Gangaji Podcasts
158 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago - ★★★★★ - 203 ratingsFor over 20 years, American born teacher and author Gangaji has reached thousands around with world with the words of her teacher, H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji) to “call off the search” and to inquire into the truth of who you really are. Now, in her first radio show, Gangaji and host Hillary Larson take a look at the issues we face in our everyday lives, one topic at time. Every month, for thirty minutes Gangaji will be addressing subjects like addiction, chronic pain, intimacy, anxiety, depression, enlightenment, death and many more.
Join us as Gangaji helps us find freedom in the face of what we experience in our daily lives.
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Episodes
Being Yourself | Dare to Give Up Your Self-Denial
April 10, 2024 20:15 - 21 minutes - 21.9 MB“You are free to discover yourself as Truth. You are free to rest in that Truth. You are free to be happy, regardless of your body, your thoughts, emotions, or circumstances.” In this month’s podcast, Gangaji begins with a clear exposition on how it is absolutely possible to discover yourself as Truth, no matter your past history. Then in the lively exchange that follows, she speaks to how we deny the truth of ourselves and instead, cling to an identify rooted in our thoughts, emotions...
Being Yourself | Consciously Opening to Emotional Pain
March 12, 2024 18:31 - 16 minutes - 18.2 MB“There is no problem with pain. There is pain. If you are seeking something to avoid pain, that’s the suffering. That’s the search that must be called off.” It takes effort to avoid our emotional pain. We can try to avoid it, but ultimately the common strategies of withdrawing, protecting, and dissociating from feelings of hurt actually turn emotional pain into unnecessary suffering. This lively exchange taken from the Gangaji archives offers a clear demonstration of how we can recognize...
Being Yourself | Necessary Pain, Unnecessary Suffering
February 12, 2024 19:25 - 19 minutes - 19.3 MB“If you stop thinking about how to get out of the body that may be painful or how to keep the body that is pain free, you get to experience the truth.” Physical pain is an essential aspect of life that serves the survival and well-being of the body, but we can easily turn that necessary pain that alerts us to injury and illness into unnecessary suffering. What is the difference between pain and suffering? What can physical pain reveal to us when we meet it directly? To learn more abo...
Being Yourself | How Can Your Life Be Truly Lived?
January 17, 2024 23:17 - 14 minutes - 16.2 MBWhere is the life you want? As much as we can fear death, we can also fear living a full and vibrant life. In this exchange, Gangaji helps a woman get to the root of what keeps her fear of vibrancy running. This conversation demonstrates how each of us has the capacity to discover how to live a true and full life. Learn more about Gangaji at gangaji.org
Being Yourself | Facing Death is Facing Life
December 15, 2023 18:34 - 21 minutes - 21.5 MB“The strategies and avoidance around the experience of “not being” or death are what keep you from the experience of eternal life.” As a young boy of 16, Ramana chose to stop running from what he feared and turned to face death directly. In that moment of inquiry, he opened his mind asking, “Who dies?” All of us share that same opportunity to stop running and inquire into what we fear most—the end of “me.” In the willingness to investigate death itself, we can discover what cannot die, we...
Being Yourself | Celebrating 30 Years of Love in Action
November 14, 2023 17:49 - 15 minutes - 13.5 MB“It was a fire. It was really a fire because it was a razor’s edge. All of sudden there are these huge groups. And if I identified even the slightest negatively or positively…I am sliced on this razor I am living on. It was really a necessary fire. I had to be quiet. I had to be still.” This month we share the soundtrack to a special 30th anniversary video honoring the community of volunteers and donors. The video begins with Gangaji’s first meeting with Papaji in 1990. After Gangaji speak...
Being Yourself | What Will Your Spiritual Practice Give You?
October 26, 2023 00:08 - 18 minutes - 14 MBGangaji speaks about the role spiritual practice plays in our lives and invites us to discover what we are practicing when we “get off our cushion and the chanting stops.” What do our spiritual practices give us? What do we hope they will give us? What can they never give us? Learn more about Gangaji at gangaji.org
Being Yourself | The Yoga of Naturally Being Yourself
September 18, 2023 19:50 - 14 minutes - 8.7 MB“It’s a lie that any thing gives you fulfilling, true, deep joy. Joy is your nature.” We can feel deeply conflicted when following our hearts doesn’t line up with what we or others think we should be doing. When we reach the proverbial and often frightening “fork in the road,” we have a choice to be true to ourselves. Gangaji begins this meeting speaking about the difference between being normal and being natural, and then shares one of the key “fork in the road” moments she experienced in ...
Being Yourself | The Direct Experience of Certainty
August 14, 2023 21:08 - 27 minutes - 16.5 MB“Universal, absolute awareness is who you are." How is it possible to be “certain” of who we are? In the wake of an essential and undeniable experience of our true nature as pure consciousness, doubt usually arises—“Did that really happen? Is it real?” Then, we often look to our thoughts for the answer. In this powerful dialogue, Gangaji helps us see past the efforts of the rational, conditioned mind to grasp to the doubtless recognition of what is always here. Learn more about ...
Being Yourself | Entangled in the Search for a Better Identity
July 13, 2023 18:06 - 17 minutes - 10.5 MB“The error is that you are not what can be thought, or perceived, or felt. You are that in which all thoughts, all perceptions, all feelings, appear in.” In countless ways, we search for a “better” identity to replace who we think we are. This month, Gangaji speaks to the trap of misidentification. How is it possible to see your true face? Where are you looking for yourself? Learn more about Gangaji at gangaji.org
Being Yourself Podcast Extra | Finding Freedom in the Darkness
June 28, 2023 04:27 - 8 minutes - 5.37 MB“Incarcerated for life in a maximum security prison in Alabama and not using that as an excuse, refusing to use that as an excuse. In fact, using that as a vehicle.” Gangaji reads a powerful letter of realization from a prisoner serving life without parole in an Alabama prison. Learn more about Gangaji at gangaji.org Support/Learn more about the Gangaji Foundation Prison Program here
Being Yourself | Healing the Ego Is Not Self-Realization
June 14, 2023 18:48 - 18 minutes - 10.5 MB“This is not psychotherapy. This is not anti-psychotherapy. This has nothing to do with fixing you. This has to do with discovering fully and completely what is always here and was always here in the worst moments, in the best moments.” In this monologue recorded during a recent retreat at Fallen Leaf Lake, Gangaji delineates the crucial difference between psychotherapy and self-inquiry and the distinct purposes they play in our lives. Learn more about Gangaji, her programs, and sch...
Being Yourself | Recognizing the Subtleties of Ego
May 17, 2023 18:07 - 24 minutes - 13.7 MB“This is an invitation to stop. To not create who you are. To simply be yourself with no idea or memory of who or what that is. Just to be. Then to see, how vast this just is.” Our lived experience in a human body gives rise to a wide range of phenomena that include thoughts, feelings, and images of ourselves. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories are not a problem unless that is how we define or identify who we are. In this potent inquiry, Gangaji points to the complex subtleties of...
Being Yourself | Chasing Desires, Overlooking Fulfillment
April 19, 2023 18:36 - 15 minutes - 9.18 MB“When you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you are this stillness, that you are this awareness, then it doesn’t matter what is on the surface.” Human beings have a profound desire to realize a lasting peace. The question is where are we looking, and what desire are we actually chasing? In this very relatable exchange, we see how recurring desires to avoid pain, end confusion, or gain clarity are simply the play of the mind. True and lasting peace remains undisturbed by any phen...
Being Yourself | Sacred Land, Ancient Blessings
March 15, 2023 00:00 - 10 minutes - 6.23 MB“To be nothing, to be nobody, is to realize who you are.” This month on Being Yourself, we share one the first meetings Gangaji held in Byron Bay, Australia. This is the land of the Arakwal Bumberlin people, who have lived in the coastal landscape around the Byron Bay area for at least 22,000 years. Gangaji begins by acknowledging how the ancient Aboriginal peoples have blessed our lives. Then she invites us to end our search for spiritual superiority to simply be who we truly are—no “thin...
Being Yourself | A Freedom Story
February 15, 2023 17:31 - 14 minutes - 7.25 MBDiscovering the truth of who you are doesn’t require a certificate of realization. You don’t need to understand Sanskrit or Advaita to know the truth of who you are. The only requirement is the willingness to investigate the thought of who you are. This month on Being Yourself, Gangaji shares what she calls a “sutra from the streets”— a teaching story about the power of inquiry and what is possible for all. PROGRAM NOTES Learn more about Gangaji and her programs and events at...
Being Yourself | The Opportunity of Fear
January 21, 2023 01:05 - 15 minutes - 22 MBThis month on Being Yourself, we return to the summer of 1993 in Boulder, Colorado. Gangaji speaks about the opportunity to break the trance of fear by directly experiencing fear itself. “This is a kind of contraction against life. Direct experience is the medicine, the remedy. You really experience fear, and fear is not fear.”
An Invitation & New Year Message from Gangaji
January 02, 2023 22:46 - 4 minutes - 5.96 MBA timeless message from Gangaji as we begin a new year. Plus an invitation to join her for an upcoming online gathering on Saturday, January 7 at 11AM PT. Learn more at gangaji.org.
Being Yourself | The Most Important Question
December 19, 2022 21:00 - 15 minutes - 22.7 MB“For our purpose, which is the purpose of discovering the truth of who one is, let us forget why one is and discover who.” We often are seeking answers to our questions of “why” and “how.” Gangaji invites us to turn our attention to the most important question we can ask ourselves on the spiritual path, the question that can lead to self-recognition and the endless discovery of the depths of who one truly is.
Being Yourself Podcast Extra | Feast of Losses
December 13, 2022 18:04 - 8 minutes - 12.2 MBThis month we are happy to share a selection from Jami Sieber and Kim Rosen's new album Feast of Losses. Their new album takes a deep dive into that sacred space where grief and gratitude meet. Their collaboration offers a transmission of such beauty that it stops the mind and opens the heart! This selection from the album features What the Living Do by Marie Howe, with music by Jami Sieber and spoken word by Kim Rosen. Read about their inspiration for this work on the Gangaji Commnuity Blo...
Being Yourself | Invitation to the Open Door
November 22, 2022 14:01 - 17 minutes - 25.4 MB“If your attention is on the story of how you do not deserve what is being offered, this is the continuation of self-denial. There is an open door in this jail, in this prison.” When we seek freedom on the spiritual path, it is often freedom from our mind or mental activity. In this podcast, we focus how we can lock ourselves up inside a mental prison, not recognizing the door that is always open.
Being Yourself | The End of Not Good Enough
October 19, 2022 21:18 - 16 minutes - 23.4 MBRepeatedly telling the story of “not good enough” is a familiar habit to most of us, an aspect of our human conditioning. But what does it have to do with who you truly are? In this exchange, Gangaji, simply and directly shares how to bring an end to the story and “step into freedom.”
Being Yourself | Being Is Belonging
September 22, 2022 17:11 - 16 minutes - 20.7 MB“To play the role of yourself, which is the transcendent role, the role of freedom, you have to trust something unknowable.” The themes of belonging, freedom from identification, and trusting our direct experience come together in this month’s podcast. This powerful interplay of themes opens the mind to the heart and invites an inquiry: What does it mean to be free? Where do you belong?
Being Yourself Podcast Extra | One Thing Goin' On
September 07, 2022 23:03 - 7 minutes - 10 MBWe have been blessed to hear Aea Luz sing at Gangaji's retreats. Now, we are happy to share her beautiful voice with you. This podcast extra features a new song from Aea that was actually inspired while she was on retreat with Gangaji—One Thing Goin' On. It is taken from of her recently released album, Dust & Light available on aealuz.com.
#49 Being Yourself | Do You Really Need to Be Special?
August 19, 2022 22:19 - 20 minutes - 23.9 MBA key strategy for our human survival is to “be special.” If we stand out in some way, get noticed by others, we may find ourselves better positioned in the “herd.” That isn’t necessarily a problem, until the drive to be more and more special becomes an addiction and in that, is ultimately destructive. This lively exchange offers great insight into what it means to be absolutely ordinary and still discover what is truly extraordinary.
#48 Being Yourself | The Resolution of the Longing
July 14, 2022 20:56 - 21 minutes - 9.49 MB“Stop all effort to get whatever it is you think will give you fulfillment. All that is required is one instant of truly stopping.” The longing for true freedom, for lasting fulfillment is no ordinary desire. Unlike the desires for food, shelter, or social connection that serve our physical survival, true fulfillment cannot be attained, even if we employ spiritual techniques and meditation practices. In this monologue, Gangaji speaks to the resolution of the paradox this extraordinary des...
#47 Being Yourself | The Problem Is Not the Problem
June 16, 2022 15:36 - 19 minutes - 28 MBIn dealing with life’s hardships, we naturally identify what is broken, what emotions need to be controlled, which circumstances need to get better. That is part of the human drive to survive. But there is something beyond brokenness, beyond any emotions we wish would go away. In the willingness to directly meet the pain we fear, rather than trying to control or get rid of it, there is a life-changing discovery of what is whole, complete, and has no need of fixing.
#46 Being Yourself | How Will You Liberate the Mind?
May 17, 2022 18:14 - 15 minutes - 5.56 MBOur most sublime experiences of acceptance, wholeness, and truth, are commonly followed by a fierce “mind attack.” If there is a willingness to investigate what is underneath the experience, there is a revelation of what is untouched in the wake of any mental phenomena.
#45 Being Yourself | Authentically Yourself: You Can Stop "Faking It"
April 13, 2022 14:39 - 16 minutes - 6.06 MB“All of your life you have wanted to be who you are. That is what authentic means, isn’t it?” Recognizing you are just “faking it” is a moment of discriminating wisdom that reveals an essential choice point. Will you keep faking it? When the desire for the truth of who you are overwhelms every other human desire, the choice becomes clear. In this exchange, Gangaji takes us on a deep dive into the desire for authenticity and the habit of postponement.
#44 Being Yourself | Where There Is No War
March 16, 2022 16:34 - 12 minutes - 4.94 MBMany have taken a spiritual path to escape the pain of human suffering that flows from war and injustice. But the truth is, we are never separate from it all. Where can we discover the strength and the capacity to bear that pain? How can our lives be beacons of true peace?
You Are Home | Gangaji Podcast Music Extra
February 22, 2022 02:01 - 3 minutes - 6.25 MBA new composition from Scott Reich blends Gangaji's spoken word with his music. Listening is an opportunity to drop deeply into the message, "You, yourself, are Home."
#43 Being Yourself | Feeling Unseen
February 10, 2022 00:28 - 12 minutes - 5.8 MBIf you were totally and completely seen and heard, what would that give you? As human beings living in relationship to each other, we play many different roles: partner, mother, father, son, daughter, or co-worker. In these roles, we may have the experience of not being seen or feeling invisible. In this inquiry, Gangaji takes us into the direct experience of “not being seen” to discover what is actually not being seen.
#42 Being Yourself | Get More Sober
January 20, 2022 21:13 - 21 minutes - 8.55 MB“The willingness to be silence is the willingness not to be who you think you are. To not get what you think you need. Not have what you think you have. There is a nakedness in that.” In her latest podcast, Gangaji and interviewer Mark Groves share a compelling conversation about what it means to be still, to stop. How does our fear of silence lead us away from our true self, especially in the midst of our active and often chaotic sensory world. Where do silence and sobriety meet?
#41 Being Yourself | The Fire of the Living Prayer
December 28, 2021 17:00 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MB“There is some force that is seeking itself. That desires itself. That is praying for itself.” As we begin a new year, you can take a moment for reflection. You can tell the truth about what you are desiring, what you are hoping for, what you are praying for as you walk on your spiritual path. Sharing her own personal experience, Gangaji also invites you to inquire into the source of your prayers and see what it reveals.
Being Yourself December Podcast Extra
December 20, 2021 20:00 - 6 minutes - 15.1 MBMusician and composer Scott Reich incorporates Gangaji's spoken word into a his new composition entitled "This Space of Stillness." “I write music to create a place of refuge - for myself, and for all who are drawn to a place of deeper peace.”
#40 Being Yourself | We Are Not Here to Escape the Trouble
December 10, 2021 01:00 - 12 minutes - 5.93 MB“We are here to retreat from the trouble, so that actually when the trouble returns, we have a bigger capacity, a stronger foundation to meet whatever appears.” When we choose to walk on a spiritual path, our first aspiration may be to transcend our problems or at least transcend the world’s problems. From the mundane to the catastrophic, problems are part of living a human life. So where is peace? What if true fulfillment is realized when we actually stop trying to transcend what Gangaji ...
# 39 Being Yourself | A Prayer for Peace
November 15, 2021 02:32 - 17 minutes - 11 MB“Maybe grace, deliverance comes to get you. Knocks on your door and says, ‘You have a chance to be at peace.’ In your willingness to take that chance, to accept that invitation to be at peace, then you have an opportunity to share this peace, everywhere.” Living our daily lives, we may find ourselves actually attracted to war. We can also be fed up with that attraction. We can recognize that there is no need to postpone peace in our own minds. In this podcast, Gangaji speaks about the ...
#38 Being Yourself | Is Understanding Enough?
October 20, 2021 00:24 - 14 minutes - 6.63 MBThe human desire for understanding is powerful. We naturally want to understand where we fit in or how best to fix a problem. Understanding satisfies particular needs in our daily life, but on the spiritual path, is understanding enough? Gangaji addresses the crucial difference between realization and understanding that transforms our life experience.
#37 Being Yourself | The Power of Illusion. The Illusion of Power
September 08, 2021 00:00 - 21 minutes - 9.42 MBWhen we are willing to set aside our beliefs, our thoughts, our powers of mind for an instant, the peace we long for and search for, is immediately revealed. In this lively exchange, Gangaji speaks to the experience of “losing our peace” because some thing has changed, and where finally it is always found. “You live your life in Truth, you live your life knowing that even though ‘my breath changes, and my feelings change, and my body changes,’ this Peace does not change. It is here, always...
Being Yourself August Podcast Extra
August 23, 2021 19:00 - 7 minutes - 2.84 MBEnjoy this brief talk from Gangaji. She invites you to investigate and see if there is truly is an obstacle to immediately going home, or if the obstacles are imagined. "There is nothing you have to do to be free. The freedom of yourself is already here."
#36 Being Yourself | Entering This Space of Stillness
August 15, 2021 19:00 - 12 minutes - 4.72 MBPerhaps your search for peace and happiness has taken you down many different roads. It may be rooted in a desire for security, spiritual attainments, personal power, or even just an end to feeling afraid. In this monologue, Gangaji shares how it is possible to discover the limitless peace of being that is not subject to our ideas, definitions, or circumstances. “What this appearance in your consciousness is about, first of all and finally, is to invite you to this space of stillness that...
# 35 Being Yourself | Cutting Our Addiction to Thought
July 21, 2021 21:53 - 22 minutes - 9.42 MBMany spiritual seekers hope to realize a “quiet mind” What is actually possible given the stream of thoughts that go through our minds every day? In this month’s podcast, Gangaji speaks to the life-changing opportunity to “overhear your stories” and stop following any thought no matter how elevated or mundane the thought is. BONUS: Gangaji reads a powerful report from a prisoner who is participating in her Freedom Inside course by mail, and has a brief conversation about working with prison...
Being Yourself | June Podcast Extra |What Blocks Your Fulfillment?
June 21, 2021 07:30 - 3 minutes - 3.71 MBTake a moment to join Gangaji for a short, but revealing inquiry: "What blocks your fulfillment?"
#34 Being Yourself | The End of Ignorance is the Gold of Self-Realization
June 09, 2021 19:04 - 16 minutes - 11.6 MB“To be true to the eternal truth of yourself is to ignore nothing.” Our spiritual discovery of the absolute truth of one’s being can be turned into a hiding place, where we ignore harsh realities and deny the cruelest aspects of our shared humanity. Ignorance is not “bliss.” Rather, it is the root of all suffering. In this powerful monologue delivered in 1999, Gangaji shares that the end of ignorance and our willingness to be all is the “gold of self-realization.”
#33 Being Yourself | Helplessly Human
May 21, 2021 02:26 - 18 minutes - 9.8 MB“The more you are willing to face the helplessness of being human, the more being human is not the problem.” When we step onto the spiritual path, often we hope to transcend our fears. Our fear of death and loss can drive a lack of compassion and perpetuate our unnecessary suffering. Gangaji encourages us to meet our fear, not avoid it. In a moment of giving up control and simply being undeniably flawed, mortal, and very human, we can rest in the peace of who we are.
#32 Being Yourself | Sacred Hunger
April 23, 2021 21:30 - 16 minutes - 6.84 MBThe sacred hunger for truth, for God, for love, for peace, for freedom is the force calling us home. This deep longing doesn’t leave us alone. It persists even with a lifetime of disillusionments or “unfulfilled promises.” No matter what spiritual path we have taken or not taken, Gangaji offers all this encouragement: “Let this hunger for Truth have you. It is a glorious feast, and it is time to stop circling the table. You have a place at this feast.”
#31 Being Yourself | Letting Go of Control
March 12, 2021 22:00 - 18 minutes - 10.5 MBAt its root the desire for control is an infantile thought: “What I want is what I should have.” We do have a limited capacity to control many things within our life circumstances, our relationships, or our emotions. But when we try to control what cannot be controlled, we suffer and cause others to suffer. On this podcast, Gangaji speaks to what that moment of letting go of control really is and what it reveals. She shares it “is the opportunity to realize what doesn't need to be controlled...
#30 Being Yourself | The American Dream and the Bodhisattva Vow
February 14, 2021 20:00 - 13 minutes - 7.81 MBMany take a spiritual path in life with a sincere desire to contribute to the well-being of all sentient beings. In this month’s episode of Being Yourself, a young man asks, “How can I cultivate the heart of a Bodhisattva?” Gangaji speaks to how we can be true to the Bodhisattva heart in the face of our human, cultural, and spiritual conditioning.
#30 Being Yourself | The American Dream and the Bodhisattva Heart
February 14, 2021 20:00 - 13 minutes - 7.81 MBMany take a spiritual path in life with a sincere desire to contribute to the well-being of all sentient beings. In this month’s episode of Being Yourself, a young man asks, “How can I cultivate the heart of a Bodhisattva?” Gangaji speaks to how we can be true to the Bodhisattva heart in the face of our human, cultural, and spiritual conditioning.
Being Yourself | February Podcast Extra
February 08, 2021 18:33 - 4 minutes - 3.25 MBIn our February podcast extra, Gangaji invites us to discover the very source of our longing for home, home itself. In an instant of inquiry, you can discover that what you have longed for, is who you already are. Also learn more about Gangaji’s March 6-7 online retreat: Falling Into Yourself.