Navigating Existential Crises: Reflections on Generational Challenges

Ep. 185 (Part 1 of 2) | In this lively, mind and heart-opening conversation, Miranda Macpherson, contemporary spiritual teacher and author, shares the extraordinary wisdom she has gained from experience—both from the initial life-changing transmission of boundless love she received in Ramana Maharshi’s cave, and from the subsequent need for integration of the deeper truths that were revealed upon being called back “down the mountain,” back to the West to teach and serve. For her, the trick of navigating ordinary life without reconstructing an ego boiled down to three words: What’s needed now? 

Miranda discusses how to show up in the world of today and not let resistance to right action win. “Wake up and love,” she offers. “Take inventory, ask, is there anything in the way of me being openhearted and awake in this moment?” She explains a practice she developed called ego relaxation, emphasizes the power of devotion—the source of strength, love, courage, and motivation—and shares several of the key questions she asks herself in her own practice to keep her receptive to existential grace. Miranda’s inspiring teachings are infused with her foundational sense of divine benevolence; “Grace is alive!” she tells us. And being human, we can embody grace; we can become “grace delivery devices.” Recorded November 1, 2024.

“There’s always more evolution, openness, clarification, expansion, and possibility—because God is exponential.”

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1

• A prayer for all of us—for the human family and the highest possibilities (01:03)
• Introducing interfaith minister, spiritual teacher, author, and leader of the Living Grace Global Sangha, Miranda Macpherson (02:53)
• What brought Miranda to the spiritual path? (03:56)
• Miranda’s early prayer of resistance (I’m done here!) and the subsequent explosion of boundless love (08:37)
• Miranda’s opportunity at a young age to learn what a soul grapples with, hanging out with adults in a psych ward (12:14)
• Were there mentors to help Miranda after her opening? (17:01)
• How much harder it must be for teenagers to copy with existential crisis today (21:59)
• The G word: what is the authentic language of our own soul? (24:17)
• The fear we all have of remembering the ancient, forgotten song (25:14)
• Ultimately it asks for full surrender; then there is only God (27:18)
• It’s in the edgiest places that the biggest openings often happen (28:38)
• For every realization you have to ask, what is its wisdom? How can it be expressed & embodied so its only impact is a blessing? (30:20)
• Are there more people waking up now? (33:39)
• Not knowing what anything is for: being receptive to existential grace (38:17)
• Being absorbed into the depth of the nonconceptual: pure being in its thunderous, unshakable, silent depth (39:48)
• The experience in the cave obliterated everything—all spiritual concepts were erased (42:46)
• How to navigate ordinary life without reconstructing an ego (43:46)

Resources & References – Part 1

• Miranda’s website: MirandaMacpherson.com
• The Living Grace Global Sangha
• Miranda Macpherson, The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation
• Miranda Macpherson, Boundless Love: Transforming Your Life with Grace and Inspiration
• Miranda Macpherson, Meditations on Boundless Love (Sounds True audiobook)
• Miranda’s oracle card deck, Cultivating Grace: Access Inner Peace, Clarity, and Joy on Your Spiritual Path
• Ramana Maharshi, Indian sage and liberated being, 1879-1950
• Gerald G. Jampolsky, Love is Letting Go of Fear
• A Course in Miracles, Helen Schucman and the Foundation for Inner Peace
• Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow (waking up, growing up, cleaning up, showing up) 

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Miranda Macpherson is a contemporary spiritual teacher who has been guiding others into direct experience of the sacred for over thirty years internationally. In her twenties she founded the OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in London, where she trained and ordained over 600 ministers and counsellors. Today Miranda leads the Living Grace Global Sangha, leads retreats internationally, broadcasts extensively, and serves as core faculty at The Shift Network. Unapologetically feminine, joyful, and down to earth in her way of being, Miranda is dedicated to loving people all the way back into the freedom and wholeness of our true nature.

Miranda’s books include The Way of Grace: the Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation (Sounds True), Boundless Love (Rider) and Meditations on Boundless Love (Sounds True), and the Cultivating Grace Card Deck. Miranda is also a kirtan musician and singer with two mantra albums: Streams of Grace and The Heart of Being. Find out more at www.mirandamacpherson.com.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell