The Spiritual Context Podcast

Bishal Karna
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Education
  • Updated Weekly

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. 7h ago

    Urmila Devi Dasi: 50 Years of Personal Relationship with God (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

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. Aug 5

    From Atheist to Monk: The Path of Little Love & Simple Joys | Swami Ishadhyanananda

    From atheist to monk. From chasing happiness to practicing contentment. From spiritual ambition to surrender. Swami Ishadhyanananda, a Ramakrishna monk at the Vedanta Society of Sacramento, keeps arriving back at the ordinary: gratitude for small joys, sipping Darjeeling tea in the morning. A tiny, unimpressive flicker of devotion, held onto because it's real, instead of waiting for an overwhelming love for God. Noticing what is already here rather than pursuing what isn't. Simple, and not at all easy. It means bypassing the ambitions of the ego, which he describes as a secretary you hired long ago and no longer need, forever suggesting new ways to improve yourself. You can't fire it, and you can't replace it with a better one. You can only notice it. Whoever is watching the ego plan and posture and angle for improvement cannot be the ego — who is it, then? Vedanta Society of Sacramento: https://www.vedantasacto.org/ Timestamps 00:00 A Bug Sneaking into the Altar: Atheism to Monasticism 04:44 Trusting the Goodness in Human Hearts 13:25 In Search of True Purpose: For One's Liberation and the World's 17:53 "I thought spiritual progress will be very fast" 19:16 Feelings of Loneliness: An Indian Monk in the US 25:17 A Ramakrishna Monk's Day in Sacramento, California 30:12 Being a Witness of the Mind: Subtle Patterns Reveal Themselves 33:53 Holding on to the Greater Spiritual Context Throughout the Day 35:47 Bhakti Yoga, Not Because It's Natural — Because It'sNeeded 39:07 Hold on to the Little Love You Feel For God & FeelGod's Overwhelming Love For You 44:51 God Exists for Believers 47:10 The Infinite Well: Sourcing Inspiration from All Around You 52:33 A Healthy Body Supports Spiritual Practice 55:55 Preparing for Death Means Preparing for Life 01:01:54 Even Spiritual Ambition is Ego in Disguise 01:08:17 Even the Idea of Duty has to be Let Go 01:12:05 Attention, the Foundation of All Spirituality, is Being Hijacked 01:20:19 Cultivate Contentment Instead of Chasing Happiness 01:28:52 A Series of Miraculous Incidents & True Prayer as Surrender 01:34:33 No Person Without Love, No Problem Without a Solution 01:37:33 Being Established as the Witness & Appreciatingthe Feeling of Love 01:40:20 The Joy of Meditation on God Intro and outro music by Benjamin Bigelow

  6. Jul 29

    "Scraping off the Barnacles of Bullsh*t": Zen, Jazz, and Aikido with Jay Rinsen Weik

    Zen training is long. Demanding. But according to Jay Rinsen Weik Roshi, there is a far more difficult path: spending an entire lifetime sleepwalking, pushed and pulled by fear and desire, never realizing your true nature. Rinsen Roshi strips away spirituality as self-improvement, intellectual gymnastics, or feel-good emotionality. Instead, he presents authentic Zen as an embodied path of transformation—a lifelong discipline of scraping away the "barnacles of bullsh*t" that obscure our true nature. Drawing on nearly four decades of Zen practice, alongside a lifetime devoted to Aikido and jazz, Rinsen Roshi reveals what these seemingly different disciplines share: wholehearted presence, disciplined spontaneity, and the freedom to meet the imperative of each moment. Together we explore koan training, the deepening of awakening, "dragon nature," the cultivation of Qi (Ki)—a vital dimension of Zen training he believes has largely been neglected in American Zen—, and why Zen is not about escaping ordinary life, but entering it more fully, more creatively, and more courageously than ever before. About the Guest: Jay Rinsen Weik Roshi is the Founding Abbot and Guiding Teacher, alongside his wife, Karen Do'on Weik Roshi, at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo. He began formal Zen training in 1987 under John Daido Loori Roshi at Zen Mountain Monastery and later received both Denbo (Sōtō Zen Dharma transmission) and Inka Shōmei (Rinzai kōan transmission) from James Myoun Ford Roshi. Rinsen Roshi also founded Shobu Aikido of Ohio and holds the rank of 6th Dan (Rokudan). He is a jazz musician and scholar and teaches music and guitar at the University of Toledo. Buddhist Temple of Toledo Website: https://www.buddhisttempleoftoledo.org/ Rinsen Roshi's YouTube Channel Featuring Buddhist Neigong Series: https://www.youtube.com/@jayrinsenweik3960 Timestamps 00:10 Crash Course on Compassion: Zen Mind and PhysicalAdversity 06:16 "I am here for Zen"/ "Clean theDishes" 09:47 Meeting the Imperative of Your Life: The Importance ofZen Training 15:04 The Heart of Zen Training: Opening the Dharma Eye 24:14 Clear Sight, Skillful Actions 30:38 Spontaneous Samadhi, Jazz, and Aikido Lead to Zen 40:57 Commuter Zen: Bringing the Temple Home 46:04 Individual Awakening and Communal Practice 50:06 Seeing from the Same Eye: Dharma Transmission 52:27 Koan Training: Using Language to Break Free fromLanguage 01:10:38 "You get to live an authentic, true life.  And it's f***** great." 01:20:24 Father Kevin Hunt: A Trappist Monk and Zen Roshi 01:25:41 Transmitting Teacher: "Our Steps FellTogether" 01:30:33 Buddhist Temple of Toledo: A Global Sangha 01:38:08 Zen and Aikido: "The mind leads, the Qifollows, and the body gets dragged along." 01:48:23 The Aiki Principle: "Complementaryantagonistic spiraling" 01:55:31 Holistic Cultivation: Using All of Life to Awaken 01:59:50 Family Life Wrapped Around Dharma Practice 02:04:49 Noble Friends and the Preciousness of Human Life Intro and Outro Music by Benjaim Bigelow

  7. Jul 22

    Joan Tollifson: Awakening Amid Disability, Compulsion, and Cancer

    Have you been trying to fix yourself—to eliminate all your apparent imperfections? Have you been waiting for a final, dramatic enlightenment experience?Our guest in this episode, Joan Tollifson, author of Death: The End of Self-Improvement, suggests that seeking enlightenment as a future event can become the ultimate me-trap. Instead, she points to the radical simplicity of attending to this present moment exactly as it is. In so doing, we discover that reality is already an indivisible whole, and the separate "me" we struggle to perfect is largely a mental construction. Joan invites us beyond the endless project of self-improvement, often fueled by subtle self-rejection, and toward a genuine transformation that comes through recognizing the wholeness already present. Her insights are not abstract philosophy, but are discovered through decades of living with disability, recovering from alcoholism, making peace with a lifelong finger-biting compulsion, and discovering grace within cancer.In every seeming adversity, she has found hidden blessings, and she sees God in the toilet roll and Buddha in the sh*t stick—the sacred shining through even the most ordinary and unlikely places.Joan's Books (Available on Amazon)• Bare-Bones Meditation• Awake in the Heartland• Painting the Sidewalk with Water• Nothing to Grasp• Death: The End of Self-ImprovementLearn More:Website: https://www.joantollifson.comSubstack: Right Now, Just As It Is (https://joantollifson.substack.com/)Timestamps 00:00 Born with a Disability: Starting out with a Deep Senseof Imperfection 04:25 At Peace with "Imperfection," evenAddictions and Compulsions 09:30 "Awareness Feels to Me Like UnconditionalLove" 19:31 Using Her Amputated Arm As a Weapon: TheTransformative Power of Martial Arts 23:29 "A Deep Sense of Something Bigger":Spiritual Aspirations and Inspirations 28:30 Toni Packer: Inquiry and Presence Beyond Traditions 34:11 Is it Possible to Be Curious without Trying to FigureThings Out? 42:12 Nisargadatta, Satsangs, and a Sense of Play 48:15 Radical Non-Duality: One Whole Undivided Presence 58:35 Beyond Seeking: Being Awake in This Moment 01:11:56 "I See God Everywhere": Love, Humor, andBeauty 01:17:49 Caring for Her Mother in Her Final Years 01:23:08 "I really realized when I had cancer how manypeople loved me" 01:28:27 Being Open to Suffering Without Seeking Cure 01:32:41 "Enlightenment is Not Needing to Die A GoodDeath" 01:40:48 "Death: The End of Self-Improvement" 01:46:07 "Whatever is Happening, That is YourPath" Intro and Outro Music by Benjamin Bigelow

  8. Jul 15

    Seeing Beyond the Veil Without a Near-Death Experience | Dr. Eben Alexander III, MD

    A rare case of E. coli bacterial meningoencephalitis put Dr. Eben Alexander III, a Harvard neurosurgeon, into a week-long coma with virtually no chance of meaningful recovery. Yet while his neocortex suffered global damage, he underwent a profound near-death experience (NDE)—an encounter with a reality that was "more real than real." This experience completely shattered his former materialist worldview. Since then, Dr. Alexander has devoted his life to integrating the insights of his NDE with cutting-edge developments in science, while also exploring contemplative practices that may open us to the same deeper reality. In this conversation, we move beyond the extraordinary story itself to explore its deepest spiritual implications. We dive into what it means to live with absolute certainty that consciousness is the primary reality and survives death, how to live knowing we are infinitely loved with nothing to fear, and the implications of the life review, reincarnation, and the purpose of suffering. Dr. Alexander also shares how he continues to access and deepen his experience of the transformative reality revealed in NDEs by using the Sacred Acoustics meditation method. Bio: Eben Alexander, MD, was an academic neurosurgeon for over 25 years, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 2008, he experienced a transcendental Near-Death Experience (NDE) during a week-long coma from an inexplicable brain infection that completely transformed his worldview. A pioneering scientist and modern thought leader in the emerging science that acknowledges the primacy of consciousness in the universe, he is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Proof of Heaven, The Map of Heaven and Living in a Mindful Universe. See: http://ebenalexander.com/ Other links mentioned in the interview: iands.org https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/ NDEs mentioned:https://www.drmaryneal.com/ https://www.anitamoorjani.com/ Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia: https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/ Reincarnation case of James Leninger: https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2017/04/REI42-Tucker-James-LeiningerPIIS1550830716000331.pdf Timestamps 00:10 A Harvard Neurosurgeon has a Near-Death Experience (NDE) 03:09 Mapping the NDE: Earthworm's Eye View, Gateway Valley, and the Core Realm 04:26 Beyond Socio-Cultural Conditioning: Reincarnation, Life Reviews, & a Mysterious Guide 07:37 The Deepest Lesson is Love & Reductionist Materialism is a False Model 11:29 Memory is not stored in the brain 17:22 One Mind & Simultaneity of Time 22:25 Forms are Expressions of Ideals in Subtler Realms 25:33 Lessons from More than 700 NDE Life Reviews 33:17 "Strange" Phenomena and Other After-Effects of NDE 36:25 The More Evolved a Soul, the Less Ego-centric They Are 40:27 Some of the Greatest Gifts Come in the Form of Trials 46:32 The All is Well Perspective: The Universe Functions Like a Mirror 54:42 Meditation and Prayer are Tools for Healing and Connecting with Our Higher Selves 01:03:00 Meeting His Deceased Adoptive Father in Deep Meditation 01:05:13 Revisiting the Near-Death Experience in Meditation 01:08:02 The Continuous Presence of "The Other Side" 01:14:59 Our Intention, Thoughts, and Actions Impact Emergent Reality 01:19:06 Life is A Gift & Death is a Tremendous Adventure 01:23:38 Reincarnation, Shared Death Experiences, and Death-Bed Visions 01:33:01 Best Practices for Supporting the Dying 01:35:04 Facing Terminal Illness with Hope & Healing Our Baby Wounds 01:40:22 Near-Death Experience Book Recommendations 01:45:51 The Ongoing Journey of Discovery

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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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