Show Notes
Omid Safi is a professor at Duke university and is an expert in Sufism and Islamic mysticism. He has authored and edited many books, including Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism, and Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. He also has a podcast called Sufi Heart, which is part of the Be Here Now network. In this conversation we discuss radical love and justice, with a focus on the mystical experience of God's love. As wild as it may sound to modern secular ears, I think it makes sense to say that reality really is made of God's love, or rather the love that is God. In my work I unpack this vision of reality using terms like the radical unbounded openness of the nonconceptual totality of reality, but it's the same thing. Most importantly, it can be discovered directly through experience.
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https://www.contemplativesciencelab.com/
Rupert Read is an environmental philosopher, public intellectual, and activist. He was formerly an associate professor of philosophy at the University of East Anglia in the UK, was a leading figure within Extinction Rebellion, and now leads the Climate Majority Project. His books include "Why Climate Breakdown Matters," "Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos," and "Parents for a Future". Today we discuss why spirituality and philosophy are crucial for understanding ecological breakdown.
Manda Scott is a bestselling author and former veterinary surgeon. She is the author of 16 books including the international bestselling Boudica: Dreaming series which depicts life in pre-Roman Britain and has been translated into over twenty languages. Her 2024 novel, Any Human Power, is an example of Thrutopian fiction, stories that show possible routes to a better future, and is a call to action for us to contribute to a different, generative, equitable and just way forward. She is the host of the Accidental Gods Podcast which explores ways through the metacrisis that we are currently living through. Today we discuss the metacrisis and thrutopian fiction.
https://www.innerspaceinstitute.org/
Francis Weller is a psychotherapist and author of many books including The Wild Edge of Sorrow, The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation, and his upcoming book In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate wisdom from indigenous cultures with knowledge from western traditions. Today we discuss grief and soul activism.