Show Notes
Karyn’s spiritual journey was documented in her book Findings from the Hunting Party’s Scout, which chronicles her four most intense years of spiritual growth as an ordinary working soccer mom into an embodied awakened faith leader. After a life-changing spontaneous awakening she shared her Toltec teacher’s teachings and her own experiences as an Interfaith minister ordained by One Spirit Seminary in NYC. In 2019 Karyn was certified as a Mindfulness Meditation teacher taught by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield in their Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program Program. Incorporating methods of mindfulness, The Four Agreements and mystical teachings of the world’s religion into her talks, workshops and writings, Karyn shares wisdom in a non-denominational, dogma free style that is accessible to people who are searching for an open spiritual path that they can call their own. On her Substack, Karyn’s Findings, she released Inviting Grace In, a curated full year of quotes to guide readers through Four seasons of spiritual growth: Spring-Uplifting Spirit, Summer-Shifting Perspectives, Autumn-Recognizing Wisdom, Winter-Expanding the understanding of our being. As a life long social activist, Karyn’s posts highlight ways we can mindfully and compassionately co-create a world where all life is uplifted with a new understanding of ourselves and the source of existence we often call God. Website: karynobeirne.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview Interview recorded November 15, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00 – Opening quote on grace 00:26 – BatGap intro and guest overview 02:02 – From atheist soccer mom to seeker 05:01 – What grace is (and isn’t) 08:31 – Ordinary people and awakening (BatGap origin) 11:01 – Brother’s suffering and rejecting a punitive God 12:25 – Carolyn Myss, tears, and first cracks in atheism 15:05 – Belief vs direct experience 16:06 – Questioning religion and “Pale Blue Dot” 18:08 – One Spirit Seminary and UU principles 20:03 – Mystical cores vs literalism and misuse of religion 22:48 – Mystics, administrators, and organizing “truth” 24:03 – Don Miguel Ruiz, Toltec path, and Omega retreat 26:01 – Funeral visualization, love, and urgency 28:02 – 9/11 and not waiting to live and love 29:03 – Toltec community and vulnerability 30:05 – Living‑room meditation and erratic heartbeat 32:05 – Vision of lines, “unhooking,” and boundlessness 35:02 – Recognizing this as reality and calling it grace 36:02 – Aftershock, fear, and re‑forming identity 39:01 – “Accident‑prone” practice and stabilizing awakening 43:21 – How the glimpse guides Karyn’s work 44:21 – Conditioning and the Toltec “dream of the planet” 46:24 – Grace as unsolicited intervention; daily chances to love 48:33 – Retreats, disrupting routine, and nature as teacher 50:43 – “I am the awareness…” – Ireland insights 52:20 – Leaving “God” undefined; “everything is God” 54:20 – Omnipresent intelligence in life and nature 56:20 – “We are God’s love made manifest” 58:03 – Pain, injustice, and where we place attention 59:03 – Helping where we can; appreciating being alive 1:00:01 – Contemporary teachers (Tolle, Adyashanti, others) 1:20:00 – Death, responsibility, and “response‑ability” 1:30:00 – Karma and cause and effect 1:40:00 – Accepting “what is” vs resisting life 1:50:00 – Ways to invite grace in daily life 2:00:00 – Final reflections: open path and living as love
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Award-winning translator, author, poet, teacher, and workshop leader, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is core faculty and Dean at the Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Father Richard Rohr. Her translation for Shambhala Publications of the fourteenth-century contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing received a 46th Georgia Author of the Year Award. Martin Laird calls her translation of Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence “the new standard,” and it was named by Spirituality & Practice to its Best Books List. At the University of Georgia Carmen earned an MA and a PhD in Medieval Studies, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London, she worked with monastic manuscripts in London and Oxbridge libraries and translated homilies by the tenth-century Benedictine abbot, Ælfric of Eynsham, published as God of Mercy: Ælfric’s Sermons and Theology (Mercer University Press). Carmen has been interviewed on the BBC World Service The Compass, NPR Morning Edition, Center for Action and Contemplation’s Everything Belongs, Turning to the Mystics, and Learning How To See, and many other podcasts. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, in the College Writing Programs, and she is often found in the marsh chanting Psalm 46:10 in Old English.
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