Opening Minds, Opening Hearts

Welcome to another episode of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. This time, we are joined by Abdul-Rehman Malik, affectionately known as AR, an award-winning journalist, educator, and cultural organizer whose life story is deeply intertwined with themes of migration, faith, and social justice.

As a lecturer at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Jackson School for Global Affairs, AR directs a leadership program focused on social justice and public service. His podcast, "This Being Human," explores the intersections of faith, culture, and social change, inviting meaningful dialogue and action. Through his work, AR embodies the belief that mercy, justice, and compassion are essential in navigating the complexities of our world.

Join us as we reflect on the nature of Ultimate Reality, the importance of community practice, and the power of mercy in a fractured world, drawing on AR’s rich experiences across the globe. 

To connect with AR:

• Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armalik/
• Follow him on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/armalik
• Follow him on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/armalik
• Listen more on his podcast,This Being Human: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/this-being-human/id1549041471

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@prayerofconsent
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision. 

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

As we continue this season's theme of expanding the boundaries of our faith tradition by creating space for dialogue with our brothers and sisters deeply rooted in other spiritual traditions, we’re delighted to welcome Dr. Yuria Celidwen. She will guide us in exploring contemplative practices from an Indigenous perspective.

Yuria was born to Nahua and Maya indigenous lineages in the cloud forest of the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. As a scholar, she investigates forms of contemplation and transcendent experiences from the perspective of the ancestral wisdom of Indigenous peoples. She looks into how these forms are embodied in pro-social behavior and refers to this research as the “Ethics of Belonging” to understand the world from consciousness, intention, and actions toward planetary flourishing. Her recently published book is titled Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Wellbeing.

To connect with Yuria:

• Follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yuria.celidwen/
• Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuriacelidwen/
• Check out her Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/yuriacelidwen
• Get your copy of her new book: https://www.amazon.com/Flourishing-Kin-Indigenous-Foundations-Collective/dp/1649632045v

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@prayerofconsent
• Or explore our Threads: https://www.threads.net/@prayerofconsent
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision.

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

We’re back again and excited to be having a conversation with Kaira Jewel Lingo in this episode. Kaira is a Dharma teacher and mindfulness practitioner with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. She works in Engaged Buddhism, which was developed by one of her teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, and draws a lot of her experience from her parents' lives of service, in particular, her dad's work with Martin Luther King Jr. She lived as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh's monastic community and is now based in New York with her partner, Fr. Adam Bucko whom you might recognize from season 1 as one of our guests.

Our conversation with Kaira touched on the themes of spirituality, interfaith dialogue, and social justice alongside her practice in Engaged Buddhism.

To connect with Kaira Jewel:

• Visit her website: kairajewel.com
• Follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kairajewel
• Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kairajewel/
• Find her on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfmckIOMHnvVnGn-IBYp_Cg
• Get your copy of her new book: amazon.com/author/kairajewel

• For more information on their new spiritual center, check out their Give Butter site: https://givebutter.com/JqUSN5

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@prayerofconsent
• Or explore our Threads: https://www.threads.net/@prayerofconsent
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision.

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

As we take a moment to reflect halfway through the season, we're struck by the rich dialogues we've been having. Our guests have shared such profound insights, and it's been truly transformative. We’re delighted you can join us as we explore the many ways these conversations have reshaped and deepened our understanding.

What's been particularly special is how accessible our guests have been—spiritual leaders who are deeply respected yet share their wisdom with such warmth and openness.

We also took some time to reflect on how most of these wisdom practitioners were influenced by Thomas Keating, the significance of Centering Prayer, and the importance of being open to different spiritual traditions. Our conversation highlights the beauty of silence as a universal language and the incredible journey of understanding through not knowing.

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@prayerofconsent
• Or explore our Threads: https://www.threads.net/@prayerofconsent
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision.

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

These conversations with our guests this season have been a profound privilege and truly humbling experience. Together, Colleen and Mark have embraced the role of students, exploring contemplative practice and meditation from diverse perspectives, and our guest in this episode is offering us some profound insights into the wisdom of the mystics within the Christian perspective.

We are honored to ‘sit at the feet’ of Dr James Finley, a student of Thomas Merton and also a clinical psychologist. Jim teaches how connecting to our divine indwelling can transcend fear and shame, and awaken us to our true self. He is a faculty member at the Center of Action and Contemplation.

Jim has authored numerous books, including Merton's Palace of Nowhere, The Contemplative Heart, and Christian Meditation. He also hosts the Center for Action and Contemplation's podcast, Turning to the Mystics.

Join us in exploring the way contemplative practices, particularly within the Christian mystical tradition, opens us up to a unitive experience of God's presence in all aspects of life, transforming both suffering and the ordinary into expressions of extraordinary grace.

Find out more about Dr. James Finley:

• On the CAC website: https://cac.org/about/our-teachers/james-finley/
• The Turning to the Mystics podcast: https://cac.org/podcast/turning-to-the-mystics/

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@prayerofconsent
• Or explore our Threads: https://www.threads.net/@prayerofconsent
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision. 

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Mirabai Starr, an acclaimed author, translator of sacred writings, and interspiritual teacher. Her insights blend timeless wisdom with a modern perspective, focusing on contemplative spirituality, the experience of grief, and the profound beauty found in everyday life.

With two decades of experience in teaching philosophy and world religions, along with a lifetime of personal practice, Mirabai imparts her insights globally. She explores contemplative living, writing as a spiritual practice, and the profound impact of grief and loss on transformation.

From her early years immersed in spirituality at the Lama Foundation, to her recent book, Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground, Mirabai shares her journey of finding the divine beyond religious structures.

In our conversation, Mirabai invites us to leave the safety of our known spiritual world and encounter Love, the Beloved, the Divine, and Ultimate Reality in a new and less familiar way.

To connect with Mirabai Starr:

• Visit her website: www.mirabaistarr.com
• Check out her Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/mirabaistarr/
• Find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mirabai.starr.author/

• Order her latest book - Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contemplativeoutreachltd/
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contemplativeoutreach
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision. 

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

We’re thrilled to share this conversation with Cynthia Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest whose insights into spirituality have transformed our understanding of connecting with Ultimate Reality.

Cynthia is a modern-day mystic with a diverse background in contemplative spirituality, theology, and interspiritual dialogue. Known worldwide as a retreat leader and author, she divides her time between her home in Maine and teaching engagements around the globe, where she’s a passionate advocate for reviving Christian contemplative practices. Cynthia’s work builds bridges across spiritual traditions, and her new book, Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Christian Mystic, explores Keating’s life and influence on modern spirituality. Her teaching incorporates her profound respect for Thomas Keating, Teilhard de Chardin, and other visionaries of contemplative theology, offering fresh insights into Christian non-duality and inner transformation.

To connect with Cynthia Bourgeault:

• Visit her website https://wisdomwaypoints.org/
• Get your copy of her new book, Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Christian Mystic: https://bookshop.org/p/books/thomas-keating-the-making-of-a-modern-christian-mystic-cynthia-bourgeault/21221862

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contemplativeoutreachltd/
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contemplativeoutreach
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision. 

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

We are excited to kick off our first guest conversation of the season with Netanel Miles-Yépez. He is an artist, philosopher, religious scholar, and spiritual teacher deeply involved in the interspiritual movement. Netanel is also a co-founder of the Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality and has authored several books, including The End of Religion and Other Writings.

As the head of the Inayati-Maimuni lineage of Sufism and a leading thinker in the interspiritual and new monasticism movements, he provides profound insights into spiritual identity and the blending of religious traditions.

To connect with Netanel Miles-Yépez:

• Order his book: The End of Religion and Other Writingshttps://www.amazon.com/End-Religion-Other-Writings-Interreligious/dp/1960360000
• Listen to The New Monastics Podcast: https://charisinterspirituality.org/new-monastics-podcast
• The Charis Foundation: https://charisinterspirituality.org/

The Keating-Schachter Center for Interspirituality: https://www.naropa.edu/academics/schools-centers/keating-schachter-center-for-interspirituality/

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contemplativeoutreachltd/
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contemplativeoutreach
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
• To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision. 

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

Welcome back to season three of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. We are your hosts, Colleen Thomas and Mark Dannenfelser, and we’re so excited to set the scene for the rest of the season in this episode. We’ll be shifting the dialogue away from the method of centering prayer and centering prayer as a practice that leads us to a form of personal transformation into the impact of centering prayer on our relationship with others. In particular, our relationship with others inside and outside of the Christian tradition.

In this episode, we explore the origins of the Snowmass Dialogues of 1984, the key points of agreement across various religious traditions, the importance of interfaith solidarity, the non-dual nature of God, and the interconnectedness of different sacred traditions.

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contemplativeoutreachltd/
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contemplativeoutreach
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
• To learn more about the founding theological principles of Contemplative Outreach, visit https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision/

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

Welcome back to season three of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts! This season, we're shifting our focus to explore the later teachings of Thomas Keating. Our conversations will feature interspiritual and interreligious insights from guests representing various spiritual traditions. These dialogues will be guided by theological principle #11:

“We affirm our solidarity with the contemplative dimension of other religions and sacred traditions. United in our common search for God, we respect and honor other religions and sacred traditions and those committed to them. We engage in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and work together in areas of social justice, ecological concerns, and contemplative initiatives.”

We’re excited to have you join us as we experience perspectives from other spiritual traditions.

To learn more about Father Thomas Keating’s guidelines for service and principles visit www.contemplativeoutreach.org/vision. 

To connect further with us:

• Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
• Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contemplativeoutreachltd/
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contemplativeoutreach
• Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreac

Season 3 of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts was made possible by a grant from the Trust for the Meditation Process, a charitable foundation encouraging meditation, mindfulness, and contemplative prayer.

This season 3 of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts is produced by Rachael Sanya

Extra music from Bensound.com. License codes: Z5MRZR8RFEARKTF1 and Z8ATTZIZZVFUOXNC

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!