In this episode of Tea, Talk, and Truth with Karuna, Deirdre and Karuna take a deep dive into stories that inspire change, the importance of sunlight, and the difference between the voice of an academic and a voice of ancient wisdom traditions.   

Season 3. Episode 1. 

"I just heard the words in my mouth trying to fit into the academic world.. You know that and I certainly can, and I can speak the lingo. But it's not my first language. My first language is the language of the heart and being connected. And so.   

So the place where it's been hard for me is translating.  

How do you trust, how do you surrender?  

How do you really let go?   

Hector Marcel, beloved meditation guide, Dharma teacher, and President of Three Jewels in New York City, shares the power of meditation. He specifically teases out the power of Analytical Meditation to work with emotions like anger, sadness, and more. On this episode of Tea, Talk, and Truth with Karuna, he and Karuna take a deep dive into shamatha and analytical meditation and the dance between the two, as well as the power of guru yoga. Hector is Karuna's heart teacher and this episode is quite special to her.

Hector shares, "The first time I successfully and I'll talk about this in the [Analytical Meditation] master class. The first time I successfully learned an analytical meditation, I debated in my mind whether my experience of anger from a triggering reality experience with someone was really them. Being terrible people is that way I felt anger. Or is that other place that anger came from? And so you learn a little bit about the philosophy of where the possible causes for an experience can be. And then you apply that learning to your meditation, you go, OK, let's take the position that that person is the source of my anger. Every time he's around, I'm angry, therefore they're at fault, and I should get away from them and all this other stuff, right? Or I should attack or whatever our strategy is. But before the strategy, we have to understand, is that really the source of anger? For me, that was my first serious analytical meditation. And then you come up with a question mark in your mind, is that true? And you try and prove that it is true that they are the source of the problem. Meaning everybody that touches them has the same problem because if they're the source of the problem, then they're radiating that shittiness that makes you angry. And when you can't find full evidence for that to be true, you're in trouble.

In his upcoming Master Class on Mind Oasis, "Analytical Meditation" you will learn what Analytical Meditation is and how to work with harmful emotions using this type of meditation. Learn More: MindOasis.org/learn

Manoramā, the founder of the Sanskrit Studies Method and the Luminous Soul Method, is a highly respected teacher of Sanskrit, Yoga Philosophy and Meditation based out of NYC. On this episode of Tea, Talk, and Truth with Karuna, she and Karuna take a deep dive into yoga, meditation, death, and...cooking broccoli.  

About the conscious death of her guru, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati (Ramamurti Mishra, M.D.), Manorama calls this a maha samadhi or yogic death. She goes on to explain, "So Maha means great and samadhi is absorption and it's yogic absorption. So it comes well, it comes from a lot of things. But something that we can easily connect with is Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. And in his eight limbs, the last three limbs are called dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. So these are called samaya. When they work in tandem together, when they come together so dharana is, you know, focus on a point. And then dhyana is absorption in that point and then samadhi is complete absorption.   

I like to liken it to cooking, you know, first, it's like, OK, you're on the point of putting the broccoli in the pot. That's the point. I'm on the broccoli and I got out of the fridge. I'm going to put it in the pot. So all my focus is on the broccoli. Next thing you know, I put the flame on. Now it's cooking literally and figuratively, and it's cooking. And so now the broccoli is doing its thing between the uncooked state and the cooked state. And then at some point I was checking it with a fork. Now it's completely cooked. Now it's transformed through the process of the heat and the attention and the focus. Now it's, I'm using this as an example obviously because the broccoli isn't having a samadhi, but this is a philosophical concept, but it's transformed through that sort of three part process.  

So samadhi means the absorption, the complete oneness with the object. And if we say that meditation is, let's say, in meditation, one of the questions, I mean, there's lots of styles of meditation, but let's say one of the primary questions is who am I? And the resolution is not necessarily a verbal answer, but the experiential answer of selfhood or selfness or just self. Then the samadhi is the absorption with that, the unity that we experience with that, the no separation, what happened to the broccoli, it became transformed. Still, broccoli, now it's a transformed broccoli. It's gone to that other level of broccoli, of cookedness or something like that. Now, maha samadhi, this is the yogi meditates on the object and becomes one with the object, and I don't mean a separate object because in meditation, it's an internal object.   

So maha samadhi has been loosely termed as when a yogi devotes their life to the subject of yoga and they are living in the reality of a meditative reality on a regular daily basis, and they have transformed consciousness when they leave their body, they're not said to die. They are said to take the great absorption they take, maha samadhi. So we wouldn't say that every person takes maha samadhi because not every person is conscious. But when you have a conscious death through yoga, it's called the maha samadhi."  

In her upcoming series on Mind Oasis, "Sanskrit Studies Method: Mantra Yoga Series Part 1," you will learn what Mantra Yoga is and how to work with it. Manoramā will discuss the value of working with mantras in your own practice and in your life. In each session, Manoramā will share teachings on Mantra Yoga, she will lead you in chanting a select mantra from that session with correct pronunciation and rhythm. She will share the translation of the verse and will offer commentary.  Learn More.

There are periods when the continuity of life is interrupted. These gaps leave us devoid of certainty, with no reference point. But these moments are full of potential. Their power lies in the capacity to link and connect the chaos and confusion of the past, with the transformative power of possibility in the future. On this episode of Meditation Happy Hour: Tea, Talk, and Truth with Karuna, Karuna’s guest Rosa Schnyer shares how the transition of her beloved dog of 13 + years, inspired her to explore the liminality of the in-between times. 

About the in-between time, Rosa explains, “I'm really fascinated by this idea of the in-between time. Partly it started with Chinese medicine and the way we think about the transition of time. We're all used to four seasons, right? But Chinese medicine talks about this fifth season, which is the season that we are in between late summer. Yes, late summer. So it's this transition between the most yang time of the year to the most yin time of the year. But it's also the transition between the seasons. 

I think that human life is very reflective of some of the chaos and difficulty we're finding in the environment. Environmentally, we cannot predict the seasons in the same way that we used to predict the seasons. But, you know, the in-between time is also the spaces of liminality. These spaces that are thresholds can be difficult, but they don't have to be terrible. They're challenging and they're times of transformation, you know, so they can be really profound times to work on the spiritual path. 

Recently, as you know, my beloved dog of 13 and a half years passed away and my husband and I made a commitment to see her through. And we were in this in-between time. We created this in-between space where we would hold the space for her to pass. And in this in-between time, the dance between David and I (Rosa’s husband) and how we approached the uncertainty of every day was so remarkable to me that it really kind of brought it up to my attention, and I started to contemplate this liminality and how precious those times are, not just before death, you know, but what kind of resources we need to be able to walk these transitions with integrity and not by holding on to who we've been, but by really having spaciousness around what's arising in the moment.” 

In her free mini-workshop, “The In-Between Time,” Rosa will share how these times can be a potent catalyst for your life. If you missed it on 22 Sep 2021, don’t worry! It was recorded. Access the course here.

Recent findings support the idea that mindfulness meditation exerts its effects through several mechanisms that work synergistically including (a) attention regulation, (b) body awareness, (c) emotion regulation (including reappraisal and exposure, extinction, and reconsolidation), and (d) change in perspective on the self. However, mindfulness meditation is not a panacea. Rosa will break down what is and isn’t supported by science when it comes to mindfulness in her Master Class on 4 October. 

She also has an upcoming Master Class, “The Science of Mindfulness-Positive Neuroplasticity and the Awakened Heart” as well as a 6-week series, “AWAKEN the Healer Within – Nurture Resilient Wellness” that starts on 6 October. Awaken the Healer Within is a seasonal offering to help you create and sustain your own unique roadmap to optimal wellness and resiliency. Each series will include discussion, breathwork, approachable movement, personal inquiry, and group sharing of experiences, health tips, and resources. The Fall is a key time to support our immune system and prepare ourselves for the Winter time. This Autumn, unlock resilience and nurture your physical and emotional wellbeing while sharing in the wisdom of community. Learn more about both here.

“If you want to make progress on the path and ascend to the places your soul has longed for the important thing is not to think much, but to love much, and so to do whatever best awakens you to love.” - St. Teresa of Avila    

Never one to shy away from a saint or a sinner, Karuna brings us to the intersection of Christianity, Buddhism, and the path of the seeker. Her guest on this episode of Meditation Happy Hour: Tea, Talk, and Truth with Karuna is Community Meditation teacher and Mind Oasis colleague Jane Coburn.  

Jane shares about her journey, 'About 11 years ago, I got introduced to Father Richard Rohr and his writings and his Center for Action and Contemplation.  I started taking courses there and was learning all about the Christian mystics. The thing that stood out for me is that they're so human and they really embrace their humanity. Through their brokenness and through life and hard crap that happened to them in their lives, they found God and found an inner God inside them. Then they found that love and brought that out into the world, in their teachings and in their daily life.   

It just really spoke to me and I thought, oh, they're not just this saint in the sky. These mystics were real people that went through real shit, you know, and through that reached out to others and found a closeness to the divine and helped other people. That really spoke to me. Then the interesting thing is…I hadn't really thought about it for a while and then actually being on Mind Oasis and being in your Thursday morning class Karuna and other classes around Buddhism, a lot of the things that I was hearing in those classes were things that the Christian mystics were teaching and had taught me. And it was almost like this full circle moment. It's like studying Buddhism brought me back to this, you know, these Christian mystics.   

So that's what called to me to teach these classes because it was like, oh, the universality of these teachings, you know, is just beautiful to me, and if more people from all different backgrounds could learn from different backgrounds, maybe we would find the commonality rather than the differences."  

Jane is bringing two offerings to Mind Oasis in fall of 2021.  Her 'Just Another Mystic Monday" mini-workshop took place in mid-September. Watch the free recording.

She kicks off a 4-week series, "Into the Mystics: The Spirituality and Wisdom of the Christian Mystics" on 4 Oct 2021. Learn more here.

Jane loves people and will provide a welcoming presence where each person will hopefully feel seen and held.  Jane’s classes will focus on sensory awareness, self compassion, listening to your own heart’s intention, and finding joy even when life gets difficult. Jane finds joy and connection out in nature.  She is an avid hiker and kayaker who loves to play in mountain creeks and meditate at the base of waterfalls. Jane can usually be found reading a book, dancing and singing with family and friends, or sipping a cup of tea on her porch feeding her soul with the mountain view. Jane has been meditating on and off for ten years.    

She joined Community Meditation on Mind Oasis in March 2020 and fell in love with the welcoming community.  As a life-long learner, Jane has immersed herself in many courses offered on Mind Oasis and graduated from the 300 hour Meditation Instructor Intensive. She begins her Advanced Meditation Immersion in September 2021!

When life pulls the rug out from underneath you, how do you stay balanced? 

Through the practice of equanimity we learn to remain centered, stable and grounded despite life’s ups and downs. Not only that, one in three adults aren’t getting enough sleep for optimal health.  Sara-Mai and Karuna take a deep dive into equanimity, balance, and practical tips for feeling restored in a time of great uncertainty and sleeplessness.   

Sara-Mai Conway goes on to say about equanimity and the art of balance, "My October workshop is all about balance and equanimity. We are so removed from circadian rhythm in our crazy, busy, stressful lives. It's like the stress is the water you swim in and we don't really even realize how much this is affecting us until we do something like go out into the desert where, you know, there's maybe not electricity or the when it gets dark, what can you do? You know that kind of stuff?   

Becoming more in tune with how our bodies have developed to best express themselves after thousands and thousands of years living without technology and without electricity, I think is only of benefit to us as happy, healthy human beings....  

Are we surviving? Are we really thriving the way that we could be? Sleeping better and really giving your body rest, letting your body see what a drastic change that is and how much it can improve your life is, you know, maybe the first step of just letting go of even more of the things that just keep us off balance or on edge constantly."  

Sara-Mai shares her workshop "Equanimity: Remaining Balanced in a Topsy Turvy World" on Mind Oasis starting 10 October 2021. Learn More  

Her FREE Mini-Workshop, "A Brief Morning Practice for More Restful Nights" is happening on Mind Oasis on 26 September 2021. Learn More

Sara-Mai Conway is a writer, yoga and meditation instructor who lives in Baja Sur, Mexico. Her teachings and classes encourage understanding and experience through both body and mind. Her career has long been centered on athletics and physical fitness, and is equally inspired by her advanced studies in mindfulness and Tibetan Buddhism. Her teaching seeks to transform through a balance of movement and stillness. Sara-Mai is a 500-hour certified yoga instructor with Britain’s Independent Yoga Network and an e200-hour Yoga Alliance certified instructor.  

A HUGE note of thanks to our dear friend and Mind Oasis teacher Michael Hewett for lending his musical talents to Meditation Happy Hour. We hope you enjoy this new addition to the Podcast. Want to check him out? You can find the song "Gold" from his Muses album that is now featured on MHH on Spotify or wherever you purchase your music.

Shadow is a hidden part of our awareness where the most potent aspects of our human selves hide. Shadow hides both our brightest light and gifts, and our dark pain. Because it is hidden, it is tricky to find. On this week's episode, Karuna and Kimberley talk about how liberating shadow work can actually be.  

Kimberley Lafferty explains, "My studies from the western side are in the field of adult human development. Some of us studied a little child development maybe when we were in college or if we become a parent or an auntie or an uncle, you know, we might read up a little bit about how children go through different stages of development.   

The ego mindstate, the personhood of a two year old and how they see themselves in the world. It's very different than that of a 10 year old, for example. We can see that that's evident, right? There's evolution that happens. And that 10 year old is very different than a 16 year old evolution. The ego evolves. Our personality, our sense of identity evolves which reside in our consciousness just like everything. And the field of adult human development really looks at how as adults, we can actually continue to go through these evolutionary changes.   

I study what it takes for our consciousness to evolve, really, and how that expresses in different ways. And one of the most important aspects of consciousness studies and definitely one of the most essential aspects to understand our Path, our psycho spiritual Path is the phenomenon of shadow.   

I'm excited to share with Mind Oasis an upcoming shadow workshop and really look at how psychological shadow...what that means, how that shows up in an individual's life, particularly when when we're just going through our normal life...and also how it gets accelerated when we're on the spiritual path and even making progress and also during times of stress and anxiety, which naturally happen, then the shadow begins to emerge. And with all the wonderful spiritual tools we have from these ancient traditions of meditation and contemplation and yoga and breath work, we really [also] need the modern tools of psychology in order to deal with our shadow."  

Kimberley shares her workshop "Evolution of Shadow on the Path" on Mind Oasis starting 16 September 2021. 

Learn More

Kimberley Lafferty, MA, is a scholar practitioner specializing in human development, adult education and extraordinary experiences. Her trans-disciplinary practice includes private counseling, online and in-person educational retreats. She is a seasoned teacher in Indo-Tibetan contemplative psychology, leading hundreds of hours of Mahayana, Vajrayana and Classic Yoga trainings internationally. She is the founder and decade long director of the global non-profit Yoga Studies Institute, and is a certified Stages therapist.

A HUGE note of thanks to our dear friend and Mind Oasis teacher Michael Hewett for lending his musical talents to Meditation Happy Hour. We hope you enjoy this new addition to the Podcast. Want to check him out? You can find the song "Gold" from his Muses album that is now featured on MHH on Spotify or wherever you purchase your music.

In this episode of Meditation Happy Hour, guest Hannah Kinderlehrer breaks down the difference between an up regulated and down regulated nervous system, the power of dance and movement, and what it means to embody chronic pain. Hannah has Lyme disease and has found the wisdom of the body to be her best ally.  

Hannah believes we can all live an amazing, full life through the wisdom of the body. "I believe we have bodies for a reason. I do believe we are spiritual, energetic essence beings, absolutely. But there's a reason we have bodies -- we're supposed to be in them. And the only way to experience the present moment is through our sensations, through being home in this body. Our thoughts are about the past or about the future, not about now. If we actually want to live our lives, it's now and it's through the body."  

In her workshops she offers, she uses accessible movement to work with the nervous system. Hannah explains, "So we'll be doing some parasympathetic nervous system, building safety in the body, building safety in the moment, building safety in the space we're in [in workshops]. And these will be tricks and tools you can take with you and use anywhere you go in the whole wide world. And then we'll be doing some delicious super gentle movement about finding pleasure...Sometimes when folks first come to me, they say, well, why would I want to live in this body? Like, this body has pain. And I don't love the way it looks. And I kind of feel like it's betrayed me.   

I'm like, our bodies don't betray us, but we do abandon our bodies. And if we come home to our bodies and listen and nourish and enjoy that feeling of betrayal is a thing of the past and we become alive. And so even though, I'm standing here telling you, like I've got wonky brain chemistry and I have Lyme disease, and I have a million other things that are technically and physically wrong with my body, this is my home and this is my greatest resource. And I wouldn't want it any other way."  

Hannah holds a degree from Naropa University, the Peacemaker Institute and is a Certified Hakomi Practitioner. She is the founder of Awaken The Dance which currently has 20 trained teachers, and is a holistic coach at Rise and Thrive Coaching. Hannah has studied dance for 40 years and has been a student of Buddhism for over 20 years, and is currently studying and practicing Shamanic Healing Arts.  

Hannah has two upcoming offerings on Mind Oasis, including a free mini-workshop, “A Quick and Dirty Dive Into Delicious Embodiment” (25 August 2021) and a four-week series, “The Wisdom of the Body” that starts 15 September 2021.   

Learn More

In this episode of Meditation Happy Hour, guest Kelly Sell explains mindful self-compassion through the very personal lens of his life and experiences.  An avid mountain biker, hiker, paddler and snowboarder, Kelly’s work is to help people live their lives to the fullest. It is through his own personal mindful self-compassion journey that he brings the listener into a world where we can find more compassion for self and others by realizing we are not alone in our suffering.   

How is it that mindful self-compassion helps with trauma and/or chronic pain?  

Kelly Sell, a Mindful Self-Compassion practitioner and guide explains, “The idea with the mindfulness self-compassion is we have to ask ourself about mindfulness first, what's really happening? What am I feeling? What am I experiencing? And, we ask the question, what do we need? Because a lot of times we've grown up in such a way that when we ask what's going on or what do we need, we don't hear a nice voice in our heads. We often are very hard on ourselves and depending on who we are and how we grew up, we can be very hard on ourselves when we're going through a hard time that we're doing it wrong. We're not doing it right, or to use the term we're a f*ck up or, you know, we're messed up or whatever the thing is that we say to ourselves.   

They're showing in research that is not helpful when we're dealing with a hard time that we hear stronger, harder voices. And there's this amazing thing Paul Gilbert talks about when somebody yells at us or says something to us strongly, negatively, our body has a whole cascade of chemical events that happened to make us feel a certain way. And we know that happens in the brain and we can measure it. If we silently say those same words to ourselves in our brain, in the same voice, our body does the same thing. It doesn't know the difference whether it's us saying it to ourselves or somebody is saying it to us, which is really an amazingly intense and sad thing to learn, thinking about how we often talk to ourselves, when we're dealing with trauma.  

I am no expert. I'm a Chinese medicine practitioner who's had to do this work on my own, so I'm not a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. I'm, you know, just some guy who can sit with people and likes to ride his bike. But in that learning and sitting with my own trauma and learning that if I can be nice to myself, I'm able to maybe make more mistakes, fail and get back up and explore things a little bit more. I can be nicer to myself when I feel bad.   

The best example of self-compassion or mindfulness self-compassion and why we would do it is if we have a little kid who's sick. If we are really nice to them, it doesn't make them get better any faster. We're just nice to them because they're sick. And so it's a hard thing to get a hold of with a lot of these practices. I think we were promised with therapy and meditation and a spiritual path that we're going to feel better. We're going to find a better way. Otherwise, I mean, you can't sell a program that's like this is a practice of you're just going to feel bad before you feel better. Who's going to want to do that? And that's a hard thing to commit to. So that's the biggest thing is how can we just be nice to ourself just because we're feeling bad?  

I was just reading something Chris Germer says, that this mindfulness self-compassion is a practice of goodwill, not good feeling. Can we bring goodwill to our trauma and suffering?”  

Kelly has two upcoming offerings on Mind Oasis, including a free mini-workshop, “The Self-Compassion Break” (22 July 2021) and a six-week series, “Mindful Self-Compassion: Being Kind to Ourselves in Moments of Sufferings” that starts 5 August 2021.   

You can learn more about both here.

On this episode of Meditation Happy Hour, Ceasar F. Barajas, International Wellness Mentor and Advocate, gives us a wonderful peek into his journey toward a no-bullsh*t truth about mental wellness.  Karuna and Ceasar go deep about truth, vulnerability, and being courageous.  

"What I want to share with people is that the definition of reform is to relinquish what once was self-critical behavior, self-destructive lifestyle. So in being a teacher, I want everyone to understand that through movement, through breath, and this is what the [Restorative and Reformative Meditative Movement] master class is going to cover.  

We can find ourselves in a position of reformation, which means it doesn't matter where you came from, friends, it doesn't matter. We are always at power and liberty and at will to rewrite, reshift, regenerate, to restructure neural pathways so that we can step away from what was once blindingly heavy -- a ball and chain. You can't move through the muck in the mud to make it just a little bit easier to move because I'm not sitting here telling you that all of that's going to go away.  

I had to sit and meditate to make sure that I was even in a position to receive this podcast interview with you, because my self-destructive thoughts this morning were like. Who makes you an expert on talking about this? So that's self-doubt. My insecurity issues started to rise and then I stopped and I paused and I breathed. And before I logged onto the Zoom account to talk to you, I thought, no, there's a reason why I'm still alive. And here I am, friends to help share this information. Not for profit, not for money, because I'm going to tell you right now, I don't care [about that]. It's just getting people to understand that they're never alone. You're always seen. You always heard. You always appreciated.”  

Ceasar has an upcoming Restorative and Reformative Meditative MovementMaster Class on Mind Oasis on 10 July 2021.  

You can Learn More Here