Category Archives: Awakening Integration Support (Embodiment)

520. Dr. Miles Neale

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Miles NealeDr. Miles Neale, PsyD, is a Buddhist psychotherapist in private practice and founder of the two-year online Contemplative Studies Program. Author of Gradual Awakening (Sounds True, 2018) and co-editor of Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy (Routledge, 2017), Miles is a faculty member of Tibet House (US) and Weill Cornell Medical College. With more than twenty years integrating the mind science and meditative practices of Tibetan Buddhism with psychotherapy, trauma research, and neuroscience, Miles is a forerunner in the emerging field of contemplative psychotherapy and leads pilgrimages around the Buddhist world.

Websites:

Audio course: The Gradual Path – Tibetan Buddhist Meditations for Becoming Fully Human

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded September 28, 2019

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:05:02 – Integration and gradual progression of consciousness
  • 00:09:59 – Expanding Circumference of Concern
  • 00:14:57 – The Journey to Unity Consciousness
  • 00:19:36 – The Certs commercials and the importance of multidimensionality
  • 00:28:42 – What was being removed from meditation practices
  • 00:33:23 – Transforming the Collective Consciousness
  • 00:37:55 – The Fear of Hedonism and Nihilism
  • 00:42:28 – The Importance of Systematic Teaching in the Lam Rim
  • 00:46:55 – The Purification of the Nervous System and Release of Samskaras
  • 00:51:36 – The Power of the Mantra and Settling the Mind
  • 00:55:47 – The Divide between Spiritual Life and Personal Predicaments
  • 01:00:35 – Addressing Trauma in Spiritual Communities
  • 01:04:56 – Unconditioning from Cult-like Thinking
  • 01:08:59 – Trusting Your Intuition and Sense of Self
  • 01:12:16 – Trauma-Informed Dharma: Empowering People
  • 01:15:47 – The Pitfalls of Science Turning into Dogma
  • 01:20:00 – Authority Figures and Self-Confidence
  • 01:24:35 – Removing Deep Rooted Imprints without Meditation
  • 01:29:13 – Processing Trauma Memories
  • 01:33:42 – The Limits of Yogifying Trauma
  • 01:38:19 – Accessing Alternative News Content
  • 01:42:46 – Reconciling Paradoxes: The Brahman Perspective
  • 01:47:16 – The Importance of Multiplicity of Views and the Teachings of Emptiness
  • 01:51:18 – The Resurgence of Psychedelics and Expansion of Consciousness
  • 01:55:40 – The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern Age
  • 01:59:15 – The Power of Immersion and Pilgrimage
  • 02:03:36 – An Integrative Curriculum for Personal Growth
  • 02:07:33 – Bringing Spiritual Knowledge into Life
  • 02:11:20 – Concluding Remarks

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509. Georgi Y. Johnson

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Georgi Y. JohnsonBorn in Sheffield, England, Georgi has led a life of charm, intoxication, collision and perpetual re-awakening.

Having experienced her parent’s divorce and later her father’s death to alcoholism, Georgi was a born seeker for a stable home that was somehow prior to the broken home that she knew.  As a teenager, she attended evening classes at the School of Philosophy in Belgium, that offered a ‘sanitized’ version of Vedanta. While it gave a lot, the experience became oppressive, and when she left to Oxford University, she instead delved into Jungian psychology and the application of psychoanalytic and feminist literary theory.

When she was 20, Georgi arrived in Jerusalem, in search of a midway point between the mysticism of the east and the decay of the west. She experienced a part of the earth that is charged with bliss. Yet it was also a country where it seemed that nobody belonged. In this, she found a sense of belonging (in the field of not belonging).
Georgi’s life in Israel would include a compulsion for conflict. She worked as an investigative journalist exposing lies told about terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Later, she would undergo a high-conflict divorce in which she was condemned by rabbinical courts as a fake convert, a home-breaker and a naughty woman.

All this served to re-awaken her deeper purpose: the exploration of the mysteries of consciousness. After she met the love her life – spiritual teacher Bart ten Berge – this passion would express through escalating processes of liberation.Today, she is deeply fulfilled in sharing this journey with others through workshops, and one-on-one mentorship.

A free spirit, citizen of the world and a poet, Georgi is presently pioneering Nondual Therapy, which she sees as part of a paradigm shift in the evolution of psychology.

Books:

Website: perception.inner-growth.org

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded July 6, 2019

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction and Importance of Donations in Supporting BATGAP
  • 00:04:47 – The Value of Individual Responsibility and Volunteer Work
  • 00:08:37 – A Jacob’s Ladder of Light
  • 00:12:30 – The Connection Through Meditation and Mantras
  • 00:17:09 – Forbidden Mantras and Spiritual Contemplation
  • 00:21:19 – Surrendering to Genius
  • 00:26:10 – Mystical experiences and the power of sound
  • 00:30:11 – The Death of the Author and the Fluidity of Texts
  • 00:34:28 – The Negative Effects of Trusting Outer Authority
  • 00:38:58 – Cannabis and Coffee-induced Psychosis
  • 00:42:16 – From Anxiety to Apocalyptic Depression
  • 00:46:42 – Finding Healing and Service
  • 00:50:53 – Overcoming Anxiety and Finding Joy
  • 00:55:05 – Closing of the Heart
  • 01:00:00 – Visitations from Enlightened Beings
  • 01:03:01 – The Cone of Non-Duality
  • 01:07:34 – The Paradox of Existence and Nonexistence
  • 01:12:37 – Qualities of Awakening: Love, Peace, Joy
  • 01:17:21 – The Peace Within Conflict
  • 01:22:26 – The Spoiled Nature of Humanity
  • 01:26:14 – The Impulse to Incarnate in a State of Nondual Quality
  • 01:31:16 – The Innocence and Guilt of Humanity
  • 01:35:35 – The Non-Dual Nature of Inheritance and Purpose
  • 01:39:53 – Embracing Natural Empathy and Unity with Others
  • 01:44:16 – Different Experiences of Enlightenment Based on Nervous System
  • 01:49:14 – The Sensitivity of the Nervous System
  • 01:53:17 – The Vision of Two Figures
  • 01:58:06 – The Tragic Effects of Psychiatric Drugs
  • 02:02:49 – The Mind as a Receiver
  • 02:07:57 – Embracing Diversity and Non-Conformity
  • 02:11:43 – Conclusion and Donation Reminder

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508. Beth Miller

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My deepest devotion, throughout my life has been to the discovery and embodiment of our truest nature.

I studied organized and mystical religions, I traveled to many countries in our world, getting a taste of different cultures and people, I lived a conventional suburban life as a wife and mother, I lived in chronic confusion, and I studied psychology, all with the gnawing question of ‘what is all this really about?’ tugging at my sleeve.

I was born in Brooklyn New York, into a world where appearances were everything, but I tended an inner world that I kept to myself. When I look back on how I was “companioned” throughout my childhood by my inner world that was full of comfort and promise I marvel at the wisdom and strength of this stream of consciousness.

After raising my two sons, I went to graduate school to study psychology and find professional legitimacy, and to focus on my interior. I had, for a long time, known I needed to heal from childhood trauma and I also felt a calling to help others. But, like so many of us, I had looked to the external world for this elusive happiness and healing I felt was missing.

After completing my degree, I built a satisfyingly delicious career – with the same gnawing question in my heart – how do I reconcile pain and confusion with a life-long intuited knowing of a greater consciousness or awareness?

In addition to a private practice of psychotherapy, I taught at California Institute of Integral Studies and the University of California at San Francisco. I was the therapist for a pilot study at Stanford and led workshops and presentations for cultivating resilience. (My first book is The Woman’s Book of Resilience – twelve qualities to cultivate).

I began to follow and study spiritual teachers: Adyashanti, David Hawkins, Mooji and Jan Frazier. After decades of devoted searching, I was guided by Jan Frazier and experienced a profound shift in consciousness at the age of 70. (Poster child for it never being too late) This realization allowed the inner and the outer world to melt into each other. After decades of healing and opening to larger and larger states of consciousness, the search ended. This shift set my course, in a humbling and wondrous way, to deeper and further understanding, to embodying and, most importantly, living what had been revealed.

In the sweet presence of now, I am along for the ride of intimate contact with whatever life has in store from moment to moment and day to day. In my bones, I understand what it means to be intimate with 10,000 things.

Website: bethmillerphd.com

Book: Waking Up on the Couch

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded June 29, 2019

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:05:24 – Childhood in the Atmosphere of War and Powerlessness
  • 00:11:17 – The Dream of Unbounded Presence
  • 00:15:05 – Dreams as Messages from God
  • 00:19:25 – The First and Biggest Disillusionment
  • 00:24:15 – The Metaphor of the Movie
  • 00:27:47 – Becoming Radically Honest with Ourselves
  • 00:33:40 – The Play of God
  • 00:38:29 – The Wisdom in Life’s Buffeting
  • 00:42:11 – The Transformative Power of Psychotherapy
  • 00:47:18 – Becoming a Better Human Being
  • 00:51:59 – A Familiar Presence
  • 00:56:52 – The Contagiousness of Intimacy and Awakening
  • 01:00:06 – Losing Sense of Boundaries
  • 01:04:29 – The Love That Showed Up
  • 01:08:53 – The Shift on the Last Day of the Retreat
  • 01:11:59 – The Value of Presence in Integration
  • 01:15:29 – Awakening and the Body
  • 01:19:36 – The Power of Pure Consciousness
  • 01:23:16 – Trusting Life and Comprehending Something
  • 01:26:59 – Being Grounded in Being
  • 01:31:28 – The Importance of Facing and Feeling Human Pain
  • 01:35:20 – Becoming Transparent and Clear with Ourselves
  • 01:40:16 – A Shift in Perspective
  • 01:43:51 – A Deepening Sense of Being Gone
  • 01:47:50 – The Depth of Being in Direct Contact
  • 01:52:10 – Understanding Awareness and Self-Referral
  • 01:56:17 – The Realization and the Pinch Me Moment
  • 01:59:42 – The Hope for Societal Shift
  • 02:02:05 – The Pleasure of Interviewing
  • 02:04:07 – Conclusion and Next Interview Announcement

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