Be Here Now Network

Jack joins CEO of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Sam Altman, onstage with Soren Gordhamer at Wisdom 2.0 to talk artificial intelligence, spirituality, ethics, and the future of humanity.

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"What are people going to do in the post-A.I. world when we all have tremendous resources, we've solved a lot of inequities in the world, and we have a lot of time on our hands? Well, there are a lot of people who need a lot of spiritual practice, and we're gonna have that time." – Sam Altman

In this episode, Jack, Sam, and Soren explore:

- How A.I. technology will impact our world and the future of humanity

- The ways Sam's meditation practice is influencing his tech career

- Potential benefits and pitfalls of opening artificial intelligence onto the world

- If we can instill values, ethics, and morals into A.I.

- How Sam created OpenAI to allow a collective democratic process for how A.I. evolves

- Does artificial intelligence technology have a sense of self?

- Learning how humanity can best utilize these evolving tools

- How A.I. can aid our spiritual practice

"We really are in all this together. We are talking about things that will effect a lot of us, our children, grandchildren, climate, and other things we are concerned about. For me, this conversation, this openness to say, 'This is us' – it's not Sam, it's not a small group of people – it's something we need to hold, work with, and collaborate on together. It's not somebody else; it's us." – Jack Kornfield

Sam Altman is the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI and ChatGPT

Soren Gordhamer is the founder of Wisdom 2.0

In this episode of the Here and Now Podcast, Ram Dass talks about practice in daily life and answers questions about polarization and fundamentalism, integrating psychodynamic and spiritual techniques, dealing with addiction, and more.

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“And I said I’m not going to get discouraged because I can see that a centrist position, this is a hard one, a centrist position… That at this point in the way the world game is a falling, either everybody goes or nobody goes. You can’t polarize it again. You can’t have an ‘us’ and ‘them.’ It’s got to keep embracing people, embracing people. And I saw that would demand much more centrism than I was used to or wanted from a Democratic president and so on.” – Ram Dass

In this episode of Here and Now:

Ram Dass talks about letting methods of practice such as mantras and kirtan permeate your daily life

Ram Dass gives a detailed response to a question about the rise of fundamentalism in the world, exploring polarization and why you can’t have an “us” and “them”

Ram Dass takes on more questions about integrating psychodynamic and spiritual techniques, the importance of rituals, and dealing with addiction

“I think the tricky thing is for us to integrate psychodynamic techniques and spiritual techniques. Psychodynamic technique says let’s work it out; spiritual technique says let’s get on with it, let’s leave it behind. If you do either one of them to an extreme, you lose it. Hear that one? That’s interesting. It’s really the balance of them.” – Ram Dass

About Ram Dass:

Ram Dass’ spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying along millions on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharajji, with all who have listened to him.

Exploring the wisdom of Selfistry, Sarah Marshank joins to share her spiritual journey through the lens of Ram Dass's teaching of "from role to soul."

"There is a place that's always here that's in us and that holds us, that is 'okayness.' It's a relief to finally land there. And from there, to feel happy and sad, and witness the horrors as well as the exquisite beauty of the world, and feel okay with all of it. It's that dance—to know that everything is fundamentally okay and to address all the fucked up things in the world at the same time. Those are not mutually exclusive." – Sarah Marshank

In this episode, Raghu and Sarah mindfully explore:

- Stories and themes from Sarah's new memoir, Being Selfish: My Journey from Escort to Monk to Grandmother

- Sarah growing up in the religious container of Judaism, and how meditation helped her come to spirituality

- Ram Dass's teachings of role to soul, and cultivating the witness

- How Sarah came up with the term "selfistry" through playing with self and no-self

- Opening to the okay-ness beyond the horror and beauty of the world

- How Ram Dass's teaching of "loving awareness" is synonymous with "soul" as well as "okayness"

In this episode, Krishna Das helps us practice letting go of anger and expanding our hearts towards others.

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"We might feel pain based on things that happened with people or situations outside of us. But where do we feel that is within. So this is where we have to work on it." – Krishna Das

In this episode of Pilgrim Heart, Krishna Das opens up conversation around:

- Letting go of feeling like the victim and starting to forgive people by doing the inner work

- Extending compassion to our parents and seeing them as human beings, beyond the karmic roles they play

- The story of Dada Mukerjee meeting Maharaj-ji for the first time

- Worshiping the Divine Mother

- Honoring the transition of our parents

- The story of the 4AM Hanuman Chalisa

Joseph Goldstein explores the different ways that we can strengthen and sharpen the five spiritual faculties that exercise a governing role in the mind when they are highly developed.

“So out of the continuity of attention, the defilements have less strength. Because of this, the mind becomes more peaceful. We get a taste of a genuine inner peace, a sense of calm, a sense of tranquility. From this taste of peace within us – not peace dependent on any external situation, but actually arising within our own hearts – because of this taste of peace, the spiritual faculty of confidence arises, strong faith arises, based on our own experience of it.” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph explores:

- The five spiritual faculties – confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom – and how they exercise a governing role in the mind when they are highly developed

- The various ways in which we can strengthen and sharpen those spiritual faculties: the understanding that everything which arises passes away; respect for the practice and respect for ourselves; care and meticulousness in our awareness; perseverance and continuity of attention; the suitability of conditions for practice; the sign of samadhi; balancing the factors of enlightenment; and understanding what heroic effort really means

This dharma talk from November 16, 1986, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

Fresh from a trip to Guatemala, RamDev guides us on letting go of separateness and surrendering into wholeness.

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“Right now we can begin to rest in the wisdom that we are not the body and the personality. To the extent that we really get that, our true nature becomes revealed.” – RamDev (Dale Borglum)

Back from his Guatemalan adventure, RamDev returns to answer questions and discuss:

- Near-death experiences and how he answers the question, “What happens when you die?”

- Non-duality from the lens of Sri Nisargadatta

- Trusting the spaciousness of the open, compassionate heart

- The friction between grasping and surrendering

- Compassion as the stepping stone to non-duality and the nature of the open heart-mind

-Aloneness bringing us closer to oneness

Plunging further into last week's topic, Jack offers vulnerable perspectives on how sexuality and relationships play into our life and practice.

"If one wants to understand karma, or one wants to understand virtue, ethics, or morality—which are equally important and profound in developing a spiritual life—the way to do it is very simple: it's beginning to know, observe, feel, and understand what's going on in our hearts as we act." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack vulnerably explores:

- Understanding karma, virtue, intention and action

- How so much of our sadhana and practice comes through our relationships

- Learning about ourselves and the universe through sex and relationship

- Sex and relationship as a form of opening and surrender, as well as commitment, offering, acceptance, growth, and healing

- Desire, grasping, reality, love, and the present moment

- Relationships as a place to find the foundations of mindfulness

- The nature of love as expression, growth, and unity

This episode from 1987 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.org

JoAnna Hardy gives us perspective on the origins of metta and guides us through a gentle meditation to cultivate loving kindness for ourselves and all beings.

“One of my favorite teachings around this idea of metta, or loving kindness, care, friendliness, benevolence, is that naturally from a mind and heart that are at ease, this quality comes alive. So we don’t actually have to do anything to make it happen.” – JoAnna Hardy

In this offering from a 2018 Spirit Rock retreat, JoAnna gently guides us through a metta meditation, softly exploring:

- Clearing the hindrances of our being through mindfulness practice and allowing our natural state of metta to emerge

- The origins of metta

- Metta to self and all as the antidote to fear, aversion, and hatred

- The undefended heart and the undefended mind

- How we feel about wishing for the wellbeing of ourselves and of beings who: are easy to love, we feel neutral towards, we have a light agitation towards, feels like a difficult person to love

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.

Extricating us from dualist concepts of self and other, Joseph helps us move from the 'ego-center' to the 'zero-center' through opening to love.

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“There are so many parts of our experience which we don't like, we don't want to be there. We condemn, we judge, we push away—it can be difficult feelings in the body, difficult emotions, feelings of hatred, rage, unworthiness, loneliness, profound alienation. It can be so many things, so many parts of the mind that are the shadow side. The process of healing, the process of integration, is a willingness to open to all of those sides, to see the shadow in all its manifestation.” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph dives into:

- How we create the concept of duality/seperation (self and other, inside and outside, persona and shadow, etc.)

- Understanding our practice of Dharma as reintegrating and unifying

- Using mindfulness to shine light on our shadow by making the subconscious conscious

- Moving from the 'ego-center' to the 'zero-center' using the intermediate space of love (a very deep appreciation, respect, and openness for every moment's experience)

- Carlos Castaneda and the relationship between impeccability and emptiness

This episode recorded 11/29/1986 at the Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed

Exploring the relationship between spirituality and sexuality, Jack offers reflections and perspectives on ways to dance with the sexual energy in our lives.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"In a way, sex is a mirror. How your sexuality goes in a particular day or week is pretty much a reflection of the rest of your heart, mind, spirit, and being. In that regard, it's just like meditation—you sit down, close your eyes, and you get to see what's there: frustration, anger, happiness, or love. Sexuality serves the same way, physically, but even more so emotionally." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

- The relationship between spirituality, sexuality, and our lives

- Why sexuality is such a major part of our culture

- Our underlying fear of true intimacy

- Suzuki Roshi's koan of "How do you realize Buddha while making love?"

- The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in relation to our sexuality

- Wounds, trauma, healing, and the body

- Using relationships in a skillful way to grow

- Tantra, breath, and going beyond ourselves

"If you look at our culture, television and mass media, sex is such a big part of it. Why is it such a big thing in our culture and our lives? Because, in part, it's a vehicle to go beyond ourselves." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharna talk from 1987 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.org