Finding Our Sacred Kinship with Mark Nepo

MP3 Download

Time and again, fear and greed get in the way of our mutual kinship. Mark Nepo says, “Every time we meet in kindness and truth, we strengthen the immune system of the global body. Since everything is connected, everything matters and every time you strengthen a heart you lessen fear and violence somewhere in the world. This is the challenge of our time: to strengthen our hearts and to lessen our fear and violence. We are all in this together, no matter where we live.” This deep dialogue explores the importance of community and how we can cultivate connectedness with others. It is Nepo’s experience that “holding and listening are two of the oldest medicines we have. And when we can take the risk to hold and be vulnerable and truthful enough to ask to be held, when we can listen and admit that we don’t know and truly listen to each other and our experience. Then I think we will [find the bedrock of kinship].” (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

Bio

Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher who, for over three decades, has been teaching in the fields of poetry and spirituality. As a cancer survivor, Mark remains committed to the usefulness of daily inner life. He devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship.

He is the author of many books including:

• Reduced to Joy (Cleis Press 2013)
• Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred (Atria 2012)
• The One Life We're Given: Finding the Wisdom That Waits in Your Heart (Atria Books 2016)
• The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Sounds True 2016)
• More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World (Atria Books 2018)
• Drinking from the River of Light: The Life of Expression (Sounds True 2019)

His many audio learning courses include:

• Staying Awake: The Ordinary Art (Sounds True 2012)
• Holding Nothing Back: Essentials for an Authentic Life (Sounds True 2012)
• More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World (Atria Books 2018)

To find out more about the work of Mark Nepo go to www.marknepo.com. & www.ThreeIntentions.com.

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• How heart cells and brainwaves synchronize rhythms when practitioners meditate together
• Why we are addicted to the noise of things falling apart rather than the more quiet activity of things coming together
• What are the two tribes - one that fears the differences in people and one that welcomes what can be learned by those differences
• What was the example of people coming together in the Paris Commune in 1871
• How the original quality of anarchy included working together as a community for the highest collective good
• How holding and listening to one another and being in a “don’t know” mind is the best medicine for finding kinship
• What is the psychology of poverty
• How can we understand one another even beyond language barriers
• What does Nepo mean by being a guardian of the “flicker of dignity”
• What is Nepo’s advice as to how to keep our hearts open beyond our own opinions
• How may we tap into our innate nature of kindness

Host: Justine Willis Toms        Interview Date: 4/26/2018        Program Number: 3640

Music Playlist

From Album: Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning (Original Soundtrack)
Artist: Jami Sieber & Evan Schiller
2017 Out Front Music 669255101728

Opening Essay: Track 01 Opening (Invisible Wings)
Music Break 1: Track 02 Berkeley
Music Break 2: Track 03 Rush of Migration
Music Break 3: Track 07 US99