Western Baul Podcast Series

Wisdom Teachings of the Ancient World: Celtic Spirituality and Tantra (Mary Angelon Young)

Maha Shivaratri is the annual Hindu celebration of the union of Shiva and Parvati, the symbol of the timeless and the world of time. All the great traditions recognize the meeting point between timelessness and time, heaven and earth. The Celtic cross represents the union of spirit and matter. Another Celtic symbol is the Triskelion, an image of three universal forces flowing into each other. Three forces are also part of other traditions, such as creation, preservation, and destruction in Hinduism. The Celts were animists who had a deep relationship to the divinity in all things. They had a profound love of nature, including trees, and were very aware of the cycles of time. They believed in the transmigration of the imperishable soul, which travels and returns like the cycles of nature. “Awen” means inspiration, which is experienced when in flow with the patterns of the cosmos. The Celts had a longing for the unknown that showed up in wandering. This is also an honored tradition in India based in faith and trust in the universe. Walking can tap us into something very ancient. Longing is connected to our true home, the heart of God. If we can stay with our longing, it will take us into the mystery. Grief is connected to longing and has the power to break us open to surrender to life. All thresholds, “betwixt and between” places, have power. The other world is close at hand at places where the veils are thin between past, present, and future. Four aims of life are considered: dharma, kama, artha, and moksha. We can realize divinity through anything and everything. Angelon is a workshop leader with a background in Jungian psychology, an editor and author of As It Is, Under the Punnai Tree, The Baul Tradition, Caught in the Beloved’s Petticoats, Enlightened Duality (with Lee Lozowick), Krishna’s Heretic Lovers, The Art of Contemplation and other books.

Lies We Tell Ourselves (Karl Krumins)

The talk focuses more on self-deception—not knowing we’re lying to ourselves—than on lying as intentional untrue statements. Little children do not lie to themselves. We learn lying from things society and our parents tell us that aren’t true. We may think our wants are needs. A lot of lying occurs because perception is limited. We selectively perceive things that have survival value for us and tend not to register other things that don’t have payoffs. The Work involves developing diffuse rather than selective attention if we gradually train attention to free itself from being magnetized by phenomena based on conditioning. Lies and self-deception are prevalent in relationships, business, medicine, school, sports, history, the news, politics, etc. Some types of lying include denial, exaggeration, minimization, restructuring, confabulation, paltering, and beliefs—which are ways of coping with mystery and uncertainty. A common belief is that we have free will, but we can consider the Buddhist principle of independent origination: the cause of any one thing is everything else. Comparison is an unconscious form of lying because everything is unique. Evaluative statements apply to a moment in time, but we’re constantly changing. The big lie is that we are separate independent entities. A way of working with kidding ourselves is to work with not drawing conclusions. We can see that our attention is scattered, return it to what we are doing, notice sensations in the body, and develop a witness function. We can have compassion for ourselves and others as we develop the capacity to meet others with greater honesty. Refining our attention will create greater self-honesty. Karl has been a spiritual practitioner for forty years. He lived in India for seven years and has a passion for considering the essential similarities of spiritual traditions.

How Do We Enter the Heart, and What Do We Find When We Enter? The Way of the Pilgrim and the Prayer of the Heart (Regina Sara Ryan)

The gesture of bowing the head is a ritual in all traditions that acknowledges the wisdom of sinking the mind into the heart. The Christian mystical tradition is ancient and includes writings such as the Philokalia (which dates back to the Desert Fathers), The Cloud of Unknowing, and The Way of the Pilgrim. The heart can only be experienced. If there is the tiniest urge to explore this depth, it is the Divine asking to be explored through and as us. The Christian Prayer of the Heart in the West is not all that different from the repetition of mantra in the Hindu tradition. Some diligence and practice allows a particular prayer to become so much a part of our being that it arises spontaneously with our thoughts and breath. This is different than trying to be a spiritual athlete, which can undermine our practice. The Prayer of the Heart is some form of “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” Hesychia is a Greek word that means tranquility or peace. People have always gone into retreat to find a place of sanctuary, which is so needed in the midst of a stimulated life. Yet, the whole idea of pilgrimage, of opening and searching for wisdom, has lost meaning. The heart is our moral compass. In a spiritual sense, it is not a particular organ but full body consciousness penetrated by the presence of divinity. The Christian monk Thomas Merton recognized that everyone has this divinity, which is like a blazing sun, and that the gate of heaven is everywhere. We can meet each other and know that godliness is in everyone even if it is covered over with many veils. The repetition of the Prayer of the Heart leads to silence and affects the world. To set the heart on fire is to be consumed by love. Prayer is given as grace, as a gift. Regina is the editor of Hohm Press, a workshop leader, retreat guide, and the author of The Woman Awake, Igniting the Inner Life, Praying Dangerously, Only God, and other books.

Impermanence: Living with Reality (Bhadra Mitchell)

Virtually everything about the path is covered when we consider impermanence: death, rebirth, linear time, eternity, presence, change, transition, attachment, identification, freedom, unity, fear, projections, denial, the divine path of growing old, groundlessness, surrender, grace, etc. Is it life or attachment that we wish to prolong? We are not able to fully profit from the path until we face death. Nothing exists as a permanent entity, but we suffer when we do not live this truth. Bhadra Mitchell, a long-time spiritual practitioner, discusses the learning that occurred for her in the process of living with cancer and having her house burn down in a wildfire. She speaks of her experience including surrender to others who provided her care; groundlessness and letting go of attachments and identification as an artist; compassion for others who live in situations of hunger and paralysis; recognition that what happens in life is ultimately out of our control; appreciation for the love, help, and care of others; and acceptance for how life has gone. It’s possible to see the circumstances that brought us to face impermanence as a gift—at least in retrospect—and to realize that we can’t always get what we want but we get what we need. We always have to continue to work with identification and attachment. Mind is a binary, “yes-no,” “good-bad” mechanism. Making judgments is useless because we are not in touch with the big picture when we do this. Ego creates division and the assumption of separation from reality or God. When we let go of “yes-no” and “good-bad,” we can step into the present where death does not exist. While this can just be a theoretical perspective, we sometimes tap into the present where there is unity and love. We usually think of impermanence in a catastrophic way, but impermanence is here in each moment.

The Rough Road to Self Awareness: Intention, Attention, and Risk (Juanita Violini)

The only way to access our birthright of a glorious and magnificent life is to know ourselves. The only way to know ourselves is by becoming self aware. Otherwise, we are machines, slaves to forces acting upon us. What we see and are told about the world as children are different things. We go from having an open and unprotected heart to numbness and repression. To live beyond our conditioning, we must know our motives, urges, and reactions. Dependence on an authority and not thinking for ourselves blocks us from being true to ourselves. Studying books and teachings can be useful and point us to a door, but it's up to us to walk through it. We can take an easy road and avoid the risk of seeing things we don’t like or want to see about ourselves, which is unfulfilling. Self awareness happens entirely within ourselves. When we stay with and question our pain, clarity can arise. Once we know what is true for us, we can take a stand. There is value in apprenticing with someone who has gone further on the path, but we can’t just take someone’s word for something. We need to feel the truth of it for ourselves by being aware of what is going on in our bodies. Help comes to us uninvited. We need other people and circumstances to see ourselves. Personal experiences of becoming self-aware are discussed. It’s difficult to stay in our bodies when we want to shut down. One way we pay for self awareness is with our attention. We can only do this work alone, but we are not alone in our experience. Bringing awareness to mechanical behaviors gives us choice. Once we see something about ourselves, it’s easier to see it. We may not be able to learn unless we make mistakes. Being kind to ourselves is a big step on the road to self awareness. Juanita is an artist and writer/producer of interactive mystery entertainment who has been a student of the spiritual path for over 35 years.

The Restoration of Love (Elise Erro)

The Soul comes to Earth to learn how to restore love. We can only do this by being present to relationship in all of its forms and textures. The task is to struggle to remain present and to "eat impressions." To "eat" emotions, reactions, and judgments does not mean to suppress them but to remain present to them and allow the body to transform the energy. The "practice of presence" is not a philosophy; it is a practice which restores relationship. This only seems unnatural, at first, because of a lifetime of learned habits to avoid relationship. If we are not conscious of the body, we are not conscious and therefore cannot restore love. Restoring love is done through kindness, forgiveness, and apology. This talk is based on material provided by Red Hawk. The restoration of love is a practice that is always available. We can learn to praise what is praiseworthy instead of looking at what we disagree with or feel we cannot forgive. Relationship can be a bigger priority than being right. We can cultivate the mindset of being of service to what is needed in the environment. Our work is to discover our work and then give ourselves to it with all of our heart. We can give others our attention, which is love, in everyday circumstances such as are discussed in the role of a cashier in a supermarket. Love is a stable condition of being that can be developed. It can be uncomfortable to be vulnerable when one practices restoring love. Being a human being is messy, but we can clean up our messes. Remorse is the fuel that can bring about transformation and is a conscious decision not to act in the same way; beating oneself up through guilt is a bad habit. Quandaries continue to present themselves, but to stay with the process is the way through. Elise Erro (e.e.) has been committed to a life of engaging spiritual principles and service through theater, support for the dying, and bringing enjoyment to others as a chocolatier.

Eating Bears: Notes on How to Go About It (Jocelyn del Rio)

Transformation on many levels is what living things are designed for by the creation. We are embodied souls, on earth to experience, learn, and develop through the body. Nothing is static. We don’t know how systems work until we start looking. In the system we are in, everything is a form of food. We have an obligation to serve the system and pay for our existence through what we take in and give out. We can take in more if we are “empty.” Creation can take care of its own transformation when we get out of our own way and allow the universe to move through us. The last act of life will be exhalation. We can learn to trust the process and exhale. A principle of ayurvedic medicine is to never inhibit natural discharges of the body. If we push down emotional “bears,” we will have trouble with them later. We can be addicted to our activities, emotions, and thoughts. Overabundance can lead to addiction if we define freedom as unlimited gratification. On the path, we have to relate to the bears in our lives, to all that we see as threatening. Relationship is part of the necessary blueprint to grow; we give and we receive. Sharing good company with a bear may be the best way to eat it. Our interaction with suffering can be useful or not depending on our strength of practice. We can transform suffering into compassion. Rare beings have offered unconditional love, teaching, and a way through life that we can aim for. The deeper the sorrow, the more joy we can contain. Our experiences send emotions as messengers. We do not accomplish transformation and the timing is not up to us, but we can allow ourselves to align with it. We can learn to live “full out” by meeting life openly. Jocelyn is a spiritual student, artist, therapist, mother, gardener, and builder whose main interest in life is growth, development, evolution, observing in awe and participating in the cyclic nature of life.

Spiritual Bypassing and Adulthood on the Path (Deborah Auletta)

Spiritual Bypassing, a phrase coined by John Welwood, is the tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks. We have to develop the ego before it can be transcended. When one is committed to the spiritual process, psychological and spiritual work cannot be separated. It’s possible to become narcissistically fascinated with psychological process. There are a lot of things about the spiritual supermarket that can be misleading. States that are not ordinary can be confused with spiritual experience. Real spiritual work is for something greater than ourselves. Swami Prajnanpad said that the Sage is 100% adult. An article by Arnaud Desjardins, “From the Child to the Sage,” is discussed. If we understand that we are more or less childish, without taking it as an insult, the path becomes clear. We can hold professional responsibilities and still function as a child. Emotion, dependency, the need to “have” rather than “be,” and the inability to be alone and to wait are signs of childishness. On the path, we must have the courage to look at our weakest link, the area of our greatest childishness that we tend to push away. Being with childish feelings and finding ways to come back to center allows us to move forward. There is a difference between being childlike and childish. Transformation into adulthood begins when the love of truth becomes stronger than anything. If we get carried away with our own liberation, we may try to bypass pain and not be very committed to other sentient beings. The dark side is as much part of enlightenment as the light; one does not come without the other. Deborah is a nurse by vocation who spent 19 years as the lead singer of the blues band Shri. She is a student of Lee Lozowick and a life-long imperfect lover and seeker of truth.

Pairs of Opposites (Bandhu Dunham)

“Discriminate and integrate” is a traditional spiritual motto. We can look at different teachings and find what is useful to integrate in our practice. Spiritual principles can be found everywhere, including in creative work. A list of opposites, “good theft” versus “bad theft” is considered, which contrasts getting inspiration from other people’s work, digesting it, and making it our own versus pretending it’s ours. We can look beneath the surface and discern whether our activity is dynamic or dramatic. Creativity is dynamic, but there is often resistance to this in distraction which pulls us away from creative work or the work of the soul. Resistance can take the form of drama and chaos. Pairs of dynamic and dramatic opposites are discussed. Dynamic is about continuing to evolve; the nature of the dramatic is being stuck. Polarization tends to be dramatic. Spaciousness can be seen in terms of accepting what is as it is. Curiosity about another person’s perspective can be seen as the opposite of being judgmental. There may be elements of both dynamic and dramatic qualities at play at the same time. How do we reconcile such opposites in ourselves? Holding two perspectives at the same time is lifelong work—for example, having remorse about dramatic qualities that can be hurtful and also not beating ourselves up. If we have the intention to surrender, the universe will move us from the dramatic to the dynamic. Gurdjieff’s teaching about affirming, denying, and reconciling forces is discussed. The drama triangle positions (victim, persecutor, rescuer) are a way of staying stuck. The most powerful transformative influence in life is subtle, when there are others in the environment who see what someone is up to. Are our communications kind, useful, necessary, and true? Bandhu is author of Creative Life and an internationally recognized glass artist and teacher.

Escape From the General Law (Red Hawk)

The first three “obligolnian strivings” referred to in the Gurdjieff Work are the strivings for what is needed for the planetary body, for perfection of the being (which has two qualities, presence and attention), and for understanding of world creation and maintenance. It is said that we are rigidly governed by 48 laws on Earth, so that almost everything we do is mechanical and automatic. The nature of the General Law is that all beings feed on those levels below them and are fed upon by those above them in scale. There is a great need for organic life to produce mechanical energy. Humans react with negative emotions, which are vacuumed up, consumed, and transmuted by Great Nature to achieve mechanical equilibrium. So what can I do to avoid mechanical death and die more consciously? We are buffered from seeing the reality of our position on Earth when we have the view that thinking about death is morbid, frightening, depressing, pointless. The difference between mechanical and conscious death lies exclusively on the quality and stability of attention. We can radiate a more conscious and finer energy which feeds the being and helps evolution, which goes up the ray of creation back to its source. We work to serve beings higher than us and in so doing can develop a conscious soul. To escape the General Law, we have to remember to bring attention to the present moment by remembering and observing ourselves, which can make us subject to fewer laws. When we remember ourselves we begin at zero. The “me” we believe ourselves to be is composed of identification and imagination. We have a limited range of postures, which promote mechanical unconscious thoughts and emotions. Erect posture is awakening. Breath is always and only present. Reminding factors are discussed. Red Hawk is an acclaimed poet and the author of twelve books, including Self Observation, Self Remembering, The Way of the Wise Woman, and Return to the Mother.