Waking Up Is Not Enough: Flourishing in the Human Space

GoFundMe Page - https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-real-dialogue-polly-mikes-podcast-on-awakening Polly and Mike talk with writer and speaker Terry Moore whose recent book Here.Now.One: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Life sheds light on ways to make spiritual practice an integrated part of everyday life and whose recent TED talk directs our attention to Oneness. In this conversation, Terry talks about the nature of awakening and the ways peoples’ spiritual concerns and beliefs can become one-sided and empty of vitality. Terry’s created a model or map called “The Unified Path” that assesses and instructs how individuals can engage body, mind, soul and heart in whatever practices they are currently doing. In speaking widely and deeply about the meaning of religion, God, and the search for Truth, Terry, Mike and Polly investigate the conundrum of language and how we talk about the ineffable.

In this lively and exploratory conversation, Mike and Polly talk with Buddhist teacher and author Gaylon Ferguson, Ph.D. Dr. Ferguson has led group meditation retreats since 1976 in many settings, but especially in retreat centers. He is the author of Natural Wakefulness (on the four foundations of mindfulness) and Natural Bravery (on the path of fear and fearlessness). Do you imagine that something is missing in your life? Have you been searching for spiritual awakening or some kind of deep transformation? Mike, Polly and Gaylon speak frankly about what provokes a spiritual search and where it leads. Along the way, they draw on Gaylon’s new book Welcoming Beginner’s Mind: Zen and Tibetan Buddhist Wisdom on Experienc ing Our True Nature. The book follows the famous ten Zen Ox Herding pictures and invites the reader to relax and welcome whatever is arising, moment-by-moment.

Bill Waldron PhD is professor of Religious Studies at Middlebury College where he teaches Indian religions, especially Buddhism. His recent book “Mind Only: Why Yogachara Buddhism Matters” is an important contribution to clarifying non-dual awareness and a non-dual way of life: no “object” called “world” and no “subject” called “self.” Neither object, nor subject?? So, what is reality? Mike and Polly have a lively and clarifying conversation with Bill about what these Buddhist teachings from the third century and why they are important now that theoretical physics and psychology are finally catching up.

In this episode, Dr. Akomalafe warns against colonizing our minds in the ways of colonialism: assuming we know exactly what to do to bring our situation under control or that we know exactly who we are. In this wide-ranging extraordinary conversation with Bayo, Polly and Mike discover new ways of thinking about body, life/death, and belonging while also finding a missing piece of the identity puzzle that truly breaks open all harmful models of “I am this.”

At the later stages of Ego Development, people naturally encounter self-evaluated standards in place of group norms and begin to feel intensive responsibility for their own achievements, self-respect and creative fulfillment. They no longer look to others for support or approval, even though they still long for it. Full-blown post-conformity gradually unfolds into coping with inner conflicts and ambivalence, respect for individuality in self and others, deep acceptanceof the unattainable, and cherishing of particularity and even irreconcilable differences. These types of non-conformity include complex thoughts, ideals, and feelings about themultiplicity of different selves in human social contexts.Some of these features can by perceived through conformist (and even somewhat post-conformist) lenses asbeing impulsive, manipulative, or self-promoting. In this podcast, Mike and Polly talk about these and other paradoxes involving post-conformist adult development that can be mistaken as uncaring or “off the wall.” At the “highest” stages of ego development, individuals often experience alienation and non-witnessing because there are few others who embrace the full wisdom of human awareness at later stages of development.

In Part 2, Mike and Polly engage with Ken Wilber, a prominent American theorist and writer in transpersonal psychology, in a deep dive into the intersections of psychedelics, spiritual awakening, Zen, and spiritual development with contemporary issues like war and 'woke' ideologies. They explore how these diverse areas tie into adult stage development, focusing particularly on the Mythic and Conformist stages. Wilber illuminates how individuals can inadvertently become ensnared in egocentrism or even narcissism during these stages, mistaking a sense of personal specialness for a recognition of their interconnectedness in a unified consciousness. Ken Wilber is acclaimed for his integral theory—a comprehensive four-quadrant grid designed to embrace all human knowledge and experiences. He is particularly renowned for integrating adult stage theory into a broader understanding of critical life processes: waking up, growing up, cleaning up, and showing up. This conversation promises to offer profound insights into the complex journey of human development and consciousness.

Mike and Polly spend some time reviewing what they learned and what they are thinking about in relation to their podcasts #11 and #12. What are the implications for new developments in Conscious Realism? Because Conscious Realism brings human subjectivity into the forefront of what we take to be the “world out there,” it shares a lot with Real Dialogue. Where do they overlap? Where might they depart from each other? Join us in trying to understand how human consciousness grows and develops through “an interactive network of conscious agents.”

In his current scientific investigations, Donald Hoffman proposes that the fundamental building blocks of reality are not particles or atoms but conscious entities. He also advocates for a radical shift in our understanding of evolution, suggesting it has shaped our perception to prioritize survival rather than truth. This thought-provoking perspective challenges our beliefs about reality and the nature of consciousness itself What do you believe about consciousness? Do you think it “comes from your brain”? Perhaps you’re aware that there is no scientific evidence that consciousness arises from a material source, like a brain. In this podcast, Polly and Mike dive into a complex conversation with scientist and seeker Donald Hoffman who is an American cognitive scientist and psychologist, as well as a popular science writer. He is a professor of Cognitive Sciences, Philosophy and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine.