New Dimensions

Nisker takes us on a funny, smart, and enlightening foray into physics, spirituality, and the oddities of life as we know it. You’ll hear a new spin on atomic theory, meditation, politics, evolution, and more. Beneath the humor, though, is the wisdom of a man who sees life for what it is, and celebrates it for all it can be.Wes “Scoop” Nisker is a Buddhist meditation teacher, author, radio commentator, and performer. He is founder and co-editor of the Theravada Buddhist journal, Inquiring Mind, and an affiliate teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. He travels the world leading retreats and workshops in insight meditation. He’s the author of Buddha's Nature: A Practical Guide to Discovering Your Place in the Cosmos (Bantam 2000), Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution (Stone Bridge Press 2008), The Essential Crazy Wisdom (Ten Speed Press 2012) and The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation (Iro Books 2013)Interview Date: 10/24/2008    Tags: Wes Nisker, Scoop Nisker, Wes “Scoop” Nisker, Crazy Wisdom, Gods, Revolution, Radio, Aging, Baby Boomer, Humor, Storytelling, evolution, Department of Wisdom, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics, Media, Art & Creativity, Buddhism, Community, Education, Personal Transformation, Peace/Non-Violence

One of the foundations of being able to act skillfully with others is by deep breathing, giving us time to interrupt the emotional hijacking of the reactive brain. Also, included in this dialogue is the announcement of the Global Compassion Coalition in which people can come together to create a world in which people and nature are cared for and thrive. Rick Hanson, Ph.D. is a psychologist, senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and a summa cum laude graduate of UCLA. He’s founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. Also, the founder and president of the Global Compassion Coalition. He is the author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (New Harbinger 2009), Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (New Harbinger 2011), Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence (Harmony Books 2013), Meditations to Change Your Brain - CD Set (Sounds True 2009), Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength and Happiness (Harmony Books 2018), NeuroDharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness (Harmony Books 2020) and Making Great Relationships: Simple Practices for Solving Conflicts, Building Connections, and Fostering Love (Harmony Books 2023)Interview Date: 4/10/2023  Tags: Rick Hanson, compassion, deep breathing, resilience, positive neuroplasticity, inner-homelessness, chronic stress, inner refuge, speak wisely, nonviolence, Relationships, Psychology, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics

“Vitality is the essence of what it is to be alive,” says Dr. Zucker, and the body will tell us when our vitality is weak. With good self-care we can revitalize our own health, like tending to a garden with gentle loving attention. It’s about being honest about where we’re losing our energy and experimenting with ways to redirect it in the manner that makes us thrive. Tags: Deborah Zucker, naturopathy, naturopathic physician, holistic health, wellbeing, healthcare, self-care, vitality, shadow, Jung, voice dialogue, fatigue, energy, attention, play, inner GPS system, voice dialogue, experimentation, fruit tree, garden, exercise, diet, community, breath, portable altar

Amoda encourages us to loosen our grip and soften the way that we respond to life and how the fundamental nature of reality is open awareness. She speaks about ending our argument with reality and meeting it with kindness, tenderness, and openness. “That is the beginning of transformation.” Amoda Maa is a spiritual teacher who, after immersion in psychospiritual practices, and experiencing her own dark night of the soul, offers meetings and retreats with seekers of peace and true fulfillment. Her teachings don’t belong to any tradition or lineage although they do tap into the wisdom of many esteemed wisdom philosophies. She is the author of How to Find God in Everything: An Invitation to Awaken to Your True Nature and Transform Your World (Watkins 2008), Change Your Life Change Your World (Watkins 2012, Radical Awakening: Discovering the Radiance of Being in the Midst of Everyday Life (Watkins 2016), Embodied Enlightenment: Living Your Awakening in Every Moment (New Sarum Press 2022) and Falling Open in a World Falling Apart (Larson Publications 2020Interview Date: 3/30/2023   Tags: Amoda Maa, nondualism, India, openness, tenderness, dualism, self-righteousness, right action, Inner authority, inherited beliefs, patriarchy, surrender, grace, Personal Transformation, Spirituality

Here we explore what it means to be in conversation with trees. Davidson hikes into an ancient redwood forest on a regular basis and practices “forest bathing”. She reminds us that when we are not bombarded with the noise, bright lights, and electromagnetic fields of a city our nervous system calms down and our capacity opens up to a wider field of perception. Ellen Dee Davidson is an advocate for the health of forests. Besides her memoir, she’s the author of a number of children's books, also worked as an elementary, piano, and creative writing teacher and raised two daughters. She lives with her husband in the redwoods of northern California where she regularly sits with trees in a form of “forest bathing”. She is the author of Stolen Voices: In a City Ruled by Silence Can One Girl’s Voice Make a Difference? (Turtleback Books Library Binding 2005), Princess Justina Albertina (Charlesbridge 2007), Zoe the Misfit (Boulden Publishing 2008), Wind (Luminare Press 2022) and Wild Path to the Sacred Heart (A Forest Bathing Memoir) (Star Tree Press 2019)Interview Date: 3/27/2023    Tags: Ellen Dee Davidson, forest bathing, Shinrin Yoku, hypnagogic state, authentic core, Suzanne Simard, Sophie Strand, dung beetle, Peter Wohllenben, trees, elementals, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Personal Transformation, Dreams

Awe gives us a break from processing and judging unwanted events and gives us the capacity to see through them—to see a larger picture and we don’t have to travel to the Grand Canyon or overlook Niagara Falls in order to access it. It’s available to us in our everyday life and we can tap into it with something called the A.W.E. Method that only takes 5 to 15 seconds. Jake Eagle, LPC, is a psychotherapist, mindfulness instructor, fellow member trainer of the International Association of Neuro‑Linguistic Programming, and cofounder of Live Conscious. Michael Amster, M.D., is a physician and faculty member at Touro School of Medicine. Jake Eagle & Michael Amster, M.D. are co-authors of The Power of Awe: Overcome Burnout & Anxiety, Ease Chronic Pain, Find Clarity & Purpose―In Less Than 1 Minute Per Day (Hachette Books 2023) How the A.W.E. Method can be a shortcut to three levels of consciousness: safety, gratitude, spaciousnessInterview Date: 3/3/2023  Tags: Jake Eagle, Michael Amster, awe, microdosing mindfulness, attention, David Elkins, Dacher Keltner, depression, timelessness, pro-social experience, Viktor Frankl, loss, grief, safety, gratitude, spaciousness, wonder, microdose awe, beauty, Personal Transformation, Meditation, Health & Healing

All complex systems share limited randomness, whether it’s human society, ants in an ant colony, cells in a body, there's got to be a limited range of randomness. This randomness in biological life makes us different from machines. Also included is a discussion about how the brain does not create consciousness and consciousness is fundamental in the universe. Neil Theise, M.D. is a practicing pathologist and leading stem-cell researcher as well as an explorer in the nature of consciousness and its relationship to us and the cosmos as revealed in Complexity Theory. Theise is also a senior student of Zen Buddhism at the Village Zendo, in New York City, under the guidance of Roshi Enkyo O’Hara. He is the author of Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being. (Spiegel & Grau 2023) Interview Date: 2/25/2023   Tags: Neil Theise, ant colony, ant colonies, errant ant, quenched disorder, technosphere, liver cells, stem cells, hard problem in science, complexity theory, consciousness, Max Planck, spacetime energy field, quantum physics, particles, photons, waves, complementarity, nonlocality, mass extinction, Covid, AIDS, holocaust, Buddhist relative and absolute. Science, Buddhism, Personal Transformation

Thomas Merton was an American Catholic writer, mystic, and Trappist monk who died mysteriously in Bangkok, Thailand when he was 53 years old. The gifts he left behind from his short life were immense. He combined deep contemplation with social action. Here Fr. Matthew Fox shares his profound intersection with Merton via Creation Spirituality. Tags: Matthew Fox, Thomas Merton, Michael Toms, activism, Dan Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Karl Marx, Pere Chenu, Saint Augustine, Second Vatican Council, original sin, D.T. Suzuki, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas, prophetic Christian, Augustinian Christian, Dalai Lama, mysticism, Thomas Berry, hermitage, New Grange, spiral, Hildegard of Bingen, Hagia Sophia, Feminine side of god, Doctor of Spirituality DSP, Cosmic Mass, African mass, Spirituality, Religion, Social Change, Politics, History, Ecology, Nature, Environment

Humanity is poised on a threshold that could be described as a global dark night of the soul. This global crisis is not asking us to simply “make things better” or invent new ways of living. It’s demanding that we surrender to a transformation so radical that we become a new variety of the human species. Our assignment is to become sacred activists. Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. was a psychotherapist in private practice and a college professor of psychology and history. Now through her webinars, podcasts, live workshops, books, and articles, as well as one-on-one life coaching, Carolyn is touching the lives of thousands to assist them in deeply adapting and becoming resilient in the face of the unprecedented changes confronting humanity. She works closely with Andrew Harvey for the Institute for Sacred Activism. She is the author of Undaunted: Living Fiercely into Climate Meltdown in an Authoritarian World (Apocryphile Press 2022) and Radical Regeneration: Sacred Activism and the Renewal of the World (co-author Andrew Harvey) (Inner Traditions 2022).Interview Date: 2/17/2023    Tags: MP3, Carolyn Baker, Stephen Jenkinson, H.H. the Dalai Lama, sacred activism, sacred activists, Margaret Wheatley, caterpillar liquefying, rite-of-passage, shelter in place, pandemic, Willis Harman, pessimism, optimism, Paul Levy, infinite possibilities, AI, Artificial intelligence, Shoshana Zuboff, Jonathan Harari, fascism, democracy, sacredness, reverence, joy, isolation, eldership, Social Change/Politics, Personal Transformation, Spirituality

Horses are valuable teachers and healers. They show us powerful lessons in how to be effective leaders. You'll be surprised by what Resnick reveals about the secrets of how a horse becomes and maintains its leadership of a herd of wild horses. Horses’ extensive language and communication skills are a matter of survival and they do it without words. Carolyn Resnick is the founder of The Resnick Method of Horsemanship and offers many online courses, clinics, retreats, and certification opportunities that create a magical connection with horses using rituals that are innate to the horse. She is a master horse communicator who grew up with horses and spent three summers of her childhood gradually becoming accepted into a community of wild horses, culminating in her ability to ride a lead mare bareback and without a bridle. She is the author of Naked Liberty: Memoirs of My Childhood, Guided by Passion, Educated by Wild Horses (Amigo Publications, Inc. 2005).Interview Date: 10/18/2022   Tags: Carolyn Resnick, Ray Hackworth, lead mare, dominant horse, leader horse, Thomas Banyacya, Joe Brown, Lame Deer, Personal Transformation, Animals, Indigenous Wisdom