Living Mirrors with Dr. James Cooke

https://www.contemplativesciencelab.com/

Rupert Read is an environmental philosopher, public intellectual, and activist. He was formerly an associate professor of philosophy at the University of East Anglia in the UK, was a leading figure within Extinction Rebellion, and now leads the Climate Majority Project. His books include "Why Climate Breakdown Matters," "Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos," and "Parents for a Future". Today we discuss why spirituality and philosophy are crucial for understanding ecological breakdown.

Manda Scott is a bestselling author and former veterinary surgeon. She is the author of 16 books including the international bestselling Boudica: Dreaming series which depicts life in pre-Roman Britain and has been translated into over twenty languages. Her 2024 novel, Any Human Power, is an example of Thrutopian fiction, stories that show possible routes to a better future, and is a call to action for us to contribute to a different, generative, equitable and just way forward. She is the host of the Accidental Gods Podcast which explores ways through the metacrisis that we are currently living through. Today we discuss the metacrisis and thrutopian fiction.

https://www.innerspaceinstitute.org/

Francis Weller is a psychotherapist and author of many books including The Wild Edge of Sorrow, The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation, and his upcoming book In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate wisdom from indigenous cultures with knowledge from western traditions. Today we discuss grief and soul activism.

John Prendergast is a psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and former adjunct professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He's the author of In Touch, The Deep Heart, and, most recently, Your Deepest Ground. His work blends somatic inquiry and depth psychology with contemplative insight, and he is a leading voice on the topic of embodying nondual realization, which is what we discuss today.

https://www.innerspaceinstitute.org/

Stephen Snyder is a dharma teacher in the Zen Buddhist traditions of Soto and Rinzai as well as in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition. He is the author of Demystifying Awakening, Buddha's Heart, Trust in Awakening, Liberating the Self, and is co-author of the book Practicing the Jhānas. You can find out about his teaching and retreats at awakeningdharma.org. Today we discuss the gradual and direct paths to awakening and beyond.

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the youtube channel membership community. https://patreon.com/drjamescooke https://www.youtube.com/drjamescooke

This talk was filmed live at the Totnes Consciousness Cafe in April 2025.

David Loy is a Zen teacher, author, and scholar whose work bridges Buddhism, social justice, and ecology. He is a founding member of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado, and sits on the advisory boards of Buddhist Global Relief, the Clear View Project, Zen Peacemakers, and the Ernest Becker Foundation. He's the author of many books, including Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis, and ecodharma is the topic that we explore today. https://www.davidloy.org/

This week on the podcast I'm speaking again with Daniel Ingram. Daniel is a physician and meditator and is the author of the influential book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha. He is the co-founder of the Dharma Overground and of The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium. Today we discuss awakening and the role of interpretations in the mind, as well as the dark night of the soul and other related topics. If you're interested in any of these topics, you can go to innerspaceinstitute.org to explore my guided practices there.

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the youtube channel membership community: https://www.patreon.com/DrJamesCooke https://www.youtube.com/DrJamesCooke

Viivi Jokela is an awakening facilitator. She had a spontaneous awakening in 2022 which she subsequently integrated to reach abiding no-self realization. I find her descriptions of what she calls "the natural state", and the process by which it can be realized, to be incredibly accurate, and so it's a real pleasure to bring you my conversation with her today. We speak mainly about what it's like to go through no-self realization, as well as other aspects of awakening. https://www.sensingradiance.com/

Judith Herman is a psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, author and a leading expert on the healing of traumatic stress. She is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is the author of many books on PSTD, most recently Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice. A lifelong activist, she brings deep insight and understanding to the societal context in which trauma occurs, from the personal to the political, and these are the themes we discuss today.

Henry Shukman is a poet and Zen master. Henry is the Guiding Teacher of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is part of the Sanbo Zen lineage. He is the author of One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir, and, most recently, Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening. Today we discuss Zen and our own paths of awakening.

Karl Friston is a theoretical neurobiologist and Professor of Neuroscience at University College London. He is also an honorary consultant at UCL's Queen Square Institute of Neurology and is a fellow of both the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society. He also happens to be the most cited neuroscientist in the world. Karl kindly read and gave a blurb for the book: "A remarkably current and forward-looking treatment. This book uses all my favourite words—in the right order—and some I have never encountered before. It offers a delightful narrative, grounded in state-of-the-art thinking about what it is to be an observer or, in the author's words, BEING IS BELIEVING." https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dawn-Mind-Matter-Became-Conscious/dp/1633889920/

Find the original conversation here: https://youtu.be/cxHGIExT0fo?si=lqmbaLDjccaoLFqs The Dawn of Mind: How Matter Became Conscious and Alive https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Mind-Matter-Became-Conscious/dp/1633889920 https://youtu.be/Yqpsk0rgv90?si=j66AhVwx9DsbB61g

Erik Ireland is a mindfulness teacher who runs a youtube channel and podcast called listen to sleep, where he provides guided meditations and bedtime stories for mindfulness and awakening. He also works with people to help them find direction through the framework of the hero's journey at awakenyourmyth.com. Two years ago, he experienced an awakening and recorded a video called mountain awakening describing it. With his permission I'm going to include a section here before our conversation. erikireland.com awakenyourmyth.com https://www.youtube.com/ListenToSleep listentosleep.com

Find the original conversation here: https://www.thetripreport.com/p/37-dr-james-cooke-the-dawn-of-mind