Dropping In with Omega Institute

In this episode from Omega's 2017 Being Fearless Conference, Professor Rhonda Magee shares a poignant 24 minutes of teachings honoring her African American heritage, finding collective worth in one's culture, and creating mindfulness around social justice. Later, she offers a 6-minute standing practice to help you honor your personal history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

Today, Roshi Joan Halifax offers a stirring 26-minute lecture on being a 'war baby', early lessons in unconditional love, and what it really means to be of service, all from Omega's 2013 Women and Power Retreat. Later, she leads a 14-minute body mindfulness practice (starting at 27:38), and shares her core teaching: cultivating a strong back, soft front. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...

Today, the cofounders of the Holistic Life Foundation begin this 38-minute conversation, originally recorded at the Making Peace with the Earth Conference in 2018, with a 13-minute lovingkindness practice. Later, they share the nature-based lessons from their childhoods that inform their work with underserved kids. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this 12-minute episode, Jack Kornfield offers up a lovingkindness meditation from Omega's 2013 Neuroscience of Well-being, Mindfulness & Love Workshop in New York City.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei offers a 19-minute conversation about the illusion of separateness, originally recorded at Omega's 2015 Women & Power Conference, plus a 7-minute meditation practice to help you re-center (starting at 11:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this 22-minute episode recorded at Omega's 2017 Being Fearless Conference, Jon Kabat-Zinn discusses how presence and wisdom must be cultivated—then offers a "dropping into being" practice.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This offering from Sharon Salzberg is a short, snackable, 8-minute lovingkindness meditation, excerpted from Omega's 2006 Women & Power Conference.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Native American activist, author and indigenous rights lawyer, Sherri Mitchell, considers the job of preserving her Wabanaki ancestry a sacred responsibility. In this bonus episode of Dropping In Mitchell recalls the community elders that nurtured her early potential, explains the spiritual significance of her tattoos, and shares her plea for humanity to honor Mother Nature. This bonus episode fea...

Nina Rao has her grandfather to thank for setting her on the path to sacred chant. It took many years and several professional pit stops—including commercial banking—before she found her way to kirtan and to becoming the musical assistant and business manager for Krishna Das (KD). In this bonus episode of Dropping In, Nina walks her students through the ancient verses of her favorite chant, Hanuma...

The name, Krishna Das, may very well be synonymous with sacred chant, or 'kirtan'. In this bonus episode of Dropping In, the Grammy-nominated musician, and longtime friend of Ram Dass, explains the power of repetition in chant for connecting with the divine and how the lack of early belief systems in his family shaped him. This bonus episode features insights and performances recorded at "KD's" Om...

In his book, "The Five Levels of Attachment," Mexican-American author and shaman Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. describes the five guideposts for gauging how attached we are to any particular belief, whether ours or someone else'. In his Omega workshop, he encouraged participants to use these wisdom teachings to regain the power to make their own decisions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....

Paul Hawken thinks we can solve the world's toughest climate challenges. He takes the stage at the Drawdown Learn conference, held in collaboration with Omega institute’s Center for Sustainable Living, to tell us how. Hawken talks about his entrepreneurial path from unfocused Northern California youth to to health food promoter to Project Drawdown, a global NGO aimed at literally fixing the world....

Paralympic athlete, Rhodes scholar and author Bonnie St. John knows about resiliency. She was born with one leg shorter than the other. And at the age of five, she made a tough decision to amputate it. After many surgeries St. John learned to live life to the fullest -- walking, running and skiing with a prosthetic limb. In her workshop at Omega she asked women look deep inside to see what they ne...

Native American economist, ecologist, and activist Winona La Duke shares traditional teachings from her Anishinaabeg culture about the sacredness of water and the spirits who watch over them. With this wisdom, she encourages us to take responsibility and care for the precious resources of the planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ayurvedic chef Richard La Marita leads workshop participants in the preparation of three meals while he shares the theory of the ancient Indian path to good health through food. As La Marita explains, diet is really just one aspect of the Ayurveda lifestyle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poet Anne Haven McDonnell says that encountering the natural world is encountering the mystery. In part two of our exploration of Orion Magazine's environmental writer's workshop, a bear peers in the window of the classroom at Omega. That close encounter with wilderness inspires McDonnell to read her own bear poem as well as others exploring the kinship between humans and animals. Learn more about...

This episode, and the one that follows, grew out of the Orion Magazine's environmental writer's workshop held annually at Omega. Fiction authors, non-fiction authors and poets mingle with the aspiring during this weekend and I became fascinated by the work of poet Major Jackson, who interweaves the rural, the urban and the cultural into his work to profound effect. Learn more about your ad choices...

Do we all age like a fine wine, or do some of us turn to vinager? Harvard educated cell biologist and licensed psychologist Joan Borysenko explores the physical, emotional and spiritual factors to age with sass and class. Laughter, a sense of purpose, and eating chocolate slowly are some of the tools Borysenko recommends in the face of the very real challenges faced by an aging baby boomer generat...

Although Tim Olmsted looks like a preppy dad in a Ralph Lauren ad, he's actually a leading Buddhist teacher and President of the Pema Chödrön Foundation. For the premiere of Omega Institute's new podcast, Dropping In, Olmsted explores Siddhartha, our monkey mind, the four immeasurables of buddhist thought, and how meditation can change our world. This episode features audio recorded in Olmsted's w...

Omega Institute's new podcast drops September 23rd. Check out our trailer and subscribe now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices