Moving beyond the imagined boundary of form, Alan Watts explores the idea that humanity is a microcosm of the universe and that the two are inseparable.

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

This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts discusses:

• Considering whether being part of a whole means that we are the whole
• The radial structure of humanity, Earth, and all beings
• Recognizing that skin is not the boundary of man
• How foreign the inner workings of the human body seem to humanness
• The nature of the mind, likened to the nature of space
• The illusion of an individual operating from himself
• Blending together materialism and mysticism, not getting too stuck in one or the other

This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.

“Any other way of looking at things is kind of schizoid. It looks at human beings as if they arrived in this world like a bunch of birds on the branches of a barren tree. They just got settled there, they don’t belong, a sense of being strangers and pilgrims from another domain altogether. Well, where is this other domain, and how does it relate to this one?” –Alan Watts

Listen to more Alan Watts talks:

Being in the Way Ep. 1: Alan shares a dharma talk on Taoism, the interdependence of nature, and dropping out of karma

Alan Watt’s son, Mark, shares background on Alan’s early life, before introducing two of his father’s specially curated dharma talks focused on karma, in Being in the Way Ep. 2

Therapy, religion, mystical experiences, & Jesus: Being in the Way Ep. 6

The connections between Taoism and relativity, technology and human evolution, culture and separation: Being in the Way Ep. 3

]]> https://beherenownetwork.com/bhnn-guest-podcast-ep-255-fierce-grace-and-the-many-faces-of-god-satsang-with-ram-dass-and-friends-pt-2/ Fri, 15 May 2026 18:10:00 +0000 https://beherenownetwork.com/ep-255-fierce-grace-and-the-many-faces-of-god-satsang-with-ram-dass-and-friends-pt-2/ Ram Dass and Uma Reed lovingly explore bhakti yoga, fierce grace, and the spiritual practice of seeing beyond incarnation to the soul in everyone....]]>

Ram Dass and Uma Reed lovingly explore bhakti yoga, fierce grace, and the spiritual practice of seeing beyond incarnation to the soul in everyone.

“I love you. We are in love. We ARE love.” –Ram Dass

Recorded in 2008 at Studio Maui, this mini-series features Ram Dass and guests from his satsang. To start at Part 1, click HERE.

In this episode, Uma Reed and Ram Dass share insights on:

• The yoga of your life and all roads leading to God
• Fierce Grace and reinterpreting ‘negative’ life events
• How Uma met Maharaj-ji in blue light
• Hinduism and the many faces of God
• Working with the suffering that the mind introduces into our lives
• Not mistaking ourselves with our incarnation
• Singing, chanting, and being brought closer to God
• Bhakti yoga and merging together with the beloved

“Don’t mistake your self with your incarnation. I’m a nurse, I’m a doctor, I’m a student, I’m a yogi. You’re something in this incarnation, but, you really are a soul. You’re a spiritual being. If you are a soul, then you will see souls. If you be one, you will see one and just like that, officer of the law I saw a soul. Your children, souls. Your parents, souls. Your partners, souls. Your enemies, souls. Then, you live in paradise.” –Ram Dass

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.

About Uma Reed:

Uma was first exposed to Hindu devotional chanting in the early 1970s, while studying meditation and spiritual practices with Ram Dass and various other teachers. Kirtan was a practice that touched her deeply, and as a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, she often participated in kirtan gatherings with fellow devotees, as well as in other ashrams and spiritual communities. For years she held kirtan in her home, and for the past dozen years or so, she has led kirtan formally in yoga studios, spiritual centers, and retreat settings. She has taught workshops and led kirtan on numerous retreats and in satsang with Ram Dass and other spiritual teachers in the U.S. and abroad.

“Finally I screamed out loud, ‘I’ll do anything for God’, and everything stopped and got very clear. There was this, almost like a rain, a very light sprinkle, and everything was completely peaceful. My mind was completely quiet. I opened my eyes and sitting in the room was Neem Karoli Baba. This was not a dream, not a vision, he was sitting there, bathed in blue light. I was looking at him and I noticed that he wasn’t speaking out loud, but he was mouthing some words. I understood I was to repeat it with him. I realized he was saying Om Namah Shivaya.” –Uma Reed

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

Author, journalist, and co-founder of DoubleBlind, Madison Margolin, joins Raghu to explore her latest project: creating a roadmap to tripping, microdosing, and beyond.

Grab your copy of The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics

In this episode, Madison and Raghu step into the world of:

• Emerging theories of Ibogaine use in Parkinson’s treatment
• Defining ‘psychedelics’ and Dr. Ben Malcom’s (aka The Spirit Pharmacist) view on psychedelic & somatic awareness
• What the clinical world can take away from indigenous plant medicine rituals
• Ram Dass’s journey from psychedelic research to spirituality
• Spiritual seekers: from India to South America
• How regular practice helps us connect to deeper layers of reality
• Feeling beyond time and space
• Punctuating psychedelic experiences with spiritual practice
• Altered states in the history of Judaism
• Psychedelics for war zones, trauma, and religious leaders
• Accessing your set, setting, and mental health dispositions

“Doing psychedelics under the stewardship of an indigenous culture is equally legitimate to doing it in a clinical context, and it’s also legitimate to do it at a Grateful Dead show. What I really want to get at is that the way the tribes or indigenous cultures regard these medicines is through community, song, prayer, connection to nature, reciprocity, those are all values that even the clinical world can borrow and emulate as they design their trials.” –Madison Margolin

About Madison Margolin:

Madison is an author and journalist who straddles California, New York, and the Israel-Palestine region, with a focus on psychedelics, cannabis, and Judaism — jokingly referring to it as “Jews & Drugs.” Her reporting also spans culture, policy, and science. At the center of her work is a sustained curiosity about how people transcend the mind to access something larger than themselves, whether through psychedelics, spirituality, meditation, art, or somatic practice. Much of her writing explores the different ways people nourish the soul. Madison is the co-founder of DoubleBlind, the print and digital magazine that covers psychedelics and their intersections with mental health, spirituality, environmental justice, and social equity. She also co-founded the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and hosts the podcast Set & Setting on the Be Here Now Network. She has worked in journalism since 2014, with bylines in outlets including Rolling Stone, Vice Media, Playboy, High Times, Tablet Magazine, and Nylon.

She began her journalism career with a cannabis column at The Village Voice shortly after graduating from Columbia Journalism School. Before that, she lived in Tel Aviv, where she worked with Israel’s African refugee community. Earlier in her life, she lived at the Cloyne co-op while studying rhetoric and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.

She is a language enthusiast who speaks or dabbles in French, Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew. Outside of work and writing, she is usually dancing, spinning a hula hoop, or practicing yoga.

Madison Margolin is also the author of Exile and Ecstacy, a book on Growing Up with Ram Dass and Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground. Learn more about Madison’s work at madisonmargolin.com

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

Teaching listeners how to get out of the mind and trust in the heart, RamDev guides us through embodied faith practices.

“Faith is not certainty, it’s steadiness inside uncertainty.” –RamDev

This time on Healing at the Edge, RamDev explores:

• Having faith within our hearts rather than only our minds
• Using sensation as a gateway into experiencing presence
• How talking about something trivial can allow us to enter the heart space
• The moving, changing nature of the mind
• Softening into the body and releasing tension
• Maintaining steadiness in the midst of uncertainty
• Trusting in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
• Noticing the subtle changes in the fields of our 5 senses
• Wisely and compassionately responding to the next moment
• Guru Yoga: Installing the deity into your body

“To trust in the heart has a lot to do with trusting being in the body. It’s very difficult to be thinking and be with your sensations at the same time. The heart is a felt experience.” –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 doctorate 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 wirestock

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.

]]> https://beherenownetwork.com/metta-hour-with-sharon-salzberg-ep-287-engaged-compassion-parker-j-palmer-jerry-colonna/ Thu, 14 May 2026 01:45:00 +0000 https://beherenownetwork.com/ep-287-engaged-compassion-parker-j-palmer-jerry-colonna/ The Buddha taught a path of awakened living, but how does that manifest in today’s world of constant connectivity and widespread suffering? How do...]]>

The Buddha taught a path of awakened living, but how does that manifest in today’s world of constant connectivity and widespread suffering?

How do we keep our hearts open without being defined or hardened by the pain that surrounds us, whether personal, collective, or historical? How do we navigate the paradox of holding both pain and joy, without mistaking suffering for punishment or personal failure? Can we infuse our compassion with wisdom and perspective to find the agency to take meaningful action in our communities?

In her new series, Engaged Compassion, Sharon delves into these questions and more, engaging in candid conversations with a diverse group of teachers, activists, and changemakers. For the fourth episode in the series, Sharon speaks with Parker J. Palmer and Jerry Colonna.

Parker J. Palmer is a writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He is founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal. Parker holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as fourteen honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press. Parker is the author of ten books—including several award-winning titles—that have sold nearly two million copies and been translated into ten languages, including “On the Brink of Everything,” “Healing the Heart of Democracy,” and “The Promise of Paradox.”

Jerry Colonna is a renowned coach, writer, and speaker who specializes in leadership, business, and the practice of radical self-inquiry. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Reboot.io, a company inspired by the belief that work need not destroy us. He is also the author of two books: “Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up” (2019) and “Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong” (2023). For more than two decades, Jerry has championed the idea that work should be non-violent to the self, the community, and the planet.

In this conversation, Sharon, Parker and Jerry speak about:

• Parker’s approach to suffering
• Responsibility is the ability to respond
• John Rogers’ forms of suffering in the world
• The pain of denying that which is true
• Why humans are drawn to “othering”
• The innate desire to grow
• What it means to lead a fuller life
• Looking for happiness in the wrong places
• Deconditioning a control mindset
• Is the world actually worse right now?
• How to face our fears
• How to reverse othering
• We need stories about overcoming fear
• It helps to do hard things together
• Revamping institutions to support
• Getting involved in your local community

Additional Resources

You can learn more about Parker’s work right here and check out his Substack right here. You can learn more about Jerry’s work and his organization, Reboot.io, right here. This episode is also being released on the Reboot Podcast, available right here.

Related Metta Hour Episodes

The complete Engaged Compassion Series

Episode 209 with Parker Palmer on the Metta Hour from 2023

Exploring the healing power of prayer and belief, Dr. Joshua Brown interweaves cognitive neuroscience with faith-based experiences.

Preorder a copy of Joshua’s book, Proving a Miracle, HERE.

This week on Mindrolling, Raghu and Joshua explore:

• Joshua’s fascination with the brain as a machine
• How a medical crisis shifted Joshua’s life path
• The impact of the spiritual on our physical selves
• Living between the worlds of neuroscience and faith
• How we form beliefs and how those beliefs affect our health
• The power of community and seeking out unique experiences
• Joshua’s own experience witnessing miracles
• Choosing hope and accepting the risk of disappointment
• How Artificial Intelligence is trained through predictions

“Practically, you are what you eat, and your beliefs reflect the experiences that you have. If you want to develop more nuanced beliefs in a certain direction, you have to immerse yourself in experiences that match those beliefs.” –Joshua Brown

About Joshua Brown, PhD:

Dr. Joshua W. Brown is a professor of Psychological and Brain Science at Indiana University, where he directs the Cognitive Control Lab. He also co-founded the Global Medical Research Institute. With decades of experience in computational neuroscience and over 79 peer-reviewed publications, he brings the same rigorous scientific methodology to extraordinary claims of healing that he applies to understanding the brain. His book, Proving a Miracle, will be released on May 12th of 2026.

“From about the year 2000, you start to get this increase in cognitive neuroscience studies of how our beliefs influence our brains and how those beliefs in turn influence not just the brain but the body and our health. I think that combination of events has turned in the culture the rapprochement of religion and science.” –Joshua Brown

Photo by ckstockphoto

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

]]> https://beherenownetwork.com/insight-hour-with-joseph-goldstein-ep-261-gradual-cultivation-in-buddhist-practice/ Fri, 08 May 2026 17:15:00 +0000 https://beherenownetwork.com/ep-261-gradual-cultivation-in-buddhist-practice/ Joseph Goldstein explores gradual cultivation, highlighting that even if we are suddenly awakened, we still must have an ongoing practice to work with hindrances...]]>

Joseph Goldstein explores gradual cultivation, highlighting that even if we are suddenly awakened, we still must have an ongoing practice to work with hindrances and ingrained habits.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/insighthour and get on your way to being your best self.

This week on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein discusses:

• The areas of life where clinging shows up most
• How clinging to sensory pleasures is so embedded in our culture
• Lightening up for enlightenment and not taking ourselves so seriously
• How a sense of humor can benefit our practice
• Unhelpful attachment to view and opinion
• The unity of clarity and emptiness (self-existing wakefulness)
• The Buddhist meaning of unborn/unformed
• Uprooting of the view of self with the understanding that there is still more work to do
• Having an ongoing, gradual cultivation of skillful means

This episode was originally published on Dharmaseed and recorded at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, a non-profit organization founded by renowned meditation teachers Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg to integrate Buddhist study and practice.

“Very often, people can have genuine realization and have a really deep understanding, and then get attached to that as if everything is done. So very often these folks can get engaged in skillful behavior, thinking it’s all coming from their deep realization, it’s really coming from all the work that still needs to be done.” –Joseph Goldstein

Photo by nrradmin

Listen to more from Joseph:

In the search for liberation, we must explore the nature of our existence. Joseph investigates the wisdom of impermanence in Insight Hour Ep. 2.

There are deeper levels of truth about reality. Joseph explores different ways of freeing the mind by understanding the habits of preference and the emptiness of thoughts in Insight Hour Ep. 41.

It’s possible to smile at the antics of one’s own mind. Joseph offers responses to questions about selflessness, shame, cravings, and more in Insight Hour Ep. 111.

Metta practice can penetrate deeply. Joseph explores how love, kindness, gratitude, and friendship can revolutionize our lives in Insight Hour Ep. 117.

]]> https://beherenownetwork.com/bhnn-guest-podcast-ep-254-calm-with-trudy-goodman/ Thu, 07 May 2026 09:35:00 +0000 https://beherenownetwork.com/ep-254-calm-with-trudy-goodman/ Teaching listeners to incline the mind towards peacefulness, Trudy Goodman offers practical ways to be calm and experience the blessings of tranquility. Today’s podcast...]]>

Teaching listeners to incline the mind towards peacefulness, Trudy Goodman offers practical ways to be calm and experience the blessings of tranquility.

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.

In this episode, Trudy Goodman holds a talk on:

• Calm as a factor of enlightenment
• Having an intimate connection with our own experience
• Practical ways to calm down
• Making our lives a living vigil of silence
• Being in the holding presence of another
• The mothering nature of mindfulness
• How metta brings us self-compassion and calm
• Inclining the mind towards practice and peacefulness
• Witnessing the blessings of tranquility

This was recorded at Spirit Rock and was originally published on Dharmaseed

About 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, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

“One person happily reported in our meeting, I asked, ‘What is happening in your practice? How are you doing?’ This person said, ‘Nothing, nothing is happening. It took 30 days but finally nothing is happening.’

This is calm. It’s really very neutral.” –Trudy Goodman

Photo via microgen

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

In this powerful dialogue, Jack Kornfield responds to questions from the community about some of the deepest challenges of the human heart.

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 time on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield shares:

• Caring for aging parents with compassion
• Transforming rage into compassionate action
• Grieving without hardening the heart
• Meeting illness and death with presence
• Sangha as a refuge in difficult time

“We need each other. Sangha is the company of the wise. In these times we need to stand up for the truth and speak up together. That’s part of sangha—to be together in the innate dignity of humanity and say, ‘Yes, this is what matters.’” –Jack Kornfield

This episode was first recorded on Feb 23, 2026 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Talk and Meditation

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.

“The idea from the Buddha’s teachings is that when we’re together and committed to compassion, liberation, a free heart, and a care for one-another, amazing things are possible.” –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.

Dr. Sará King and Kierstin Gray join The CSM Podcast to discuss their tech company, MindHeart AI, which uses an interactive map of human awareness for personal health and planetary well-being.

MindHeart AI is a liberatory technology company centering the neuroscience of well being as a catalyst for intergenerational planetary healing. Utilizing the Systems Based Awareness Map, the world’s first interactive map of human awareness, they are building a scalable, equitable platform combined with experiences that they call MindHeart Activations – in person events that support collective healing through combining culturally relevant forms of somatics, contemplative practices, land-based rituals and retreats, music and art. MindHeart AI is designed to create an infrastructure of care as a loving response to the rising loneliness, stress, isolation and depression experienced across the world.

In this episode, David, Sará and Kierstin:

• Taking responsibility for the technology we create
• Reducing the harm that human beings are doing to the planet and each other
• AI as a reflection of ourselves for better understanding of our emotions and identity
• The way that humans influence AI, for better and worse
• Empowering others to create MindHeart Activations in their community
• The connection between water scarcity, trauma, and AI
• Dr. Sará’s contribution to the documentary Every Living Thing
• Holding collective grief and sadness while still tapping into our agency

About Dr. Sará King:

Dr. Sará King is a Mother, a neuroscientist, political and learning scientist, medical anthropologist, social entrepreneur, public speaker, and certified yoga and meditation instructor. She is an internationally recognized thought leader in the interdisciplinary field that examines the relationship between complementary alternative medicine, social justice, art, and mindfulness from the perspective of neuroscience. Dr. King is the co-founder of MindHeart AI.

Keep up with Dr. King on Instagram or HERE

About Kierstin Gray:

Kierstin Grey is the program director at Argodesign and the co-founder of MindHeart AI. She is a consultant specializing in using technology and service design thinking principles to bring about transformative change for her clients. She has designed a framework that centers around the building of narratives that use existing talents and skills within an organization to enable innovative change to resolve business problems. Combined with the best practices of design and delivery, she helps businesses implement products and projects that meet their business objectives and cultivate deeper and more efficient engagement with customers.

“If we’re confused, AI is going to be confused. That’s the reason why it’s important for us to be clear on who we are, what we believe, who we value, how we love, how we relate to each other—those things influence how we design emergent technologies like AI.” –Kierstin Gray

Photo by Mehaniq41

More Be Here Now Network Podcasts: