Mystical feminist Mirabai Starr shares the fruits of many years of investigating, excavating, and uplifting women’s voices within global spiritual traditions.

This talk was recorded on Sept 22, 2020 as a part of the Virtual Ram Dass Fellowship.

This week on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Mirabai Starr discusses:

• An invitation to unknowing and allowing our preconceived notions to fall away
• The patriarchal roots of spiritual traditions and religious institutions 
• Highlighting women’s spiritual wisdom in the Ram Dass community
• Women's circles that are free of a masculine influence 
• Honoring feelings as they arise and having the capacity to hold them 
• Speaking spiritual truth to power while staying heart-centered
• The great mystery and ambiguity of the feminine heart space 
• Connecting with our higher selves and true purpose 
• Practicing contemplative meditation through creativity
• The necessity of community for transformation to take place 
• Trusting the journey to spiritual awakening and surrendering to the process
• Balancing active and contemplative energies as sacred feminine archetypes
• Remembering that we all have both feminine and masculine energies within us

This episode is sponsored by Dharma Seed:

Join Krishna Das, the most well-known voice of Bhakti chanting (Kirtan) in the West, and David Nichtern - a senior Buddhist teacher, founder of Dharma Moon, guitarist in Krishna Das’ band, and producer of several of his albums - for a warm and engaging conversation about these two paths, their shared roots, and how they intersect in contemporary spiritual practice. Learn more about this FREE online gathering - THE HEART & MIND OF PRACTICE: BUDDHISM & BHAKTI

About Mirabai Starr:

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialogue. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Check out her many books and learn more at MirabaiStarr.com.

About The Host, Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an inter-spiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves.

"It's scary to dwell in the heart because it's a place of mystery, at least the feminine heart is. It is a place where there is a great degree of tolerance for ambiguity—that the masculine paradigm conditions us to believe is a problem to be solved. The feminine heart space sees ambiguity as a higher truth, paradox as a vast space of truth. This heart has the capacity, because it is so vast, to hold seemingly contradictory propositions." – Mirabai Starr

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Gil Fronsdal explores the heart of Buddhist tradition by blending mindfulness with the transformative power of compassion and loving kindness.

This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp & Dharma Seed:

Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

Join Buddhist Teacher David Nichtern and Duncan Trussell for a conversation about finding our own voice, our own expression, and our own way of connecting with people. Learn more about this FREE online gathering - AUTHENTIC PRESENCE: FINDING YOUR OWN VOICE

On this episode of the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil gives a dharma talk on:

• Discovering how love is foundational in Buddhist tradition and spiritual practice
• Exploring the two wings of Buddhism: balancing compassion and wisdom
• Understanding why compassion is essential in both practice and realization
• Learning how mindfulness can become fixated on the goal of enlightenment
• Shifting focus from attaining enlightenment to embodying compassion
• Gil’s journey of softening the heart and embracing inner suffering
• Insights from the Buddha on cultivating loving kindness in daily life
• Healing inner conflict by embracing the parts of ourselves we often reject
• Practicing meeting every experience with radical compassion and presence
• Letting compassion bloom as a natural expression of inner peace
• Recognizing shared suffering and connecting with others as equals
• Discovering how the dharma reveals itself through all aspects of life.
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Today's recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

“People will say, 'Oh she realized a really deep enlightenment'. But how often do you hear someone say 'oh I got compassioned' or 'that person, he reached the fourth stage of compassion, he was fully compassioned'? I think we all need more compassion than enlightenment—if we want to separate the two. If we don't separate the two, then compassion has to be an integral part of it." – Gil Fronsdal 

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Returning to the refuge of breath that is present from birth to death, JoAnna Hardy guides listeners through a grounding and connective breath-based practice.  

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this practice-infused episode, JoAnna guides listeners through:

• The first foundation of mindfulness, according to the Buddha
• Whole-body awareness and inviting our body fully into the practice
• The individuality of each breath and becoming familiar with our breath
• Remembering that the breath is always with us, from birth to death
• Finding calm, peace, energy, rapture, and joy within the breath 
• Becoming completely interested in each one of our inhales and exhales 
• Our exhale as the connection between us and nature, us and all beings 
• Landing in the rhythm of the breath and allowing it to rock you
• Letting the breath be our home base and refuge when our mind wanders during practice
• Becoming aware of sensations on and in our body via the throughline of the breath
• Feeling the body rather than thinking about your body 
• Exploring practice one breath at a time, one bodily sensation at a time, with curiosity

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

Join Buddhist Teacher David Nichtern and Duncan Trussell for a conversation about finding our own voice, our own expression, and our own way of connecting with people. Learn more about this FREE online gathering - AUTHENTIC PRESENCE: FINDING YOUR OWN VOICE

About JoAnna Hardy: 

JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice. 

“That exhale is going far beyond this body. It's what connects us to this earth, to nature, to all beings.” – JoAnna Hardy 

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Psychedelic expert, Dr. Raymond Turpin, discusses how psychedelics shut down our ‘default-mode’ and expand our creativity in music, art, and more. 

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, Raymond and Jackie discuss:

• LSD and how it effects the creative process
• The history of LSD, bicycle day, and more
• Painting under the influence of LSD for greater imagination
• Using LSD to tackle professional problems and crack emotional blocks
• LSD and increased concentration/focus for accelerated solutions
• How Psychedelics shut down our default-mode network of the brain
• Seeing wider possibilities for creativity for the use of psychedelics 
• The Grateful Dead, musical telepathy, and their role in the culture of LSD
• Synergy of music, musician, and audience via flow states and psychedelics
• The power of psychedelic co-creation
• The therapeutic potential of LSD for the treatment of anxiety, depression, and more

This conversation was recorded as part of the Ram Dass Fellowship’s regular online gatherings. To learn more about the Ram Dass Fellowship and sign up to join a fellowship gathering near you, visit RamDass.org/Fellowship.

About Raymond Turpin:

Dr. Raymond Turpin is the Clinical Director for The Pearl Psychedelic Institute and President of the Board of Directors. He also serves as Co-Principal Investigator of The Pearl MDMA Project. Dr. Turpin has been studying the therapeutic uses of psychedelics and the relevant literature since the mid-1980s hoping to eventually legally use these medicines in his psychology practice. Specializing in the treatment of trauma, Dr. Turpin has extensive experience with children, adolescents, and families in a multitude of settings but has focused his practice on older adolescents and adults in recent years. 

Join Buddhist Teacher David Nichtern and Duncan Trussell for a conversation about finding our own voice, our own expression, and our own way of connecting with people. Learn more about this FREE online gathering - AUTHENTIC PRESENCE: FINDING YOUR OWN VOICE

“What they found with the LSD art, some of the precise craftsmanship that these artists normally had suffered a bit, but it had greater aesthetic value, greater imagination, more evidence of abstract perceptions.” – Raymond Turpin

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Outlining the four resolves of wisdom, truth, relinquishment, and peace, Gil Fronsdal takes us down the path of freedom.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal explores:

• The four resolves of wisdom, truth, relinquishment, and peace
• How many people’s lives are founded on their attachments 
• Finding the dharma path in our lives 
• Arriving where we are rather than being in the future or past 
• The many beautiful meanings of being committed to truth 
• Connecting to our lived experience and finding truth in the present moment
• Adorning the mind through practicing generosity 
• Relinquishment as a means to enhance ourselves and to let go
• Gaining more from release than we do from holding 
• Using daily meditation to slowly become more peaceful 

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

“When you’re engaged in a path of freedom, of mindfulness, of showing up, it’s partly a journey from living a life that has stress and suffering in it, to a life that doesn’t.” – Gil Fronsdal

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Learning from the networks of connection among trees and fungi, Trudy Goodman offers a dharma talk about nature, the breath, and oneness.

This 2016 recording is from Spirit Rock’s Fall Insight Meditation Retreat and was originally published on Dharmaseed. 

In this episode, Trudy Goodman discusses:

• The fallacy of separate self and how we tend to forget our universal connection
• The matrix of identity that we create as we practice together
• Networks of connection in the natural world 
• Inter-breathing and the web of connection via breath
• The breath as the bridge between our conscious and unconscious
• Taking the backward step, a practice in subtle relaxation and receiving the moment
• Allowing things to appear and disappear as the path to awakening 
• Noticing our patterns of reaction as our body and breath anchor us 
• Seeing the changing way of life and how it can flow through us and in us
• Finding freedom in the present moment 
• Feeling more sane, little by little, through practice 
• Tools for remembering our oneness

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

“We are surrounded by these beautiful trees and plants, being so close to nature. I feel like they’re supporting, modeling, and showing us a way to be together here. We can experience this web in our own breath. We inter-breathe. We’re breathing not just each other's breath, but we’re breathing the breath of our ancestors. We’re breathing molecules that dinosaurs breathed, that the Buddha and his community breathed. We’re sharing air with all creatures really, and all those who came before us, all those who are currently in existence, and this breath will flow into all the future beings too.” – Trudy Goodman

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Talking about everything, everybody, nothing and nobody, David shares stories about Trungpa Rinpoche and Ram Dass from the 1970s to now.

This conversation was recorded as part of the Ram Dass Fellowship’s regular online gatherings. To learn more about the Ram Dass Fellowship and sign up to join a fellowship gathering near you, visit RamDass.org/Fellowship.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode of the BHNN Guest Podcast, David and Jackie discuss:

• The first meeting of Ram Dass and Trungpa Rinpoche
• Seeing the ordinary magic of this reality 
• David’s work with Krishna Das and receiving dream-messages
• Conjoining love and bliss with emptiness
• Ram Dass’ concept of ‘becoming nobody’
• Nihilism and negativity versus an empty openness 
• David’s work with the Ram Dass Legacy treats in Maui
• Two different types of meditation (focus and discovery)
• Showing up for practice rather than doing it perfectly 
• Love and surrender within the guru tradition and other forms of love
• How to respond to hate with love in these trying times 
• Transforming anger and working with our emotions in a more productive way 

Check out David Nichtern’s Meditation Teacher Training Course - registration extended to Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025: Learn More

About David Nichtern:

David Nichtern, founder of Dharma Moon, is a senior Buddhist teacher who has been practicing and teaching meditation for over 40 years. He was one of the initial American students of renowned meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and studied closely with him soon after his arrival in the United States in 1970. He is also a business consultant with companies creating a variety of offerings integrating meditation in a larger health and well-being context. David is also a multiple Grammy-nominated and Emmy award-winning musician. David’s journey has crisscrossed with the Maharaji/Ram Dass sangha for decades. He has produced multiple Krishna Das albums and frequently joins the Bhaktettes live on guitar. He considers himself to be a first cousin and honorary member of the Bhakti community. 

About The Host, Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an inter-spiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves. 

Photo via PerfectLazybones

“There’s passionate love, deep love of a friendship, playful love, love for everything. In our culture love has gotten confusing, especially in romantic comedies. But, I think love doesn’t bend. It’s this deep, steadfast, force like gravity. That unconditional love that isn’t moved around by the wind.” – Jackie Dobrinska

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In a full episode dedicated to the Hanuman Chalisa, Krishna Das chants with retreat attendees and explains the power of this moving mantra.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self. 

In this 2019 recording from the Ram Dass Open Your Heart in Paradise Retreat, Krishna Das is joined onstage with his band for a Hanuman Chalisa workshop. Harkening the Hanuman Chalisa as “a long invocation to awaken our hearts and to move us deeper into ourselves, into that love,” Krishna Das describes this particular mantra as a practice that connects us to Hanuman’s flow of grace. Chanting the Chalisa helps to remove obstacles from our path while fulfilling our purest desires.

With these intentions set, Krishna Das and friends lead a cascading waterfall of some of their most potent and recognizable Hanuman Chalisa melodies. Communing together as we listen to this episode, we’re able to sense our universal connection and tap into that love that Krishna Das speaks of.

Interested in joining us in Maui for the 2025 Ram Dass Open Your Heart In Paradise Retreat? Click HERE to learn more.

About Krishna Das:

Layering traditional Hindu kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation, Grammy nominee Krishna Das has been called yoga’s “rock star.” With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das – known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD – has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling chant artist of all time. His album ‘Live Ananda’ (released January 2012) was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category.

KD spent the late ’60s traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, he finally made the journey to India, which led him to Ram Dass’ own beloved guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji. Krishna Das now travels the world sharing his kirtan practice and wonderful stories of his life, of Maharaji-ji, of his life on the Path and discusses bringing chanting into our lives through retreats and workshops. To date, KD has released 15 well-received albums, most recently Trust in the Heart released in October 2017.

For more wisdom and worship from Krishna Das, be sure to check out his podcast Pilgrim Heart on the Be Here Now Network.

MORE INFORMATION and OFFERINGS VISIT: https://krishnadas.com/ KRISHNA DAS ON SOCIAL: FACEBOOK: facebook.com/KrishnaDasMusic INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/krishnadasmusic YOUTUBE: / krishnadasmusic X: @krishnadas #KrishnaDas

“This is a long invocation to awaken our hearts and to move us deeper into ourselves, into that love. You don’t have to know what all these words mean, but you can read the translation. But what we can do, even if we don’t understand the actual meaning of the words, we can understand that this practice is a practice of connecting, connecting with that flow of grace that is Hanuman. The flow of grace that removes all obstacles from our path and allows to recognize that love in ourselves and others.” – Krishna Das

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Dynamic duo Annie & Michael Mithoefer speak with Jackie Dobrinska about how we can reach our innate healing capacity via psychedelic-assisted therapy, breathwork, and more.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This week, Annie & Michael Mithoefer discuss:

• Ram Dass’ influence on Annie and Michael’s life
• A story of meditative guidance from Neem Karoli Baba
• Our capacity to self-heal via psychedelics or other non-ordinary states
• The power of breath work as a pathway to inner healing
• Researching MDMA-assisted therapy
• Separating the self from the medicine
• How avoidance perpetuates trauma
• Utilizing psychedelics to re-open social reward learning networks
• The importance of integration sessions after psychedelic-assisted therapy
• How PTSD affects people, relationships, and more
• Allowing the lows to become just as interesting as the highs

About Michael and Annie Mithoefer

Michael and Annie Mithoefer have been instrumental in developing the MDMA protocols and standards of care that have been used in the ongoing MAPS FDA trials. They crafted the MAPS MDMA Therapy Training Program, a clinical training program that facilities learning in the theory, skills and practice of MDMA-assisted therapy. The MAPS training program has reportedly introduced MDMA-assisted therapy to over 2,000 interested mental health care professionals. Michael Mithoefer, M.D., is a psychiatrist living in Asheville, NC, with a research office in Charleston, SC. Annie Mithoefer, B.S.N., is a Registered Nurse living in Asheville NC, where she is now focused primarily on training and supervising therapists conducting MAPS-sponsored clinical trials, as well as continuing to conduct some MAPS research sessions in Charleston, SC. Learn more about the art of psychedelic care HERE.

About The Host, Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an inter-spiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves. 

“These are tools for accessing these non-ordinary states of consciousness. It’s not about the medicine, and the medicines are not the only way to do it, which Ram Dass demonstrated in the latter part of his life. That was very much the philosophy, and very much the philosophy that there’s this inner healing intelligence, self-healing capacity, and what we’re doing is helping people access that. – Michael Mithoefer

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Considering how we relate to the world, Gil Fronsdal offers insight into freedom from our mental constructs through stillness of mind.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, Gil Fronsdal offers wisdom on:

• The relationship between fundamental insight and fundamental happiness
• Dividing the present moment into three parts (what's happening, our relationship to it, and the self)
• The Anicca Vata Sankhara chant, an important chant among Theravada Buddhists
• Seeing happiness through stilling our mental constructions
• Objective reality versus human-made conventions
• Understanding the world of relatedness and settling it down
• Being aware of the breath within the breath
• The season of being in relationship and the season of letting things be
• The ever-presence of awareness and the freedom it can bring
• Buddhist practice helps us see when something is a construction
• Seeing the arising and passing of all mental activity 

We have all these conventions and they’re useful, we play with them, they’re antidotes, they settle things. It’s also possible to relate to the breathing, to be present for the breath, without a convention, but present. The mind doesn’t go towards the breath, the breath doesn’t go to you, the breath arises in awareness. The awareness doesn’t go anywhere.” – Gil Fronsdal

This 2008 recording was originally published on Dharmaseed

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

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