New Dimensions

Brenner says we are not limited, damaged or inadequate. She critiques the self-help movement as perpetuating the idea that we are in need of fixing, and holds the provocative view that nothing needs to be changed or fixed to be happy. She posits that we have the capacity to spontaneously find inner peace by shedding the stories and negative emotions that cause us pain.  Gail Brenner, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and blogger. She is the author of The End of Self-Help: Discovering Peace and Happiness Right at the Heart of Your Messy, Scary, Brilliant Life (Ananda Press 2015)Interview Date: 6/25/2015    Tags: Gail Brenner, self-help, happiness, searching, curious, curiosity, changing our thoughts, meditation, thought, story, recurrent thoughts, habitual thoughts, conditioned thinking, beliefs, “hello dread”, anxiety, label the emotion, underneath the emotion, couch process, fear, allowing, conditioning, seeking, control, worry about the future, end of resisting, unfolding, Self Help, Personal Transformation, Psychology

“Awake-ism,” in Nichtern’s view, means to be aware, open, and compassionate. He looks at Buddhist thought as a useful psychological, philosophical, and ethical system that anyone can make use of. His advice for living in these times is to maintain our awareness as we move between very personal spaces and collective spaces. Ethan Nichtern is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition and the founder of the Interdependence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to secular Buddhist study as it applies to transformational activism, mindful arts and media projects, and Western psychology. Nichtern has taught meditation and Buddhist studies classes and retreats across the United States since 2002. He is based in New York City. His books include One City: A Declaration of Interdependence (Wisdom Publications 2007) and The Road Home: A Contemporary Exploration of the Buddhist Path (North Point Press 2015)Interview Date: 5/20/2015    Tags: Ethan Nichtern, awakeism, heartmind, interdependence, emotions, meditation, karma, mindfulness, Chogyam Trungpa, nature of mind, blind faith, psychology of habit, minding the gap, Pema Chodron, Sakyong MIpham, Ghostbusters, Ground Hog Day, pride, confidence, fear, emotions, sadness, transformational activist, shame, blame, spiritual materialism, co-emergence, Buddhism, Personal Transformation, Religion

Poetry can play a transformative role in our lives. It gives us an opportunity to ask questions and open up to the unknown. Hirshfield shares her love of poetry, her take on beauty, and she treats us to some of her poems. She takes us into the mind of the poet and reminds us that a reader can benefit from a poem without knowing what the poet is thinking. Jane Hirshfield is the author of nine books of poetry and two collections of essays. She has edited and co-translated four books presenting the work of world poets from the past. Her books have received the Poetry Center Book Award, the California Book Award, and the Donald Hal-Jane Kenyon Prize in American Poetry. Her poems appear in a wide range of prestigious outlets. A resident of Northern California, she is a chancellor emerita of the Academy of American Poets. She presents her work at literary and interdisciplinary events worldwide.Interview Date: 5/9/2015  T.ags: Jane Hirshfield, poetry, poems, The Beauties, beauty, darkness, suffering, amplitude, uncertainty, opening, questions, culture, permeability, listen, Ten Windows, windows, My Skeleton, skeleton, My Sandwich, cottage cheese sandwich, My Task, buildings

How often have you exclaimed, “There isn’t enough time.” Albert Einstein once wrote: “People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Lisa Broderick says “Once you understand the science of time, you understand that our experience of time is one part physical and one part perception.” She goes on to give us many insights as to how we can be liberated from the illusion that time is strictly linear and is our enemy. This deep dialogue explores how time is less limited than we think and it can be stretched and bent. Broderick describes the difference between selective attention and focused perception, “Selective attention is our ability to tune out that which is not important to us. Focused perception is our ability to focus on, to the exclusion of all other things, one thing. Complete opposites. And focused perception is what we use to change and control our experience of time.”  Lisa Broderick earned her BA from Stanford University and an MBA from Duke University. She’s a Transcendental Meditation™ Siddha and has attended the Monroe Institute for the exploration of expanded states of consciousness. For 15 years she studied imagery and dream reading at the American Institute for Mental Imagery. She currently runs a business consultancy based in New York City that helps socially conscious entrepreneurs manifest their creativity and energy. She is the author of All the Time In The World: Learn To Control Your Experience of Time to Live a Life Without Limitations. (Sounds True 2021).Interview Date: 8/12/2021    Tags: MP3, Lisa Broderick, Time, memory, Sidereal time, Lord Kelvin, observer effect, focused perception, meditation, timelessness, Itzhak Bentov, supersight, seeing remotely, Personal Transformation, science, meditation, dreams, death and dying

Patten has a deep comprehension of the sacred global rite of passage that we, and all humankind, are going through in these liminal times and shares how we can be of help in an insane world. He gives us a context for spiritual friendship, for turning outward in service, and for doing what we can to brighten everyone we come into contact with. He is the founder of A New Republic of the Heart, a co-creative social experiment in Being of Benefit. He’s a philosopher, activist, social entrepreneur, and teacher of integral practice and transformation. He has taught Integral Life Practice to over ten thousand people. Terry also founded the consciousness technology company Tools for Exploration and led the team at the HeartMath Institute that developed their first heart-rate variability monitor. He advises businesses addressing restorative forestry, fossil-fuel alternatives, collective trauma, and the reclaiming of personal data and power. His books include: Biocircuits: Amazing New Tools for Energy Health (co-author Leslie Patten) (H.J. Kramer 1988), Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening (co-author with Ken Wilber, Adam Leonard, and Marco Morelli) (Integral Books 2008) and A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries (North Atlantic Books 2018)Interview Date: 8/26/2021  Tags: MP3, Terry Patten, grief, heart intelligence, awe, wonder, forgive, forgiveness, be of benefit, Ernest Becker, tribalism, listening, coherence, gratitude, spiritual friends, friends of the heart, jubilee year, humility, Personal Transformation, spirituality, Social Change/Politics, Community

This moment in our social history compels us to invite ourselves into a path of discovery, learning, and practices to transform our collective racist karma. As a Black man residing in America, Larry Ward says to those who say, “I am not racist” …We are invited to dismantle the systems that perpetuate that profound misperception of what it means to be human. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was the catalyst that sparked Larry Ward's journey into a life of planetary peacemaking. He's been subjected to racial profiling and has experienced a bombing in his home in Idaho. He was able to move past these traumas when his path led him to the introduction of Buddhist practice in Calcutta in 1977. When he met Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 1991, the practice of Buddhism became truly central to his life. He was ordained as a Dharma teacher in Plum Village in 2000 and is the co-founder of the Lotus Institute, which offers Buddhist practice for change makers on the journey of individual and collective liberation.Larry Ward, Ph.D. is the author of America's Racial Karma, And Invitation to Heal (Parallax Press 2020) Interview Date: 7/31/2021  Tags: MP3, Larry Ward, racialized consciousness, karma, karmic wheel, intention, George Floyd, grief, injustice, racism, Social Change/Politics, Buddhism, History

Contracts are used to lay out expectations and responsibilities of the parties involved. We take them very seriously in business and law. Joel Fotinos says that we should take our own goals just as seriously and create personal contracts to hold ourselves accountable in our pursuit of excellence. He shares methods and ideas for committing to a Personal Life Contract. Joel Fotinos is a vice president at Penguin Random House Publishers and publisher of the Tarcher/Penguin imprint. He’s also a licensed minister with the Centers for Spiritual Living. He is the author and coauthor of several books including The Prayer Chest (coauthor August Gold) (Doubleday Religion 2007), Multiply Your Blessings (coauthor August Gold) (Hampton Roads 2012), A Little Daily Wisdom (Paraclete Press 2009), Think and Grow Rich Starter Kit (coauthors Napoleon Hill, August Gold) (Tarcher 2014), The Think and Grow Rich Journey: Enhance and Enrich Your Path to Success (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2013 and My Life Contract: 90-Day Program for Prioritizing Goals, Staying on Track, Keeping Focused, and Getting Results (Weiser Books 2014)Interview Date: 5/28/2015  Tags: MP3, Joel Fotinos, Personal Life Contract, contract, Mastermind Partner, Mastermind Group, Prioritize, debt, 90 days, Am I happy, Am I free, life purpose, contract map, goals, consistent, persistent, energy follows action, excellence not perfection, accountability, responsibility, Personal Transformation, Self Help

From 1342 to 1415, Julian lived through the bubonic plague that killed one out of three humans in Europe. She did not deny suffering but found goodness in all things and was a feminist 700 years before the current movement. She held God as Mother and deconstructed patriarchy pulling the rug out from under dualism of body as separate from soul. Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology, and student of ritual in traditional cultures. He has scoured the world to bring to us meaningful folk tales that tap into ancestral sources of wisdom and acts as a guide to connect them to the stories we are living today. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation. He also offers regular Living Myths Podcasts and is the author of many books including: Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss (GreenfirePress 2012), Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2012), The Genius Myth (GreenfirePress 2016), Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World (GreenFire Press 2018), The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2019)Interview Date: 6/4/2021    Tags: Matthew Fox, bubonic plague, goodness, dualism, patriarchy, Saint Augustine, Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Ratzinger, Motherhood of God, Divine Feminine, sacred masculine, compassion, rachem, Mirabai Starr, grief, Rilke poem: Pushing Through, Robert Bly, Hafez, the Mystics of the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckart, Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Jesus, climate change, oneing, soul, trust, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dorothy Stang, evil, despair, acedia, Thomas Berry, eco-theologian, creation centered spirituality, climate change, Spirituality, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics, Women’s Studies, History, Ecology/Nature/Environment

The pandemic of 2020-21 has given humans a worldwide, collective initiation of separation, ordeal, and return. This deep dialogue explores a critical moment of renewing, not only of ourselves but of the culture in which we are embedded. Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology, and student of ritual in traditional cultures. He has scoured the world to bring to us meaningful folk tales that tap into ancestral sources of wisdom and acts as a guide to connect them to the stories we are living today. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation. He also offers regular Living Myths Podcasts and is the author of many books including: Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss (GreenfirePress 2012), Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2012), The Genius Myth (GreenfirePress 2016), Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World (GreenFire Press 2018), The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2019)Interview Date: 6/17/2021    Tags: Michael Meade, initiation, rite-of-passage, uncertainty, deep self, plotline, William Stafford, The Way it Is poem, William Stafford, mass funerals, AIDS quilt, bone memory, meaning vs. happiness, Sir Laurens Van der Post, joy, Social Change/ Politics, Mythology, personal transformation

Hear Montgomery’s fascinating encounters with gorillas, snakes, and spiders. She takes us from the largest bird in the world, the Emu, to the smallest, the hummingbird. With their jewel-like foliage hummingbirds are capable of the most unique and astonishing feats such as flying backward and even upside down. Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, documentary scriptwriter and author of many books, which often include stories of her encounters with animals. During research for her books, films, and articles, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silver back gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica. She worked in a pit of 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University System of New Hampshire. Her many books have garnered numerous awards, and include The Curious Naturalist: Nature’s Everyday Mysteries (Down East Books 1991), Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species (Chelsea Green Publishing 2009), The Good, Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood (Ballantine Books 2007), Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur (Atria Books 2011), The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness. (Atria Books 2015), How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018), Becoming a Good Creature (a children’s book) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020), Condor Comeback (Scientists in the Field Series) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020), The Hummingbirds’ Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings (Atria Books 2021) Interview Date: 6/4/2021      Tags: Sy Montgomery, emus, hummingbirds, Brenda Sherburn LaBelle, spiders, gorillas, Kakapo, Wendilgarda spider, wolf spiders, kangaroos and wallabies, Animals, Ecology/Nature/Environment