Jonathan Gustin (Part 2) – Integrating Activism and Spiritual Practice: Nonduality and the Metacrisis

Ep. 126 (Part 2 of 3) | Purpose guide, activist, nonduality student/teacher, and meditation teacher Jonathan Gustin is passionate about bringing the subject of the metacrisis into spiritual practice, essentially updating spiritual traditions that originated on deeply local levels to reflect the world of interrelated global crises we live in today. Jonathan proposes we delve into the relationship between nondual awakening and the metacrisis, using the metacrisis as our spiritual koan, and fostering within our contemplative practice a sense of responsibility for life that manifests in activism. Jonathan’s focus is also on guiding individuals to explore the notion of soul-level purpose—not only to discover our true purpose but embody a purpose that is consistent with love without boundaries. 

This is a warm, lively, far reaching, and enlightening discussion, tying many intriguing subjects to the overarching theme of nonduality, metacrisis, and soul-level purpose: Native American vision questing, karma yoga, skillful communication, the developmental stages of purpose, the consequences of the delusion of separateness, the difference between humancentric nonduality and ecocentric nonduality, and much more. It is deeply inspirational to approach the metacrisis (which Jonathan provides a wonderful definition of) as an investigation into our relationship with life and reality. Recorded April 4, 2024.

“The metacrisis is non-separate from meditation, from spiritual awakening, from your soul purpose.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2

• Vision questing, praying for guidance, being the open space where insight can enter: “Show me the path that my people can live” (00:52)
• The benefits of outdoor meditation: “Throughout the universe, one body revealed” (02:58)
• Nonduality and forest activism (07:40)
• Can we be responsive to the suffering of the whole, wherever it may be? (09:59)
• Skillful ideals are pointers, not destinations: it’s all a journey (10:39)
• Developing collectively to where everything is sacred again (14:36)
• The consequences of the delusion of separation awaken you to wholeness: being wholeness, expressing wholeness (17:15)
• The shadow of nonduality: responsibility, the soul piece, activism (20:02)
• Why are nondual teachers not talking about the metacrisis? (24:40)
• Traditional spiritual teachers were practicing on deeply local levels; we are now living in a world of global crises, all interrelated, all creating exponential growth of more crises (31:45)
• How can we talk about the metacrisis? How can we not talk about the metacrisis? How comfortable do we need to allow people to be? (35:52)
• The beauty of the word “both”: can we hold two people, two perspectives, opposite aspirations at the same time? (39:19)
• Skillful communication: listen, ask people to explain their positions, do these conversations as a spiritual practice (41:26)
• Practicing karma yoga: using our work and relationships—our life—as the vehicle of awakening (43:54)
• It’s going to take every mature person possible to power us out of our adolescent stage (46:38)

Resources & References – Part 2

• Wallace Black Elk, Native American shamanic teacher, Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a Lakota*
• Chan Buddhism
• Adyashanti, spiritual teacher, Open Gate Sangha
• Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I? The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi 
• Nonduality Round Table – Adyashanti, Rupert Spira & John Prendergast (YouTube video)
• Daniel Schmachtenberger, Rivalrous dynamics, multiplied by exponential technology, self-terminate. Or: how not to go extinct (The Alternative, YouTube video)
• Dr. Nikki Mirghafori, Bringing Ethics and Wisdom to AI (Deep Transformation podcast)
• Jonathan Gustin, founder of the Purpose Guides Institute and Green Sangha, a spiritually oriented activist organization

Join Roger Walsh at Integral Conference of North America (ICON)’s FUTURE HUMAN conference, May 16-19th, 2024 in Denver!

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Gustin, MA, MFT, is the founder of Purpose Guides Institute. He helps people to find and embody their life’s purpose, and offers training for those who want to become Purpose Guides themselves. He is also a meditation teacher, facilitating meditation gatherings remotely as well as in-person in his hometown of Victoria, BC, Canada.  

Jonathan has been a psychotherapist and spiritual mentor for over 25 years. He is a retired adjunct professor at JFK University and co-author of Purpose Rising with Ken Wilber, Erwin Laszlo, and Bill Plotkin. He has had the pleasure of co-teaching programs with such luminaries as Human Potential pioneer George Leonard, eco-activist Joanna Macy, eco-psychologist Bill Plotkin, and Non-Duality pioneer Adyashanti. Jonathan looks forward to igniting a global conversation on Non-Duality & The Metacrisis (with a forthcoming paper in Summer 2024). Jonathan’s Institute welcomes a new cohort each September for Purpose Discovery and Purpose Guide Training. You can join him here:

HERE Zoom Meditation

HERE Intro to Purpose Discovery

HERE Non-duality & the MetaCrisis – A group exploration

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell