Show Notes
Clinical psychologist and longtime Buddhist meditator Dr. Nicole Wordlaw joins us to talk about her new memoir, Waking Up Alone: Navigating the Narrow Passage Through Master-Slave Narratives. Nicole came to practice to end suffering, and found instead that enlightenment as an arrival, all bliss, all peace, was one more construction of the conditioned mind. The conversation moves through the single pattern she came to see beneath white supremacy, patriarchy, and the harm spiritual teachers do to their students; writing as prayer; pain as a door; and the intergenerational line of women whose voices run through the book. A tender and unflinching conversation about telling the whole story, uprooting the internal oppressor, and the quiet, still voice that always sounds like Love.
Dr. Nicole Wordlaw is a clinical psychologist and longtime practitioner of Buddhist meditation whose work bridges psychology, spirituality, and identity. The daughter of a white mother and a Black father, Dr. Wordlaw brings a deeply personal understanding of belonging and self-discovery to her writing and teaching. A Stanford University graduate with honors and distinction, she went on to earn her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UC Berkeley. In her forthcoming book Waking Up Alone, she vulnerably shares her story of trauma and awakening, and offers gentle guidance for her readers to tune into the quiet voice of truth within.
Topics
00:00:00 — Introduction
00:01:00 — Coming to Buddhism
00:02:00 — Enlightenment as construction
00:05:00 — Love meeting pain
00:06:00 — One pattern of harm
00:09:00 — Writing as prayer
00:11:00 — A naked story
00:15:00 — Somatic abolitionism
00:19:00 — A long line of women
00:23:00 — Shadow and teacher misconduct
00:24:00 — The Sangha Sutra
00:34:00 — Risking making sense to no one
00:38:00 — The Word Story
00:42:00 — The inner teacher
00:47:00 — Love is not an idea
Resources & Links
Dr. Nicole Wordlaw
Website: nicolewordlaw.com
Waking Up Alone: Navigating the Narrow Passage Through Master-Slave Narratives — out now
Substack
Referenced in the conversation
Sounds of SAND — Somatic Abolitionism: Resmaa Menakem & Gabor Maté
Sounds of SAND — The Architecture of Silence in Spiritual Culture
Steve Hagen — Buddhism Plain and Simple
Nisargadatta Maharaj — I Am That
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