529. Mirabai Starr, 2nd Interview

Posted on December 25, 2019 by Rick Archer

Mirabai Starr writes creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She has received critical acclaim for her revolutionary new translations of the mystics:

John of the Cross – Saint John of the Cross: Devotion, Prayers & Living Wisdom
Teresa of Avila – The Interior Castle, and
Julian of Norwich – The Showings of Julian of Norwich: A New Translation

She is the award-winning author of:

God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation, and
Mother of God Similar to Fire, a collaboration with iconographer, William Hart McNichols.
Her latest book, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, was published in Spring 2019.

She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

Website: mirabaistarr.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

First BatGap interview with Mirabai.

Interview recorded October 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
00:03:28 – Suppression of Women Mystics and the Rebalancing of Power
00:07:10 – The Burial of Feminine Wisdom in Religion
00:10:57 – The Dark Night of the Soul and Feminine Mysticism
00:14:34 – The Blend of Mysticism and Activism
00:18:39 – Finding Solace in Not Knowing
00:22:38 – Teresa’s Second Conversion Experience
00:25:56 – The Gaze of Unconditional Love
00:29:17 – The Power of Spiritual Friendship
00:31:49 – Mystics and Wisdom Beings
00:34:32 – Non-duality and Surrender
00:37:00 – Dissolving into Sweetness
00:40:01 – Feminine Wisdom: Love and Embodiment in Spirituality
00:43:09 – Harmonizing Devotion and Non-Duality
00:45:24 – Devotion and Non-Dual Consciousness
00:48:40 – Mirabai: A 16th century woman mystic
00:50:44 – Krishna’s Love and Protection
00:53:10 – The Life of Mirabai
00:55:56 – The Birth of Mirabai and Spiritual Awakening
00:58:46 – An Encounter with Anandamayi Ma
01:01:29 – Ram Dass and Anandamayi Ma
01:03:42 – Embracing Our True Selves
01:06:18 – Redefining Masculine Dominance and the Rise of the Divine Feminine
01:09:17 – The Reclamation of Mother Earth
01:12:36 – The Power of the Feminine
01:14:35 – The Dark Side of the Feminine
01:17:02 – Dropping into the Fierce Feminine
01:20:07 – Multiple Spiritual Belonging
01:22:25 – Women Mystics: Sharing Stories of Awakening and Service
01:25:13 – Finding Divinity in Everything
01:27:10 – End of Video

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515. Gillian Ross

Posted on September 4, 2019 by Rick Archer

Gillian Ross has always found it difficult to put a label on her spiritual perspective. If pressed she would describe herself as a Christian Buddhist yogi and mystic with a penchant for Taoism! Over recent years, however, she has been happy to call herself a spiritual evolutionary or evolutionary mystic in the tradition of Teilhard de Chardin in the West and Sri Aurobindo in the East.

Born in the UK in 1940, she migrated to Australia as an academic in the early sixties. Her Western education gave her an Honours Science Degree, a Masters degree in Philosophy and a Doctorate in the Behavioural Sciences but left her feeling increasingly restless and unfulfilled. There was a growing awareness that her intellectual conditioning had disconnected her from the natural spontaneity and mystical riches of her childhood.

The deep love she felt for her children awakened lost memories of spiritual connection. She began to meditate, practice yoga and study Eastern philosophies. In her early forties, she left her marriage, her city life, and academic career and took her family of two young sons, two dogs and two cats off to the Blue Mountains of NSW to explore an alternative lifestyle. She has never looked back! After many years of feeling like a fish out of water, she came to understand what it means to “flow in the current of the Eternal Tao”.

She trained as a yoga teacher and shiatsu therapist and has become a best selling ABC author (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) of relaxation and meditation CDs and a yoga video as well as publishing four books on science and mysticism and the evolution of consciousness.

After her sons left home she moved even further into the wild. Over the last 20 years, she has fallen in love with 40 acres of natural bush adjacent to a powerful sacred aboriginal site in Northern NSW. She nurtures it as a haven for spiritual retreats and residential weekends on evolutionary spirituality and mystic meditation, delighting in sharing with others some of the philosophies and practices that have helped to bring her out of spiritual bleakness into a lasting sense of peace, purpose and, above all, joy.

Books:

CD: Relaxation Audio CD

Links:

Website: drgillianross.com
Connection: An Awakening Experience (blog post)
Consciousness V Catastrophe: Reflections on the Next Stage of Human Evolution (YouTube video)
Email: [email protected]
Toolgoolawa School (mentioned in the interview)

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded August 24, 2019

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
00:05:58 – The Consciousness Revolution and Evolutionary Spirituality
00:10:36 – Evolutionary Mysticism and the Driving Force of Evolution
00:18:14 – Awakening the Collective Consciousness
00:24:19 – The Power of the Awakened Heart
00:29:04 – Problems with Paleolithic Emotions and God-like Technology
00:35:29 – The Emergence of a New Consciousness and Humanity
00:39:58 – Getting Established in the Self for the Faith Transition
00:43:35 – The distinction between emotions and feelings
00:48:31 – The Sacredness of Life and Our Treatment of Animals
00:53:48 – The Shadow Side of Non-dualism
00:58:21 – The Science of Spirituality and the Impact of Consciousness
01:02:30 – The Scientific Method and Mystics
01:06:27 – A Journey of Mystical Awakening
01:11:05 – Awakening the Mystical Anatomy
01:16:10 – The Awakening of the Third Eye
01:20:06 – Awakening to the Divine Within
01:24:08 – The Injection of Feminine Energy
01:28:32 – Flowing with the Stream of Consciousness
01:32:40 – The Snowflake Self and Connectivity
01:36:19 – Finding Fulfillment and Reawakening Genius
01:40:04 – Buying a House and Finding the Lemon Grove
01:42:43 – Guides and Spiritual Insight
01:45:37 – Surrendering to the Divine Will
01:48:46 – The Framework of the New Story
01:51:43 – Stabilizing High Levels of Consciousness
01:54:42 – Universal Mysticism and Connecting with the Sacred
01:57:51 – The Transition from Ego to Essence
02:00:48 – The Power of Love and Sacred Activism
02:03:13 – Getting More Involved and Staying Updated
02:05:28 – Encouragement to Write a Book

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489. Miranda Macpherson, 2nd Interview

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Rick Archer

Miranda Macpherson began her spiritual journey at the age of thirteen when, amidst a period of clinical depression, she was spontaneously opened into a profound state of boundless love. That experience initiated a lifelong dedication to spiritual practice, psychological depth, and the study of the world’s wisdom traditions. Her travels took her from her native Australia to the United Kingdom, where after completing seminary training, she founded the OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in London, at the request of her teacher. Over the next decade, Miranda trained and ordained more than six hundred interfaith ministers and spiritual counselors.

In 2005, a seismic shift occurred that changed the course of Miranda’s life. While meditating in a cave in India that was once home to the revered sage Sri Ramana Maharshi, she experienced a direct transmission of the true nature of reality that required total surrender. In the wake of this, Miranda found herself again moving to a new continent, this time the United States. There, in the years it took to integrate this opening, a body of teachings on Grace and Ego Relaxation began to emerge that brings ancient wisdom alive for our changing times.

Today, Miranda is known for her depth of presence and gift for guiding others into direct experience of the sacred. Miranda leads the Living Grace sangha in Marin and Sonoma counties, holds retreats internationally, and offers online programs through the Shift Network. Unapologetically feminine, joyful, and down to earth in her way of being, Miranda is dedicated to loving people all the way back into the freedom and wholeness of their true nature. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Bob Duchmann.

Books:

CDs: