girls, and her new book, What Color is Your Soul.
Links:
- Niambi’s main site
- Her business site
- The Butterfly Movement
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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How Millennials Find Meaning
When Casper ter Kuile and Angie Thurston began their research on their fellow Millennials in 2014, they discovered there were a lot of people who were just like them. Like many of the people they interviewed, neither were affiliated with traditional houses of worship. ter Kuile was a former activist who’d grown up in a secular household, while Thurston was deeply influenced by the Urantia Book, a spiritual and philosophical book popular in New Age circles.
They and the people they studied were members of what demographers have labeled “the nones,” or people who said they had no religious affiliation. According to some studies, the number of Americans ages 18 to 29 who had no religious affiliation has nearly quadrupled in the last 30 years.
But, as ter Kuile and Thurston discovered, Millennial disdain for traditional religion didn’t mean they’d abandoned the search for belonging and meaning. Instead, many were getting their spiritual needs met within secular organizations, many of which served roughly the same function as traditional churches.
But in a larger sense, ter Kuile said, “nothing has changed” in terms of people’s need to fulfill their religious or spiritual needs. “The way it’s expressed and the cultural context is changing.”
ter Kuile here shares his own story, what he and his colleagues discovered in their research, and his thoughts on what traditional religious institutions can do to support this emerging landscape.
Links:
- How We Gather - home of a series of reports created by ter Kuile and his colleagues
- Casper ter Kuile’s website
- The OnBeing Project
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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The Diversity and Spirituality Network has been around (more or...
The Diversity and Spirituality Network has been around (more or less) since 1996. Because the group’s leaders wanted to move in a more “spiritual” direciton, they considered changing it’s name. This video explains our decision.
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The Dark Night of Soul
Just before the Dark Night came calling, Fiona Robertson felt she was on top of the world. She was the co-founder of an award winning health project, had a charismatic new boyfriend, and felt more physically fit than any time in her life.
Yet in quiet moments she felt that something wasn’t quite right. The material success she’d achieved wasn’t really giving her peace. Within a relatively short time, a series of circumstances occurred that undermined her carefully constructed sense of self-esteem.
“Becoming the person I had believed I should be did not bring about the happiness or contentment I had imagined it would, simply because it wasn’t who I really was,” she writes in her new book, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Journey from Absence to Presence.
Robertson here shares how she navigated the spiritual crisis first described in a poem by St. John of the Cross. She explains how the process involves the disintegration of a false self that masks fear and unworthiness, and the emergence of a mature, stable and integrated true self. She describes what she’s learned by comparing her experiences with those of a group she calls her amam cara, a group of friends and associates who’ve also experienced the Dark Night of the Soul.
Links:
- Book site
- Robertson’s main site
- Wikipedia’s description of the Dark Night of the Soul
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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Facing Death Without Religion
How do non-religious people – which now comprise nearly 30% of the American population – face the coming of death? That’s the subject of Dr. Christel Manning’s John Templeton Foundation-funded research project.
Although a fair amount is known about how religious people face the certainty of their demise, relatively little is known how non-religious people do. This category, which religious studies scholars refer to as “the nones,” now comprises 27% of the population, up from about 7% in the 1980s.
Unlike their religious contemporaries, this group lacks the powerful set of stories, symbols and rituals that have for generations characterized the predominate American approach to dealing with dying. This group instead relies on different types of what Manning refers to as “maps of meaning.” These might include the sense-making that comes from personal growth narratives gained from such processes such as engaging in a 12-step program or therapy after surviving a divorce.
In this podcast, Manning describes her own belief-system journey; what is currently known about how aging people in general approach the coming of death; and the new types of secular rituals that are emerging to help non-religions people become more comfortable with death and dying.
- Manning’s faculty page
- Her research project’s description
- Death Cafe website
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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Improvisation and Spiritual Practice
For Jules Munns, the art of improvisation he’s devoted his life to is much more than simply a type of theatrical performance. Improv, he says, is as an activity that helps people uncover previously hidden aspects of their selves and thus become more fully human.
Munns here explores the notion of improvisation as spiritual practice. Just as is the aim of passive meditation, improvisation helps practitioners achieve mindfulness, awakening and a connection to a larger Mystery and deeper meaning. In addition, it helps practitioners do something that most forms of mediation do not: connect and interact with others in surprising and unscripted ways.
Munns is the co-Artistic Director of the Nursery Theater and the founder of Slapdash International, London’s longest running festival of improvisation. He’s also a performing member of the Maydays, an award-winning improvised comedy company with bases in Brighton and London. One of the UK’s most prolific improv teachers and actors, he's performed and taught at festivals across the UK and in countries including the US, Pakistan, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Finland.
Links:
- The Maydays
- The Nursery Theater
- Jules Munns Site
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
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I stand with my indigenous brothers and sisters, whose legacy...
I stand with my indigenous brothers and sisters, whose legacy endures despite Trails of Tears and attempts to disappear them from their country’s memory… (at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo6S6urAy84/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=tsyms4h3cd1p
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My new thrift store kicks! Even though they were a bit too big,...
My new thrift store kicks! Even though they were a bit too big, had to have them. Put a new insole on these babies and a little shoe-stretch stuff on them, and let them walk my body around. Italian leather, square front. Jello’s in the house! (at Lambertville, New Jersey)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo6SdiSAWXJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1th6sp3l026n0
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The One Thing that all women, POC, LGBT and all...
The One Thing that all women, POC, LGBT and all “marginalized” people share… ( listen to the entire podcast here: https://radiopublic.com/the-podcast-of-the-diversity-and-GqzL4P/ep/s1!db096 )
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The Radically Inclusive Ministry of Yvette Flunder
It was a gradual process that led the young Yvette Flunder to question the tenets of the United Church of Christ in which she was born and raised. She couldn’t reconcile her emerging beliefs with her church’s patriarchal orientation and its emphasis on preparing adherents for the next world rather than addressing the injustices and inadequacies of this one. She also realized she never again could call herself a member of a church that completely rejected same-gender-loving people such as herself.
Bishop Flunder here traces the path that led her to become a visionary religious leader with a mission of tending to the spiritual needs of marginalized people around the world, particularly those of African-American descent. She speaks of her vision of radical inclusion,which she believes requires an equally radical social ministry reaching to the furthest margins of society to serve all in need without prejudice or discrimination.
“The greatest mistake at the Christian church has ever made was to put a back cover on the book, to somehow suggest that we could make a manual out of the living word of God,” she said.
Reverend Flunder is the founder and senior pastor of the City of Refugee United Church of Christ in Oakland, California. In 2003, she was appointed Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a multi-denominational coalition of over 56 churches and faith-based organizations from all over the world. She’s also the author of Where the Edge Gathers: A Theology of Homiletic Radical Inclusion.
Links:
- City of Refuge United Church of Christ
- Fellowship of Affirming Ministries
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Record a response to this episode
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Creating Communities of Choice
Organization Development Robert Leventhal explains why there’s a decline in synagogue and church attendance, how congregations can reverse this trend, and his thoughts on next generation engagement strategies.
According to Leventhal, external force fields make it necessary for churches and synagogues to change to remain relevant to a new generation. Synagogues in particular can no longer be content to be ethnic enclaves but instead must evolve to be more outward facing and responsive to the needs of potential new members.
A former sales and management consultant, Leventhal for the past two decades has had a synagogue consulting practice that has worked with organizations that include Yeshiva University, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and the UJA Federation of New York. Previously a consultant with the Alban Institiute, he’s now the Kehilla Leadership Specialist for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the largest network of Conservative Jewish congregations in the world.
Leventhal is the author of Byachad: Synagogue Board Development and Stepping Forward: Synagogue Visioning and Planning.
Links:
- About Robert Leventhal
- UNCJ
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Record a response to this episode
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Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Flame Wars in Spiritual Spaces
During the summer of 2018, what happened behind the scenes of two online events exposed the painful fact that the wound of race is as present in the spiritual space as anywhere else. The run-up to both of these events sparked heated flame wars, contested on one side by white women with a history of promoting progressive causes and on the other side primarily by woman of color who perceived these events as reeking what some described as cultural appropriation and others described as racism masked by privilege.
One woman who described herself as triggered by these events is Wendy C. Williams, an African-American spiritual life coach and energy healer. In this podcast, Williams reflects on what went down during the run-up to ill-fated Urban Priestess Summit and Danielle LaPorte's Lighter program, lessons that each group might learn from their participation in the flame wars, the psychology of triggering and appropriate ways to react.
Williams also talks about growing up in a Jehovah’s Witness household, the emerging agency of African-American women, and how to harness spiritual power. In addition to having practiced spiritual counseling for the past decade, Williams has a degree in counseling psychology and has lived internationally.
Links:
- Wendy’s site
- Facebook background on the Urban Priestess Summit
- Facebook background on Lighter
- Diversity and Spirituality Network’s site
- Record a response to this episode
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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The Poet, the Buddhist, the Transsexual
Esteemed poet Diana Goetsche 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
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Thursday, April 18, 2019
Improvisation and Mindfulness
One of the founders of the improvisation and mindfulness movement talks about improvisation as a life practice, the connection between spiritual practice and improvisation. and what it means to live an improvised life.
Back in 2013, Ted DesMaisons assembled a group of improvisors at a San Francisco Zen monastery to explore the many connections between spirituality and improvisation. That event helped spawn the creation of a worldwide coalition of mindfulness improvisors and an array of improv-based practices for enhancing mindfulness.
In this podcast, DesMaison explains why some people have difficulty improvising, the importance of play for both spiritual practice and improvisation, and why the appreciation of mystery is central to both. He also shares the improvised path that led him from teaching English to becoming a professional improvisor, shares his own definition of spirituality, and plays a live improv “word-at-a-time” activity.
“We’re improvising all the time,” DesMaisons says. “Why not learn to do it well?”
DesMaisons is the author of the new book, Playful Mindfulness and the founder of Anima Learning. He holds an MTS from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University. He’s taught mindfulness with renown meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn, taught and performed improvisation internationally, and studied acting and voice with Patsy Rodenburg.
Links:
- Anima Learning business site
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
via Tumblr http://bit.ly/2PgYysg
Sunday, April 07, 2019
Friday, April 05, 2019
I just published A New Take on Mindfulness on improvisation and spirituality http://bit.ly/2YQVFCV
via Instagram http://bit.ly/2FX8pzl
Monday, March 25, 2019
Religion in an Increasingly Secular World
What does society lose when religion no longer is a safe topic for discussion in public spaces? How has the role of religion changed in parts of the world that are increasingly secular? What are the unexpected consequences of laws designed to prevent discrimination based on religious preferences?
These questions are explored by Coreene Archer and Mark Argent, two UK-based organizational development consultants with deep roots in faith traditions. Although they both understand why governments feel compelled to pass religious nondiscriminatory laws, they believe such laws have unexpected consequences.
“Faith for me and lots of people is a core value,” says Archer, Principal Leadership Coach and Organisational Development Consultant at the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations. “To have to have a work face and a private face is a bit of a shame. It damages all of us if we’re hidden and can’t speak to who and what we are.”
“Carl Jung came up with the very useful idea that progress in the West has come about at the expense of our ability to feel,” says Argent, a spiritual director, organization development consultant, and Elder in the UK's United Reformed Church. “If you compare the West with bits of the world that are often described as underdeveloped, you see something very rich going on (in these less developed countries) that we’ve sort of lost sight of. There’s a price we’re paying for our technological progress.”
In this podcast, Archer and Argent talk about their faith traditions, challenges of working both in secular and faith organizations, and their sense as how religion plays out in the public sphere.
Links:
- Mark Argent’s site
- Coreene Archer at the Tavistock Institute
- “Religion: Hard to Talk About” event
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Thursday, March 07, 2019
Teaching diversity as Miss North Dakota (podcast) http://bit.ly/2VHf7ji
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Wednesday, March 06, 2019
Teaching diversity as Miss North Dakota (and beyond)
Rosie Nestingin is an African-American woman who grew up in North Dakota, one of the whitest states in the U.S. Because she grew up in a multiracial household, and went to daycare with international children, she was shocked to discover that hers was one of the only black faces in her elementary school. As a result of this, she began at an early age to start to observe, respond and dispel false assumptions others made about her based on her appearance. From a very early age, she became, in effect, an exemplar of inclusion, teaching her classmates and teachers what she had already learned about diversity growing up.
After graduating college, she won the title of Miss North Dakota. Her platform was “Celebrate Diversity: One Nation, All People,” and she she spent a year traveling throughout the state, carrying the message of inclusion. In this podcast, she shares some of the insights she gleaned during this process.
Nestingin credits her deeply religious parents with instilling her with a commitment to welcoming everyone with love. These days, she continues to embrace and extend this commitment, while at the same time forging a spiritual path.
Links:
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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Saturday, February 23, 2019
The Delaware River, On the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania
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Friday, February 22, 2019
Jules Munns on Improvisation Jules Munns, the Artistic...
Jules Munns on Improvisation
Jules Munns, the Artistic Director of the UK’s Nursery talks about improvisation in a presentation for the Diversity and Spirituality Network’s monthly online community exploration. Munns is one of three facilitators of Waking Up! The Improvisation and Spirituality Weekend, to be held in the UK in spring 2019. http://bit.ly/wakeupimprovvia Tumblr https://ift.tt/2SYB3t5
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
"What Color is Your Soul?"
Cultural Agility Strategist Niambi Jaha-Echols talks about the roots of racism, why it’s historically been difficult to dismantle, and the role of ancestral healing in curing its wounds.
Racism, Jaha-Echols says, is a sickness that can’t be cured by that operating on the same vibrational level of its cause. Eradicating it requires understanding its causes, engaging in ancestral healing, and a willingness to embrace that part of us that is vested in spiritual healing and reconciliation.
Author of the new book, What Color is Your Soul, Jaha-Echols here describes her childhood, what led her to found the African-American girl-power Butterfly Movement, and the influence of Native American spirituality on her understanding of ancestral healing.
Jaha-Echols is the principal of Cross-Cultural Agility, LLC, the author of Project Butterfly, Inspiring The Souls of Our Girls, and her new book, What Color is Your Soul.
Links:
- Niambi’s main site
- Her business site
- The Butterfly Movement
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
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Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Thursday, January 24, 2019
How Millennials Find Meaning
When Casper ter Kuile and Angie Thurston began their research on their fellow Millennials in 2014, they discovered there were a lot of people who were just like them. Like many of the people they interviewed, neither were affiliated with traditional houses of worship. ter Kuile was a former activist who’d grown up in a secular household, while Thurston was deeply influenced by the Urantia Book, a spiritual and philosophical book popular in New Age circles.
They and the people they studied were members of what demographers have labeled “the nones,” or people who said they had no religious affiliation. According to some studies, the number of Americans ages 18 to 29 who had no religious affiliation has nearly quadrupled in the last 30 years.
But, as ter Kuile and Thurston discovered, Millennial disdain for traditional religion didn’t mean they’d abandoned the search for belonging and meaning. Instead, many were getting their spiritual needs met within secular organizations, many of which served roughly the same function as traditional churches.
But in a larger sense, ter Kuile said, “nothing has changed” in terms of people’s need to fulfill their religious or spiritual needs. “The way it’s expressed and the cultural context is changing.”
ter Kuile here shares his own story, what he and his colleagues discovered in their research, and his thoughts on what traditional religious institutions can do to support this emerging landscape.
Links:
- How We Gather - home of a series of reports created by ter Kuile and his colleagues
- Casper ter Kuile’s website
- The OnBeing Project
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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Friday, January 18, 2019
Join Us Saturday to Explore the Improvisation/Spirituality Connection
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Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Friday, January 04, 2019
The Diversity and Spirituality Network has been around (more or...
The Diversity and Spirituality Network has been around (more or less) since 1996. Because the group’s leaders wanted to move in a more “spiritual” direciton, they considered changing it’s name. This video explains our decision.
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Friday, December 14, 2018
Free "Dark Night of the Soul" online event Saturday. Details: http://bit.ly/decemberexploration
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Thursday, December 13, 2018
The Dark Night of Soul
Just before the Dark Night came calling, Fiona Robertson felt she was on top of the world. She was the co-founder of an award winning health project, had a charismatic new boyfriend, and felt more physically fit than any time in her life.
Yet in quiet moments she felt that something wasn’t quite right. The material success she’d achieved wasn’t really giving her peace. Within a relatively short time, a series of circumstances occurred that undermined her carefully constructed sense of self-esteem.
“Becoming the person I had believed I should be did not bring about the happiness or contentment I had imagined it would, simply because it wasn’t who I really was,” she writes in her new book, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Journey from Absence to Presence.
Robertson here shares how she navigated the spiritual crisis first described in a poem by St. John of the Cross. She explains how the process involves the disintegration of a false self that masks fear and unworthiness, and the emergence of a mature, stable and integrated true self. She describes what she’s learned by comparing her experiences with those of a group she calls her amam cara, a group of friends and associates who’ve also experienced the Dark Night of the Soul.
Links:
- Book site
- Robertson’s main site
- Wikipedia’s description of the Dark Night of the Soul
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
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Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Saturday we'll talk about Navigating the Dark Night of the Soul. Join us. It's free!
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Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Monday, November 26, 2018
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Facing Death Without Religion
How do non-religious people – which now comprise nearly 30% of the American population – face the coming of death? That’s the subject of Dr. Christel Manning’s John Templeton Foundation-funded research project.
Although a fair amount is known about how religious people face the certainty of their demise, relatively little is known how non-religious people do. This category, which religious studies scholars refer to as “the nones,” now comprises 27% of the population, up from about 7% in the 1980s.
Unlike their religious contemporaries, this group lacks the powerful set of stories, symbols and rituals that have for generations characterized the predominate American approach to dealing with dying. This group instead relies on different types of what Manning refers to as “maps of meaning.” These might include the sense-making that comes from personal growth narratives gained from such processes such as engaging in a 12-step program or therapy after surviving a divorce.
In this podcast, Manning describes her own belief-system journey; what is currently known about how aging people in general approach the coming of death; and the new types of secular rituals that are emerging to help non-religions people become more comfortable with death and dying.
- Manning’s faculty page
- Her research project’s description
- Death Cafe website
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Friday, October 26, 2018
Someone painted this rock and left it outside in my progressive town...
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Friday, October 19, 2018
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Improvisation and Spiritual Practice
For Jules Munns, the art of improvisation he’s devoted his life to is much more than simply a type of theatrical performance. Improv, he says, is as an activity that helps people uncover previously hidden aspects of their selves and thus become more fully human.
Munns here explores the notion of improvisation as spiritual practice. Just as is the aim of passive meditation, improvisation helps practitioners achieve mindfulness, awakening and a connection to a larger Mystery and deeper meaning. In addition, it helps practitioners do something that most forms of mediation do not: connect and interact with others in surprising and unscripted ways.
Munns is the co-Artistic Director of the Nursery Theater and the founder of Slapdash International, London’s longest running festival of improvisation. He’s also a performing member of the Maydays, an award-winning improvised comedy company with bases in Brighton and London. One of the UK’s most prolific improv teachers and actors, he's performed and taught at festivals across the UK and in countries including the US, Pakistan, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Finland.
Links:
- The Maydays
- The Nursery Theater
- Jules Munns Site
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
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Sunday, October 14, 2018
I stand with my indigenous brothers and sisters, whose legacy...
I stand with my indigenous brothers and sisters, whose legacy endures despite Trails of Tears and attempts to disappear them from their country’s memory… (at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo6S6urAy84/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=tsyms4h3cd1p
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My new thrift store kicks! Even though they were a bit too big,...
My new thrift store kicks! Even though they were a bit too big, had to have them. Put a new insole on these babies and a little shoe-stretch stuff on them, and let them walk my body around. Italian leather, square front. Jello’s in the house! (at Lambertville, New Jersey)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo6SdiSAWXJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1th6sp3l026n0
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Friday, October 05, 2018
The One Thing that all women, POC, LGBT and all...
The One Thing that all women, POC, LGBT and all “marginalized” people share… ( listen to the entire podcast here: https://radiopublic.com/the-podcast-of-the-diversity-and-GqzL4P/ep/s1!db096 )
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Thursday, September 27, 2018
The Radically Inclusive Ministry of Yvette Flunder
It was a gradual process that led the young Yvette Flunder to question the tenets of the United Church of Christ in which she was born and raised. She couldn’t reconcile her emerging beliefs with her church’s patriarchal orientation and its emphasis on preparing adherents for the next world rather than addressing the injustices and inadequacies of this one. She also realized she never again could call herself a member of a church that completely rejected same-gender-loving people such as herself.
Bishop Flunder here traces the path that led her to become a visionary religious leader with a mission of tending to the spiritual needs of marginalized people around the world, particularly those of African-American descent. She speaks of her vision of radical inclusion,which she believes requires an equally radical social ministry reaching to the furthest margins of society to serve all in need without prejudice or discrimination.
“The greatest mistake at the Christian church has ever made was to put a back cover on the book, to somehow suggest that we could make a manual out of the living word of God,” she said.
Reverend Flunder is the founder and senior pastor of the City of Refugee United Church of Christ in Oakland, California. In 2003, she was appointed Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a multi-denominational coalition of over 56 churches and faith-based organizations from all over the world. She’s also the author of Where the Edge Gathers: A Theology of Homiletic Radical Inclusion.
Links:
- City of Refuge United Church of Christ
- Fellowship of Affirming Ministries
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Record a response to this episode
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
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Friday, September 14, 2018
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Creating Communities of Choice
Organization Development Robert Leventhal explains why there’s a decline in synagogue and church attendance, how congregations can reverse this trend, and his thoughts on next generation engagement strategies.
According to Leventhal, external force fields make it necessary for churches and synagogues to change to remain relevant to a new generation. Synagogues in particular can no longer be content to be ethnic enclaves but instead must evolve to be more outward facing and responsive to the needs of potential new members.
A former sales and management consultant, Leventhal for the past two decades has had a synagogue consulting practice that has worked with organizations that include Yeshiva University, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and the UJA Federation of New York. Previously a consultant with the Alban Institiute, he’s now the Kehilla Leadership Specialist for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the largest network of Conservative Jewish congregations in the world.
Leventhal is the author of Byachad: Synagogue Board Development and Stepping Forward: Synagogue Visioning and Planning.
Links:
- About Robert Leventhal
- UNCJ
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Record a response to this episode
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Thursday, August 16, 2018
Flame Wars in Spiritual Spaces
During the summer of 2018, what happened behind the scenes of two online events exposed the painful fact that the wound of race is as present in the spiritual space as anywhere else. The run-up to both of these events sparked heated flame wars, contested on one side by white women with a history of promoting progressive causes and on the other side primarily by woman of color who perceived these events as reeking what some described as cultural appropriation and others described as racism masked by privilege.
One woman who described herself as triggered by these events is Wendy C. Williams, an African-American spiritual life coach and energy healer. In this podcast, Williams reflects on what went down during the run-up to ill-fated Urban Priestess Summit and Danielle LaPorte's Lighter program, lessons that each group might learn from their participation in the flame wars, the psychology of triggering and appropriate ways to react.
Williams also talks about growing up in a Jehovah’s Witness household, the emerging agency of African-American women, and how to harness spiritual power. In addition to having practiced spiritual counseling for the past decade, Williams has a degree in counseling psychology and has lived internationally.
Links:
- Wendy’s site
- Facebook background on the Urban Priestess Summit
- Facebook background on Lighter
- Diversity and Spirituality Network’s site
- Record a response to this episode
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
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Tuesday, August 07, 2018
Friday, August 03, 2018
Have you heard ‘The Poet, the Buddhist, the Transssexual’ by Diversity and Spirituality Network on #SoundCloud? #np http://bit.ly/2vwT3fP
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Thursday, August 02, 2018
The Poet, the Buddhist, the Transsexual
Esteemed poet Diana Goetsche 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
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
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Saturday, July 21, 2018
My social connect team at the just ended annual NTL annual conference #NTLAMM2018
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