Recordings of Lectures and Discussions

Discussion on Zen

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:24:37 -0800

Kokyo Henkel joined us in October, 2009 as the new Head Teacher at Santa Cruz Zen Center. He has been practicing zen since 1990 in residence at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (most recently as Head of Practice), Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, No Abode Hermitage in Mill Valley, and Bukkokuji Monastery in Japan.

St. Francis of Assisi and Prayer and Elements

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:09:26 -0700

The Five Aspects of Prayer and the Five Elements
by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan

Five aspects of prayer are described by the Sufi teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan. I have
found a correspondence between these and the Five Elements to which we attune
through the Purification Breaths.

Franciscan tradition of quiet prayer - recogimiento

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:12:59 -0700

Brother Bill, with a special love of things medieval, is a scholar equally comfortable in the fields of spirituality, Christian history and the Franciscan tradition. He researches, writes, lectures and translates in four languages. His frequent lectures, retreats and workshops outside the school educate the wider community about the Franciscan tradition. A long-time member of the Board of Trustees and a former dean and president of the school, Bill continually uses his varied talents to meet the administrative, academic and spiritual needs of the people at FST.

Meister Eckhart

Sun, 1 Mar 2009 00:09:29 -0800

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 - 1327/8) is one of the great Christian mystics. He was born near Erfurt in Thuringia and in his distinguished career became a Parisian Professor of Theology and took a leading pastoral and organizational role in the Dominican Order.
In the language of the Christian tradition Eckhart expounds the eternal mysteries in a style that is fresh and original in the best sense. Through the vividness of his use of imagery (alluding to the mysteries of the spark of the soul, the Abyss, the desert, the birth of the Word in the heart, etc.) Eckhart paradoxically directs us to that which lies beyond image.
The depth and universality of Eckhart's teaching has drawn seekers of truth Christian and non-Christian alike. His radical and penetrating insight makes him a natural point of reference for a genuinely ecumenical understanding.

Pseudo-Dionysius

Sun, 1 Feb 2009 22:49:05 -0800

Pseudo-Dionysius lived probably in the late-fifth century, which puts him roughly around the same time as Boethius. He was probably a Syrian monk who, known only by his pseudonym, wrote a series of Greek treatises and letters for the purpose of uniting Neoplatonic philosophy with Christian theology and mystical experience.

Bede Griffiths and Abhishiktananda Discussion

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:42:42 -0800

Bede Griffiths and Abhishiktananda Lecture #4

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:27:09 -0800

The four asramas (“stopping places”) of strict classical Hindu brahmanical life, I’ll
quote from the Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad as I go:
• bramacharya=students of the “ways” of Brahman
o After he has been properly initiated, a boy coming froma g odo family
should wear his sacrificial string and learn all the Vedas…from a single
teacher… Then he should live as a Vedic student for twelve years in
obedience to his teacher.
• grihasta=householders, with the obligation to have children, be successful,
take care of elders, etc.
• vanaprasta=forest dwellers, at a later stage in life to lead a more
contemplative life even with ones’ spouse
o then he should live as a householder for twenty-five years, and in the forest
hermits order for a further twenty-five years.
• sannyasa=renunciation, in classic form living as a solitary, as a wanderer, a
beggar
o Then he ceases to have any yearning in thought, word or deed for all
samsaric things and any attachment to mental impressions and desires.
He is calm, composed, free from enmity, and a renouncer. He who, while
living in the Parahamsa order and meditating without interruption on his
own true nature, abandons his body, becomes liberated.

Bede Griffiths and Abhishiktananda Lecture #3

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 21:54:52 -0800

Concerning both of these men’s thought––there is so much to explore in terms of their understanding of Jesus. Wayne Teasdale, in his book on Fr Bede (Bede Griffiths: An Introduction into his Interspiritual Thought) distinguishes between three aspects of Bede’s Christology: historical, psychological/mystical and cosmic. This is a useful categorization for both, but for now (and for the sake of brevity) I mainly want to focus on the second aspact, the psychological-mystical, Jesus’ understanding of himself, and only briefly touch on those other two aspects.

Bede Griffiths and Abhishiktananda Lecture #2

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:48:29 -0700

• Advaita basically means non-duality, literally “not-two”: referring to human beings––that God and created things,   including the human person, are “not two.”
• Even more than that, advaita is the spiritual awakening to the absolute unity of all beings in their innermost spiritual  nature, an experience of the absolute unity of the spiritual Self.
• This is the revolutionary discovery of the writers of the Upanishads, the last writings of the Vedanta.