Category Archives: Guest

General category for interview guests.
This is the default and what separates an interview post from anything else, like an announcement, talk, etc.

703. Constance Casey

Posted on by

Constance Casey, MDiv, is an author and teacher providing spiritual guidance for those interested in living a gentle and peaceful life.

Constance offers guidance for those entering deeper practice into the nature of reality and adjusting to a shift in consciousness. Her awakening occurred in 2008. She has been practicing in the contemplative arts for over 40 years– first through her years in recovery, and then, as she deepened in Buddhist practice in 2007—which she shares in her memoir.

She’s a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Program. Some of her teachers include Trudy Goodman and Jack Kornfield.

Constance obtained a Master of Divinity focusing on religious studies and went on to do hospital chaplaincy work. As an interfaith hospital chaplain, she offered compassionate care for patients and families while embracing the spectrum of human experiences. She is also authorized by Naropa University to teach meditation.

Constance’s practice is primarily informed by the suttas in Theravāda Buddhism where she has developed her own online classes, the most recent one is called Clearing Skies: Dispelling the Clouds that Hinder Us, and she leads support groups for dedicated meditation practitioners.

Through her experience she respects and values your unique spiritual practice and journey while supporting you to find balance and significance in the face of adversity. Constance will encourage you to attune toward being more mindful and aware for release and serenity.

Her first book called Time for Awakening: A Memoir shares her story of awakening and deeper meditation practice and is what brings her to our meeting today.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded March 30, 2024

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Welcome to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:05:13 – The Levels of Receptiveness to the Dharma
  • 00:09:13 – “Just Who Do You Think You Are?”
  • 00:13:05 – A Snowy Awakening
  • 00:16:54 – Healing and Bonding with My Sons
  • 00:20:17 – Parenting as a Spiritual Practice
  • 00:24:11 – A Fly on the Wall
  • 00:28:09 – Tools of Recovery
  • 00:31:31 – Ethical Structure in Spiritual Circles
  • 00:35:14 – The Vicious Cycle of Repressed Discomfort
  • 00:40:09 – Seeking Further
  • 00:43:44 – Simplifying and Finding Fulfillment Within
  • 00:47:39 – Expressing Experiences Through Art
  • 00:51:17 – Finding Balance in Self-Care
  • 00:54:59 – Honoring the Need for Rest and Balance
  • 00:58:35 – The Power of Meditation and Personal Growth
  • 01:01:38 – Constance’s Carpentry Journey
  • 01:04:44 – The Importance of Speaking Out and Trauma (Conversation)
  • 01:07:29 – Seeing the Teacher as a Human Being and the Absence of Hierarchy
  • 01:10:27 – The Indescribable Experience of Awakening
  • 01:14:19 – Following the Way
  • 01:18:32 – Psychological, Theological, Sociological Perspectives
  • 01:22:14 – The Power of Kindness in Movies
  • 01:26:42 – The Intimacy of Stream Entry
  • 01:30:45 – The Support of a Teacher
  • 01:33:33 – The Association for Spiritual Integrity
  • 01:37:43 – Factors of Enlightenment and the Hindrances
  • 01:41:38 – Hindrances in Meditation Practice
  • 01:45:49 – Cultivating Tranquility and Equanimity in Meditation
  • 01:49:05 – The Benefits of Meditation and Inner States of Being
  • 01:51:48 – Closing Remarks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

699. Brad Laughlin & Anna Breytenbach

Posted on by

Brad Laughlin is the author of Living with Enlightenment—A Journey of Love, which is about his 25-year life-partnership with Leslie Temple-Thurston, a teacher of enlightenment, and the profound spiritual transformation he experienced. With Leslie, he is co-author of two books, The Marriage of Spirit—Enlightened Living in Today’s World and Returning to Oneness—The Seven Keys of Ascension.

Brad is dedicated to finding innovative ways of helping people to awaken spiritually and to find love, joy and inspiration during these times of great change. Using ancient Truth teachings, yogic practices and spiritual psychology, he offers simple yet powerful practices for dissolving old, limiting ego structures that keep us trapped in negativity, pain and fear. Brad’s transformative events are based on the principles of integration and unity consciousness, which help us to know our own inner Divinity—who we truly are.

Brad and Leslie are co-founders of the nonprofits, CoreLight.org and Seeds of Light.org, CoreLight’s humanitarian arm, serving marginalized communities and AIDS orphans in South Africa. Brad has a bachelor’s degree from Duke University. He is an American by birth, considers himself a global citizen and lives in both South Africa and the United States.

Anna Breytenbach is an internationally acclaimed professional interspecies communicator with over 20 years’ experience. Native to South Africa and currently based in Europe, she mentors and consults globally. Her focus is exclusively with wild places and beings, facilitating peaceful interventions and greater understanding. This includes predator research, wilderness protection, anti-poaching assistance, reforestation initiatives, wildlife management and rehabilitation. She is currently taking a sabbatical from her usual teaching and public appearances to write a book.

Anna’s passion is raising awareness and advancing the relationships among human and nonhuman animals, on both the personal and spiritual levels. Her work is the subject of the documentary movie “The Animal Communicator”, watched by tens of millions of people (and a few of their pets), available on YouTube.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded January 28, 2024

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:03:56 – Introduction and Background
  • 00:07:26 – From Cheetah Handler to Animal Communicator and Author
  • 00:11:55 – Following Your Inner Calling
  • 00:16:10 – Holding Space for Elephants
  • 00:20:35 – Collective Consciousness and Communication
  • 00:23:42 – The Collective Expressions of Consciousness and Earth Energies
  • 00:27:34 – The Joy of Whales Breaching
  • 00:31:16 – Rediscovering the Intelligence of Nature
  • 00:34:08 – The Importance of Functioning with Intelligence in Society
  • 00:38:08 – The Intelligence of Stones and Non-Moving Beings
  • 00:42:05 – Cruelty to Vegetables and Choosing Love for Animals
  • 00:47:06 – An Evergreen Online Course on Interspecies Communication
  • 00:51:36 – Valuing Different Paths in Life
  • 00:56:41 – Profound Mystical Experiences and the Search for Answers
  • 01:01:07 – The Ball of Light and Healing Energy
  • 01:05:42 – Transitioning into a Higher State
  • 01:11:02 – Pure Joy and Presence
  • 01:16:50 – Quantum Entanglement and Communication
  • 01:19:46 – Perception and the Importance of Clearing Ego Noise
  • 01:24:03 – Rethinking Human Love for Animals
  • 01:27:32 – Animals’ Compassion and Journey to Loving Humans
  • 01:31:00 – Communicating with Plants and the Tragedy of the Rabbits
  • 01:33:40 – The Oak Trees’ Compassion and Rabbit Friendships
  • 01:36:49 – The Sensitivity of an Enlightened Being
  • 01:40:21 – Animals in Distress and Disassociation
  • 01:43:43 – Dealing with Doubt in Animal Communication
  • 01:46:37 – The Possibility of Societal Collapse
  • 01:51:27 – Choosing Love and Connection
  • 01:55:50 – Promoting Email List and Featured Course
  • 01:59:18 – Gratitude for Teachers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

698. Swami Medhananda

Posted on by

Swami Medhananda is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and an academic philosopher, currently serving as Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Vedanta Society of Southern California in Hollywood. He is also the Hindu Chaplain at both UCLA and the University of Southern California. He is Section Editor for the International Journal of Hindu Studies (Springer), overseeing submissions in Hindu and Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion. From 2010 to 2021, he was Associate Professor and Head of the Program in Philosophy at the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute in Belur Math, West Bengal. He received his PhD in 2009 from the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in German aesthetics. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2006–7) and a Visiting Student at Oxford University (2000–1). His current research focuses on global philosophy of religion, the epistemology of mystical experience, cosmopsychism, Indian scriptural hermeneutics, and Vedāntic philosophical traditions, especially the philosophies of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Aurobindo.

He is the author of three books: Swami Vivekananda’s Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism (Oxford University Press, 2022), Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality: Sri Ramakrishna and Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), and The Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency: Revaluating German Aesthetics from Kant to Adorno (Bloomsbury, 2013). He is the editor of The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Vedānta (2020) and co-editor, with Benedikt Paul Göcke, of Panentheism in Indian and Western Thought: Cosmopolitan Interventions (Routledge, 2023). He is also the editor of two special issues of the International Journal of Hindu Studies, one on “Swami Vivekananda as a Cosmopolitan Thinker” (2023) and one on “Vedāntic Theodicies” (2021). He has published over thirty articles in leading academic journals.

He is currently working on two book projects: Karma and Rebirth in Hinduism (Cambridge University Press, under contract) and An All-Embracing Oneness: Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Advaita and the Legacy of Sri Ramakrishna (Oxford University Press, under contract).

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded January 22, 2024.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:05:04 – Agnostic to Swami: My Spiritual Journey
  • 00:09:28 – Conversations with an Atheist and Finding Common Ground
  • 00:13:36 – The experience of mystics and the standards of proof
  • 00:17:49 – The Pissed-off Response to Vedanta
  • 00:22:01 – Anecdote about Eligibility in Advaita Vedanta
  • 00:26:13 – Shankara’s understanding of Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya
  • 00:30:16 – Different Paths to Realizing the Divine
  • 00:34:00 – Contradictions in Shankara’s writings
  • 00:37:57 – The Vijnani’s Perspective and the Colorful Chameleon
  • 00:41:51 – Different Perspectives in Vedanta
  • 00:45:59 – The Benefits of Science and Spirituality
  • 00:50:07 – Embracing Christianity in Vedanta
  • 00:54:30 – Shakti and the Manifestation of the World
  • 00:58:16 – Manifestation of Brahman in the World
  • 01:02:02 – The Validity of Personal Perception
  • 01:05:22 – Epistemic Principles: Credulity and Perceptual Testimony
  • 01:09:05 – The Importance of Critical Thinking on the Spiritual Path
  • 01:12:45 – The Problem with Neo-Advaitins
  • 01:16:54 – Panentheism and Spiritual Practice
  • 01:21:02 – Vijnana Vedanta and the Path to Liberation
  • 01:24:59 – Embracing the Dual Nature of God
  • 01:29:27 – Ramakrishna’s First-Line Response to the Problem of Evil
  • 00:01:32 – The Doctrine of Karma and Rebirth
  • 01:36:34 – The Challenge of God’s Attributes
  • 01:40:04 – Dissolving the Problem of Evil
  • 01:44:58 – Gaudapada’s doctrine of Ajatavada and the Difference between Jnani and Vijnani
  • 01:48:44 – Vijnana Vedanta’s Different Outlook
  • 01:53:07 – Realization of God in Various Forms
  • 01:56:43 – The Levels of Consciousness and the Vijnana Vedanta Paradigm
  • 02:00:36 – Next Interview: For the Love of Animals

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More