Dr. Robert Svoboda explores genuine Kundalini awakening, spiritual delusion, and why regularly returning to the basics of spiritual practice is essential.

Join Dr. Svoboda for monthly Q&As and biweekly writing on the Vedic sciences, plus occasional courses not available elsewhere! You can also study with Dr. Svoboda and learn about Ayurveda, Jyotisha, the Devatas, and Spiritual Practice. For multiple courses, lifetime access to materials and more, check out Dr. Svoboda’s Spiritual Practice Bundle.

In this episode of Living with Reality, Dr. Svoboda explores:

• Kundalini energy and connecting to supreme reality
• How to tell if one is genuinely having a Kundalini Awakening
• Insufficient grounding and the ‘Balloon Without a String” metaphor
• The capacity to channel and hold onto shakti
• How the middle of the spiritual path can be more dangerous than the beginning
• Becoming scattered, bewildered, and dispersed
• Aligning yourself with whatever you are devoted to
• How delusions can get magnified by kundalini
• Going back to the basics of practice

“What we should think about first is the importance of distinguishing a genuine kundalini awakening from a psychic break, some kind of spiritual experience that is maybe transformative, but is not quite the same thing, and definitely distinguishing it from some emotional catharsis that arises from and is chiefly limited to your individual personality.” –Dr. Svoboda

About Dr. Robert Svoboda:

Dr. Robert Svoboda is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. During and after his formal Ayurvedic training, he was tutored in Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, Tantra and other forms of classical Indian lore by his mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda. He is the author of twelve books, including Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution and the Aghora series, which discusses his experiences with his mentor during the years 1975 to 1983.

In the years since 1986, Dr. Svoboda has traveled extensively, spending an average of three months per year in India. He often speaks on Ayurveda, Jyotish, Tantra, and allied subjects in locales across the world.

Join Dr. Svoboda’s courses, watch the latest video in Dr. Svoboda’s 5 Minutes series on Youtube and follow Dr. Svoboda on Facebook and Instagram for updates, events, and new content. You can also check out www.drsvoboda.com

“Genuine awakening makes you more human and not less human, more capable of being in relationship with ordinary humans, more capable of genuinely showing affection to them and receiving affection from them. It is the real test of being able to deal with Kundalini that you can be ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. If you’re a balloon without a string, you’re going to go way off into the stratosphere or you’re going to pop.” –Dr. Svoboda

Photo via wirestock

]]> https://beherenownetwork.com/chris-grosso-the-indie-spiritualist-ep-148-natural-medicine-healing-mind-body-and-spirit-with-erik-harris/ Mon, 17 Aug 2026 20:10:00 +0000 https://beherenownetwork.com/ep-148-natural-medicine-healing-mind-body-and-spirit-with-erik-harris/ Holistic healer Erik Harris explores the benefits of natural medicine and how it can support healing across mind, body, and spirit. This time on...]]>

Holistic healer Erik Harris explores the benefits of natural medicine and how it can support healing across mind, body, and spirit.

This time on The Indie Spiritualist podcast, Chris and Erik chat about:

• Perspectives from both alternative and Western medicine
• Erik’s first experience with energy work and alternative healing
• Overcoming emotional and physical pain
• Inspiration from A Course in Miracles
• Healing in mind, body, and spirit
• Getting to the root cause of what is causing us pain
• Chris’s own journey with neurodivergence
• Honoring the part of us that questions things
• The relativity of being ‘better’
• Connecting to plants, trees, and mushrooms

About Erik Harris:

Erik is a holistic healer dedicated to helping people with chronic pain and illness uncover the root causes of imbalance and create sustainable paths toward wellness. His own healing journey through spinal injuries, digestive issues, and Lyme disease led him to explore natural medicine, herbalism, Chinese medicine, energy healing, and other holistic modalities. He completed a five-year apprenticeship with Dr. Ming Wu and graduated from the Connecticut Institute of Herbal Studies in Chinese Herbology. With over 10 years of experience, Erik is a certified Qi Gong Instructor, Chinese Herbalist, Tui Na Therapist, Medicinal Aromatherapist, Auriculo-therapist, Reiki Therapist, and Tong Ren Therapist. He integrates these practices with his background in psychology to support the connection between body, mind, and spirit. Erik’s mission is to empower others with practical tools and personalized holistic approaches that help them take an active role in their own healing and wellness. Learn more about Erik and book an appointment with him HERE. You can also check him out on Instagram.

“Listen to people when they tell you what’s going on. There are all sorts of mystery illnesses and chronic conditions. Chronic conditions are at an all-time high. You would be surprised how many people you know are dealing with something. Give them a little grace and try to support them. If you haven’t had it, you don’t understand, but try to listen, try to be there.” –Erik Harris

Challenging our perceptions of reality, Samuel Bercholz and Raghu discuss loosening the ego’s grip through meditation and opening to the humor beneath it all.

Click HERE to preorder Samuel’s upcoming book, Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path

This time on Mindrolling, Samuel and Raghu explore:

• Dipping a toe into all religions and learning how to meditate
• The humble beginnings of Shambhala Publications
• Addictions to ego and so-called reality
• Witnessing the beautiful emptiness within Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
• How Ram Dass moved within many different spiritual circles
• Entering the mind of Buddha through meditation
• Stepping out of the bureaucracy of ego
• Not being too serious / blending love and humor

About Samuel Bercholz:

Sam Bercholz is a senior teacher in the Nyingma and Kagyu lineages of Tibetan Buddhism and the founder of Shambhala Publications. He was a close disciple of Kyabje Thinley Norbu Rinpoche and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and was empowered by them to teach and given the title Acharya (religious instructor). He has taught extensively in North America, Europe, and Australasia. He was particularly empowered by Kyabje Thinley Norbu Rinpoche to teach from A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar.

“What I’ve learned through Buddhist practice and being with great teachers is that the fixed ideas of reality and viewing the world were 180 degrees off. We experience things exactly backwards. Our habit of reality is so skewed that it makes all perceptions backwards. We choose our realities, and we become addicted to keeping that reality going.” –Samuel Bercholz

Feature image by eAlisa

More Mindrolling Podcasts:

Episode one of Mindrolling with Raghu Markus & David Silver

Using modern tools to support inner transformation, ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta offers innovative solutions for turning artificial intelligence into collective heart intelligence.

The Movie of Me to The Movie of We with Duncan Trussell & Raghu Markus

The Teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche with David Silver & Raghu Markus

From nature’s patterns to the creative process, filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg explores how beauty, awe, and wonder can help us truly “be here now.”

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Louie and Jackie explore:

• Becoming a creative conduit and aligning with the vibrations of the universe
• The movement from reaction, to judgment, to feeling, to devotion, to love
• Opening our minds and hearts to experience beauty, wonder, and awe
• Redefining the concept of beauty across cultures
• Witnessing interconnectedness through presence
• Louie’s time-lapse cinematography and Moving Art
• Sharing the sacred energy of rhythms, patterns, and colors
• Staying present while creating

“If beauty activities you and you go to wonder and awe, that means it makes you present. There you are, amazed by something and one with it, you finally become present, which is really the goal of most practices and certainly the essence of ‘be here now.” –Louie Schwartzberg

About Louie Schwartzberg:

Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer recognized as a pioneer of high-end time-lapse cinematography. Schwartzberg explores the connections between humans and the subtleties of nature and the environment. He directed the 2019 film, Fantastic Fungi, and the 2014 Netflix series, Moving Art. Schwartzberg’s recent theatrical releases include the 3D IMAX film, Mysteries of the Unseen World with National Geographic, narrated by Forest Whitaker, and the documentary Wings of Life for Disneynature, narrated by Meryl Streep. Check out Louie’s breathtaking streaming library of nature films HERE and keep up with him on Facebook.

About The Host, Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an inter-spiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves.

Photo by Rawpixel

More Be Here Now Network Podcasts:

Lama Rod Owens covers the dharma of freedom, loving ourselves, ancestral work, and the power of meditation: Dedication to Liberation

JoAnna Hardy shares a guided meditation all around the first foundation of mindfulness – mindfulness of the body: First Foundation Guided Meditation

Through bearing witness, love & service, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee shares how we can collectively heal the crisis of disconnection & ecological devastation: Love & Service

Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh explores how we can joyfully bring mindfulness into everyday activities like phone calls, driving, and walking: The Ojai Foundation Presents: Under the Teaching Tree with Thich Nhat Hanh

Exploring the gifts hidden within our most difficult emotions, Jack Kornfield shares how anger, judgment, and despair can be transformed into compassion, courage, and selfless service.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield shares:

• The path of selfless service
• A meditation on kindness and loving awareness
• Meeting anger without judgment or fear
• The care and passion hidden beneath anger
• Moving from despair toward imagination and possibility
• Activism rooted in stillness, wellbeing, and love
• Moral beauty and compassionate courage
• Transforming judgment into tenderness and metta

“Do you know why you’re so angry? Because you care. Because you care that much. And when you start to tune into the fact that you do care, that’s the fuel.” –Jack Kornfield

This teaching was originally recorded during a live session for Jack’s Living the Dharma in a Troubled World yearlong program. Join these monthly livestream Q&A sessions here. As a special offer for Heart Wisdom listeners, use code Dharma10 or Dharma10p (payment plan) at checkout for 10% off this program.

About Jack Kornfield:

Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies.

Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year’s worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield.

Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings.

“We’re learning how to be free as human beings—not to skip over being human, but actually to have a big enough heart to say, ‘Yes, this is part of our legacy.’” –Jack Kornfield

Photo via Jack Kornfield

]]> https://beherenownetwork.com/david-nichtern-csm-podcast-ep-68-dont-waste-your-suffering-joseph-goldstein-on-inner-investigation-and-awakening/ Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:35:00 +0000 https://beherenownetwork.com/ep-68-dont-waste-your-suffering-joseph-goldstein-on-inner-investigation-and-awakening/ Reflecting on a lifetime of practice, Joseph Goldstein explores how an intimate investigation of suffering can open the doorway to liberation. In this week’s...]]>

Reflecting on a lifetime of practice, Joseph Goldstein explores how an intimate investigation of suffering can open the doorway to liberation.

In this week’s episode, Joseph and David explore:

• Joseph’s spiritual lineage and tying the concept of bodhicitta to his motivation for practice
• The inseparability of compassion and emptiness
• Holding an intense interest in whatever we are experiencing
• A tip from Joseph: ‘Don’t waste your suffering’
• The mental energy it takes to investigate our suffering
• Teaching from the heart of Buddhist suttas
• ‘Tuning in’ to the gratitude channel and thanking the universe for the blessings of our lives
• Utilizing Ram Dass’s concept of ‘how can I help?’ as the north star of life

“When my mind is distressed in some way or other, it piques my interest. I want to understand what the cause of the suffering is. That’s a little different than enduring it until we get to a happier place; it’s using the suffering as fuel and as the impotence to investigate.” –Joseph Goldstein

Join Dharma Moon this fall to learn about The Business of Teaching Meditation.

About Joseph Goldstein:

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Check out Joseph’s podcast on Be Here Now Network or one of his numerous books.

More Be Here Now Network Podcasts:

Take a trip up and down the subway stairs with Ram Dass as he explores the seven chakras, why this moment in history is ripe for fourth chakra work, and how he escaped the mainline reality trip.

Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.

This episode is supported by Omega Institute. Like the Be Here Now Network, Omega believes that personal transformation can change the world—one heart at a time. Discover immersive retreats, workshops, and gatherings in New York’s Hudson Valley. Learn more: eomega.org

This episode of Here and Now is from a retreat at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, in June 1976. Check back soon for the conclusion of this talk.

• Ram Dass begins with a story of how a trip to the subway provided him with a useful metaphor for the spiritual path. He explores the seven chakras to help us understand who incarnates on this physical plane.
• Ram Dass digs into why primarily first, second, and third chakra people incarnate onto this plane. He talks about why the conditions that exist in society at this moment make it appropriate for beings with fourth chakra work to take birth.
• Ram Dass talks about escaping from the mainline reality trip and how the age of technology impacted people’s perception of reality. He touches on rebellion, revolution, evolution, and the state of the mystical experience in America.

“My experience was primarily that I was on the mainline of reality, and that there were all these kind of weird trips on either side, but that I, as a super scientist, rational mind, power, control, house full of antiques, my airplane, my motorcycle, gratification, more and more sex, more better food, more power, more intellect, I was doing the mainline reality trip. And I was hired to tell everybody else what reality was, okay, that’s what a Harvard professor does. And there was no doubt in my mind at all that that’s what reality was, alright, until I took psilocybin.” – Ram Dass

The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.

Listen to Ram Dass Here and Now ad-free on our Patreon. Anyone can sign up for a free 7-day trial, but the first 500 people to click this link can get a 3-month free trial membership: 3 Months of Ad-Free Ram Dass Podcast

About Ram Dass:

Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him. Learn more at ramdass.org.

Listen to more episodes of the Ram Dass Here and Now Podcast:

Go back to the very beginning of the journey as Ram Dass talks about his early years in life and the psychedelic experience that changed everything in Here and Now Ep. 1.

How does our perception shape our experience of suffering? Ram Dass investigates the many roots of suffering in Here and Now Ep. 132.

We all touch states of transcendence. Ram Dass explores how we can come into contact with the path of awakening in Here and Now Ep. 164.

Ram Dass breaks down the history of psychedelics and helps us understand the risks and rewards of these consciousness-altering chemicals in Here and Now Ep. 183.

Including a guided meditation, RamDev offers practical steps to deal with the chaos of the world in a mindful, nonresistant way.

This time on Healing at the Edge, RamDev outlines:

• Mindful stress and improving our well-being
• Finding a sense of presence while the world appears to be crumbling around us
• Working with collective trauma through embodied mindfulness
• Being with what is going on right now without resistance
• Feeling an emotion without wondering why we are experiencing it
• Dropping into meditation, creating a revolution of the heart

“How can we deal with all these things going on that seem to be out of control and yet find a sense of presence and calmness in this crumbling world?” –RamDev

About RamDev Dale Borglum:

RamDev Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and, since 1986, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman, and Dwarka Bonner of Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook, Bantam Books, and has taught meditation since 1974.

RamDev offers lectures and workshops on meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, and caregiving as spiritual practice. He has a doctoral degree from Stanford University. RamDev’s passion is the healing of our individual and collective fear of death so that we may be free.

Learn more about RamDev’s work via the Living/Dying Project and follow him on Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok.

Photo by Great_bru

Listen to more from RamDev Dale Borglum:

RamDev gives a dharma talk about cultivating enough faith to face things as they are, and leads a meditation centered on the power of the grounding breath in Healing at the Edge Ep. 49.

Building a bridge from separation to connection, RamDev offers practices for staying grounded, working with emotions like grief, and transmuting fear into love, in Healing at the Edge Ep. 67.

RamDev shares stories of his time with Ram Dass from the early days of the satsang and reflects on what Ram Dass meant to him as a teacher and friend in Healing at the Edge Ep. 42.

RamDev shares a dharma talk on how we can ease our suffering by offering compassion to our fear, in Healing at the Edge Ep. 46

Explaining the South African Philosophy of Ubuntu, traditional healer John Lockley discusses ancestral connection and the wisdom of our collective human story.

In this episode, John and Raghu explore:

• Giving thanks to our biological ancestors
• Reconciling with ancestors who may have done bad deeds
• Calling in the names of our ancestors as a path to honoring all of our human relations
• John’s experience being raised through Apartheid in South Africa
• How Nelson Mandela spread the teachings of Ubuntu
• Connecting to our dreams to connect to our humanity and our ancestors
• The circle of Ubuntu and realizing that we are all equal
• Humility as the foundation of any spiritual practice
• A guided ancestral practice from John

“Wherever you are, whatever you’re experiencing, know that you’re a child of nature, a child of the great one.”  –John Lockley

Check out another one of John Lockley’s numerous appearances on The Be Here Now Network

About John Lockley:

John Lockley began his journey as a young medic drafted into the South African military. He then trained under Zen master Su Bong from South Korea, and returned to post-Apartheid South Africa to spend 10 years in apprenticeship with MaMngwevu, a medicine woman from the Xhosa tribe. His remarkable journey through the constraints of Apartheid is a testament to the human spirit, and to the power of forgiveness and reconciliation. Find out more about John’s work and learn more about his numerous upcoming events, retreats, and other offerings at JohnLockley.com.

“They say, in the Xhosa tradition amongst my elders, when people are calling in the names of their ancestors, and they’re saying the names on the sacred land, they say we are all related. When we can look into the mirror and welcome our ancestors with grace and kindness, then there’s no reason to berate and demonize someone from another culture.” –John Lockley

Photo via John Lockley

More Mindrolling Podcasts:

Episode one of Mindrolling with Raghu Markus & David Silver

Using modern tools to support inner transformation, ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta offers innovative solutions for turning artificial intelligence into collective heart intelligence.

The Movie of Me to The Movie of We with Duncan Trussell & Raghu Markus

The Teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche with David Silver & Raghu Markus

Gil Fronsdal explores how Vipassana practice helps us embrace change and release attachment, transforming the way we experience ourselves and the world.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This week on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal shares:

• Change as the heart of Vipassana practice
• Delusions of permanence and having an ‘upside down’ perception of reality
• The freedom in holding things more lightly
• The juxtaposition of perfection with room for improvement
• Breaking down our attachment to the way things are supposed to be
• Being challenged in the dharma and questioning our identity
• Individual culture versus collective culture
• Watching thoughts arise and pass away
• The problem with retrospective thinking

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed

About 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. 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.

“People tend to see permanence in what is impermanent. They tend to find self in what is not self. They tend to find happiness in things that are not really that happy. The path of practice is to perceive things in a way that things aren’t distorted. The task of mindfulness practice is to break through distortions so we can see more directly.” –Gil Fronsdal

Photo by TaniaJoy

More Be Here Now Network Podcasts:

Lama Rod Owens covers the dharma of freedom, loving ourselves, ancestral work, and the power of meditation: Dedication to Liberation

JoAnna Hardy shares a guided meditation all around the first foundation of mindfulness – mindfulness of the body: First Foundation Guided Meditation

Through bearing witness, love & service, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee shares how we can collectively heal the crisis of disconnection & ecological devastation: Love & Service

Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh explores how we can joyfully bring mindfulness into everyday activities like phone calls, driving, and walking: The Ojai Foundation Presents: Under the Teaching Tree with Thich Nhat Hanh