One Heart One Mind
Thomas McConkie
What gifts can contemplative spirituality offer to a world that is crying out for a greater Love and Freedom? Animated by a vision of interspiritual dialogue, meditation teacher Thomas McConkie searches Christianity and the world’s Wisdom traditions for gems and insights into awakening, transformation, and the soul’s journey Home. One Heart One Mind is both a podcast and sacred space where you can come to rest, deepen your connection with the Divine, and let your heart be as big as it actually is.
One Heart One Mind is a proud member of the Faith Matters Podcast Network. Learn more at faithmatters.org.
One Heart One Mind is a proud member of the Faith Matters Podcast Network. Learn more at faithmatters.org.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Aug 19, 2020 • 25min
Episode 21: The Path
What we sometimes refer to as “the path”, that is, the process of transformation, has been expressed in different ways in the Wisdom traditions throughout history. We can learn a great deal from the similarities—and differences—in these formulations that seem to be pointing to very similar territory. Listen in as Thomas compares snippets from St. Teresa’s “Interior Castle” and Master Guo An Shi Yuan’s commentary on the Oxherding Pictures of Zen Buddhism. What a joy to walk this path!
Aug 12, 2020 • 23min
Episode 20: Shiva / Shakti
In this practice, there are two currents always at play: that of Transcendence, that which moves beyond all form, and Immanence, that which embraces all form. In Hinduism, these principles are deified as Shiva (Transcendence) and Shakti (Immanence). In the end, these currents are not two—they are different movements of the same Divine Reality. Listen in today’s episode to the story of Ramana Maharshi and the very intimate way in which the Divine danced his life.
Aug 5, 2020 • 21min
Episode 19: Schrödinger’s Glacier
It’s time for another extended guided meditation on Mindfulness+! Thomas shares a quote from the famous physicist, Erwin Schrödinger, and invites listeners to participate in the great Mystery that mystics and sages across the ages have invited us into: What is the self? Who is aware? What is it that is aware in this very moment of the words on this screen? Come fill your heart in this exploration.
Jul 29, 2020 • 24min
Episode 18: What Pain Makes Possible
Mindfulness practices teaches us to relate to the discomforts of life in a dramatically new way. Conventionally, all we want to do as biological organisms is to get comfortable and stay comfortable. But when we look closely, we realize that pain is not just something we can learn to tolerate, it is a kind of grace, opening us up to a world beyond suffering.
Jul 22, 2020 • 25min
Episode 17: Heat Wave
We’re in the dog days of summer in Salt Lake City. Thomas shares a modern mindfulness parable on a broken air conditioner and working with discomfort. He guides listeners in becoming experts at diagnosing the suffering in their own body-mind. In the end, it is never one’s “own” body-mind. Any suffering we alleviate in “ourselves” is an alleviation of suffering for all beings everywhere in all worlds.
Jul 15, 2020 • 26min
Episode 16: A Rare Chance
We live in a day and age where high quality teachings are available to anyone who is interested in the path of meditation. And yet, there remains something unique, even “rare” about the opportunity to meet and be inspired by a living master in the flesh. In this episode Thomas invites you to deepen your appreciation of the precious seed that is planted when we have such an encounter. In turn, you can set your intention on being that encounter for someone else on their own path of Transformation.
Jul 8, 2020 • 22min
Episode 15: The One Who Knows
In human life, we naturally confront the question again and again, “What do I do now? Where do I go next?” Or more broadly, “what do I do with my life?” Thomas draws from the deep well of Zen in this episode to take on these often bewildering questions. From a Zen perspective, the solution is so simple, we tend to look right past it.
Jul 1, 2020 • 22min
Episode 14: No Body, No Mind
These last 12 days, Thomas has been staring a lot at his son and contemplating newborn consciousness. Which is lucky for you! In this episode, Thomas leads an extended guided meditation, inviting you back into primordial, formless presence, aka the experience of a newborn baby. In fact, we all have the capacity to rest in this open field of formless awareness—we simply forget! We hope you’ll enjoy this practice of remembrance.
Jun 24, 2020 • 25min
Episode 13: Cosmic Assistance
Do you have a sense of what it means to “listen from the ear of the Heart?” When we do listen from this new place within ourselves, the results can be dramatic. Listen as Thomas recounts a recent encounter with the Imaginal Realm—what Cynthia Bourgeault calls the “realm of cosmic assistance.”
Jun 17, 2020 • 23min
Episode 12: Wisdom Mother
What would it mean to see things as they truly are? Is it even possible to do so? Thomas draws from an ancient Buddhist verse to explore this Mystery in this episode. The Prajnaparamita Sutra describes the “Wisdom Mother” continuing to “instruct her enlightened children about the true nature of What is.” Take a breath, relax the body, open the Heart, and explore this practice of “Perfect Wisdom” with us.
