Sunday Talks
"The Art of Allowing"
The spiritual practice of allowing is a way we meet what is, especially when it’s difficult, with openness, without judgment, without feeling we must quickly change it or transform it. It is a way we let what we’re feeling have room to be welcomed, felt, and allowed to be. It is a way we become a good spiritual friend to ourselves, and learn to stay present with our experience and hold it in loving awareness. We can learn to notice our habits of repressing or indulging and instead let our experience take us deeper into embracing and understanding ourselves in all our humanness.
"The Great Mother"
The Great Mother as the Ultimate Reality was worshipped going back at least 25,000 years. Rev. Kathy explores the Hindu goddesses and their divine attributes including Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Kali as well as contemporary embodiments of the Divine Mother, in particular Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma). She shares personal stories of spiritual lessons from Amma and how we can open to the direct experience of the Great Mother.
Carl Marsak on "The Enneagram"
Carl Marsak shares teachings on the Enneagram, describing nine personality types or styles. Ennea is Greek for nine, and gram means a drawing, written character or letter. The Enneagram is an ancient and sacred method of transformation which helps one to identify and move beyond old and unconscious habits of body, heart and mind.
Dr. Jean Houston on "Having Courage in Dangerous Times"
Dr Jean Houston shares a poignant talk on our need to come together to make sense of our time in history, inquiring to see what principles and designs we need to create a whole systems solution. She asks us to envision a world that works. What needs to be done? How can we cultivate a passion for the possible and put it into action? Jean shares moving personal stories from her childhood, her magical friendship with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and meeting Albert Einstein.
A Tribute to Jane Goodall, Part 2
This talk explores Jane Goodall’s life and teachings, and the four great challenges of our time: alleviating poverty, reducing the unsustainable lifestyles of the affluent, eliminating corruption and creating good governance and honest leadership, and facing the problems caused by growing populations of humans and their livestock. We examine the importance of spending time connecting with the natural world and what we can learn from it.
A Tribute to Jane Goodall
This tribute to Dr. Jane Goodall describes her meeting with Amma, the hugging saint, and her four deepest reasons for hope for humanity including the human intellect, the resilience of nature, the dedication of young people and the indomitable human spirit. There are personal stories of Jane facing grief and loss and finding hope again, as well as from her childhood. Jane’s message is one of putting our hope into action to make a difference in our world.
The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying
This talk explores the profound teachings from The Tibetan book of Living and Dying, with a focus on how we support a loved one at their time of death, and in the weeks after they have left the physical body and entered the bardo of becoming. Rev. Kathy shares a personal experience of supporting her mother in this period through the practice of Phowa, the transference of consciousness. She discusses the clairvoyance of the mental body during the bardo period, and the importance of focusing on the virtues of the life lived by the departed one.
Gangaji at UCOA
Gangaji shares a poignant question and answer session with the congregation at Unity Community of Ashland, including questions on how we navigate the times we’re in.
Rev. Lynn Fritz on "I Am Sacred Human"
This talk explores how we tune into our intuition and listen to the guidance that comes from our connection to the sacred. It explores learning to notice and pay attention to red flags and what the inner message is.
My Religion Is Kindness
How do we feel inspired to make the choice for loving-kindness even when the world at times feels unkind and menacing? We make the choice because it is the deepest truth of who we are, and we refuse to forget our innate goodness. Our choice for loving-kindness is our expression of resistance to the unconsciousness that propagates darkness and division in it’s ignorance. It takes immense courage and bravery to be who we are, and who we are is Love itself, in it’s purest form.
Emotional Freedom, Pt. 3
This talk explores how we can transform our anxiety and worry into a state of inner calm. It explores the emotional types of the Rock and the Gusher and helps us identify our emotional type and tendencies, and how we might deepen in our emotional intelligence and emotional freedom.
Ana Ramana on Carpe Diem
Emotional Freedom, Pt. 2
This talk explores how we live from the heart and mindfully cultivate positive emotions and skillfully take care of difficult emotions. Rev. Kathy explores the teachings on four emotional types, in particular the Intellectual and the Empath.
Emotional Freedom
This inspiring talk explores how we grow our emotional freedom and ability to live from the heart. We look at how we can witness and transform negative emotions, moving from anxiety to calm, fear to courage, depression to hope, anger to compassion, frustration to patience and loneliness to connection. We explore four keys in understanding our emotions, including biology, spirituality, energy and psychology.
Embracing Change
This talk explores how we might embrace change through cultivating an understanding of the nature of impermanence in this world. We explore how in our personal lives, change is growth and our willingness to change our attitude towards our past, present and future can facilitate deep spiritual growth. We consider that the ancient adage “this too will pass” is a comfort as well as a deep spiritual truth in the realm of form.
Rev Lynn Fritz on Honoring the Sacred
Rev. Lynn guides us in exploring how we view death and what our feelings are about it. She involves the audience in this exploration of how we embrace grief and allow it to transform us in a sacred way.
Tribute to Joanna Macy and the Prophecy of the Shambala Warriors
This talk honors the teachings of Joanna Macy, including the story she shares about the Shambala Warriors. We examine what it is to have active hope vs. just being hopeful things will turn out alright.
Moving From An Ethnocentric to Worldcentric View
Our view of ourselves and others and our relationship to the web of life here in the world evolves as we spiritually evolve. We begin in early life with a focus on “me and my needs”, which is the egocentric view. While we may retain that view, if our sense of the world expands to include others, an us and them mentality, we grow into the ethnocentric view.
But, this, unfortunately, is very limited because those not in our group are often not in our scope of concern, not included in our hearts or interest. To live the teachings the spiritual masters point to, we must expand to a worldcentric view, a view in which all of us matter. Beyond that is the cosmocentric view which is where realizations such as “I Am That” and “I and My Father Are One” are expressed from.
Matters Of The Heart
Rev. Lynn Fritz on The Human Energy Body & Global Healing
Rev. Lynn discusses the significance of understanding the human energy field, it’s role in personal well being and it’s power in healing our global community.
Wisdom of Discernment
This talk explores the wisdom of discernment. Viveka, the Sanskrit word for discernment means being able to clearly see and discern what actions truly produce happiness, and what actions result in suffering. Cultivating discernment allows us to use this insight to follow the path that leads to greater well being, benefit and happiness. Rev. Kathy explores how we cultivate a discriminating intellect to be able to clearly tell the difference between what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is healthy and unhealthy, and in the deepest spiritual sense, what is real and unreal.
Contentment As An Antidote to Greed
This talk explores the challenge of craving that inspires greed and how it is contentment that gives us the feeling of “having enough”, of feeling satisfied and complete. We explore how the hungry ghost of always chasing more, whether it be money, power, attention, or addiction is a disease we can heal through understanding where the source of true fulfillment lies.
Rev. Andrea Asebedo On Watering Seeds Of Resilience
Rev. Asebedo shares a talk on the importance of watering seeds that nourish our resilience and well being. She explores how our well being has to do with our ability to choose where our consciousness is directed.
Mind Like The Sky
This talk explores how our happiness depends on the state of our mind. The Buddha said, “develop a mind that is vast like space, where experiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle, or harm. Rest in a mind, like vast sky.” In this talk, we explore how we can allow for the stormy weather of thoughts and experiences to come and go and stay conscious on the deeper sky-like nature of an open, calm, mind at rest.
Our Mother Relationships
This talk explores the complexity of our relationship with our mothers, how we evolve through stages of expectation towards a more unconditional view of our mother as a soul with her own journey. We explore the possibilities of healing even when our mother is no longer in her physical form. We examine how we can heal from inter-generational trauma and mother ourselves.
Interview with Dr. Riane Eisler
Dr. Riane Eisler, Systems Scientist, researcher and scholar is interviewed by Rev. Kathy Zavada on the present state of our society, and how the partnership system of living in society is the antidote to the dysfunction of the domination system we presently see our society regressing towards. Dr. Eisler talks about how we envision and enact a better alternative to the top-down dominator system of violence, control through fear, and destruction of civil rights, human rights and the environment. She describes a whole systems view that includes the four cornerstones of an integrated progressive agenda. She expounds on the cornerstones of family/childhood, gender, an economics of caring, and our stories and language. She offers a new view that inspires hope based on understanding our past so we don’t keep repeating it.
Peggy Rubin on The Steps To Joy
Peggy offers us nine steps to cultivate joy in our daily lives, with emphasis on the importance of maintaining joy to strengthen our resilience and faith in these hard times.
Easter Sunday
This talk explores how the Life that informs us and all beings is an eternal energy ever regenerating itself. We examine what this life within us is urging us to explore for our own evolutionary growth, understanding, and spiritual awakening. The talk concludes with a message of what Jesus might say if he were president, how his teachings if applied in every day life might allow us to live in a way that is life-giving, allowing humanity to not just survive but to thrive.
The Balance of Saving & Savoring The World
Ana Ramana speaks on Her Spiritual Journey with Ramana Maharshi
Ana Ramana describes her spiritual journey with Indian Sage Ramana Maharshi with poetry and stories.
Interview with Dr. Jean Houston
This far-reaching interview with author and Human Capacities researcher Dr. Jean Houston explores how we can more fully experience that we are “living in the mind of God” and open to possibility in every aspect of our lives. She talks about how we self-heal and suspend dis-belief in greater possibility. She challenges us to explore what the greater expression for our own life might be and shares an experiential exercise during this interview.
Is It End Times Or A New Earth?
This talk explores the poignant question of what all the present turmoil and instability in our country and the world might lead to, and how we most consciously meet what is happening, day by day. Ram Dass was asked if are we in the age of Aquarius and things are beginning, or a time of Armaggedon, and things are ending, and he answered he didn’t know, but his work he was the same; to quiet his mind, open his heart, and relieve suffering where he found it. We examine skillful means and wisdom teachings that deeply support us in the times we’re in.
The Essential Mindfulness Teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh
This talk explores the mindfulness teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, including the Four Mantras of Loving Speech, walking meditation practice, and what it means to be the continuation body of one’s spiritual teacher.
Peggy Rubin speaking on the Powers of Goddess Durga
Founding director of Center for Sacred Theater in Ashland and principle teaching associate for Dr. Jean Houston, Peggy Rubin shares the legendary history of the goddess Durga. The archetype of the Hindu goddess Durga is a powerful goddess riding a lion/tiger who has 10 arms and weapons in each hand that combat the dissolution of dharma, that slay ignorance, darkness and evil in the world. Peggy brings the idea of what these weapons signify for us in our daily life and how we use them to overcome fear, anger and despair.
Finding Courage In Difficult Times
This talk explores how we find the courage to overcome fear and act in alignment with our highest values and deepest heart’s promptings. We explore how seeing ourselves as courageous, remembering our heroes, staying attuned to our highest principles, and not being afraid of making mistakes are four key steps in cultivating courage in daily life. Rev. Kathy shares wonderful true stories of courage and inspiration.
Rev Ruth Kirby on Wisdom from Groundhog Day
Why Ethics Matter
This talk explores how ethical teachings are like a map of how we can live together in this world in a way that creates harmony, justice, mercy, honesty, and humility; a map of how we live together in peace. In the Vedantic scripture the Vivekachudamani it states: “individuals with self knowledge and spiritual freedom are inherently self-examining and ethical.” Another verse says “ethics, freedom and knowledge require each other.” We examine how we might live in this complicated world aligned with our true nature.
Gangaji at UCOA
Gangaji shares with Unity Community of Ashland her experience of meeting her spiritual teacher Papaji, and what is was like when he asked her to teach and share her experience. She describes the silence at the core of your being as something that is never gone, not an object you can lose, but that which in a moment of stopping can be directly experienced. She takes a few questions on the nature of death, and what it is to ‘be unformed’.
The Importance of Sangha
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