Hello Everyone! It’s been a while. Tom’s busy training to be a Psychotherapist in Bristol and Mike’s teaching Mindfulness on the Isle of Man. We caught up last week to talk about the value of spiritual experiences and the pitfalls of grasping them as ‘true’. We hope you enjoy the conversation, it’d be great to hear what you think.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 33:52 — 31.0MB)
In this special Christmas episode Mike shares a glass of mulled wine with Tony Parsons, author of The Open Secret and one of the most acclaimed and controversial figures in non-duality. Tony gives regular meetings throughout Europe and the UK and is available to discuss this message over the phone most weekday mornings.
For our 40th episode Mike speaks with his Father, Meditation Master Michael Kewley, about Awakening, the seeking mind and liberation. Michael is the founder of the Pure Dhamma tradition of spiritual Awakening and the Being Awake meditation network, he lives in the South of France and teaches throughout Europe.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 25:27 — 8.3MB)
A classic format episode with Tom and Mike. Tom starts off with the question; can someone at a particular level of insight help take someone else to a higher level of insight? And we end with a good old three-men-in-the-pub joke. Enjoy!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 32:34 — 29.8MB)
This month Mike speaks with Travel Writer and Yogi, Piers Moore Ede about his book All Kinds Of Magic, his discovery of Mooji which led to his own Awakening and the current state of Yoga in the west. You can read Piers’ article on Yoga here. We hope you enjoy this one. Be happy.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 30:46 — 14.1MB)
Manu Bazzano is an ordained Zen monk, practising psychotherapist and lecturer in philosophy. Tom met him at his flat in London to talk about his ideas about radical secularism. You can find out more about Manu at http://www.manubazzano.com
Podcast: Download (Duration: 35:31 — 32.5MB)
This month Mike speaks with Author and Psychotherapist Guy Smith who shares his adventures in non-duality, his eventual disenchantment with the spiritual scene and his journey into psychotherapy where he rediscovered the joy of the personal. Guy’s website can be found here. We hope you enjoy this one, please feel free to leave any questions or comments.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 14:41 — 13.4MB)
In this special episode Tom visits Mike on the Isle of Man. We address the seeking mind which listens to podcasts (such as this one) and reads spiritual books in the hope of finding golden nuggets of life changing wisdom, just as seagulls follow trawlers in the hope that sardines will be thrown into the sea. Unfortunately here at Being Ordinary we have no profundities to utter, no food for hungry gulls. All we can hope to offer is mere entertainment and perhaps the freedom which comes from giving up on chasing ‘spiritual’ concepts.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 17:35 — 6.9MB)
In this video I talk about the appeal psychotherapy has for me. I’ve been both training to become a psychotherapist and been receiving one-to-one therapy for the last year. It’s been interesting meeting psychotherapy from my meditative background, there’s certainly a significant overlap between the two approaches, but they also differ. The common thread for me is the encouragement of returning to look at one’s immediate experience with fresh eyes.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 30:23 — 27.8MB)
So what exactly is Awakening? Mike speaks to author and lecturer Steve Taylor about his research into enlightenment experiences, who they happen to and why suffering and trauma appear to play such an integral part. More information on Steve’s work can be found here. We hope you enjoy this one, feel free to comment below.