Pause anytime during our interviews to chat with the BatGapBot - your AI companion for exploring spiritual topics. Ask questions, dive deeper into concepts, or enjoy personalized dialogue about what resonates with you. https://batgap.com/batgap-spiritual-ai-bot/ Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/5112168879008871Also see https://batgap.com/karyn-obeirne/In this interview, Karyn O’Beirne shares her journey from atheist soccer mom to embodied faith leader, emphasizing the role of grace, spontaneous awakening, and mindful social engagement. She describes how an unexpected living-room awakening rearranged her life, how Toltec teachings, interfaith ministry training, and mindfulness practice shaped her path, and how she now invites others to “let grace in” through simple shifts of perspective, daily practices, and compassionate activism. The conversation ranges from her book “Findings from the Hunting Party Scout” and Substack project “Inviting Grace In” to reflections on death, responsibility, karma, and the importance of choosing our response to life moment by moment.Karyn’s spiritual journey was documented in her book Findings from the Hunting Party’s Scout, which chronicles her four most intense years of spiritual growth as an ordinary working soccer mom into an embodied awakened faith leader. After a life-changing spontaneous awakening she shared her Toltec teacher’s teachings and her own experiences as an Interfaith minister ordained by One Spirit Seminary in NYC. In 2019 Karyn was certified as a Mindfulness Meditation teacher taught by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield in their Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program Program.As a life long social activist, Karyn’s posts highlight ways we can mindfully and compassionately co-create a world where all life is uplifted with a new understanding of ourselves and the source of existence we often call God.Website: https://karynobeirne.com/Interview recorded November 15, 202500:00 – Opening quote on grace00:26 – BatGap intro and guest overview02:02 – From atheist soccer mom to seeker05:01 – What grace is (and isn’t)08:31 – Ordinary people and awakening (BatGap origin)11:01 – Brother’s suffering and rejecting a punitive God12:25 – Carolyn Myss, tears, and first cracks in atheism15:05 – Belief vs direct experience16:06 – Questioning religion and “Pale Blue Dot”18:08 – One Spirit Seminary and UU principles20:03 – Mystical cores vs literalism and misuse of religion22:48 – Mystics, administrators, and organizing “truth”24:03 – Don Miguel Ruiz, Toltec path, and Omega retreat26:01 – Funeral visualization, love, and urgency28:02 – 9/11 and not waiting to live and love29:03 – Toltec community and vulnerability30:05 – Living‑room meditation and erratic heartbeat32:05 – Vision of lines, “unhooking,” and boundlessness35:02 – Recognizing this as reality and calling it grace36:02 – Aftershock, fear, and re‑forming identity39:01 – “Accident‑prone” practice and stabilizing awakening43:21 – How the glimpse guides Karyn’s work44:21 – Conditioning and the Toltec “dream of the planet”46:24 – Grace as unsolicited intervention; daily chances to love48:33 – Retreats, disrupting routine, and nature as teacher50:43 – “I am the awareness…” – Ireland insights52:20 – Leaving “God” undefined; “everything is God”54:20 – Omnipresent intelligence in life and nature56:20 – “We are God’s love made manifest”58:03 – Pain, injustice, and where we place attention59:03 – Helping where we can; appreciating being alive1:00:01 – Contemporary teachers (Tolle, Adyashanti, others)1:20:00 – Death, responsibility, and “response‑ability”1:30:00 – Karma and cause and effect1:40:00 – Accepting “what is” vs resisting life1:50:00 – Ways to invite grace in daily life2:00:00 – Final reflections: open path and living as love