Letting Grow

This week I was planning to do an episode about coming out of covid times into some kind of new normal and some tips on rebirth. But with cases spiking – again – it seems too soon for that. 

So instead I wanted to share some reflections on one of the most famous Marvel villains, Thanos, who I think must have been inspired by the Greek god of death, Thanatos. Today’s episode is about the creative tension between Thanatos and Eros, god of love and sex, and the dynamic balance life strikes between birth and death, creation and destruction. Whether you’re a Marvel fan or not, I hope this episode offers you an opportunity to reflect on your own relationship with endings and the ways recognizing impermanence can actually help us live better lives.

For a deeper dive on (and images of Greek art portraying) Thanatos, see https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Thanatos.html.

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Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

Today's episode is a meditation that’s all about noticing and resting in what’s good in our lives. We have what’s called a negativity bias: our brain’s tendency to rewire quickly in response to threats but slowly or not at all in response to opportunities. It’s helped our species to survive and evolve to become the dominant one on the planet, but it’s less helpful these days when our threats aren’t rare things like getting chased by a lion but everyday things like getting stuck in traffic. (Or not getting stuck in traffic because there’s a global pandemic.) 

So we need to balance out our natural negativity bias, but we can also go further and learn to look for those moments when our buddha nature – our true, divine face, so to speak – shines through and spend some time soaking them in. This meditation can be a way to connect with that awake and loving aspect of ourselves, which comes naturally to our awareness during the bardo of clear light.

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Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

In today’s episode you’ll meet Jogen Salzberg, a dharma teacher in the Zen tradition who recently left his identity as a Soto Zen monk to start a new chapter in his life as a lay teacher. We’ll talk about the joys and challenges of monastic life, why he left, and what it’s like to explore a new identity after being defined by one role for years.

Adam Jogen Salzberg, Sensei is an ordained Zen Buddhist teacher with Dharma Transmission in the Soto Zen lineage. He has practiced meditation for 25 years including 15 years of full time residential practice and study at Great Vow Zen Monastery. Four years of that time was spent in intensive silent meditation retreat. To complement his Zen practice, he has also trained in Voice Dialogue, Process Work, Dzogchen and the ParaTheatre medium of Antero Alli. You can find out more about his work at solisluna.org

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Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

I’m so delighted to share my conversation with Caren Prentice on the magic of in-between spaces with you today. Caren is a meditation teacher, and she shares her own experience of an in-between time when she’d started a spiritual practice and was beginning to see the toll her anger was taking on her relationships, but she didn’t yet know how to relate differently with situations that made her angry. She was able to stay quiet instead of lashing out in anger, and eventually, in that quiet space that replaced her angry response, her own inner wisdom began to show up and guide her to a new way of responding.

Join the community and get members-only invitations to bimonthly video calls – plus our fun, free biweekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/rbrthnews

Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

Caren began meditating in 1972 but struggled for decades to establish a consistent meditation practice.  During the 80’s and 90’s as she juggled career, family, and eventually became a stay-at-home-mom to four kids, she continued to study different traditions and techniques looking for a way to feel less angry, and frustrated. 

In 1998 she discovered Kriya Yoga and found a meditation technique she actually enjoyed practicing regularly, and this is the tradition she carries on. Caren is not aligned with any one school of meditation. Rather she considers herself simply, "a meditation teacher," using her background in yoga, mindfulness, and Tibetan Buddhism to help her students find joy in meditating using techniques that work best for their personality and lifestyle. 

Around 2009 her students gave her the name Meditation Momma. Several years ago she opened Hamsa Meditation Center, which has evolved into a small friendly online meditation community serving people of all ages all over the country.

Find Caren online: https://www.hamsameditation.com/, https://www.meditationmomma.com/

This show has focused so far on Tibetan teachings on death and rebirth, but there are also Western authors who have been thinking and writing about transitions and have their own model to offer. In this episode I'll share four of my Western favorites, their three-stage model of transitions, and some of the recent research on how people go through transitions (in this lifetime). At the end of the day, these authors make a great conversation partner, so to speak, with Tibetan teachings on literal rebirth.

Books mentioned in this episode: Arnold van Gennep, Rites of Passage; Victor Turner, The Ritual Process; William Bridges: Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes; Bruce Feiler: Life Is in the Transitions.

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Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

Today's meditation practice is one I've used and been so grateful for in the past. It's not exactly traditional in Tibetan Buddhism, but it uses the power of visualization to practice leaving this lifetime in the way you choose, doing some kind of spiritual practice -- like using a mantra or settling the mind on the breath -- or holding an inspiring figure or ancestor in mind.

In a later episode, I'll share the way I've used this type of meditation and the reasons I think it'll actually help me when my time comes to move on from this body. (Spoiler alert: one reason is what my mind did when I thought I was going to die in Tibet.)

Join the community and get members-only invitations to bimonthly video calls – plus our fun, free biweekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/rbrthnews

Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

Today’s episode is the story of how I fell in love, left home on a quest for rebirth, and haven’t died (yet!) of the Canadian cold. In the middle of all these massive life transitions, I realized one day that I’d basically died to my old identity and was in a bardo state between old and new, and that insight is what led to this podcast, the book I’m working on, and basically most of my professional life at the moment.

Interested in my course on rebirth? Check it out here: http://bit.ly/rbthcourse

Find me on social media and share your rebirth story (#LettingGrow): @namastehyall on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Join the community and get members-only invitations to bimonthly video calls – plus our fun, free biweekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/rbrthnews

Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

Confession time: I don’t actually do well with change or transitions. (That’s part of the reason I’m spending so much time on how to navigate them better.) I recorded this episode from a hotel room in Houston the night before I flew out to Canada and a day or two before Texas – where I was staying – thawed out from our historic ice storm. So this episode ended up being more personal than usual, and it’s also got more background noise than usual.

In it, I talked about two ways to make friends with change in general: by noticing how we relate to it in daily life and by using meditation practice to focus on our relationship to change.

Also, I mention a few people’s work in the episode: Marie Kondo (Google her if you’re unfamiliar with her slightly crazy but magical approach to tidying); Mind Beyond Death by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche; and Elaine Aron and her work on highly sensitive people. I incorrectly stated that about 5-10% of the population is highly sensitive; the actual figure is about 20%. You can find her work here: https://hsperson.com.

Join the community and get members-only invitations to bimonthly video calls – plus our fun, free biweekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/rbrthnews

Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

This week’s meditation uses the imagination to take us to a sacred cave with restorative waters, where we’ll take off the old clothing of an outdated part of our identity, climb naked into the waters, and come out refreshed and ready to take on an identity that’s a better fit for who we are now. I hope this virtual journey through the death of the old and the gestation of the new can help you move forward if you’re having a hard time letting go of something.

Join the community and get members-only invitations to bimonthly video calls – plus our fun, free biweekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/rbrthnews

Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].

Welcome back for this third episode with Dr. Simon Cox, my friend and colleague from the PhD program at Rice University’s Department of  Religion and co-founder of the Okanagan Valley Wudang kung fu school. He’s back today to tell us all about the Taoist subtle body. (If you missed Simon’s two previous appearances, he also talked with us about the Buddhist subtle body and his experiences as a kid from Houston, Texas, exploring Asia in search of esoteric lore.)

This time we’re talking about Taoist teachings on the subtle body and descriptions of the death process, and along the way we’ll touch on – among other things – the way Taoism was nearly wiped out in China’s Cultural Revolution, similarities between Tibetan and Chinese descriptions of shooting your consciousness from the crown of the head at the time of death, and Simon’s recommendations for folks who want to meditate in his tradition.

If you’d like to learn more about Simon, see amazing photos from his time in China, and join his mailing list to hear about all the cool stuff he’s offering, check out okanaganvalleywudang.com.

Join the Letting Grow community and get members-only invitations to bimonthly video calls – plus our fun, free biweekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/rbrthnews

Check out more content at clairevillarreal.com or share your story of death and rebirth with us: [email protected].