Podcasts about Monastery

He lived for many years as a monk at the Monastery of St Cyril of White Lake, where his ascetic struggles won him the respect of his brethren. To flee from the admiration of men he moved further north to Valaam Monastery. But he still attracted the good opinion of his community, so he secretly headed still further north, planning to reach the uninhabited Solovki Island in the White Sea (a large bay of the Arctic Ocean). When he reached the coast, everyone who might take him tried to dissuade him from living in such a harsh place. He answered 'My children, I have a Master who has the power to renew the strength of the old and to enfeeble the young if He so wills. He makes the poor rich, clothes the naked, provides for the destitute and satisfies the starving with a measure of food as he fed five thousand men in the desert.'   While waiting for seasonable sailing weather he met St Germanus (July 30) who lived nearby as a hermit. Together they found a fishing boat and, casting all their trust on the Lord, made the dangerous two-day voyage and set up a hermitage on the island. It became known as a holy place, and thenceforth those living in the world knew not to settle on Solovki, or even to set foot there without good reason. After six years, St Germanus departed, and Sabbatius was left alone.   When he was old, he began to fear that he would die without receiving the life-giving Mysteries, of which he had not partaken since he left Valaam. So he returned to the mainland where he met an abbot Nathanael just as he was taking Holy Communion to a sick man. Sabbatius persuaded the abbot to hear his confession and grant him the priceless gift of Holy Communion. He then settled in a nearby chapel and made ready for his departure from this life. A wealthy merchant from Novgorod visited him to ask for his blessing. The Saint said to him, 'Spend the night here and you will see the grace of God.' The next morning the merchant came to Sabbatius' cell and found that he had reposed during the night; his cell was suffused with a beautiful scent.   The following year, St Germanus, along with St Zosimas (April 17), returned to Solovki island and founded a monastery there, which proved to be the nurturing ground of many Saints.

#BaruSahibArchives #BabaIqbalSinghJi #ShiromaniPanthRatanਗੁਰਮਤਿ ਦਾ ਖਜ਼ਾਨਾ - ਬਾਬਾ ਇਕਬਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਬੜੂ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਵਾਲੇ ਸ਼੍ਰੋਮਣੀ ਪੰਥ ਰਤਨ ਬਾਬਾ ਇਕਬਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਰੂਹਾਨੀਅਤ ਭਰਪੂਰ ਜੀਵਨ ਬਤੀਤ ਕਰਦੇ ਹੋਏ ਗੁਰਮਤਿ ਦੇ ਸਿਧਾਂਤਾਂ ਉੱਤੇ ਪਹਿਰਾ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ ਵਚਨਬੱਧ ਹਨ। ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਜੀਵਨ ਦਾ ਮਨੋਰਥ ਗੁਰੂ ਗਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜੀ ਦੇ ਉਪਦੇਸ਼ਾਂ 'ਤੇ ਚੱਲ ਕੇ ਸੰਤ ਅਤਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਮਸਤੂਆਣਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਅਤੇ ਸੰਤ ਤੇਜਾ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਦੇ ਆਸ਼ੇ ਅਨੁਸਾਰ ਮਨੁੱਖਤਾ ਦੀ ਭਲਾਈ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਹੈ । ਬਾਬਾ ਜੀ ਸੰਗਤ ਨੂੰ ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ, ਸਿੱਖ ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਅਤੇ ਸੰਤਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਮਹਾਪੁਰਖਾਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਿੱਖਿਆਵਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਜੋੜਨ ਲਈ ਹਮੇਸ਼ਾ ਪ੍ਰੇਰਿਤ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ। ਬਾਬਾ ਜੀ ਦਾ ਉਦੇਸ਼ ਵਿਦਿਆ ਰੂਪੀ ਗਿਆਨ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਸਮਾਜ ਨੂੰ ਰੁਸ਼ਨਾਉਣਾ ਹੈ।© Copyright - The Kalgidhar Trust - Baru SahibProduced by - Department of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies, Akal University, Talwandi Sabo, PunjabBook Reference:Gurmukh Pyare - Sant Attar Singh Ji, Mastuana Sahib WaleWritten By - Sant Teja Singh ji, M.A., L.L.B. (Punjab), A.M. (Harvard)Voice Over Artist - Mangat Ram and Himmat Singh (Student of Akal Gurmat Vidyala, Cheema Sahib)Audio Recordist & Music Composition - J.S. GurdasProof Verifier: Sukhdeep Singh, HOD - Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies, Akal University - Talwandi Sabo, Punjab To read the full Jeevani of Sant Baba Attar Singh ji, please download our BaruNet Mobile app. This Jeevani is also available on our following podcast platforms: Amazon Musichttps://music.amazon.in/podcasts/068ace40-37d8-4bf2-8def-f64aceee5a96/sant-attar-singh-jiApple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sant-attar-singh-ji/id1567935365Castboxhttps://castbox.fm/channel/id4148210?utm_source=podcaster&utm_medium=dlink&utm_campaign=c_4148210&utm_content=Sant%20Attar%20Singh%20Ji-CastBox_FMGoodpodshttps://goodpods.app.link/1ZWqTbku7MbPocket Castshttps://pca.st/43z6wxu1

Continuing with our September series on resilience, Notre Dame de Sarrance - The Virgin of the Stone is an inspiring example for us to explore. She is housed in a Monastery community in a mountain pass in the Pyrenees region of France. Her resilience helped her survive religious wars from several generations.To receive a 30% discount on The Virgin of Guadalupe Mysterious Messenger of Destiny on Teachable, please use code GUADALUPE2031 at checkoutlivingpharmacy.teachable.com/l/pdp/the-virgin-of-guadalupe-mysterious-messenger-of-destinyTo make a one time donation of any amount to support the podcast, please donate tohttps://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BlackMadonnaHeartBecome a Patron for the channel at https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackMadonnaSpeaksTo purchase Black Madonna Speaks extra content, please visithttps://www.patreon.com/theblackmadonnaspeaks/shopTo see all of Stephanie Georgieff's offerings on Teachablehttps://livingpharmacy.teachable.com/l/products#BlackMadonna #Serrance #Camino #Pilgrimage

"Saint Cosmas came from Bulgaria where his devout parents provided him with a good education in Slavonic and Greek. They wanted him to marry but he was drawn by the love of Christ and, unknown to them, made his way to the Holy Mountain of Athos to become a monk at the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou. On the feast of the Annunciation at the Monastery of Vatopedi, he saw a woman among those serving in the Church and in the refectory, and he was grieved at first to observe this breach of the monastic rule, but overjoyed when he realized that it was the Mother of God who had appeared to him in this way.   "He was clothed in the holy angelic Habit and, after some time, was ordained priest. One day, as he was praying before the icon of the Mother of God, asking her with tears how to achieve his salvation, he heard a voice saying, 'Let my servant withdraw to the desert outside the monastery.' He was obedient to the will of God and, with the blessing of his Abbot, lived in silence from then on. Some years later, he was found worthy of the grace of discernment of thoughts and of beholding things happening elsewhere, as well as of other spiritual gifts. In the course of many years, he was the spiritual helper of a great number of monks. At the end of his life, Christ appeared to him saying that he would shortly have a great trial to endure from the Devil. Indeed, the prince of demons made his appearance next day with a host of his servants bewailing and bemoaning their inability to annihilate their great enemy Cosmas, who had held them in check for so long and gained possession, by his virtue, of the throne in Heaven that had once been Lucifer's. Taking a heavy stick, the demon beat the Saint so violently that he left him half-dead. As God allowed, Saint Cosmas died in peace two days later, on 22 September 1323. When the fathers came from the monastery to bury him, the wild animals gathered round. They kept silent until the end of the service, but howled unusually loud as his body was covered with earth. Then having paid their respects, they made off into the wilderness. Forty days later, the monks came to take up the body of Saint Cosmas and translate it to the monastery, but it was no longer in the grave. Where it now is God alone knows." (Synaxarion)

Have you ever wanted to get to know the wonderful people behind Draw Near Designs, the producers of the popular beautiful children's calendar? On today's episode, Matushka Melissa Naasko introduces listeners to the women behind the project. Caroline Gann Caroline is a graphic designer and content creator. She has a passion for engaging children in recipes and crafts that connect them with the fullness of our faith, as well as the culture of those who have so diligently preserved it. She seamlessly designs the Orthodox Children's Calendar, coloring books, and other products for Draw Near Designs. Caroline has three children, and loves that her work with Draw Near Designs helps educate herself, her children and all Christian families in God's love. Marian Adams Since Kindergarten, every teacher has noted how art was the one thing Marian would spend endless amounts of time on— and not much has changed since then! She loves watercolor painting, detailed line drawings, and creating digital drawings. Her illustrations appear in the Orthodox Children's Calendar, coloring books, advent and Lenten calendars, Snuggly Saints dolls, and other products from Draw Near Designs. She also illustrated the children's books “A Visit to the Monastery” and “We Believe". Marian is married to a professor of Radiography, is the mother of 4, and she also loves to cook, garden, read, and travel. She is endlessly grateful to be doing work that glorifies God and points others to Him. Mat. Jennifer Levine: Matushka Jennifer is married to an active duty Orthodox Chaplain, and they frequently move with the military. Her jobs have changed everywhere she's lived. She's been a counselor, teacher, program director, grant writer, artist, event coordinator, quilter, and more. She homeschooled her two boys all the way through high school and now has two grandchildren. Jennifer is also the sister of Marian's husband, and it's been a joy to work alongside family sharing Orthodoxy with others. Orthodox Children's Calendar 2027: https://www.drawneardesigns.com/calendars/orthodoxchildrenscalendar-e6f9f

He was a peasant named Hilarion in the district of Vologda, and lived a simple, laboring life until he began to lose his sight. Not despairing, Hilarion went to all the churches nearby and asked that services of intercession be offered for him. One day, during the Divine Liturgy, Hilarion beheld a man in white clothing who told him that his name was Cosmas, blessed him, and told him that he would soon be healed. The next day Hilarion was going to church again and the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian appeared to him along with an icon of the Mother of God. A voice from the icon said that the people must cleanse the place where he stood and erect a cross there. Upon venerating the icon, Hilarion was instantly and completely healed. Returning to his village, he joyfully told what had happened. The villagers cleansed the place, as commanded in Hilarion's vision, set up a cross, and built a chapel to house the icon, which began to work many miracles. When the bishop learned of these events, he determined to found a monastery on that spot, and made Hilarion the first monk, giving him the name of Joseph. Saint Joseph spent the next thirty years there in prayer and great asceticism: he would spend the winter nights without sleep, standing in prayer before the miraculous icon of the Theotokos. He reposed in peace and was buried in the chapel that he and his fellow-villagers had built years before.

Alexander Mattick is a researcher at Fraunhofer IIS and a PhD researcher at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), and a regular on Yannic Kilcher's Discord. He first came on MLST in 2022, after helping research the Yann LeCun and Randall Balestriero episode on interpolation.SPONSOR:---Cyber Fund built the Monastery to help founders ship products that were impossible a year ago. Applications for Batch 1 are now open.Apply now: https://cyber.fund---Alexander treats inference as the thread running through modern machine learning: once you have a model, what does it cost to get an answer out of it? He works through Monte Carlo, GFlowNets, energy-based models, diffusion, normalising flows and flow matching, with four short explainers he recorded himself. He is blunt about energy-based models: you can sample from them in principle, but it is rarely worth the compute. JEPA and "world model", he says, are closer to branding than to technical categories.Next: theories of deep learning, none of which he thinks predicts enough yet to guide practice, then reinforcement learning. ---0:00 Cold open: information is expensive0:51 Welcome back, Alexander Mattic2:08 Alexander's research background2:50 Inference: densities, sampling and Monte Carlo6:42 GFlowNets, energy functions and MCMC9:45 Explainer: energy-based models11:03 Why model a density at all?17:30 From learned energies to flow matching25:08 Explainers: diffusion and normalising flows28:33 Are energy-based models generative?33:22 JEPA, contrastive learning and collapse41:13 Why non-language modalities need flows44:51 Inference as search: branch and bound49:43 Q-learning and delayed consequences55:14 Flow matching, optimal transport, Fokker-Planck1:00:03 Explainer: flow matching1:01:49 AlphaFold, latents and scale versus architecture1:07:52 Two families of deep learning theory1:15:04 What a good theory would predict1:23:53 The manifold hypothesis and compression1:28:25 Is reward enough?1:32:01 Control theory versus reinforcement learning1:37:22 The Bitter Lesson and expensive information1:42:08 Constrained RL: the constrained MDP toolbox1:50:12 Creativity as constrained search1:55:44 Reality is protean: when abstractions hold2:00:32 What is a world model?2:04:38 Prediction is not control2:08:13 Robot demos, MPC and reliability---REFERENCES:[6:55] GFlowNets (Bengio et al., 2021)https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.04399[38:46] Contrastive Self-Supervised Learning (Anand, 2020)https://ankeshanand.com/blog/2020/01/26/contrative-self-supervised-learning.html[38:56] LeJEPA (Balestriero and LeCun, 2025)https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.08544v3[47:10] RL for Node Selection in Branch-and-Bound (Mattick)https://openreview.net/forum?id=0ez68a5UqI[56:20] Flow Matching for Generative Modeling https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.02747v2[1:12:41] Disentangling feature and lazy training in deep neural networkshttps://arxiv.org/abs/1906.08034v4[1:31:05] Reward is enough (Silver)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2021.103535[1:35:12] Learning ReLU networks to high uniform accuracy is intractable (Berner et al.)https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.13531v2[1:40:20] Dota 2 with Large Scale Deep RL https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.06680v1[1:45:41] Constrained Update Projection for Safe Policy Optimization (Yang et al., 2022)https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.07089[1:46:11] SafeMPO (ICLR 2026)https://openreview.net/forum?id=1m0EU6QXj6[1:50:17] Why Creativity Cannot Be Interpolatedhttps://archive.mlst.ai/paper/why-creativity-cannot-be-interpolated/[1:51:39] Invalid Action Masking (Huang and Ontañón)https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.14171[2:00:04] Probability Theory: The Logic of Science (Jaynes, 2003)https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/probability-theory/9CA08E224FF30123304E6D8935CF1A99[2:01:53] Training Agents Inside of Scalable World Models (Hafner et al., 2025)https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24527v1[2:03:43] World Models (Ha and Schmidhuber, 2018)https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.10122v4

He was born to a noble family in Maastricht (in modern-day Netherlands). When his spiritual father Bishop Theodard was killed in 671, St Lambert was elected Bishop of Maastricht despite his youth. He was loved by his flock for his holiness, ascetic labors and almsgiving, but was driven from his see in 675 after his patron King Childeric II was assasinated. He withdrew to the Monastery of Stavelot where he lived for seven years as one of the brethren, claiming no privileges despite his office. Once, getting up to pray during the night, he accidentally disturbed the monastic silence. The Abbot called out for whoever was responsible to do penance by standing barefoot in the snow before a cross outside the monastery church. In the morning the Abbot was dismayed to see the Bishop standing barefoot, covered with snow, before the cross, his face shining. The Abbot sought to apologize, but Lambert replied that he was honored to serve God like the Apostles, in cold and nakedness.   When King Pepin of Heristal took power in 681, he restored Lambert to his see, despite the Saint's desire to remain in obscurity. The holy bishop renewed his pastoral labors with vigor, visiting the most distant parishes and preaching the Gospel to the pagans who still inhabited the area, despite danger and threats. But when King Pepin put away his wife and replaced her with his concubine Alpais, St Lambert was the only Bishop who dared to rebuke him. For this he incurred the wrath of Alpais, who ordered his death. His assassins carried out their evil commission, even though they found a cross shining above the humble dwelling where he was staying.   Saint Lambert is one of the best-loved Saints of the Netherlands and Belgium, where many parish churches are dedicated to him. His relics are now in the Belgian city of Liège.

In this new series of podcasts in English, Ven. Dharma takes us on a journey to discover Buddhism.Can just one thing be a source of happiness?Understanding suffering and happiness means getting to the root of the matter by looking for their causes. We start by looking at the idea we already hold that there could be just one person or thing that makes us happy.

Andy walks Derek through James Loder's The Logic of the Spirit — the roadside accident that shaped his whole project, and the two questions Loder thinks press on us from our first breath to our last: what is a lifetime, and why do I live it? This, surprisingly, also has a lot to do with modern children's ministry and the existential humans of every age face.

Most people don't look at a 12th-century monastery in rural Umbria and think, "We should turn this into a hotel." Cathi Lutjens and Fred Kubierschki did. They left the corporate hospitality world, took a chance on an unlikely opportunity and created Vocabolo Moscatelli around a simple idea: build the kind of place people would travel specifically to experience. They shaped it around the monastery, the region, the food, the local culture and the kind of hospitality they wanted to create themselves. What I love about this story is the courage behind it. They didn't just open a #Hotel. They created something deeply personal and trusted that the right guests would find them. See how Cathi and Fred turned an old monastery in an under-the-radar part of Italy into the kind of #LuxuryHospitality experience people remember long after they leave. Thanks so much to Actabl for supporting this podcast. Actabl gives you the power to profit. Visit Actabl.com. Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Can a machine learn the judgement that separates a plausible-looking result from a faithful experiment? Edward Hughes, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Inherent, joins Tim Scarfe to argue that creativity is not optimisation, and that the missing capability in AI is choosing which questions are worth asking.SPONSOR:---Cyber Fund built the Monastery to help founders ship products that were impossible a year ago.Apply now: https://cyber.fund---Edward makes the case that Move 37 was innovative rather than creative, and that the field, not the individual, decides what counts as a discovery. That reframing runs through Csikszentmihalyi, Deutsch and exaptation into open-endedness, where deceptive goals and imperfect world models turn out to be the point rather than the problem. The second half turns to the paper: Replica, a task space built by redacting figures from real papers, and Faraday, a 27-billion-parameter model trained to steer a frontier coding agent that then beats the frontier on held-out replications.---TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Cold open: Move 37, Faraday and collective intelligence00:01:08 Sponsor: CyberFund00:01:46 Inherent's $50M raise and the road from string theory00:09:14 Three timescales of learning: weights, context, culture00:13:47 Move 37 was innovative, not creative: the field decides00:20:39 Creativity as satisficing: the urinal and evolution00:25:06 Exaptation and the Tristan chord: creativity in context00:30:56 Coherence for whom? Deutsch's hard-to-vary explanations00:35:53 Why copying is creative: Deutsch and the constraint engineer00:42:27 Societies of agents and the strong Moravec paradox00:45:51 Evaluate in hindsight: from Lean proofs to climate change00:51:56 Picbreeder, local goals and why discovery needs deception00:57:21 Spaghetti proofs, translation layers and superhuman Go01:00:37 Does nature compress? Naturalness and real patterns01:07:36 Why replicate? Replica's redacted figures and Faraday01:12:31 Faraday beats Codex, Claude and GLM 5.2 on held-out tasks01:15:31 Replication to innovation: how the Transformer happened01:18:26 Deep replication: what Faraday learns from Voyager and GNoME01:23:37 Can the AI scientist cheat? Goodharting the judge01:29:09 Inside Replica: scale-down, 8xB300 runs, per-task rubrics01:34:11 The RL crisis: getting GRPO to work with per-turn credit01:39:43 Weights vs harnesses: AlphaEvolve, DGM and EvoTune01:45:45 The recursive company: agents cross a phase transition01:50:35 Collective intelligence and the electric dynamo01:55:46 What replaces OKRs? Incumbents and the burden of knowledge---REFERENCES:MLST Creativity Article:https://archive.mlst.ai/read/why-creativity-cannot-be-interpolatedorganization:[00:01:47] Inherenthttps://inherentlabs.ai/other:[00:20:51] Marcel Duchamp, Fountainhttps://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573[00:05:19] Human-Timescale Adaptation in an Open-Ended Task Space (Adaptive Agent)https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07608[00:06:05] The AI Scientisthttps://arxiv.org/abs/2408.06292[00:12:13] Training AI Scientists to Replicate Research (Replica and Faraday)https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13331[01:44:46] Evolutionary Principles in Self-Referential Learninghttps://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/diploma.html[01:59:33] Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?https://www.nber.org/papers/w23782book:[00:16:04] Creativity: Flowhttps://search.worldcat.org/title/254487436[00:26:22] Why Greatness Cannot Be Plannedhttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-15524-1[00:33:03] The Beginning of Infinityhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/293575/the-beginning-of-infinity-by-david-deutsch/[01:55:47] Laws of Knowledgehttps://www.penguin.co.nz/books/the-infinite-alphabet-9780241655672(Full list refs on YT/rescript)---RESCRIPT:https://app.rescript.info/session/670296ba913761d0?share=6281911cac9bdbff637f10819d4d1e5c

Send us Fan Mail174- Is Portugal really worth all the hype? Rob & Kerri Stuart just spent 10 days finding out — and in this episode, they break down exactly how to do it right.Let us help you plan your next adventure- start hereThis is Part 1 of a two-part series covering their AmaWaterways river cruise through Portugal, starting with a 3-night pre-cruise stay in Lisbon before boarding the AmaSintra for the inaugural Godmother Cruise on the Douro River. Rob & Kerri walk through their Lisbon city tour, a day trip to the fairytale village of Sintra and the Pena Palace, the coastal town of Cascais, a stop in Salamanca, Spain, and the scenic drive to Porto through Tomar's Convent of Christ.In this episode:∙Why Portugal has become one of Europe's hottest destinations right now∙Touring Lisbon: Belém Tower, the Jerónimos Monastery, and the best pastéis de nata∙Day trip to Sintra: Pena Palace and the colorful hilltop castles∙Cascais and the Portuguese coastline (it looks just like Monterey, CA)∙A side excursion to Salamanca, Spain∙Why you should always add pre-cruise and post-cruise time to a European river cruise∙Behind the scenes of AmaWaterways' first Godmother Cruise on the all-new AmaSintraShoutouts: Cruise Director Nicholas Cabrera and Lisbon tour guide TiagoRob & Kerri Stuart are travel agents, best-selling authors, and hosts of the Travel Inspired Podcast, broadcasting from the CMV Studio in Orlando, FL. They're the founders of Creating Magic Vacations, a full-service travel agency specializing in cruises and European travel.Planning a trip to Portugal or a Douro River cruise? Visit CreatingMagicVacations.com and click “Plan a Vacation” to get started.Interested in the Douro Wine Cruise in July 2027 aboard the brand-new Ama Rudi? Go here to learn moreDon't miss Part two where Rob & Kerri cover the Douro River cruise itself and their time in Porto.Stop scrolling. Start going.#Portugal #DouroRiver #AmaWaterways #Lisbon #Porto #Sintra #RiverCruise #TravelPodcast #EuropeTravel #CascaisPortugal #CreatingMagicVacations

Born to the family of a cartwright in Ireland, he entered monastic life when he was very young at the Monastery of Clonard, where he became a disciple of St Finnian (December 12). He became one of the 'Twelve Apostles of Ireland', all of them disciples of St Finnian. Ciaran founded the great monastery of Clonmacnoise (pronounced clon-mac-neesh) on the Shannon River, which became one of Ireland's great monasteries. Once, during a great famine, He distributed all of the monastery's food to the people, entrusting his monks' survival, and his own, to providence. Saint Ciaran reposed in peace, aged only thirty-three, in 549.

Could slowing AI development make superintelligence safer? Daniel Kokotajlo and Thomas Larsen of the AI Futures Project join Tim Scarfe to examine AI 2040: Plan A, a proposal to buy time before AI exceeds human control.SPONSOR:---Cyber Fund built the Monastery to help founders ship products that were impossible a year ago.Apply now: https://cyber.fund---After revisiting AI 2027 and the limits of forecasting, they ask what happens when AI can automate research and sustain an economy without human workers. Tim challenges the case for general models and asks whether intelligence alone explains power. Plan A proposes an initial pause to build safety infrastructure, then cautious development up to the strongest AI that can still be reliably controlled. The discussion tests the distinction between control and alignment, the case for public AI research, and whether the US and China could enforce a slowdown. It ends with the evidence that would change their forecasts.---TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 AI 2040: a slower route to superintelligence00:01:34 Sponsor: Cyber Fund00:02:12 From OpenAI to AI 202700:06:58 Forecasts, war games and self-fulfilling prophecies00:17:44 Why AI sceptics are changing their minds00:23:04 When AI can replace its own researchers00:28:45 Could an AI economy grow without human workers?00:37:32 One general model or a society of specialists?00:47:43 Brains, machines and collective intelligence00:56:12 Plan A: buy time at the controllable frontier01:00:02 Why control buys time but cannot replace alignment01:06:36 Why AI research should be public01:10:32 Can the US and China enforce an AI slowdown?01:19:04 Why AI policy debates miss the technology01:21:56 Is AI normal technology? The remaining disagreementMany thanks to James Wilken-Smith for helping with show research. ---REFERENCES:other:[00:00:01] AI 2040: Plan Ahttps://ai-2040.com/[00:03:27] AI 2027https://ai-2027.com/[00:13:47] Scenario Scrutiny for AI Policyhttps://blog.aifutures.org/p/scenario-scrutiny-for-ai-policy[00:33:11] The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisishttps://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic[01:00:40] Brief independent investigation of agents' behavior, reasoning and collaboration in the OpenAI / Hugging Face hacking incidenthttps://www.redwoodresearch.org/research/hugging-face-incident[01:09:21] The Hugging Face incident and the road aheadhttps://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/[01:22:01] AI as Normal Technologyhttps://www.normaltech.ai/p/ai-as-normal-technology[01:22:51] Common Ground between AI 2027 & AI as Normal Technologyhttps://asteriskmag.substack.com/p/common-ground-between-ai-2027-andperson:[00:19:43] Geoffrey Hintonhttps://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/[00:20:07] Ryan Greenblatthttps://www.lesswrong.com/users/ryan_greenblatt[00:26:06] Elon Muskhttps://www.tesla.com/elon-musktool:[00:21:46] ARC-AGI-3https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3[00:21:53] AlphaGo and Move 37https://deepmind.google/research/alphago/[00:39:41] Claudehttps://claude.com/product/overview[00:39:58] NVIDIA H100 GPUhttps://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/h100/paper:[00:24:42] Training AI Scientists to Replicate Researchhttps://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13331v1[01:27:19] Validity of the single processor approach to achieving large scale computing capabilitieshttps://www.cs.cmu.edu/~18742/papers/Amdahl1967.pdfbook:[00:28:52] Bullshit Jobs: A Theoryhttps://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bullshit-Jobs/David-Graeber/9781501143335organization:[01:05:09] Redwood Researchhttps://www.redwoodresearch.org/---RESCRIPT: https://app.rescript.info/public/share/33d1a58fa8f307ae7dfd504d4fdaa9d5

This Wisdom Podcast episode, recorded live as a Dharma Chat, features the newly enthroned abbot of Gyuto Tantric Monastery H. E. Khangser Rinpoche. Take a look inside as Rinpoche and host Daniel Aitken discuss monastic life inside Gyuto Monastery. Explore the role Gyuto Monastery plays in the Gelugpa tradition. Learn about the duties of an abbot and discover the path from abbot to Ganden Tripa. Rinpoche and Daniel then transition to discussing Tsongkhapa's yogic life, the values of analytical meditation, and so much more!  In this episode, Rinpoche and Daniel also discuss:  The qualities of a Dharma teacher; emphasizing quality over quantity within your practice;  the significance of awareness in meditation; joyful practice mindset; and  so much more! Mentioned in this episode: Learn more about and connect with His Eminence’s at https://us.dipkar.com/ The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Wisdom Publications or any entities they represent. The post H. E. Khangser Rinpoche: Wisdom from Gyuto Monastery (#239) appeared first on The Wisdom Experience.

Wherein we raise up.  Drop a feather: gwritersanon@gmail.com  Get a bird's-eye view of our Facebook page (Ghost Writers, Anonymous).  

In this new series of podcasts in English, Ven. Dharma takes us on a journey to discover Buddhism.More on the three levels of sufferingIf we want to be happy, that's only possible if we are free of suffering. Understanding the types of suffering we encounter creates a basis for understanding how to stop the causes of suffering.

Learn the meanings of names you may have heard: monastery, basilica, cathedral, chapel, and more. Support us on Patreon for Member access to our special podcast series where we go in depth on books of the Bible. Ongoing season: Ecclesiastes. You will also gain access to the entire archive of Season 1: John, Season 2: Exodus, and Season 3: Hebrews Apply for Saint Paul's House of Formation Email us Music by Richard Proulx and the Cathedral Singers from Sublime Chant. Copyright GIA Publications Word & Table Episode Index

1997, a fugitive con man who had stolen over a million dollars in religious artifacts while posing as an Anglican priest sought refuge inside a Benedictine monastery in Massachusetts. This episode examines how Michael Dongarra exploited the psychological architecture of trust that monastic life depends on, and what his case reveals about the blind spots built into institutions designed around faith rather than suspicion. We explore the intersection of psychopathy, religious performance, and the human need to believe in redemption, even when redemption is the con.

This version of this episode has been available to Cloud of Witnesses Patreons since July 11th, 2026.  We dig into what “authority” really means, starting with current events and ending with the uncomfortable question behind so many hot takes: who gave you the right to define Christianity. We push back on DIY faith, argue that real authority looks like service and sacrifice, and trace why the Orthodox Church treats tradition as an inheritance that keeps the fire alive. • St Catherine's Monastery land dispute and why it matters to Christians • SSPX excommunication and what it reveals about church authority • Parish Life Conference highlights and the role of worship in unity • Responding to “keep faith simple” claims and asking by what authority • Sola scriptura and the problem of the individual as final interpreter • “Leave your Protestantism at the door” and why Orthodoxy is lived, not just studied • A Tale of Two Cities as a story of cruel authority versus self-sacrifice • Authority as burden and responsibility rather than privilege • Individualism as a cultural and spiritual threat, humility as the antidote • Listener comments on Hebrew Roots journeys, prayer, and spiritual deception Please remember every episode of Witness Weekly at the end, we're gonna be reading your comments, so please let us know what you think down in the comments. You can also email us at cloud of witnesses radio at gmail.com. Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses Radio: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses Radio on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

He was the pagan jailkeeper who guarded St Laurence (see August 10); seeing his prisoner's holiness and the wonders wrought by him, Hippolytus was convinced of the truth of the Faith and became a Christian. When St Laurence baptized him, he was granted a vision of heaven and said 'I see innocent souls in great joy.' He took Laurence into his own home, and his entire household were baptized, nineteen in all.   When St Laurence was martyred, Hippolytus retrieved his body by night and buried it. He was detected and brought before the Emperor Valerian on the third day after Laurence's death. Despite severe beatings he would not renounce his faith. The Emperor ordered that he be stripped and flayed but, standing naked before the emperor, Hippolytus said 'You have not stripped me, but have begun to clothe me.' Despite all torments, neither Hippolytus nor any of his household would deny Christ. All of his household were slain, one by one, before Hippolytus. Finally Hippolytus himself was bound behind a wild horse and dragged to death. Our Holy Mother the Empress Irene (Xenia in Monasticism) (12th c.) She was the pious wife of the Emperor John II Comnenus (reigned 1118-1143), but retired into monastic life. She founded the Monastery of the Pantokrator in Constantinople.

What if the greatest performance upgrade isn't another productivity hack—but learning how to pause Peloton instructor, former Buddhist monk, and author Sam Yo to unpack the principles behind The Monk's Mindset. We explore why stillness has become one of the most overlooked skills in modern life, how creating intentional "mindset moments" can reduce stress and anxiety, and why true peace isn't something you escape to—it's something you learn to carry with you. Follow Sam @yoiamsamyo Follow Chase @chase_chewning ----- 00:00 Introduction 00:47 Why We React Instead of Respond 03:55 Audible Sponsor 05:03 Creating Mental Space Between Moments 06:09 What Is The Monk's Mindset? 08:08 Building Daily Structure Through Stillness 09:08 Why Stillness Is the Ultimate Life Optimization Tool 11:14 Can Contentment Kill Ambition? 13:06 Technology Can Either Distract or Support Your Peace 14:06 Service, Purpose & Finding Meaning 16:11 Lessons Learned Living in a Monastery 18:02 Integrity When Nobody Is Watching 19:14 WHOOP Sponsor 20:27 Reflection: The Most Underrated Daily Practice 22:04 Sam Yo's Daily Monk Mindset Protocol 24:31 Handling Stress Without Losing Yourself 27:38 Staying Present During Success 29:14 Can Mindfulness Become Selfish? 30:10 What Happens When Self-Improvement Changes Your Relationships? 32:02 LMNT Sponsor 33:23 A Monk's Perspective on War 35:16 One Practice to Stay Calm During Uncertain Times 36:20 Creativity Through Stillness 38:03 Rapid Fire Questions 42:02 What Ever Forward Means to Sam Yo 43:08 How Social Media Steals Your Peace 43:42 Where to Connect with Sam Yo ----- Episode resources: FREE 30-day trial of Audible, my favorite audiobook platform 1-month FREE and FREE app for WHOOP activity tracker FREE variety sample pack with any purchase of LMNT elecrtroytes Watch and subscribe on YouTube

20 years ago on 13 August 2006, Brisbane Buddhist Vihara Inc (BBV) decided at a Special General Meeting to invite Ajahn Dhammasiha, to start a Forest Monastery associated with the tradition of Ajahn Chah in the Brisbane area. The next day on 14th August 2006, Dr Gamini Jayasinghe (President of BBV Inc) called Ajahn Dhammasiha to formally extend this invitation to him, and Ajahn accepted. Dr Gamini, his wife Rukmani, and the community of BBV made a very courageous decision with that invitation, as Ajahn had only 11 rains as a monk, was not well known at all, and lived at Vimokkharam, a small hermitage that was also quite unknown. BBV Inc would go on to sell their 3 acres large suburban property with nice house and granny-flat, and buy the property at 30 Ben Varden, which then would become Dhammagiri. This poperty had no water, no power, no sewage connection and no buildings, except a huge empty watertank (half million litres!). Only through the courage, determination, generosity and great faith of the very small group of early supporters could Dhammagiri be founded and ultimately flourish. In this podcast, Ajahn shares some stories of the early days... 14 August 2006 Ajahn Dhammasiha accepts the formal invitation by Dr Gamini, President of Brisbane Buddhist Vihara Inc, to lead the establishment of a Forest Monastery in the Brisbane area, associated with the lineage of Ajahn Chah 09 March 2007 Settlement of Purchasing Contract for Dhammagiri Property 30 Ben Varden Avenue, Kholo 15 March 2007 Luang Por Plien of Wat Aranyavivek, Chiang Mai, visits Dhammagiri property 30 Ben Varden Ave, und provides advice and encouragement (We will commemorate the 20th anniversary of this event on Sun 14 February 2027, together with our visiting guest Luang Por Vajiro) 28 & 29 April 2007 Moving to Dhammagiri property 30 Ben Varden Ave, and celebration of Vesak next day (We're planning the main event of our 20th Anniversary Celebrations for the weekend 15th & 16th May 2027. That's the weekend right before Vesak, just like we moved to Dhammagiri right before Vesak 20 years ago) Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.dhammagiri.net/news⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Our email Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.dhammagiri.net/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Latest Photos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://latest-pics.dhammagiri.net⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Our Youtube Channel:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724#buddhistmonk #buddhistmonastery #buddiststory #dhamma #dhammagiri #foresttradition

LIVE -The Departure of the Soul, St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery, 40, Out-of-Body TravelThe Out-of-Body Travel Foundation - https://outofbodytravel.org – Astral Travel and Astral Projection: Download Books, Films, Seminars, Livestreams, Music, Art, Vignettes, Radio and TV Appearances and More on Out-of-Body Experiences. (Ghosts, Reincarnation, Initiations, Heaven, Hell, Angels, Demons.) Out-of-Body Travel Author, Marilynn Hughes (Copyright)Out of Body Travel, Out of Body Experiences, Out of Body, Astral Travel, Astral Projection, Near Death Experiences, Mystical Experiences, OBE, OOBE, NDE

The Heresies of Radulf Burntwine: A Horror, Dark Fantasy, Medical Mystery Audio Drama Umberto Eco Meets H.P. Lovecraft in a world of Occult Academia, Laboratory Judaica. Heavily inspired by Jewish mythology, the world of Olam uses Hebrew, Arabic, Slavic and other real world languages and cultures to create a rich tapestry of a grim, fantastical, planet that doesn't sacrifice scientific accuracy or historicity. THORB Case 019 The Living Monastery Radulf visits a small pair of villages nestled into the Kuruk Chene mountain range. There villagers speak of a strange Anomaly on the windward side of the mountain. A monastery grown entirely from the tortured flesh of a helpless victim. The Heresies of Radulf Burntwine sits at the intersection of dark fantasy, body horror, and forensic investigation. If you've ever wanted a podcast that treats disease and mythology with the same care as a true crime documentary, this is the show for you. Radulf is not a hero. He's a disgraced curmudgeonly cleric with a terrible bedside manner and more pride than sense. This episode contains: descriptions of cannibalism, bodily decomposition, eye trauma, tissue decay, grief, and the death of multiple characters including a child, suicide. Socials: https://www.facebook.com/THORBcast/ https://www.reddit.com/r/THORB/ https://discord.gg/sQqCQZrZpe https://bsky.app/profile/thorb.info Support the Institute and find free transcripts at: Patreon.com/THORBcast Tags: horror fiction podcast | dark fantasy podcast | weird fiction audio drama | horror podcast | medical horror | gothic horror podcast | body horror | zombie fiction | viral horror | fantasy podcast | indie horror podcast | audio drama horror | Radulf Burntwine | Heresies of Radulf Burntwine | horror worldbuilding | ghoul horror | undead fiction | dark fantasy audio drama | horror lore podcast | gas lamp | victorian inspired | grimdark | low fantasy |strange botany | alchemy | Herbalism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Meadow is a residential Orthodox gap year program in Supraśl, Poland, where students study theology, participate in prayer and regular services, and live together alongside the Monastery of the Annunciation. Melanie interviews Director Archdeacon Joseph Matusiak and Project Coordinator Sophia Chiriac about the program. Find more information HERE: https://suprasl.org/ Music License: Friends by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/ Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

For 1 August 2026, Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Mary de' Liguori, Bishop, Doctor, based on Matthew 14:1-12, sent in from The Monastery of Tibhirine, Algeria.

Recorded live at a morning gathering for volunteers at the Living Miracles Monastery in Utah, this episode dives deep into the mind's ultimate spiritual exit strategy. Today, we explore the concept of the "Escape Hatch"—the active and operational doorway out of the artificial simulation created by the ego.  Through the lens of classic sci-fi television and profound cinematic metaphors, we unpack how the world we perceive is merely a projection of fear, guilt, and a deep-seated belief in our separation from God. The ego masterfully designs this matrix with attractive distractions and a complex hierarchy of needs to keep our minds asleep and heavily identified with the physical body. However, the power to awaken and choose a different purpose remains entirely within us.  Drawing on the non-dual teachings of A Course in Miracles, this conversation highlights that attempting to master our fears by changing our external environment or healing the physical body will never truly work. True healing is strictly a matter of the mind. It demands a complete surrender of our false personal identities.Tune in to discover how dropping our worldly defenses and becoming fully dependent on God leads to effortless joy, true empathy, and lasting peace.  If you want to learn more about David Hoffmeister and Living Miracles events, visit https://circle.livingmiraclescenter.org/events Recorded live at Living Miracles Monastery in Utah on the morning of July 8, 2026Follow us on:YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/DavidHoffmeister https://www.youtube.com/@LivingMiraclesFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/ACIM.ACourseInMiracles Learn more about David & Living Miracles:https://circle.livingmiraclescenter.org/eventsLearn more about A Course in Miracles:https://ACIM.bizDavid's Spanish YouTube Channel is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP9Gw00CldPUmiu43y7fdWwDavid's Portuguese YouTube Channel is:https://www.youtube.com/@davidhoffmeisterucem

Full Text of Readings Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 399 The Saint of the day is Saint Sharbel Makhlouf Saint Sharbel Makhlouf's Story Although this saint never traveled far from the Lebanese village of Beka-Kafra where he was born, his influence has spread widely. Joseph Zaroun Maklouf was raised by an uncle because his father, a mule driver, died when Joseph was only three. At the age of 23, Joseph joined the Monastery of St. Maron at Annaya, Lebanon, and took the name Sharbel Makhlouf in honor of a second-century martyr. He professed his final vows in 1853, and was ordained six years later. Following the example of the fifth-century Saint Maron, Sharbel Makhlouf lived as a hermit from 1875, until his death. His reputation for holiness prompted people to seek him to receive a blessing and to be remembered in his prayers. He followed a strict fast and was very devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. When his superiors occasionally asked him to administer the sacraments to nearby villages, Sharbel did so gladly. He died in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve. Christians and non-Christians soon made his tomb a place of pilgrimage and of cures. Pope Paul VI beatified Sharbel in 1965, and canonized him 12 years later. Reflection John Paul II often said that the Church has two lungs—East and West—and it must learn to breathe using both of them. Remembering saints like Sharbel Makhlouf helps the Church to appreciate both the diversity and unity present in the Catholic Church. Like all the saints, Sharbel points us to God and invites us to cooperate generously with God's grace, no matter what our situation in life may be. As our prayer life becomes deeper and more honest, we become more ready to make that generous response.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

In this profound movie gathering, we dive deep into the illusions of linear time, the ego, and our deeply held worldviews. Through the spiritual lens of two very different on-screen stories—the journey of Clavius, a Roman military tribune searching for the body of Jesus, and a mind-bending exploration of Star Trek —we unpack what it means to truly question our reality.This episode explores how the concept of time acts as a veil over the divine reality of Oneness. Join us as we discuss how letting go of our personal perspectives and leaning on a higher spiritual guidance can lead us from a state of inner conflict and rage to a place of perfect peace.Discover why true spiritual awakening requires us to completely dismantle our ingrained beliefs and admit that we don't have the whole picture. Explore how the past and future are constructs used by the ego to maintain separation, breed conflict, and hide the eternal reality of Oneness. Learn why we must let go of our personal judgments, grievances, and the desire to control, allowing true divine guidance to show us the way.Tune in for a deep dive into cinema, A Course in Miracles, and the ultimate escape from the ego's matrix!If you want to learn more about David Hoffmeister and Living Miracles events, visit https://circle.livingmiraclescenter.org/events Recorded live at Living Miracles Monastery in Utah on the evening of July 7, 2026Follow us on:YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/DavidHoffmeister https://www.youtube.com/@LivingMiraclesFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/ACIM.ACourseInMiracles Learn more about David & Living Miracles:https://circle.livingmiraclescenter.org/eventsLearn more about A Course in Miracles:https://ACIM.bizDavid's Spanish YouTube Channel is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP9Gw00CldPUmiu43y7fdWwDavid's Portuguese YouTube Channel is:https://www.youtube.com/@davidhoffmeisterucem

EP. 501 Best to the Nest: Just LaughTake a listen back with us as we remember some of our favorite episodes. Elizabeth's choices this week: EP. 427, 428, 429: Best to the Nest: Find Your Farmer (2025)EP. 165 Best to the Nest: Baby Talk (2020)EP. 439 Best to the Nest: Consider the Monastery (2024)EP. 420 and 421 Best to the Nest: Find a Bolthole (2025)EP. 20: Best to the Nest: Cooping with Elizabeth (2019)A BIG thanks to our 501st episode podcast sponsors:Founded by Dr. Senia Mae, Healing Insight is based in St. Paul Minnesota. New patients receive $200 off a Women's Health Acupuncture package when you mention Best to the Nest. Find out more at https://healinginsightonline.com/And Minnesota Credit Union Network –– local financial institutions helping real Minnesotans save money and build a future that actually seems attainable. And The Environmental Center in Ramsey County MN. It's wonderful. Find out more at RamseyRecycles.com/EC.Our Website: https://www.besttothenest.com/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/besttothenest?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1088997968155776/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

[REBROADCAST FROM May 20, 2026] Sam Yo spent years in a monastery searching for mindfulness. He shares the lessons that helped him move from chaos to calm in his book The Monk's Mindset: Finding Stillness in a World That Won't Stop Moving. Cover art courtesy of the publisher Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Authority Crisis Inside Christianity: If the Bible Is the Answer... Who Interprets It?Who decides?“Jesus is Lord + baptized in the Spirit = you're set.” Sounds simple… but who gets to define those words? We dig into authority, sola scriptura, and why interpretation without a Church fractures faith. Listen and tell us: who's your authority?Authority shapes everything, from how we read the Bible to how we treat the people sitting next to us in church. We start with a blunt comment that tries to shrink Christianity into a simple checklist and then ask the question most people skip: by what authority can anyone define the faith that way, and who gets to decide what those words mean?• Mount Sinai and St. Catherine's Monastery land dispute and why it matters to Christians• SSPX excommunication story and what it reveals about papal authority• Parish Life Conference takeaways and how shared worship strengthens unity• Responding to a comment that reduces salvation to a simple formula• Sola scriptura in practice and how interpretation often becomes self-authority• What “baptized in the Holy Spirit” means across denominations and why definitions diverge• Why the New Testament calls for lived obedience, not just verbal profession• Protestants bringing Protestant assumptions into Orthodoxy and why we must leave them at the door• Orthodoxy as lived faith versus Christianity as an academic subject• Book of the week: A Tale Of Two Cities and how cruel authority breeds violence• Authority as service, responsibility, and burden rather than privilege• The cloud of witnesses, inherited wisdom, and the problem of American individualism• Listener stories from Hebrew Roots, synagogue searching, tongues, and finding rooted worshipFrom there we get practical about the authority problem inside modern Christianity. If “the Bible alone” is the final authority, who is the final interpreter? We talk about how sola scriptura often slides into self-authority, why Protestantism can't easily speak with one voice about baptism, salvation, or essentials, and how rhetoric can masquerade as certainty. Against that backdrop, we explain the Eastern Orthodox view of authority as inherited life: Scripture read in the Church, sacred tradition, the teaching of the apostles and fathers, the ecumenical councils, and the sacramental reality that trains us to forgive, repent, pray, and endure.Authority isn't privilege, it's burden. From Mount Sinai's ancient monastery to Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities, we trace what happens when leaders serve vs dominate.We also zoom out to real examples. We cover updates on St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai and why protecting ancient Christian institutions matters. We touch on Roman Catholic controversy around the SSPX as another case study in competing claims of authority. Then we bring it home with a powerful reflection on A Tale Of Two Cities, where cruel authority produces violence, while true authority looks like sacrifice, service, and responsibility. Along the way, listener comments add hope-filled stories of people moving from Hebrew Roots and Pentecostal backgrounds toward Orthodoxy because they're hungry for historical rootedness and worship that feels alive.What if “tradition” isn't worshiping ashes, but preserving fire? We talk Orthodox authority, humility, the cloud of witnesses, and why individualism isolates believers from 2,000 years of wisdom.If this conversation helped you rethink authority, share it with a friend who's asking similar questions, subscribe for more, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

He is honored as the founder of Orthodox monastic life in Russia. He was born in Chernigov province and tonsured at the Monastery of Esphigmenou on the Holy Mountain. His abbot sent him from Mt Athos to Kiev to establish the monastic life there in 1013, during the last years of Prince Vladimir's holy reign. He lived there as a hermit, slowly drawing to himself others who wished to share the ascetical life. In time, the brotherhood grew into the Kiev Caves Lavra. St Anthony refused to serve as abbot of the monastery; this task was taken up by St Theodosius (commemorated May 3). St Anthony continued to live as a cave-dwelling hermit and reposed in peace at the age of ninety.

A new documentary screening in this month's Doc Edge Festival follows the live of Christian monks and nuns living in a mountaintop monastery in war-ravaged Syria

"Born in Asia and educated in Constantinople, he went into the army after completing his studies and became an officer. Reading the Holy Scriptures, he came upon the Saviour's words: 'If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me' (Matt. 19:21). These words made such an impression on him that he sold and gave away all that he had, and went off to the desert. After long asceticism and striving for purification, he founded the community of the 'Wakeful Ones' (Acoemetae) with a special rule. According to this rule, the services in the church continued day and night in unbroken sequence. The brethren were divided into six groups, each having its appointed hours of day or night to go to church and take over the reading and singing from the previous group. He travelled a great deal over the East, bringing people to faith in Christ, disputing with heretics, working miracles by God's grace and growing old in the service of the Lord Jesus. He finished his earthly course in Constantinople in the year 430, where his relics revealed the miraculous power and glory with which God had glorified His holy servant." (Prologue)

Read OnlineWhen Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” Matthew 8:28–29After delivering His Sermon on the Mount and performing many miracles among His own people, Jesus intentionally journeys across the Sea of Galilee into Gentile territory—the region of the Gadarenes, near Gadara, a town within the pagan Decapolis. His choice underscores His mission to extend salvation beyond Israel.The location where Jesus and His disciples arrived was no accident. It was a desolate area filled with tombs, symbols of death, impurity, and spiritual desolation. According to Jewish law, contact with graves rendered one ritually unclean (cf. Numbers 19:16). Spiritually, these tombs vividly illustrate the isolation, emptiness, and lifelessness that sin imposes upon the human soul.The note that the demoniacs “were so savage that no one could travel by that road” further reveals the effects of grave sin. Evil seeks dominance and destruction; it isolates, destroys relationships, and makes peaceful coexistence impossible. This passage reflects the devastating consequences of allowing evil to reign unchecked within one's soul: It becomes uncontrollable, violent, and destructive. Evil never leads to peace, but rather to chaos, isolation, and fear.By entering into this territory, our Lord reveals His willingness to enter the isolation and desolation we all experience due to sin and every evil attack. He comes to us precisely when we are at our worst, most vulnerable, to set us free from the grip of the evil one and from all of his destructive works.When these two men see Jesus, the demons possessing them immediately recognize Him as the Son of God and acknowledge His authority over them. Their recognition raises an important spiritual question for each of us: Do I also recognize Christ's presence in my life? Am I aware of His divine authority over sin and evil, and do I trust in His desire and power to set me free? When the demons ask Jesus, “Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?”, they reveal their full knowledge of their ultimate fate: eternal damnation. They understood this clearly because, even after their fall, demons retain their natural angelic powers. Among these powers is their exceptional intelligence and their capacity to tempt humans by subtly suggesting deceptive thoughts, drawing us persistently away from God's truth.Because demons know their eternal fate with clarity, they seek to use their intellect and suggestive powers to lead us into the very despair they themselves experience. They have no hope of eternal life. Out of their hatred for God and humanity, they attempt to conform us to their hopelessness, convincing us that we cannot escape sin, that hope is lost, and that we are doomed to misery.Only our Lord can shatter these demonic lies. Only Christ can break the chains of despair, isolation, and sin. By setting these two demoniacs free, Jesus illustrates His deep longing to do the same for us. By demonstrating His authority over the most severe effects of evil, Jesus reveals His absolute authority over every evil we encounter: every sin, temptation, oppressive thought, confusion, and especially despair.Reflect today on Jesus' choice to cross the Sea of Galilee for the sole purpose of setting these two demoniacs free from their oppression. Our Lord journeys to you with the same resolve. What is it that oppresses you? What thoughts tempt you to fear or despair? What sins do you habitually struggle with? Jesus wants to enter into every form of isolation and desolation you experience. Look for Him, recognize Him when He comes, profess your faith in His authority, and let Him fulfill His deepest desire by setting you free.Most powerful Lord, You have all authority over evil. In my weakness, I cry out to You and plead for Your mercy. Please set me free, O Lord, and protect me from the evil one. Forgive my sins and restore me to deeper communion with You and all Your children. Jesus, I trust in You.Image: Healing of the Gadarene Demoniac, 14th-century fresco, Visoki Dečani Monastery.Source: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

What does it truly mean to be a Bridge Builder in leadership, faith, and family? In this episode, we unpack the extraordinary journey of Denny LaVe—a Catholic entrepreneur, former monk, and father of six—who embodies the Bridge Builder persona by seamlessly connecting deep spiritual conviction with gritty, real-world leadership.Central to our conversation is the art of building a bridge between the noise of contemporary society and the essential silence required for strategic discernment. Denny shares riveting experiences from his blue-collar roots—from scaling radio towers to navigating complex family and business dynamics—demonstrating how challenges and near-death encounters forge a resilient reliance on divine providence. We dive into his book, Blue Collar Blessed, to show how ordinary, everyday settings are the exact proving grounds where impactful leadership is built. If you are an executive, entrepreneur, or community leader looking to bridge the gap between your personal values and your professional impact, this episode offers a masterclass in leading with courage, compassion, and clear vision.Key TakeawaysBridging the Noise with Strategic Stillness: True Bridge Builders understand that modern leadership requires a deliberate pause. By actively creating silent spaces amidst organizational and societal chaos, leaders can cut through the noise to discern their true calling and direction.Connecting the Monastery to the Marketplace: Denny's journey proves that spiritual depth and operational excellence are not mutually exclusive. A Bridge Builder successfully carries principles of faith, obedience, and integrity from private spaces directly into the competitive marketplace.Guarding the Culture Within the Home: Leading a team or a family requires intentional boundaries. Bridge Builders actively curate the media and environments surrounding their inner circle, protecting core values while fostering authentic human connection and an appreciation for the world around them.The Blueprint of Self-Leadership: Exceptional leadership is a bridge built from the inside out. You cannot effectively guide a team or cross community divides without first establishing a foundation of self-awareness, personal alignment, and a genuine commitment to serving your neighbor.Anchoring Identity Beyond the Title: A Bridge Builder's worth isn't tied solely to professional accolades or bottom-line metrics. True leadership identity is anchored in a higher purpose, allowing leaders to navigate business highs and lows with unwavering stability.A Call to Active Reconciliation: The conversation culminates in the ultimate mandate for the Bridge Builder persona: moving beyond passive agreement to actively foster dialogue, build understanding, and inspire collaboration across cultural and professional divides.Links referenced in this episode:newlionofidaho.comdenny4senate.comMentioned in this episode:My friend Dr. Noah St. John calls this 'the invisible brake.' He's giving our listeners a free Revenue Ceiling Audit to help you see what's REALLY holding you back. You'll also get a FREE 30-day membership to Noah Bot, giving you access to Dr. Noah's 30 years of experience to help you reach your next level. But hurry, because there are only 50 available this month. So if you're tired of being stuck at the same revenue level and want to finally break through, get your FREE Revenue Ceiling Audit at https://www.noahvault.com?aff=d28bf6c78150c7f09896297dfe1701c1cd191ac6fc9976779212cec5d38e94d6

I was recently interviewed by Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho from the Clear Mountain Monastery Project. They asked wonderful questions and we talked a lot about the power of listening. ... Their shownotes: In this session, Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho interview Steve James, meditation teacher & host of the Guru Viking Podcast (https://www.guruviking.com/). 00:00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:01:32 Formative faith moments and vocation 00:06:18 Life on an English canal boat 00:08:40 The rhythm of travel and interviewing 00:10:59 Interviewing the same guest over time 00:14:20 Most moving and luminous conversations 00:17:21 Handling negative reactivity in conversation 00:22:24 Balancing internal and external awareness 00:23:50 Advice for engaging with teachers and mentors 00:29:50 Finding beauty in people on different paths 00:34:45 Questions that bring out conversational depth 00:41:06 Personal frameworks for organizing experience 00:48:15 Belief alignments and the "pie chart" of faith 00:55:30 Personal relationship to the Buddha 00:59:44 Navigating dual vs. non-dual teachings

From a talk given by Fr. John Valadez at St. Barbara's Monastery in Santa Paula, CA.Support the showVisit Our Site // Grab Some Merch // Become A Patreon Member

Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine, damaging Kyiv's UNESCO-listed Pechersk Lavra monastery while Ukraine continues striking military infrastructure inside Russia.In this week's Talk Eastern Europe News Roundup, Adam Reichardt and Nina Panikova discuss:- Russia's latest missile attacks on Ukraine and the damage to one of the country's most important cultural landmarks.- Ukraine's growing campaign against Russian oil infrastructure and Crimea.- What came out of the G7 summit and whether diplomatic efforts could restart negotiations.- The shocking murder of Russian dissident cartoonist Robert Kuzovkov in Poland and what it says about Russia's reach inside Europe.- Why Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic visit to Slovakia – and what it means for Central Europe.- An update on rising tensions in Polish-Ukrainian relations.Plus: Adam previews his exclusive interview with former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt.❓ What do you think is the biggest challenge facing Europe today? Let us know in the comments.Talk Eastern Europe is the podcast from New Eastern Europe magazine - your trusted source for in-depth analysis and expert perspectives on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and the post-Soviet space. ABOUT THIS PODCASTWe publish twice weekly:Every Tuesday: Expert Interviews featuring deep dives with leading analysts, journalists, and scholarsEvery Friday: Weekly News Roundup with essential updates and commentary on the latest developmentsAvailable on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and all major platforms. Read the New Eastern Europe Magazine Bimonthly publication with exclusive long-form analysis. https://neweasterneurope.eu/become-a-member-of-new-eastern-europe/ Support us on PatreonJoin our community for bonus content, early access, behind-the-scenes insights, and access to our exclusive WhatsApp group where we discuss the news in real-time.https://www.patreon.com/talkeasterneurope Subscribe to the Brief Eastern Europe NewsletterWeekly briefing sent out every Monday with news updates, expert commentary, and our editorial picks - free to your inbox: https://briefeasterneurope.eu/subscribe FOLLOW USInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/neweasterneuropemag/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewEasternEurope/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-eastern-europe

Host: Steve Macchia Guests: Gayle Heaslip, Matt Scott "Hospitality of the soul is about a gracious welcome, not just a literal space. It's a kind of inner spaciousness and unhurried quality that's created within our hearts." – Steve Macchia What does it mean to practice hospitality—not just in our homes, but within our souls? In this episode of The Discerning Leader Podcast, Steve Macchia welcomes Gayle Heaslip and Matt Scott for a rich conversation about soul hospitality—the practice of creating a spacious, welcoming place for God, ourselves, and others. Together they explore how God invites us into a deeper relationship than we often expect, how we learn to embrace both the beautiful and broken parts of ourselves, and why cultivating an inner sanctuary becomes the foundation for offering grace-filled presence to others. They discuss the importance of wonder, attentive listening, and creating safe spaces where people can encounter the love and transforming presence of God. If you've ever longed for a deeper sense of God's welcome—or wondered how to extend that welcome to others—this conversation offers a gentle invitation to slow down, make room, and discover the hospitality of the soul. We've provided a 3 page Soul Care Audit that will offer you a handful of questions to consider how well you're caring for your soul. You can download the PDF here and spend some time prayerfully reflecting on your current rhythms and practices.  Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

The Lemurian energy has come and gone from my life several times since 2006, but this article is about a physical visit Larry and I had with the Lemurians and I'm sharing it in preparation for our June 2023 Class “Lemurian Reconnection”.Back in 2014, Larry and I went to Lemuria with two Spanish ladies.The place we entered Lemuria was at “Monastery Santa Maria de Montserrat”, a magnificent monastery at the edge of majestic mountains located about 45km, 28 miles, northwest of Barcelona, Spain.We had held an event in Barcelona at the time, and also planned a visit to the well known Lemurian portal in Montserrat. There are Lemurian portals at various locations around the planet.The Monastery had been built on the old location of a large Lemurian portal. But that portal had since been closed, and smaller portals are still in place in various locations on the mountains around the monastery.The monastery itself was an example of the typical divine energy leaching system. Technology that is used to absorb the individual's awe and inspiration felt from being exposed to the larger than life energy of the sacred spots churches, abbeys, cathedrals, monasteries and convents are built upon. So, nothing new to write home about that part of the visit.I had visited the portal in 2012 with Daniela and a portal keeper we met at the monastery who “just happened to be there that day” and had confirmed the location of the most accessible portal. So I knew where that portal was and was able to take us there in 2014.Larry, the ladies and I left the monastery courtyard and followed a well trodden, nicely built path up the mountain where I had found the portal two years earlier.Inelia's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.We had to walk quite some distance before arriving at the portal. It was literally on the path and there were pillars and seats on the edge of the path on that spot. We sat down, Larry, myself and the two ladies, and closed our eyes. I scanned the portal and “knocked” to see if there was anyone there and could we have a visit. I received the message that there was no one there to open it, but there were people on the way to meet us, and to come back in a while. I don't exactly remember how long we had to wait.We continued up the mountain and enjoyed the views, the company and interesting conversation. At the allotted time, we returned and sat on the stone seats on the edge of the path and closed our eyes.After we sat there a while, there was a massive crack sound, like a giant boulder had just crashed on the path beside us. We opened our eyes confused because there was no boulder, no evidence whatsoever that anything physical had just occurred. What followed was the typical experience many people have, when traveling to Lemuria.The two ladies had laid down on the stone benches and were fast asleep. Larry rubbed his eyes and saw a young couple walking past us on the path. He got very mad at them because, in his words, she was hundreds of years old and he was super young. He said “What is she doing with him, she's much too old for him!!” They actually looked like a regular normal couple, no obvious age difference really.I looked at Larry's arms, they were now bruised. He had hand mark bruises near his wrists. I checked his legs and the same marks were visible near his feet. His phone, which was disconnected to all networks, had the time as 11pm, but it was only 4pm in reality. The phone then converted to the right time when he took it off airplane mode which he had turned on when we arrived to save battery usage for use as a camera and clock. It had worked perfectly before and after the incident, yet while disconnected from the network it had measured 7 hours more time passing than the actual time wasHe was also starving and thirsty, although we had eaten just an hour earlier. One of the ladies said that she felt more rested than she had in a long time, and she was also very, very hungry. The other lady and I were not hungry at all, and we were rather tired.This all made sense after I closed my eyes and pulled up the memories of what had just happened. Our memories had been cleared of the events, but there were remnants of it.Before I said anything, one of the ladies said that she must not remember anything as it would be too painful for her to do so. Her daily life would lose all importance and she wouldn't be able to continue in her present life if she did. Her words were urgent, powerful, with deep conviction. The other lady said she thought she had had a nice nap. And Larry just got angry again.I waited until later to tell Larry about what I remembered of the incident.We indeed had visited with the Lemurians. And, yes, life in our part of the world lost a lot of color, flavor and meaning when I let the memories resurface. It was not easy.This is what I saw: as we were met at the portal, the Lemurians took us individually into their space. This was because, in their experience, when a group comes into their reality, each person can behave very, very differently and they like to be able to gently wake them (if the person chooses to do so), and deal with what happens in a gentle way. After the person gets their footing and deals with the experience, they are then introduced to the welcoming party. There is also food, and if wanted the person can have a tour of technologies or other things.The bruises on Larry's arms and legs had happened because they had to hold him down as he became very violent when he woke up there and I was not around. It got very out of control.One of the ladies had indeed stayed in the welcoming room and simply slept through the whole experience. The other lady, the one who said she did not want to remember, spent the time exploring, chatting and eating the delicious and colorful, life filled food they had prepared for us.When I reported our visit at a public level back then, many people asked me about their technology, did they have free energy? Stuff like that. But those types of things were not in my mind to ask at the time. I was more interested in their cooking, the fabric their clothes were made of and also their makeup. I was interested in their social discourse, how they communicated, why they had split from us, and how they managed society. Their lifespans, health, family structures, cities and such.The Lemurians are back in my awareness now, and Larry and I are giving a class about them which will include an exercise for us to reestablish our high-frequency links to them.IneliaThe discussion doesn't stop here - listen to the full podcast episode for unfiltered insights from Inelia and our panelists. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dttr.substack.com/subscribe

John Hardie reports that Russia launched a massive barrage of 70 missiles and 600 drones against Kyiv, damaging a historic monastery. Simultaneously, Ukraine is conducting a "logistics lockdown" campaign to isolate Crimea by striking fuel convoys and bridges. Despite Russian gains near Kostiantynivka, Ukraine's manpower reforms are improving battlefield stability. (9)1896

Why did the Visigoths demand three thousand pounds of black pepper as the ransom for Rome — and what does that tell us about a climbing vine in Kerala that reshaped the entire history of the western world? How did a country of one million people on the edge of Europe come to control half the pepper reaching the continent, and build the Jerónimos Monastery to celebrate a voyage driven by spice? And what happens to an empire built entirely on a markup when someone finally figures out how to remove the middleman?Join John and Patrick as they tell the story of Portugal and pepper — Vasco da Gama's ninety-three days at sea, the dismantling of the Venetian spice monopoly, and the Torre de Belém, still standing on the Lisbon waterfront, paid for by a vine in India...----------In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

The US and Iran are expected to sign an agreement on Friday. 12 people have been killed in a Missouri skydiving plane crash.  Russia attacks a Kyiv monastery. A Utah county is fighting mosquitoes with AI. Plus, the victory parade for the NY Knicks is set for Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Surgeon, Soldier, Sister: Sr. Dede Byrne joins Trending with Timmerie to share her story from scrubs, to Army uniform, to habit. Episode Guide Mission or career? US Army Colonel & surgeon (0:47) Caring for St. Mother Teresa (22:04) Career discernment & disruption – changing course facing adversity (25:46) How your past forms your future (30:35) Serving in the Sinai Peninsula (33:48) Trinity Sunday – Mass prep (41:02) Resources mentioned: St. Catherine’s Monastery https://bit.ly/49pgag4 D.C. Medical Clinic Little Workers of the Sacred Heart https://www.lwshptclinic.com/home Little Workers of the Sacred Heart https://littleworkersofthesacredhearts.com/

Dev got a gift from a coworker...he'll show it off (3:00). Cavs blew a 22pt 4th quarter lead in Game 1 at New York, Jalen Brunson's there for it, Hunting James Harden, and Kenny Atkinson doesn't wanna use his timeouts (10:24). Details have emerged from Ramona Shelburne on Victor Wembanyama visit to a Shaolin Monastery last offseason to help him build who he is this season. We'll try to practice one of the poses Wemby had to do on the show (36:54). There's a youth movement in the NBA....Henry Abbott documented it (1:11:25). Jason Kidd was fired in Dallas (1:18:41).Host: Chris Vernon Contributors: Jon Roser, Devin Walker Technical Director: Jaylon Wallace Associate Producer: Jena Broyles