664. Isira, 2nd Interview

Isira is an awakened spiritual teacher who has been initiated in advanced spiritual practices and rites across a number of traditions including Australian Aboriginal, Yogic Indian, African Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhist. When she was a young adult, Tibetan Lamas, recognized her as an important incarnation and travelled to Adelaide, Australia to bring her to the Himalayas to be ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Isira is also honored as an Australian Indigenous elder and wisdom keeper.

The heart of Isira’s teaching is Holistic Awakening. While the predominant western model of awakening focuses on individual consciousness, Isira’s holistic approach has us awaken to the sacred in all of life. It is an awakening that is integrated, embodied, and grounded, rather than siloed, conceptual, and abstract.

Isira believes that, even among those on a committed spiritual path, there is still a deep sense of “something missing.” The human spirit is hungering to be nurtured by the sacred. We know this because we’re living in a world that is fractured and conflicted more than ever. And people are reporting a sense of fear, alienation, depression, anxiety, and chronic illness in epidemic numbers.

Inspired by the wisdom of indigenous cultures, Isira teaches that we must awaken to what she calls the “Four Sacred Pillars of Life.” While one of these four pillars is the Self or Spirit, they go beyond the Self to include our interconnected relationship with three other essential dimensions of life—the second is nature or earth, the third is kinship or others, and the fourth is the cosmos or universe. While conventional thinking assumes that our spiritual connection must start with Self or Spirit, instead, Isira teaches that for awakening to be holistic, it is essential that we start with our connection to earth or nature.
Through holistic awakening, we move out of the mind into a lived experience in which the sacred is restored to each moment of our day-to-day life.

As we integrate our awakening, a natural byproduct is that we relate in a deeper, more meaningful way—respecting, honouring and loving all of life. Simply, we live sacredly.

Books:

Website: isira.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

First BatGap interview with Isira

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded September 25, 2022

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:04:56 – The Power of Spiritual Connection and Ancestral Guidance
  • 00:10:23 – Indigenous Wisdom and Lore
  • 00:15:32 – Interactions in Dream State and Meditation
  • 00:20:14 – Appointment as a Lama’s Consultant
  • 00:25:07 – The Emergence of Nature and Creation
  • 00:30:32 – Embracing Holistic Development and Avoiding Narrow Paths
  • 00:35:10 – Incorporating Boundaries and Boundless
  • 00:40:38 – The Interconnectedness of All Living Beings
  • 00:45:53 – The Importance of Connectivity with Nature and the Cosmos
  • 00:50:54 – The Value of Deeper Connections with Earth
  • 00:55:33 – Connecting with Nature in a Modern World
  • 01:00:35 – The Role of Indigenous Cultures in Awakening Humanity
  • 01:05:44 – Indigenous People as Transceivers of Natural Lore and Values
  • 01:10:31 – Addressing the Root Cause of Crime
  • 01:15:32 – Dissolving Centralized Systems
  • 01:20:38 – Healing Wounds and Transgressions
  • 01:25:29 – The Four Pillars of Connection and Fulfillment
  • 01:30:47 – The Four Pillars of Balance
  • 01:35:55 – Restoring Balance within Ourselves and the World
  • 01:40:49 – Finding Beauty in Life’s Experiences
  • 01:45:42 – The Cosmic Perspective
  • 01:50:21 – The perception of reality
  • 01:55:48 – Anchoring with the Senses
  • 02:00:35 – Wrapping up the interview and answering viewer questions
  • 02:06:09 – The Eternal Nature of Existence and the Transience of Manifestation
  • 02:11:43 – Creating Conscious Love Centered Relationships
  • 02:17:18 – Staying in Touch with Our Essential Nature
  • 02:23:22 – Vibrational Healing and Synergy
  • 02:28:55 – Embracing the Fluidity of Time
  • 02:34:38 – Vibrational transmissions and shared experiences

643. Shelly Tygielski

Shelly TygielskiShelly Tygielski is the author of Sit Down to Rise Up and founder of the global grassroots mutual aid organization Pandemic of Love.  Her work has been featured by over 100 media outlets, including CNN Heroes, The Tamron Hall Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. A trauma-mindfulness teacher and a Garrison Institute Fellow, she has been called one of the “12 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement” By Mindful.org and teaches self-care and resilience at organizations around the world. Visit her online at shellytygielski.com.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded April 16, 2022

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:03:02 – A Life of Compassion and Service
  • 00:06:37 – Women and Children in Need
  • 00:10:18 – Collaborating with Other Organizations
  • 00:14:33 – Embracing Discomfort in Meditation
  • 00:18:40 – Confronting our Shadow Side
  • 00:21:58 – Healing and Connection between Israelis and Palestinians
  • 00:27:19 – The Connection Between Inner Work and the Outer World
  • 00:31:44 – Loving Kindness Practice and Difficult People
  • 00:35:16 – Sending Metta to World Leaders
  • 00:40:48 – The Freedom to Explore Different Paths
  • 00:44:30 – The Intersection of Faith: Jew and the Lotus, Boojews, and Hin-Jews
  • 00:51:20 – The Power of Agency and a Good Samaritan
  • 1:00:39 – The Power of Simple Gestures
  • 01:08:58 – Embracing the Gift of Life
  • 01:12:29 – Building a Meditation Community on the Beach
  • 01:15:25 – Building Community Through Meditation
  • 01:19:15 – Showing Up and Making a Difference
  • 01:25:42 – Supporting Communities and Creating Change
  • 01:29:39 – Becoming a Community Organizer
  • 01:35:26 – Stories of Compassion and Judgment
  • 01:42:37 – The Practice of RAIN
  • 01:46:57 – The Global Impact of Pandemic of Love
  • 01:49:24 – The Relationship between Financial Abundance and Spiritual Awakening
  • 01:51:55 – The Intention Behind Material Wealth Acquisition and the Role of Self-Awareness in Spiritual Growth
  • 01:54:20 – The Power of Self-Awareness in Meditation and Decision Making
  • 01:56:43 – The Fortunate Access to Technology
  • 01:58:37 – Learning from Traumas
  • 02:00:27 – Optimism and the Power of Technology
  • 02:02:52 – Connecting Inner Work to the Outer World
  • 02:05:00 – Farewell and Closing Remarks

626. Nipun Mehta

Nipun MethaNipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace, a global community at the intersection of technology, volunteerism, and the gift economy. Most recently, ServiceSpace’s pandemic response has showcased the unique beauty of its global ecosystem. Nipun has catalyzed a global social movement of community builders grounded in their localities and rooted in practices for cultivating love, nonviolence, selfless service, and compassion. The ecosystem has reached millions, attracted thousands of volunteers, and mushroomed into numerous community-based service projects as well as inspiring content portals. ServiceSpace harnesses the collective power of networks and our deeper interconnectedness to create a distributed social movement founded on small, local individual acts of kindness, generosity, and service that ignite shifts in individual and collective consciousness. Nipun was honored as an “unsung hero of compassion” by the Dalai Lama, not long before former U.S. President Obama appointed him to a council for addressing poverty and inequality in the US. Yet the core of what strikes anyone who meets him is the way his life is an attempt to bring smiles in the world and silence in his heart: “I want to live simply, love purely, and give fearlessly. That’s me.”

In his mid-twenties, Nipun quit his job to become a “full-time volunteer”. One of his most formative experiences was a walking pilgrimage across India, with his wife of six months, whose profound lessons also became the subject of his widely-read address at UPenn commencement. Over the last twenty years, he has addressed thousands of gatherings around the world, speaking next to wide-ranging leaders from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to author Elizabeth Gilbert to civil rights legend John Lewis. Germany’s OOOM magazine named Nipun one of the Top 100 Most Inspiring People of 2020.

See links to these ServiceSpace websites at the bottom of their website.

 

 

 

 

And for some of Nipun’s talks and articles, visit his personal website.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded December 4, 2021.

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Nipun Mehta
  • 00:04:52 – An Unexpected Encounter on a Plane
  • 00:08:37 – Reunion with a Compassionate Monk
  • 00:12:00 – Inklings of Deeper Dimensions in Life
  • 00:16:20 – Meeting and Marriage Journey
  • 00:20:39 – The Meeting with Gauri and the Right Path
  • 00:24:51 – The Impermanence of Life and Leaving a Lasting Impact
  • 00:30:10 – Finding Your Inner Vows and Virtues
  • 00:35:13 – Living with Compassion and Inner Transformation
  • 00:40:10 – The Importance of Self-Reflection and Experimentation
  • 00:44:49 – Being an Instrument of the Divine
  • 00:49:33 – Letting Go of Outcome
  • 00:53:56 – Quality of Motivation and its Impact on Outcome
  • 00:58:23 – The Trap of Spiritual Detours
  • 01:02:44 – Sticking to Your Path and Avoiding Spiritual Traps
  • 01:07:25 – Causation vs. Correlation
  • 01:13:18 – Noble Friendships and Resilience
  • 01:18:11 – Functioning from a State of Oneness
  • 01:22:28 – Laughter as a Tool for Transformation
  • 01:26:56 – All Paths Lead to Deep Absorption
  • 01:31:51 – Acting Without an Agenda
  • 01:36:08 – From Websites to Acts of Service
  • 01:40:47 – The Power of Listening and Offering Food
  • 01:44:43 – Karma Kitchen: A Deeper Form of Transaction
  • 01:48:55 – Reframing Transactions and Trust
  • 01:52:33 – Wealth Inequity and the Future of Society
  • 01:58:01 – The Urgent Question of Inequity and Service
  • 02:03:33 – Building a Bigger Heart in Response to the World
  • 02:07:48 – The Story of the Little Sparrow
  • 02:12:21 – Peace and Compassion
  • 02:17:13 – Signing off and looking forward to future interviews