In this episode of Emergent Hope, I’m joined by my friend Jai Ram Lentine. Jai Ram is a spiritual seeker, a student of Ram Dass and his guru, Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaji). He’s a deeply valued member of the global spiritual community, or satsang, and someone known for his openness, compassion, and willingness to walk alongside others on the path.

His story is a remarkable one, spanning a two-decade career in public health, a deeply personal journey of gender transition, years spent studying with Ram Dass, and an ongoing commitment to keeping his heart open through profound personal and global challenges.

In this conversation, we explore what it means to live a spiritual life in a very real, and often painful, world.

We talk about the tension between non-duality and every day suffering…about living a life of service to others, discernment…and what it means to stay true to your values when it really counts.

At the heart of it all is a simple, yet challenging question:

How do we stay open-hearted, compassionate, and grounded, in a world that feels anything but?

Links

Books Mentioned In Show:

Whisper in the Heart by Parvati Markus

Sometimes Brilliant by Larry Brilliant

Jai Ram’s Service Work:

Kaleidoscope Child Foundation - 501c3 nonprofit providing education to over 1,000 students in 5 countries worldwide.

Nandi Dass - Spiritual community building through retreats, events, and webinars.

Ram Dass:

Official Website

Be Here Now Network - Mindfulness and spirituality related podcasts, inspired by the teachings of Ram Dass and his friends.

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On today’s show, I’m joined by Kenneth Ring, usually known as Ken. Ken teaches and practices the martial art of Kuk Sool at Muncie Martial Arts, Indiana. He is also an author, having written two books in his science-fiction adventure series OrdinarySuper.

Ken and I sat down to talk about our shared love of Kuk Sool, a traditional martial arts system from Korea. Returning to Kuk Sool after several years, I have been wrestling with whether a martial arts practice can be compatible with the pacifism of my Quaker faith. In response, Ken shared the fascinating Buddhist influence on Korean martial arts and how their commitment to non-violence influences his own approach to what he practices and teaches to his students.

We spoke about finding community, resilience and personal growth through martial arts. This then segued into the surprising similarities between martial arts and creative writing, and then a detailed explanation of the visionary fiction genre. Links

Ken’s Books - https://kgring.com

Muncie Martial Arts - https://munciemartialarts.com

I hope you enjoy the episode!

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Emergent Hope is a brand new podcast where I’ll sit down with some incredible thinkers to discuss some of the challenges that face our world today, and some of the ideas that will help us face them. Whilst recognising the scale of these challenges, EmergentHope will take an optimistic view of political organising, climate change, social justice and spirituality.

In this first episode, I sat down with San Choudhury and Reece Barlow — founders of ScholarSquare. ScholarSquare is an online platform for those interested in learning, research and teaching to come together and collaborate in an open, welcoming space. San and Reece are also the founders of The Scholarly Letter — a weekly newsletter where they discuss their vision for a form of scholarship that puts deep curiosity and a love of learning front and centre.

During our time together, we discussed the possibilities that emerge from truly independent scholarship, the future of academia under neoliberalism, and how they each foster a sense of fun and playfulness in their work.

Links

ScholarSquare - https://scholar-square.com

The Scholarly Letter - https://thescholarlyletter.scholar-square.com

San’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dr.san__/?hl=en

Reece’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/reece_thinks/

I hope you enjoy Emergent Hope — I can’t wait to share the next episode with you.

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