Nina Rao welcomes Dena Merriam and Mirabai Starr for a conversation about Dena’s book, The Untold Story of Sita, and how the forces of Sita and Ram are still present in the world today.

Dena Merriam is a long-time meditation practitioner in the lineage of Kriya Yoga and the author of multiple books, including The Untold Story of Sita. Learn more about her at denamerriam.com.

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative nonfiction; her latest book is called Wild Mercy. Learn more about her at mirabaistarr.com. 

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Ep. 75 – The Untold Story of Sita with Dena Merriam, Mirabai Starr & Nina Rao

The Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast features dharma talks from a rotating lineup of contributors like: Roshi Joan Halifax, Mirabai Starr, Gil Fronsdal, Mirabai Bush, and so many more! 


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Nina Rao interviews Nani Ma about her deep devotion to serving her guru and her service work with Ganga Prem Hospice.

If you are interested in donating to Ganga Prem Hospice, you can do so through a donation to End of Life Care International with a memo specifying you would like it to go to Ganga Prem.

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This time on the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast, Nani Ma shares with us:Her religious upbringing into ChristianityBeing pulled to India from a young ageSeeking liberation from suffering and painThe story of meeting her guru, BabajiThe beauty and power of the Ganges riverHer daily routine and how she meditatesHow to deal with difficulties by watching our breathReaching one-pointedness through chanting single-worded mantrasMoving through the physical death of a guruForming cancer clinics in India and Ganga Prem HospiceAbout Nani Ma:

Nani Ma is from the United Kingdom and sought spiritual enlightenment at a very young age. One day, she realized that serving the multitude and helping the needy is also an aspect of spiritual practice. So, she started taking care of the terminally ill cancer patients in the hospital, guiding the people who are suffering from pain and death to embark on a new journey. Together with Dr. A. K. Dewan, she established the Ganga Prem Hospice. Ganga Prem Hospice is a spiritually-orientated, non-profit hospice for terminally ill cancer patients. The Hospice has been constructed at the foot of the Himalayas on the bank of the river Ganga.

Krishna Das is offering two benefit kirtan concerts in Rishikesh October 2024 - details on KrishnaDas.com/Events

“When we watch our breath, it slows down. The breath and the mind are connected. Either the breath slows down and the mind slows down, or the mind catches hold of one thing, which is the name, and the name has its power by itself. The name has its own power.” – Nani Ma




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Ep. 167 - Serving the Multitude with Nani Ma and Nina Rao

Guiding listeners through the seven factors of enlightenment, Trudy Goodman shows us the play of awakening in daily life.

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In this episode, Trudy Goodman holds a talk on:Loosening our grip on self-involvementLiving lovingly and joyfully in our daily livesThe seven factors of enlightenmentThe things that torment us and connect usHow nature offers metta to usRemaining poised amidst little catastrophesEquanimity and being balancedTrusting in the unfolding of realityAbout Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide.

This 2011 talk was recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation center and originally published on Dharmaseed

“Being a Buddhist or practicing these Buddhist teachings is to live lovingly and joyfully without getting so caught or identified with the suffering self. And not just out in some fantasy mountain cave that we might imagine ourselves in or on meditation retreat at luxurious Spirit Rock or in the monastery, but in the midst of whatever we’re doing.” – Trudy Goodman

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Ep. 166 - The Play of Awakening with Trudy Goodman

Taking us on a pilgrimage through Buddhist teachings, Gil Fronsdal describes meeting the dharma in ourselves.

This recording from Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

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This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal teaches on:Meeting the dharma in ourselves through direct experiencesGoing into the world with a phenomenal capacity for non-harmingLooking at what really motivates and drives usThe story of the Kalama SuttaRecognizing what brings welfare vs. what brings harmBreath as a form of assurance and how our easeful, relaxed breath can be our teacherHindrances and what keeps us removed from ourselvesComing home to our selves, our bodies, our sensationsAllowing the flow of experience to move through usReleasing all of the things we hold ontoAbout Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

“It is so simple and so basically human, the capacity to recognize that we’re suffering or that we’re happy. In relationship to grand religious philosophies and ideas, it can seem maybe inconsequential to base one’s religious life on being able to recognize where is harm and where is welfare. But that relates at the heart to what the Buddha was pointing at. It points to something that we are able to experience and see and know for ourselves directly.” – Gil Fronsdal







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Ep. 165 - Meeting the Dharma in Ourselves with Gil Fronsdal

In a dharma talk on relative and ultimate reality, JoAnna Hardy discusses how to hold the complexity of life.

This lecture was recorded at the Insight Meditation Retreat for 18–32 Year Olds and originally published by Dharmaseed.

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In this episode, JoAnna Hardy offers a talk on:How and why we keep returning to our sufferingDominant paradigms and what is out of our controlThe way that the Buddhist experience introduces us to ultimate realityRelative reality and what is happening on the groundHow we are all invited to be free via the Four Noble TruthsThe ways we struggle with trying to control other peopleAnatta, identity, and the way we hold onto our self-hoodHow we show up in the world through our speech, actions, and thoughtsThe Eightfold Path as the things we can controlPaying attention to who we spend our time withAbout JoAnna Hardy: 

JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice. 

“I’ve really worked on this practice of looking at a person; I’m not only looking at them. I’m looking at probably thousands of people who stand behind them, who have created them, who have created their way of thinking, their way of being. Every teacher, every friend, every person they come into contact with creates this being that is in front of us.” – JoAnna Hardy




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Ep. 164 - How to Hold the Complexity of Life with JoAnna Hardy

In this recording from the Ram Dass Fellowship, Jamie Catto describes surrendering to the power of Yin in our daily lives.

To learn more and sign up for the Ram Dass Fellowship, visit RamDass.org/Fellowship. To support this free offering, please consider leaving a donation at RamDass.org/Donate.

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This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Jamie and Jackie explore:The difference between Yin and YangSurrendering to the flow of YinThe benefits of yin parentingListening receptively in love makingDancing as an example of YinCuriosity as a quality of YinThe power of Yin in allaying our overworking imaginationsOur culture’s avoidance of negative emotionsThe emotional plumbing system of the bodyForging paths through the forest of worry and anxietyEmbodying peace for the worldA guided mindfulness meditation from JamiePracticing loving awareness and self-loveAbout Jamie Catto:

Jamie’s mission is to make self-reflection hip enough to save us from ourselves. Jamie Catto is the director of the 2019 film Becoming Nobody, the quintessential portal to Ram Dass’ life and teachings (BecomingNobody.com). He is an author and musician running transformational workshops and events to reclaim all the treasure we edited away into the shadows and facilitate everyone daring to be more real, more fallible, more tender, more intimate. His mission is to create a world full of ‘walking permission slips’ where we all lighten up and enjoy the unpredictable human path together with humor, playfulness, and a healthy dose of irreverence. Jamie’s workshops and 1-1s provide a refreshing approach to inner work with the right dose of playfulness and depth. Keep up with Jamie on his website or on Instagram.

“So much of the treasure, creativity, lovemaking, parenting, laughing, dancing, the flow of the life is to be experienced when we allow ourselves to be moved and practice the qualities of Yin, which are curiosity, surrender, welcomeness, listening, spaciousness, all of those kinds of things where we let life live us and we become in the flow of the greater river of life.” – Jamie Catto







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Ep. 75 – The Untold Story of Sita with Dena Merriam, Mirabai Starr & Nina Rao

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