5 min

Learning Practice features a 3-minute conversation about a single word. Unrehearsed, without forethought of the word to be discussed, we practice the art of Learning Conversation.

If you want to practice with us by supplying a word and joining us: contact us through our websites.

Landscapes for Learning

YogaHEALS

25 min

Eckhart Tolle's video: Excess baggage. How we think of life's struggles causes unnecessary suffering. The second arrow analogy in Buddhist tradition.

Tolle says life is one's response to circumstances, not the collection of circumstances.

Maureen and Pierre resource an outstanding light in the modern field of spiritual awakening: Eckhart Tolle.

The assumption that people shouldn't face difficulties or suffer is delusional. Struggling, suffering is one way to grow. Tolle calls thinking we should be free of struggle a dysfunctional use of mind.

Maureen and Pierre spend a fair amount of time discussing the role of struggle. Also discussing how struggling to avoid struggling can be counter productive - the second arrow.

Marueenism No. 101: Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Work out within. What's on my side of the street? Another of Maureen's lessons from Landscapes for Learning - let life be your teacher and you'll be destined to thrive!

Check out Tolle's 11 minute video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhEPUp5X_I

More on Tolle in Part II

40 min

Maureen and Pierre revisit Eckhart Tolle to explore his life's story. Follow-on conversation from the first podcast on Eckhart Tolle.

Before revisiting Tolle, Maureen mentions people are actually listening to these podcasts. Wait, what?! They are??? WOW! Cool! Maureen says someone mentioned liking 'Pierre's voice and playfulness.'

Pierre loves the playfulness comment, and riffs on his relationship with his voice. Many years ago in a used book store, Pierre found the book: Change Your Voice, Change Your Life, by Morton Cooper. It was indeed, a life-changing book.

Speaking of life changing books, Maureen and Pierre revisit Eckert Tolle's work and his life.

Tolle self-educated himself from about the age of 13. His life story is remarkable. Learn more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle

He taught, studied and dealt with bouts of depression until one day, in the depths of a depression he had a spiritual experience. Overnight, he awakened to the beauty available in the present moment. From that moment on - excuse the pun, his life transformed.

Nonetheless, it took decades before he wrote the Power of Now. And as they say, the rest is history.

Tolle eschewed capitalizing on fame and tried to maintain an organic approach to disseminating his views.

Join Learning Conversation as we learn more about Eckhart Tolle's interesting life. Truly a seminal figure in the literature and modern movement of spiritual awakening.

Maureen and Pierre dive into the Power of Now experience from first reading to now - no pun attended again.

Going deeper into the now, Maureen and Pierre discuss meditation and yoga, the struggle to be here now can cut through the noise of everyday life. Distress causes focus and you move closer to finding your true self through struggle.

A short clip of Eckhart Tolle interview referenced in first pod:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhEPUp5X_I

10 min.

Maureen wants to talk about Deb Dana.

Pierre and Maureen begin by laughing and laughing some more about their efforts to explain polyvagal theory.

A mind-body resource, Deb Dana, a psychologist teaches people how to recognize their physiological states.

If you understand the ladder of stress and relaxation, high regulation or low, she says there are 3 distinct states.

Prior paradigms of physiological control focused on the mind controlling the body. But Deb Dana and Stephen Porges show through polyvagal theory that communication is a two-way street - body to brain, brain to body.

Recognizing when your brain is triggered by the body's reaction can help provide perspective and provide therapeutic benefits, traction.

Come join us explore Deb Dana as a resource in this exploding universe of mind body knowledge.

Check her out at these links:

Deb Dana & Stephen Porges at the Polyvagel Institute

https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org

Rhythm of Regulation

https://www.rhythmofregulation.com

And books:

Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

Polyvagal Exercises for Therapists and Clients, 50 Client Centered Practices

Polyvagal Flip Chart, Understanding the Science of Safety

….and others. Enjoy

20 min

Maureen and Pierre reflect on a year of podcasting trying to learn conversation. Yes, ironically that's the title of our podcast: Learning Conversation.

Join us as we consider "the shit that comes out of our mouths."

We skip over the structure of our podcasts, listed below, and dive into the speaking / listening duality.

We consider Socratic dialogue. We explore having a 6th form of conversation. Maureen provides a 411 - information please - on Socratic dialogue. How does it work?

We agree that in most conversations statements are made and accepted without exploration or question. The conversation then proceeds along. How different would conversation be if we truly considered each statement and resolved meaning?

In Socratic dialogue, it's almost as if we start with a statement and go backwards. We consider the source and truth of statements. In normal conversation, we start with statements and move forward from their foundation. How different is conversation that looks at foundations and sees what they rests on, how is it solid?

A bit rambling - but that is the nature of conversation. Maureen and Pierre reveal their own beginning fascinations with conversation.

Below is our podcast structure. In Year 2, we may be adding a 6th form, Socratic Dialogue. We'll do that as soon as we can figure out how to do that!

Learning Conversation's Podcast Structure

1. Resource - introduce a resource

2. Reflection - reflect on past pods

3. Practice - 3 min drill on 1 word

4. Interview - interview a person

5. Discussion - discuss a topic

15 min

After a weather report comparing morning temps in MA and CA, both 58 degrees, Maureen introduces Professor John Vervaeke as a Learning Conversation resource. He is an award winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in psychology, cognitive science and Buddhist psychology.

Vervaeke's academic interests include wisdom, mindfulness, meditation.... Wait, what? Pierre comments those subjects were not available when he went to school. How times have changed.

A reason the Learning Conversation podcast started is the exploding amount of literature in the field of psychology, mindfulness, somatic health, meditation, yoga, and on and on knitting elements of cognitive science , brain / body science, neurology, ophthalmology all intersecting and illuminating traditional spiritual pathways as developed through meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, not to mention ancient wisdom through philosophy.

Vervaeke says we (the West) are suffering from a wisdom famine. Parenthetically, Maureen sent Vervaeke a copy of her book: Classic Wisdom for Modern Humans, which relates to the professor's interests in Stoicism and classical wisdom.

Professor Vervaeke's newest video series is: "After Socrates." Check him out on YouTube.

Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - his 50 part lecture series is also on YouTube.

Enjoy!

15 min

Maureen and Pierre share their daily weather report, and then pod their way into the subject of atttention. Then, Maureen tells Pierre about the workshop she is giving on attention and love at Yoga Studio Y in Danvers, MA, where Maureen has opened a Wellness Resource Center.

The Wellness Center at Studio Y is designed to create community by expanding offerings of the yoga studio. Think of it as 'yoga off the mat.'

Maureen explains she is giving a series of weekend lectures focused on the question: what is wellness? Illness, wellness and fitness. How do they all go together? Let Maureen explain.

Attendance is free for members. Check it out if you are in the Danvers area. And check out this pod discussing the expanding resources of Maureen's world: Landscapes for Learning.

13 min

Maureen talks about a course she took from a resource called: Embodied Philosophy.

Pierre, who knows nothing about polyvagal theory, plays the part of the ventriloquist dummy trying to understand what polyvagal theory is all about. Maureen explains.

Put on your safety belt for a zoom down the steep part of the roller coaster. Maureen recaps: Polyvagal Theory Neural Exercises for Safety and Connection.

Dr. Stephen Porges who discovered an interesting medical fact / theory related to the polyvagal nerve explains what he found in the medical world. He is speaking with Deb Dana. Deb Dana, a psychologist, sees Dr. Porges' medical information and constructs a theory around behavioral health related to neuroception.

Three tiers of the nervous system are explained here. Once we understand what tier our nervous system is in, our self-awareness allows us the opportunity to manage affect. Game changer.

Ok - we told you, strap in. There are even dinosaurs in this one!

Enjoy

5 min

Today's word is: resourceful.

Learning Practice features a 3-minute conversation about a single word. Unrehearsed, without forethought of the word to be discussed, we practice the art of Learning Conversation.

If you want to practice with us by supplying a word and joining us: contact us through our websites.

Landscapes for Learning

YogaHEALS

13 min

This pod is different.  Pierre tries to explain the power and beauty in a book which translates the poetry of Islamic mystics.

Written by Omid Safi, the book's title is:  Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. 

Each page is a poem.  Some pages have less than 10 words on them.  The mystics like Rumi, Sumnum, Hadith, Hazrat Khan, Rabi'a strip away worldly thought, materials things and write poetry of pure love as an embodiment of God, which in the Islamic mystical tradition is God.  God is pure love.  Pure love is God.  

Safi write a brilliant introduction which frames this poetry leading even novices into an understanding of the Quran at its core - at least as seen by Sufi mystics.  

Enjoy this book:  Radical Love, and the poetry of Middle Eastern mystics