Spiritual But Not Ridiculous, A Podcast
As long as spirituality is pushed to the outskirts of society then society cannot change or evolve. — Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita
In this inaugural episode of Spiritual But Not Ridiculous I attempt to define spirituality, explain the title, and talk about the themes and topics I will be exploring on future episodes, including:
- how authentic spirituality can be the most effective way to make a positive impact on the world;
- the burgeoning Wisdom Revolution (see, e.g., Peter Russell’s work);
- spiritual ego & spiritual bypass;
- Vedic astrology;
- plant medicine; and
- the elements of yoga beyond asana, including kriya, pranayama, laya, and jñāna yoga.
Look for new episodes about once a month, although I plan to put a few out in quick succession to clear this backlog of content I have.
Here are some of the people and media I referenced in the episode:
Slavoj Žižek’s wonderful documentary is The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology.
Philip Goldberg’s wonderful American Veda, which talks about the rise of people identifying as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR).
Ramana Maharshi’s teaching “Who Am I?”
Elizabeth Lesser’s book The Seeker’s Guide.
If you drew a long line and put modern cynicism at the start and Beginner’s Mind at the end, you’d have a map for the contemporary spiritual pilgrim. Somehow our culture has evolved to the point where pessimism has become synonymous with intelligence, and where an overload of information is mistaken for knowledge.
— Elizabeth Lesser
