Unraveling Religion

Leanne and Joel met at the Lamberton Conservatory move to sit on the grass near Poet's Park in Rochester's Highland Park. The time opens with Leanne asking Joel about his sweatshirt and the meaning of 'Am Yisrael Chai' as Joel explains the emblem on the sweatshirt, a Hamsa and the talk moves to intentions of people, ill intention and service orientated intention and how the Universe mirrors our intentions by giving what we give and offering what we offer. A blanket is set and the Soul, biking, hiking in relation to health is discussed. The topic of hiking arises and Joel shares how he met his 'good friend' Dave at a Zen group and the intuitive knowing that arose guiding the connection. Leanne talks and teaches about Green Burial, birth, and Isiah House a hospice house for people at end of life without options to afford hospice care otherwise. Leanne shares more about Green Burial and the talk moves to Bardos and Karma. Joel shares the story of a most influential mentor and 'good friend' John Bednarchik (Pictured) and John's passing from this world in 2012.

In today’s The Labyrinth podcast, retired psychiatrist Henry Cretella joins us to share both his philosophy and personal experience with surrender. We begin our conversation with Eckart Tolle’s view that surrender requires an expansion (and often suspension) of our rational mind. From there, we discuss the general nature of surrender and the role of intuition. We move into sharing stories about times when we felt a deep intuition/calling to stretch the boundaries of our limited rational frameworks and take a leap. The podcast ends with Hazrat Inayat Khan's essay on the future of humankind.

Biography

Henry Cretella, M.D., graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and completed his psychiatric training at Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.  His professional career spanned over 40 years as a general and child and adolescent psychiatrist and included teaching, administration, clinical practice and consultation in the greater Rochester and western NY areas.  This, along with his spiritual and especially mystical interests lead him to certification as a mind body practitioner through the Center for Mind Body Medicine and Dr. James Gordon.  He retired several years ago from active psychiatric practice, but continues to incorporate what he has learned into his spiritual practices and offerings.

Henry studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for several years along with training in martial arts.  He then immersed himself in the more universal Sufism of Inayat Khan, an Indian mystic, for close to twenty years. He functioned as a senior teacher in the Inayati Order and the Sufi Healing Order before pursuing  his independent practice and study of mysticism. He now integrates what he has learned and experienced over these many years.

Cross posting this episode recorded for Alchemical Dialogues, Henry Cretella hosts Lisa Carley from the podcast The Labyrinth regarding mental health and spirituality and Lisa's lived experience.

Avoiding and easing unnecessary suffering is a worthwhile goal, but so is the less often discussed opportunity for transformation that distress provides.  

Mystics teach that the heart and mind open through suffering.  

The good news is that we don’t have to look for upsets, they find us quite easily.

Join Henry Cretella and Lisa Carley as we discuss her journey through mental illness and how it led to her personal heart-mind opening and impacted her life for the better.  

It’s a journey of courage to explore and change, using all the tools that are available to understand and ease the pain while never closing the door that has been unlocked.  

Biographies 

Lisa Carley

Hosting the podcast, 'The Labyrinth,' Lisa Carley is passionate about India, existential and phenomenological philosophy/psychology, and maternal mental health. She chooses to explore her passion through travel, connection with others, and writing. She holds a degree in English Literature from SUNY Albany, and has worked toward a Psy. D. in Clinical Psychology with a Masters in Existential Humanistic Psychology from Saybrook, is a mother, student of Philosophy and English, artisan, and poet.

Henry Cretella

Henry Cretella's Alchemical Dialogues are live and unscripted conversations recorded on Zoom brought to you by the great folks of Amber Light International. We choose topics from our current social and cultural climate, with an emphasis on humanism and spirituality.

In a cross-collaboration with both Lisa Carley's new podcast The Labyrinth, and Joel Lesses' Unraveling Religion podcast, we have begun posting 'Selected, Best of The Labyrinth' and 'Selected, Best of Unraveling Religion' episodes on Alchemical Dialogues.

We continue to promote conversations that evolve our understanding of the vital topics of spirituality, the humanities, psychology, and The Arts and deepen community through this mutual support.

In this panel discussion with four Rabbis from America's West Coast to Israel, Joel guides an exploration of mobilizing Jewish outreach (i.e., or 'inreach' or 'in reach') how to, why, and what Jewish tradition teaches and offers from a wide range of teachings including Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson and the Baal Shem Tov.

This collection of dedicated and diverse Jewish voices guide the contemporary question 'how do we strengthen the spiritual health of our Jewish community?'

Discussion includes Passover and meditation, The Tanya, and Pirkei Avot (i.e., Ethics of Our Fathers).

By the very question of mobilization outreach, the necessity of examining one's own intentions and purity of action in humility and approaching others in friendship as vital to sharing love of Judaism.

The talk arrives at the place of true friendship as the means of transmitting the teaching of Judaism and Torah to others in the Jewish community and the vital realization that all people have significance and a role in the restoration of the World.  

Biography of Panelists:

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is a preeminent Jewish thinker, scholar, and teacher. Rabbi Greenberg has brought the highest ideas to broad audiences. Across half a century, Rabbi Greenberg has elevated the way people live and feel by elevating the way they think. In a world of new media, where digital waves move oceans of information across continents, Rabbi Greenberg stands out as a voice of clarity. In the fathomless sea of information, often overwhelming and confusing, Rabbi Greenberg serves as a calming conveyer of eternal ideas—an expert lighthouse directing the ships of humanity through the possibilities of life by the light of the divine.

Rabbi Gedaliah Gurfein has been a teacher of Jewish wisdom for over 45 years. His experiences have included a range from traditional yeshivot to Pueblo Indians, Igbo Tribes, China, Netherlands, Mexico and, of course, Israel. Gedaliah has also been involved in the Israeli High-Tech industry since 1995. His classic work - free to the public - is www.thepeoplestalmud.com.

Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks is a Jewish spiritual teacher and musician. He has been teaching the practice of Presence (i.e., meditation, mindfulness) and Judaism since 2006, and founded Torah of Awakening in 2016. He is the author of Kabbalah for Beginners, published by Rockridge Press, and Integral Jewish Meditation – Three Portals of Presence for Spiritual Awakening. Rabbi Brian Yosef received s’miha (ordination) as Minister of Sacred Music (Reb Yosef Briah Zohar, Menatzeiakh, Ba’al Tefilah) from Reb Zalman z”l  (2012), Spiritual Teacher and Awakener of Souls  (Morei Rukhani uM’oreir N’shamot) from Shaykh Ibrahim Baba Farajaje (may his secret be sanctified) and Rabbi SaraLeya Schley (2012), certification as Teacher of Jewish Meditation (Moreh L’hitbodedut) from Dr. Rabbi Avram Davis (2004), and holds a Bachelor in Music from the Eastman School of Music (1991).

Rabbi Micha Odenheimer: 'Born in 1958 in Berkeley California, Micha Odenheimer has been a writer, journalist, Jewish teacher and social activist in Israel since making aliyah 31 years ago. Micha’s life and interests include fields rarely seen in combination. As a rabbi he has written dozens of essays on Judaism the Torah, and social justice, and has reported on trends in Judaism and the Jewish world. Micha has a special interest in Jewish mysticism and Hasidism.'

From the archives, the fourth ever episode recorded of Unraveling Religion, this from June 18th, 2008 is reposted In Memoriam for Reverend Kyoki Roberts of Pittsburgh's Deep Spring Temple.

In speaking with Joel, Kyoki explored insights from her long time Zen practice.

What is the nature of Self?

Questions opening into 'what is Zen?' and the relation to Dukkha (Sanskrit, suffering), how Zen practice addresses 'when are material possessions enough?'

The practical and experiential aspects of Zen practice, the streams of Soto versus Rinzai Zen traditions.

Addressing the sense of a separate self or as Dogen Zenji's teaching 'dropping away body and mind.'

Rinzai's koan, public case study: 'what is the sound of one hand clapping?' and Joshu's (Chinese, Zhouzhou) 'does a dog have Buddha nature? MU!'

Kyoki skillfully guides the conversation toward seeing things as they are.

What do we awakened to?

How do we reconcile Zen practice with God?

A examination of Dogen Zenji's teaching of Parental Mind, from his treatis Shobogenzo.

Bodhidharma's importance in Chinese Ch'an roots, and the story of Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu, 'no holiness, vast emptiness' and merit and Zen practice, doing things for 'no reason.'

Discursive mind versus Big Mind, the moment as fresh and new, all potentiation, step into the moment: here, now!

What is a Bodhisattva?

Exploring the Bodhisattva vow, and the question 'where can I be helpful?'

Taking suffering as a way to learn and be helpful and benefit others, through action and wisdom.

Biography

Reverend Kyōki Roberts (December 17, 1951 to December 19, 2023) was a retired American Sōtō Zen priest.

The single Dharma heir of Nonin Chowaney-roshi, Roberts received Dharma transmission in June 2001 and was a member of an organization of priests known as the Order of the Prairie Wind (OPW).

She studied Zen in Japan and in the United States.

Roberts blended her practice with art during the 2003 exhibition Gestures: An Exhibition of Small Site-Specific Works at The Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh. Her installation exhibit, No where to go; nothing to do: Just Sitting, invited visitors to experience aspects of Zazen.

In March 2006, Roberts served as a member of the Plenary Panel of Venerable Women: Women Living the Dharma in the 21st Century during the first Buddhist Women's Conference held at DePaul University and sponsored by the Buddhist Council of the Midwest.

(Biography from Wiki)

This initial epsiode of Unraveling Religion recorded on November 14th, 2007 in Buffalo, New York explores the question 'what's it all for?' in the largest scale we can imagine. Maj Ragain, who passed in 2018, presents in this talk the intersection of loneliness and its cure, touch, and the ways in which we can comfort one another. Sharing poetry and the makeup of what is meaningful to him, Maj examines the different frameworks of modern life rooted in an ancient and sacred wisdom.

Beginning with the wisdom of the Sundance, Maj speaks of how the soul was formless and did not know limitation. As the Soul found form, the human body, it knew limitation including loneliness. Drawing on Buddhism's Zen Flesh, Zen Bones and Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Maj's talk weaves the 'Big Mind' that includes the thread and voice that forms his poetry.

Maj's talk includes the Tao Te Ching and its author Lao Tzu sharing 'I have only three things to share: simplicity, patience, and compassion.'

Maj concludes with Meister Eckhert's notion 'if the only prayer that is said is 'thank you' that would be enough.'

Biography:

Maj Ragain (1940 to 2018) was born into a small, southeastern Illinois farm town. Home-tutored and raised on Vernor Lake, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English at Eastern Illinois University, and an Master of Arts in English at the University of Illinois. He had been on faculty, off and on, at Kent State University since 1969, where he obtained his Ph. D. in 1990.

He is the author of seven chapbooks of poetry and five book-length collections, all of which contribute to Clouds Pile Up in the North: New & Selected Poems. Maj had served for more than thirty years as host to open poetry readings in Kent, monthly, downtown, mentoring hundr​eds​​ of poets through the years.

This episode asks the questions:

Joel drops in at Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore and finds Ken Kelbaugh, David White, and 'Ted' Estragon in philosophic discourse and joins the discussion examining Bishop Butler, Plotinus, and Plato.

A few minutes into the conversation, Rochester poet Stephen Lloyd joins the conversation.

Through the evolution of the talk, an examination of 'Virtue' begins to take shape. 

What is Virtue? Is it inherent? Can it be cultivated?

David outlines Bishop Butler's discourse on the topics of Human Nature, The Divine, Thought, Conscience, and Intellect and shares Butler's raison d'etre to 'seek the truth unashamed to learn.'

Ted shares 'we [human beings] are not a being, we are a becoming.'

An examination of 'daimon' versus 'intuition' is sought.

A myth of Zeus and the human question is shared.

Through this deep investigation of Virtue, myth and religion are explored.

The day's discussion closes with David White reading from his original poem Astratto.

Biography:

David White's birthplace was Fitch's Sanitarium in the Bronx (founded in 1920 and closed in the early 1960s) now he is in senior housing. David was born on December 29, 1946. The axis of his career is in philosophy, religion, and drama, and turned when he came to understand Bishop Butler’s explanation of the prophet unheeded. David's first poem was written on assignment for a college English class. On the last day, the professor handed his poem back, unmarked and ungraded. She said she had the poem on her desk since it was turned in, David reported that when the course had ended all she could say was, “I don’t know, I just don’t know.”

Vladimir Estragon ('Ted') is a militant Platonist, Plotinian, and Dionysius-Areogapitian - but insists on radical moderation in others. His career aspirations include learning Attic Greek, juggling with flaming torches, and performing 'Lucky's Speech' in a stage performance of 'Waiting for Godot.' Ted host's a monthly film viewing at Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore every 3rd Thursday of the month (except April), starting at 6:00 pm. This event is free and open to the public at 439 Monroe Avenue, Rochester NY.

Stephen Lloyd is a Rochester poet and frequenter of Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore.

Ken Kelbaugh is the owner of the Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore.

In this trailer of The Labyrinth Podcast, Lisa Carley introduces the podcast's orgins, philosophy, topics, and terrain covered in curiosity of life and existence with these conversations, an invitation to join. 

2015; 'The Sound of Silence' (Instrumental); Immortalized; Reprise Records

This conversation with Lisa and Joel explores Lisa Carley's new podcast 'The Labyrinth' and its slogan 'Destination Unknown' and its relationship to the 'Unraveling Religion' podcast, whose own slogan 'What You Are Is More Than What You Want.' These two old friends share deep vision of hope and work toward a brighter future as they deconstruct meaning, mission, and purpose, and the mechanisms of what comprises the most vital aspects of life and relationship. In this brief discussion, Lisa and Joel outline the parallel journey of spirituality and curiousty that forms the basis of their timeless bond.

In Part 2, Lisa, Rich, and Joel explore knowing the 'why' and knowing the 'big picture' versus being in the flow of life.

The talk continues in the examination of life asking 'What is being asked of me? What do I need to learn about this situation? What do I need to perceive in this situation?'

Also, asking questions of life, and responding to life's obstacles in a way that challenges our mental health and our existential paradigm, and the relationship to reconstructing ourselves, Phoenix like, after allowing ourselves to 'fall apart.'

Deeper into the conversation, the topic of the Existential Abyss and Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Heidegger, and looking at 'being true to [oneself] in the deepest possible sense.'

The talk opens to the complexities and wonders of being human.

Finally, existentially reassembling ourselves and its relationship to mental health and mental health distress.