Letting Grow

Episode notes: In this guided meditation, we’ll explore our experiences with thoughts and sensations, really asking if any of them is us, is a permanent, unique self.  If you’re not finding anything you can call a self, can you rest in that space of not knowing?  Learning to be in the space that opens when we realize we’re not our conventional identity is one way into deeper spiritual growth.  Enjoy today’s inquiry into our true nature.

Music on today’s episode is by Chris Collins, indiemusicbox.com.

Stay in the loop with rebirth news and insights when you join our mailing list (https://bit.ly/rebrth), and check out more content at clairevillarreal.com.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].

Welcome to Claire’s conversation with Gena Davis, Episcopal priest, spiritual midwife, and founder of YogaMass.  Gena has really brought the contemplative practices of yoga into the Christian spiritual world.  In this episode we talk about her rebirth from a priest serving a congregation in Houston to becoming the founder of YogaMass, a worship service and nonprofit that offers Christians an embodied practice to experience spirit and Christ consciousness within themselves.

Stay in the loop with rebirth news and insights when you join our mailing list (https://bit.ly/rebrth), and check out more content at clairevillarreal.com.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].

In this short bonus episode, Lauren Santerre (spiritual director and Christian mystic) shares her experience of rebirth or resurrection into the role of motherhood and how that’s transformed the way she thinks about God.  I found the conversation deeply healing, especially the parts about the divine and gender.  My favorite Lauren quote from this episode is: “If you think you can’t be loved by God, you are deeply, deeply wrong.”  You can also find a longer conversation with Lauren about a Christian take on death and rebirth today in the Letting Grow feed.

Stay in the loop with rebirth news and insights when you join our mailing list (https://bit.ly/rebrth), and check out more content at clairevillarreal.com.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].

Welcome to week two of my conversation with Lauren Santerre, spiritual director, Christian mystic, and my friend from our time doing interfaith work in Houston.  Last week she talked about all the “deaths” that led up to her experience of motherhood, like leaving a wonderful job at Interfaith Ministries and moving to the suburbs, and this week we’re talking about Christian approaches to the life-death-and resurrection cycle.s

For folks like me who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian sect and then left, Lauren’s take on the idea that Jesus’ death atones for our sins (known as atonement theology) will be refreshing. She’s not a fan of that interpretation and prefers what’s called restorative theology: the idea that Jesus’ life offers us a profound template for our own lives. You can find some great links below to articles by Richard Rohr and others if you’d like to read more.

Stay in the loop with rebirth news and insights when you join our mailing list (https://bit.ly/rebrth), and check out more content at clairevillarreal.com.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].

On atonement theology: https://um-insight.net/articles/confronting-atonement/

A series of posts by Richard Rohr with more theology that's in line with what Lauren shares in this episode:

1.Substitutionary atonement:  https://cac.org/substitutionary-atonement-2019-02-03/

1. Alternative story: https://cac.org/an-alternative-story-2019-02-04/
2. Changing Perspectives: https://cac.org/changing-perspectives-2019-02-05/
3. A Bigger God: https://cac.org/a-bigger-god-2019-02-06/
4. Coincidence of Opposites:  https://cac.org/coincidence-of-opposites-2019-02-07/
5. The Scapegoat Mechanism:  the-scapegoat-mechanism-2019-02-08

7. Jesus and the Cross summary: https://cac.org/jesus-and-the-cross-weekly-summary-2019-02-09/

And a link to the Jewish notion of faith that Lauren refers to: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/emunah-biblical-faith/

Lauren Santerre, spiritual director and modern mystic, talks about her transition from a great, high-profile job she loved in her 20s to motherhood and suburban life in her 30s. It’s an authentic look at the costs – and gains – that come with a spirit-led professional rebirth. We’ll talk about loneliness and isolation, getting centered again in the present moment, and the spiritual dimension of motherhood, whether in the literal sense of birthing a human or in the metaphorical sense of nurturing ourselves and others

Stay in the loop with rebirth news and insights when you join our mailing list (bit.ly/rebrth), and check out more content at clairevillarreal.com.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].

This week’s meditation is a grounding and energizing reflection on the elements that make up our body, energy, and mind according to Tibetan Buddhism.  We’ll imagine being a tree as we breathe in the energies of earth, water, fire, wind, and space to restore our vitality.

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Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].  Want a deep dive on this topic?  Check out Growing Through Transitions, an online, on-demand course: https://clairevillarreal.teachable.com/p/growing-through-transitions2.  

Thanks for listening.  :)

In this episode, Matt McKibben (my favorite Star Wars expert) takes us on a deep dive into the Star Wars universe and the way characters let go – or don’t – and the impact that has on their development.  Whether you love the Force already or not, we can all relate to some of the points Matt makes: that there’s letting go of our intellect and relaxing into intuition, and there’s letting go of previous identities; that we can choose to “fill our cups” with love or with fear; and that mythology can help us live richer lives.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].  Want a deep dive on this topic?  Check out Growing Through Transitions, an online, on-demand course: https://clairevillarreal.teachable.com/p/growing-through-transitions2.  Or visit clairevillarreal.com, to subscribe to my newsletter.

Thanks for listening.  :)

The bardo of clear light is the one moment in our life-death-and-rebirth cycle when we naturally have a direct experience of our true nature. It’s a moment we can prepare for during this lifetime by getting in the habit of noticing and appreciating the glimpses we get of our deeper nature. (Meditation helps with that.  ;)

Recommended reading for this episode is from Mind Beyond Death by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].  Want a deep dive on this topic?  Check out Growing Through Transitions, an online, on-demand course: https://clairevillarreal.teachable.com/p/growing-through-transitions2.  Or visit clairevillarreal.com, to subscribe to my newsletter.

Thanks for listening.  :)

Every day we have countless tiny experiences of the in-between moments (bardos) of life. This meditation on the breath helps us notice them so we can use them as opportunities to wake up and notice life's transitions.

If this was helpful to you, you might be interested in the course it came from, Growing Through Transitions, which you can find here starting at just $29: https://clairevillarreal.teachable.com/p/growing-through-transitions2

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write me at [email protected].  Want a deep dive on this topic?  Check out my online course: https://clairevillarreal.teachable.com/p/growing-through-transitions2.  Or visit my site, clairevillarreal.com, to subscribe to my newsletter.

Thanks for listening.  :)

In this second interview episode, Claire talks with Laurel Sprengelmeyer, musician and visual artist (aka Little Scream), about her journey from a childhood in the Jehovah’s Witnesses to her life now as an artist and Tibetan Buddhist. Laurel shares the process of exploring the arts and other interests she’d neglected growing up and her eventual connection with a very different spiritual tradition.

To check out Laurel’s Little Scream albums and some cool merch, visit https://littlescream.bandcamp.com/.

Questions or comments – or your own story of death and rebirth to tell?  Write Claire at [email protected].  Want a deep dive on this topic?  Check out Growing Through Transitions, an online, on-demand course: https://clairevillarreal.teachable.com/p/growing-through-transitions2.  Or visit clairevillarreal.com, to subscribe to my newsletter.

Thanks for listening.  :)