Blissful Thinking
19 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago -Blissful Thinking is a podcast wherein I ask people of color the big questions: What is life? What happens when we die? Why are we here? What does "god" mean to you? How do you get through each day? What have your biggest struggles been?
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Episodes
Blissful Thinking #17: Vimalasara Mason-John - "Life is to be of Service"
August 16, 2020 12:57 - 1 hour - 44.6 MBThis week's guest is Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John, an award winning author of 9 books, including her most timely book published this year I'm Still Your Negro, An Homage to James Baldwin. She is the co-founder of the accredited program Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery MBAR and of Eight Step Recovery, an alternative and addition to the 12 step recovery meetings. She is one of the leading African Descent voices in the field of mindfulness approaches for addiction. Ordained into the ...
Blissful Thinking #16: Mita Mistry - "Life is a Gift"
August 01, 2020 19:40 - 1 hour - 45.9 MBMy guest this week is Mita Mistry, a writer, mindfulness-based cognitive therapist, and acupuncturist based in the UK. Mita is an incredibly sensitive and empathic person, and in this episode she introduces us to the world of five elements acupuncture in the Taoist tradition, along with many other subjects including narcissism, codependence, and abuse south Asian families. Her website is below, and you can also find her articles at https://muckrack.com/mita-mistry/articles. She tweets @mitam...
Blissful Thinking #15: Kevin Martin - "Life is Interconnection"
July 18, 2020 08:23 - 1 hour - 47.9 MBMy guest this week is my friend Kevin Martin. He is a native of the Bay Area and a practitioner of vipassana and, more recently, a student in the Dharmacharya Program under the teachings of Venerable Pannavati Bhikkhuni and Venerable Pannidipa Bhikkhu. Kevin is a Dharma Community teacher at Insight Richmond and currently serves as a Restorative Justice Facilitator with at the Contra Costa County - Criminal Diversion Program in the Northern California, Bay Area. Kevin's take on the world is ...
Blissful Thinking #14: Kadija George - "Life is Living Your Best Life"
July 04, 2020 11:53 - 1 hour - 44.8 MBThis episode features Kadija George! She's a legendary figure in the Black British literary world, one of the truest pioneers. Kadija writes under the name Kadija Sesay, and is an literary activist, poet, short-story writer and publisher of Sable LitMag, which is on hiatus but will be back. Kadija's achievements are huge. She has helped so many writers, soooo many, and has been rewarded with the Cosmopolitan Woman of Achievement, Candace Woman of Achievement, the Voice Community Award in Lit...
Blissful Thinking #13: Dean Dorsett - "Life is about Getting Better at Being More Loving"
June 26, 2020 19:26 - 1 hour - 40.7 MBDean Dorsett is my oldest friend! He was my companion, confidante, and comrade-in-arms during my 3 years at Oriel College, Oxford, very much in the news now due to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. In this episode we try to understand what Oxford was, its intellectual culture, the racism we both encountered and were hurt by, and Dean explains his initial transition from being a Jehovah's Witness in Dominica to a medical student at one of the most right-wing institutions in Britain. He ends by e...
Blissful Thinking #12: Thomas Davis - "Life is a Process of Discovering Who You Are"
June 19, 2020 19:42 - 1 hour - 38.3 MBThis week's episode is with my friend, the dharma teacher Thomas Davis. Thomas was a lay minister in the church for over 10 years before crossing over to Theravada Buddhism. He graduated from the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Training Program, and after co-founding the the Insight Richmond Meditation Group, moved to Los Angeles where he now teaches at Insight LA. Thomas combines warmth, calm, and love with acute political insight and has one of the best laughs of anyone I know. I love ...
Blissful Thinking #11: Guilaine Kinouani: "A Good Life is Feeling Connected to the World and a Sense of Greater Good"
June 12, 2020 11:09 - 1 hour - 28.1 MBThis week's episode is with radical psychologist, feminist and psychotherapist Guilaine Kinouani, an expert on the impact of racism on the mental health of people of colour, particularly the African diaspora in Europe. We had an extraordinary conversation in which I learned so much about how racism works in the minds of both white people and people of colour, and how to understand this current moment from a psychological perspective. Visit her website https://racereflections.co.uk/ to lear...
Blissful Thinking #11: Guilaine Kinouani - "A Good Life is Feeling Connected to the World"
June 12, 2020 11:09 - 1 hour - 28.1 MBThis week's episode is with radical psychologist, feminist and psychotherapist Guilaine Kinouani, an expert on the impact of racism on the mental health of people of colour, particularly the African diaspora in Europe. We had an extraordinary conversation in which I learned so much about how racism works in the minds of both white people and people of colour, and how to understand this current moment from a psychological perspective. Visit her website https://racereflections.co.uk/ to lear...
Blissful Thinking #10: JJ Bola - "Through Spirit We Are Always Alive"
June 05, 2020 14:35 - 1 hour - 34.1 MBThis week's episode is with poet, novelist, and writer on masculinity, JJ Bola. We speak about traditional African spirituality and the importance of communicating with ancestors in revolutionary movements, as well as imperialist attempts to suppress such practice, and we speak about today's situation in the United States and how it is as much a spiritual struggle as a material one. https://www.pontas-agency.com/jj-bola/ https://www.jjbola.com/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr...
Blissful Thinking #9: Roger Robinson - "I Don't Need to Define What Life Is"
May 30, 2020 07:25 - 57 minutes - 28.3 MBRoger Robinson is a poet and vocalist for the musical crossover project King Midas Sound. I've known him for 20 years as one of the biggest-hearted, most generous writers around. This year, everything has gone his way, in terms of success, so I wanted to ask him how he has remained grounded, what his secret is. Here he explains, stressing the importance of doing the right thing, being true to your inner voice. https://rogerrobinsononline.com/ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/...
Blissful Thinking #8: Mauricio Barriga - "Life is Just What It Is"
May 23, 2020 09:59 - 43 minutes - 26.8 MBThis week's episode is with my dear friend Mauricio Barriga, a schoolteacher originally from Mexico, now living in Santa Ana in Orange County. Mauricio and I met at Deer Park Monastery, CA, which is where he learnt his practice of meditation in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh and here he explains the essence of this practice and how it transformed his life. Simple, honest, authentic and beautiful, Mauricio is the living embodiment of the teachings of the Buddha.
Blissful Thinking #7: Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi - "Life is a Preparation for Death"
May 15, 2020 15:17 - 1 hour - 38.3 MBThis week's episode is with writer, editor and translator Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. It's wide-ranging! We talk about Islam, spirits, tarot, ayahuasca, vipassana, and mostly about life's purpose, and social justice, and the necessity of speaking out, and why. Is it possible for one person to be happy and at peace when others are suffering? And why are we here, and who will we be when we die?
Blissful Thinking #6: Giorgia Alexander - "Life is the NeverEnding Pursuit of Unconditional Love"
May 08, 2020 20:38 - 1 hour - 61.2 MBThis week's episode is with the extraordinarily insightful poet, storyteller, healer, clairvoyant, tarot reader, and psychic, Giorgia Alexander. This is a deep, sensitive, and most of all wise exploration of some of the key issues that face us all: trauma and how to heal from it, narcissism, sociopathy, and, last of all, how to develop our psychic powers. Giorgia's linktree: https://linktr.ee/giorgiaalexander
Blissful Thinking #5: Multu Ergün - "Life is in Our Invisible Relationships"
May 01, 2020 18:00 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBThis week's episode is with former rapper and novelist Mutlu Ergün who is a currently an anti-racist trainer, travelling across Germany. Usually with his brother, he runs People of Colour empowerment workshops, and anti-racist trainings for white people, in which he aims to gently, lovingly, separate white Germans from their whiteness, making them aware of their own racisms. It's a spiritual approach to racism that we very rarely hear, and Multu is an expert. Links below are to the Ph...
Blissful Thinking #5: Mutlu Ergün - "Life is in Our Invisible Relationships"
May 01, 2020 18:00 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBThis week's episode is with former rapper and novelist Mutlu Ergün who is currently an anti-racist trainer, travelling across Germany. Usually with his brother, he runs People of Colour empowerment workshops, and anti-racist trainings for white people, in which he aims to gently, lovingly, separate white Germans from their whiteness, making them aware of their own racisms. It's a spiritual approach to racism that we very rarely hear, and Multu is an expert. Links below are to the Phoe...
Blissful Thinking #4: Rikki Beadle-Blair - "Life is Understanding"
April 25, 2020 07:41 - 1 hour - 72.8 MBWelcome to our third interview with the truly inspirational Rikki Beadle-Blair who explains the importance of self-love, positivity and gratitude and how to get there. There's nothing preachy or bogus about this man. He lives this. And right now we need people like him more than ever. We need to be inspired and this interview is the definition of inspirational. Follow him on twitter @RikkiBB or instagram @rikkibeadleblair or on facebook https://www.facebook.com/rikki.beadleblair and liste...
Blissful Thinking #3: Nayomi Munaweera - "Life is This Moment"
April 18, 2020 06:45 - 1 hour - 80.1 MBThe award-winning novelist Nayomi Munaweera talks with us abut childhood trauma, abuse and her "spiritual toolbox" of vipassana meditation, therapy, twelve-step, and ayahuasca. Her advice to us all at this time is to be soft with ourselves, and to remember that this moment is all we have. https://us.macmillan.com/author/nayomimunaweera/ https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/index
Blissful Thinking #2: Fannie-Lee Lowe - "Life is a Magical Mystery Tour"
April 09, 2020 19:44 - 1 hour - 45.9 MBThe first interview! And it's with my dear, wise, loving 82-year-old friend from San Francisco, Fannie-Lee. Here she talks about death, about pain, and love, and gives beautiful gentle advice to us all about how to survive this mysterious wonderful thing called life. This one is about everything, and ALL about love.
Blissful Thinking #1: An Introduction with Rajeev Balasubramanyam
April 04, 2020 11:57 - 33 minutes - 25.3 MBWelcome to the Blissful Thinking podcast! In this first I episode, I, Rajeev Balasubramanyam, tell the story of how I came to spiritual practice. I talk about the need for people of colour to share pain and trauma, and ways of healing, and I offer suggestions on how to live life under lockdown with greater awareness. Don't forget to subscribe! And you can buy my novel here: amzn.to/38QXXWD Royalty free music from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com And below, some meditation resources: ...