Sounds True: Producer's Pick

How do you face the "wounds and suffering of the human heart"? Perhaps the greatest gift from Saint Francis of Assisi was this insight: that we learn the mystery of ourselves only at the price of our own innocence. The word "innocent," teaches Father Richard Rohr, literally means "unwounded." Producer Mitchell Clute chose this audio passage from the audio program The Art of Letting Go for Father Rohr's clarity in expressing Saint Francis' understanding that falling upward always begins not by pushing away the darkness, but by embracing it.

In Karla McLaren’s experience as an empathic counselor and researcher, emotions have more to tell us than we often realize. When Sounds True producer Randy Roark was recording Karla’s audio learning program, The Language of Emotions, he gained a whole new appreciation for the depth of information that our emotions contain. As Randy puts it, “Karla shows us that when we learn to listen to the messages in our emotions, they can contain creative solutions to many of the most difficult and challenging situations we encounter in our daily lives.” In this excerpt, Karla helps us to understand what our emotions really are, and why we are often unable to decipher the invaluable wisdom they are trying to share.

Perhaps no one person has done more to prove the clinical value of mindfulness practice than Jon Kabat-Zinn. His groundbreaking research on the use of mindfulness to address chronic pain and accelerate healing has helped bring meditation into the world of conventional medicine. Yet perhaps his greatest gift is his ability to make mindfulness immediately accessible to anyone. As Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute observed, “I’m always impressed—but never surprised—by the ease with which Jon Kabat-Zinn is able to connect with a wide range of listeners.” In this week’s excerpt, drawn from the audio program Meditation for Pain Relief, Jon Kabat-Zinn shows us how we can “drop in” on the present moment whenever we wish, and bring our full awareness to whatever troubles us.

One of the things that makes Caroline Myss such an exceptional and provocative teacher is her unique vision. As a medical intuitive, she developed a singular ability to accurately perceive health issues in the human energy field. When Tami Simon recorded Caroline's new program, The Power of Prayer, she was particularly captivated by a vision that Caroline shared with her audience—an image of how each of us is a light in a divine matrix of being, connected to one another in a field of grace. In this week's excerpt, Caroline shares this exquisite vision, and reveals how our connection to the divine matrix activates when we pray for healing.

John O'Donohue was a one-of-a-kind force of nature: a genius with words, a brilliant thinker, and a professional excavator of the soul. When Sounds True producer Stephen Lessard worked to re-release A Celtic Pilgrimage with John O'Donohue on DVD, he was deeply moved by how John's poetic insights and wisdom could enhance our appreciation of the breathtaking landscape of Ireland. With his all-encompassing view of beauty, John was able to reveal to us an understanding of spirituality that naturally embraced the land, the human psyche, and all of life. In this video excerpt, John O'Donohue uncovers the Celtic notion of time, and the elemental dimension of spirituality.

Often we think of healers as those with special abilities that only a few possess. What impressed Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute about Master Stephen Co's first encounters with pranic healing, as he describes in his audio program Power Breathing, is he initially felt nothing as he did these practices to heal his wife—in fact, he didn't even believe they were working. However, he continued to practice, and eventually to teach, these methods for one simple reason: he got results. Master Co's practical, evidence-based approach to energy work has resonated with many listeners, especially for those of a scientific bent. In this excerpt, he talks about why you don't have to possess an extraordinary sensitivity in order to be an effective healer.

Buddhism and psychotherapy both share the same ultimate goal: the alleviation of human suffering. Yet it can be puzzling for therapists and practitioners alike to try to integrate these two very different approaches. When Tami Simon was recording the new audio learning program Already Free with Bruce Tift, she was impressed by the depth of Bruce’s understanding of these two paths and their inherent contradictions. Tami says that Bruce’s inquiry opened her mind to resting with paradox in an open and accepting way—and that this skill of accepting paradox instead of struggling to resolve it may be a key to happiness. In this excerpt, Bruce talks about the key ideas of “being” and “becoming,” and how they are expressed in Western and Eastern traditions.

What would modern psychiatry and medicine look like if they had been invented by Native American people? This is a question that particularly intrigued Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute when he was recording the audio program Native American Healing Meditations with Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona. As someone who has a deep connection to his Cherokee and Lakota roots, and is also a psychiatrist and Stanford-trained MD, Dr. Mehl-Madrona is uniquely poised to integrate native and Western concepts of healing. In this excerpt, Dr. Mehl-Madrona invites us to consider how the power of story forms our own identity and connects us to our community—and how consciously changing our story can help us heal.

Stress is a normal and even necessary part of life, but when we can’t let go of our feelings of worry or fear, stress becomes anxiety. And persistent anxiety can easily lead to significant health issues. So how do we keep everyday stress from turning into long-term anxiety? When Sounds True producer Stephen Lessard recorded Dr. Erin Olivo’s new program, Free Yourself from Anxiety, he was impressed by Dr. Olivo’s lucid presentation of mindfulness practices that can release pent-up worry and build up our emotional resilience. In this excerpt, Dr. Olivo reveals how self-compassion can help us respond to stressful events in a healthy, natural way.

Westerners who first encounter the concept of qi­ often regard it as something extraordinary, even supernatural—an energy available only to masters of spirituality or martial arts. Yet much of Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on an understanding of this vital life force as it operates in each and every one of us. When Sounds True producer Stephen Lessard recorded the audio program Qi Meditations, he was impressed by the way Dr. Mao Shing Ni was able to demystify qi and explain it in clear, simple language. In this selection, Dr. Mao explores the nature of qi, how it manifests as the yin and the yang, and how these energies are reflected in our bodies and our world.

Your mind can change the very tissue of your brain. Modern neuroscience is teaching us that all of our experiences, thoughts, and behaviors are constantly constructing and reconstructing the functioning of our nervous system. Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, author of Buddha’s Brain, has spent over a decade studying how we can consciously harness our brain’s natural malleability, or “neuroplasticity,” to deepen our experience of happiness and joy. In this Producer’s Pick, Sounds True producer Randy Roark selected a meditation he found to be particularly powerful from Dr. Hanson’s program, Meditations for Happiness. In this guided visualization, you will be asked to close your eyes, so please be sure to find a place where you can be relaxed and undisturbed for ten minutes before you begin.

Many of us are curious about past lives, but how much to they affect us in the here and now? In his experience as a psychic consultant, author Ainslie MacLeod has come to believe that healing our past lives may be the most important step we can take in our spiritual growth. When recording Ainslie’s new program Heal Your Past-Life Fears, Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute found himself thinking about past lives in a whole new way—not just as an esoteric concept from Eastern philosophy, but as real and immediate forces that influence our life choices in unseen ways. In this excerpt, Ainslie talks about how past lives effect us, and why working directly with these buried memories can lead to profound transformation.

Will Johnson believes that body is the greatest source of spiritual wisdom. Though we tend to be trained to “live from the neck up” in our culture, many profound teachings tell us that when we get out of our heads and into our body, we open the door to presence, happiness, and awakening. When recording Johnson’s new audio learning course Awakening the Body, Sounds True producer Randy Roark found himself becoming aware of his existence on the physical level in a whole new way. In this excerpt, Johnson takes us on an unforgettable tour of ourselves at the cellular level, and gives us a new appreciation for the hidden wisdom that we carry in our bodies all the time.

In the summer of 1974, inside a balmy Boulder, Colorado, warehouse that served as the main hall of the fledgling Naropa Institute, a young teacher called Ram Dass gave a talk that went to become legendary. This talk covered the Bhagavad Gita, Ram Dass’ experiences on the spiritual journey, and the issues of the time—but what truly occurred that day was an enduring transmission of timeless spiritual wisdom. When Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute listened to the recording of this talk during the creation of the audio course Love, Service, Devotion, and the Ultimate Surrender, he was struck by how Ram Dass’ words transcended the years and spoke to what is eternal in our human journey. In this excerpt, Ram Dass talks about identity, individuality, and the spiritual path.

When it came time for the Buddha to distill all his teachings on the path to nirvana and the liberation from suffering, he created the Satpatthana Sutta. Joseph Goldstein, one of America's most respected Buddhist scholars and teachers, delved into the wisdom of each passage of the Sutta over the course of 47 lectures. Sounds True has compiled these talks into Goldstein's three-volume masterpiece, Abiding in Mindfulness—and producer Randy Roark says that it is perhaps the most important project he has worked on in his 13 years with Sounds True. In this excerpt, Joseph unfolds and illuminates the Buddha's wisdom on metta meditation—the essential practice of lovingkindness.