POPULARITY
In this episode of the Ordinary Poeple walking an extra-ordinary pathPodcast, Life Itself Co-Founder Sylvie Barbier is joined by Jamie Bristow a leading expert on inner development and contemplative practices in public life. Ordinary People is a podcast series that delves into the lives of individuals who have defied societal expectations and embarked on extra-ordinary paths despite their seemingly ordinary backgrounds. Join us as we dive deep into their lives, uncovering their motivations, beliefs, practices, and moments of transformation. We demystify hero worship and share accessible narratives of real individuals who have transcended societal expectations and norms. Each guest delicately navigates the balance between introspection and worldly engagement. Listeners are offered empowerment, kinship and inspiration for embarking on their own extra-ordinary journey. Jamie talks about his journey from his troubling teenage years to teaching mindfulness to politicians. Jamie Bristow opens up about his troubling teenage years led by the dislocation and adaption of new cultures while their family moved between the UK and the USA. Exploring what led him to move away from his advertising career to being a mindfulness practitioner and teacher. Jamie's life story highlights the importance of meditation, faith, and resilience in leading a mindful life. About Jamie Bristow (2023) Jamie Bristow is a leading expert on inner development and contemplative practices in public life. For eight years, he was Director of the Mindfulness Initiative and clerk to the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness. In 2023, he joined the Inner Development Goals team to lead on public narrative & policy development. Jamie was formerly Business Development Director for Headspace and has a background in psychology, climate change campaign communications and advertising. A teacher of insight meditation, his mentors have included Rob Burbea, Stephen Batchelor and Christina Feldman. Learn more about Jamie Bristow and his work here: https://www.jamiebristow.com/ About Sylvie Barbier Sylvie Barbier is a French-Taiwanese performance artist, entrepreneur and educator. She co-founded Life Itself to build a wiser future through culture, space and community. The Once Upon a Time podcast series, shatters the myth that extraordinary lives are reserved for a select few. Join us as we dive deep into the lives of seemingly ordinary people who are walking extra-ordinary paths, uncovering their motivations, practices, and moments of transformation. We demystify hero worship and share accessible narratives of real individuals who have transcended societal expectations and norms. Each guest delicately navigates the balance between introspection and worldly engagement. Listeners are offered empowerment, kinship and inspiration for embarking on their own extraordinary journey. If you found this conversation insightful please give it a like and consider subscribing to our channel. By doing so you will be helping us bring this necessary knowledge to a bigger audience. www.lifeitself.org
Metta is a Pali word that can be translated as benevolence, friendliness, or good will. It is a key state of mind for meditative practice; it has the capacity to heal, invigorate, and center the mind.The majority of guided Metta meditations emphasize the ways in which you can trigger this state of mind with semantic content and imagery. For example imagining a loved one, a pet, or even a beautiful scene, and tuning into the feeling of friendliness that such an image sparks.In this meditation we instead emphasize the phenomenal character of Metta as a way to develop it, establish it, and understand it deeply. For example, we discuss how one can use different varieties of attention in order to kindle this feeling. We also tune into one's intentions and background mood in order to nudge the mind towards Metta. More so, we carefully study how technical phenomenological features such as rhythm, wave envelope, and energy affects the quality and intensity of Metta.May this meditation be of benefit to sentient beings!Relevant Links:Metta Practice, and a few things about Piti (Instructions), by Rob Burbea (https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60871/)Guide to Writing Rigorous Reports of Exotic States of Consciousness (https://qri.org/blog/rigorous-reports)Guided Meditation: The Varieties of Attention (https://youtu.be/YYSkKgwH4Bg?si=okgPbqKSGt8MvIHq)Buddhist Annealing: Wireheading Done Right with the Seven Factors of Awakening (https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/04/04/buddhist-annealing-wireheading-done-right-with-the-seven-factors-of-awakening/)Metta: The Fabric Softener of Reality (https://youtu.be/SN-Wfk8bYo0?si=jpSS3lYSvOR6V-7P)
(SanghaSeva) A kind of mettā to phenomena guided practice, à la Rob Burbea
(SanghaSeva) A fun and effective way of steadying the heart-mind and developing an absorbed attention. Following in a style offered by Rob Burbea.
Chapter 03 - Therapy, Deepening practice and Vision בפרק זה רוב מדבר על התהליך האישי שהבר בתרפיה, ועל ההבנות שהתפתחו בו בהמשך דרכו ביוני 2018 תרגלתי במשך חודשיים בריטריט-עצמי במרכז המדיטציה באנגליה בשם גאיה האוס, תחת הנחייתו של רוב ברביאה - חבר יקר, אדם יוצא דופן ומורה נפלא. שם היתה לי את הזכות הגדולה והעונג, לשבת איתו בביתו, לשיחה ארוכה ופתוחה מול המצלמה, בה הוא מספר על חייו, התרגול שלו ודרכו הרוחנית. רוב, שנולד וגדל באנגליה היה מורה דהרמה שחידש, האיר וכונן דהרמה עמוקה, יחודית ופורצת דרך. ספרו "ראייה שמשחררת" הוא ציון דרך למי שרוצה להעמיק בדרך המובילה אל החופש. רוב ייסד זרם ייחודי בדהרמה, המכונה soul making ואת שנותיו האחרונות הקדיש לפיתוח תורתו. השיחה צולמה כמתנה משנינו עבור הסנגהה, נערכה על ידי נועם גלילי היקרה, ומופיעה בחמישה פרקים. רוב שחלה בסרטן ב2015, נפטר בירח המלא של מאי, 2020, שנתיים אחרי קיום הראיון. את מאות השיחות והנחיות המדיטציה שנתן רוב במהלך השנים אפשר למצוא באתר של GAIA HOUSE שם שימש מורה הבית עד שחלה, באתר של DHARMA SEED בקישור הזה https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/ ובאתר Hermes Amara Foundation שהוקם כדי לשמר ולפתח את תורתו הייחודית של רוב ברביאה https://hermesamara.org/ ********************************************************** לעדכונים על פעילויות מדיטציה ודהרמה עם לילה, חומרים כתובים והשראות - האתר של לילה קמחי https://www.ThisFreedom.com לפודקסט של לילה, בספוטיפיי ובפלטפורמות נוספות - https://open.spotify.com/show/5SILhRi... *********************************************************
June 2018, Devon. Chapter 01 - Who Are You, Rob? בפרק זה רוב מתייחס לפרטים מהאוטוביוגרפיה שלו, כילד שגדל והתחנך בלונדון, לאב יהודי ממוצא לובי ששרד בנס את השואה, ולאם אנגליה, ואיך החינוך שקיבל והסביבה בה גדל השפיעו על המשך חייו. בהמשך הראיון הוא מתייחס למפגש שלו עם התרגול. ביוני 2018 תרגלתי במשך חודשיים בריטריט-עצמי במרכז המדיטציה באנגליה בשם Gaia House תחת הנחייתו של רוב ברביאה - חבר יקר, אדם יוצא דופן ומורה נפלא. שם היתה לי את הזכות הגדולה והעונג, לשבת איתו בביתו, לשיחה ארוכה ופתוחה מול המצלמה, בה הוא מספר על חייו, התרגול שלו ודרכו הרוחנית. רוב, שנולד וגדל באנגליה היה מורה דהרמה שחידש, האיר וכונן דהרמה עמוקה, יחודית ופורצת דרך. ספרו "ראייה שמשחררת" הוא ציון דרך למי שרוצה להעמיק בדרך המובילה אל החופש. רוב ייסד זרם ייחודי בדהרמה, המכונה soul making ואת שנותיו האחרונות הקדיש לפיתוח תורתו. השיחה צולמה כמתנה משנינו עבור הסנגהה, נערכה על ידי נועם גלילי היקרה, ומופיעה בחמישה פרקים. רוב שחלה בסרטן ב2015, נפטר בירח המלא של מאי, 2020, שנתיים אחרי קיום הראיון. את מאות השיחות והנחיות המדיטציה שנתן רוב במהלך השנים אפשר למצוא באתר של GAIA HOUSE שם שימש מורה הבית עד שחלה, באתר של DHARMA SEED בקישור הזה https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/ ובאתר Hermes Amara Foundation שהוקם כדי לשמר ולפתח את תורתו הייחודית של רוב ברביאה https://hermesamara.org/ לעדכונים על פעילויות מדיטציה ודהרמה עם לילה, חומרים כתובים והשראות - האתר של לילה קמחי https://www.ThisFreedom.com לפודקסט של לילה, בספוטיפיי ובפלטפורמות נוספות - https://open.spotify.com/show/5SILhRi... *********************************************************
June 2018, Devon. Chapter 02 - Diving Into The Path בפרק זה מדבר רוב על הכניסה שלו לדרך, חוויות בתרגול והשנים הראשונות ביוני 2018 תרגלתי במשך חודשיים בריטריט-עצמי במרכז המדיטציה באנגליה בשם Gaia House תחת הנחייתו של רוב ברביאה - חבר יקר, אדם יוצא דופן ומורה נפלא. שם היתה לי את הזכות הגדולה והעונג, לשבת איתו בביתו, לשיחה ארוכה ופתוחה מול המצלמה, בה הוא מספר על חייו, התרגול שלו ודרכו הרוחנית. רוב, שנולד וגדל באנגליה היה מורה דהרמה שחידש, האיר וכונן דהרמה עמוקה, יחודית ופורצת דרך. ספרו "ראייה שמשחררת" הוא ציון דרך למי שרוצה להעמיק בדרך המובילה אל החופש. רוב ייסד זרם ייחודי בדהרמה, המכונה soul making ואת שנותיו האחרונות הקדיש לפיתוח תורתו. השיחה צולמה כמתנה משנינו עבור הסנגהה, נערכה על ידי נועם גלילי היקרה, ומופיעה בחמישה פרקים. רוב שחלה בסרטן ב2015, נפטר בירח המלא של מאי, 2020, שנתיים אחרי קיום הראיון. את מאות השיחות והנחיות המדיטציה שנתן רוב במהלך השנים אפשר למצוא באתר של GAIA HOUSE שם שימש מורה הבית עד שחלה, באתר של DHARMA SEED בקישור הזה https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/ ובאתר Hermes Amara Foundation שהוקם כדי לשמר ולפתח את תורתו הייחודית של רוב ברביאה https://hermesamara.org/ ******************************************************************************************** לעדכונים על פעילויות מדיטציה ודהרמה עם לילה, חומרים כתובים והשראות - האתר של לילה קמחי https://www.ThisFreedom.com לפודקסט של לילה, בספוטיפיי ובפלטפורמות נוספות - https://open.spotify.com/show/5SILhRi...
June 2018, Devon. Chapter 04 - Ways of Looking בפרק זה רוב מדבר על טבע המודעות והיחסים בינה לבין ה"אל מוות", על ה"בלתי מפוברק" והלאה משם, על היחסים עם מושג הריקות ומשם אל תחילת דרכו עם הדהרמה הרדיקלית שהביא - בהתייחסות ל"מדומיין". בפרק עמוק זה רוב פורש חלק ממשנתו והבנתו את הדהרמה. ביוני 2018 תרגלתי במשך חודשיים בריטריט-עצמי במרכז המדיטציה באנגליה בשם Gaia House תחת הנחייתו של רוב ברביאה - חבר יקר, אדם יוצא דופן ומורה נפלא. שם היתה לי את הזכות הגדולה והעונג, לשבת איתו בביתו, לשיחה ארוכה ופתוחה מול המצלמה, בה הוא מספר על חייו, התרגול שלו ודרכו הרוחנית. רוב, שנולד וגדל באנגליה היה מורה דהרמה שחידש, האיר וכונן דהרמה עמוקה, יחודית ופורצת דרך. ספרו "ראייה שמשחררת" הוא ציון דרך למי שרוצה להעמיק בדרך המובילה אל החופש. רוב ייסד זרם ייחודי בדהרמה, המכונה soul making ואת שנותיו האחרונות הקדיש לפיתוח תורתו. השיחה צולמה כמתנה משנינו עבור הסנגהה, נערכה על ידי נועם גלילי היקרה, ומופיעה בחמישה פרקים. רוב שחלה בסרטן ב2015, נפטר בירח המלא של מאי, 2020, שנתיים אחרי קיום הראיון. את מאות השיחות והנחיות המדיטציה שנתן רוב במהלך השנים אפשר למצוא באתר של GAIA HOUSE שם שימש מורה הבית עד שחלה, באתר של DHARMA SEED בקישור הזה https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/ ובאתר Hermes Amara Foundation שהוקם כדי לשמר ולפתח את תורתו הייחודית של רוב ברביאה https://hermesamara.org/ לעדכונים על פעילויות מדיטציה ודהרמה עם לילה, חומרים כתובים והשראות - האתר של לילה קמחי https://www.ThisFreedom.com לפודקסט של לילה, בספוטיפיי ובפלטפורמות נוספות - https://open.spotify.com/show/5SILhRi...
June 2018, Devon. Chapter 05 - Imaginal, Illness and Death העמקה אל תוך הדהרמה של המדומיין - פנים שונות של המקודש, השפעותיו של ג'יימס הילמן עליו ועל תורתו, על תהליך כתיבת הספר "ראייה שמשחררת", על התרגול העכשווי שלו עם המדומיין ביחס למחלתו, ועל המוות. ביוני 2018 תרגלתי במשך חודשיים בריטריט-עצמי במרכז המדיטציה באנגליה בשם Gaia House תחת הנחייתו של רוב ברביאה - חבר יקר, אדם יוצא דופן ומורה נפלא. שם היתה לי את הזכות הגדולה והעונג, לשבת איתו בביתו, לשיחה ארוכה ופתוחה מול המצלמה, בה הוא מספר על חייו, התרגול שלו ודרכו הרוחנית. רוב, שנולד וגדל באנגליה היה מורה דהרמה שחידש, האיר וכונן דהרמה עמוקה, יחודית ופורצת דרך. ספרו "ראייה שמשחררת" הוא ציון דרך למי שרוצה להעמיק בדרך המובילה אל החופש. רוב ייסד זרם ייחודי בדהרמה, המכונה soul making ואת שנותיו האחרונות הקדיש לפיתוח תורתו. השיחה צולמה כמתנה משנינו עבור הסנגהה, נערכה על ידי נועם גלילי היקרה, ומופיעה בחמישה פרקים. רוב שחלה בסרטן ב2015, נפטר בירח המלא של מאי, 2020, שנתיים אחרי קיום הראיון. את מאות השיחות והנחיות המדיטציה שנתן רוב במהלך השנים אפשר למצוא באתר של GAIA HOUSE שם שימש מורה הבית עד שחלה, באתר של DHARMA SEED בקישור הזה https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/ ובאתר Hermes Amara Foundation שהוקם כדי לשמר ולפתח את תורתו הייחודית של רוב ברביאה https://hermesamara.org/ ********************************************************** לעדכונים על פעילויות מדיטציה ודהרמה עם לילה, חומרים כתובים והשראות - האתר של לילה קמחי https://www.ThisFreedom.com
How do we grow our mindsets to meet the dissonance of our time with real action? In this episode Amisha talks to Jamie Bristow, recognised for his pioneering work on mindfulness in politics and public policy, and for his writing on inner development as a way of addressing a range of societal issues. Jamie was Director of the ‘Mindfulness Initiative' policy institute and clerk to the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness, where he led numerous initiatives to promote mindfulness in government and policy circles worldwide. Jamie was formerly Business Development Director for Headspace and has a background in psychology, climate change campaigning and advertising. His mentors have included Rob Burbea, Stephen Batchelor and Christina Feldman. Jamie is an Honorary Associate of Bangor University, where he is currently supervising a research project on ‘awareness-based social change'. Amisha and Jamie speak about the impact mindfulness practices can have on flourishing societies that are equipped to hold the complexities and dissonance of our time. Jamie shares how the results of resourcing politicians with skills rooted in empathy and connection is filtering into public and political spheres showing promising green shoots of policy and system changes. Together they explore how mindfulness can create vital mindset shifts needed to tackle the climate crisis. Jamie reveals what inner qualities we can cultivate, how we can bring them into mainstream culture to make them accessible as micro and macro acts of activism and to build movements of change that ripple across our global communities. We learn that we can understand the climate crisis as a relationship crisis. Having courageous conversations about the challenges we are facing is a powerful way to grow our common ground and connection; a way to truth tell our way out of this status quo that's lingering at five minutes past midnight. Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org
Today my guest is meditation teacher Kirsten Kratz. Born and brought up in Germany Kirsten has practiced Buddhist meditation in Asia and the West since 1993. She started teaching in 2006 and since 2015 she has been ‘teacher in residence' at Gaia House meditation centre supporting those on personal retreat there. Her love and understanding of the Dhamma has been strongly influenced by, among others, the teachings of her friend and teaching colleague, the late Rob Burbea. One of her particular passions is exploring how wisdom teachings can foster appropriate responses to the challenges of our time, and Kirsten sees her involvement in activism as an important expression of her practice. She is co-initiator of the “Dharma Action Network for Climate Engagement” (DANCE) and supporting teacher of Freely Given Retreats. If you enjoy this episode or any other of the Monk on a Motorbike podcasts please write a review on Apple podcasts or any other platform that you use that accepts reviews or ratings. It really helps to spread the word. Thanks Enjoy
Christofer and writer Jake Orthwein speak about the buddhist concept of Emptiness in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss dependent co-arising, lack of inherent existence and no-self, Rob Burbea's 'ways of looking', the baysian brain and meditation, why emptiness is liberative, 'fear of emptiness' and DPDR, and other related topics.Jake Orthwein is a writer and filmmaker based in Santa Monica, CA. He studied film and cognitive science at the University of Southern California and currently works as Director of Media for the Psychology of Technology Institute, an academic non-profit focused on improving research on the human-technology relationship. He is also a long term meditator.Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeOrthweinSupport the podcast at:https://www.patreon.com/doexplain (monthly)https://ko-fi.com/doexplain (one-time)Find Christofer on Twitter:https://twitter.com/ReachChristofer
In this episode, QRI's research director, Andres Gomez Emilsson, describes his experience with a 2-week Jhanas meditation retreat. He talks about what it means to experience higher dimensions, his personal background with meditation, the retreat protocol, and commentary on the lectures given by Rob Burbea. He also shares how QRI's paradigms are relevant in this context, new insights, and additional realizations. Lastly, he discusses the effect of various scents/perfumes and mild psychoactives on Jhanas meditation.
In this episode, we explore the challenge of thinking wholesome, genuinely useful, and novel thoughts about how to build paradise. Most of the "visions of paradise" we find in our culture, media, and art are projections of implicit aesthetics used for human coordination, rather than deeply thought-out and high-dimensional perspectives truly meant to elevate our understanding and inspire us to investigate the Mystery of reality. Aesthetics tend to put the cart before the horse: they tacitly come with a sense of what is good and what is real. Aesthetics are fast, parallel, and collective ways of judging the goodness or badness of images, ideas, and archetypes. To disentangle ourselves from tacit low-dimensional aesthetics, and inspired by the work of Rob Burbea (cf. Soulmaking), we go over what aesthetics consist of: Eros, Psyche, and Logos. Then, to explore high-quality aesthetics relevant to paradise engineering, we go over 7 camps of a hypothetical "Superhappiness Festival", each representing a different advanced aesthetic: Hedonism, Psychiatry, Wholesome, Paleo, Energy, Self-Organization, and Paradise Engineering.
(SanghaSeva) A guided metta meditation based on Rob Burbea's Dukkha Ways of Looking practice.
Dharma Seed - dharmaseed.org: dharma talks and meditation instruction
(SanghaSeva) A guided metta meditation based on Rob Burbea's Dukkha Ways of Looking practice.
Dharma Seed - dharmaseed.org: dharma talks and meditation instruction
(SanghaSeva) A guided metta meditation based on Rob Burbea's Dukkha Ways of Looking practice.
(SanghaSeva) A guided metta meditation based on Rob Burbea's Dukkha Ways of Looking practice.
Hijacking the Buddha's teachings on dependent co-arising as a detailed model of manifestation, we consider its magical applications: the Maha-nidana Sutta and its relevance to magick; its contrasts with Kabbalah; differences between religion, science, and magick; the centrality of dependent co-arising in Buddhism; religions as models of reality; the nidanas as steps in the process of manifestation; a personal perspective on Buddhism; hacking dependent co-arising; death, birth, and becoming; death and life as interwoven; birth not as creation, but as parts becoming perceivable as wholes; the constant flux of becoming; death and life as different perspectives on becoming; grasping as a lust for existence and a means of existing; craving as a prior judgment call that can sometimes be resisted; the validity of positing psychological causes for material phenomena; how to hack grasping and craving; feeling-tone or vedana and its relationship to craving; regular spiritual practice and psychological work; the effects of an exercise concerning vedana set by Rob Burbea; how states fade, but knowledge remains; how interrupting the process of manifestation allows something besides the ordinary to appear; sensory contact, and why the tree that falls in the forest without anyone to hear it definitely does not make a sound; the sense of an external world; psychedelics as a hack at this level; six senses, and the mind as a sense organ in Buddhist psychology; a personal experience illustrating how this is the case; the tendency to regard mind as a "thing"; name and form; the myth of the conquistadors' galleons; Platonic forms and Jungian archetypes, not as ideal objects but as universal predispositions; the importance of name and form in magick and in therapy; the impact of the human body on human experience; the body as agent rather than object; how some of these phases are more hackable than others; mind, psyche, and soul; soul as an individual instance of human experience; how the body is in the soul; soul as awareness of individual experience versus consciousness as pure awareness; an exercise for exposing the unfindability of awareness; consciousness as the qualityless provider of qualities; consciousness as discernment or discrimination; formations as karmic imprints or tendencies; the possible relevance of formations to scientific experiments concerning free will; how formations may be encountered in meditative states; at the very fringes of manifestation; ignorance as the impulse to make something out of nothing; reviewing the process from ignorance all the way to death; manifestation as a process proceeding from ignorance to samsara; the possibility of transcendence. Peter G.H. Clarke (2013). The Libet experiment and its implications for conscious will, https://tinyurl.com/s2xshu84 (bethinking.org). Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans. (1997). Maha-nidana Sutta: The Great Causes Discourse (DN 15), https://tinyurl.com/zf5f2m27 (accesstoinsight.org).
We listen to Grant Morrison on individuality and Rob Burbea on divinity before venturing into: "soul-making dharma"; what all magicians share; Aleister Crowley's "Liber B Vel Magi"; definition of a magus; Crowley's notion of the word of the magus; the Gospel of St John and the word made flesh; the meaning of logos; the impossibility of meaninglessness; the dilemma of the magus; the silence of the ipsissimus; the curse of having always to speak falsely; how there is no escape from meaning; enslavement by one's own magick or someone else's; Lacan's symbolic order; everyday and magickal relationships to meaning; Darian Leader on the manic-depressive relationship to meaning; "depressive" and "manic" styles of magickal practice; the calling for "closed practices" as a depressive approach to magick; Morrison and Burbea as the manic style versus the depressive; these styles as strategies, rather than as ethical or non-ethical in themselves; magick as the relationship to truth and ethics as the relationship to the good; how practice and ethics can be separated; an encounter with a dodgy guru; how our ethics reflects who we are, not our practice; "cancel culture" as the confusion of goodness and truth; the case of Julius Evola; why the word of a magician cannot make us ethically either better or worse; words of some magi; my personal word as a magus: ελεφαιρο / elephairo ("to deceive"); the appearance of this word in Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid; Borges on the gate of ivory; the significance of this word for my personal magickal practice. Jorge Luis Borges (1985). Nightmares. In: Seven Nights, trans. E. Weinberger. New York: Norton. Rob Burbea (2016). Sensing Divinity, https://tinyurl.com/vx9nt8jd (dharmaseed.org). Alan Chapman & Duncan Barford (2010). A Desert of Roses. Brighton: Heptarchia. Aleister Crowley (1988). Liber I: Liber B Vel Magi Sub Figurâ I. In: The Holy Books of Thelema. York Beach, ME: Red Wheel / Weiser. Darian Leader (2013). Strictly Bipolar. London: Penguin. Grant Morrison (2000). Disinfo Conference Lecture, https://tinyurl.com/e2wvj6fb (youtube.com).
For this episode of Into the Stream I'm joined by the wildly articulate, friendly, and advanced meditation practitioner Jamie Bristow who also happens to be firmly rooted in the world of mindfulness research and associated public policy. We dive into the intricacies of his Jhana practice (profound meditation states available through deeper practice) along with his highly nuanced perspectives on them and their relevance for daily life.This episode is particularly enthralling if you find yourself fascinated by advanced meditation practice (for the specifics of what we go into scroll to the bottom).Jamie's bioJamie Bristow is the Director of The Mindfulness Initiative, a policy institute about mindfulness and compassion training that grew out of a programme of mindfulness teaching for politicians in the British Parliament. Jamie now works with politicians around the world to help them make capacities of mind and heart serious considerations of public policy and has supported the introduction of mindfulness training in over 10 national parliaments. His research, publications and advocacy have had a global influence on the cultivation of inner capacities. Jamie was formerly Business Development Director for Headspace and has a background in climate change campaign communications and advertising. He is also a teacher-in-training in the Insight Meditation tradition that's associated with Gaia House, IMS and Spirit Rock retreat centres. His teachers and mentors have included Stephen Batchelor, Rob Burbea and Christina Feldman.Some ResourcesIntroduction to Insight Meditation Rob Burbea's Practicing the Jhanas TalksYou can find Jamie on twitter @jamiebristowIf you want to stay updated with future episodes (released every fortnight on Mondays), then click subscribe, follow the podcast on Instagram, or sign up to the newsletter.The theme music for Into the Stream is 'Good Morning' by Bonaparte and Acid Pauli, who kindly gave their permission for use.Timestamps• (2:46) Jamie's professional role working with mindfulness in public policy and UK parliament• (5:22) What are the Jhanas?• (8:00) A deeper definition and how they relate to insight • (10:35) Jamie's first-hand Jhana experiences• (19:30) Who does Rob Burbea's approach speak to and why?• (21:50) Against 'brittle samadhi' and experience junkie-ism and towards life-relevant Jhanas• (25:45) Obstacles to getting into Jhanas• (26:55) Jamie's experience of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)• (27:46) Jamie's first encounters with Jhana and its initially turbulent effect• (31:40) What about Rob Burbea's approach is different?• (41:32) Realisations from Jhana practice• (42:56) Elaboration on how the Jhanas support one's daily life• (43:36) The experience of the later Jhanas and the deeper insights they reveal• (50:38) Do the Jhanas turn you into a reclusive hermit?• (57:35) How can we navigate our uglier sides as we move towards deeper practice?• (1:02:55) Where should excited listeners go for first steps into Jhanas practice and what qualities are necessary to cultivate beforehand?
For this episode of Into the Stream I'm joined by Catherine McGee, an esteemed Insight Meditation teacher who has had a profound impact on my own practice when it all felt a bit bland, muddy, and robotic.Catherine's gentle, soulful, and down-to-earth teaching inspired me to value qualities of the heart that I previously perceived as a bit far-fetched. Qualities such as soulfulness, devotion, richness, and beauty have all become surprisingly important to me because of Catherine's work and I'm deeply grateful to her for that.Just a heads up, this episode is will be especially appreciated by those with extensive meditation practice - we use quite a lot of Buddhist lingo here. Catherine's wisdom really shines through here (and even shines through the intermittent audio quirks). We explore:Her first (20-day) silent meditation retreat that kickstarted her pathSubtle practice pathologies in young idealistic meditatorsThe Diamond Approach and how to work skilfully with being an arse in daily lifeWays of relating to the body that hold meditators backHer views on AwakeningAnd how to keep love for the path alive over multiple decades.Catherine's BiographyCatherine has been teaching Insight Meditation at Gaia House and internationally since 1997. Her teaching emphasises working with perceptions of the body on the path of awakening and in the healing of the individual and collective crises of our times. She's an advisor to One Earth Sangha, a long term student of the Diamond Approach, and between 2014 and 2020 she collaborated with Rob Burbea in shaping and teaching a Soulmaking Dharma.Some ResourcesYou can listen to recordings from Catherine's retreats freely available online. Here's two: Finding True Refuge in a Modern World and Abiding with a Heart Imbued with Love.You can also listen to Catherine on other podcasts. Two episodes that are specifically good are Deconstructing Yourself's Soulmaking Dharma and Emerge's Soulmaking in Climate Collapse.If you want to stay updated with future episodes (released every fortnight on Mondays), then click subscribe, follow (on Instagram) , or sign up to the newsletter.The podcast's music is Good Morning by Bonaparte and Acid Pauli, who kindly gave permission for use.
Host Michael Taft speaks with meditation teacher Catherine McGee about Soulmaking Dharma; her journey into meditation practice; using the word “soul” in a Buddhist context; working with the energy body; connecting with the imaginal in meditation; what sort of person thrives in the Soulmaking Dharma practice; and expanding beauty and sacredness in our lives. CATHERINE McGEE has been teaching Insight Meditation at Gaia House and internationally since 1997. Her teaching emphasises working with perceptions of the body on the path of awakening and in the healing of the individual and collective crises of our times. She is an advisor to One Earth Sangha and a long term student of the Diamond Approach and collaborated with Rob Burbea in shaping and teaching a Soulmaking Dharma. Listen to Catherine McGee on DharmaseedYou can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.
(Gaia House) A guided meditation and talk exploring a way of practice developed from and inspired by Rob Burbea's Counting Within the Breath (see Practicing the Jhanas retreat) to steady the mind & heart, develop a whole body sensitivity, brighten awareness, and overcome the common hindrances to feeling free.
Guided meditation on the mindfulness of the body during the retreat "Hidden Jewels" with Juha Penttila and Sumedha. Juha has been practicing meditation since 2002 and has spent time living and practicing in meditation centers and Buddhist monasteries in Asia and in Europe. He co-founded the Nirodha insight meditation community in Finland in 2006 and has been actively involved in supporting the development of the practice community. Juha is deeply interested in exploring both the depths of silence and meditation as well as field of engaged Buddhism, particularly through climate activism. Juha is currently in teacher training and is being mentored by Rob Burbea, Caroline Jones and Martine Batchelor.
On this episode I'm joined once again by meditation teacher and author Rob Burbea. For this conversation Jamie Bristow and I talk with Rob about his approach to emptiness, and how it can be a route beyond postmodern nihilism and into a vibrant and sacred participation in the world. We talk about: An overview of the ‘ways of looking’ approach to emptiness, the participatory nature of perception & the world, how perception gets fabricated through our participation, the limitations of a purely cognitive deconstruction ala postmodernism, how Rob would define emptiness if asked about it at a cocktail party, How emptiness reveals a path beyond post-modernity, how hidden commitments limit our ability to explore perspectives, the unavoidability of participation and the impossibility of neutrality, the middle way between existence and non-existence, how this approach to emptiness offers a way forward in a ‘post-truth’ world, how your experience right now is constellated by your way of seeing (whether you know it or not), and the necessity of practice to realize the deeper dimensions of emptiness. Seeing that Frees [Amazon] Rob on the Deconstructing Yourself Podcast 2009 Emptiness Retreat Dharma Talks --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/emerge/support
Today on the show I'm speaking with Bonnitta Roy about her presentation 'Six Ways to Go Meta'. We cover such topics as what it mean to ‘go meta’, why the anthropocene is driving humans to discover new ways of ‘going meta’, how deconstructing our experience through meditation creates a clean palette to experiment with new ways of going meta, how previous guests like Adam Robbert, Jordan Greenhall, Nora Bateson, and Rob Burbea fit into Bonnitta’s meta-meta-model, and why it’s vital that we create new educational forms that help create and discover new human minds. Six Ways to Go Meta Presentation Danny J's New Single - Rob the Infirmary --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/emerge/support
My guest today is Catherine McGee. Catherine has been teaching Insight Meditation retreats internationally since 1999, and since 2014 has been collaborating with Rob Burbea in shaping and teaching the Soulmaking Dharma. In this conversation we explore how the Soulmaking Dharma can open up our relationship to the topic of collapse and possible human extinction. We talk about Catherine's experience participating in the Extinction Rebellion through the lens of the Soulmaking Dharma, the weaving together of justice and soul and beauty in a time of crisis, the eros-psyche-logos dynamic, the difference between suffering (dukkha) in the classical Buddhist context and in the Soulmaking Dharma, and the possibility of enchanting catastrophe. Catherine McGee : Key Ideas of a Soulmaking Dharma (Part 1 - The Why and What) - https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/41/51516.html Catherine McGee : Key Ideas of a Soulmaking Dharma (Part 2 - The Eros-Psyche-Logos Dynamic) - https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/41/51517.html Soulmaking Dharma Email List - http://www.soulmakingdharma.net Monastic Academy Circling Intensive - https://eventbrite.com/e/circling-social-meditation-retreat-july-19-25-2019-tickets-60579783764 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/emerge/support
In this conversation with meditation teacher and author Rob Burbea we discuss the role of fantasy in meditation, the purpose of what Rob calls the 'Soulmaking Dharma' and some common traps that can obstruct our connection with beauty on the contemplative path. This was the first conversation I had with Rob (there are two more you can listen to in the Emerge podcast stream). For various reasons I decided not to release it immediately after we recorded it, feeling that the subsequent conversations did a better job of communicating what I wanted to communicate. There were also some nasty recording problems that made it difficult at times for the conversation to be fluid and flowing. In any case this is a lovely coversation and I hope you enjoy!
In this episode host Michael Taft speaks with Rob Burbea about Rob’s book, Seeing That Frees, the power of perception (ways of seeing), his creative methods of working with meditation practice, meditating with a more analytical vs more phenomenological focus, how analytical meditation works, Rob’s “soulmaking dharma,” the emptiness of conceptual frameworks, facing the end of life, and the meaning of emptiness.Rob Burbea is a meditation teacher, musician, author, who teaches at Gaia House in Devon, England. Rob is the author of the groundbreaking meditation practice book entitled, Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising. Rob and Michael discuss it at length in this episode.Seeing that Frees on AmazonShow Notes0:24 – Introduction1:49 – Seeing That Frees, the idea of ways of looking that are liberating4:34 – Example of the classical Buddhist anattā way of looking, unhooking identification, and moving towards less fabrication of perception14:14 – Rob’s teachers and how his creative meditative exploration unfolded22:57 – Following the lead of beauty and the sense of liberation into new territory27:01 – What is emptiness?35:10 – An example of analytical meditation on time and its effect on the fading of perception41:38 – Soulmaking, skillful fabrication, and broadening the scope of the purpose of meditation beyond just the release of obvious suffering44:55 – Working with soulmaking and images that are intrapsychic or in the world of material objects, contextualizing these practices, and parallels with meta-rationality48:54 – Gauging the progress of insight into emptiness through palpable senses of relief and release and senses of perception opening up in wondrous and beautiful ways53:12 – On a personal journey of soulmaking through health crises and the possibility of dying1:01:12 – OutroSupport the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.
In this episode, Rob Burbea and I have a conversation responding to questions, concerns, and feedback arising our of our first conversation (released last week). The feedback was taken from the /r/streamentry sub-reddit.
In this episode of Emerge, I speak with Rob Burbea about a new spiritual paradigm that he calls the 'Imaginal' and the 'Soulmaking Dharma'. Rob shares his creative process of journeying to the furthermost reaches of human consciousness and coming back with a new and profound vision of human experience and spirituality.
In this episode Rohan Gunatillake speaks with Buddhist teacher Rob Burbea on the topic of Climate Change. Rob wonders why the Western Buddhist community is largely silent on the topic, and over the course of the discussion Rohan and Rob explore several questions, including: How does dharma practice relate to the topic of Climate Change? What is the consequence of Buddhists not addressing this issue? What example should Buddhist teachers and leaders show in relation to climate change? Episode Links: The Meditator as Revolutionary ( http://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/210/13850.html ) Dharma and Climate Change ( http://sanghaseva.org/ongoing.html ) Gaia House ( http://gaiahouse.co.uk ) www.21awake.com