New Dimensions

Jane Hirshfield points out that many people turn to poetry at great life transitions. She says, “You know when people fall in love, or when they lose love, or lose someone they loved, that is when they want a poem. When they get married, they want a poem. These great transitions are larger than the normal, ordinary consciousness. And what poems do is give us a vocabulary for understanding things, which isn’t available through any other use of language.” Her poetry alludes to far ranging subjects such as time, nature, and even science. Here she reads some of her poems, and talks of the inspiration from which they come, and why they speak to us and move us beyond our rational minds and our busy intellect through their metaphors and images. She shares with us why poetry, and other art forms like music, speak so deeply to the heart and soul. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms) Her poetry books include The October Palace: Poems (HarperCollins 1994), The Lives of the Heart: Poems (HarperCollins 1997), Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women (HarperCollins 1994), Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (Perennial 1998), After: Poems (HarperCollins 2006), Given Sugar, Given Salt: Poems (HarperCollins 2001), Come, Thief: Poems (Knopf 2011), Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World (Alfred A. Knopf 2015), The Beauty: Poems (Alfred A. Knopf 2015)

Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D, expert in spiritual bypassing, discusses the addiction to being positive and offers insights on softening around pain. He emphasizes the integration of personal and relational aspects in authentic spirituality, challenges the notion of eliminating ego, and explores the concept of unhealthy transcendence. The podcast also touches upon the importance of psychotherapy in spiritual teachings and the significance of embracing oneness while not turning away from human suffering.

People are living longer but this new longevity is not equivalent to an extension of old age or years added on at the end of life. Bateson describes a whole new stage of aging: Adulthood II. It is a time endowed with wisdom, health, and energy. It is a time to become the needed visionaries society is calling for.  She is the author of many books and papers, including Composing a Life (Grove Press 2001), With a Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson (Harper Perennial 1994), Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery (Steerforth 2010). Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom (Knopf 2010)Tags: Mary Catherine Bateson, Aging, Adulthood II, ageism, friendship, post-reproductive women, intergenerational relationships, longevity, Social Change/Politics, Community, Family/Community, Philosophy

What are the practices that allow for wisdom to arise? Alan Briskin believes wisdom can emerge when individuals come together for a common purpose, even - or especially - when those individuals bring divergent viewpoints to the table. His powerful message offers a blueprint for how we can create working relationships that optimize our ability to act wisely and effectively. His books include The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (Berrett-Koehler 1998), The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly (co-authors, Sheryl Erickson, Tom Callanan, and John Ott)(Berrett-Koehler 2009), Daily Miracles: Stories and Practices of Humanity and Excellence in Health Care (co-author Jan Boller) (Sigma Theta Tau International; 1st edition 2006)Tags: Alan Briskin, soul, work, right livelihood, job, corporation, organizations, prisons, shadow, Hercules, punishment, conformity, collective, individual, business communities, Business, Personal Transformation, Self Help, Social Change/Politics, Spirituality

Fox, Wilson, and Listug share the vision of a co-creative “Order of the Sacred Earth (OSE)” as an antidote to the many negative forces that surround us. Many people are forming “pods” and joining this order by creating rituals, taking the vow “I promise to be the best lover and defender of Earth I can be,” and connecting with one another through a hub website. Fr. Mathew Fox is a wisdom elder, a theologian, an Episcopal priest, and author of 35 books on spiritualty and culture, including Original Blessing and Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times. Skylar Wilson is a Rites of Passage guide who has worked as a mentor for both teenagers and adults. As a relatively younger person in his 30s, he’s been training leaders in gatherings of intergenerational mentoring and is the founder of Wild Awakenings, which leads wilderness immersion programs. Jennifer Berit Listug is in her late 20s and is a Rites of Passage guide who recently became a mother. She is the co-director of Wild Awakenings and also works in book publishing and as a writing coach for authors. These three guests are co-directors of the Order of the Sacred Earth and co-authors of the book Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action (Monkfish 2018)Tags: Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jennifer Berit Listug, cosmic mass, River Matthew, digital natives, mentorship, mentoring, mentors, elders, birthing, birth, Order of the Sacred Earth, W.H. Murray, Zohara M. Hieronimus, Standing Rock Pipeline, occupy movement, healthy masculine, Spirituality, Environment, Community, Dreams

Attorney Stewart Levine loved the legal profession because of the ideals it represented. But when he realized the practice of law rarely allowed him to consider human values along with property values, he took down his shingle and became an expert in resolving conflicts in a way that preserves relationships as well as legal rights. He is the author of Getting to Resolution: Turning Conflict into Collaboration (2nd edition, revised & expanded, Berrett-Koehler 2009). Tags: Stewart Levine, Family, Community, Conflict resolution, Listening, Telling Your Story, Agreement, Disagreement, Responsibility, Legal System, Lawyer, Lawyers, attorneys, justice, judicial system, collaboration, Social Change/Politics, Self Help, Relationship/Partnership/Sexuality, Personal Transformation, Peace/Non-Violence, Family / Community

Gary Gach is a lifelong meditator. He’s been an actor, bookshop clerk, dishwasher, hospital administrator, office temp, stevedore, teacher, and typographer. He points us toward increasing our mindfulness by drawing on our formal meditation throughout the day. He brings to light that being fully present in our daily life will help us keep our appointment with life, which leads us to live a more purposeful, meaningful life. Tags: Gary Gach, Thich Nhat Hanh, mindfulness, smile, breathe, unconscious decisions, beliefs, Ajahn Chah, gaining mind, heart mind, heartfulness, sky meditation, mouth yoga, resilience, community, engaged spirituality, Personal Transformation, Spiritually, Self Help, Death and Dying, Meditation

We all have an innate brilliance. Here Ardagh shows a path in which we can make the expression of our innate brilliance more predictable, less of a random accident and more of a probability. He demonstrates how we are capable of greatness and must snap out of our trance of self-indulgence to serve the greater good in these threshold times. Arjuna Ardagh is a writer, public speaker and founder of the Awakening Coaching Training in Nevada City, California. His books include The Translucent Revolution (New World Library 2005), Leap Before You Look: 72 Shortcuts for Getting Out of Your Mind and into the Moment (Sounds True 2008), Last Laugh (Hay House 2013), Better Than Sex: The Ecstatic Art of Awakening Coaching (Awakening Coaching 2013), Radical Brilliance: The Anatomy of How and Why People Have Original Life-Changing Ideas (SelfXPress 2018)Tags: Arjuna Ardagh, Kute Blackson, Brilliance Cycle, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, revelation, Four quadrants of Brilliance Cycle, addiction, pollical activism, isolation, facts, opinions, effective, grace, Personal Transformation, Self Help

Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D. is an internationally acclaimed evolution biologist and futurist. She is optimistic about the future and points to biology saying, “Life gets creative in a time of crisis.” She explains how the survival of bacteria, which have been on the planet for over four billion years, has given us a model of how we may evolve into a mature species.  She’s co-author, with the late Willis Harman, of Biology Revisioned. Her books include: Earth Dance: Living Systems in Evolution (iUniverse 2000), A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us (coauthors Brian Swimme & Sidney Liebes)(John Wiley & Sons 1998) and Biology Revisioned (coauthor Willis Harman) (North Atlantic Books 1998)Tags:Elisabet Sahtouris, climate, economy, energy, evolution, evolutionary, evolution biologist, biology, science, archebacterial, bacteria, ecosystems, debt money, materialist, scientists, new consciousness, competition, cooperation, Hokkaid Foundation of Science Symposium, entanglement theory, photosynthesis, evolution of life on Earth, Achaea, efficiency, resilience, living systems, growing food, food supply, desert farming, zero point energy field, plenum, Science, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Global Culture, History, Money/Economics, Social Change/Politics

Thanks to cell phones, photography is now the great democratic medium, one of the most important means of communication of the 21st century. This is a new order, in which images are made, seen, and shared immediately and globally without curation or censoring by editors or governments. We can participate in shaping the reality of this order.  David Ulrich is a college level professor and co-director of the Pacific New Media Foundation in Honolulu, Hawaii. His photographs have been exhibited internationally in more than 75 one-person and group exhibitions. He is the author of: The Widening Stream: The Seven Stages of Creativity (Beyond Words 2001) and Zen Camera: Creative Awakening With a Daily Practice in Photography (Watson-Guptill 2018)Tags: David Ulrich, empathy, Paul Strand, movie Harold and Maude, universal love, cell phone camera, visual pollution, Annie Leibovitz, photographing Barack Obama, Zen, Walt Whitman, imagination, Arts & Creativity, Spirituality, Philosophy, Meditation