Deep Transformation

Ep. 45 | Miranda Macpherson, spiritual teacher, author, and leader of the Living Grace Global Sangha, received a life changing transmission of divine grace while meditating in a cave in India in 2005. Subsequently, she developed the practice of Ego Relaxation to guide others in becoming receptive to subtle forms of grace that bring the clarity we need to live the most noble and healing of lives. In this conversation, Miranda discusses questions such as “What is the cause of our being and all being? How do we recognize that grace is already our primordial ground? What limits our capacity to be here, as we are, in this moment?” And she describes how using inquiry aids us in forming a relationship with grace.

Miranda is a spirited, nondual, unabashedly feminine teacher who dares to use the word God. Hers is an inspirational path and teaching leading to the development of profound trust. Miranda describes how her own total trust developed through periods of undoing, sorting out, a period of relinquishment, and finally allowing the dissembling of all that was familiar. Not leading with our intellect is what we need to learn. As Miranda says, “What the world needs is more graceful human beings.” Recorded at the Science and Nonduality Conference, October 2019, with Dr. Roger Walsh, John Dupuy, and Douglas Prater. 

“Be nothing, do nothing. Get nothing, become nothing. Seek for nothing. Relinquish nothing. Be as you are. Rest in God.”

Note: This podcast was recorded live and includes, at times, some extraneous noises in the background. Please excuse them -- we felt the conversation was very valuable and well worth sharing with our audience. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• What is grace? The agency of our transformation (01:50)
• The path of “gentle effort” vs ego effort (05:11)
• Humbling our sense of being the “doer” and recognizing the cause of our being—and all being (06:05)
• Using inquiry to form a relationship with grace: what is holding you now? (08:50)
• The ground of being is more than emptiness; it’s full of life, nourishing and healing (10:42)
• Recognizing the ground of grace is the beginning of ego relaxation (12:28)
• Miranda’s ego relaxation teaching practices: holistic inquiry and meditation (13:06)
• The value of human relationship for awakening (16:24)
• Fear is a force we need to address if we want to deepen—both individual and cultural fear (17:55)
• In the practice of ego relaxation, do nothing to fix or change yourself, but allow the mystical power of grace to do the transforming; all you need to do is stop concealing yourself (21:52)
• Simply letting things be is effective because it brings to light that you are not the doer (24:32)
• How to overcome the deeply ingrained message “life is not meant to be easy” (27:31)
• Miranda’s transmission of ego relaxation in a cave in India and her following “period of undoing” (28:58)
• Our egos are driven by an experience of lack—let’s relax into self-forgiveness and compassion (34:03)
• What happened with Miranda when more ordinary awareness returned? (38:09)
• The importance of including our animal humanity—the emotional, the frightened, the irrational and non-linear (42:55)
• The integration stage and the call to service (44:59)
• How does the practice of ego relaxation contribute to helping our civilization at this time of crisis? (47:19)
• Becoming open to the most subtle forms of grace (49:15)

• 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 Macpherson, Streams of Grace (kirtan/mantra album)
• Miranda Macpherson, The Heart of Being: Mantras for Awakening (kirtan/mantra album)
• Miranda’s website: MirandaMacpherson.com
• The Living Grace Global Sangha
• Ramana Maharshi, Indian sage and liberated being, 1879-1950
• Eknath Easwaran, The Bhagavad Gita* (2nd edition)
• A Course in Miracles*, Helen Schucman and the Foundation for Inner Peace
• Malcolm Fraser, prime minister of Australia 1995-1983
• St. John of the Cross, Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and Carmelite friar
• SengTs’an, Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen, “The Mind of Absolute Trust” from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry* (edited by Stephen Mitchell)

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Miranda Macpherson is known for her depth of presence and gift for guiding others into direct experience of the Sacred. She shares a holistic approach to spiritual surrender and non-dual realization based on the practice of Ego Relaxation, inspired by Sri Ramana Maharshi, A Course in Miracles, extensive study of the world’s wisdom traditions, and more recently the Diamond Approach. Miranda’s books include The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation, Boundless Love, and Meditations on Boundless Love. She is also a kirtan musician with two mantra albums, Streams of Grace and The Heart of Being. 

Miranda brings three decades of teaching experience in what truly works to liberate unnecessary suffering and gain traction on the path of awakening. Founder of OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in London, where she trained and ordained over 600 ministers and spiritual counselors, today Miranda leads the Living Grace Global Sangha and offers retreats internationally and online programs through the Shift Network.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 44 (Part 2 of 2) | A.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), renowned author and co-creator of the Diamond Approach, a complete spiritual path that flows out of his direct personal experience and realization, informed by the great wisdom traditions and practices, describes here his own process of inquiry and some of what he has come to discover in his lifelong pursuit to understand the nature of reality and know the truth. 

Hameed tells us answers come in the form of experiences rather than words and that there is no end to what we can realize about our true nature and reality itself. He talks about experiencing the authentic presence of being; the dynamics of realization; the paradox of practice; the importance of curiosity; and the joy of discovery. What makes time possible and what makes timelessness possible? What happens when we die? Throughout the conversation, Hameed transmits a quiet exuberance, humor, profound wisdom, and deep peace. This is a remarkable, inspiring, sometimes astonishing dialogue that will illuminate and exhilarate your understanding of the nature of reality and our potential as human beings. Recorded August 10, 2022.

“Reality really has much more up its sleeve than any human being can imagine.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• On death: each of us has a particular consciousness that is undying; death is not the end, but how we live our life will influence how we die and afterwards (00:53)
• Is an initial activation—a “close encounter of the third kind with true nature”—a requirement to enter the Ridhwan School? (07:49)
• What is “runaway realization''? There’s no end to what you can realize about reality or yourself (09:18)
• The importance of true curiosity (12:30)
• The experience of pure, absolute time: what makes time possible and timelessness possible? An example of Hameed’s own inquiry process (13:29) 
• Spiritual discourse and non-standard realization (15:57)
• Becoming alive to the zen of ordinariness (20:02)
• Hameed’s practice: continual inquiry and meditation (22:31)
• Most of Hameed’s awakenings don’t happen in meditation (24:47)
• The dynamic of realization: practice opens us to grace (25:56)
• Opening to transmission (31:59)
• A new kind of presence: non-standard presence is very important to opening to runaway realization (33:12)
• In the depths of nondual realization something arises (36:51)

• The Ten Ox Herding Pictures from the Zen tradition 
• Vajra Body, symbol of highest spiritual power
• Hameed Ali, creator of The Ridhwan School and The Diamond Path
• A. H. Almaas, Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery*
• A. H. Almaas,The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence*
• A. H. Almaas, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type*
• A. H. Almaas, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart*
• A. H. Almaas, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence*
• A. H. Almaas books page on Amazon*
• Diamond Approach YouTube videos with A. H. Almaas

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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A. 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.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 43 (Part 1 of 2) | A.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), renowned author and co-creator of the Diamond Approach, a complete spiritual path that flows out of his direct personal experience and realization, informed by the great wisdom traditions and practices, describes here his own process of inquiry and some of what he has come to discover in his lifelong pursuit to understand the nature of reality and know the truth. 

Hameed tells us answers come in the form of experiences rather than words and that there is no end to what we can realize about our true nature and reality itself. He talks about experiencing the authentic presence of being; the dynamics of realization; the paradox of practice; the importance of curiosity; and the joy of discovery. What makes time possible and what makes timelessness possible? What happens when we die? Throughout the conversation, Hameed transmits a quiet exuberance, humor, profound wisdom, and deep peace. This is a remarkable, inspiring, sometimes astonishing dialogue that will illuminate and exhilarate your understanding of the nature of reality and our potential as human beings. Recorded August 10, 2022.

“Reality really has much more up its sleeve than any human being can imagine.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• Roger introduces Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) and the Diamond Approach (01:09)
• The practice of direct inquiry into the fundamental nature of reality: the answers come in experiences rather than words (05:10)
• Trusting reality to take us to what is good for us; reality is self revealing (08:14)
• The “paradox of practice”: recognizing our inherent helplessness and hopelessness (10:19) 
• Hameed’s initial opening: recognizing the authentic presence of being (13:06)
• Each awakening has a particular view: nonduality and beyond (15:09)
• Holding on to a view becomes a delusion, regardless of the realization (18:51)
• The “view of totality”: a metaperspective allowing for endless realizations and openings and appreciation of the boundless creativity of the universe (21:37)
• Many teachings are working towards liberation and freedom from suffering, but Hameed “wanted to understand reality and to know the truth” (25:22)
• Enlightenment itself evolves, it keeps moving (28:33)
• The dichotomy between spiritual and material is a construct (35:10)
• Discovery is part of life, part of realization (37:18)
• The completion of realization is going out in the world, learning how to live it (39:04)

• Hameed Ali (A.H. Almaas), creator of The Ridhwan School and The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery*
• A. H. Almaas,The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence*
• A. H. Almaas, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type*
• A. H. Almaas, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart*
• A. H. Almaas, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence*
• A. H. Almaas books page on Amazon*
• Diamond Approach YouTube videos with A. H. Almaas
• Ken Wilber, philosopher, author, creator of Integral Theory, The Integral Vision*
• Sri Aurobindo, Indian philosopher, poet, yoga guru
• Dzogchen, a tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
• Vedanta, one of six schools of Hindu philosophy
• Huayan Buddhism, a school of Buddhism that includes the Round Teaching, an understanding of the other-dependent nature of ultimate reality, a unilocal view
• Dogen, founder of the Sōtō School of Zen

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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A. 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.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 43 (Part 3 of 3) | Beena Sharma, president of the Vertical Development Academy (VeDA), gives a beautifully cogent explanation of the 8-stage, full spectrum model of adult psychological development, Vertical Development, illuminating us not only to the characteristics of each stage of development, but the implications and ramifications of each stage, the process of human development as a whole, and how this model can help us face our current metacrisis. Beena describes how “each stage is a way of seeing the world and oneself, a constellation of our beliefs and assumptions,” and we discover that our development takes form in patterns of evolving worldviews, a progression of capacities with which we make sense of the world.

On an individual level, Beena asks, “Where is your foot nailed to the floor? Where are parts of you still ahead of you? How can this framework help you make a shift?” And collectively, “What does it mean for the human being to evolve? What makes us think humans at this time are at the end of the evolutionary ladder?” Vertical development focuses on the evolving ego, and interestingly, takes us to the stage where we realize the ego itself is only a construct—and beyond. As well as a brilliant unpacking of the vertical development model, this is a profound, warm-hearted conversation, about human evolution and possibility, the dance of the dual and the nondual, the infinitude of the psyche, and what it means to come home to oneself. Recorded July 13, 2022.

"Everything is a dance of the dual and the nondual."

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• Keeping the question in mind: “Is this framework getting in the way of me connecting with the person in front of me? (02:54)
• What light does this model of adult development shed on religions and spiritual leaders? (04:33)
• The core of Integral yoga—integrating the spiritual and the material (09:00)
• Everything is a dance of the dual and the nondual; either/or thinking manifests all the way up (09:59)
• What are Beena’s personal practices to stay sane in our confounding world today? (11:08)
• Implications for our metacrisis: who are the players who have power? (14:50)
• Solutions come from within small groups who can collaborate (17:17)
• Paul Hawken, climate change, and the philosophy of regeneration (18:38)
• What does it mean to be “life minded?” (19:49)
• How the state of the world, the current metacrisis, is a direct reflection of our individual and collective consciousness (20:16)
• Corporate investment in leadership is a $161 billion dollar annual industry; leadership design is key (23:48)
• Central polarity in Beena’s life: Am I doing? Or am I being done? (31:16)
• How can transformative practices be scaled? Cultivating people who are both wise and politically involved (32:34)
• The deliberately developmental organization—and the deliberately developmental civilization (34:42)
• How do we make developmental programs more effective? (35:30)
• Harvesting technology for good: a design issue and an issue of expanding the designers’ abilities (36:46)
• Encouraging people to grow; 50-70% of people are at the conventional stages (37:32)
• Recognizing the war within (42:12)

• Brian Daizen Victoria, Zen at War*
• Sri Aurobindo, sage of modern India
• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That*
• Jean Klein, The Book of Listening*, The Ease of Being*, I Am*
• Susanne Cook-Greuter, international authority on adult ego development and creator of the Maturity Assessment Profile (MAP)
• Tomas Björkman, social entrepreneur, author, philosopher, The World We Create*, Cultivating Psychological Maturity (Deep Transformation Podcast Episode 36)
• Paul Hawken, Project Drawdown, Drawdown: The Most Extensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming*
• Paul Hawken, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation*
• Duane Elgin, The Living Universe*
• Daniel Schmachtenberger, founding member of The Consilience Project aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue
• The anthropocene age, Age of Man: Enter the Anthropocene
• Aldous Huxley, Island*
• Chaos Theory
• The Third Patriarch of Zen, Hsin Hsin Ming by Seng T’san
• Neo-Confucianism
• Tomas Björkman & Lene Andersen, The Nordic Secret*, Cultivating Psychological Maturity (Deep Transformation Podcast Episode 36)
• Bildung, linking philosophy and education for both personal and cultural maturation
• Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey, An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization*
• Ken Wilber & Dustin diPerna, Toward a Deliberately Developmental Civilization (free download)
• Beena Sharma, founder Vertical Development Academy (VeDA): facilitating leadership maturity

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Beena Sharma currently stewards Vertical Development Academy (VeDA) as its founding president, with a vision to enhance the practice of human development. Beena has a passion around helping individuals and organizations orient themselves to the path of the evolving human being across the various stages of maturity as revealed through empirical research and sound theory. She sees the progressive unfolding of maturity in adults as a process where the narrow, the limited, and the conflicting open to a more comprehensive, a more real, a more complete intuition and perspective—each stage of human maturity a temporary station of a more adequate understanding of the human condition.

Beena is a gifted master coach, consultant, teacher, and thought leader. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her achievements in successfully conceptualizing, developing, and delivering systemic leadership development initiatives. Beena has led efforts as an executive and consultant for various agencies of the U.S. government and leading private-sector companies in healthcare and other industries in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and India. Beena is committed to designing and delivering exceptional learning experiences to build deep capability in individuals and organizations in service of creating a sustainable future for our civilization.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 41 (Part 2 of 3) | Beena Sharma, president of the Vertical Development Academy (VeDA), gives a beautifully cogent explanation of the 8-stage, full spectrum model of adult psychological development, Vertical Development, illuminating us not only to the characteristics of each stage of development, but the implications and ramifications of each stage, the process of human development as a whole, and how this model can help us face our current metacrisis. Beena describes how “each stage is a way of seeing the world and oneself, a constellation of our beliefs and assumptions,” and we discover that our development takes form in patterns of evolving worldviews, a progression of capacities with which we make sense of the world.

On an individual level, Beena asks, “Where is your foot nailed to the floor? Where are parts of you still ahead of you? How can this framework help you make a shift?” And collectively, “What does it mean for the human being to evolve? What makes us think humans at this time are at the end of the evolutionary ladder?” Vertical development focuses on the evolving ego, and interestingly, takes us to the stage where we realize the ego itself is only a construct—and beyond. As well as a brilliant unpacking of the vertical development model, this is a profound, warm-hearted conversation, about human evolution and possibility, the dance of the dual and the nondual, the infinitude of the psyche, and what it means to come home to oneself. Recorded July 13, 2022.

“The earlier the stage, the greater the gift; the later the stage, the greater the promise.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• In this framework, an arc represents the ego’s process of development, with the self-determining stage being the top of the arc (01:38)
• Self-questioning stage: you realize you are not as independent as you thought—you are conditioned, shaped, and molded by your context (02:30)
• Resolution of the problems in the previous stage come in the new stage (06:41)
• The biggest shift is between the self-determining self and the self-authoring self—and Integral Theory’s mean green meme (07:14)
• Self-actualizing stage, where you realize it’s both all relative and there are also some absolutes, and systems thinking comes online internally and externally (10:37)
• Complexity thinking skills can be taught and learned (13:56)
• Self-actualizing stage continued: looking for and integrating higher wisdom, for “and” as well as either/or thinking (18:45)
• The shadow of the self-actualizing stage (22:11)
• Construct-aware stage: seeing that all the ideas you have are only constructs, abstractions, there is no reality “out there;” the ego itself begins to see it’s only a construct (23:41)
• This stage illuminates 3 things: existentialism, the wisdom traditions’ concept of emptiness and liberation, and the postmodern stage of deconstructionism (28:47)
• The Hindu god Shiva, half masculine/half feminine, is personified yin/yang, where all opposites are integrated, the potential of our human form to be in harmony with both emptiness and form (37:33)
• Transcendent or unitive stage: falling into no boundaries, falling into the now, recognizing we are all one (39:04)
• This particular adult development framework bridges psychological development with spiritual development, where other frameworks do not (40:58)
• This is a “full spectrum perspective” on human development and possibility, as Ken Wilber described (42:09)
• Translation: how do we bring this framework into service? (44:20)
• The psyche is infinite; the fundamental humility of unknowability (46:50)
• Developmental movement within stages and across the arc—people are either entering, consolidating, or transitioning (48:54)
• What does it mean to come home to oneself? (50:29)
• How Byron Katie’s The Work helps us access the construct-aware stage (52:28)

• Robert Kegan, The Evolving Self*
• Don Beck & Christopher Cowan, Spiral Dynamics*
• Spiral Dynamics’ Second Tier
• Who Are the 2nd Tier Thinkers with Ken Wilber
• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That*
• T.R.V. Murti, Central Philosophy of Buddhism: A Study of the Madhyamika System*
• Kashmiri Saivism, "Fullness pours into Emptiness; Emptiness pervades Fullness"
• Kabir, a 15th-century Indian mystic poet, composed poetry that evoked a space called nirgun or shunya—something without qualities or boundaries, empty—which challenged listeners to know it and to know themselves
• Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow*
• Sri Aurobindo, sage of modern India
• Byron Katie’s The Work, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life*
• Beena Sharma, founder Vertical Development Academy (VeDA): facilitating leadership maturity

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Beena Sharma currently stewards Vertical Development Academy (VeDA) as its founding president, with a vision to enhance the practice of human development. Beena has a passion around helping individuals and organizations orient themselves to the path of the evolving human being across the various stages of maturity as revealed through empirical research and sound theory. She sees the progressive unfolding of maturity in adults as a process where the narrow, the limited, and the conflicting open to a more comprehensive, a more real, a more complete intuition and perspective—each stage of human maturity a temporary station of a more adequate understanding of the human condition.

Beena is a gifted master coach, consultant, teacher, and thought leader. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her achievements in successfully conceptualizing, developing, and delivering systemic leadership development initiatives. Beena has led efforts as an executive and consultant for various agencies of the U.S. government and leading private-sector companies in healthcare and other industries in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and India. Beena is committed to designing and delivering exceptional learning experiences to build deep capability in individuals and organizations in service of creating a sustainable future for our civilization.

---

Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 40 (Part 1 of 3) | Beena Sharma, president of the Vertical Development Academy (VeDA), gives a beautifully cogent explanation of the 8-stage, full spectrum model of adult psychological development, Vertical Development, illuminating us not only to the characteristics of each stage of development, but the implications and ramifications of each stage, the process of human development as a whole, and how this model can help us face our current metacrisis. Beena describes how “each stage is a way of seeing the world and oneself, a constellation of our beliefs and assumptions,” and we discover that our development takes form in patterns of evolving worldviews, a progression of capacities with which we make sense of the world.

On an individual level, Beena asks, “Where is your foot nailed to the floor? Where are parts of you still ahead of you? How can this framework help you make a shift?” And collectively, “What does it mean for the human being to evolve? What makes us think humans at this time are at the end of the evolutionary ladder?” Vertical development focuses on the evolving ego, and interestingly, takes us to the stage where we realize the ego itself is only a construct—and beyond. As well as a brilliant unpacking of the vertical development model, this is a profound, warm-hearted conversation, about human evolution and possibility, the dance of the dual and the nondual, the infinitude of the psyche, and what it means to come home to oneself. Recorded July 13, 2022.

“The earlier the stage, the greater the gift; the later the stage, the greater the promise.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• Introducing teacher and developmental coach Beena Sharma (01:45)
• The most exciting discovery in psychology is that psychological development and maturity can continue far beyond our 20s, and beyond our conception of “normality” (02:51)
• We are being evolved; we are transitional beings. Nature’s secret is the evolutionary process (05:15)
• Exploring human development and the farther reaches of human possibilities: what does it mean for adults to mature? (06:52)
• Jane Loevinger’s research showed patterns of evolving worldviews, a progression of capacities to make sense of the world, the trajectory revealed through the stories people tell (11:12)
• Creating space for the process of development, i.e. not using words like higher and lower, saying instead earlier and later (15:26)
• Maturity is coming to new understandings about what is real, giving up our assumptions, subject becomes object (18:58)
• Stages of development is a psychoactive model: just understanding that further development is possible helps us grow into our potentials (21:00)
• Using this framework in an ethical way: be careful not to use it in a reductionist way and label people as inferior; hold it lightly, the stages are idealizations (23:35)
• What happens over the course of development? How do we get there? Vertical development is an outcome rather than a goal (27:29)
• Self-centric stage: self-preservation and survival (29:32)
• Group-centric: the “socialized” stage, where you want to fit in and belong (32:22)
• Skill-centric stage: my identity is defined by what I do, not what I am (35:25)
• The triumph of stepping into the next worldview, the next stage (35:55)
• Loving people at whatever level they are at: “the earlier the stage, the greater the gift; the later the stage, the greater the promise.” (39:08)
• Earlier stages are not negative, but they are more limited in capacity (40:45)
• The crisis in parenting, in grandparenting, in ancestoring (44:29)
• Self-determining stage: now I am an independent agent, the master of my destiny, capable of choice and a healing objectivity (46:15)
• Preconventional, conventional, postconventional stages (52:04)
• This developmental process is the ego’s process of evolution, the ego’s process of creating a more complex, nuanced map of how to make sense of the world (53:22)

• Beena Sharma, founder of the Vertical Development Academy (VeDA): facilitating leadership maturity
• Sri Aurobindo, sage of modern India
• Jane Loevinger’s Stages of Ego Development, Ego Development,* Paradigms of Personality*
• Susanne Cook-Greuter, Postautonomous Ego Development: A Study of Its Nature and Measurement*
• Rorschach test
• Gordon Allport, a pioneer in the study of personality
• Robert Kegan, The Evolving Self*
• Enneagram of Personality and the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• Depth psychology and evolutionary psychology

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Beena Sharma currently stewards Vertical Development Academy (VeDA) as its founding president, with a vision to enhance the practice of human development. Beena has a passion around helping individuals and organizations orient themselves to the path of the evolving human being across the various stages of maturity as revealed through empirical research and sound theory. She sees the progressive unfolding of maturity in adults as a process where the narrow, the limited, and the conflicting open to a more comprehensive, a more real, a more complete intuition and perspective—each stage of human maturity a temporary station of a more adequate understanding of the human condition.

Beena is a gifted master coach, consultant, teacher, and thought leader. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her achievements in successfully conceptualizing, developing, and delivering systemic leadership development initiatives. Beena has led efforts as an executive and consultant for various agencies of the U.S. government and leading private-sector companies in healthcare and other industries in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and India. Beena is committed to designing and delivering exceptional learning experiences to build deep capability in individuals and organizations in service of creating a sustainable future for our civilization.

---

Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 39 (Part 3 of 3) | Lucid dreaming expert, author, “curiouist,” and integralist Andrew Holecek explains how lucid dreaming opens the door to a greatly expanded understanding of our minds, our perception of reality, and human potential altogether. If we consciously explore our night lives practicing dream yoga, we can learn how to discard our habits, purify our karma, and discover beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are co-creators of our experience. What we do in dream yoga is not limited to nighttime action; it weaves back into our daytime lives, and ultimately our experience of dying.

Andrew describes how dreams are a powerful way to discover emptiness and openness, and fall into reality—like falling into love—our primordial contraction cast away. Besides being a life-changing discourse on the incredible potential of dream yoga, Andrew Holecek’s cheerful, well-informed, easy way of talking and teaching about lucid dreaming—relating it also to the wisdom traditions, our sense of identity, and human evolution—makes this a real pleasure to listen to. Recorded on April 13, 2022.

“Lucid dreaming is metacognitive dreaming: the next iteration of human evolution.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• How can one begin? First, realize the potentiality of lucid dreaming and become an oneironaut (01:40)
• The importance of intentionality, and, installing pop-ups in your unconscious mind (04:19)
• Meditation practice is a super technique to help attain lucidity at night (and in the daytime) (07:18)
• How you can purify your karma and habits in your dreams (09:51)
• Transforming the mother of all our habits: reification (12:40)
• Purifying habits by night purifies habits by day (14:44)
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching on dream yoga (19:09)
• Dream yoga is a powerful way to discover emptiness, emptiness = openness = love; meditation habituates us to openness, and when falling into reality, the primordial contraction is removed (22:00)
• How the self sense comes undone when we fall asleep, a concordant experience with dying (26:11)
• Andrew leads a short (game changing) dream yoga practice: 3-fold impurity—and, where is the dreamer? (29:55)

• Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist meditation master
• Milarepa, “phenomena are all the books one needs”
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 2nd president of India, “Reality overflows our miserable concepts”
• Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell*
• Andrew Holecek, Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming*
• Andrew Holecek, Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep*
• Andrew Holecek, The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy
• Andrew Holecek, Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition*
• Andrew Holecek, The Lucid Dreaming Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Your Dream Life*
• Dream Yoga: The Tibetan Path of Awakening Through Lucid Dreaming (Sounds True audio learning course)
• Night Club: Where Meditators and Lucid Dreamers Meet, Andrew Holecek community

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Andrew Holecek has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat and offers seminars internationally on lucid dreaming, the art of dying, and meditation. He is the author of many books, including The Lucid Dreaming Workbook, Preparing to Die,  Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep; Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming, and The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy. Dr. Holecek is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the author of scientific papers on lucid dreaming. His work has appeared in Parabola, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Utne Reader, Buddhadharma Magazine, Light of Consciousness, and many other periodicals. He holds degrees in classical music, biology, and a doctorate in dental surgery. 

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 38 (Part 2 of 3) | Lucid dreaming expert, author, “curiouist,” and integralist Andrew Holecek explains how lucid dreaming opens the door to a greatly expanded understanding of our minds, our perception of reality, and human potential altogether. If we consciously explore our night lives practicing dream yoga, we can learn how to discard our habits, purify our karma, and discover beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are co-creators of our experience. What we do in dream yoga is not limited to nighttime action; it weaves back into our daytime lives, and ultimately our experience of dying.

Andrew describes how dreams are a powerful way to discover emptiness and openness, and fall into reality—like falling into love—our primordial contraction cast away. Besides being a life-changing discourse on the incredible potential of dream yoga, Andrew Holecek’s cheerful, well-informed, easy way of talking and teaching about lucid dreaming—relating it also to the wisdom traditions, our sense of identity, and human evolution—makes this a real pleasure to listen to. Recorded on April 13, 2022.

“Lucid dreaming is metacognitive dreaming: the next iteration of human evolution.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• How can one begin? First, realize the potentiality of lucid dreaming and become an oneironaut (01:40)
• The importance of intentionality, and, installing pop-ups in your unconscious mind (04:19)
• Meditation practice is a super technique to help attain lucidity at night (and in the daytime) (07:18)
• How you can purify your karma and habits in your dreams (09:51)
• Transforming the mother of all our habits: reification (12:40)
• Purifying habits by night purifies habits by day (14:44)
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching on dream yoga (19:09)
• Dream yoga is a powerful way to discover emptiness, emptiness = openness = love; meditation habituates us to openness, and when falling into reality, the primordial contraction is removed (22:00)
• How the self sense comes undone when we fall asleep, a concordant experience with dying (26:11)
• Andrew leads a short (game changing) dream yoga practice: 3-fold impurity—and, where is the dreamer? (29:55)

• Andrew Holecek, Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep*
• Andrew Holecek, The Lucid Dreaming Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Your Dream Life*
• Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life*
• His Holiness the 17th Karmapa website, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje: A Biography*
• Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, “This is a dream. I am free. I can change.”
• Mingjur Rinpoche, dream yoga master, the nighttime mind is the best classroom for understanding emptiness
• Andrew Holecek, Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming*
• International Transpersonal Association
• Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama*
• Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” recorded in Plato’s Apology 
• Ken Wilber, “the myth of the given,” Integral Spirituality*
• Andrew Holecek, The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy
• Andrew Holecek, Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition*
• Dream Yoga: The Tibetan Path of Awakening Through Lucid Dreaming (Sounds True audio learning course)
• Night Club: Where Meditators and Lucid Dreamers Meet, Andrew Holecek community
• American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sets standards and promotes excellence in sleep medicine health care, education, and research

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Andrew Holecek has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat and offers seminars internationally on lucid dreaming, the art of dying, and meditation. He is the author of many books, including The Lucid Dreaming Workbook, Preparing to Die,  Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep; Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming, and The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy. Dr. Holecek is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the author of scientific papers on lucid dreaming. His work has appeared in Parabola, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Utne Reader, Buddhadharma Magazine, Light of Consciousness, and many other periodicals. He holds degrees in classical music, biology, and a doctorate in dental surgery. 

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 37 (Part 1 of 3) | Lucid dreaming expert, author, “curiouist,” and integralist Andrew Holecek explains how lucid dreaming opens the door to a greatly expanded understanding of our minds, our perception of reality, and human potential altogether. If we consciously explore our night lives practicing dream yoga, we can learn how to discard our habits, purify our karma, and discover beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are co-creators of our experience. What we do in dream yoga is not limited to nighttime action; it weaves back into our daytime lives, and ultimately our experience of dying.

Andrew describes how dreams are a powerful way to discover emptiness and openness, and fall into reality—like falling into love—our primordial contraction cast away. Besides being a life-changing discourse on the incredible potential of dream yoga, Andrew Holecek’s cheerful, well-informed, easy way of talking and teaching about lucid dreaming—relating it also to the wisdom traditions, our sense of identity, and human evolution—makes this a real pleasure to listen to. Recorded on April 13, 2022.

“Lucidity is a code word for awareness.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

• Introducing Andrew Holecek, master of Dream Yoga (01:44)
• Andrew’s profound experience with lucid dreaming as a young man, with dreamtime becoming more real and daytime experience less real (04:08)
• Retrofitting his understanding over time to make sense of his experience landed Andrew in Buddhism (06:25)
• Buddha is literally the Awakened One in Sanskrit—awakened in relationship to what? (08:23)
• Nocturnal practices became a real practice, a unique form of night school and a pedagogy of the future (09:24)
• Overview of the 5 nocturnal meditations (10:55)
• Liminal dreaming: getting into the witnessing perspective and watching how the mind goes offline, the ego structure comes undone (11:25)
• Lucid dreaming: awakening to the fact that you are dreaming—used largely for self-fulfillment (12:44)
• Dream yoga is where it transitions to self-transcendence (13:42)
• Sleep yoga, or luminosity yoga, a primary practice of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism (14:30)
• Bardo yoga, the “dream at the end of time,” working with the mind to prepare for death (16:03)
• Where do you go when you die? You transition from one dream to the next: lucid dreaming leads to lucid living and lucid dying (17:52)
• If you don’t wake up and take control of your dream and finally your mind, your unconscious, your habits, will control your mind (19:17)
• Awake-centricity: in the West our understanding of mind and reality is derived solely from our experience in the waking state, versus the East’s more integral understanding derived from all 3 states, waking, dreaming, deep sleep (22:30)
• The “awakened mind” is a mind that is lucid under all conditions (26:25)
• The West has a single stage worldview—but multi stage cultures have a vastly larger understanding of ourselves and our reality; 90% of the world’s cultures are polyphasic (28:06)
• Mullah Nasruddin, the Sufi story of the lost key (30:12)
• Ignoring our circadian rhythms, we miss the opportunity the night offers to further our brain’s evolution (31:14)
• Dreams manifest along a spectrum, from meaningless neurological noise to ones that shed light on our lives, transcending our sense of self (34:09)
• Dream incubation practices: supplicating for guidance, for help (38:14)

• Andrew Holecek, Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming*
• Andrew Holecek, Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep*
• Andrew Holecek, The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy*
• Andrew Holecek, Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition*
• Andrew Holecek, The Lucid Dreaming Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Your Dream Life*
• Dream Yoga: The Tibetan Path of Awakening Through Lucid Dreaming (Sounds True audio learning course)
• Night Club: Where Meditators and Lucid Dreamers Meet, Andrew Holecek community
• Jane Roberts, The "Unknown" Reality, Vol. 1: A Seth Book*
• R. D. Laing, The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness*
• Joseph Campbell, “The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.”
• Matthew Walker, neuroscientist, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams*
• Yoga nidra is in the liminal dreaming bandwidth
• Thomas Metzinger, German philosopher and professor of theoretical philosophy
• Nyingma, the oldest of the 4 schools of Tibetan Buddhism
• Mullah Nasruddin, The story of the lost key
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin quotes, “Evolution hasn’t stopped, it only moved indoors.” 
• The healing temples of Asclepion 
• His Holiness the 17th Karmapa website, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje: A Biography*

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Andrew Holecek has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat and offers seminars internationally on lucid dreaming, the art of dying, and meditation. He is the author of many books, including The Lucid Dreaming Workbook, Preparing to Die,  Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep; Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming, and The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy. Dr. Holecek is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the author of scientific papers on lucid dreaming. His work has appeared in Parabola, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Utne Reader, Buddhadharma Magazine, Light of Consciousness, and many other periodicals. He holds degrees in classical music, biology, and a doctorate in dental surgery. 

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 36 | Philosopher, author, and social entrepreneur Tomas Björkman’s claims are convincing: our culture needs to go through a new developmental paradigm shift. Either it will grow more complex—or crumble, as empires have crumbled in the past. The collective worldview needs to change, and to that end Tomas’ focus is on the relationship between growing our personal psychological maturity and societal change, a relationship Nordic countries recognized to their great advantage towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Extrapolating from his vast experience with business leadership, where inner psychological maturity turns out to be a foremost aspect of success, Tomas extends this knowledge, applying it to all of society, and emphasizes the importance of supporting a lifelong inner process of development for every individual. The only hope for our shared future seems to lie in wiser decision making by individuals who have expanded both mind and heart to encompass the greater complexities of our time. Recorded on December 2019, with Dr. Roger Walsh, John Dupuy, and Douglas Prater.

“Conscious effort on large-scale consciousness development actually worked.”

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

Note: This podcast was recorded live and includes, at times, some extraneous noises in the background. Please excuse them -- we felt the conversation was very valuable and well worth sharing with our audience. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

• Introducing Tomas Björkman: philosopher, author, entrepreneur (02:28)
• Tomas’ unique contribution: cultivating psychological maturity individually and collectively, in order to co-create a new culture and survive as a species (03:39)
• Inner psychological maturation is one of the most important aspects of a good businessman, a good leader; this knowledge needs to be applied to all of us and society as a whole (05:12)
• The importance of getting the corporate culture right, societal culture right, and support inner psychological development (06:37)
• Our worldview in the West hasn’t changed since the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason: it’s time for another deep shift to encompass greater complexity (09:49)
• Looking at culture (and consciousness) as a complex, self-organizing, evolving system: we have reached the bifurcation point (14:47)
• The Nordic secret: Scandinavian countries realized the connection between the maturity of our inner world and our society at the end of the 1800s, becoming the happiest, richest, most stable countries in the world (24:24)
• The establishment of retreat centers for young people to find their inner compass and creating a critical mass of self-authoring people (28:20)
• Maturing from the socialized mind to the self-authoring mind, from conventional to postconventional (30:15)
• Consciously navigating psychological transformation and the self-transforming mind (34:24)
• The corporate realization that to succeed in business, you need your employees to mature to the level of self-authoring mind: Deliberately Developmental Organizations (37:54)
• The German idealistic philosophers’ reaction against Enlightenment philosophy and the evolution of mind and heart: Bildung (39:30)
• What constitutes depth of relationship? Inner development, deepening of relationship, and a multicultural society created by conscious effort (48:24)
• Growing together: how to hold and scaffold the building of a multicultural society (54:34)
• Changing our collective worldview will have to be a collective movement (59:01)
• The effects of the popularization of contemplative practice on the development of psychological maturity (01:04:31)

• Tomas Björkman, The World We Create*
• Tomas Björkman & Lene Andersen, The Nordic Secret*
• Tomas Björkman, The Market Myth*
• Oak Island (Ekskäret) Foundation in Sweden: http://ekskaret.se, “giving momentum to the right kind of changes”
• Tomas’ website: http://www.tomas-bjorkman.com
• Co-founder (with Jonathan Rowson) of Perspectiva, systems-soul-society.com, an interdisciplinary nonprofit organization based in London, developing responses to our epistemic metacrisis
• Co-founder, CoCreation.Loft, making space for conscious development of individuals and society
• Co-initiator of the Emerge network (with Jonathan Rowson), responding to the most urgent challenges of our time, connecting pioneers, seekers, innovators and their initiatives, sowing the seeds of a new civilization
• 29k, a Swedish open-source, non-profit tech platform making mental health treatment and personal development free and accessible to everyone
• Bifurcation theory
• Hanzi Freinacht, The Listening Society*, https://metamoderna.org
• Hanzi Freinacht, Nordic Ideology*, https://metamoderna.org
• Daniel Görtz, https://newrepublicoftheheart.org/person/daniel-gortz/
• Emile Fries, https://www.linkedin.com/in/emil-ejner-friis-56948585/
• Robert Kegan, developmental psychologist, The Evolving Self*
• Ken Wilber, The Integral Vision*
• Don Beck & Christopher Cowan, Spiral Dynamics*
• Deliberately Developmental Organizations: Making Business Personal by Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey, Andy Fleming & Matthew Miller
• Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey, An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization*
• Ellen Key, feminist and inner development advocate, author of the Swedish book Bildning
• Aldous Huxley, Island*

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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Tomas Björkman is an author, social entrepreneur, and the founder of Ekskäret Foundation in Stockholm. He is also the co-founder of the research institute Perspectiva in London, of the Co-creation Loft, the media platform Emerge in Berlin and the 29k.org personal development platform. He is a member of the Club of Rome and a fellow of the Royals Swedish Academy of Engineering Science. He is the author of three books: The Market Myth (2016), The Nordic Secret (together with Lene Rachel Andersen, 2017), and The World We Create (2019). He divides his time between London, Stockholm, and Berlin.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell