Author and nonviolence practitioner Kazu Haga explores why fierce vulnerability is a vital practice for inner and outer transformation.

Read an excerpt of Kazu’s book, Fierce Vulnerability, and purchase your own copy HERE.

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Kazu Haga chat about:

• Kazu’s difficult upbringing and how meeting Japanese Buddhist monastics transformed his life
• Combining social action and spirituality
• The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and addressing both inner violence of the spirit and outer systemic violence
• How an “us vs. them” worldview fuels division, suffering, and ecological destruction
• Healing childhood trauma and collective trauma by integrating the fractured parts of ourselves
• How getting vulnerable opens up our capacity to heal
• The Seven Fires Prophecies from the Anishinaabe people
• Rebuilding the world through spiritual practice rather than material accumulation
• Remembering that personal healing is inseparable from collective healing in an interdependent world
• Listening deeply and being comfortable with uncertainty

Check out the book Hospicing Modernity for more powerful insights on social action

About Kazu Haga:

Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of the Ahimsa Collective and the Fierce Vulnerability Network. He is a Jam facilitator and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm and Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging from Collapse. He works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country. He has over 25 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work. He is a resident of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA, where he lives with his family. You can find out more about his work at www.kazuhaga.com.

“The work of nonviolence has to start by looking at the ways in which we hold internal violence of the spirit, that unhealed anger, hatred, resentment, delusion, as well as our unhealed traumas, and understanding how all of that is the source of external violence in the world. Yes we need the social movements, but if we’re not grounded in some sort of inner work and introspection a lot of the violence we want to change out there gets replicated in our own work, in our own communities.” –Kazu Haga

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Longtime friends David Silver and Raghu Markus discuss Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and the legacy of Dzogchen maintained by his four sons.

Grab a copy of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s memoirs, Blazing Splendor, for a deeper look into his magnificent life.

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and David have a discussion about:

• The life and teachings of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, one of the greatest Dzogchen meditation masters of the 20th century
• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s sons and how they continue to spread Dzogchen wisdom to the West
• Core principles of Dzogchen philosophy, including the nature of mind and nondual awareness
• Understanding cognitive emptiness and the illusion of a solid identity
• Why contemplating death and impermanence can be a path to liberation
• Working consciously with loss and mortality before the end of life
• Not falling into the trap of believing this life is permanent
• Viewing dreams and meditation as parallel practices for awakening
• The patience and discipline required to form new spiritual habits
• Living fully while recognizing the inevitability of death

Learn about dealing with the bardo of dying in the book In Love with the World by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche or hop into The Bardo Guidebook by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

About David Silver:

David Silver is the former co-host of the Mindrolling podcast. He is a filmmaker and director, most recently coming out with Brilliant Disguise. Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaj-ji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaj-ji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. Silver’s #1 charting MGM/UA/Warners film, “The Compleat Beatles” is the critically acclaimed biopic movie about history’s most famous band. The term ‘rockumentary’ was first applied to this two-hour movie. Rolling Stone recently described the film as a “masterwork.” Silver’s Warner Brothers’ feature film, “No Nukes” also started the whole trend of music/activism feature documentaries.

“Urgyen and his sons and all Dzogchen people believe that dreaming is as important as meditating. Dreams are fluid, anything can happen in a dream. You can fly, you can walk through a wall. What Mingyur says is that is the perfect analogy for life itself; life is as fluid and as transparent as that dream, but we don’t know it because we think it’s solid because we can’t put our finger through our hand.” –David Silver

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In this music-filled re-release, Raghu Markus is joined by spiritual musician Jai Uttal to chat about opening our hearts through the magnitude of melodies.

Get your copy of All In This Together, the latest book from Jack Kornfield!

Let this new book be your guide, as Jack reveals how to navigate our human experience with wisdom and care. Inside you’ll find a beautiful collection of stories, inspiration for conflict resolution, and powerful teachings on healing, justice, and human kindness—anchored in the teachings of the Buddha and poetry from luminary voices like Mary Oliver. Click here to learn more!

In this episode, Raghu and Jai Uttal discuss:

• The formation of melodic structures and how music is as boundless as an ocean
• Letting go of the idea that we must master an instrument in order to create music
• Getting into the flow of devotional music and honoring God through our presence rather than perfection
• The friendship between Jai Uttal and Ram Dass and Jai’s journey to India
• The Baul’s of Bengal and mystical, spontaneous verse
• Jai’s single, Holy Mad Men, inspired by Bengali-style music
• More Bengali-influenced music by The Band
• The dotara, an Indian folk instrument Jai frequently uses
• Musical creation as the legacy of satsang and a path to continued connection

Check out Ali Akbar Khan to hear some classical Indian Ragas and the sarod instrument that Raghu and Jai discuss.

About Jai Uttal:

Jai Uttal is a Grammy-nominated sacred music composer, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist. Having traveled extensively in India, he met many great saints and singers and Bhakti Yoga became his personal path. Jai has been leading, teaching, and performing kirtan around the world for nearly 50 years. He creates a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices.

“Music is way more vast than any one human person can understand.” –Jai Uttal

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