Podcast appearances and mentions of David Loy

Over the weekend, we saw "No King's Day" protests from San Diego to New York City. The demonstrations were part of a nationwide action against President Trump's military parade. In downtown San Diego, 60,000 people marched to protest President Trump's recent policies. Many were motivated by recent immigration raids throughout Southern California. On today's show, we sat down with two local attorneys to discuss the rights to free speech and due process for citizens and noncitizens. And, what federal threats to those rights could mean for democracy. Guests: David Loy, legal director at the First Amendment Coalition of San Diego Tammy Lin, professor of immigration and supervising attorney at the University of San Diego's Legal Immigration Clinic

In this talk, David explores the depth and application of this teaching to our modern lives. He notes, “We often do not appreciate that the three poisons is a profound

Bhadra gave this talk as part of BAM 2018. He references David Loy's two icebergs and explores how we might revise the Triratana mandala of practice to strengthen our sense of interconnectedness with the world. Given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2018. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

Vaddhaka introduces David Loy and his thoughts about how to bring our Buddhist practice out into the streets and engage with the world. In the full talk he also introduces Bhikkhu Bodhi, a prolific translator of the Pali Canon and respected teacher in the East, deeply rooted in the Buddha's teachings, who returned to the USA and re-engaged with his activist roots challenging a self-oriented and withdrawn mode of Buddhist practice. From the talk entitled David Loy and Bhikkhu Bodhi, given on the World on Fire retreat at Adhisthana, 2015. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Buddhist philosopher David Loy traces humanity's evolving quest for meaning through historical religious frameworks. Loy examines how humanity's search for purpose has evolved through the ages – […]

In this talk, David explores the idea of refuge. To take refuge is to run away to a hiding place…Is that what we should do? Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud

David Loy is a Zen teacher, author, and scholar whose work bridges Buddhism, social justice, and ecology. He is a founding member of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado, and sits on the advisory boards of Buddhist Global Relief, the Clear View Project, Zen Peacemakers, and the Ernest Becker Foundation. He's the author of many books, including Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis, and ecodharma is the topic that we explore today. https://www.davidloy.org/

Podcast Audio: The post Talk by David Loy, “The New Bodhisattva Path” first appeared on The Village Zendo.

First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy talks about the future of free speech in America in light of the Trump administration's arrest of Columbia University protestor Mahmoud Khalil.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

In this episode of The Concordia Publishing House Podcast, Rev. Dr. David Loy joins as guest to talk about how our vocations flow out of the love God has shown for us in Christ. He also previews the new book from CPH that he acted as general editor for, Faith at Work: Christian Vocation in the Professions.Find out more about the new book by visiting cph.org. Show Notes:Listen to the full episode now as Rev. Dr. David Loy, dean of Christ College at Concordia University Irvine, talks about our called vocations as Christians, professions versus professionals, how Faith at Work can be used by readers from all vocational backgrounds, and more. Get a copy of Faith at Work on…cph.org AmazonQuestions:How was the process of editing Faith at Work?What makes this book unique from others at CPH?Explain the difference between professions and professionals. Talk about vocation being the golden thread. Speak to the idea in one of the chapters that touches on non-Christians and whether they have vocations.The book was set up in two parts, with the first part emphasizing vocation and human flourishing. Why was it important to have it positioned like that?Talk about how you see the book being used in a classroom setting.What are some other ways that you may see this book being used by readers?About the Guest: Rev. Dr. David Loy is the dean of Christ College at Concordia University, Irvine.

"This focus on externals means our happiness and sense of value are always dependent on things outside our control." ~ Rochelle Marie In today's episode of "Her Leadership Coach," we dive deep into the second face of disempowerment: Lack. Last week, we unpacked the crippling effects of shame. Today, we explore how operating from a sense of lack impacts our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Joined by insights from Buddhist scholar David Loy and one of my mentors Dr. Claire Zammit, we discuss the unsettling feelings of instability, emptiness, and reliance on external validation that stem from lack. And of course we dive into practical steps on how we can move towards a state of fulfillment and stability. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Understanding the feeling of being ungrounded and how it contributes to a sense of lack. The deeper sense of emptiness that goes beyond material needs. The dangers of basing self-worth and fulfillment on external factors. Practical strategies to ground yourself, fill the emptiness, and shift focus from external to internal drivers. Links and Resources: Accelerate Your Leadership Platinum Program - Discover how this program can transform your leadership from the inside out www.herleadershipway.com/aylpp-info Join the Women in Leadership Facebook Group - Connect with a community of like-minded women striving for leadership excellence www.facebook.com/groups/hlwactiongroup Connect with Rochelle: rochelle@herleadershipway.com Thank You for Tuning In! Remember, every step forward is a step towards achieving a more empowered and authentic life. Let's continue to lead the way, her way. Join us next time as we tackle the final face of disempowerment: Isolation.

“My starting point is less about agitating for change and more about empowering people to believe that they can be actors in their own lives. We fundamentally believe that everyone has a stake in climate change, that everyone can make, can affect change around it.”Check out the episode page for the transcript and a full list of the resources mentioned in this episode: https://widerroots.com/6 Today's episode features Charly Cox, author of the book "Climate Change Coaching."In this conversation, Charly's approach to holding a systemic view stands out. She not only believes in our client's ability to change but also in the system's ability to change. Her coaching helps clients see their situation from this broader perspective. Charly shares her story about realizing that coaches don't have to be "neutral" and can bring their own values forward in their work.Some background on Charly Cox and her work: She founded an organization called The Climate Change Coaches, which focuses on empowering climate leaders with coaching skills. Their climate coaching approach helps leaders and individuals find their unique role in addressing the climate crisis. It motivates them to take action and enact behavior change at the personal, organizational, and systemic levels.Key moments01:39 - Charly Cox's Journey to Climate Change Coaching06:20 - Bridging Climate and Coaching13:48 - The Unique Approach of Climate Change Coaching20:26 - "Having an agenda" vs living your values as a coach32:39 - Charly's sources of nourishment34:42 - ClosingResources & LinksThe Climate Change Coaches (the organization Charly founded)Climate Change Coaching by Charly Cox (book)Terra.DoThe Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells (book)Acceptance and Commitment TherapyJoanna MacyMargaret WheatleyEco-Dharma by David Loy (book)We Are The Great Turning (podcast with Jess Serrante)Climate Change Coaching Mastery courseGreen Transition Coach CourseConnect with Charly CoxThe Climate Change CoachesCharly Cox on LinkedInFollow the podcastWiderRoots.com - Join the...

This week, the Ladies are reviving an old segment from the early days of the show: “How to Lutheran,” an exploration of distinctive aspects of Lutheran life that are so familiar as to be almost unnoticed. This week, Rachel's looking at table prayers: Why do we say them? Which ones do we pray? What's so distinctively Lutheran about the way Lutherans say grace? And what's so “common” about the so-called “Common Table Prayer.”  “It is, then, a good and worthy practice to pray before and after meals,” says Rachel. “All our ‘daily bread' ultimately comes from God, and it's appropriate to acknowledge this reality out loud and thank Him for His gifts."  Resources referenced in this episode include:   Who Wrote the Common Table Prayer? – The Lutheran Witness (lcms.org)  Come, Lord Jesus – The Lutheran Witness (lcms.org) (Gene Veith, 2021)  Come, Lord Jesus – The Lutheran Witness (lcms.org) (David Loy, 2011)  Letting these gifts be blessed – The Lutheran Witness (lcms.org) (Emily Olson, 2018)  Praying Before A Meal: Does The Bible Say We Have To? - Pray With Confidence  Pre-meal Prayer: John Crist's Official Rules (youtube.com)  Luther's Small Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther (cph.org)    Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest (Sung to Tallis' Canon) - A Common Table Prayer (youtube.com)  Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies' Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram! Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at lutheranladies@kfuo.org.

(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center)

Join us for an ECO-Dharma Episode as we delve into the pressing issue of sustainability in our modern world. In the serene surroundings of the Maison Notre Dame Du Chant D'Oiseau, a historic monastery nestled in the heart of Brussels, we sat down during the AGM breaks to explore the theme of sustainability. Our guest for this conversation is Gunaketu, an ordained member into the Triratna Buddhist Order and a speaker at the Eco-Dharma Workshops. Gunaketu generously shared his insights on what it means to lead a sustainable life, shedding light on the role Buddhists can play in this endeavor and his personal journey towards maintaining a positive outlook. Throughout our discussion, Gunaketu underscores that sustainability and justice have emerged as pivotal movements in recent decades. These movements serve as guiding beacons, offering a glimpse of what a new, sustainable society might resemble. In his capacity as a passionate advocate for sustainability among Buddhists in Norway, Gunaketu is also a member of the Eco-Dharma Network, an initiative led by the EBU. Tune in and be with us as we talk about how to cultivate a more sustainable and harmonious world, one mindful step at a time. Check out the EBU Eco-Dharma Network & our Shownotes! Recommended reading & references https://www.positive.news Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis by David Loy, 2019. Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone Article by Kritee (Dharma name Kanko): Movement builders! Deal with trauma to be found here

Avery and D.C. sit down with Chase Neely, marketing expert and author of the book Every Step Counts: Your Guide to the Challenging Path of Marketing a Book, to discuss that very topic. We share some laughs as we chat about platform, ads, building a brand, networking, hosting events, and more. Find out more about Chase and Leverage Brands here.   Books mentioned: Every Step Counts: Your Guide to the Challenging Path of Marketing a Book, by David Loy and Chase Neely Once There Were Wolves, by Charlotte McConaghy A Court of Silver Flames, by Sarah J. Maas It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Gynecologic Health (but Were Never Told), by Dr. Karen Tang (Instagram) Leverage Brands invitation to discuss your own marketing: Leveragebrands.co/pod 

David Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in Sanbo Zen tradition. He began zen practice in 1971 and finished the formal koan curriculum in 1988. For many years he has taught as a professor of Buddhist and comparative philosophy. Although he has retired from academia he continues to lecture internationally focusing primarily on the intersection of Buddhism and modernity and what they can learn from each other.Unless he is traveling, every Friday morning he guides an online meditation followed by a brief dharma talk. He is the author of many books including Lack & Transcendence, Ecodharma, and Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond. In this episode, we speak about the fundamental problem of human existence through the lens of psychotherapy, existentialism & Buddhism, the limits of philosophy, integrating personal with collective transformation, addressing the meaning crisis, and so much more. *Join the Elevating Consciousness list and get the latest interviews with emerging thinkers in the liminal space straight to your inbox -https://artemzen.ck.page/elevatingconsciousness*Join the "Top Insights" list and get insightful links, in-depth book summaries, and transformational frameworks delivered monthly to your inbox  -  https://artemzen.ck.page/topinsights*Subscribe on Youtube to watch the podcast - youtube.com/c/ArtemZen?sub_confirmation=1*Follow me on Twitter (x) - https://twitter.com/artemzen*Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/artem.zen*For Contact, questions or ideas email me at artem@artemzen.com

A judge's recent ruling that the city of San Jose and its former Mayor Sam Liccardo violated state transparency laws -- in response to a lawsuit filed by San José Spotlight and First Amendment Coalition -- could have far-reaching implications for public agencies across the state. Co-host Joseph Geha talks to Karl Olson and David Loy, two attorneys at the center of the case.

Phantom Electric Ghost Interviews: David Loy: CEO, Leverage Brands Mistakes are encouraged: How to lead and learn together Biography For nearly 20 years, David has been working to help brands maximize their reach and impact. Much of that time was spent managing teams and growing revenue streams for thought leaders, authors, speakers, and online personalities. As the CEO and co-founder of Leverage Brands, David leads a team of experts who are on a mission to help get your message out to the people who need it most online. Link: https://leveragebrands.co/pod Donate to support PEG free artist interviews: PayPalMe link Any contribution is appreciated: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/PhantomElectric?locale.x=en_US Support PEG by checking out our Sponsors: Download and use Newsly for free now from www.newsly.me or from the link in the description, and use promo code “GHOST” and receive a 1-month free premium subscription. The best tool for getting podcast guests:  Podmatch.com https://podmatch.com/signup/phantomelectricghost Subscribe to our Instagram for exclusive content: https://www.instagram.com/expansive_sound_experiments/ Donate to support PEG free artist interviews: Subscribe to our YouTube  https://youtube.com/@phantomelectricghost PEG uses StreamYard.com for our live podcasts https://streamyard.com/pal/c/6290085463457792 Get $10.00 Credit for using StreamYard.com when you sign up with our link RSS https://anchor.fm/s/3b31908/podcast/rss --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/phantom-electric/message

Support the show on Patreon! Patreon.com/21stcenturyvitalism Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/21stcenturyvitalism Joining us on the show this week is scholar, author, and Zen teacher, David Loy. In this important conversation, we talk about the path of Ecodharma, a modern approach to Buddhism which utilizes the interlocking environmental crises we're facing as an avenue to deepen our spiritual practice through service and engagement.  SHOW TOPICS - It's More Than Just Climate Change - How Dualistic Perception Fuels Environmental Crisis  - Evolution of The Illusion of Separation - Learning How To Hold Our Grief - What is a Bodhisattva? - Being Service Oriented - The Institutionalization of Greed, Aversion, and Ignorance - Is It Enough to Just Work on Ourselves? - The Importance of Community - Is There Any Hope? - How Do We Cultivate Bodhicitta? LINKS davidloy.org

David Robert Loy is a retired professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the San bo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He  is one of the founding members of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado. Davids essays and books have been translated into many languages. His articles appear regularly in the pages of major journals and Buddhist magazines including Tricycle, Lion's Roar, and Buddhadharma,He lectures nationally and internationally focusing primarily on the encounter between Buddhism and modernity and eco dharma.Presently he is offering talks and workshops on latest book Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis”Friday morning David leads an online meditation followed by a dharma talk starting at 8:00am Colorado [mountain] time. It's free and everyone is welcome. David's website https://www.davidloy.orgEcodharma Retreats please visit http://www.rockymountainecodharmaretreat.org/For Somatic Restructuring lessons please visit  https://somaticprimer.comSupport the show

This episode is an excerpt of a past Science & Wisdom LIVE dialogue, 'Deep Ecology, Mindfulness, and Climate Emergency'.Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU0FvOksk3s&t=2sSubscribe to our newsletter: www.sciwizlive.com*****Science & Wisdom LIVE brings meditation practitioners in conversation with scientists to address the problems of contemporary society and come to new possible solutions.Our events touch upon specific themes where science and contemplative traditions intersect, such as the ethics of artificial intelligence, gender equality, climate change, and the benefits of mindfulness and meditation for mental health.We believe that the dialogue between science and contemplative traditions can inspire positive action and inform an ethical response to the challenges of our times, grounded in the human values of cooperation, compassion and equality.Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.sciwizlive.comFollow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sciwizliveFollow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandw...Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sciwizlive

In Episode 212, we are joined by David Loy, the talented FOH engineer for Country Music artist Kane Brown. David shares his methodical approach to his work, emphasizing how it contributes to delivering the art in the show whether it's live in concerts or in post-production. We delve into his affinity for analog outboard gear, the invaluable impact of mentors on his journey, and the pivotal role of Blackbird Academy in shaping the start of his live sound career. Join our Discord Server and our Facebook Group, and Follow us on InstagramPlease check out and support The Roadie Clinic, Their mission is simple. "We exist to empower & heal roadies and their families by providing resources & services tailored to the struggles of the touring lifestyle."The Signal To Noise podcast series on ProSoundWeb is hosted by Live Sound/PSW and pro audio veterans Kyle Chirnside, Chris Leonard, and Sam Boone 

In this episode of the Becoming Conscious Podcast Ethan interviews Buddhist Scholar David Loy and discusses the nature of our cultural lack, how so much of our drives for economic success and fame are based on this core feeling that we are lacking, and then we go into how Buddhism relates to this fact. You can find more info at about David's work at davidloy.org Get full access to Becoming Conscious at becomeconscious.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Becoming Conscious Podcast Ethan interviews Buddhist Scholar David Loy and discusses the nature of our cultural lack, how so much of our drives for economic success and fame are based on this core feeling that we are lacking, and then we go into how Buddhism relates to this fact. You can find more info at about David's work at davidloy.org Get full access to Becoming Conscious at becomeconscious.substack.com/subscribe

This episode is an excerpt of a past Science & Wisdom LIVE dialogue, 'Reconnecting with Nature and our Inner Being'.Watch the full episode here: https://www.sciwizlive.com/videos/david-loy-zen-ecodharma-interview/Subscribe to our newsletter: www.sciwizlive.comDavid R. Loy is a professor of Buddhist and comparative philosophy, a prolific writer, and a teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Buddhism. His books include Money Sex War Karma, A New Buddhist Path, and most recently Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis. He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues. In addition to offering workshops and meditation retreats, he is one of the founders of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado.  In June 2014, David received an honorary degree from Carleton College, his alma mater, during its 2014 Commencement. April 2016 David returned his honorary degree, to protest the decision of the Board of Trustees not to divest from fossil fuel investments.*****Science & Wisdom LIVE brings meditation practitioners in conversation with scientists to address the problems of contemporary society and come to new possible solutions.Our events touch upon specific themes where science and contemplative traditions intersect, such as the ethics of artificial intelligence, gender equality, climate change, and the benefits of mindfulness and meditation for mental health.We believe that the dialogue between science and contemplative traditions can inspire positive action and inform an ethical response to the challenges of our times, grounded in the human values of cooperation, compassion and equality.Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.sciwizlive.comFollow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sciwizliveFollow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandw...Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sciwizlive

(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center)

What can we learn from Buddhism to understand and respond to our ecological crisis? This question is the heart of David's focus, as I understand it.We started by describing his journey from a more mainstream American childhood to Zen Buddhism and forming the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center near Boulder, Colorado. Then we talk about humanity's disconnect from nature and his work to restore it, in the context of his Buddhist path. We also talk about reconnecting with nature, letting go of the cultural forces to disconnect.He shares his work to help people handle these problems and their grief. We talked about how we handle what we humans are doing to our world and what we're doing about it, including from a Buddhist perspective, using Buddhist practice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, first aired on December 23, 2020 , Zen teacher David Loy shares his thinking about EcoDharma: combining the teachings of Buddhism with ecology . In this fascinating discussion, David explore the ecological implications of Buddhist teachings with insights into how to embody that understanding in the kind of eco-activism that is needed in the world today. David explains that in Buddhism, while there aren't prescriptive steps or writings from the Buddha on how to solve modern problems, we can follow the spiritual path of Buddhism to deal with our grief over climate change and move past it to feel empowered and grounded, part of the larger community of sentient, living beings. He outlines the Ecosattva Path, a path of liberation and salvation for all beings and the world itself. David Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a prolific author, with his most recent books including Ecodharma, Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis. He has also published in major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist Magazines, and a variety of scholarly journals. In his lectures and teaching he focuses on comparative philosophy and the encounter between Buddhism and modernity. He is one of the founding members of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado. 

  Best selling author and book agent Bill Gladstone has been in the publishing industry for over thirty years. In that time, he has represented some of the biggest names in the business and has helped to shape the careers of many successful authors. Gladstone is a man who knows the ins and outs of the publishing world, and he is someone who can be trusted to get the best deal for his clients.   Find out more about Bill: https://waterside.com/   Intro Guy 0:00 Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you've questioned so much more than those around you. You've even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general you're so limited thought process Rest assured, you are not alone. The world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can't quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the question you never even knew to ask, but knew the answers to questions about you this world the people in it? Most importantly, how do I proceed? Now moving forward? We don't even have all the answers, but we sure do love living in the question some time for another hit of spiritual with your host Brandon Handley. Let's get right into today's episode. Brandon Handley 0:42 Hey, the spiritual tip I'm on today with our special guest William Gladstone and he is the co author of the books tapping the source, the golden golden mic or the golden motorcycle gang and author of the international best selling novel The 12. Glassnote is considered an international expert on indigenous cultures and the meaning of 2012. He is also co producer of the highly acclaimed film tapping the source as a literary agent Mr. Gladstone has worked with some of the most respected and influential authors of our time, including Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch and Tom Hartman. And last but not least, and of course, not not even probably the tip of the iceberg. But Master Shaw, who I recently interviewed, and that's how I found out about, you know, the guy behind the scenes. William Bill Gladstone. Thanks for being on today. Bill Gladstone 1:36 It's a pleasure. And yeah, I'm glad that you had the opportunity to interview Dr. Shah master shots. He's kind of a hidden secret right now. He's not really hidden. But you know, I've represented you know, Neale Donald Walsch deals, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Marie Kondo. And there's a level that they have in terms of their visibility that Dr. Shah does not. And it's kind of ironic, because Dr. Shah, in some ways, is a more important spiritual teacher, what he's able to do. And I ended up I was so intrigued and worked with him now for about 15 years that I actually investigated and wrote this book, Miracle soul healer exploring a mystery. And it really is a mystery. Not only does he have the ability to heal people, but he's been able to train other people to heal people. And that, to me is like mind boggling. How does that happen? So, you know, in the 10 years since I originally wrote miracle soul healer, I've learned a lot more about Master shots. So we're re releasing the book come out in a couple of weeks, and that we've changed from exploring a mystery to documenting a legend because it's my belief that he's going to become a legend just in the way that Edgar Casey is a legend, legendary healer. What Dr. Shah has been able to do is extraordinary. And what's almost more extraordinary is that he keeps reinventing himself. It's like he started off, you know, as a as an acupuncturist. I mean, he's got degrees in medical, traditional medicine, but also Chi Gong and Tai Chi and acupuncture and herbal medicine. So he's always he's just as a very exploratory nature. He never satisfied even though he's he's always wanting to learn and develop himself. He's just a very creative human being an intelligent human being. So a few years ago, right at the beginning, when I agented, his first big best seller, he already had bestsellers before I started agent again, but the first one I did was miracle soul healer, and he included a calligraphy and you can see behind me I have a calligraphy now I was gifted one by one, which is wonderful. But at the time, it was like, Oh, now he's really gone too far. Now he's saying that this calligraphy, this piece of art, this piece of paper has healing properties. I said, No way. Anyway, you know, I got up on stage. I remember I was at a one on one author, one of one of that with Rick Fishman, who he actually introduced me to Dr. chatons, you know, when the book first came out at least 10 years ago, and, you know, I presented the book and, you know, I was a little bit, you know, I don't really know if this drawing you know, is, but the rest of it, you know, I've checked out, you know, it's really interesting. And I remember when I got off the stage, someone came up to me because we had given out some copies. And I said, I'm a something impact. And I opened the book to the page, and the energy from this is just incredible. Well, you know, I guess maybe there's something to it because I thought it was pretty far out there. But and that was really, when that happened. That's when I started, you know, because I have degrees from Harvard. You know, I published articles and, you know, scientific and my father was a chemist before he became a book publisher. So grounded skepticism, healthy skepticism. And so, but now I was intrigued. So that's when I did the original interviews and I interviewed over 100 people when I wrote miracle so healer, and there's absolutely no way you would have so much positive results, just from the placebo effect, and certainly the placebo effect. And yeah, there's something to that, but there's something actually going on. So that's why I've continued to be in contact with with Master Shah. Like, him, I also like to keep exploring and growing. So I am finally realized, even though you know, he gifted me a calligraphy, I didn't really pay much attention to it. But then recently, I came up with the idea that we should do these NF T's non fungible tokens, we should sure, you know, do one that was, you know, going to give financial abundance to people because in addition to healing, there's other blessings that are communicated through the calligraphies. And I was skeptical, but it's like, you know, it's not going to hurt anybody, if they believe it, and it works for them. Great. I'm not saying it's gonna work, but just as a collectible, because the art itself has value. So we did choose 5000 of these prints, electric prints, and we sold all that $2,000 Each generating $10 million. So that got even more of my attention. It's like, whoa, and as those you know, I think they sold like to 1500 people, because a lot of people bought two or three. Well, there were at least 600 people who like, wrote in within weeks of getting this calligraphy, my financial world has been, you know, like, evolving. And I'm like, Okay, if that's happening, I guess it's time I still don't understand exactly how it happens. But then, you know, so I'm like, Okay, this is really amazing. I get a call from Esther, she says, my new thing is, song, I have this special dowel song. I'm gonna give all my healings now through the song. And I'm like, okay, and I want you to organize the concerts. And I said, What master shot. I'm a literary agent. I don't really understand the world of music. You gotta give me a you know, we just started all these, because now we're also some of the original calligraphies, I sold one for a million dollars, I mean, big business. I said, Let me focus on these things that I understand. And I'm already doing. And he said, well, but heaven says, You can do this, you know, everybody. And I said, Well, I used to think that was just sort of like a joke. But when he says, heaven says, I know everybody, it means I will know everybody, if I don't know, I'm now the right person. For sure, he's kind of on a spiritual mission. And I mean, this is true. I mean, I don't believe it myself. But two days after he asked me to represent and find a record label for him, and I told him, Look, give me six months, I've got to focus on all these other things. My daughter who's a ghostwriter called me with a project. And it was a project related to a marketing expert, actually two marketing experts that wanted to use her to write a book. But she wanted me to something the agent to negotiate the terms and do what I do. So I got on the phone, and I met this extraordinary author who has a marketing company. Well, it turns out, she also has a record company. And it turns out that she's into, I don't even know what you call it, this non traditional music, World Music, whatever. And I said, Well, you know, I've got this other claim, why don't you go and listen to this music and tell me what you think. She writes back the next day is the most incredible music. I never had anybody like this, we want to, we want to, you know, do everything we will do the concerts. And actually the album for that is coming out in about two weeks. So now, it's not just the calligraphy it's not just the healing. It's not just the teaching. It's also music concerts. So who knows what Master shows going to do next. But I am very intrigued with all this going on. That's why I decided to go back and just update the book a little bit. Because there's no longer exploring a mystery. It's documenting a legend. I've never met a human being who's been able to pivot and be successful in so many different areas. I mean, he's like, you know, he's now a concert performer. He's mastered calligrapher. He's a Master Healer. And what actually is my greatest point of contact with him is we've been doing together for almost a year now, what he calls the power and wisdom of Dougie Jain, which is the teachings of Lauzun dowdy Jing is a book that was written over 2500 years ago, only has 82 chapters Laos, who is considered the foremost promoter, and expert on Tao, he introduced the concept of doubt to the world. And I studied philosophy at Yale. And I've always been intrigued by the world of ideas. So MasterChef asked me to host this show. And the main benefit I get is, he's taking at least an hour, sometimes two or three hours for each chapter. So it's probably going to take us two years to go through this. And it's totally free. I mean, I'm just doing it because I'm learning so much. And basically what you're learning is the way of the doubt nature's way. And the surface. That seems very simple. But these lessons, the more you hear them, and the more you truly understand them, the more profound they become. And you know, I've worked with all these great spiritual visionaries Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, as I said, before, Neale Donald Walsch, and you know, they're great. But I have to say, if you want to go back to first principles, I'm becoming convinced that the Dow, the understanding of what the Dow means, particularly the way Dr. Shah interprets it, is kind of the fundamental face of all knowledge, it's really been intrigued. And so I've been learning that. So I'm very grateful to Master Chef for bringing all this to the world. And I'm also totally alive. But what's also was remarkable is, but 15 years ago, we did this film, tapping the source, and we interviewed over 100, major celebrities, authors, business leaders, billionaires. And what we learned was that the source of happiness for all of these people was very basic, it was finding a way to express gratitude every day, and finding a way to be of service to others. Well, then, push forward 10 years later, I'm studying, you know, Lao Tzu and the Tao. And what is the fundamental message from Master Sha? One, in his case, it's a little bit different. You start with forgiveness, so that my people didn't feel the need to ask for forgiveness. But Master Sha, you asked for forgiveness, then the next few things, express gratitude and be of service, my purpose of life is to serve. That's what Master Schultz presents. So I found that, wow, what I've been doing, you know, totally in what I would call the secular world, you know, just mainstream world is now sort of linking up with with Master Sha, which is admittedly, an esoteric traditions. I mean, not everyone is going to resonate, you know, with the Chinese language and the Chinese philosophy, but they really are one. And so I've really been having a lot of fun with this. And we're combining, we're starting to do these tapping the source summits. And so at the last one, we had Deepak and my good friend and client, Dr. Ervin Laszlo with Master Sha, and looking at these big questions, you know, where do we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? What is the nature of our universe, and it's really interesting as we as we go forward, because there is a common thread, and there is a way of raising the awareness of the average person, because it may not seem like it's such a big deal, but it's actually a very big deal. If the majority of people on our planet had a greater sense of who they really are, not just in terms of their personalities, not just in terms of their family backgrounds, but who they really are, as, for lack of a better word, spiritual beings, universal souls. When I was a bit, Brandon Handley 13:51 let me jump in here real quick. So, you know, one of the things I enjoyed in researching you was listening to an interview that you did with Jack Canfield, maybe 10 years ago, maybe 11 years ago, we talked about and just like you talked about here, you came from like a chemist, your father's a chemist, book publisher, going into this industry for yourself where even he'd mentioned to you I believe, you know, don't be a writer there's no money being a writer. And you know, you're and I can hear you I'm in the business world as well. And I can hear you rattling off numbers like you're a very your business acumen. You know, you're very focused on the business. Right. But you also you also co authored another book, is it tapping this horses? Welcome. Have it right in front of me? Yeah. Bill Gladstone 14:37 It was tapping the source. I should have brought him up, you know, show him to you. Brandon Handley 14:42 I didn't give you I didn't give you any prep on this. So Bill Gladstone 14:45 yeah, tapping the source which was Reus issued as a complete Master Key System. Tapping the source was brought to me by another one of my clients because he had become a big fan of Charles canal, Charles canals Master Key System. There's so many rumors about it, Bill Gates uses it Elon Musk, like circulated in Silicon Valley. But tapping the source was really a modern, updated version of The Master Key System. And Charles canal was the first writer who combined Eastern ideas with Western ideas. Napoleon Hill gave an owl credit for all of his work with thinking grow rich. And so Nell really was the source of information for what we now call the Human Development movement, which has been going on for about 100 years. Brandon Handley 15:38 So, and that wasn't until that was, like 1012 years ago that you tapped into that book. Were you aware of him before that? Bill Gladstone 15:47 Not at all, I had never even heard of Charles now. Your mind Brandon Handley 15:50 blown, like what it sounded like? You were just like, wow, what is this material and this is so amazing. Well, Bill Gladstone 15:55 not on this. And I have to be honest, I remember when I was very young, because, you know, it was in publishing already, I was living in New York, and I got invited to something called dare to be great. And it was, as far as I was concerned, a whole lot of hocus pocus and hype. And, you know, manifest this and envision that, you know, I just thought it was a lot of people trying to steal your money. So I've been very skeptical of this whole self help genre. Even though my father's article publishing was one of the leading publishers in self help. He also was very skeptical. So I was not that open when unkind. So Oh, I got this book, Master Key System and its depth. And the same thing, frankly, with the secret. And you know, even though a lot of my friends, like they're oversimplifying, and it's not that simple. But then when I read Charlson out, which was not as simple as a secret secret, actually had made reference to Charlson out, but I wasn't aware of who he was at the time. But the secret over simplified, Charles tau is very rigorous. That's why we had to write the book, it was 26 weeks to go through the course, in those days, you have to understand this 100 years ago, you had to pay a dime for each. So it was $2.60, which is probably like $2,000 today, but you had to complete each each lesson. And then you get the next week's lesson. And each lesson required an hour of meditation. And it was very complicated. But when I finally read the material, I understand why Napoleon Hill and others had gravitated to Charlson else, he really had found some principles. And, you know, they've been misrepresented too often. For example, the law of attraction, according to Charles now, is really the law of love. And it simply means if you're emanating energy of love, you're going to draw energy of love back doesn't mean you're going to get a one to one correspondence, you send out energy of love to someone who's, you know, in a bad mood, and he, they're not going to send you back love, they may send you back, but you know, something you don't want. But over time, if you if you if you are able to generate energetic fields of positive energy, positive energy will be drawn to you. And this is very interesting. Turning back to the master shot, because now I'm beginning to understand what happens with these calligraphies. He puts so much love into these calligraphies. It's creating a field. And so it's not Hocus Pocus, there's actually reality to what is going on here. But yes, I have a very rounded and I think my mother, my mother was very inspiration. He wanted to save the world, she really had a big heart, my father wanted to have fun, and he wanted to win. So he came up with all these ideas. And he made a lot of money doing things that nobody else had ever done in book publishing. And he had a lot of fun doing it. And he never took any of it too seriously, in terms of the actual content of the books. So I kind of have this combination. I like to have fun, and I like to make money. It's fun. And I've made a lot of money. I mean, it's really, if you look at everything we've done, it's in the billions of dollars, not that I've personally made but that I've generated for the book publishing industry, and a lot of it for my authors and a lot of it for myself and my company. So I even wrote a book called be the deal that I wrote in seven days because I also launched the very first print on demand book company, and we needed proof of concept. So the first print on demand book ever written by a solo author and have to say that because the same day that I finished my manuscript, we got hold of the Star Report The thing about Clinton at the time and the sex scandal with money. So that was actually the very first print on demand book. Mine was the first solo authored book, and we actually got an investment of $28 million from Barnes and Noble based on we now had proof of concept. So yes, I I have this wonderful combination of, from my mother, I get this sense of, you know, purpose and wanting to help others. And then for my dad, I get this feeling of, hey, let's have fun. And let's see how much money we can make and what we can do. And I think that they go together. Well, I think that when, you know, like, we changed our mission statement about 20 years ago to waterside productions exists to help authors and publishers create and distribute books that will make a better world. So that's really what our focus has been. And if you focus on creating a better world, and having fun, you're probably want to make a lot of money. If you're if you're successful in doing that. Brandon Handley 20:40 You know, absolutely. How could you not right. And, and I think that there are ways that you could not obviously, but if you take a look at to see, you know, to it's funny that you did that project with Charles Sinawe, I did a project myself on that on that same book, right? I did, I created an audio, where I put like, isochronic tones and like bio rhythms and like the sounds of nature, all behind the reading of the book, so that, you know, somebody could listen to it in that same way, right? And just kind of get the content and I released it in the same way that he released it, like in a weekly format, right? Because the way that it was originally meant to be consumed was just like our online courses today. Right? It's just, that's what he was doing back then. So I thought that that was pretty interesting. But you know, what you're doing whether or not you know it, or knew it at the time was you were being you were already being of service. And I think that I think that um, you know, Wallace D wattles also talks about this, which is not the guy, but Napoleon Hill talks about how if you're if you're doing these whether or not you know, you're using the law of attraction, like your friends, Jack Canfield, and all these other people are gonna say, you're, you're, you're using it, right? So you're being of service, you're helping people get access to some of these books, you may not already believe half of the stuff that you're seeing in here, like, whatever. And you brought up something really, really, really important, in my opinion, is you went to this, you went to this seminar, called dare to be great. And you're like, are these guys selling snake oil? Right, is basically what you're saying. But here you are selling calligraphy? Yeah, right. What has changed, I think inherently and you because again, the deck the Jack Canfield audio, you talked about you said you weren't that into personal development at that time, and in this space so much. But seems though, over these past 10 years, maybe maybe maybe longer, that you've kind of fell into the space, and you're believing more like you're talking about emanating this love, and it's gonna come Bill Gladstone 22:41 back, basically, it's seeing the results, seeing that it works. I mean, when I went to that dare to be great seminar, I mean, the guys, I mean, they look like used car salesmen, I just didn't get a good vibe from them. And I don't know, whatever happened with that organization, you know, I didn't list but you know, it's kind of like any of these. And, you know, Scientology, I think is the same. I mean, I hesitate, because you got to watch out for these organizations that have come after negatives. But sure, they're really self based organizations, they're not real, that they claim to be of service to others. But if you go behind the scenes, you find out that's not really the case. So you do have to be careful. And exercise caution. Butcher, when you do find an organization like Master Chavez, and I've done all the research, I mean, I've met all the people. That's why I wrote the book. I mean, it's really selfless. I mean, he's not, he doesn't need money, he doesn't care about money for himself, yes, his organization to grow, and he does care about having the biggest impact. Well, you know, what is money? Money is energy. If you don't have it, you're not gonna grow. But yes, it's more seeing the results. I mean, I've personally spoken and met with dozens, really hundreds of people whose lives have been significantly improved, because of either the calligraphies, or the teachings of master shots. So you know, I've seen the results. And you know, he's not a perfect human being I'm sure he's had his failures. And, you know, he's very cautious to say, I'm not guaranteeing anything for everybody. And there's one thing about Dr. Shah that, you know, I'm, I was super skeptical of because it was too easy. explanation why things wouldn't work, which is, in the end, it's all about karma. And if you have bad karma, I can't help you. I mean, I can't help you. But I can totally help you because you we each have our karma and our path. And there is truth to that. But I was skeptical because well, that's too easy. If it doesn't work. It's all on the patient. So, you know, but then, as I've dealt more and more master shot, I've seen that he is authentic and that his system And does work. And I'm still on the fence. I just had this conversation with master shot a few days ago about the nature of karma because as I become more immersed in, in, in Lao Tzu and the DAT karma exists according to master shot at the level of the human experience of the, the world of things, we have the world of nothingness in the world of things. And I've always been sort of more drawn philosophically to the world of nothing is the world that includes nothing is and the world of things. And in the world of nothing is obviously there's no karma. And in terms of my personal experience with karma, I have a very different view. I don't actually believe there's time or space. In the real universe, the universe we experience obviously has time and space. So in that limited universe, which is really a universe of illusion, yes, there's karma. But ultimately, there's not even that there's there's there's a universal, energetic connection, to all of existence. And at that very, very deep level. There's, there is no karma there is no, there is no judgment of any kind. This is what allows and teaches the doubt, which is the source of the source. And we can't even I mean, like we think of the the source. And it allows you even said, the Dow that I described in my teachings is not the real doubt. And it's the same thing. We as human beings can't even contemplate what the true essence of all existence is. It's beyond comprehension. But we have good approximations. And we can learn a lot by aspiring to be aligned with the nature of existence itself. And that's really all that all the spiritual teachers are saying, when you say Be of service will be of service to whom? Well, you're really ultimately being of service to the energy of existence itself. And the energy of existence is magnificent. It's everything, even what we consider evil, is it still energy, and all existences is a play of energy. And within each realm, there is good and evil. And it's very important to sort of raise our vibration so that we experienced the highest possible reality we can. But ultimately, it's all play the way I explain it to people. If you have kids, you probably have gone to some little league games, and Little League is great right now their Little League World Series, I actually prefer watching that over major league baseball. Anyway, you see these kids, and you know, they're playing, and they're playing their hearts out. And during the game, nothing matters except the game, and you play by the rules of the game. But guess what it says the game is over. It was just a little league game, it really didn't matter at all? Well, at a very big level. That's our own experience as human beings, we're playing a game, and it matters, it matters a lot. You know, whether you are treating people well, whether you have children, your grandchildren, you have someone that you love that loves you, all those things are really important. But when you leave this planet, when you leave your human form, that was nice, but it represented less than less than a finger of your existence. So you know, if you can start having that perspective, and I think even somebody like Putin would think twice about murdering all the people that he's murdering, I mean, it's going to catch up in a different universe, perhaps. But you know, if we could combine this larger sense of how we are all individual, that we're also all one, we're all interconnected, we're all part of the same energy flow. I think we we'd have a much better world. Brandon Handley 28:48 Like, did you see yourself like in this space? 1015 years ago? Could you imagine yourself talking like this? Bill Gladstone 28:57 I don't know, if I didn't give it any thought one way or the other. It doesn't surprise me. I mean, cuz I've always had, as I said, because of my mother. I always had this interest in sort of the non material. Also, one of the reasons, you know, I probably evolved this way. And I covered this a little bit in the film, tapping the sources. When I was 15, I had a near death experience. And I was I was gone. I mean, it was an interesting experience. But I was I was on my way to wherever it is, you know, I was headed, and it wasn't on this planet. And I was not forced to leave. I was, you know, sort of given a choice. And, frankly, I mean, I'll tell the story because it's kind of interesting. So I was 15 years old, and I had the flu. And I had a really bad case of the flu kind of thing. COVID It wasn't good. And those days we actually had a family physician, and he would make house calls. But he said it was February and I was living in Westchester County and it was kind of snowy and you know traveled was not that easy. And he said, Look, I'm really busy. I can't make house calls. But you know, I've got other patients who've come down with this flu. I've got something that I think will help if you can bring Bill in. So my mom drove me over. And, you know, the doctor looked at me said, Yep, I think you've got the symptoms here. I'm gonna give you the shot. This should work. He gave me the shot. He said, I'll be right back in a minute. And next thing, my memories, I'm gone. I'm like in bliss. And I'm, my bliss is interrupted, because I hear this loud voice. And I said, Oh, what's that lead voice? Oh, that man. That man's very upset. Oh, that man's wearing a white coat. Oh, that man must be a doctor. Why is he upset? Oh, he's upset because that body on the floor is not responding. Oh, that's my body, I better get back into that body. So the doctor won't be upset. But there was no idea that I better get back in my body because I'm going to be dead. It didn't occur to me. And it didn't matter to me. And having had that experience, which at the time was not that common and very little was known about near death experiences. Moody had not even written his first book on afterlife. So I was actually discouraged mostly by my father, but also even by my mother, don't talk about this. Nobody wants to hear you're valedictorian of your school. Everybody thinks, you know, you do all the sports your captain, a couple of sports team, this isn't gonna get you very far talking about this kind of stuff. Just stick stick to your normal life. It's an interesting experience you had my dad is the chemists was, Oh, you didn't have any oxygen. It was all hallucination. You know, don't take any of it too seriously. Well, it took me about 20 years when I started uncovering that other people had had similar experiences that I realized, no, my dad was wrong. In this case, my experience was authentic. And so because of that experience, I've always been kind of aware that there's a lot more going on here than just what meets the eye. Brandon Handley 32:01 I got it. What do you mean? And so how do you feel like you became this lightning rod or catalyst for so many of these prominent authors? Like how did you find yourself in that space? Well, it's very hidden, because Bill Gladstone 32:15 I certainly didn't set out to do this. I was the leading agent in the world for books about technology. We, even before we did that the dummies series, we had had 500 best selling books, we represented over 25% of all the best sellers at the time when computers first evolved. And that happened really, through a relationship I had with Andy Kay, the founder of nonlinear systems, which became K Pro computer. So I was given access to all these computer documentation writers, so we started representing them. And overnight, we became the leading source of books about technology. But like many things, we did the very first books on the internet and everything on the supercomputers, we created the very source of our demise. Because the internet made it unnecessary to buy a book. I mean, not for everybody, but we used to sell, oh, I don't know, in a single year, 5 million copies of Windows for Dummies, for example. Now we still sell it but you know, I think it's down to like 100 200,000 copies, which is not insignificant, but compared to 5 million that so when you know in our business was was booming, and you know, we were doing great business, but then when the internet crashed and the need for these books also fade because there wasn't as much innovation. I mean, there's you know, like, Okay, now with that Twitter and me, there's still things happening. But compared to the boom of the late 80s, early 90s, where you had a new computer, a new software program, and these things, you know, just took the world by storm, you actually had more space in a Barnes and Noble dedicated to computer books than to fiction. You had an entire wall, it looks anyway. So we have this great success. And then it started to go down. And I had one call when the very first books I'd ever aged. It was the Sphinx in the rainbow by David Lai. And David was an extraordinary human being he just passed recently in his 90s. And I actually signed the book to publish it when I was editor in chief for Harcourt Brace Yovanovitch here in San Diego, but I left her court to create waterside productions. And they canceled the book because they have an editor who even understood the book because this book was way ahead of its time. It was explaining the nature of the ability to predict the future based on hologram sick concept of the universe. And also why sometimes a prediction would be wrong. Anyway, it was it was too sophisticated for anyone left it hardcore. So I got a call from Dave and he says what do I do and I say oh Don't worry, I know people in New York and other places. I'll I'll do some aging on the side because I actually sit at Waterside productions to be a film company, not a literary agency. So that was really what got me into the agent in the first place. And I did sell that book whose first book I ever sold. I actually sold it Shambala, which, interesting. They then that book went out of print 20 years later, and David revised the book and we sold it to enter tradition. So it's still in print with a new title and arrow through time. But the reason I mentioned this is okay, so after David, I got involved with all the computers, I turned down people, including Tony Robbins, because too much time to deal with them compared to what I could do. I could sell 10 books on computers, one of which would sell at least a million copies in a day. And you know, Tony, I love Tony and we met. But you know, he needed a lot of hand holding that time and guidance. And I was like, Tony, just not really worth my time. So yeah, I don't regret it, you know, would have been worth my time as it turned out, but you know, who could have predicted it? In any event? Yeah, I've turned that I've made bigger mistakes. I turned down Jeff Bezos, I could have been one of the seed investors of Amazon, back down because the business plan didn't make any sense to me. So I've made my mistakes. I don't know what's interesting. But back to David Loy. So David calls me up. And it's just the right time. He says, I've got this friend. His name is Dr. Ervin Laszlo and he's written about 30 books, but none of them have sold more than 5000 copies. And I think you'd really enjoy working with him and he needs a good agent. So that's how I got connected with Irving. And Ervin was already at that time considered the leading systems theorist in the world, he had studied Alfred North Whitehead, and he really had, you know, he was just amazing. He had created this organization called the club of Budapest because he was also a naturally gifted concert pianist. He was a member of the Club of Rome. And the Club of Rome said nobody's paying attention, because they, this is back in 1972, the limits of growth really was the precursor to warnings about global warming, and everything else. But nobody was paying attention. So they said, you know, they seem to pay attention to celebrities, you're kind of a celebrity, you know, create a writers and poets organization. And he did and you had people like, yo, yo, LA and Peter Gabriel, and the Dalai Lama, anyways, credible organization. So I met with our event, and we became good friends, and I was able to, it actually was a lot of work more work than probably any book I've been involved with he because he was a scientist. And he wrote this book, which eventually became the Akashic science in the Akashic field actually, blanking on the title, the exact title, but we ended up having I rewrote the book myself, it was only 120 pages. And then I got the editor who had worked with Deepak Chopra, science and the Akashic field was a final title. And I got the editor who had worked with Hawking and Brief History of Time, and then he edited it after I rewrote it. Anyway, it took two years, and the books only about 160 pages. Because what we had to do is we had to take these very complex concepts and get them down to a level where ordinary people could understand them. And what was fascinating was, Dr. Laszlo was showing how new scientific concepts parallel, ancient intuitive wisdom about the nature of reality, the Akashic field, if people don't know about the Akashic records, it's the belief that everything that's ever happened is stored the information is stored. And the reality that modern science is now showing is that that's probably the case. It's not a superstition, everything does exist in successful anyway. So I represented Irving and once I represented Ervin that sort of opened the box, and I had actually sold a book to Neale Donald Walsch because he had his own imprint and Hampton Roads, but I hadn't representative but once I did Urban's book, it just opened the door, and then all these people started coming to me, and this business is very small. If you represent two or three of them, you know, Eckhart came to me, and that's a wonderful story of how all that happens. But when you have two or three of these big superstars, everybody thinks you're a genius and you have the magic touch. So they all just come to you. And because I've always been accessible, and very honest, I mean, one of the things that's remarkable is my father because I work for his company. I remember after the first week, he looked at me and he said, You may be too honest for this business. You know, publishing just have a lot of hype all media does. I actually know there's a lot of hyperbole will be kind of not outright deception. So and I've just never been, you know, I I don't know just my nature. I I can't lie, I just, you know, I have to be who I am. And I have told you. So, you know, that's very attractive, because, you know, you want to be able to trust your agent. So sure, that's, that's one of the reasons I think, you know, we've been so successful. I've actually never solicited a client. All of my clients have come through referrals. So, you know, interesting, it's just, you know, and but back to your idea of the energy. Yeah, there's kind of an energy field. I think that calligraphy helps actually, I think, to create the the vortex, but I've always had it I mentioned this semester, you're shocked because he like, you know, well, why don't you share that, you know, some of your success comes from all these calligraphies. And things I said, Well, that's true. But you know, I want to be honest, I've always had this success, actually what the calligraphies are doing for me more than that, is allowing me to enjoy the success at a higher level. Because I do have what I did, I think I've gotten a little better at it very impulsive side, where I've thrown money at things, very foolishly I've given people I shouldn't have given them and being more respectful. And I think part of it is because of my interactions with master shot and the field that I think he continues to help create. But yeah, there's kind of a vortex of energy right here in my little office, where I don't have to do anything, I just wake up every morning and out of the blue and pretty good right now it's sort of intensified, I have had at least six billionaires contacting me in the last year, all from either want us to age them or publish them. And, you know, you can't invent stuff like this. It just it's kind of miraculous, to listen Brandon Handley 41:41 to another Tibetan Buddhism book. I forget the Masters name, but he has his line. It sounds kind of like your life at this point in time, right? I have everything in the world comes to me. Right? That's kind of what he says. And there you are. Right, you are that vortex the energy is coming back into you. And I love it. What's bill? What's next for you? Your What are your thoughts? What do you where do you see, Bill Gladstone 42:05 I actually see, what do you know, my main focus, you know, I maintain my health, you know, enjoy my, my kids and my grandkids? And, you know, try to give back. So how do I get back, it's what I do best. So yeah, we're just doing everything at a higher level, we're starting to do these big concerts for Masters shot, I think we're going to reach a lot of people through those. We're going to do calligraphy, exhibitions, I think we'll reach a lot of people through that, we'll continue to do our NF T's non fungible tokens for other authors, I just signed up Napoleon Hill Foundation to do some NF T's and working with Mark watts, son of Alan Watts to do some NF T's. They're interesting. And some of these billionaire clients that are coming to me, I've been a big champion of heart mass. And so they have, they have a new initiative, and there may be one level of it, which also includes NF T's which are able to measure your individual contribution to creating global coherence award you in some way, for positive behavior that leads to coherence. I do think that coherence and raising human awareness is kind of the most important contribution that I can make. And I think that I'm in a position where more and more things are coming together, I can envision sort of like the equivalent of you know, Live Aid concerts, you know, beyond just semester shot, just major healing concerts that raise awareness, and that, you know, make a positive contribution. I also think that, you know, there's a reason, I mean, some of these billionaires have called me up and said, You know, I had a reading, they have their own spiritual paths and my spiritual, some of them that have basically said that I was predestined to appear in their lives, and we're supposed to do something together. And none of us know exactly what we're supposed to do. But there's a number of things that I can envision. And I just say, you know, it's sort of like, I always go back to the movie of the young man, Karate Kid, wax on wax off, and you know, then eventually, you get into the main stage. And despite everything I've done, I really think most of what I've done is kind of wax on wax off. It's not really the main event. And I kind of feel that I'm still not quite on the main stage yet. But that's coming very soon. And you know, we have a number of things we want to do we want to reissue the type of the source film, you want to interview, more. Spirit wasn't Brandon Handley 44:36 able to get that on and wasn't able to want to watch it really quick. And I wasn't able to find it on Amazon Prime. Bill Gladstone 44:41 Well, because we've taken it down temporarily because we re edited it out it, just send me an email after this and I'll get it out to you and you'll love it. It's really, I mean, I watched it after 10 years and mostly is due to my wife's production and editing. But it's really I mean but it's it's fantastic. It's just, it's so inspiring. And so wise, there's so much wisdom. It's the kind of thing you could watch five or six times, and you'll learn something new every time. But yeah, I see that happening. I see interviewing more, and just getting more visibility for the kinds of things that I have been doing and being more. That's why I'm doing the show with you. I mean, I don't need it. And I don't seek it. I don't not enjoy it. But it's not, it's not necessary for me to be, you know, you know, I did all that in my 20s. But if it's going to serve, I'm very happy to do I mean, I was on the Today Show I was on, you know, I've done a lot. You know, I've done a lot that, you know, most people and myself included when I was very young, it was like, oh, boy, that would be the pinnacle of this and the pinnacle. And I'm in a nice place where, yeah, I mean, happy, you know, to be on Oprah or something like that, but I've never really thought it and, you know, despite my ability to sort of speak and be friendly, kind of very happy on my own. Just, you know, I wouldn't say I'm an introvert, but you know, I don't need a lot of outside. Recognition. It's never been something that was important to me. Brandon Handley 46:16 Sure. No, that's important, too. So I mean, you you've played, you played a major role. I think in the spiritual evolution of so many people, and not a lot of people know that you've played that role, which I think is it's pretty, it's pretty neat. And again, it goes back to you have been of service all these years, so many people, they just may not know you directly. And that's what I thought. Bill Gladstone 46:39 It's very interesting. You say that, because one of my very closest friends passed just a few months ago, Michael, guys. And about 10 years ago, I was going through, you know, we all have challenges. And I don't know, there's some things that were going wrong. And I actually was feeling like a failure. I actually was. And I remember Mike and I have known each other. I actually started waterside in his office, you know, 40 years ago, 40 plus, and he just said, Bill, you've helped so many people, just with the computer books, do you realize how many millions of people, hundreds of millions of people have benefited from what you've done, that was really a wake up call. And it really got me through that little bad stretch. It was like, Okay, I'm not a complete failure. I've done something of value. But yeah, it's interesting. We just did a class on the Dow with Lao Tzu and the greatest leader is the leader that no one even recognizes. The greatest leader doesn't even get recognition. The next level of great leader, yeah, they get a lot of admiration and praise, but the greatest leader leads in such a way that no one even knows, he or she is the leader, Brandon Handley 47:50 Will. Again, you, like you said you didn't have to take this time. And I definitely appreciate you being on here today. You are rereleasing Master Sha book and the power of the Dow. Yeah. Bill Gladstone 48:04 This is really something if you've never heard of Dr. Master shots, this new edition, this is just a mock up of the cover. It's really worth reading. I mean, it's a fun read. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback. And it's done is the story. It's not, you know, it's like how I met him and interviews with a lot of different people. But I think it really will open people's eyes. And I really do feel that he's not received to date, the kind of visibility that someone of that caliber and have that ability to give deserve. So yeah, of everything for this interview. That would be the one thing I would hope your fans pick up on. But yeah, it's happened to source the movie. You can go back, you know, Amazon is still this was my most successful book, The 12. It's really, you know, it's all over. Brandon Handley 48:50 I remember seeing that I remember seeing that cover quite a bit, especially Bill Gladstone 48:55 this book we published to a major publisher, and we got it into the airports and you know, it really, we can say it's close to getting the movie deal done. And that wasn't millions, and it could still happen. I've actually figured out a way to do it. But yeah, though, if you want to have a really good read, and understand that the Mayan calendar is real. And it never predicted the end of the physical universe. It predicted the end of the energetic universe, and we're actually in a new energy every 26,000 years, there's a new energetic field. And think of a sunset. If you're unless you're looking at the sun when it sets. You don't really know the difference between 10 seconds before sunset, and 10 seconds after. When you're at the scale of 26,000 years. 10 years is like 10 seconds. So we are in a new era is happening. You can see it in a lot of different ways. The fact that the world seems worse right now, doesn't necessarily mean that we're not actually entered In a better era, whether it evolves in the way that it's intended to or not, it's really up to each and every one of us. Each and every one of us has a role to play. Even if it's just at the level of your thoughts, thoughts do create events. And that's why I'm interested in ideas of global resonance. And I'm interested in being on shows like this. Because if you're full of negative thoughts, you're going to draw negativity. If you're full of positive thoughts, you're going to attract positive energy. So that I think is absolutely demonstrated. And so anything that I can do to help people sort of reframe their personal existences in a more positive way, I'm delighted to do so. Brandon Handley 50:46 Thank you so much. But where can people find out more about what it is you're doing? Where would you like people to go? Bill Gladstone 50:51 Oh, my gosh, well, the best is, I guess, just WWE waterside.com. I am not into self promotion. So I don't really know. I mean, yeah, all the people that I work with it they probably think Bill you're getting this tends to promote what we're doing. I didn't do it. So maybe they will send you afterwards and you can put up on the screen for sure website. I probably shouldn't reveal this. But I even though I'm a champion, while the technology I don't use it, I still have a flip phone. I don't I've never searched the web. I don't use I don't use the modern technology, people that work for me do. But I really, you know, if I could, you know, I'm very happy sort of living in the old 20th century. Having actual lunches with people COVID has been tough on me on that business has actually been better than ever because everybody was stuck at home and they were all reading and writing. So you know, but yeah, I miss I miss the human interaction. And technology in May is useful. And you know, I'm so grateful that we can do this zoom call. This is close to personal, but it's not the same as face to face meeting so Brandon Handley 51:59 I couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more. So I will share out whatever you're able to share with the audience bill and again, thanks for being on today. Bill Gladstone 52:06 It was a pleasure. Thank you. Yes, sir. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

September 2, 2022--Alicia Bales hosts a local media round table with Santa Rosa Press Democrat's breaking news reporter Colin Atagi and Kate Fishman, Climate and Environment reporter for the Mendocino Voice. Later, she talk with Legal Director for the First Amendment Coalition David Loy and Kate Maxwell of the Mendocino Voice about Mendocino County's efforts to recoup administrative fees by charging high rates to process Public Records Act requests.

Without a doubt, the social revolution in the West and individual insight/enlightenment in the East are among humanity's greatest accomplishments. But we can have them separate no longer for we desperately need both because individual people make society but, in turn, society makes individuals. We need to unite the quest for personal enlightenment and the […]

(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center)

(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center)

Ep. 28 (Part 2 of 2) | David Loy, Zen teacher, scholar, and prolific author, reveals his acute understanding of the crises we face today, the psychology at the root of the problems, and how we can make our way forward in this in-depth discussion. He has adopted the term ecodharma to focus attention on the challenge Buddhism faces now: integrating personal transformation with global activism and social transformation. As David points out, the focus needs to be on this world, with transcendence being a metaphorical understanding but not an excuse to abandon the problems we and our planet face today.  Besides gaining great depth of knowledge from being a scholar and student of koans, David's insights come from a plethora of nondual experiences, which led David on a path of eco-action. Ecodharma asks: How does Buddhism need to change? How much is dwelling in emptiness becoming problematical in these challenging times? What's best for the Earth? Everyone says practice, practice, practice…when is the performance? Is evolutionary pressure going to create a new way of living sustainably? Recorded February 22, 2020.  “When your sense of separation dissipates, it becomes not what's in it for me, but what can I do to help make this a better world for everybody?” Note: Regrettably 4 minutes of the recording were irretrievably lost at minute 21:26, but thankfully, the recording resumes just as Roger succinctly sums up the previous minutes of conversation. Also, this podcast was recorded live and includes, at times, some extraneous noises in the background. Please excuse them -- we felt the conversation was very valuable and well worth sharing with our audience. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. (For Apple Podcast users, https://deeptransformation.io/david-loy-2-bodhisattva-to-ecosattva-integrating-personal-practice-and-global-activism/ (click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)) Topics & Time Stamps - Part 2The role of technology, moving into an age of virtual reality, and the creation of supernormal stimuli (01:41) Ecodharma: addressing the need for a new understanding of practice and walking the bodhisattva/ecosattva path (04:37)  Keeping “don't know” mind in the face of the eco-crisis (09:57) How can Buddhism contribute to facing the critical issues of our time? (10:54) The Extinction Rebellion, a grassroots direct action movement (11:49) The election of Trump has highlighted our problems in making them worse (15:16) The problem of complacency (17:24) What signifies that one has started to walk the bodhisattva path? (19:42) Desire versus craving (21:26) Karma yoga and not being attached to the outcome (22:14) The cycle of withdrawal and return common to those people who have contributed the most to humankind (23:45) The deepest challenge of our practice is integrating the knowledge that everything is perfect, but also knowing action is needed to improve things (26:36) Evolutionary psychology, the evolution of religion, and what we need to do today (28:18) What socially engaged Buddhism has to contribute (34:02) The challenge of the gnostic intermediary to transmit a wisdom tradition across cultures and across time (34:59) Resources & References - Part 2https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/eo-wilson-conservation-legend-90-save-space-for-nature-save-planet (Edward O. Wilson), aka the Darwin of the 21st century Guhyapati, founder of the https://www.ecodharma.com (Eco-Dharma Centre) in northeast Spain David Loy and Guhyapati, https://oneearthsangha.org/articles/remaking-our-dharma/ (Remaking Our Dharma: Expanding the Scope of Ecodharma) David Loy, co-founder of the https://rmerc.org (Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center) David Loy, "https://cetr.net/en/the-bodhisattva-path-in-the-trump-era/ (The Bodhisattva Path in the Trump Era)"  https://fridaysforfuture.org/ (Greta Thunberg and the School Strike for Climate)...

Ep. 27 (Part 1 of 2) | David Loy, Zen teacher, scholar, and prolific author, reveals his acute understanding of the crises we face today, the psychology at the root of the problems, and how we can make our way forward in this in-depth discussion. He has adopted the term ecodharma to focus attention on the challenge Buddhism faces now: integrating personal transformation with global activism and social transformation. As David points out, the focus needs to be on this world, with transcendence being a metaphorical understanding but not an excuse to abandon the problems we and our planet face today. Besides gaining great depth of knowledge from being a scholar and student of koans, David's insights come from a plethora of nondual experiences, which led David on a path of eco-action. Ecodharma asks: How does Buddhism need to change? How much is dwelling in emptiness becoming problematical in these challenging times? What's best for the Earth? Everyone says practice, practice, practice…when is the performance? Is evolutionary pressure going to create a new way of living sustainably? Recorded February 22, 2020. “When your sense of separation dissipates, it becomes not what's in it for me, but what can I do to help make this a better world for everybody?” (For Apple Podcast users, https://deeptransformation.io/david-loy-1-bodhisattva-to-ecosattva-integrating-personal-practice-and-global-activism/ (click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)) Topics & Time Stamps - Part 1Social activism, Zen practice, philosophy, koan study: how it all started (03:52) How does David's Zen practice inform his activism? It was the experiences of nondual reality (05:48) The emergence of compassion: when your sense of separation dissipates, it becomes not what's in it for me, but what can I do to help make this a better world for everybody (09:14) The cold civil war in the U.S. and the need to find a way to talk with each other and understand conflicting points of view (12:03) Our fundamental problem is that we don't feel real, because the separate self is a construct, inherently insecure, inherently uncomfortable, and we experience this as a sense of fundamental lack (14:03) The psychological and sociological implications of this sense of lack and how society is constructed to take advantage of it: the contemporary world religion is consumerism (17:31) The positive and negative sides of individualism (22:23) The heart of the bodhisattva path: personal transformation and social transformation (24:57) The challenge of integrating nondual experiences (27:31) 3 elements of the Pali Canon's Motivation for Awakening (28:31) Dukkha (suffering) is structural not just individual (30:09) Awakenings: transcendent, imminent, and the decline of Axial religions that devalue this world (36:26)  The problem with mindfulness and the 3 poisons: greed, ill will, delusion (40:51) Resources & References - Part 1David Loy, https://amzn.to/3PDdEqM (EcoDharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis)* David Loy, https://amzn.to/3Nv7AP9 (NonDuality: In Buddhism and Beyond)* David Loy, co-editor, https://amzn.to/3LO8q8u (A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency)* Full list of David's writings: https://www.davidloy.org/writing.html (https://www.davidloy.org/writing.html) David Loy's https://www.davidloy.org/index.html (website) David Loy, co-founder of the https://rmerc.org/ (Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamada_Koun (Yamada Kōun Roshi), David's teacher and author of https://amzn.to/3G984rR (The Gateless Gate : The Classic Book of Zen Koans)* (2004) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baker_Aitken (Robert Aiken), one of the original founders of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dgen (Dōgen), Japanese Buddhist priest, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake (William Blake),...

This week I talk about the idea of nonduality.  And the perfect way to start is with the most familiar example. Come listen

Can inner shifts in perspectives help us respond more skilfully to the climate and environmental crisis?In this third Science & Wisdom LIVE dialogue, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Dr. Stephan Harding, and Dr. David Loy discuss the urgent topic of the climate emergency and environmental crisis. This Dialogue is a collaboration between Science & Wisdom LIVE and The Global Tree Initiative.As scientists and activists warn us about the potential dangers ahead, new paradigms are emerging to help us navigate the challenges of our times. Deep Ecology invites us to experience (and act from) a deep feeling of our interconnectedness with the natural world. Similarly, contemplative practices (such as mindfulness and meditation) can deepen our sense of oneness with the living universe around usDoes a skilful response to the environmental crisis follow spiritual development and a more mature awareness of our interdependence with nature? And how can we act in the world without becoming depressed or feeling powerless in the face of climate emergency?Dr. Vandana Shiva, Dr. Stephan Harding, and Dr. David Loy discuss the outcome of the recent COP26, how we can understand the climate emergency as a dysregulation of Earth's self-regulation, and how the environmental crisis reflects a deeper crisis of values in Western civilization. They advocate a shift from a mechanistic understanding of the world towards a deeply spiritual science, inspired by the feeling of deep connection with the Earth, and talk about the kind of spiritual practices that help us cultivate our sense of belonging to the living planet and act selflessly, without attachment to the results of our actions. 

  This month on Even the Trunchbull, we have a listener recommendation! Namely, Momo by Michael Ende (well known as the author of The Never Ending Story) as our chapter book, on a theme of ‘Time' – so that's what we've gone with!   Momo is part celebration of community and part prescient cautionary tale about the dangers of the busy modern world. Momo and a magic tortoise called Cassiopeia must rescue the city from the faceless men in grey, who are determined to steal everyone's time.   That's paired with picture book Clocks and More Clocks by Pat Hutchins (well known beloved picture book writer and one time narrator of Rosie and Jim). This one is both educational and wonderfully daft – essentially a gorgeously structured joke about the passage of time, in which one gentlemen fills his house with rather a lot of clocks.   Articles/Links/Videos etc:   Momo: For a map that shows the most popular children's book from each country that has a book that's reviewed on Goodreads, featuring Momo, see here - https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/01-Most-Popular-Childrens-Book-World-Map.png.webp   The film adaptation of Momo, featuring a cameo from Michael Ende, can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q_JYYcBP2Q   The Essay referred to in the episode, ‘Momo, Dogen, and the Commodification of Time' by Linda Goodhew and David Loy, can be read here - http://www.jonathantan.org/handouts/buddhism/Loy-Momo.pdf   Clocks and More Clocks: Pat Hutchins' gorgeous, interactive website can be found here - http://pathutchins.com/   And here's an episode of Rosie and Jim with Pat as narrator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKJOMOBS4GA   And an obituary of Pat Hutchins from the Guardian can be found here - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/15/pat-hutchins-obituary   Previous episodes referenced in this episode are: The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon, by David Almond, in Ep#4 – Loneliness - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-4-loneliness-the-boy-who-climbed-into-the-moon-and-beegu/   What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Our guest today is Dr. David Loy, Professor of Buddhist and Comparative Philosophy, writer, and teacher in the Zen tradition of Japanese Buddhism. Together with Vandana Shiva and Stephan Harding, David will be one of the speakers at the upcoming Science and Wisdom dialogue on Deep Ecology, Mindfulness, and Climate Emergency on the 9th of December.In today's interview with Scott Snibbe, he discusses the necessity of engaging with the world and transcending duality as part of one's contemplative practice; how Buddhism and other contemplative traditions change in response to the needs of the contemporary world; and how to respond appropriately to the challenges of our time, without falling into the extremes of indifference or despair.They will also talk about the need to deepen our relation with, and love for, Nature and wilderness; how personal transformation is necessary in order to enable collective growth; and how Buddhism and other contemplative teachings can help us face what Noam Chomsky called "the most dangerous moment ever in human history".

'Art is a practice of expanding consciousness, which gives us a tremendous opportunity to explore and to embody possibility and to engage with the earth as it continues to change and with each other.Rebecca Mwase, excerpt from e10 mwase – expanding consciousness (from an interview at Creative Climate Leadership USA, March, 2020)*e81 inspiration are excerpts from all my conversations up to today, November 10th, 2021. I chose short excerpts where the tone and emotion in the voice of each person inspires and uplifts me every time I listen to it and I hope they will inspire and uplift you too (because we need it). Thanks to all those recorded for this fragmented reading of our conversations.In order of appearance (bolded episodes are in French and have an ‘é')Note: I am aware that the time indication numbers below do not align up well but chose not to correct it as I enjoy the uneven flow...e10 mwase, Rebecca Mwase                                            00:00e29 loy, David Loy                                                               00:21e03 tickell, Alison Tickell                                                   00:35é37 lebeau, Anne-Catherine Lebeau                          00:5612 liverman, Diana Liverman                                            01:1617 piro, Em Piro                                                                   01:37e50 newton, Teika Newton                                               02:00é32 tsou, Shuni Tsou                                                        02:2613 freiband, Andrew Freiband                                         02:46e58 huddart, Stephen Huddart                                        03:03é27 prévost, Hélène Prévost                                         03:30e47 keeptwo, Suzanne Keeptwo                                      04:0008 johnston,  Sholeh Johnston                                         04:25e33 toscano, Peterson Toscano                                       04:51é60 boutet, Dr. Danielle Boutet                                   05 :20e51 hiser, Dr. Krista Hiser                                                  05:42e53 kalmanovitch, Dr. Tanya Kalmanovitch                   06:01e21 dufresne, Dr. Todd Dufresne                                    06:22é55 trépanier, France Trépanier                                  06:42e24 weaving, jil p. weaving                                               07:00e25 shaw, Michael Shaw                                                    07:38e39 engle  Dr. Jayne Engle                                               08:01é56 garoufalis-auger, Anthony Garoufalis-Auger 08 :19e54 garrett, Ian Garrett                                                      08:4606 lim, Milton Lim                                                                09:48e22 westerkamp, Hildegard Westerkamp                     09:25é57 roy, Annie Roy                                                           09:50e73 marcuse,,Judith Marcuse                                           10:19e26 klein, Seth Klein                                                           10:58e36 fanconi,  Kendra Fanconi                                           11 :26é28 ung, Jimmy Ung                                                        11:47e40 frasz  Alexis Frasz                                                         12:10e41 rae, Jen Rae                                                                  12:27e42 rosen, Mark Rosen                                                      12:52é48 danis, Daniel Danis                                                  13:17e43 haley, David Haley                                                      13:57e44 bilodeau, Chantal Bilodeau                                      14:32e45 abbott, Jennifer Abbott                                             15:13é60 boutet, Dr. Danielle Boutet                                   16 :03e49 windatt, Clayton Windatt                                           16:33e50 newton, Teika Newton                                               16:53e51 hiser, Dr. Krista Hiser                                                  17:3007 kasisi, Robert Kasisi                                                   17:52e52 mahtani, Dr. Annie Mahtani                                      18 :23e53 kalmanovitch, Dr. Tanya Kalmanovitch                   18:49e68 davies, Andrew Davies                                               19:20é34 ramade, Bénédicte Ramade                                  19:47 e61sokoloski, Robin Sokoloski                                        20:12e46 badham, Dr Marnie Badham                                    20:39e43 haley, David Haley                                                      21:01é55 trépanier, France Trépanier                                  21:16e38 zenith, Shante' Sojourn Zenith                                  21:37e30 maggs, David Maggs                                                 22:22e23 appadurai, Anjali Appadurai                                     22:56é48 danis, Daniel Danis                                                  22:14e21 dufresne, Dr. Todd Dufresne                                    24 :57e35 salas, Carmen Salas                                                    25:46e31 morrow, Charlie Morrow                                           26:27é57 roy, Annie Roy                                                           26:53e59 pearl,  Judi Pearl                                                          27:29e71 green sessions debrief, Emma Stenning                27:49e78 droumeva, Milena Droumeva                                   29:1104 fel, Loic Fel                                                                    29:5405 carruthers, Beth Carruthers                                         30:15e77 klein, Seth Klein                                                           30:45e15 chasansky, Matthew Chassansky                              31:15é55 trépanier, France Trépanier                                  32:00e71 green sessions debrief, Sandy Crawley                  32:22e11 dunlap, Eliana Dunlap                                                33;11e71 green sessions debrief, Liisa Repo-Martell            33:34e63 a case study (part 1), Clara Schryer                       34:1109 macmahon, Ellen MacMahon                                     34:24e76 richards, Kim Richards                                                34:50e16 delaparra, Lauren De la Parra                                   35:28é37 lebeau, Anne-Catherine Lebeau                          36:0714 kirn, Marda Kirn                                                             36:30e63 a case study (part 1), Clara Schryer, Riel Schryer 37:38e71 green sessions debrief, Robyn Stevan                    38:18e64 a case study (2), Clara Schyrer, Sabrina Mathews 38:50 *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHere is a link for more information on season 5. Please note that, in parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays for those frightened by the ecological crisis'. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.Also. please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin. I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on April 2, 2024

For decades, clinicians have used mindfulness-based interventions to treat stress, physical pain, and mental disorders. But there's more to meditation than “mindfulness” alone, and the next wave of researchers in this field is still working out how to incorporate other practices from the wisdom traditions that gave rise to mindfulness-based treatment in the first place.Dr. Eric Garland is a clinical researcher who has devoted his life to developing a novel mind-body therapy called Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), which combines mindfulness with other practices and exercises to promote a greater sense of well-being and even self-transcendence as part of the recovery process. His work has strong evidence for efficacy in treating not just addiction, but also chronic pain.Eric Garland PhD, LCSW, is the Distinguished Endowed Chair in Research and Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Utah College of Social Work, where he is also the director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development (C-MIIND). He has received over $60 million in federal grants to develop and test novel integrative health interventions, including trials of MORE as a treatment for opioid problems, opioid use disorder, and chronic pain. His website is www.drericgarland.com, and you can find him on Twitter. In this episode: - The three pillars of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement, including “reappraisal”—skills for disengaging from and reframing negative thoughts—and “savoring”—using focused attention training to tune in to natural reward.- The use of self-transcendence as a clinical intervention, including evidence about how even folks with severe problems can tap into a sense of transcendence and experience significant symptom relief.- The challenges of “McMindfulness,” and how Eric thinks about doing mechanistic research on mindfulness without totally abandoning ethics, values, and meaning. (see David Loy and Ron Purser's essay on McMindfulness here)- A central question for his biological research: "how do you restore the healthy function of the reward system, so the brain re-leans what is and what is not important in life? what is and is not meaningful in life?"- Eric's counterintuitive approach to working with chronic pain by going directly into the heart of pain—and how this applies to mental pain such as craving.- How to get from mindfulness to meaning—how certain types of mindfulness practice can lead to an enduring sense of meaning and purpose Sign up for my newsletter for regular updates on new material and other writings.

'I think capitalism is over, but the problem is we have nothing to replace it with. Here's when we need artists, and others, to tell us what kind of vision they have for a future that is different than that: a future of play and meaningful work would be one future that I think is not just utopic, but very possible. 'dr. todd dufresne, e21 conscient podcastVideo version:Transcriptione21 dufresne : capitalism is over, my conversation with philosopher Dr. Todd Dufresne about reality, grief, art and the climate crisis.Democracy of SufferingI think capitalism is over, but the problem is we have nothing to replace it with. Here's when we need artists, and others, to tell us what kind of vision they have for a future that is different than that: a future of play and meaningful work would be one future that I think is not just utopic, but very possible. So there's a possible future moving forward that could be much better than it is right now, but we're not going to get there without democracy of suffering as we're experiencing it now and will at least over the next 20, 30, 40 years until we figure this out, but we need to figure it out quickly.e22 westerkamp : slowing down through listening, my conversation with composer and listener Hildegard Westerkamp about acoustic ecology and the climate crisis.Some HopeWe need toallow for time to pass without any action, without any solutions and to just experience it. I think that a slowdown is an absolute - if there is any chance to survive - that kind of slowing down through listening and meditation and through not doing so much. I think there's some hope in that.e23 appadurai: what does a just transition look like?,my ‘soundwalk' conversation with climate activist Anjali Appadurai about the just transition and the role of the arts in the climate emergency.The deeper diseaseThe climate crisis and the broader ecological crisis is a symptom of the deeper disease, which is that rift from nature, that seed of domination, of accumulation, of greed and of the urge to dominate others through colonialism, through slavery, through othering – the root is actually othering – and that is something that artists can touch. That is what has to be healed, and when we heal that, what does the world on the other side of a just transition look like? I really don't want to believe that it looks like exactly this, but with solar. The first language that colonisation sought to suppress, which was that of indigenous people, is where a lot of answers are held.e24 weaving : the good, possible and beautiful, my conversation with artist jil p. weaving about community-engaged arts, public art, the importance of the local, etc.The roles that artists can playThe recognition, and finding ways to assist people, in an awareness of all the good, the possible and the beautiful and where those things can lead, is one of the roles that artists can specifically play. e25 shaw : a sense of purpose, my conversation with Australian climate activist Michael Shaw about support structures for ecogrief and the role of art.Listen to what the call is in youIt's a real blessing to feel a sense of purpose that in these times. It's a real blessing to be able to take the feelings of fear and grief and actually channel them somewhere into running a group or to making a film or doing your podcasts. I think it's important that people really tune in to find out what they're given to do at this time, to really listen to what the call is in you and follow it. I think there's something that's very generative and supportive about feeling a sense of purpose in a time of collapse.e26 klein : rallying through art, my conversation with climate emergency activist Seth Klein about his book A Good War : Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, the newly formed Climate Emergency Unit and his challenge to artists to help rally us to this causeMy challenge to artists todayHere would be my challenge to artists today. We're beginning to see artists across many artistic domains producing climate and climate emergency art, which is important and good to see. What's striking to me is that most of it, in the main, is dystopian, about how horrific the world will be if we fail to rise to this moment. To a certain extent, that makes sense because it is scary and horrific, but here's what intrigued me about what artists were producing in the war is that in the main, it was not dystopian, even though the war was horrific. It was rallying us: the tone was rallying us. I found myself listening to this music as I was doing the research and thinking, World War II had a popular soundtrack, the anti-Vietnam war had a popular soundtrack. When I was a kid in the peace and disarmament movement, there was a popular soundtrack. This doesn't have a popular soundtrack, yet.é27 prévost : l'énergie créatrice consciente (in French), my conversation with sound artist, musician and radio producer Hélène Prévost about the state of the world and the role of artists in the ecological crisis.The less free art is, the less it disturbsIt is in times of crisis that solutions emerge and that would be my argument. It is in this solution to the crisis that, yes, there is a discourse that will emerge and actions that will emerge, but we can't see them yet. Maybe we can commission them, as you suggest: Can you make me a documentary on this? or Can you make me a performance that will illustrate this aspect? But for the rest, I think we must leave creative energy be free, but not unconscious. That's where education, social movements and education, or maybe through action. You see, and I'm going to contradict myself here, and through art, but not art that is servile, but art that is free. I feel like quoting Josée Blanchette in Le Devoirwho, a week ago, said 'the less free art is, the less it disturbs'.é28 ung : résilience et vulnérabilité (in French), my conversation with educator and philosopher Jimmy Ung about the notion of privilege, resilience, the role of the arts in facilitating intercultural dialogue and learning, education, social justice, etc. Practicing resilienceResilience, at its core, is having the ability to be vulnerable and I think often resilience is seen as the ability to not be vulnerable, and for me, the opposite, more like resilience is the ability to be vulnerable and to believe with hope. Maybe we have the ability to bounce back, to come back, to rise again, to be reborn? I think that's a way of practicing resilience, which is more and more necessary. Because if we want to move forward, if we want to learn and learn to unlearn, we will have to be vulnerable and therefore see resilience as the ability to be vulnerable.e29 loy, : the bodhisattva path my conversation with professor, writer and Zen teacher David Loy about the bodhisattva path, the role of storytelling, interdependence, nonduality and the notion of ‘hope' through a Buddhist lens.The ecological crisis as a kind of the karmaSome people would say, OK, we have a climate crisis, so we've got to shift as quickly as possible as we can from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, which is right. But somehow the idea that by doing that we can just sort of carry on in the way that we have been otherwise is a misunderstanding. We have a much greater crisis here and what it fundamentally goes back to is this sense of separation from the earth, that we feel our wellbeing, therefore, is separate from the wellbeing of the earth and that therefore we can kind of exploit it and use it in any way we want. I think we can understand the ecological crisis as a kind of the karma built into that way of relating and exploiting the earth. The other really important thing, which I end up talking about more often, is I think Buddhism has this idea of the bodhisattva path, the idea that it's not simply that we want to become awakened simply for our own benefit, but much more so that we want to awaken in order to be a service to everyone. e30 maggs : art and the world after this, my conversation with cultural theorist David Maggs about artistic capacity, sustainability, value propositions, disruption, recovery, etc.Entanglements of relationshipsComplexity is the world built of relationships and it's a very different thing to engage what is true or real in a complexity framework than it is to engage in it, in what is a modernist Western enlightenment ambition, to identify the absolute objective properties that are intrinsic in any given thing. Everyone is grappling with the fact that the world is exhibiting itself so much in these entanglements of relationships. The arts are completely at home in that world. And so, we've been sort of under the thumb of the old world. We've always been a kind of second-class citizen in an enlightenment rationalist society. But once we move out of that world and we move into a complexity framework, suddenly the arts are entirely at home, and we have capacity in that world that a lot of other sectors don't have. What I've been trying to do with this report (Art and the World After This) is articulate the way in which these different disruptions are putting us in a very different reality and it's a reality in which we go from being a kind of secondary entertaining class to, maybe, having a capacity to sit at the heart of a lot of really critical problem-solving challenges.e31 morrow : artists as reporters, my conversation with composer, sound artist, performer, and innovator Charlie Morrow about the origins of the conscient podcast, music, acoustic ecology, art and climate, health, hope and artists as journalists. In tune with what's going on in the worldI think that artists are for the most part in tune with what's going on in the world. We're all reporters, somehow journalists, who translate our message into our art, as art is in my mind, a readout, a digested or raw readout of what it is that we're experiencing. Our wish to be an artist is in fact, in order to be able to spend our lives doing that process.é32 tsou : changer notre culture (in French), my conversation (in French) with musician and cultural diplomacy advisor Shuni Tsou about citizen engagement, cultural action, the ecological crisis, arts education, social justice, systemic change, equity, etc,Cultural change around climate actionCitizen engagement is what is needed for cultural change around climate action. It's really a cultural shift in any setting. When you want to make big systemic changes, you have to change the culture and arts and culture are good tools to change the culture.e33 toscano : what we're fighting for, my conversation podcaster and artist Peterson Toscano about the role of the arts in the climate crisis, LGBTQ+ issues, religion, the wonders of podcasting, impacts, storytelling, performance art, etc. Where the energy is in a storyIt's artists who not only can craft a good story, but also we can tell the story that's the hardest to tell and that is the story about the impacts of climate solutions. So it's really not too hard to talk about the impacts of climate change, and I see people when they speak, they go through the laundry list of all the horrors that are upon us and they don't realize it, but they're actually closing people's minds, closing people down because they're getting overwhelmed. And not that we shouldn't talk about the impacts, but it's so helpful to talk about a single impact, maybe how it affects people locally, but then talk about how the world will be different when we enact these changes. And how do you tell a story that gets to that? Because that gets people engaged and excited because you're then telling this story about what we're fighting for, not what we're fighting against. And that is where the energy is in a story.é34 ramade : l'art qui nous emmène ailleurs (in French), my conversation (in French) with art historian, critic, curator and art and environment expert Bénédicte Ramade on the climate emergency, nature, music, visual arts, ecological art, etc.With music, you can convey so many thingsI am thinking of artist-composers who write pieces based on temperature readings that are converted into musical notes. This is also how the issue of global warming can be transmitted, from a piece played musically translating a stable climate that is transformed and that comes to embody in music a climatic disturbance. It is extraordinary. Is felt by the music, a fact of composition, something very abstract, with a lot of figures, statistical curves. We are daily fed with figures and statistical curves about the climate. ‘They literally do nothing to us anymore'. But on a more sensitive level, with the transposition into music, if it is played, if it is interpreted, ah, suddenly, it takes us elsewhere. And when I talk about these works, sometimes people who are more scientific or museum directors are immediately hooked, saying ‘it's extraordinary with music, you can convey so many things.e35 salas : adapting to reality, my conversation with Spanish curator + producer Carmen Salas on reality, ecogrief, artists & the climate crisis, arts strategies, curating and her article Shifting ParadigmsArtists need help in this processI find that more and more artists are interested in understanding how to change their practice and to adapt it to the current circumstances. I really believe artists need help in this process. Like we all do. I'm not an environmental expert. I'm not a climate expert. I'm just a very sensitive human being who is worried about what we are leaving behind for future generations. So, I'm doing what I can to really be more ethical with my work, but I'm finding more and more artists who are also struggling to understand what they can do. I think when in a conversation between curators or producers like myself and people like you - thinkers and funders - to come together and to understand the current situation, to accept reality, then we can strategize about how we can put things into place and how we can provide more funding for different types of projects.e36 fanconi : towards carbon positive work, my conversation with theatre artist and art-climate activist Kendra Fanconi, artistic director of The Only Animal about the role of the arts in the climate emergency, carbon positive work, collaboration and artists mobilization.Ecological restorationBen Twist at Creative Carbon Scotland talks about the transformation from a culture of consumerism to a culture of stewardship and we are the culture makers so isn't that our job right now to make a new culture and it will take all of us as artists together to do that? …  It's not enough to do carbon neutral work. We want to do carbon positive work. We want our artwork to be involved with ecological restoration. What does that mean? I've been thinking a lot about that. What is theatre practice that actually gives back, that makes something more sustainable? That is carbon positive. I guess that's a conversation that I'm hoping to have in the future with other theatre makers who have that vision.é37 lebeau : l'art régénératif (in French), my conversation with Écoscéno co-founder and executive director Anne-Catherine Lebeau on collaboration, circular economies, the role of art in the climate crisis, moving from ‘Take Make Waste' to ‘Care Dare Share' and creating regenerative art.From 'Take Make Waste' to 'Care Dare Share'For me, it is certain that we need more collaboration. That's what's interesting. Moving from a 'Take Make Waste' model to 'Care Dare Share'. To me, that says a lot. I think we need to look at everything we have in the arts as a common good that we need to collectively take care of. Often, at the beginning, we talked in terms of doing as little harm as possible to the environment, not harming it, that's often how sustainable development was presented, then by doing research, and by being inspired, among other things, by what is done at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in England, around circular economies, I realized that they talk about how to nourish a new reality. How do you create art that is regenerative? Art that feeds something.e38 zenith : arts as medicine to metabolize charge, my conversation with animist somatic practitioner, poet, philosopher, ecologist and clown Shante' Sojourn Zenith about reality, somatics, ecological grief, rituals, nature, performance and ecological imaginations.The intensity that's left in the systemArt is the medicine that actually allows us to metabolize charge. It allows us to metabolize trauma. It takes the intensity that's left in the system, and this goes all the way back to ritual. Art, for me, is a sort of a tributary coming off from ritual that is still sort of consensually allowed in this reality when the direct communication with nature through ritual was silenced, so it comes back to that wider river…e39 engle : the integral role of the arts in societal change, my conversation with urbanist Dr. Jayne Engle about participatory city planning, design, ecological crisis, sacred civics, artists and culture in societal and civilizational change.How change occursThe role of artists and culture is fundamental and so necessary, and we need so much more of it and not only on the side. The role of arts and culture in societal and civilizational change right now needs to be much more integral into, yes, artworks and imagination - helping us to culturally co-produce how we live and work together into the future and that means art works - but it also means artists perspectives into much more mainstream institutions, ideas, and thoughts about how change occurs.e40 frasz : integrated awakeness in daily life, my conversation with researcher and strategic thinker Alexis Frasz about ecological crisis, creative climate action, community arts, Buddhism, leadership and cross-sectoral arts practices. A lack of agencyThere is a lot of awareness and interest in making change and yet change still isn't really happening, at least not at the pace or scale that we need. It feels to me increasingly like there's not a lack of awareness, nor a lack of concern, or even a lack of willingness, but actually a lack of agency. I've been thinking a lot about the role of arts, and culture and creative practice in helping people not just wake up to the need for change, but actually undergo the entire transformational process from that moment of waking up (which you and I share a language around Buddhist practice). There's that idea that you can wake up in an instant but integrating the awakeness into your daily life is actually a process. It's an ongoing thing.e41 rae : a preparedness mindsetmy conversation with artist-researcher, facilitator and educator Jen Rae about art and emergency preparedness, community arts, reality, ecological grief, arts and climate emergency in Australia How artists step upThe thing about a preparedness mindset is that you are thinking into the future and so if one of those scenarios happens, you've already mentally prepared in some sort of way for it, so you're not dealing with the shock. That's a place as an artist that I feel has a lot of potential for engagement and for communication and bringing audiences along. When you're talking about realities, accepting that reality, has the potential to push us to do other things. It's great to hear about Canada Council changing different ways around enabling the arts and building capacity in the arts in the context of the climate emergency. It'll be interesting to see how artists step up.e42 rosen : when he climate threat becomes real, my conversation with architect Mark Rosen about what is enough, green buildings, how to change the construction industry, barriers and constraints in finding solutions to the climate crisis and deferred ecological debt.The idea of enoughThe idea of enough is very interesting to me. The idea that the planet doesn't have enough for us on our current trajectory is at the heart of that. The question of whether the planet has enough for everyone on the planet, if we change the way we do things is an interesting way. Can we sustain seven, eight, nine billion people on the planet if everyone's idea of enough was balanced with that equation? I don't know, but I think it's possible. I think that if we've shown nothing else as a species, as humans, it's adaptability and resiliency and when forced to, we can do surprisingly monumental things and changes when the threat becomes real to us.ConstraintsOne of the things that I find very interesting in my design process as an architect is that if you were to show me two possible building sites, one that is a green field wide open, with nothing really influencing the site flat, easy to build, and then you show me a second site that is a steep rock face with an easement that you can't build across. Inevitably, it seems to be that the site with more constraints results in a more interesting solution and the idea that constraints can be of benefit to the creative process is one that I think you can apply things that, on the surface, appear to be barriers instead of constraints. Capitalism, arguably, is one of those, if we say we can't do it because it costs too much, we're treating it as a barrier, as opposed to us saying the solution needs to be affordable, then it becomes a constraint and we can push against constraints and in doing so we can come up with creative solutions and so, one way forward, is to try and identify these things that we feel are preventing us from doing what we know we need to do and bringing them into our process as constraints, that influence where we go rather than prevent us from going where we need to go.e43 haley: climate as a cultural issue my conversation with British ecoartist David Haley about ecoart, climate change as a cultural issue, speaking truth to power, democracy, regeneration, morality, creating space and listening.Deep questions and listeningClimate change is actually a cultural issue, not a scientific issue. Science has been extremely good at identifying the symptoms and looking at the way in which it has manifest itself, but it hasn't really addressed any of the issues in terms of the causes. It has tried to use what you might call techno fix solution focused problem-based approaches to the situation, rather than actually asking deep questions and listening.A regenerative way of doing and thinkingGoing back to reality, one of the issues that we are not tackling is that we're taking a dystopian view upon individual activities that creates guilt, syndromes, and neuroses which of course means that the systems of power are working and in terms of actually addressing the power - of speaking truth to power - we need to name the names, we need to name Standard Oil, IG Farben who now call themselves ESSO, Chevron, Mobil, DuPont, BP, Bayer, Monsanto BASF, Pfizer and so on. These are the people that control the governments that we think we're voting for and the pretense of democracy that follows them. Until those organizations actually rescind their power to a regenerative way of doing and thinking, we're stuffed, to put pretty bluntly.Create the space for life to move onwardsWhat I have learned to do, and this is my practice, is to focus on making space. This became clear to me when I read, Lila : An inquiry into morals by Robert Pirsig. Towards the end of the book, he suggests that the most moral act of all, is to create the space for life to move onwards and it was one of those sentences that just rang true with me, and I've held onto that ever since and pursued the making of space, not the filling of it. When I say I work with ecology, I try to work with whole systems, ecosystems. The things within an ecosystem are the elements with which I try to work. I try not to introduce anything other than what is already there. In other words, making the space as habitat for new ways of thinking, habitat for biodiversity to enrich itself, habitat for other ways of approaching things. I mean, there's an old scientific adage about nature abhors a vacuum, and that vacuum is the space as I see it.e44 bilodeau : the arts are good at changing culture, my conversation with playwright and climate activist Chantal Bilodeau about theatre, cultural climate action, the role of art in the climate emergency and how to build audiences and networksLet's think about it togetherI think of the arts as planting a seed and activism as being the quickest way you can get from A to B. So activism is like, this is what we're going to do. We have to do it now. This is a solution. This is what we're working towards and there's all kinds of different solutions, but it's about action. The arts are not about pushing any one solution or telling people, this is what you need to do. It is about saying here's a problem. Let's think about it together. Let's explore avenues we could take. Let's think about what it means and what it means, not just, should I drive a car or not, but what it means, as in, who are we on this earth and what is our role? How do we fit in the bigger ecosystem of the entire planet? I think the arts are something very good to do that and they are good at changing a culture.e45 abbott : a compassionate, just and sustainable world, my conversation with filmmaker Jennifer Abbott about her film The Magnitude of all Things, reality, zen, compassion, grief, art and how to ensure a more compassionate, just and sustainable livable world.Untangling the delusionThe notion of reality and the way we grasp reality as humans is so deeply subjective, but it's also socially constructed, and so, as a filmmaker - and this is relevant because I'm also a Zen Buddhist - from both those perspectives, I try to explore what we perceive as reality to untangle and figure out in what ways are we being diluted? And in what ways do we have clear vision? And obviously the clearer vision we can have, the better actions we take to ensure a more compassionate, just and sustainable livable world. I'm all for untangling the delusion while admitting wholeheartedly that to untangle it fully is impossible.We're headed for some catastropheIn terms of why people are so often unable to accept the reality of climate change, I think it's very understandable, because the scale and the violence of it is just so vast, it's difficult to comprehend. It's also so depressing and enraging if one knows the politics behind it and overwhelming. I don't think we, as a species, deal with things that have those qualities very well and we tend to look away. I have a lot of compassion, including for myself, in terms of how difficult it is to come to terms with the climate catastrophe. It is the end of the world as we know it. We don't know what exactly the new world is going to look like, but we do know we're headed for some catastrophe. e46 badham : creating artistic space to think, my conversation with Dr Marnie Badham about art and social justice practice Australia and Canada, research on community-engaged arts, cultural measurement, education and how the arts create space for people to think through issues such as the climate emergency.There's a lot that the arts can doI think going forward, there's a lot that the arts can do. Philosophically art is one of the only places that we can still ask these questions, play out politics and negotiate ideas. Further, art isn't about communicating climate disaster, art is about creating space for people to think through some of these issues.e47 keeptwo : reconciliation to heal the earth, my conversation with Indigenous writer, editor, teacher and journalist Suzanne Keeptwo about Indigenous rights and land acknowledgements, arts education, cultural awareness and the role of art in the climate emergency.Original AgreementIn the work that I do and the book that I've just had published called, We All Go Back to the Land, it's really an exploration of that Original Agreement and what it means today. So I want to remind Indigenous readers of our Original Agreement to nurture and protect and honor and respect the Earth Mother and all of the gifts that she has for us and then to introduce that Original Agreement to non-indigenous Canadians or others of the world that so that we can together, as a human species, work toward what I call the ultimate act of reconciliation to help heal the earth.é48 danis : l'art durable (in French), my conversation with author and multidisciplinary artist Daniel Danis on sustainable art, consciousness, dreams, storytelling, territory, nature, disaster and the role of art in the ecological transitionImages of our shared ecology are bornIt's like saying that we make art, but it's an art that, all of a sudden, just like that, is offered. We don't try to show it, rather, we try to experience something and to make people experience things and therefore, without being in the zone of cultural mediation, but to be in a zone of experiences, of exchanges and therefore that I don't control. For example, in the theatre, a bubble in which I force the spectator to look and to focus only on what I am telling them, how can we tell ourselves about the planet? How can we tell ourselves about our terrestrial experiences, where we share a place between branches, clay, repair bandages and traces of the earth on a canvas or ourselves lying on the earth? No matter, all the elements that one could bring as possible traces of a shareable experience are present, and from there, all of a sudden, images of our shared ecology are born.Art must emit wavesFor me, a manifestation of art must emit waves and it is not seen, it is felt and therefore it requires the being - those who participate with me in my projects or myself on the space that I will manifest these objects there - to be in a porosity of my body that allows that there are waves that occur and necessarily, these waves the, mixed with the earth and that a whole set, we are in cooperation. It is sure that it has an invisible effect which is the wave, and which is the wave of sharing, of sharing, not even of knowledge, it is just the sharing of our existence on earth and how to be co-operators?e49 windatt : holistic messages, my conversation with Indigenous artist Clayton Windatt of about visual arts, Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, the arts and social change, communications, artists rights, the climate emergency and hope.Make a changeWhat if you tasked the arts sector with how to make messages, not about the crisis, but on the shifts in behavior that are necessary on a more meaningful basis. When the pandemic began and certain products weren't on the shelves at grocery stores, but there was still lots of stuff. There were shortages, but there wasn't that much shortage. How much would my life really change if half the products in the store were just not here, right and half of them didn't come from all over in the world? Like they were just: whatever made sense to have it available here and just having less choice. How terrible would that be: kind of not. How can we change behavior on a more holistic level, and have it stick, because that's what we need to do right now, and I think the arts would be a great vehicle to see those messages hit everybody and make a change.e50 newton : imagining the future we want, my conversation with climate activist Teika Newton about climate justice, hope, science, nature, resilience, inter-connections and the role of the arts in the climate emergency.There are no limitsThere are so many amazing people across this country who are helping to make change and are holding such a powerful vision for what the future can be. We get trapped in thinking about the paradigm limit in which we currently live, we put bounds on what feels like reality and what feels possible. There are no limits, and the arts helps us to push against that limited set of beliefs and helps us to remember that the way that we know things to be right now is not fixed. We can imagine anything. We can imagine the future we want.We need to love the things around usI see that there are a lot of ways in which people in my community use the landscape in a disrespectful way. Not considering that that's someone's home and that a wild place is not just a recreational playground for humans. It's not necessarily a source of wealth generation. It's actually a living, breathing entity and a home to other things and a home to us as well. I find that all really troubling that there is that disconnection and it sometimes does make me despair about the future course that we're on. You know, if we can't take care of the place that sustains us, if we can't live with respect for not just our human neighbours, but our wilderness neighbors, I don't know how well we're going to fare in the future. We need to love the things around us in order to care for them.Feel connected to othersHaving the ability to come together as a community and participate in the collective act of creating and expressing through various media, whether that's song, the written word, poetry, painting, mosaic or mural making, so many different ways of expressing, I think are really, really valuable for keeping people whole grounded, mentally healthy and to feel connected to others. It's the interconnection among people that will help us to survive in a time of crisis. The deeper and more complex the web of connections, the better your chances of resilience.e51 hiser : the emotional wheel of climate, my conversation with educator Dr. Krista Hiser on research about climate education, post-apocalyptic and cli-fi literature, musical anthems, ungrading, art as an open space and the emotional wheel of the climate emergency.Help them see that realityWhat motivates me is talking to students in a way that they're not going to come back to me in 10 years with this look on their face, you know, Dr. Hiser, why didn't you tell me this? Why didn't you tell me? I want to be sure that they're going to leave the interaction that we get to have that they're going to leave with at least an idea that someone tried to help them see that reality.The last open spaceThe art space is maybe the last open space where that boxiness and that rigidity isn't as present.Knowledge intermediariesThe shift is that faculty are really no longer just experts. They are knowledge brokers or knowledge intermediaries. There's so much information out there. It's so overwhelming. There are so many different realities that faculty need to interact with this information and create experiences that translate information for students so that students can manage their own information.Not getting stuck in the griefThere's a whole range of emotions around climate emergency, and not getting stuck in the grief. Not getting stuck in anger. A lot of what we see of youth activists and in youth activism is that they get kind of burned out in anger and it's not a sustainable emotion. But none of them are emotions that you want to get stuck in. When you get stuck in climate grief, it is hard to get unstuck, so moving through all the different emotions — including anger and including hope — and that idea of an anthem and working together, those are all part of the emotion wheel that exists around climate change.e52 mahtani : listening and connecting, my conversation with composer Dr. Annie Mahtani about music, sound art, the climate emergency, listening, nature, uncertainty, festivals, gender parity and World Listening DayThat doesn't mean we should give upIf we can find ways to encourage people to listen, that can help them to build a connection, even if it's to a small plot of land near them. By helping them to have a new relationship with that, which will then expand and help hopefully savour a deeper and more meaningful relationship with our natural world, and small steps like that, even if it's only a couple of people at a time, that could spread. I think that nobody, no one person, is going to be able to change the world, but that doesn't mean we should give up. Exploration of our soundscapesFor the (BEAST) festival we wanted to look at what COVID has done to alter and adjust people's practice, the way that composers and practitioners have responded to the pandemic musically or through listening and also addressing the wider issues: what does it mean going forwards after this year, the year of uncertainty, the year of opportunity for many? What does it mean going forward to our soundscape, to our environmental practice and listening? We presented that goal for words, as a series of questions, you know, not expecting necessarily any answers, but a way in a way to address it and a way to explore and that's what the, the weekend of concerts and talks and workshops was this kind of exploration of our soundscapes, thinking about change and thinking about our future.e53 kalmanovitch : nurturing imagination, my conversation with musician Dr. Tanya Kalmanovitch about music, ethnomusicology, alberta tar sands, arts education, climate emergency, arts policy and how artistic practice can nurture imaginationThe content inside a silenceOne of the larger crises we face right now is actually a crisis of failure of imagination and one of the biggest things we can do in artistic practice is to nurture imagination. It is what we do. It's our job. We know how to do that. We know how to trade in uncertainty and complexity. We understand the content inside a silence, it's unlocking and speaking to ways of knowing and being and doing that when you start to try to talk about them in words, it is really challenging because it ends up sounding like bumper stickers, like ‘Music Builds Bridges'. I have a big problem with universalizing discourses in the arts, as concealing structures of imperialism and colonialism.GriefNormal life in North America does not leave us room for grief. We do not know how to handle grief. We don't know what to do with it. We push it away. We channel it, we contain it, we compartmentalize it. We ignore it. We believe that it's something that has an end, that it's linear or there are stages. We believe it's something we can get through. Whereas I've come to think a lot about the idea of living with loss, living with indeterminacy, living with uncertainty, as a way of awakening to the radical sort of care and love for ourselves, for our fellow living creatures for the life on the planet. I think about how to transform a performance space or a classroom or any other environment into a community ofcare. How can I create the conditions by which people can bear to be present to what they have lost, to name and to know what we have lost and from there to grieve, to heal and to act inthe fullest awareness of loss? Seeing love and loss as intimately intertwined.StorytellingMy idea is that there's a performance, which is sort of my offering, but then there's also a series of participatory workshops where community members can sound their own stories about where we've come from, how they're living today and the future in which they wish to live, what their needs are, what their griefs are. So here, I'm thinking about using oral history and storytelling as a practice that promotes ways of knowing, doing and healing … with storytelling as a sort of a participatory and circulatory mechanism that promotes healing. I have so much to learn from indigenous storytelling practices. Nature as musicWe are all every one of us musicians. When youchoose what song you wake up to on your alarm or use music to set a mood. You sing a catchy phrase to yourself or you sing a child asleep: you're making musical acts. Then extend that a little bit beyond that anthropocentric lens and hear a bird as a musician, a creek as a musician and that puts us into that intimate relationship with the environment again.AlbertaI guess this is plea for people to not think aboutoil sands issues as being Alberta issues, but as those being everyone everywhere issues, and not just because of the ecological ethical consequences ofthe contamination of the aquifer, what might happen if 1.4 trillion liters of toxic process water, if the ponds holding those rupture, what might happen next…That story will still be there, that land and the people, the animals and the plants, all those relationships will still be imperiled, right? So to remember, first of all, that it's not just an Alberta thing and that the story doesn't end just because Teck pulled it's Frontier mining proposal in February, 2020. The story always goes on. I want to honor the particular and the power of place and at the same time I want touplift the idea that we all belong to that place.e54 garrett : empowering artists, my conversation with theatre artist Ian Garrett about ethics, theatre, education, role of art in Climate Emergency, Sustainability in Digital Transformation & carbon footprint of Cultural Heritage sector. Complete guarantee of extinctionI don't want to confuse the end of an ecologically unsustainable, untenable way of civilization working in this moment with a complete guarantee of extinction. There is a future. It may look very different and sometimes I think the inability to see exactly what that future is – and our plan for it - can be confused for there not being one. I'm sort of okay with that uncertainty, and in the meantime, all one can really do is the work to try and make whatever it ends up being more positive. There's a sense of biophilia about it.A pile of burning tiresThe extreme thought experiment that I like to use in a performance context is: if you had a play in which the audience left with their minds changed about all of their activities, you could say that that is positive. But, if the set that it took place on was a pile of burning tires – which is an objectively bad thing to do for the environment – there is a conversation by framing it as an arts practice as to is there value in having that impact, because of the greater impact. And those sorts of complexities have sort of defined the fusion and different approaches in which to take; it's not just around metrics.Individual values towards sustainabilityThe intent of it [the Julie's Bicycle Creative Green Tools] is not like LEED in which you are getting certified because you have come up with a precise carbon footprint. It's a tool for, essentially, decision-making in that artistic context, that if you know this information, then you have a better way to consider critically the way that you are making and what you're making and how you are representing your values and those aspects, regardless of whether or not it is explicitly part of the work. And so there's lots of tools in which I've had the opportunity to have a relationship with which that are really about empowering artists, arts makers, arts collectives to be able to make those decisions so that their individual values towards sustainability – regardless of what they're actually making – can also be represented and that they can make choices that best represent those regardless of whether or not they're explicitly creating something for ‘earth day'.The separation of the artist from the personThe separation of the artist from the person and articulating as a profession is a unique thing, whereas an alternative to that could just be that we are expressive and artistic beings that seeks to create and have different talents but turning that into a profession is something that we've done to ourselves and so while we do that, we exist within systems, our cultural organizations exist within systems, that have impacts much farther outside of it so that a systems analysis approach is really important.é55 trépanier : un petit instant dans un espace beaucoup plus vaste (in French), my  conversation with indigenous artist France Trépanier about colonialism, indigenous cultures, ecological transition, time, art, listening, dreams, imagination and this brief moment…The responsibility to maintain harmonious relationshipsI think that with this cycle of colonialism, and what it has brought, that we are coming to the end of this century, and with hindsight, we will realize that it was a very small moment in a much larger space, and that we are returning to very deep knowledge. What does it mean to live here on this planet? What does it mean to have the possibility, but also the responsibility to maintain harmonious relationships? I say that the solution to the climate crisis is ‘cardiac'. It will go through the heart. We are talking about love of the planet. That's the work.Terra nulliusFor me, the challenge of the ecological issue or the ecological crisis in which we find ourselves is to understand the source of the problem and not just to put a band-aid on it, not just to try to make small adjustments to our ways of living, but to really look at the very nature of the problem. For me, I think that something happened at the moment of contact, at the moment when the Europeans arrived. They arrived with this notion of property. They talked about Terra Nullius, the idea that they could appropriate territories that were 'uninhabited' (I put quotation marks on uninhabited) and I think that was our first collision of worldviews.Eurocentric vision of artistic practicesIf we take a longer-term view of how the eurocentric view of artistic practices have imposed itself on the material practices of world cultures, this is going to be a very small moment in history. The idea of disciplines, the way in which the Eurocentric vision imposed categories and imposed a certain elitism of practices. The way it also declassified the material culture of the First Nations, or it was not possible, it was not art. Art objects became either artifacts or crafts. It was completely declassified, we didn't understand. I think the first people who came here didn't understand what was in front of them.The real tragedyThe artist Mike MacDonald was telling a story, Mike, who is a Mi'kmaq artist, who is with us now, but who has done remarkable work, a new media artist, he was telling a story once about one of the elders in his community, he was saying that the real tragedy of Canada, it's not that people have been prevented from speaking their language. The real tragedy is that the newcomers have not adopted the cultures here. So 'there have been great misunderstandings. Rewriting the worldI don't think we need to rewrite anything at all. I think we just need to pay attention and listen. We just need to shut up a little bit for a while. Because it's in the notion of authoring there is the word 'author' which presupposes the word authority and I'm not sure that's what we need right now. I think it's the opposite. I think we need to change our relationship to authority. We need to deconstruct that idea when we're being the decision makers or the masters of anything. I don't think that's the right approach. I think you have to listen. I'm not saying that we shouldn't imagine - I think that imagination is important in this attentive listening - but to think that we are going to rewrite is perhaps a little pretentious.é56 garoufalis-auger : surmonter les injustices (in French), my conversation with activist Anthony Garoufalis-Auger about sacrifice, injustices, strategies, activism, youth, art, culture, climate emergency and disaster SacrificeIt's going to take sacrifice and it's going to take a huge commitment to change things, so maybe getting out of our comfort zone will be necessary at this point in history. What's interesting is looking at the past and the history of humanity. It has taken a lot of effort to change things, but at least we have examples in history where we have come together to overcome injustices. We need to be inspired by this.We are really heading for disasterThe people around me, the vast majority, understand where we are with climate change. There is a complete disconnect with the reality that we see in our mass culture and in the news which is not a constructed reality. What science tells us is reality. We are really heading for disaster. é57 roy : ouvrir des consciences (in French), my conversation with artist Annie Roy on socially engaged art, grief, cultural politics, nature, how to open our consciousness, the digital and the place of art in our livesThe contribution of artIs being creative also about getting away from the world, pure to the source as it is, rather than just accepting that we're small and we should go back to the basics? I don't know if art brings us back to the essential versus brings us back to drifting completely. Maybe creativity or creation takes us so far away that we imagine ourselves living on Mars in a kind of platform that doesn't look like anything, or we won't need the birds, then the storms, then the this and that. We will have recreated a universe from scratch where it is good to live. That could be the contribution of art. I don't like this art too much.Opening consciousness If we are in reality and then we say to ourselves in the current world, it is necessary that it insufflate desire and power towards a better future. But it is not the artist who is going to decide and then that disturbs me. It bothers me to have a weight on my shoulders, to change the world while not having the power to do it, real. The power I have is to open consciousness, to see dreams in the minds of others and to instill seeds of possibility for a future.On the back of artThe artist is a being who lives in his contemporaneity, who absorbs the 'poop' in everything that happens and tries to transform it into something beautiful, then powerful for a springboard to go towards better. But we could leave it at that, in the sense that people, how do they use art in their lives? The artist may have all his wills, but what is the place of the art that we make in our lives? Because they are between four walls, in a museum or in very specific places. It's not always integrated into the flow of the day as something supernatural. It's a framed moment that we give away like we consume anything else. Then, if you consume art like anything else, like you go to the spa or you go shopping and then you buy a new pair of pants and then it feels good to have gone to a play. Wasn't that good? Yeah, it's cool but it's not going to go any further than anything other than a nice thrill that's going to last two or three hours and then you're going to get in your Hummer and go home all the same. I think that's putting a lot on the back of art.e58 huddart : the arts show us what is possible, my conversation with Stephen Huddart about dematerialization, nature, culture, capital, supporting grassroots activity, innovation and how the arts can show us what is possible.Existential crisisThis is now an existential crisis, and we have in a way, a conceptual crisis, but just understanding we are and what this is, this moment, all of history is behind us: every book you've ever read, every battle, every empire, all of that is just there, right, just right behind us. And now we, we are in this position of emerging awareness that in order to have this civilization, in some form, continue we have to move quickly, and the arts can help us do that by giving us a shared sense of this moment and its gravity, but also what's possible and how quickly that tipping point could be reached.DematerializationI think we have to more broadly, dematerialize and move from a more material culture to some more spiritual culture, a culture that is able to enjoy being here, that experiences an evolutionary shift towards connection with nature, with all of that it entails with the human beings and the enjoyment and celebration of culture and so I think those two perspectives that the arts have an essential and so important and yet difficult challenge before them.Gabrielle RoyLet's just say that on the previous $20 bill, there's a quote from Gabrielle Roy. It's in micro-type, but it basically says : 'how could we have the slightest chance of knowing each other without the arts'. That struck me when I read that and thought about the distances, that have grown up between us, the polarization, the prejudices, all of those things, and how the arts create this bridge between peoples, between lonely people, between dreamers and all people and that the arts have that ability to link us together in a very personal and profound and important ways. Capital A lot of my time is really now on how do we influence capital flows? How do we integrate the granting economy with all that it has and all of its limits with the rest of the economy: pension funds, institutional investors of various kinds, family offices and so on, because we need all of these resources to be lining up and integrated in a way that can enable grassroots activity to be seen, supported, nurtured, linked to the broader systems change that we urgently need, and that takes the big capital moving so that's a space that I'm currently exploring and I'm looking for ways to have that conversation.e59 pearl : positive tipping points, my conversation with arts organiser Judi Pearl about theatre, climate emergency, collaboration, arts leadership, intersection of arts and sustainability and the newly formed Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE)That gathering placeIt's (SCALE, the Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency) a national round table for the arts and culture sector to mobilize around the climate emergency. A few months ago, you and I, and a few others were all having the same realization that while there was a lot of important work and projects happening at the intersection of arts and sustainability in Canada, there lacked some kind of structure to bring this work together, to align activities, to develop a national strategy, and to deeply, deeply question the role of arts and culture in the climate emergency and activate the leadership of the sector in terms of the mobilization that needs to happen in wider society. SCALE is really trying to become that gathering place that will engender that high level collaboration, which hopefully will create those positive tipping points.é60 boutet : a la recherche d'un esprit collectif (in French), my conversation with arts practice researcher Dr. Danielle Boutet on ecological consciousness, reality, activism, grief, art as a way of life, innovation and spiritualityUnconsciousCollectively, we are unconscious. We try to talk about ecological consciousness. If there is a collective psyche, which I believe there is, I do think there is a kind of collective mind, but it is a mind that is unconscious, that is not capable of seeing itself, of reflecting and therefore not capable of meditating, not capable of transforming itself, and therefore subject to its fears and its impulses. I am quite pessimistic about this, in the sense that ecological grief, all grief and all fear is repressed at the moment. There are activists shouting in the wilderness, screaming, and people are listening, but in a fog. It is not enough to bring about collective action. Therefore, our grieving is far from being done, collectively.Changing our relationship to nature We need to change our relationship to nature, our way of relating to others, and it's not the generalizing science that's going to tell us, it's this kind of science of the singular and the experience of each person. For me, it is really a great field of innovation, of research and I see that the artists go in this direction. You know, you and I have been watching the changes in the art world since the 1990s. I see it through the artists who talk about it more and more and integrate their reflection in their approach. How art can help humans evolveI hear a lot of people calling for artists to intervene and of artists also saying that something must be done, etc. I think that art is not a good vehicle for activism. I'm really sorry for all the people who are interested in this. I don't want to shock anyone, but sometimes it can risk falling into propaganda or ideology or a kind of facility that I am sorry about, in the sense that I think art can do so much more than that and go so much deeper than that. Art can help humans to evolve. It is at this level that I think that we can really have an action, but I think that we have always had this action, and it is a question of doing it again and again and again.e61sokoloski: from research to action, my conversation with arts leader Robin Sokoloski about cultural research, arts policy, climate emergency, community-engaged arts, creative solution making and how to create equitable and inclusive organizational structuresConnections to truly impact policyI think that there needs to be greater capacity within the art sector for research to action. When I say that the art sector itself needs to be driving policy. We need to have the tools, the understanding, the training, the connections to truly impact policy and one thing that Mass Cultureis really focused on at the moment is how do we first engage the sector in what are the research priorities and what needs to be investigated together and what that process looks like, but then how do you then take that research create it so that it drives change.Creative Solution MakingI'm very curious to see what the arts can do to convene us as a society around particular areas of challenges and interests that we're all feeling and needing to face. I think it's about bringing the art into a frame where we could potentially provide a greater sense of creative solution making instead of how we are sometimes viewed, which is art on walls or on stages. I think there's much more potential than that to engage the arts in society.Organizational StructuresWe do have the power as human beings to change human systems and so I think I'm very curious of working with people who are like-minded and who want to operate differently. I often use the organizational structure as an example of that because it is, as we all know is not a perfect model. We complain about it often and yet we always default to it. How can we come together, organize and, and bring ideas to life in different ways by changing that current system, make it more equitable, make it more inclusive, find ways of bringing people in and not necessarily having them commit, but have them come touch and go when they need to and I feel as though there'll be a more range of ideas brought to the table and just a more enriching experience and being able to bring solutions into reality by thinking of how our structures are set up and how we could do those things differently.  *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHere is a link for more information on season 5. Please note that, in parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays for those frightened by the ecological crisis'. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.Also. please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin. I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on April 2, 2024

In this conversation with David Loy, we speak about the intertwinig and connection between the current ecological crisis and our personal existential feeling of lack of wholeness. A lack created by consumerism, todays dominating religion acording to David Loy. These are some of the themes of our conversation: A lot of the problems we find ourselves in have to do with consciousness The climate crisis is just the tip of the iceberg We are not separate from the natural world The natural world is not just our conveniance store or a place to dump stuff Our mechanistic view of life non-dualiti and non-separation It's not just a political crisis but also a spiritual one In this nonduality we are going to realise something new about ourselves and the world, and see that there is no separation The healing of the earth will also result in a healing of ourselves This delusion of individualism and the sense of lack it brings with it The wholeness we long for occurs when we are able to open up to this nonduality, mother earth, Buddha nature, God… this opening can take place through some kind of spiritual practice. Time is also connected to this sense of lack. There is this future orientation in this lack paradigm, that we miss the present moment. This makes us unable to appreciate what is already here Mindfulness, meditation and a supportive community are important parts of counteraction Mindfulness, meditation and a supportive community are important parts of counteraction Joanna Macy - We must feel more deeply to transform more deeply What is it greater than myself, that I want to be in service of? To be engaged in what we believe in, but not be attached to the result, this is also about non-attachment Our commitment to this work has to be our gift, given without expectations Cultivating Dont know mind The bodhisatwa path - we are not doing it for ourselves, but for the good of all living beings Dogen: it's not about rejecting concepts, it's about liberating the concepts - this is the creativity that springs from non duality. This future orientation is very much connected to grasping and consumerism and takes us away from the flow of the eternal now Insofar as we believe in a separate selfe, We are haunted by this sense of lack The delusion of separation We often engage in lack projects to fill the bottomless hole of our being There is some movement or tendency in the world to work against the ruling paradigm How our personal path is intertwined with the more global, societal path The website of the echodharma center in Catalunya, Spain: http://www.ecodharma.com David Loy's website: www.davidloy.org My website: www.duritaholm.com

(episode script)[frogs 2017 05 22, Preston River, QC]Welcome to the conscient podcast. My name is Claude Schryer. Season 1 was about exploring how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French, 15 in English as well as a series of bilingual blogs and videos. You can see and hear them at https://www.conscient.ca/. Season 2 is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. Today you'll hear episode 1, called reality. It touches upon our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, eco anxiety and eco grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The episode mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from my simplesoundscapescollection and from my soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. This poetic layering of ideas and sound is how I make sense of life and the world around me.A complete transcript of this episode, including weblinks to the source each of quotation and field recording, can be found in the episode notes. The rest of season 2 will feature interviews with thought leaders, in English ou en francais, about their responses and reactions to episode 1. This is where I will be fleshing out some of the questions I raise in the episode with experts and thought leaders. Please stay tuned. Veuillez noter que cette émission est également disponible en français. [e11 Arrival 2017 09 19, Dash-8, Ottawa Airport, ON]*Journalist Jack Miles, If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?Reality, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is “the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.” Instead of being the method through which we observe a thing, reality is the nature or truth of this thing.  [e55 crôute, 2018 01 28, Duhamel QC]Definition of Reality in Buddhism,WikipediaBuddhism seeks to address any disparity between a person's view of reality and the actual state of things.[e97 raven 2018 07 24 Saturna Island, BC]Writer Sherri Mitchell, Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based ChangeWe must tune in to our ability to see beyond the physical reality that surrounds us and awaken to the vast unseen world that exists. [e169 chorus 2018 05 26 Duhamel, QC]Cultural theorist Thomas Berry, The Dream of the EarthOur challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value. Historian Paul Krause (also known as Hesiod),Francis Bacon's Philosophy of Scientific ConquestFor Francis Bacon, man is superior to nature. But man is also alienated from nature. Nature is harsh and unforgiving and something that needs to be conquered. Rather than seeing man as part of the web of nature, Bacon sees man as existing in a natural empire.[chainsaw, 2016 12 04, Duhamel QC] [ice falling, 1990 North Bay, ON]Political science professor Thomas Homer-Dixon, Commanding HopeToday's globe-spanning crises all stem from common sources: beliefs and values that are too self-centered, political systems that are too hidebound, economies that are too rapacious, and technologies that are too dirty for a small, crowded planet with dwindling resources and fraying natural systems.[birdsong, 2020 03 14, Biosphere2, AZ]Activist Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The ClimateWhat the climate needs to avoid collapse, is a contraction in humanity's use of resources and what our economic model demands, to avoid collapse, is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be changed, and it's not the laws of nature. Philosophy professor Todd Dufresne, For the Love of Wisdom: Climate Change and the Revenge of HistoryWe're all being “radicalized by reality.” It's just that for some people it takes a personal experience of fire, landslide, or hurricane to get their attention. I'm afraid it takes mass death and extinction.Whoever survives these experiences will have a renewed appreciation for nature, for the external world, and for the necessity of collectivism in the face of mass extinction. There's hope in this — although I admit it's wrapped in ugliness.[2 appel, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1996 Montréal QC]Environmental humanitiesprofessor Jennifer Atkinson, Facing It Eco-anxiety and climate grief are sometimes framed as “disorders” but in fact these feelings typically arise from an accurate perception of our ecological crisis. It may be more appropriate to identify eco-anxiety as a “moral emotion” – a sign of compassion, attachment to life, and desire for justice. Our future remains unwritten, and by embracing the unknown we are better able to reframe our thinking in empowering ways. Writer Rebecca Solnit, Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown​: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark timesHope locates itself in the premises that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. [33 nuage, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1996 Montréal QC]Dharma teacher Catherine Ingram, Facing ExtinctionLove, what else is there to do now?  Here we are, some of the last humans who will experience this beautiful planet since Homo sapiens began their journey some 200,000 years ago. Now, in facing extinction of our species, you may wonder if there is any point in going on.  Journalist Dahl Jamail, The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate DisruptionMy heart breaks for what we have done and are doing to the planet. I grieve, yet this ongoing process has become more like peeling back the layers of an onion — there is always more work to do, as the crisis we have created for ourselves continues to unfold.  And somewhere along the line I surrendered my attachment to any results that might stem from my work. I am hope-free.Journalist Richard Heinberg, The Big PictureHope is not just an expectation of better times ahead; it is an active attitude, a determination to achieve the best possible outcome regardless of the challenges one is facing.[protest, 2017 01 21 Ottawa, ON]Activist Greta Thunberg, Message to world leaders at #DavosAgenda For me, hope is the feeling that keeps you going, even though all odds may be against you. For me, hope comes from action not just words. For me, hope is telling it like it is.[8 capital, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1990 Montréal QC]Law Professor Shalanda Baker, Revolutionary Power: An Activist's Guide to the Energy TransitionWill we redesign systems to replicate the current structures of power and control, or will we reimagine our system to benefit those are so often left out of discussions regarding systems design? [49 temps, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1998 Montréal QC]Writer Britt Wray, Climate tipping points: the ones we actually wantWhen a small change in a complex system produces an enormous shift, that new pathway gets reinforced by positive feedback loops, which lock in all that change. That's why tipping points are irreversible. You can't go back to where you were before. A tipping point that flips non-linearly could be the thing that does us in, but it could also be the thing that allows us to heal our broken systems and better sustain ourselves. [7 brassage, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1996 Manitoba]Public policy professorEric Beinhocker, I Am a Carbon AbolitionistHumankind is in a race between two tipping points. The first is when the Earth's ecosystems and the life they contain tip into irreversible collapse due to climate change. The second is when the fight for climate action tips from being just one of many political concerns to becoming a mass social movement. The existential question is, which tipping point will we hit first?[41 profondeur, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1980s Ice breaker, Nunavut]Zen teacher David Loy, Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological CrisisThe Buddhist solution to this predicament is not to get rid of the self, because there is no such thing to get rid of. The sense of self needs to be deconstructed (‘forgotten' in meditation) and reconstructed (replacing the ‘three poisons' of greed, ill will and delusion with generosity, loving-kindness and the wisdom that recognizes our interdependence). Just as there is no self to get rid of, we cannot ‘return to nature' because we've never been apart from it, but we can realize our nonduality with it and begin to live in ways that accord with that realization. [43 réveil, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1990s Church bells, Europe]Actor Dominic Champagne, Le fond de ma pensée (in French only)Knowing that I will be leaving my three sons a world in worse condition than the one I inherited from my parents, knowing that we are contemporaries in a world where our actions are jeopardizing the future of life on Earth and knowing that the situation may get worse, what am I doing with my life? How can I keep putting on shows and spinning balloons on my nose as if nothing had happened?Journalist Julia Rosen,An artist set out to paint climate change. She ended up on a journey through griefSociety tends to see climate change as a scientific issue, rather than a cultural and political challenge that demands our full humanity — the kind more often explored and addressed through art.Composer R. Murray Schafer, Au dernier vivant les biensLook at war. People who want to use noise as a kind of weaponry. To frighten them.  To scare them. To beat them down. To pulverize them. If you want to destroy people. One of the first resorts you have is to noise.Artist David Haley, Going beyond EarthlyWe now need aesthetics to sensitize us to other ways of life and we need artists to sensitize us to the shape of things to come.[28 liquide, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1998 Montréal QC]  Artist Diego Galafassi, How the arts might help us grapple with climate changeArt is a space where we can ask very difficult questions and explore things in a more open-ended way and not be committed to solutions. Artist Lance Gharavi,In a climate crisis, artists have a duty to speak up – but what should they say?While individual works of art, ‘however genius,' may have value, they won't do the trick. What we need is for all art to be about climate change.[Marche sonore 1, Grenouilles, 1992 Montréal QC]  Composer Robert Normandeau, Marche sonore 1It's a bit like taking a frog, which is a cold-blooded animal, and putting it in a jar of water and heating the water, little by little. The frog will get used to the temperature rising and rising, and it will not notice that the temperature has risen and one day the temperature will be too hot for it and it will die. Therefore, our civilization, in terms of sound, looks a bit like that, that is to say we get used to it, we get used to it, we get used to it and at some point, we are going to have punctured eardrums. Historian Yuval Harari,Why Did Humans Become The Most Successful Species On Earth?If you think about any religion, any economic system, any political system, at the basis you will find some fictional story about God, about money, about human rights, about a nation. All these things are fictional stories. They are not a biological reality, but it's a very powerful and convincing and benign fiction that helps us organize our political and legal systems in the modern world.Writer Charles Eisenstein, To Reason with a MadmanExpository prose generates resistance, but stories touch a deeper place in the soul. They flow like water around intellectual defenses and soften the soil so that dormant visions and ideals can take root. Writer Richard Wagamese, Embers: One Ojibway's MeditationsTo use the act of breathing to shape air into sounds that take on the context of language that lifts and transports those who hear it, takes them beyond what they think and know and feel and empowers them to think and feel and know even more.  We're storytellers, really. That's what we do. That is our power as human beings.[fireplace, 2021 01 26, Duhamel QC]  Composer Claude Schryer, story from participation at How does culture contribute to sustainable futures?Here's a story.  Once upon a time… I think it was during the fall of 2019, I was at a meeting about how the arts and cultural sector, and in particular indigenous traditional knowledge community, could play a much larger role in the fight against climate change. I was very fortunate to be there, and I was very excited to learn more. So, we sat around a table, not quite a circle, but close enough, and each person shared knowledge and some stories. I spoke about how the institution that I worked for was trying to become greener and walk its talk on environmental issues. Others spoke about issues like built heritage and intangible culture and hat kind of thing. Then, the representative from an indigenous cultural organization took my breath away when he said that it would ‘likely take as long to resolve the ecological crisis as it did to create it'. Now, I played this back in my mind: take as long to resolve the ecological crisis as it did, or as it does, to create it. How is this possible? and then I said: ‘but, but we do not have that kind of time'. Or do we? We all looked at each other in silence. I'll never forget that moment. [e105 thunder, 2018 08 04, Duhamel QC]Activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Our survival utterly depends on living in nature, not apart from itIt's important to recognize how closely linked environment, health, economics, culture and rights are in our society. The Earth is a living, breathing entity just the same as our bodies are. Our survival utterly depends on living in nature, not apart from it. Writer Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of PlantsThe land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.[frogs 2017 05 22, Preston River, QC]Dharma teacher Catherine Ingram, Facing Extinction : Despite our having caused so much destruction, it is important to also consider the wide spectrum of possibilities that make up a human life.  Yes, on one end of that spectrum is greed, cruelty, and ignorance; on the other end is kindness, compassion, and wisdom. We are imbued with great creativity, brilliant communication, and extraordinary appreciation of and talent for music and other forms of art. There is no other known creature whose spectrum of consciousness is as wide and varied as our own.*I agree with Catherine that we humans are conscient beings, with an unlimited capacity for, yes, greed, cruelty, ignorance and selfishness but also for kindness, compassion, wisdom, creativity and imagination.My own understanding and perception of reality have been transformed since I started writing this episode. Yuval Harari's statement about how ‘fictional stories are not a biological reality' shook me up and woke me up.More and more, I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist', without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way. So where do we go from here? Eric Beinhocker reminded us earlier in the program that humankind is in a race between two tipping points: irreversible collapse or mass social movement.  My heart, of course, is with massive social movement, there are signs of it growing, however, my rational mind, informed by science, sees irreversible collapse as the most likely outcome. and this collapse has already begun and so we must make every effort, for the benefit of future generations, to slow down the collapse while a mass social movement grows. Personally, my hope is that we find a way to accept reality, to work our way through ecological grief and to chart a path forward. My dream, as zen teacher David Loy suggests, is that one day, we can ‘realize our nonduality with nature and begin to live in ways that accord with that realization'.  *You've been listening to reality, episode 1 of season 2 of the conscient podcast. My name is Claude Schryer. I would like to warmly thank the 28 individuals who I quoted in this program. Some of their quotes have been slightly abbreviated for concision and clarity. I also want to thank all those who have helped me produce this episode, in particular my wife Sabrina Mathews and podcast consultant Ayesha Barmania.Please keep in mind that this podcast is a work in progress and that I'm aware that my work has moments of incoherence, contradiction, unconscious bias, a bit of panic and some naïveté, among other things, so please feel free to challenge my assumptions, share your thoughts and join the conversation through conscient.ca. Also keep in mind that these are troubling and challenging issues, so please do not hesitate to reach out to support groups or counselling services in your community for help. A reminder that episode 2 (é20 réalité) is the French version of this program and episode 3 will be the first in a series of conversations with guests about their response to the reality episode.Take good care and thanks for listening.[e74 sky, 2018 08 04, Duhamel QC]Thanks to Hélène Prévost and Lolita Boudreault for their support. *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHere is a link for more information on season 5. Please note that, in parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays for those frightened by the ecological crisis'. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.Also. please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin. I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on April 2, 2024

R and N talk about the "Wasteland," the problem of categories, and how the overuse of categories can lead to dehumanization. Lastly, they discuss the importance of creativity, especially when we are trying to create new vision for society. References Book: Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis, by David Loy. Link at Bookshop --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/eatingcake/support

Join Andrew and philosopher David Loy on an exhilarating ride through the nuances of nonduality, and how to apply it to daily life. What exactly is nonduality? If nonduality is the natural state, how did we get so dualistic, and how do we continue to practice duality? The conversation explores the power of language and evolution in generating a dualistic view, then turns to a close look at the role of vision and our sight-centric ways. Why did the senses even evolve if the world is nondualistic? And what is the relationship between light, mind and appearance itself? The discussion then explores the role of meditation in realizing nonduality, and the blind spots that afflict meditators. How can we use “spiritual reductionism” as a way to simplify the world's problems into basic spiritual tenets? How does our inarticulate sense of lack drive virtually everything we do? How do the three poisons of passion, aggression, and ignorance get institutionalized? Dr. Loy's gift is to bolt the philosophical with the practical, so the conversation shifts to current social and political unrest, and the role of the ecosattva in today's ecological crises. What is the place of hope and fear in relating to current problems, and how can we continue to help the world in the face of so many obstacles? Does Buddhism have something to offer in terms of social activism, or is it irrelevant in this modern age? David is a rare blend of scholar-practitioner, and one of the most refined thinkers of our age. His insights have the potential to revolutionize “applied spirituality.”

Zen teacher, eco-activist, and philosopher David Loy explores with Joseph the sense of self, its sense of lack, and the interplay of individual awakening, social transformation, and the fate of the biosphere. David is the author of Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Precipice

The intelligent edge yoga podcast was produced by Kathryn Anne Flynn; author of Teach Kind, Clear Yoga: A Guide for Practitioners and Teachers. To learn more about Kathryn, practice online, or find retreats and training opportunities, visit kathrynanneflynn.comEcodharma - Buddhist teachings for the ecological crisis is a book by David Loy on his vision for modern Buddhists to tread the ecosattva path. We discuss practice in the age of the climate crisis, and he shares wisdom from his decades as a scholar and practitioner-teacher. Show LinksDavid R. LoyEcodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological CrisisRocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center

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