The Spiritual Context Podcast

Bishal Karna

Dedicated to the Ultimate Realization, this podcast features interviews with long-time spiritual practitioners and teachers, focusing on their spiritual biographies, core practices and perspectives, and approaches to integrating spirituality into everyday life. The host, Bishal Karna, is a professor of religious studies and a long-time spiritual practitioner.

  1. 1d ago

    A Catholic Priest in the Heart of Hinduism | Fr. Yann Vagneux

    At seventeen, Fr. Yann Vagneux knocked on the door of a Carthusian monastery and was told to come back at twenty-one. At twenty-one he was in India instead, and South Asia has been home since. Varanasi became his Carthusian monastery, and life in the holy city of the Hindus deepened his Catholic faith. In this conversation, Fr. Yann walks us through an ordinary day in Varanasi: studying Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures and weaving friendships across traditions. He speaks, with some reluctance, of his own inner life and of how the Katha Upanishad’s vision of the Absolute has touched him. He describes spiritual friendships so deep that communion becomes possible across differences. But he also warns that a careless mixing of religious traditions can erase the very differences we need to honor, fueling resentment and even violence. Fr. Yann Vagneux is a French Catholic priest and theologian of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, currently based in Kathmandu. His publications in English include: - A Priest in Banaras (2020) - Indian Portraits: Eight Christian Encounters with Hinduism (2021) - An Emulation of Sanctity: Hinduism and Christianity in Dialogue (2025) - The Trinitarian Philosophy of Jules Monchanin: The French Years (1922–1939) (2026) - The Trinitarian Mysticism of Jules Monchanin: The Indian Years (1939–1957) (2026) Timestamps 00:00 Fr. Yann Vagneux: A French Catholic Priest in Varanasi 02:13 At 17, Knocking on a Carthusian Monastery Door 12:04 Discovering Henri Le Saux, Swami Abhishiktananda 25:52 Life Consecrated to India & Experiencing Hinduism 38:00 Emulation of Sanctity: Search for the Absolute and Building Bridges Between Religions 45:51 "The holy city of the Hindus made me more Catholic" 51:23 Co-Pilgrims: Unity That Does Not Erase Singularity 01:00:30 Neither Ignorance Nor a Syncretism That Erases Differences 01:15:16 Is there Diversity in Non-Duality? 01:27:27 The Trinity, Shankara, and "Not-Two Is Not One" 01:34:22 "Varanasi is my Carthusian Monastery": Daily Rhythm in the Ghats 01:44:38 Loneliness and Belonging: Finding Home in India 01:49:00 Prayer and Presence: The Essence of Spiritual Life 01:54:27 Advice to a Young Seeker: Find a Teacher, Don't Scatter Intro and outro music by  ⁨@BenBigelow3⁩  #interfaithdialogue #interreligious #catholicindia #nonduality

  2. Sep 23

    Karen Newell: Existential Loneliness to the Reservoir of Love

    During a Sufi heart-rhythm meditation, Karen Newell encountered an existential loneliness so complete that she was inconsolable. Rather than resisting it, she allowed herself to fully experience the loneliness. What emerged was what she calls a “reservoir of support”—an unfailing love that has never left her. Karen is the co-founder of Sacred Acoustics and co-author with Dr. Eben Alexander of Living in a Mindful Universe. In this conversation, we explore healing from “baby wounds,” generating and radiating love, the HeartMath research on the heart’s field, and using binaural beats to explore expanded states of consciousness. Drawing on decades of inner exploration, Karen reflects on suffering, the purpose of life, and what it means to be the love that you are. Karen’s work: sacredacoustics.com and innersanctumcenter.com.Timestamps: 00:00 Existential Loneliness: An Inner Experience in Meditation 04:56 The Baby Wound: A Divorce and a Seven-Year-Old's Decision 09:18 Puppies Under the Bed: Using "Reference Points" to Generate Love 14:01 Wounds That Come Before Words: Eben Alexander's Adoption 19:28 The Reservoir of Support: Meeting "the Council" 23:07 Love Makes Life Worth Living 27:46 Radiating Love : HeartMath and the Heart's Field 32:12 One Mind: Triggers, Resonance, and Responsibility 39:17 Meeting Eben Alexander: "The Brain Doesn't Create Consciousness" 43:53 When Classical Meditation Failed: Binaural Beats and Sacred Acoustics 55:35 The Inner Observer and Allowing the Emotions to Be Experienced 01:02:41 Using Sound Meditation for Guidance 01:10:42 The Flying Carpet, the Council, and The Fifth Element 01:18:32 "We really are the same at a fundamental level, and that sameness is made of love." 01:22:42 Suffering is an Engine for Our Growth 01:24:31 Purpose of Life: "Be the Love That You Are" 01:26:52 One Mind and the God-Force Intro and Outro music by Benjamin Bigelow

  3. Sep 16

    Ajahn Dhammasiha: In Search of the Deathless

    Reading the Dhammapada gave Ajahn Dhammasiha the final push to renounce the world and embark on the search for Nibbāna — the Deathless, the Marvellous. Once an atheist in the West Berlin party scene, he had grown increasingly disenchanted with worldly life and traveled to India for PhD research. He abandoned the scholarship and ordained as a Theravada Buddhist monk. Ajahn Dhammasiha talks about monastic training in the forest tradition, what it means to have faith in the Buddha's awakening, how to practice with the precepts, how to work with anger and pain in meditation, overcoming attachment and grief, the role of devotion, cultivating mettā, and navigating cosmological views like planes of existence, karma, and rebirth. Timestamps: 00:00 Reading the Dhammapada in India: "I knew I was a Buddhist" 08:17 Atheism to Spirituality: Disenchanted in West Germany 17:14 Experiences in Sri Lanka: The Path to Buddhist Ordination 21:55 What Is Nibbāna?: Realizing the Unconditioned 27:43 Craving Nibbāna: The Role of Aspiration in Practice 30:01 Daily Life in a Forest Monastery 38:15 Transitioning to Australia: Embracing the Thai Forest Tradition 40:47 What is a Forest Monastery? 45:28 Not Being Attached to an Idyllic Life in a Monastery 48:56 Staying Detached While Being Engaged in Worldly Affairs 53:34 The Suttas Are More Like a Cookbook, Not a Novel 57:38 Loss, Grief, and Attachment 01:02:08 Challenges on the Buddhist Monastic Path 01:07:33 Alms Round: The Practice of Begging for Food 01:13:44 Working with Anger, Trauma, and Memories in Meditation 01:19:28 Meditation Isn't the Same Practice Every Day 01:23:22 Devotion to the Buddha: "He who sees the Dhamma sees the Buddha" 01:33:10 Buddhist Cosmology and Relics Veneration: Why a Western Monk Believes 01:38:32 Avoiding the Trap of Spiritual Pride 01:43:35 Practicing the Precepts: Not Killing or Lying, No Matter What 01:49:57 The Monk Who Radiated Mettā Without Saying a Word 01:55:54 "In gladness and in safety, may all beings be at ease."Bio: Ajahn Dhammasiha is a senior Buddhist monk and the founding abbot of Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, a Theravada monastery in the Brisbane hinterlands, Queensland, Australia. Born in West Germany in 1966, he has been an ordained monk for three decades. He first ordained in the Sri Lankan forest tradition, and after moving to Australia, came to practice primarily within the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. He is widely recognized for his deep scholarly knowledge of the original Suttas and his accessible teachings tailored for contemporary Western daily life. https://www.dhammagiri.net/  https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724 Intro and outro music by Benjamin Bigelow

  4. Sep 9

    John Butler at 89: "I've Never Been More Alive"

    John Butler has been meditating twice a day for more than sixty years. He was a farmer first. He fell in love with the stillness of wide-open landscapes. Meditation showed him the same wide-open space within. Now, that stillness is all-pervasive. As a young boy, it grieved him that his beloved animals and plants had to die for his sake. In church, he heard that Christ is the Lamb of God, and it made sense to him. He sees Christ now in everything that offers itself up so that life may go on — in the food we eat, the air we breathe, the grass we walk on. "Every potato is a mini-Christ," he says. As a young man, he set out to save the world. An inner voice said to him: to make whole, be whole. He has spent his life realizing that wholeness — through years of depression, through unrequited love, through traveling the world while continuing to travel inward. Wholeness, he says, is "less of me, more of God." His is an epic adventure across both terrains, inner and outer, until the distinction no longer holds. Listen closely, and you can hear the stillness in his voice. Timestamps 00:00 "To Make Whole, Be Whole" 04:18 The Less of Me, The More of God: The Great Work of Prayer 18:20 Despair in the Mojave Desert and the Presence of Jesus Beside Him 26:06 "Every Potato Is a Mini Christ" — Sacrifice in All of Nature 32:55 On Poverty of Spirit: "God Knows, and I Do Not" 39:42 Depression and Stillness: "Don't look for results" 42:55 The Infinite Beyond in a Woman's Eyes: Losing Love in Form, Finding it in Spirit 49:17 Human Love and the Love of God: The Sky Beyond the Clouds 53:46 Is Love the Same as Stillness? Silence, Peace, and Beauty 57:44 Discovery of the Inner Space at a London Train Station 01:02:53 "Don't Try to Sort Out the Mind — Go Beyond It" 01:07:33 "I've Never Been More Alive" 01:12:09 The Extraordinary Love of Sheep John Butler is the author of Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment, Mystic Approaches, Mystic Burning, and Mystic Love: Letters to Christine. Website: https://spiritualunfoldment.co.uk/ YouTube:  ⁨@SpiritualUnfoldment⁩  Intro and outro music by  @BenBigelow3

  5. Sep 2

    Urmila Devi Dasi: 50 Years of Loving Krishna (Bhakti Yoga)

    Since age four, Urmila Devi Dasi sought to know God. At seventeen, while meditating, she experienced herself dissolving into oneness with God. It terrified her. Pulling back, she plunged into a life of hedonism, which thankfully didn't last long. Over five decades later, she is steeped in her devotion to God as the Supreme Person with whom she has a personal relationship, whose hand she sees in every event of her life, who appears to her as an inexhaustible source of playfulness, love, wisdom, and grace, and whose presence she feels daily as a "non-satiated satisfaction." The terror of dissolving into an impersonal infinite has turned into the delight of being infinitely loved by Krishna, God who is at once completely one with her and completely distinct. A disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Urmila Devi Dasi travels worldwide teaching Bhakti yoga. Among other books and articles, she is the author of Career Dharma: The Natural Art of Work (with Dr. Ruchira S. Datta), Krishna Meditations, and the novel Essence Seekers. Learn more: https://urmiladevidasi.org/ https://careerdharma.net/ Chapters00:00 Meditation at 17: Touching Oneness with God and Pulling Back in Fear 03:05 Trying to Be a Materialist - and Why it Lasted Only a Few Months 05:21 Reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is for the First Time 11:06 Possible Past Lives Devoted to Krishna 13:02 Meeting Srila Prabhupada Before Actually Meeting Him in Person 16:41 "Our existence is both the same as God and different from God" 31:18 "Non-satiated Satisfaction": Personal Experience of Krishna's Presence 37:33 The Five Relationships with Krishna - and Why She Won't Name Hers 43:46 A Day of Worship: Murti, the Maha-Mantra, and Offering Food to Krishna 49:26 God has Become Much More Personal and Experiential 55:48 Krishna's Play: "I am becoming more playful" 01:02:06 The Dance with the Ultimate: Free Will, Grief, and Accepting What You Can't Yet Feel 01:05:15 When Bhakti Feels Empty 01:18:56 Does God Really Test Us? 01:22:10 Crisis of Faith and A Realization That Came Fifteen Years Later 01:26:38 The Stolen Umbrella: Understanding Blessings in Disguise 01:33:12 Career Dharma: Finding the Work Aligned with Your Nature 01:44:22 Spiritualizing Your Work and Life: Charity, Honesty, and Offering to God 01:50:03 Vanaprastha: Life After Family Life 01:52:42 A Life of Delight Intro and outro music by  ⁨@BenBigelow3⁩

  6. Aug 26

    Fr. Ron Rolheiser: What It Means to Give Your Life (and Death) Away

    Fr. Ron Rolheiser maps the spiritual journey across three stages: getting your life together, giving your life away, and — the one no one prepares you for — giving your death away. Drawing on monastic wisdom and the mystics, he shows how marriage, the monotony of daily work, and even illness, aging, and death can each become a deep spiritual practice. In this conversation, we talk about how loneliness, restlessness, and helplessness can become gifts to ourselves and loved ones. At seventy-eight, and having lived with stage four cancer for twelve years, Fr. Rolheiser shares half a century of wisdom about what it means to live and die well. Fr. Ron Rolheiser is an Oblate of Mary Immaculate and the author of many books, including The Holy Longing, Sacred Fire, Bruised and Wounded, Domestic Monastery, and most recently Insane for the Light: A Spirituality for Our Wisdom Years. https://ronrolheiser.com/en/ Chapters00:00 Get your life together, give your life away, give your death away 03:56 "Vocation isn't something you choose, it chooses you" 08:33 "Nothing has seared me like that": The neighbor who died by suicide 11:54 "Celibacy is Unnatural": Sex and Connection 15:51 Solidarity with the Poor and Lonely 18:38 Social Loneliness vs. Moral Loneliness 23:30 Restlessness is a longing for God 28:35 No Finished Symphony: Why Your Spouse Can't Be Your God 36:03 Forgiving God for not rescuing you 39:38 A Redeeming God, Not a Rescuing God: "Tell the people to learn how to wait" 44:48 Pondering: Carrying Tension Without Passing It On 53:45 The Domestic Monastery 01:02:14 Martha and Mary: Action and Contemplation 01:10:21 Student, Householder, Forest-dweller, & Holy Old Beggar 01:18:44 Twelve Years with Stage Four Cancer 01:22:17 Give up the illusion of self-sufficiency 01:30:33 Your helplessness can be a gift 01:35:21 Letting go of "I don't want to be a burden" 01:40:48 Teaching keeps you real 01:42:41 Prayer as supplication and praying without asking for consolation Intro and outro music by  ⁨@BenBigelow3⁩  A note: this episode includes discussion of suicide and of assisted dying. If you are struggling, you can call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

  7. Aug 19

    Training with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Holding Space for Grief, and Facing Death | Sheryle Baker

    Sheryle Baker lost her brother when she was sixteen after watching him live with a devastating illness throughout his childhood. That early experience of loss led her to train with pioneering psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and, eventually, to more than three decades of helping people navigate trauma, illness, death, and devastating grief. Now, living with multiple myeloma, Sheryle is confronting mortality from the other side of the room. In this deeply personal conversation, she shares what a lifetime of midwifing others through loss and suffering has taught her: we don't have to carry someone else's suffering in order to love them; we can't fix another person's pain; presence and silence can be healing; and caring for others requires withdrawing our own projections. We talk about grief, resilience, intuition, spiritual practice, unfinished business, and how grief, when it is allowed to run its course, can give way to love. Guest Bio: Sheryle R. Baker, M.A., LMHC, served 33 years as Executive Director of The LIFE Center of the Suncoast in Tampa, Florida. She trained under Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, is certified in EMDR and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), and pioneered art-based grief counseling for children — the practice behind the two stories in this episode. Sheryle’s 2015 Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITw_Dh4W9eM The Life Center of the Sun Coast: https://www.thelifecenterofthesuncoast.com/ Timestamps 00:00 Welcome: A Lifetime Holding Space for Others' Suffering 00:53 Growing Up in the Shadow of a Sick Sibling 06:28 Navigating Childhood Trauma and Grief 07:37 "Get the Dying Over With": The Night Ira Died 11:54 The Power of Music and Art in Healing 15:34 Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and the Art of Being Present 18:08 "Don't Bring Your Baggage into the Room of a Person who is Dying or Ill" 20:59 Let Your Intuitive Gut Feeling Guide You 24:21 Healing Through Art: What Children Intuitively Know 28:10 Being a Grief Midwife: 33 Years at the Life Center of the Suncoast 31:39 The Will to Heal 37:38 The Uniqueness of Each Loss and "Good Grief" 40:38 Inner Work for Caregivers: Sufi Teachings, Buddhist Sangha, and Support Groups 43:03 Living with Multiple Myeloma: "May I Complete the Work I am Meant to Do Here" 48:24 Hoping for a Good Death & Looking Forward to the Next Adventure 49:40 "Suffering is burning through whatever one carries" 52:27 The Physiological and Psychological Readiness to Heal 57:38 Grief is Experienced as Love... 59:21 Beginnings from Endings: Life After Loss Intro and outro music by Benjamin Bigelow

  8. Aug 12

    The Art of Becoming Who You Are: Morgan Stebbins on Carl Jung, Spirituality, & Individuation

    What if the thing you're trying to get rid of is actually trying to tell you something? A compulsion you can't shake. A mood you want to snap out of. Anger you're trying to talk yourself out of. Jungian analyst Morgan Stebbins argues that these aren't obstacles on the spiritual path. They're clues. A mood isn't something to eliminate — it's something to question. Anger isn't just a problem to manage — it might be a messenger. And the road itself isn't straight: individuation, Stebbins says, is full of dead ends and wrong turns, with no universal formula. You don't inherit a way of becoming yourself. Follow what compels you, he says, and it leads somewhere you don't expect. Morgan Stebbins is a Jungian analyst with a doctorate in religious studies and hermeneutics, and the author of A Jungian Approach to Transforming Compulsion (2026). He is also a longtime Zen practitioner and, improbably, a lifelong elite athlete — in the 1980s he represented the United States in field hockey at the Olympics, and in 2022 won his age group at the USA Triathlon National Championship at 61. Timestamps: 00:00 The Secret of Human Life: What Compels Us  To Do Anything 09:20 Withdrawing the Guru Projection: Zen, Power, and theDanger of the Teacher 14:27 Four Vows at Twelve: How Morgan Stebbins Found CarlJung 24:50 Religion as a Map of the Psyche & PsychologicalFunctions 39:50 Building a Daily Practice Around  Inner Images 44:19 "Wrong" Paths: Gandhi, the Prophet Jonah,and the Question of Bliss 50:43 Does the Spirit Have a Plan? Moods, Images, and Faust 58:34 Focus and Follow: Inside a Method for the Unconscious 01:14:38 When the Body Speaks: Illness, Autoimmunity, andIts Limits 01:20:35 Translate and Act: Finishing the Method with aDream 01:25:49 What if Your Anger Has a Message? 01:29:25 Individuation and Nirvana: A Comparative Analysis Intro & outro music by Benjamin Bigelow #individuation #jungianpsychology #spiritualgrowth #comparativereligion #carljung #religionandpsychology #spiritualpodcast #wholeness

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3 Ratings

About

Dedicated to the Ultimate Realization, this podcast features interviews with long-time spiritual practitioners and teachers, focusing on their spiritual biographies, core practices and perspectives, and approaches to integrating spirituality into everyday life. The host, Bishal Karna, is a professor of religious studies and a long-time spiritual practitioner.

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