Ep. 193 (Part 1 of 2) | Frank Ostaseski, Zen hospice pioneer, founder of the Metta Institute, and author of The Five Invitations, speaks with us about the profound wisdom and potential for transformation that is unleashed in the process of dying. “Suppose we imagine death as an unprecedented opportunity for transformation, he says, adding, “so why wait until we are dying?” In attending over a thousand people in hospice, Frank has often seen them experience a real sense of discovery in the dying process; there is a time of acceptance, a time of letting go, and then a deeper state of surrendering to something larger. The walls that prop up the self start tumbling down, Frank explains, and a larger connection emerges that is always there.

Frank would like to see the process of dying brought out of the closet—shared about, learned from, and not reduced to a medical event. It’s important to meet death with don’t-know mind and trust the dying process to teach each of us what we need to know, he explains. And some of what we can do right now to open ourselves to the wisdom of death is pay attention to how we end things, and to how we love. This far reaching discussion delves gently into the divine mystery of death and dying, touching on radical acceptance, transcending self, don’t-know mind, everyday compassion and boundless compassion, grief as an expression of love, and creating rituals to mark this passage and all passages. We are left feeling unexpectedly comforted and liberated at the same time. Recorded December 5, 2024.

“Dying is not predominantly a medical event, and we ought to stop treating it as if it were.”

• Introducing Frank Ostaseski, co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project & author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully (00:35)
• What drew Frank into working with the dying? (01:51)
• John’s brush with death and how it affects him now (03:05)
• Does a contemplative practice help in a near-death experience? (08:10)
• Dying brings about certain conditions that help us transcend our small self (11:39)
• Facing death is an unprecedented opportunity for transformation—why wait until we are dying? (12:38)
• Acceptance is only the beginning, letting go has an important role, but there is a deeper dimension: surrender (14:23)
• Who are we after we are stripped of our identities? (20:43)
• Another way of understanding surrender: a deep relaxation rather than a giving up (22:19)
• We need to not project our standard of what dying should look like on people who are dying (30:30)
• Roger’s comments about how touched he was by Frank’s book, The Five Invitations (36:39)
• How painfully inadequate medical training is for helping the dying (38:28)
• How vulnerable doctors became during Covid, when they had to take on the role of family members (40:20)
• Time-of-death rituals are growing in medical centers around the world (42:17)
• Playing Brahms’ Lullaby throughout the hospital to mark a birth (46:18)

• Frank Ostaseski’s website: https://frankostaseski.com/
• Frank Ostaseski, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully
• Metta Institute, founded by Frank Ostaseski, to provide innovative programs and trainings that foster mindful & compassionate end-of-life care
• Frank Ostaseski, founding director of the San Francisco Zen Hospice Project (now Zen Caregiving Project)
• Elizabeth Kübler-Ross and the five stages of grief, On Death and Dying
• Neptune Society
• Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom & My Grandfather’s Blessings
• Johannes Brahms, Lullaby (YouTube video)

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Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher, visionary co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, leading corporations like Google and Apple Inc., and teaches at major spiritual centers around the globe. Frank is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Humanities Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Frank has accompanied over 1,000 people through the dying process and trained thousands of healthcare clinicians and family caregivers around the world. His groundbreaking work has been featured on the Bill Moyers PBS series On Our Own Terms, highlighted on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and honored by H.H. the Dalai Lama. He is the author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 192 (Part 2 of 2) | Professor Mark Fischler, constitutional law expert and co-host of the Integral Justice Warrior podcast, helps us make sense of what’s happening to our democracy, providing context—historical, legal, ethical—for the plethora of disturbing and destructive acts occurring on a daily basis in our political arena. The rule of law is under direct attack at this time, he explains, and an assault on democracy is essentially an assault on our most fundamental values—the principles this country was founded on: inclusivity, equality, and dignity for all. 

Mark clarifies President Trump’s political actions in the context of developmental stages, unpacks Project 2025, and discusses the assault on higher education and critical thinking and what it portends. The trajectory of where we are headed, Mark points out, is regressing into values we have already transcended. We need our democratic foundation to move to deeper, post-democratic levels that are reflective of greater levels of interconnection and inclusivity—not the opposite, he says. What will it take to change the regressive trajectory? Courage! And involvement. Thank you, Mark, for bringing a rare depth and much-needed clarity to the subject of the evolving democratic crisis occurring in our nation today and its implications for our future. Recorded June 12, 2025.

“The assault on democracy we are experiencing is also an assault on a spiritual understanding of the deeper nature of our existence.”

• The assault on higher education and critical thinking, continued (01:07) 
• The idea of inherent capabilities of race is a slippery slope (02:33)
• Authoritarianism, the “authoritarian slide,” and the current administration (11:16)
• Do you cave if your livelihood is threatened or do you stand up for the values of your country? (14:12)
• The assault on democracy is an assault on our foundational spiritual values (19:26)
• The leftist postmodern approach to transgender issues & immigration created fodder for the movement towards authoritarianism (23:12)
• The importance of creating an educated citizenry (28:03)
• MLK’s four basic steps for nonviolent action (32:09)
• Take direct action only after you’ve entered into a purified state such as Jesus had on the cross (34:05)
• Prevent violence in protests, disable provocateurs (36:16)

• The Integral Justice Warrior series, co-hosted by Mark Fischler and Corey deVos (Integral Life website)
• Greg Thomas, CEO of the Jazz Leadership Project on the Deep Transformation podcast, From Race to Culture to Cosmos: Using the Dance of Our Differences to Wise Up, Harmonize, and Actualize
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” (YouTube video)
• Robb Smith, The Great Release: The Rise of Trump and the End of U.S. Hegemony (eBook available on Integral Life)
• Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail

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Mark Fischler is a professor of Ethics, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Procedure at Plymouth State University. Prior to joining the Plymouth State faculty, he practiced law, representing poor criminal defendants for the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office. Mark left the law after being guided by the Universe to focus on his Spiritual Awareness for almost two years. Upon his return, he was called to become a teacher and accepted a job at Plymouth State in 2003. 

Since then, Mark has worked extensively with alternative theoretical models in law, constitutional law, and higher education, and has published on integral applications to teaching, being a lawyer, and legal theory. In his time at the university, he’s been a chair, Dean, and Interim VP. His focus in the classroom is ethics and criminal procedure and constitutional law. He is well respected for a teaching philosophy that emphasizes recognizing the humanity and dignity of each student. Professor Fischler was awarded the outstanding teaching award at his university in 2014. He currently offers a weekly Spiritual Inquiry class for college students.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 191 (Part 1 of 2) | Professor Mark Fischler, constitutional law expert and co-host of the Integral Justice Warrior podcast, helps us make sense of what’s happening to our democracy, providing context—historical, legal, ethical—for the plethora of disturbing and destructive acts occurring on a daily basis in our political arena. The rule of law is under direct attack at this time, he explains, and an assault on democracy is essentially an assault on our most fundamental values—the principles this country was founded on: inclusivity, equality, and dignity for all. 

Mark clarifies President Trump’s political actions in the context of developmental stages, unpacks Project 2025, and discusses the assault on higher education and critical thinking and what it portends. The trajectory of where we are headed, Mark points out, is regressing into values we have already transcended. We need our democratic foundation to move to deeper, post-democratic levels that are reflective of greater levels of interconnection and inclusivity—not the opposite, he says. What will it take to change the regressive trajectory? Courage! And involvement. Thank you, Mark, for bringing a rare depth and much-needed clarity to the subject of the evolving democratic crisis occurring in our nation today and its implications for our future. Recorded June 12, 2025.

“The rule of law is a hard-earned process… and it’s under direct attack at this time in our country.”

• Introducing constitutional law expert, professor of Ethics, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Procedure, and co-host of the Integral Justice Warrior podcast, Mark Fischler (00:39)
• Trump, tribalism, and the zero-sum game: there are winners & losers; the losers deserve to lose (01:31)
• The rule of law is under direct attack in the U.S. at this time (11:34)
• Dehumanization and Trump’s pre-conventional ethic of retribution (14:41)
• Our nation is built on ethics of higher purpose; our founding fathers specifically banned gifts to the President in the Constitution (17:30)
• Where is Congress in all of this? (21:13)
• Treason and bribery are the two legal grounds for impeachment (21:55)
• What is Project 2025, and the over-rulings of judicial rulings by the executive (25:33)
• The Heritage Foundation, responsible for developing the central ideas of Project 2025 (29:41)
• Project 2025’s pre-conventional position on abortion and family (32:49)
• Why does democracy matter? (36:22)
• What we are experiencing is a direct attack on the principles of inclusivity (37:53)
• How does slashing Medicare and Medicaid square with Christian values? (40:21)
• The trajectory of where we are headed: regressing into values we have already transcended (43:14)
• The left has made it easy for the far right (43:48)
• The assault on higher education and critical thinking (44:17)

• The Integral Justice Warrior series, co-hosted by Mark Fischler and Corey deVos (Integral Life website)
• J. Michael Luttig, The End of Rule of Law in America (The Atlantic Magazine)
• Don Beck & Christopher Cowan, Spiral Dynamics
• Martin Buber, best known for his philosophy of dialogue centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg address
• Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address
• Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, developed by The Heritage Foundation
• Winston Churchill, “The worst form of government”

---

Mark Fischler is a professor of Ethics, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Procedure at Plymouth State University. Prior to joining the Plymouth State faculty, he practiced law, representing poor criminal defendants for the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office. Mark left the law after being guided by the Universe to focus on his Spiritual Awareness for almost two years. Upon his return, he was called to become a teacher and accepted a job at Plymouth State in 2003. 

Since then, Mark has worked extensively with alternative theoretical models in law, constitutional law, and higher education, and has published on integral applications to teaching, being a lawyer, and legal theory. In his time at the university, he’s been a chair, Dean, and Interim VP. His focus in the classroom is ethics and criminal procedure and constitutional law. He is well respected for a teaching philosophy that emphasizes recognizing the humanity and dignity of each student. Professor Fischler was awarded the outstanding teaching award at his university in 2014. He currently offers a weekly Spiritual Inquiry class for college students.

---

Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 190 (Part 2 of 2) | The eleventh Wisdom Series dialogue with A. H. Almaas brings us to the second turning of his teaching, into the boundless dimension of divine love. Hameed explores this nondual dimension in detail: its qualities, what it’s like to experience firsthand, and what the effects of such an experience are likely to be. This boundless dimension of loving consciousness is the first of the five boundless dimensions, though love continues to develop throughout them all. Hameed gives a beautiful account of his initial experience with this dimension, when divine love and light permeated all of reality. “Why don’t more people experience this if love is always there? asks co-host John Dupuy, and Hameed explains that it’s always there in potential form though not always manifest; the experience is there for when we are ripe for it.

Having awakened to this dimension, one can’t help but want everyone to feel this way, Hameed says, and this is the main reason spiritual teachers teach. Hameed describes the obstacles that prevent us from experiencing the reality of divine love, how it challenges our perceived separateness, and tells us that after experiencing this unity, returning to separateness is not a choice. It turns out that experiencing boundless love is not a panacea for enlightenment, but creates an upwelling of obstacles and a state where our boundedness feels even more restrictive than before. Hameed also relates how hatred and greed can exist in this reality of pure goodness, and tells us that it is here, in the ocean of love and light, that they are transformed. A wonderfully numinous, illuminating conversation. Recorded May 1, 2025.

“The love is what makes us human—you can’t be really human without heart.”

• Two ways of functioning: from the perspective of the soul, or from the perspective of the ocean of love (00:35)
• A third way of functioning is when the ocean manifests the functioning itself (03:58)
• The ocean of love dissolves all fears (06:06)
• Love takes forms; this dimension is an example of the formless taking form (07:06)
• The sense of pure “goodness” in this dimension is unmistakable—you can’t help but want everyone to feel this (10:34) 
• Hatred is not a quality of being; it’s a distortion of a quality of being (14:37)
• Hameed’s experience of the beast, an inherent part of the ego (17:40)
• Experiencing Jabba the Hut, who represents greed; greed gets healed in this dimension (21:23)
• Your curiosity—wanting to know and being willing to experience—is the only way to transform greed or hatred; you can’t push them away (29:02)
• Five steps towards true nature (31:41)
• The heart (love) keeps developing through all the dimensions (34:20)
• You can’t be really human without heart (35:32)
• How do we continue to develop and manifest this connection with love? (36:20)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• A. H. Almaas, Luminous Night’s Journey: An Autobiographical Fragment
• Plato’s “the Good”
• Jabba the Hut appears in the second sequel to Star Wars movie: Return of the Jedi (1983)
• Tibetan Buddhism’s wrathful deities

The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

---

Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

---

Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 189 (Part 1 of 2) | The eleventh Wisdom Series dialogue with A. H. Almaas brings us to the second turning of his teaching, into the boundless dimension of divine love. Hameed explores this nondual dimension in detail: its qualities, what it’s like to experience firsthand, and what the effects of such an experience are likely to be. This boundless dimension of loving consciousness is the first of the five boundless dimensions, though love continues to develop throughout them all. Hameed gives a beautiful account of his initial experience with this dimension, when divine love and light permeated all of reality. “Why don’t more people experience this if love is always there? asks co-host John Dupuy, and Hameed explains that it’s always there in potential form though not always manifest; the experience is there for when we are ripe for it.

Having awakened to this dimension, one can’t help but want everyone to feel this way, Hameed says, and this is the main reason spiritual teachers teach. Hameed describes the obstacles that prevent us from experiencing the reality of divine love, how it challenges our perceived separateness, and tells us that after experiencing this unity, returning to separateness is not a choice. It turns out that experiencing boundless love is not a panacea for enlightenment, but creates an upwelling of obstacles and a state where our boundedness feels even more restrictive than before. Hameed also relates how hatred and greed can exist in this reality of pure goodness, and tells us that it is here, in the ocean of love and light, that they are transformed. A wonderfully numinous, illuminating conversation. Recorded May 1, 2025.

“Full nonduality: not just nonduality between subject and object…but where nothing is separate from anything else—one indivisible medium of loving consciousness.”

• Introducing the 11th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, focusing on the first of the five boundless dimensions: the ocean of love and light (00:35)
• Transitioning to the second turning of the teaching: the dimension of divine love (01:54)
• Hameed’s first experience of boundless love (04:46)
• This is what Rumi writes about—it’s not a unique experience but a potential for everyone (10:30)
• Full nonduality: not just between subject and object, but where nothing is separate from anything else (12:00)
• Why don’t more people experience this if love is always there? (14:08)
• All five dimensions (and maybe more) are implicit in nondual consciousness (19:17)
• Obstacles in the way of experiencing divine love (21:03)
• We cannot make this experience of presence happen—it is an emergence, a revelation (22:33)
• The movement back to separateness happens because it has been imprinted in the soul (24:48)
• The experience of divine love creates an upwelling of obstacles (26:27)
• Inquiry is the way to surrender your attachment to yourself as an individual (29:11)
• Our functioning can continue to happen after our boundaries have dissolved (32:35)
• Two main ego identifications: boundedness & our sense of identity (36:02)
• This dimension teaches how we can function as an individual expression of boundless love while not being separate from it (37:59)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• A. H. Almaas, Luminous Night’s Journey: An Autobiographical Fragment
• George Fox, founder of the Quakers, “I saw also… an infinite ocean of light and love…”
• Rigpa, a central concept in Dzogchen
• Advaita Vedanta

The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

---

Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more. 

---

Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 188 (Part 2 of 2) | Dr. Sally Adnams Jones has pioneered the field of art therapy as an agent of transformation and healing, choosing to work particularly with people living with no economic infrastructure: refugees, and victims of natural disasters, genocide, war, pandemics, and more. What Sally has found is that creating art within a community works miracles for the dispossessed and traumatized, in that it provides an embodied, practical method of engendering feelings of pride, a sense of belonging, finding one’s voice, and perceiving the future as something one can affect and shape. In fact, this work is applicable to everyone everywhere—it is in accessing our creativity that we come to ask, “How do we start to build the world we need?” An Integral Taoist, Sally shares her perspective on the yin and yang of creativity, explaining that ultimately, creativity is emergence working through the human body.

At the heart of Integral Taoism is an understanding that the nature of emergence itself is to become aware of your polarity and integrate it. The more you do that, the more creative you become. The discussion transitions from the dance of polarity in creativity to how the polarities of yin and yang are playing out in politics today. Sally is a Canadian therapist and exceptionally well informed about politics—here we gain a perspective on current U.S. – Canadian relations and world politics that is revelatory. Recorded May 29, 2025.

“Every single Canadian is deeply traumatized right now.”

• How the movement between parts and whole, yin and yang, plays out in politics (01:21)
• The threat to Canada’s sovereignty, what Canada is doing in response, and Canada’s unifying, integral leader (03:12)
• How did it feel when Trump started talking about annexing Canada? (06:44)
• Under the Trump regime, the U.S. has become an arms dealer (10:21)
• How Sally’s growing up in South Africa under constant threat of civil war informs her views of fascism and the reversal of the American ideal of democracy (13:12)
• Advice for political resisters: establish a line that cannot be crossed (18:54)
• Coordinated resistance to the U.S. from external sources (24:14)
• Global politics, macroeconomics, and the rise of authoritarianism (27:36)
• Misinformation and the radicalization of young white men through the fourth estate (30:22)
• New challenges we face with fascism, and why American tech bros think Western Civilization is under threat (34:54)
• The future: who has control of the skies? (39:49)
• What is the most strategic thing one can do? (41:16)
• How do you stay grounded and balanced? Learning self-regulation, connecting with nature (43:56)

• Sally Adnams Jones, Art-Making with Refugees and Survivors: Creative and Transformative Responses to Trauma After Natural Disasters, War and Other Crises
• Sally’s website: sallyadnamsjones.com 
• Sally’s podcast: Radical Emergence
• Gandhi and Non-violence
• Nelson Mandela: The Freedom Fighter (YouTube documentary)
• Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here
• Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, “It Can’t Happen Here”
• Great Replacement conspiracy theory

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Dr. Sally Adnams Jones is an Expressive Arts Therapist, Psycho-Spiritual Educator, podcaster, writer, and artist. A South African-Canadian, Sally lives on Vancouver Island, amongst the old-growth forest, owls, elk, and wild lupines. Her interests are in human development; the phenomenology of creativity; the emergence of intelligent, natural systems; her grandchildren; and a healthy future for all. 

Sally has developed a theory called Integral Taoism that explores polarity as a cosmic principle of emergence, including through human sexuality, power dynamics, and creative flow. You can find her at her website, sallyadnamsjones.com; her podcast, radicalemergence.org; on YouTube at Dr Sally Adnams Jones; or read her book, Art-Making with Refugees and Survivors: Creative and Transformative Responses to Trauma After Natural Disasters, War and Other Crises.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 187 (Part 1 of 2) | Dr. Sally Adnams Jones has pioneered the field of art therapy as an agent of transformation and healing, choosing to work particularly with people living with no economic infrastructure: refugees, and victims of natural disasters, genocide, war, pandemics, and more. What Sally has found is that creating art within a community works miracles for the dispossessed and traumatized, in that it provides an embodied, practical method of engendering feelings of pride, a sense of belonging, finding one’s voice, and perceiving the future as something one can affect and shape. In fact, this work is applicable to everyone everywhere—it is in accessing our creativity that we come to ask, “How do we start to build the world we need?” An Integral Taoist, Sally shares her perspective on the yin and yang of creativity, explaining that ultimately, creativity is emergence working through the human body.

At the heart of Integral Taoism is an understanding that the nature of emergence itself is to become aware of your polarity and integrate it. The more you do that, the more creative you become. The discussion transitions from the dance of polarity in creativity to how the polarities of yin and yang are playing out in politics today. Sally is a Canadian therapist and exceptionally well informed about politics—here we gain a perspective on current U.S. – Canadian relations and world politics that is revelatory. Recorded May 29, 2025.

“The basis of self-esteem is agency—and how you find agency is finding your hands, your heart, and your voice.”

• Introducing Dr. Sally Adnams Jones, pioneer of transformation through creativity, psycho-spiritual educator, artist, author (00:56)
• How did Sally come to this work? Every kind of trauma exists in South Africa (01:58)
• Sally’s book, Art-Making with Refugees and Survivors, is about how to access our creativity when we’ve been dispossessed and dislocated, with no agency left (05:11)
• Using your hands to access pre-verbal trauma: it starts with the thumb/hand/brain connection (07:07)
• Building self-esteem, pride, community, and hope through creating art (09:02)
• How does Sally build trust going into indigenous communities? (12:20)
• What happened to our creativity? In the modern era, we started discounting the right hemisphere (18:05)
• De-gendering creativity (20:43)
• Integral Taoism: understanding that the nature of emergence is to become aware of your polarity and integrate it (22:44)
• At the lower chakras, masculine and feminine come together as procreative; at the higher levels as creative (25:58)
• The ultimate understanding is about the mystery, an embodied channel to the divine (28:53)
• Creativity: emergence working through the human body (29:55)
• How do we potentiate through our body? Through understanding polarity principles (32:08)
• Sally’s initiation to Integral Taoism in a park in Beijing, China (36:49)
• As an integrally informed Canadian therapist, what does Sally think about current U.S./Canada politics? (41:51)
• Polarization, and how polarities and yin/yang play out in politics (44:12)

• Sally Adnams Jones, Art-Making with Refugees and Survivors: Creative and Transformative Responses to Trauma After Natural Disasters, War and Other Crises
• Sally’s website: sallyadnamsjones.com 
• Sally’s podcast: Radical Emergence
• Dr. Carol Hofmeyr, founder of the Keiskamma Art Project, ‘Reluctant medic’ highlights poverty (Rhodes University, 2024)
• Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist, philosopher, neuroscientist The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
• John Dupuy’s song, Ukraine! (YouTube video)
• Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation
• Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology

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Dr. Sally Adnams Jones is an Expressive Arts Therapist, Psycho-Spiritual Educator, podcaster, writer, and artist. A South African-Canadian, Sally lives on Vancouver Island, amongst the old-growth forest, owls, elk, and wild lupines. Her interests are in human development; the phenomenology of creativity; the emergence of intelligent, natural systems; her grandchildren; and a healthy future for all. 

Sally has developed a theory called Integral Taoism that explores polarity as a cosmic principle of emergence, including through human sexuality, power dynamics, and creative flow. You can find her at her website, sallyadnamsjones.com; her podcast, radicalemergence.org; on YouTube at Dr Sally Adnams Jones; or read her book, Art-Making with Refugees and Survivors: Creative and Transformative Responses to Trauma After Natural Disasters, War and Other Crises.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 186 (Part 2 of 2) | In this lively, mind and heart-opening conversation, Miranda Macpherson, contemporary spiritual teacher and author, shares the extraordinary wisdom she has gained from experience—both from the initial life-changing transmission of boundless love she received in Ramana Maharshi’s cave, and from the subsequent need for integration of the deeper truths that were revealed upon being called back “down the mountain,” back to the West to teach and serve. For her, the trick of navigating ordinary life without reconstructing an ego boiled down to three words: What’s needed now? 

Miranda discusses how to show up in the world of today and not let resistance to right action win. “Wake up and love,” she offers. “Take inventory, ask, is there anything in the way of me being openhearted and awake in this moment?” She explains a practice she developed called ego relaxation, emphasizes the power of devotion—the source of strength, love, courage, and motivation—and shares several of the key questions she asks herself in her own practice to keep her receptive to existential grace. Miranda’s inspiring teachings are infused with her foundational sense of divine benevolence; “Grace is alive!” she tells us. And being human, we can embody grace; we can become “grace delivery devices.” Recorded November 1, 2024.

“Being human is a grace delivery device.”

• After the ascent the descent; "coming down the mountain" (01:28)
• The power of devotion (04:12)
• A mantra carries with it the love, spiritual energy, and devotion of countless beings before us (06:28)
• The power of pilgrimages (08:58)
• Miranda’s practice now: Can I open my heart to all the suffering, let it be understood more completely, and be transformed? (12:22)
• Wake up and love: ask "Is there anything in the way of me being openhearted and awake in the now?" (15:44)
• Practicing with our blind spots (18:46)
• Multitasking is a disaster for spiritual practice (20:22)
• Ramana Maharshi’s transmission in the cave: Be nothing, do nothing, get nothing… be as you are. Rest in God. (22:24)
• Ego relaxation as a practice (23:40)
• Showing up and resting in God at the same time (26:50)
• The divine dance—here we are, learning how to be the best human beings we can be (30:41)
• The divine force always brings forth what is needed, but the gate is humility and surrender (34:24)
• What helps us into a posture of humility? (35:39)
• Appreciating Roger Walsh: do-er and be-er, curious and humble (38:15)
• Being human is a “grace delivery device;” embodying grace—grace is alive! (40:35)
• The importance of yes, of thank you (43:38)

• Miranda’s website: MirandaMacpherson.com, The Living Grace Global Sangha
• Miranda Macpherson, The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation
• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach, see also Deep Transformation podcast’s A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (also available on YouTube)
• Rupert Sheldrake, Science and Spiritual Practices: Transformative Experiences and Their Effects on Our Bodies, Brains, and Health
• Andrew Harvey, author & founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism, The Hope (free audiobook)
• Ramana Maharshi, Indian sage and liberated being, 1879-1950
• G. I. Gurdjieff, In Search of Being: The Fourth Way to Consciousness
• A Course in Miracles, Helen Schucman and the Foundation for Inner Peace
• Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine
• Roger’s article looking at A Course of Miracles through a Hindu lens: The Perennial Wisdom of A Course in Miracles
• Roger Walsh & Frances Vaughan’s book of excerpts from A Course of Miracles, Accept this Gift 

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Miranda Macpherson is a contemporary spiritual teacher who has been guiding others into direct experience of the sacred for over thirty years internationally. In her twenties she founded the OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in London, where she trained and ordained over 600 ministers and counsellors. Today Miranda leads the Living Grace Global Sangha, leads retreats internationally, broadcasts extensively, and serves as core faculty at The Shift Network. Unapologetically feminine, joyful, and down to earth in her way of being, Miranda is dedicated to loving people all the way back into the freedom and wholeness of our true nature.

Miranda’s books include The Way of Grace: the Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation (Sounds True), Boundless Love (Rider) and Meditations on Boundless Love (Sounds True), and the Cultivating Grace Card Deck. Miranda is also a kirtan musician and singer with two mantra albums: Streams of Grace and The Heart of Being. Find out more at www.mirandamacpherson.com.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 185 (Part 1 of 2) | In this lively, mind and heart-opening conversation, Miranda Macpherson, contemporary spiritual teacher and author, shares the extraordinary wisdom she has gained from experience—both from the initial life-changing transmission of boundless love she received in Ramana Maharshi’s cave, and from the subsequent need for integration of the deeper truths that were revealed upon being called back “down the mountain,” back to the West to teach and serve. For her, the trick of navigating ordinary life without reconstructing an ego boiled down to three words: What’s needed now? 

Miranda discusses how to show up in the world of today and not let resistance to right action win. “Wake up and love,” she offers. “Take inventory, ask, is there anything in the way of me being openhearted and awake in this moment?” She explains a practice she developed called ego relaxation, emphasizes the power of devotion—the source of strength, love, courage, and motivation—and shares several of the key questions she asks herself in her own practice to keep her receptive to existential grace. Miranda’s inspiring teachings are infused with her foundational sense of divine benevolence; “Grace is alive!” she tells us. And being human, we can embody grace; we can become “grace delivery devices.” Recorded November 1, 2024.

“There’s always more evolution, openness, clarification, expansion, and possibility—because God is exponential.”

• A prayer for all of us—for the human family and the highest possibilities (01:03)
• Introducing interfaith minister, spiritual teacher, author, and leader of the Living Grace Global Sangha, Miranda Macpherson (02:53)
• What brought Miranda to the spiritual path? (03:56)
• Miranda’s early prayer of resistance (I’m done here!) and the subsequent explosion of boundless love (08:37)
• Miranda’s opportunity at a young age to learn what a soul grapples with, hanging out with adults in a psych ward (12:14)
• Were there mentors to help Miranda after her opening? (17:01)
• How much harder it must be for teenagers to copy with existential crisis today (21:59)
• The G word: what is the authentic language of our own soul? (24:17)
• The fear we all have of remembering the ancient, forgotten song (25:14)
• Ultimately it asks for full surrender; then there is only God (27:18)
• It’s in the edgiest places that the biggest openings often happen (28:38)
• For every realization you have to ask, what is its wisdom? How can it be expressed & embodied so its only impact is a blessing? (30:20)
• Are there more people waking up now? (33:39)
• Not knowing what anything is for: being receptive to existential grace (38:17)
• Being absorbed into the depth of the nonconceptual: pure being in its thunderous, unshakable, silent depth (39:48)
• The experience in the cave obliterated everything—all spiritual concepts were erased (42:46)
• How to navigate ordinary life without reconstructing an ego (43:46)

• Miranda’s website: MirandaMacpherson.com
• The Living Grace Global Sangha
• Miranda Macpherson, The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation
• Miranda Macpherson, Boundless Love: Transforming Your Life with Grace and Inspiration
• Miranda Macpherson, Meditations on Boundless Love (Sounds True audiobook)
• Miranda’s oracle card deck, Cultivating Grace: Access Inner Peace, Clarity, and Joy on Your Spiritual Path
• Ramana Maharshi, Indian sage and liberated being, 1879-1950
• Gerald G. Jampolsky, Love is Letting Go of Fear
• A Course in Miracles, Helen Schucman and the Foundation for Inner Peace
• Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow (waking up, growing up, cleaning up, showing up) 

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Miranda Macpherson is a contemporary spiritual teacher who has been guiding others into direct experience of the sacred for over thirty years internationally. In her twenties she founded the OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in London, where she trained and ordained over 600 ministers and counsellors. Today Miranda leads the Living Grace Global Sangha, leads retreats internationally, broadcasts extensively, and serves as core faculty at The Shift Network. Unapologetically feminine, joyful, and down to earth in her way of being, Miranda is dedicated to loving people all the way back into the freedom and wholeness of our true nature.

Miranda’s books include The Way of Grace: the Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation (Sounds True), Boundless Love (Rider) and Meditations on Boundless Love (Sounds True), and the Cultivating Grace Card Deck. Miranda is also a kirtan musician and singer with two mantra albums: Streams of Grace and The Heart of Being. Find out more at www.mirandamacpherson.com.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 184 (Part 2 of 2) | In the tenth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali addresses what co-host Roger Walsh calls perhaps Inner Journey Home’s most profound chapter of all, the chapter on True Nature, as well as subjects he writes about in his autobiographical fragment, Luminous Night’s Journey. In the second turning of the Diamond Approach teaching, we transition from exploring individual true nature to boundless true nature—the absolute, ground of all manifestation. Following the mystery of truth, you come to absolute truth, Hameed tells us, and you find a mystery that not only liberates but makes everything happen. Hameed describes the absolute as the radiant blackness before the light, its luminosity awareness, and relates how, in the absolute, the feeling of intimacy is palpable. Here, the soul recognizes “I am home.”

Hameed relates how being and nonbeing are integrated, and about how time and space emerge out of true nature. Every moment is a new creation, he explains, not formed by the past or present, but new, instant to instant, from nonbeing to being. Hameed says true nature is the essence of freedom, and that in these troubled times the important thing is to recognize “I am free” and ultimately indestructible, and to be ourselves, grounded by the truth of our inner nature. Towards the end of the conversation, co-host John Dupuy asks Hameed, “What motivates you? Why aren’t you simply hanging out being true nature?” Hameed laughs and responds, “I am.” Recorded April 10, 2025.

“The idea is to be free. Inwardly.”

• Beingness is what Hameed calls presence; everything is both being and non-being (00:52)
• Being in the world but not of this world (04:12)
• The effects of studying Reichian therapy and breathwork on Hameed’s experience and way of teaching (06:32)
• The body needs to be open and at ease to experience presence; this is why yoga is widely practiced in East Indian traditions (09:17)
• Is having an ego a necessary stage for waking up? (13:01)
• Space and time are created by true nature, even though it is timeless (14:43)
• True nature is the essence of freedom; it is “radically unqualifiable” (19:38)
• The depths of our experience set the limit on our intellectual understanding (22:53)
• In these troubled times, the important thing is to recognize “I am free” and be ourselves, grounded by the truth of our inner nature (25:07)
• Profound equanimity allows deeper compassion to emerge (28:29)
• The values of true nature are fundamental and eternal; how do we manifest these all the time? (29:20)
• After all the amazing, mind-shattering realizations, life becomes ordinary and simple (32:21)
• What motivates Hameed now? (35:24)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• A. H. Almaas, Luminous Night’s Journey: An Autobiographical Fragment
• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That
• Mahamudra
• Wilhem Reich, Reichian therapy
• Nāgārjuna, central philosopher of Mahayana Buddhism
• Plato’s cardinal virtues
• The Ten Ox Herding Pictures from the Zen tradition
• Viktor Frankl, “Everything can be taken away from one except…” 

The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

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Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell