Mindrolling with Raghu Markus

Uber useful conversation with wisdom writer Sylvia Boorstein: her clear and helpful grasp of present-ness… her words on true mindfulness cut with goodwill…her thoughts on thoughts, seeing them as always potentially co-operative and not so bad after all.  Making friends with the present is just that, even if it startles you, “relax, take a rest, calm down” – R & D listen, interrupt, and have a fine...

Gelek Rimpoche is our honored guest.  A reincarnated tulku, a lucid and unpretentious disperser of essential knowledge, Gelek is a treasured being we are so lucky to have in the U.S.  Because of the ruthless Chinese invasion, Gelek was forced to leave his beloved homeland in 1959.  Tibet’s tragedy became our great fortune.  Hear what he has to say about wiping out negative emotions and achieving e...

The Mindrollers with Duncan Trussell and Noah Lampert host our panel guests from our Indiegogo event. Brian, Brian and George. We get an idea of their awakening triggers, pretty heavy ones at that- and they shine a light on the importance of intention. We all talk about practice and how difficult it is to motivate daily unless you are really up against the wall! Duncan admits to his fall down on l...

Forgiveness wisdom from George Pitagorsky (Balaram) who demonstrates the huge upside of being able to authentically forgive, and how forgiving often benefits the forgiver maybe even more than the forgiven. Is it weakness for a Holocaust victim to embrace one of her tormentors? Wasn’t it incredible for the afflicted Charleston families to espouse forgiveness immediately? George, via both Dzogchen (...

R&D travel down diverse roads to happiness, encountering on the way 50 years since Dylan’s Newport electric war cries; Aristotle’s eudaimonia; Jefferson’s iconic requisite declaration; the crazy off-ramp into consumerism and “the cycle of escalating desire”; Andy Puddicombe’s mega mindfulness app; Google’s Chade-Meng Tan…and the rewards of real seva. Check this out, Pharrell… See Privacy Policy at...

Raghu and David bring up a very timely topic - prison reform. BJ Wasserman and Jared “Gagan” Levy discuss Inside Circle, a nonprofit organization that helps prisoners and parolees heal from the inside. We talk about “operational transformation” of men in Folsom prison as a model for the entire prison system. Robert Allbee, founder of Inside Circle, created a concept for the word “spirit” or “God”...

Can we learn to become a Bodhisattava, and what is a Bodhisattva, for G-d’s sake? Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s simple yet brilliant instructions on this path of treating everyone as your “guest”…plus chat about meditating away the neurotic “escape routes” polluting our inner calm, and reactions from both Raghu M. and Ramana M. about being attacked by angry hornets. Finally, David’s thoughts on an ir...

Mindrolling through the toll of role playing; the dark art of Trumpism; the Rolling Stones revisited; the Karmapa chanting; spiritual practice as heart/mind rehearsal; the dis-ease of the wandering mind; the magic of Biocentrism & intelligence preceding matter; the amazing Swiffer...plus thoughts on suicide’s sides, Jimmy Carter’s lust in the heart, and the generosity of our listeners…listen… See...

Thupten Jinpa, HH The Dalai Lama’s English translator, is our truly honored guest. Anyone who has been present at any one of His Holiness’s live events knows how vibrant and deep Jinpa’s translations always are. Jinpa’s new book, “A Fearless Heart: How The Courage To Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives” totally knocked out the Mindrollers, and we are so very pleased to visit with him on the p...

Raghu and Duncan Trussell have a relaxed hang out with Roshi Joan Halifax, Abbot of Upaya Zen Center. They discuss Roshi’s involvement and history with Nepal, and the recent work she’s done there related to the earthquake. Then they have a lively back and forth around the dualistic Bhakti tradition vs. the sublime Zen tradition. Roshi gives credit to what she calls “the juicy love”… See Privacy Po...

Mindrollers’ Miscellany: 5 sagacious slogans to straighten you out at work and play …fetishization of mindfulness…Evan Thompson’s rap about “the mind is not the brain”…”making up people” (ergo reducing people)…”are we kinder, better, more compassionate after decades of teachings?”…walking in the woods along with the witness…and Pico Iyer’s “The Art of Stillness" – right, a jam-packed podcast! See...

Teal Swan – young psychic intuitive and spiritual mentor - graces us with her vibrant awareness and startling insights. Teal is the real deal, an authentic wisdom channel, motivated by altruism, sharing her preternatural yet totally penetrating - and ultimately useful - knowledge. Coming out of youthful severe suffering, her ways of looking at the world truly move the Mindrollers and explicate wha...

Mindful comedian Pete Holmes is our effervescent guest and he talks about...everything, including diametrically opposing views on G-d from two of his podcast guests, Deepak Chopra and Oasis’s Noel Gallagher. His rap about the dangers of Google is funny and profound, his love for Ram Dass and Joseph Campbell tells us where his head is at, and his statement “Leave the transcendent where it belongs –...

The Mindrollers examine the Upper East Side Rich Wives Tribe and its rituals…banishing boredom via the cultivation of the awesome…puzzlement at the rise of the selfish…David Brooks's words on spiritual capital…and swooning over the 16th and 17th Karmapas. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Raghu misses Dave - Raghu and Duncan discuss the reality of the physical Guru vs the non - Duncan tells his sighting of Maharaji down by the river- Jared talks Gyan (intellect) yoga and Saraswati counters with Bhakti (heart) yoga- and can we measure the inner world through imagination? Duncan has the last word on the energy behind the thing we call Maharaji. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com...

The shock of recognition is a phenomenon that can manifest in a teacher’s spoken wise words or a written mindblower or a magical musical moment. We talk through a great Anais Nin paragraph and a Krishna Das sound bite that illuminate this. Plus, what is the difference between reality and pretense in a vision, an icon, or the apparent sudden 3D appearance of a deity? Does so-called objective, prova...

Duncan & The Mindrollers evict pollution-people from the brain, searching for authentic cadences and benign radiations. Plus Duncan rants rationally about self-reliance and the illusions of governance. David recalls almost becoming a right-wing speechwriter and Raghu delights in meeting not one, but two Karmapas, #’s 16 & 17, who seemed to be the same soul. The intense reality of intimate connecti...

David and Raghu introduce a third generation military man- a marine who had a major transformation from PTSD - and re-integrated his trauma through the psychedelic experience. What followed was overwhelming compassion and a direct line to Eastern Mysticism, Ram Dass and the great Buddhist masters. As Ryan says about his healing- “ It sure feels good, on this journey, to stop on the road, drop our...

R&D introduce Bernadine - the newest member of the Mindrolling team… new End of the World situation with Indiana and the Chem trails conspiracy… Karmapa the 17th - at 29 years old yet 1800 years old really - talks to Harvard about LGBT rights, race relations and the environment. And is meditation an obsession of the middle class? As a special treat, Raghu and David read from the sublime poetry of...

Raghu and David hang with longtime friend John Bush as he discusses the making of his upcoming documentary, Journey Om - a pilgrimage to the spiritual heart of India. John tells the tale of getting his Hindu name Krishna from Maharaji and his curious case of mistaken identity. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-...

From Chatanooga and London to the forest monasteries of Thailand, this couple articulates their clear-as-a-bell vision of credible liberation. Can the grit of suffering become a pearl of consciousness? K & T delight R & D with some R & R from ordinary mind and light up the podcast. They also display pragmatic activist consciousness in their wise words about nurturing Mother Earth. See Privacy Poli...

Alchemizing rebel anger into Buddhist altruism with Noah Levine, writer of Dharma Punx, plus R & D’s personal experiences with Van Morrison and Joey Ramone… Newfoundland somehow is in there too as a Canadian Pure Land on a very auspicious day. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

David loses a Tibetan precious jewel. Suddenly, miraculously, it re-appears a year later and sparks a rare blog spoken out loud. And Raghu drills deep into the epidemic of facelessness, with social media as the head of the dragon. Plus news about a very false guru and great riffing from Stevie Ray Vaughan… See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art...

Mary O’Malley takes us through her concept of the spells that we had imposed on us as we grew into our “ego” bodies- R&D discuss with Mary the anti-dote to the spells and the self talking storytelling that crowds our minds all the day long! Real practical how to info for the stretched and compressed lives we live. And Mindrolling celebrates our 100th Podcast! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.co...