Mindrolling With Raghu Markus

Magical, mystical, mysterious, mellifluous music from the legendary Triloka World Music catalog. Enjoy the music and banter from Raghu and David.

Can right wingers be Buddhists?  What is the military-industrial-media complex? Can we resist without rage? How can we avoid harming another heart? 

Bob Dylan - born half a year before Pearl Harbor with his word fugues of our future always old/forever young – he rocked a rotten society...what rocks youth now...our 2013 parallel universe...getting the charge, the message, without needing a drug or a guru...a 9/11 first responder’s love tale...

A little music, a Mad Man, slight madness and some sanity ranging from Pema Chodron to Richard Nixon with entertainment by Malian angel Rokia Traoré.  Podcast gets into music as transportation; sixties/now parallels; “shmoos”; stealing chocolate; “learning to stay”; not chasing thoughts; and service/social activism. Plus “what have we really got out of years of practice?”  

The Mindrolling twins dig into the world of free form radio with Tom Lopez aka Meatball Fulton - a pioneer of the genre from back in the 60’s. Tom talks about his relationship with Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart who was a compadre of Frank Zappa and wrote and performed incredibly bizarre yet transcendent music. In fact the New York Times called it “the strange uncle of post-punk”. Also featured are a few vignettes of highly evocative radio plays Tom has produced.

Ram Dass talks about his relationship with the great Tibetan Lama, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Includes detailed moments with Trungpa and Ram Dass at different events and venues in the early 70’s where Trungpa was teaching - the methods he used with his students and the dismay of many who were offended by his unusual behavior and teachings that were enigmatic to say the least. Ram Dass delves into a substantial issue around teachers in the West that are unconventional and sometimes divisive yet can provide students with a path that allows for real growth.

Navigating the conventional world and its roles – and escaping them: our chat with TV producer/teacher/friend Peter Goldsmith: How to roll your mind away from obsessive identification with the “work you”... How to see all true paths as exactly the same... How to say hello to the inner self...

DUNCAN TRUSSELL, conscious humorist pal and podcast guru, is back with us, and we expand upon mind expansion, conquering cancer, mortality, Allen Ginsberg, the edges of time and space, downloading divine info, “disciplic succession,” and love underlying everything. It’s an intense yet hilarious trip into Duncan’s mind and heart.

“American Veda” author Philip Goldberg traces how Eastern philosophy and practice developed in the U.S., making it clear that yoga, meditation and kirtan didn’t just spring up here out of nowhere. We learn about the progression from people like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Swami Vivekananda, George Harrison and Ram Dass.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche said, “The quality of a really good teacher is “rascalness." Why do we need the outright unpredictable sometimes in order to progress spiritually? This week our Mindrollers delve into true intuitive wisdom, cults, humor as teaching, and the connection between art and consciousness. Catch their drift and open your mind or maybe lose it...

Raghu and David welcome Ram Dass and his co-author Rameshwar Das, who just finished their new book, Polishing the Mirror. Ram Dass talks about the moment that his life changed when he met his Guru and how that “moment” became viral with so many people. Also revealing discussion around honesty and being at the edge of awakening with dying people.

The Mindrollers traverse from the implant of knowledge via a teacher (or not) through to the real meaning of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” as explained to David by Roger Waters himself. Also ruminations about “rascal” teachers, the true nature of surrender, the dark presence of fear in our lives, and love as a disease.

David and Raghu investigate the unusual "Shambala Sun" cover story by Norman Fischer. Our Mindrollers present their own version of how to deal with life - stop blaming people, the world is upside down -turn it over, everything is the path including your step-mother, overcome self-interest as in Dave’s fixation with a certain European sport and confusion is the Buddha - not to be confused by our guys’ continuing lifetime journey to awareness.

Mickey Lemle’s documentary “Fierce Grace” passionately covers Ram Dass’s life post-stroke and also gives us a  transcendent look at aging when life suddenly involves intense hardship.  We talk with Mickey about this and also his seminal film "Compassion in Exile: The Life of The 14th Dalai Lama"...tons of great anecdotes...

Mirabai Bush, who co-founded The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, has worked with everyone from Google to troubled youth to the army, teaching the practice of mindfulness. If anyone needs more mindfulness, it’s the two Mindrollers, whose aspirations far over-reach their achievements...

Sharon Salzberg joins Mindrolling on location on Maui and shares her incredible clarity and huge heart. She lends a hand to our intrepid Mindrollers on how to navigate the vicissitudes of our complex lives thru awareness, compassion and meditation. As she says, "May the Minds Roll." 

Raghu and David sit with Krishna Das, who the New York times has called the Chant Master of American Yoga. They discuss chanting as a practice and people taking on "uncooked Gurus". 

Activism without anger, resistance without rancor: it's hard to reach detachment when the political world is making you crazy.  What to do? Vajravarahi is a spiritual energy deity perceived to transmute the Five Negative Afflictions which represent five obstructions that obscure the true nature of life.  These Five Afflictions are greed, hatred, delusion, jealousy and pride. Like all fearsome figures in Tantric Buddhism, she is protective & simply wrathful for beneficial reasons.  She fits the bill for helping change the negative emotions that prevent us from balancing ourselves or society.   Original Text by: Tristan Rigby - Rishigallery.com

What is a guru? What is a teacher?  Raghu and David offer gentle though and definitions of an “accomplished being” a “siddha” and of a teacher, some of whom are great and some actually harmful...they speak about the saga of Joya Santanya, her Shakti, and her ego...

More spectacular experiences with sacred musicians: Bob Marley, Krishna Das, Jai Uttal and Bhagavan Das. Both frightening and enlightening times with world, trance and the beginnings of chant and kirtan music is explored. David and Raghu discuss the practice of opening the heart by chanting, where no thinking is necessary.