Founder of Fireside Project, Joshua White, reflects on becoming a ‘loving rock’ and how Ram Dass’s teachings sparked his creation of a psychedelic peer support line.

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This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Joshua White outlines:

• How Joshua grew up feeling alienated from his Jewish roots
• The realization that we truly can just be observers of our own thoughts
• The inner knowing that there is more to this world
• Service as the highest form of psychedelic integration
• Being a ‘loving-rock’ for people in a psychedelic experience
• Becoming an environment in which someone can come up for air
• Connecting with our sense of ‘enoughness’ rather than brokenness
• Active listening and simply showing up for another person as a loving witness
• Welcoming all emotions and not referring to any as ‘wrong’

About Joshua White:

Joshua (he/him) is Fireside Project’s founder, the world's first psychedelic peer support line. He is a lawyer, peer support advocate, and psychedelic researcher who believes in the power of peer support and the role of support lines as foundational components of an equitable mental-health ecosystem.

Prior to founding Fireside Project, Joshua volunteered for many years as a counselor on Safe & Sound’s TALK Line and a psychedelic peer support provider for the Zendo Project.

Before devoting his life to the psychedelic field, Joshua spent more than a decade as a Deputy City Attorney at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where he focused on suing businesses exploiting vulnerable communities, serving as general counsel to City departments, and co-teaching a nationally renowned clinic at Yale Law School. He also clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced civil litigation at Conrad | Metlitzky | Kane.

“Ram Dass’s experience encountering Maharaj-ji and having these magical experiences with him and all of the impact LSD and other psychedelics had on him, really showed me that these substances could be responsible tools for profound inner work.” –Joshua White

About The Host, Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an inter-spiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves.

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Buddhist teacher David Nichtern explains that making friends with the mind and internal world is the first step to relating better with the people around us.

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LIVE from the 2024 Ram Dass Summer Mountain Retreat, David Nichtern explores:

• How our minds shape the reality we experience and perceive
• The importance of positive mantra versus focusing on negativity
• Taking comfort and refuge within our own minds
• Understanding restless, “hot” boredom versus calm, “cool” boredom
• Musical examples for how we relate to one another
• The bridge between the everyday world and the internal, spiritual experience
• Mental patterns that destabilize us and hinder resilience
• Becoming open to our environment during mindfulness meditation

“Mindfulness meditation would be good because you’re developing patience and familiarity with yourself that’s accepting, not rejecting. It is, in a way, making love to yourself. It’s being intimate with yourself; it’s just you and your mind. You develop a kind of willingness to be where you are.” –David Nichtern

About David Nichtern:

David Nichtern, founder of Dharma Moon, is a senior Buddhist teacher who has been practicing and teaching meditation for over 40 years. He was one of the initial American students of renowned meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and studied closely with him soon after his arrival in the United States in 1970. He is also a business consultant with companies creating a variety of offerings integrating meditation in a larger health and well-being context. David is also a multiple Grammy-nominated and Emmy award-winning musician. David’s journey has crisscrossed with the Maharaji/Ram Dass sangha for decades. He has produced multiple Krishna Das albums and frequently joins the Bhaktettes live on guitar. He considers himself to be a first cousin and honorary member of the Bhakti community.

“If you examine the self-talk, the narrative dialing through our minds, there’s a lot of criticism, harshness towards our selves and others. We start with kindness and gentleness, that’s it, if you can’t get anywhere else, that’s really a good place.” –David Nichtern

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Vipassana teacher Trudy Goodman explores how trusting in the dharma and in ourselves leads to a more peaceful, present life.

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In this episode, Trudy Goodman gives a lecture on:

• The dharma as our reliable refuge
• Trusting the simple process of being alive
• Offering metta (loving-kindness) to ourselves and others
• Practicing mudita, aka, taking joy in the joy of others
• How the principle of sila (ethical conduct) protected the Buddha from his demons
• What to do when we are swayed by temptation
• Concerning ourselves only with what our minds are doing in this very minute
• Living in the way instead of worrying about a result
• Making each thing we do the most important thing in the world
• Using our karma instead of being used by it

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

“Trust yourself then, to this simple process of being alive, letting go of all elaborations and returning to the body, the breath, step by step, moment by moment, just returning to this simple basic fundamental fact of our own aliveness—our embodied being.” –Trudy Goodman

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Exploring the Soto Zen path, Rev. Chimyo Atkinson and Vincent Moore reflect on inclusivity, feminine wisdom, and the beauty of simplicity.

This episode is from the series Paths of Practice. Click here to subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts!

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In this episode, Rev. Chimyo and Vinvent Moore chat about:

• Building a Zen Buddhist community in the Southern United States
• Rev Chimyo’s profound experience volunteering at a prison as a Zen priest
• How Rev Chimyo was first introduced to meditation and Buddhism
• The beautiful serenity within taking pause, being still, and doing a Zen practice
• Finding reality in the present moment and realizing that everything else is made up in our minds
• Walking the Soto Zen path and finding depth within simple practices
• Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple and holding space specifically for women in the Buddhist world
• Paying attention to what feminine energy can bring to Buddhist practice and temples
• Inclusive spiritual practice and focusing on the shared elements of life
• The calm and connection that can be discovered through Zen labor
• Loving others and loving the dharma, wishing peace for all people
• Doing all daily tasks with the dharma in our hearts and minds

About Rev. Chimyo Atkinson:

Rev. Chimyo Atkinson is a Soto Zen priest that serves the Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple in Alexander, NC, as well as sanghas and centers throughout the United States and internationally. Rev. Chimyo was ordained by Rev. Teijo Munnich in 2007 and received Dharma Transmission in 2015. She received monastic training at Great Tree Temple and completed two Sotoshu International training periods (angos) in Japan in 2010 and 2011, two additional angos at Aichi Senmon Nisodo in Nagoya in 2012 and one ango at Ryumonji Monastery in Iowa in 2014. Chimyo served as Head of Practice at Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple and volunteered with the sangha at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institute until 2020. For more information, please visit: https://chimyoatkinson.org/

About Vincent Moore:

Vincent Moore is a media specialist and creative consultant at Good for Nothing Ideas based in San Francisco, California. Vincent has over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry as a producer, performer, and writer in stage, film, and television and wrote a children's book titled, You're a Rubber Duck. He also has a master's degree in Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies with a Certificate in Soto Zen Studies. Vincent is also the creator and host of the podcast, Paths of Practice, which features interviews with Buddhists from all over the world. For more information about his work, please visit: www.goodfornothingideas.com

“Just stop, and give not just the breath but the whole being to that stillness, that stop. Be in reality for a minute, for 40 minutes, if you can handle it, 60 minutes. Be in that stop. Experience it. Know there’s reality. Everything else you’re making it up as you go along.” –Rev. Chimyo Atkinson

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Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal explores the concept of the deathless and examines ways to experience life without clinging to impermanent things.

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In this episode of the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil discusses:

• What the Buddha said about attaining the deathless
• Seeking after things that are eternal rather than prone to aging and impermanence
• Three forms of clinging/craving that lead us to suffering: beliefs, becoming, and sensual pleasure
• Considering if there is a ‘you’ beyond thought
• Letting go of our attachments to concepts
• How a fixation on ‘becoming somebody’ prevents us from being
• Avoidance of the reality of suffering due to personal discomfort
• Developing mindfulness over time and having compassion for ourselves when we notice grasping
• The timeless present and the end of separation
• Attentiveness as the path to the deathless
• The American notion of freedom versus the Eastern notion of liberation
• The ultimate goal of Buddhism: to be open-handed, to have a mind without grasping

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

“The deathless is a synonym for Nirvana, for enlightenment, the great peace, the great happiness, for that which is unconditioned, the unborn, the ultimate security, the ultimate safety.” – Gil Fronsdal

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East Forest recounts his powerful experience meeting and recording with Ram Dass, and offers a live set of transcendent music seamlessly interwoven with Ram Dass’s timeless teachings.

Check out more music from this spiritual collaboration: East Forest x Ram Dass

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In this episode, hear East Forest perform and learn more about:

• East Forest’s profound and intimate collaboration with Ram Dass
• How the peace of nature can be a spiritual tool for us
• The integral role of psilocybin and psychedelics in Ram Dass’s awakening and teachings
• The synergistic relationship between the audience and the performer during live music
• Relating to the wilderness within our own hearts through music
• The technology of our breath and how it calms us down into the present moment
• The human connection to nature and nature as a manifestation of God
• Loving all beings and all elements of the world around us
• Letting go of everything within ourselves that we do not need

This episode was recorded at the 2022 Summer Mountain Retreat. Join us for the Open Your Heart in Paradise retreat this December in Maui!

About East Forest:

East Forest is a multidisciplinary artist, producer, and ceremony guide. Since 2008, East Forest’s “lush” (Rolling Stone) and “blissful” (NPR) music has blended ambient, neoclassical, electronic, and avant-pop to explore sound as a tool for inner journeys and consciousness expansion. Known for being the first musician to collaborate with Ram Dass, his latest endeavor is the feature-length film Music for Mushrooms, a narrative documentary showcasing the transformative power of psychedelics, music, and community.

"I'm not up here generating something and presenting something for you to passively receive. It’s more that your attention into this space, the Bhakti space, the love space, the emptiness, it feeds the emptiness itself for me to hopefully channel that back out. It’s like surfing: we go in, we go out. In that, we can have a real experience together that can be whatever it needs to be right now.” –East Forest

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Familiarizing listeners with the five Buddhist hindrances, Trudy Goodman suggests a compassionate return to mindfulness of the senses.

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In this episode, Trudy Goodman outlines:

• The 5 Buddhist hindrances: desire, aversion, sloth and torpor, restlessness/worry, and doubt
• Remembering that being affected by the hindrances is not a mistake or our fault, but instead is an opportunity to practice mindfulness
• How craving pulls us out of the present moment and how our senses can ground us back into awareness
• Reflecting on the feeling of wanting something, and whether our desires truly align with our core values
• The four kinds of suffering, most of which we have all experienced
• Understanding that aversion is not inherently ‘bad’ and how it can be a kindness to turn away from something that causes us pain
• Shifting our attention away from hostility and turning towards curiosity about our emotions
• Practicing walking meditation as a remedy to sloth and torpor
• Getting to the root of our restlessness and discovering what we are trying to change about the present moment
• How, beneath the paralysis of doubt and inner cynicism, there is often a lack of inner confidence
• Living our lives fully, not wasting a moment, and being completely present as often as we can

“We each have our favorites of the hindrances, but again, these are not mistakes, these are not your fault, they’re part of the practice. When the mind gets lost in them, the doorway back to being present is through coming to our senses. What we see here, taste, feel, in this particular moment of our life. We know this is actually the only real moment of our life.” – Trudy Goodman

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

Aversion is also here to protect us from things that are painful in this life, the problem is that aversion doesn’t understand what true protection is. True protection comes from understanding that we can meet our suffering, that we have strong enough mindfulness and strong enough ability to be present, that we can hold it, that we can meet it, that it isn't going to flood us, overwhelm us, and destroy us, which is often the fear.” – Trudy Goodman

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

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