Mindful U at Naropa University

In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Ietef aka “DJ CAVEM”, international eco-hip hop artist, chef, organic gardener, and food justice advocate. DJ CAVEM shares about the important cross pollination of art and sustainability, and how food justice and ecological responsibility translate into equity for all. He also talks about celebrating companies that go green and encouraging brands that listen when they’re called out, energizing our youth to be in contact with plants and soil, and building brave spaces in our communities that address the many inequities of modern society. Check out this episode for an inspiring talk on the impact of art on our relationship to food, climate, justice, and nature! Special Guest: DJ Cavem.

We are happy to have calligraphic artist, Barbara Bash, join us to discuss her creative journey over the years—from the precision of Western calligraphy to the spontaneity of big brush stroke and what unites them. She also talks about the 3 primary principles of contemplative art: Heaven, Earth, and Humanity and how these become gateways that attune you into the aliveness of the moment. Check out this episode to hear this rich conversation! Special Guest: Barbara Bash.

Valeria McCarroll, PhD, joins us to discuss Somadelics, Pursuing Life with Psychedelic Support & Intentional Integration in this thought-provoking episode. Also discussed is being in 'right relationship' with the medicine, trauma responses, honoring the medicine's lineage, and transformational justice. After the episode, find more on ValeriaMcCarroll.com and Somadelics.com. "I am deeply curious about, you know, there’s now studies that are emerging, or that have been emerging around using psychedelics to heal racial trauma and using psychedelics to address the impact of injustice in our society. I am particularly curious about because I like taking these frameworks and bringing them inside, what would it be to — to take principles and understandings of restorative justice and — and transformative justice and scaffold bodies of work so that people can do that work internally so that they can transform the parts of themselves that oppress and have been oppressed into right relationships so we can be in right relationship inside ourselves? Because I think that’s really, you know, if we sort of look at all of what’s happening in the world is the play of consciousness coming to know itself, we’re just projecting our own undigested stuff around power out there. And so if we can do that work internally, then maybe we can do that with other people in a good way." - Valeria McCarroll "Somadelics is a contemporary path of spiritual awakening, a weaving that is inspired and informed by the traditions of classical nondual Tantra, modern psychedelic medicine, and somatic psychology. Somadelics synthesizes luminous practices for awakening radiant embodiment." -ValeriaMcCarroll.com Special Guest: Valeria McCarroll.

Dr. Jennifer Bacon is a strong proponent of taking action in activism. That is why she created the course "Sacred Activism" at Naropa - to empower a community to make strides in equality, anti-racism, and social justice. Her children's book, I Am an Antiracist Superhero! will be published by Bala Kids in 2023. Pre-order her book HERE (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/729592/i-am-an-antiracist-superhero-by-jennifer-nicole-bacon-illustrated-by-leticia-moreno/) Special Guest: Dr. Jennifer Bacon.

SHE'S BACK! Ladies, theydies, and gentlemen - tune in for the uplifting magic that is Jaguar Womban! Those who got to witness her on Naropa's campus already know. And those who haven't can feel her healing aura through this episode. Jaguar is a multi-dimensional healing artist, medicine woman, a visionary Mother of the womb nation. She also works with herbs, ancestral channeling, poetry and ceremonial plant medicine. She flew from Oaxaca, Mexico to meet us in Boulder, CO as the Honored Artist in Residence Keynote for our 2022 Naropa Community Practice Day. We welcome her back to her alma mater and also the Mindful U podcast! Her message today "Words Do Not Teach" is a part of her work in the "conjuring the language of the liminal spaces" of energy healing. Tune in to hear more on her journey to the Womb Nation Mother she has become. **Instagram - @jaguarwomban (https://www.instagram.com/jaguarwomban/?hl=en) Jaguar's Linktree (https://linktr.ee/Jaguarwomban) Cover Photo by Daniel N. Johnson Find Daniel's work on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/danieljohnsonis/?hl=en)** Special Guest: Jaguar Womban.

Today, our beloved professor of the Religious Studies Program and the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Andrew Schelling, joins us to discuss language, the page as a performance, and the bravery to pursue writing as a spiritual practice and state of mind. Andrew's work involves around 20 odd books of writings and edits along with being a translator in Sanskrit. He has taught at Naropa for over 30 years. Big Quotes: “Where does breath come from? And then how do you record that on the page? How do you work with line breaks? How do you work with punctuation, stanza breaks, so that you can capture on the page? You know, that’s why I say the page is a performance.” “With a creative art, you can say there’s a goal, which is becoming an accomplished writer, or musician or whatever, or generating great work, but you can’t see it until you’re there. It’s a whole different kind of world.” Tune into this episode to hear this rich discussion on developing writing as a spiritual practice and state of mind. Special Guest: Andrew Schelling.

Netanel Miles-Yepez is a Sufi Pir (Sufi spiritual guide), Doctor of Divinity, and World Wisdom’s Professor at Naropa. He is also an artist, an author, a religious scholar, a spiritual teacher and a Co-Founder of The Heart Fire Festival. His focuses and studies are with Sufiism. In this episode, we hear him speak about Sufiism, developing a deeper understanding of religion, and what connecting to his own religion did to assist his soul path. Special Guest: Netanel Miles-Yepez.

The 14th Dalai Lama's wisdom is largely accessible to the English-speaking world because of today’s honorary guest. In this episode, we hear Thupten Jinpa speak fondly of his monk-hood as a compassionate Tibetan child, the divine alignment that cast him as the principal English translator to the Dalai Lama, and his Holistic appreciation for the contemplative model of education exemplified by schools like Naropa. Please join us as we welcome our inspiring friend into our hearts and minds. Please share this episode with a compassionate friend of yours and subscribe to the Mindful U Podcast for more educational conversations like this. Wisdom & Traditions Department of Naropa University (https://www.naropa.edu/academics/graduate-academics/wisdom-traditions-department/) The Institute of Tibetan Classics - Founded By Thupten Jinpa (https://tibetanclassics.org/) The Frederick Lenz Foundation (https://fredericklenzfoundation.org/) "I understand the word contemplative, as a way of bringing an approach that emphasizes self awareness, paying attention, and also bringing conscious intention into what you do. And tempered with, you know, important fundamental human values that we share. And if we broadly mean this by the word contemplative, then clearly, this is something that needs to be, you know, brought into any education system across the world. Because, even though you may speak different languages, may live in different parts of the world. But when it comes to fundamental human reality, we are all sharing this one small planet, which is now facing existential threat from climate crisis, as well as, you know, the pressures of globalization, putting on all of us to really find a way to live where peaceful coexistence based on mutual respect and understanding becomes an important part of our challenge, important part of the requirement, if we want to save the world, you know. So, in all of these, some element of contemplative education has to be necessary." -Thupten Jinpa Langri, Mindful U Podcast Special Guest: Thupten Jinpa Langri.

*Join Jordan at this science-backed training on Sept 6th "Compassion-Based Boundaries: An Introduction with Jordan Quaglia, PhD" (https://www.naropa.edu/event/compassion-based-boundaries-an-introduction-with-jordan-quaglia-phd/) *"In this workshop, Director of Naropa’s Cognitive and Affective Science Lab, Jordan Quaglia, PhD, offers an introduction to what he calls compassion-based boundaries, a science-backed framework that provides practical skills for navigating complex interpersonal situations." "But if someone has trained their attention in a particular way to be more open and receptive, there might be even a different felt sense to someone listening to you from that perspective. So, I think that's not a bad sort of just little example of thinking how it is that training our own mind, training our own attention and intention and awareness can have ramifications for others in our life as well. And it offers us the potential I think, to be generous with our minds. And you could say generous with our hearts. If we have more attention available in the sense that we've grown this capacity to pay attention, then we can be more generous with our attention without it feeling like we're depleting ourselves." Register Here (https://www.naropa.edu/academics/extended-campus/compassion-boundaries/) September 6 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm $40 – $49 Special Guest: Jordan Quaglia.

"Last time I sang the national anthem, I was on ecstasy." (Powers, 2018, maps.org (https://maps.org/news/bulletin/black-masks-rainbow-bodies-psychedelics-and-race/)) Nicholas Powers, PhD, is a writer. His no-BS approach to humanitarian literature has caught the eyes of Wall Street Journal, Truth Out, and The Independent. Tune in for a bold conversation on how a future on psychedelics might look. https://indypendent.org/authors/nicholas-powers/ Powers, N. June 15, 2018. "Black Masks, Rainbow Bodies: Psychedelics and Race." [Maps.org.](https://maps.org/news/bulletin/black-masks-rainbow-bodies-psychedelics-and-race/) https://truthout.org/authors/nicholas-powers/ https://www.naropa.edu/event/psychedelic-alchemy/ Psychedelic Alchemy guest speaker Nicholas Powers, PhD, believes that psychedelics must leave the lab and therapy office to give humanity a chance to reimagine itself, and challenge our current path of self-destruction. Remarkably, personal therapy mirrors what happens in social movements: wounded souls return to their real selves, real bodies often discarding former identities like old skin. But according to Powers, we must go beyond healing the individual to healing our history and collective trauma.

Spring Washam "clocks in" at a job many of us here at Naropa day-dream about: Hosting entheogenic plant ceremonies at a retreat space in Costa Rica. This episode is a colorful glimpse into her world of combining meditation, detoxifying nutrition, integrative practices, and sacred plant medicine in what she calls "accelerated earth school". Spring is the author of two books, A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage and Wisdom in Any Moment and her newest book, The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground. She is a a pioneer for meditation & mindfulness in diverse communities and is one of the founding teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, located in downtown Oakland, CA. She also studied meditation under renowned teacher Jack Cornfield and now has the same spirited impact with her own teachings. Spring's website is rich with both audio. & video teachings and I highly recommend checking it out. On her website, you will also find a range of remote and in-person group classes & retreats. https://www.springwasham.com/ Special Guest: Spring Washam.

Tai Amri: "I started Allies in Action at Naropa while I was there as a student, and also was the editor of Tendril, which was a journal on diversity. And that really came out of my feelings of like, man it’s really hard being black in Boulder, and being black at Naropa was also very difficult. And — and I was getting triggered all the time, and micro-aggressions, which I didn’t have language for at the time - I just like, I’m not gonna be able to graduate from here if I don’t do something to try to change it. And Allies in Action was really like - how do we address unaddressed privilege and oppression in the school environment? And I feel like B.L.A.C.K Lawrence tries to do a lot of that, as well as how do we create space for black creators in a place where there’s not a lot of us.” Beautiful Ashe: Memoirs of A Sweet Black Boy and Other Poems Beautiful Ashe: Memoirs of A Sweet Black Boy Tai Amri (https://www.blurb.com/b/10758753-beautiful-ashe) In This Episode: -Influence of Music in Writing -Black Studies & Black Aesthetics -Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics -Black Literature & Arts Collective of Kansas -Tai Amri Original Spoken Poetry -Elegba - Trickster God, African Deity -Obatala - African Deity of Peace & Creativity -Pantheon of Orishas -Influential Teachers of Color at Naropa -Soltahr Tiv-Amanda (http://soltahr.com/) Soltahr.com -Malaika Pettigrew Remembering Malaika (https://www.malaikapettigrew.com/) Tai’s Favorite Jazz Musician: This Is Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO3S0ZGe?si=2099b70fa06a41f9) http://artblakey.com/ More Influence: Tito Puente This Is Tito Puente on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO44lISP?si=1210829a48dc426e) Bob Marley Legend - The Best of Bob Marley and The Wailers on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/4jKeipwuUTjlx9USNYdhZn?si=OEDpa9jVSCuln-dmZ9tDSg) Poetic Influence: https://soniasanchez.net/ Sonia Sanchez (https://soniasanchez.net/) https://whitmanarchive.org/ Walt Whitman (https://whitmanarchive.org/) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amiri-baraka Amiri Baraka - Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amiri-baraka) Naropa's Office for Inclusive Community (https://www.naropa.edu/about-naropa/naropa-mission-and-values/office-for-inclusive-community/) Get To Know Your Host: Apple: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-devine-an-intimate-interview-and-mindful-u-year/id1293885372?i=1000423270893) Spotify: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review (https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HYmXIB6XJbrPwpAfiXMK5?si=d31325fbc7e149a4) Your Next Noteworthy Listen: MU 79: Anthony Gallucci: Re-Establishing Masculinity (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mu-79-anthony-gallucci-re-establishing-masculinity/id1293885372?i=1000465892494) Special Guest: Tai Amri.

Regina Smith, Masters in Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology from Naropa, has a contemplated what a thriving mission, culture, and inclusivity-driven community could look like. Regina and her Naropa team are mirroring this vision in order to make it less of a dream and more reality. Tune into this episode to catch a glimpse of her insights and find out how you can help. Episode Links: Nikki Giovanni (https://nikki-giovanni.com/) Poetry: Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day (https://nikki-giovanni.com/works/poetry/cotton-candy-on-a-rainy-day/) Ubuntu I Am Because We Are (https://www.ttbook.org/interview/i-am-because-we-are-african-philosophy-ubuntu#:~:text=In%20practice%2C%20ubuntu%20means%20believing,no%20tensions%2C%22%20said%20Ogude.) Novel: Feminist Accountability Buy it at the Boulder Bookstore (https://www.boulderbookstore.net/book/9780814777152) Big Quotes: "One of the things I know is that I’m not the one who knows, I’ve decided to demote myself from being the one who knows. So, I can just tell you about my experience, I can’t tell you whether it’s the ultimate truth." "How do we become okay with not being special or important or central, but rather becoming what’s needed for the collective to thrive?" Get To Know Your Host: Apple: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-devine-an-intimate-interview-and-mindful-u-year/id1293885372?i=1000423270893) Spotify: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review (https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HYmXIB6XJbrPwpAfiXMK5?si=d31325fbc7e149a4) Your Next Noteworthy Listen: 02. Judith Zimmer-Brown: The Science and Practice of Compassion (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindful-u-at-naropa-university/id1293885372?i=1000393315902) Special Guest: Regina-Smith.

Mission, Culture & Inclusive Community is a new division at Naropa University. It was created post murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor - when the push for closer alignment with unconditional peace was necessary for the conscious evolution of our Naropa community as mindfulness leaders. Learn more about the work this division is doing at Naropa from Jamelah - Restorative Community Coordinator & Amanda - Senior Director of Mission, Culture & Inclusive Community - in this Mindful U Podcast episode. Learn more about: -Transformative Justice Practices -Enhancing & Repairing Community Systems -Self-Regulation -Pro-Active Community Building -The Importance of Trust & Relationship Building Learn a term: -J.E.D.I. Conflicts - Justice. Equity. Diversity. Inclusion. Get To Know Your Host: Apple: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-devine-an-intimate-interview-and-mindful-u-year/id1293885372?i=1000423270893) Spotify: David DeVine: An Intimate Interview and Mindful U Year In Review (https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HYmXIB6XJbrPwpAfiXMK5?si=d31325fbc7e149a4)** **Your Next Noteworthy Listen: Travis Cox: Ecopsychology & Psychedelics (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/travis-cox-ecopsychology-and-psychedelics/id1293885372?i=1000552233730) Special Guests: Amanda Aguilera and Jamelah Zidan.

Travis Cox, PhD is back after our first conversation, four years ago, this time adding on the lens of psychedelics to look at ecopsychology as a radical intervention. Explore the negative consequences of our disconnect from planet, personal, and spirituality and how it intersects and impacts ecopsychology when we introduce psychedelics to explore reconnected. Special Guest: Travis Cox, PhD.

"But it’s also a lot of sort of ordinary people who have tried everything else, you know, veterans, first responders, sexual assault survivors, people who have already been through years and years of therapy and different kinds of medications, people with substance abuse, people who have had suicide attempts. So the fact that the FDA has given MDMA and psilocybin, it’s now been demarcated with a status called breakthrough — which basically just means that the results have been so efficacious, that drugs are sort of given the status and expedited when it seems like the results are so promising." Special Guest: Sara Lewis .

"When we’re with people who are reviewing the end of their life or saying goodbye to a loved one, there’s this heightened sense of connection and awareness, a lot of times in crisis and sometimes difficulty. Psychedelic journeys can be — not always be easy and expansive, sometimes they’re challenging. And so there are a lot of — lot of our training, I think crosses over well into psychedelic therapies. And in particular, chaplains have this capacity to help assess the spiritual and religious landscape for a person before they go into a psychedelic experience. Because what can happen is, you can have a very powerful existential, you know, awareness of like the presence of a being or maybe a feeling of connection and — and then it becomes important to integrate that with your — you know, understanding of the cosmos and the — your religious and spiritual commitments. So people can go into some degree of existential crisis or just transition — it’s a very creative space. And chaplains are good at navigating those spaces as they’re unfolding. So that’s what chaplains I think, have to bring to the field, but at the same time, there are a lot of religious taboos and a lot of teachings within the religious traditions that encourage staying away from psychedelic medicines. And so that conversation is very much happening in the field right now and among religious leaders and professionals and chaplains and it’s — it’s an interesting conversation that’s taking place you know about the right use of these medicines and plants and how we can also do that without harming the communities that they come from." Special Guest: Jamie Beachy.

"When that first object that represents the truth of the belief that I have an emotional issue dissipates or disappears from me, I fall into exactly the state of being that Buddhists call equanimity. That state of contentment and self satisfaction that needs nothing at the moment. I don’t just get respite from my emotional issue that I happen to be looking at. I got respite from everything for you know a matter of minutes or hours, or it might stretch a little longer. And the more times I do it, or the more often that kind of respite can enter into it. Because eventually once I’ve done this 20, 30, 100 times it varies from person to person- I start to believe oh, that’s who I am. I’m not the voice up in my head. I’m actually this collection of body objects that’s — neither is who I actually am. But this one is telling the truth all the time." Special Guest: Anne Lamott.

"Absolutely. You know we might have an idea about something, but then when you begin to express it from a creative place it's almost like you have to feel into it. If I want to write a poem about sadness it's not just about my ideas about sadness. At some point as I'm writing I need to stop and feel into what does sadness feel like? And then I might even think about a very specific situation in my life that brings up sadness. And then what arises from that place as a poem is coming from a non-conceptual place. Non-conceptual knowing and yet I've expressed something and I might even express it in words like with a poem. So, what we're trying to do in contemplative education is to bring both of those together. So, it's not in spite of conceptual knowing -- concepts are great, thinking is great -- but that there are other ways of knowing that are equally important and maybe if we bring them all together then there's a richness of knowing that begins to emerge." Special Guest: Charlotte Rotterdam.

"I read very widely and was trying to put the pieces together to understand this lifelong question that I had carried. What is the origin of the wrongness in the world, which is presented to us as a series of fragmented isolated atrocities and injustices and horrors -- without any synthesizing narrative that explains why the world is the way that it is? And I really wanted to understand so that I wouldn't be part of maintaining the status quo through pursuing insufficiently deep solutions that may be actually part of the problem. I think a lot of our solutions are part of the problem -- or you could even say our solution templates -- I mean one of them is the war on evil. So, I wanted to -- to get really deep and eventually I came to understand that all of the crises and horrors that we see in the world are an outgrowth of the mythology of civilization. The story of separation is what I call it, which basically says it answers the most fundamental questions that human beings ask. Who are you? Who am I? What is important? How is life to be lived? What is real? What is possible? How does the world work? And our culture answers that in a certain way. And other cultures have answered it different ways." Special Guest: Charles Eisenstein.