Authentic Living

Today we are very fortunate to get an opportunity to talk to bestselling author Andrew Solomon, writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts and winner of the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. He is an activist in LGBT rights, mental health, and the arts. His latest NY Times bestselling book, and the subject of our interview today, entitled Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, is also the winner of several awards, including being chosen at among the NY Times Ten Best Books of 2012. It has been called “A bold and unambiguous call to redefine how we view difference… A stunning work of scholarship and compassion (Carmela Ciuraru, USA Today) distinguished similarly by many other notables for its exceptional profundity, compassion and insight. Today we are going to take an intimate look at this entire concept of loving differentness. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to gain insight into the power of love.

When we think of empowerment, we don't generally think first of peace, but rather of things like confidence, self-assurance, assertiveness and other like traits. We think of the ability to confront others, to draw appropriate boundaries, to address and meet our own needs. And all of those things do bring empowerment, but at the base of all of these things is a sense of authentic inner peace that allows us the grace to perform with confidence, self-assurance and assertiveness. In other words the source of true empowerment is peace. So, how do we go about finding peace and how do we access it regularly enough to authenticate our empowerment? That's what we'll be talking about today on Authentic Living. Don't miss it.

For some in the Western world considering the divine as feminine not only seems impossible, so engrained have we become with the masculine archetypal God, but for some is thought to be blasphemy. But in the history of sacred wisdom the divine is often found in the feminine archetype. Our guest today, Meghan Don, is the author of The New Divine Feminine, in which she describes several methods, several stories, and many meditations for accessing the divine feminine. Why would we need to do that? One answer is that wisdom itself, found in the sacred texts as Sophia, is feminine in nature. Another is that the feminine archetype leads us inward to find our deepest authentic selves. If you are seeking a deeper union with the divine, this show is for you.

Have you ever wondered why there is so much suffering in the world? Why is the Ukraine, for example, going through such awful suffering? Some people actually stop believing in a benevolent Universal Source because of such suffering. Well, today, we are going to interview Simran Singh about her new book, “Living: The Seven Blessings of Human Experience,” in which she informs us that our challenges, our conflicts and other difficult experiences are actually blessings. The seven blessings are: Challenge, Obstacles, Conflict, Chaos, Darkness and Death—which she says are secret passageways to personal empowerment spiritual growth and your highest potential. If you are currently facing or have ever faced any of these experiences, this show is for you. Don’t miss.

David Vito Gregoli has created a masterpiece of music by translating into music the Bhagavad Gita. A while back we interviewed Lissa Coffey who wrote an accompanying book to go with Gregoli’s music entitled, “Song Divine: With Commentary: A New Lyrical Rendition of the Bhagavad Gita.” And today we are interviewing the author of the music “Song Divine: The Bhagavad Gita Rock Opera,” in which he creates music from the meaning of the Bhagavad Gita and for which he has won much acclaim. A guitar virtuoso and a man with diverse talents in music from rock to classical, the author of this sacred music brings the seeker a profound new sense of the meaning behind the powerful and profound sacred writing of the Bhagavad Gita. You are not going to want to miss this show.

What is it that keeps us from living authentically? Well at least a part of it is the illusions, delusions and lies we believe that keep us from even considering that there is such a thing as the authentic Self, or that we can live an authentic life. We are so encumbered with these illusions, delusions and lies that we cannot see, are literally blind, to the authentic Self and its messages and urgings. This show is going to expose those illusions, delusions and lies for what they are, and tell the truth about the authentic Self. The truth exposed here today can create a breakthrough, so that you can begin to see, and begin to integrate the authentic Self. Don’t miss it.

We hear it every day now on the news, see it in our social media sites, it’s literally everywhere: we are a divided nation. So divided are we that we have two different realities, or so it seems. One media gives us one form of reality and all the other medias give us an entirely different form of reality. This has made it possible for the people on both sides of the divide to call the other side liars—and absolutely believe that they are telling the truth. There is hate on either side of this divide. So, how will we ever get beyond it? Well, first we absolutely need leadership that does not promote the divide, but encourages our Oneness. But beyond that there is much to see in the Oneness that is a critical and deeply spiritual element of even our very division. We are going to locate and elucidate that Oneness during this show. Don’t miss it.

We often believe the fabricated idea that we really are that which matches our reputation. We think that the person others think we are is really who we are. We strive hard, in fact, to be that person and to live with the results of being that person. If “they” (usually family of origin and significant others) believe that I’m a bad dude, then that’s what I must be and I may even be putting energy into being bad to prove that I really exist. Same with many other projections that we introject—we become a role rather than a real person. What is authenticity then? And how does one begin the process of actualizing one’s authentic Self? This is an important topic—don’t miss it.

It is true that one of the things we fear the most is our own fear. We want it to go away and leave us alone. We want to feel safe, warm and cared for. We want to trust life. But fear just keeps getting in the way. We may try to outweigh it by being tough, strong and loud. We may try to erase it with drinking/drugging. We may cave to it by living in a small little hole for a lifetime. But fear--it is the monster in the closet. So, what can we do. This show will wisely offer solutions to the problem of fear. Particularly in this time when a majority of the country is living in fear--we need to know what to do about fear. Don't miss this important show.

We have learned so much about how we should love, that we don’t know much about how we are loved, and how we do love. There is so much that we should be thinking, feeling, doing in the name of love, that we don’t realize how much of it is actually false, fake, ingenuous. What is really going on behind all those shoulds? Have we yet begun to be certain that we are loved, deeply loved by the divine and the Self? Have we come to understand the specific and very individualized ways in which we love? This show is going to put us in touch with love. Be here for it.