A Hindu Chaplain and a Buddhist Chaplain walk into the Spirit Matters podcast ... and talk about counseling today's generation of students.

Vineet Chander graduated from the George Washington University Law School, earned an MA in religious studies at Rutgers University, and a doctorate in education from New York University. He is now an assistant dean in the Office of Religious Life at Princeton, where he directs the Hindu Life Program and serves as Hindu Chaplain (the first full-time one in

Monica Sanford holds a master of divinity degree from University of the West and a Ph.D. in practical theology from the Claremont School of Theology. She is also an ordained Buddhist lay minister in a Chan lineage and was trained as a Buddhist Chaplain. After leading the Multireligious Life Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology, she joined Harvard Divinity School as Buddhist Chaplain and Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry. Her book, Kalyāṇamitra: A Buddhist Model for Spiritual Care is the first textbook for Buddhist Chaplains.

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Stephan Bodian studied and practiced for many years with masters in the nondual wisdom traditions of Zen, Dzogchen-Mahamudra, and Advaita Vedanta, and in 2001 received authorization to teach from Adyashanti. He offers webinars, retreats, videos, books, and spiritual counseling that, his words, “make profound spiritual teachings and practices accessible to a global audience.” He has taught at major retreat centers and other venues, and, since 2007, has led an annual, months-long intensive program in spiritual transformation known as the School for Awakening.

A trained psychotherapist as well, he has been a pioneer in the integration of nondual wisdom and Western Psychology and in the embodiment of awakened awareness in everyday life.

He also has a literary background, with a degree in English Literature from Columbia, graduate work at Stanford, and 10 years as editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal. His 1998 book, Meditation for Dummies, has sold nearly a half million copies. His other books include: Wake Up Now; Timeless Visions, Healing Voices; Beyond Mindfulness; and his latest, Infinite Awakening: A Guide to Nondual Wisdom and the Pathless Path, which is what we focus on in this conversation.

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Anantanand Rambachan is an eminent scholar of religion, currently Emeritus Professor of Religion at Saint Olaf College in Minnesota. He has also served as Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions at the University of Hamburg, in Germany, and as the Keating-Schachter World Wisdom Teacher-in-Residence at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. His scholarly interests include Advaita Vedānta, Hindu ethics, liberation theology, and interreligious dialogue. He has contributed to broadcasts, conferences, and publications too numerous to mention, and has been engaged in interreligious dialogue for more than 45 years, as a Hindu contributor and analyst (often the only Hindu contributor). Notably, he delivered the invocation address when the White House first celebrated the festival of Diwali in 2003, and he is now Co-President

He has also found time to write books. They include: Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Saṅkara; The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Authority of the Vedas; The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity; A Hindu Theology of Liberation: Not-Two is Not One; and his latest, which we talk about in this conversation, The Way of the Sant: Virtues for All Humanity.

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Deborah Santana is an author, activist, philanthropist, and business leader dedicated to peace, justice, and women’s empowerment. The founder of the nonprofit, Do a Little, she advocates for women and girls through global education and health initiatives and has worked with the Smithsonian Institution, The Children’s Defense Fund, and other important organizations. She has also produced five documentary films highlighting the work of non-profits in Africa. And she’s the author of two memoirs— something you can do only if you’ve lived an exceptionally interesting life. The first was Space Between the Stars, which was about coming of age as the child of a pioneering interracial couple. The other is a new release, Loving the Fire: Choosing Me, Finding Freedom, which is about the

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Jeremy David Engels is the liberal arts endowed Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, the co-founder of Yoga Lab, and a longtime mindfulness and yoga teacher. His academic research reimagines democracy as a communal practice rooted in care, deliberation, and shared responsibility, emphasizing mindfulness as a core civic skill. His work has appeared in numerous

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Peter Russell is a long-time contributor to our understanding of spirituality,  consciousness, meditation, and related matters, who believes "the critical challenge of today is freeing human thinking from the limited beliefs and attitudes that lie behind many of our problems — personal, social, and global.” He is a public speaker, a retreat leader, a teacher of online courses, and the author of a dozen books, including Letting Go of Nothing, The Global Brain, From Science to God, and his latest, How to Meditate Without Even Trying. We spoke mostly about meditation and the seemingly paradoxical principal of non-effort, and we also touched on the history and current status of spirituality in America, the intersection of science and spirituality, and other issues about which Peter offers valuable insight.

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Oneika Mays is a yoga and meditation teacher who was formerly the mindfulness coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York. With roots in Buddhist and Yogic teachings, she specializes in making mindfulness accessible to marginalized and excluded communities. She is the author of Sit with Me: A No-BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation, which explores metta (lovingkindness) as a tool for personal and collective liberation. We spoke about her experience teaching the incarcerated in rough institutions--and what she learned from them, as well the distinction between mindfulness and meditation, and the value of lovingkindness meditation. Make sure you stay tuned till the end, when Oneika leads us in a guided meditation.

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One of our favorite guests, ⁠Andrew Harvey⁠, returns to Spirit Matters. A leading voice for inclusive, universal, spiritual wisdom, Andrew is an internationally acclaimed writer, poet, translator and mystical teacher. He is the author of over 40 books, including ⁠Son of Man⁠, ⁠The Hope⁠, ⁠Love is Everything⁠, ⁠Turn me to Gold⁠, ⁠Engoldenment⁠, and ⁠Radical Regeneration ⁠(with Carolyn Baker). He has taught all over the world, led more than 40 courses for the Shift Network and is the founder of the ⁠Institute for Sacred Activism⁠. For 40 years his work has been dedicated to the birth of a divine humanity out of our contemporary global dark night through mystical self empowerment and sacredly inspired radical action. His latest book is T⁠he Magdalene Revolution⁠, which is what we’ll focus on today.

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Elaine Aron is a clinical and research psychologist who received her advanced training at Pacific Graduate Institute and the Jung Institute in San Francisco. Her research on sensory processing sensitivity and, along with her husband, Arthur Aron, the study of close relationships, is widely published in academic journals. She is best known as the world’s leading expert on the “Highly Sensitive Person” or HSP, a term she ascribed to a significant minority of people she discovered had the innate trait of high sensitivity. Her book , The Highly Sensitive Person, became an international bestseller, translated into 32 languages, and has been in print for nearly thirty years. She followed that up with other books based on her research

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Dean Radin is chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), an associated distinguished professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the cofounder and chairman of the biotech company, Cognigenics. His advanced degrees include an MS in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, and an honorary doctorate from the Swami Vivekananda University in Bangalore, India. He is the co-inventor on 12 patents, he’s given hundreds of presentations at prestigious institutions, and he is the author or coauthor of some 350 scientific and popular articles, four dozen book chapters, and nine books. His books include The Conscious Universe; Entangled

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