John E. Welshons and the Open Heart for Tiferet Talk

Tomorrow, May 21st, at 7 PM EST, I have the honor of interviewing renowned spiritual writer, John E. Welshons for Tiferet Talk. In addition to authoring the books One Soul, One Love, One Heart: The Sacred Path to Healing All Relationships, When Prayers Aren't Answered, and Awakening from Grief, Welshons is the co-author (with Mark Victor Hansen) of the audio tape Healing the Grief (…of The Loss of a Loved One).

As well, Welshons is the founder and president of Open Heart Seminars, an organization whose aim is to increase spiritual awareness and education, and he lectures frequently to businesses, churches, hospitals, hospices, synagogues, colleges, and universities throughout the United States.

Welshons holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of South Florida and an M.A. in History of Religions from Florida State University.

Of Welshon’s most recent book, One Soul, One Love, One Heart, Edward M. Hallowell says, “Absolutely superb. Full of blessings for readers who seek deeper, more meaningful relationships and greater forgiveness and healing, this beautiful book is a wonderful antidote to our society’s tendency toward emotional isolation and spiritual disconnection. It will help you find your spiritual path and your spiritual heart in every relationship, in every circumstance, in every moment.”

I hope you are able to join us for the interview! If you are not able to listen live, you can listen to the permanent archives at the Blogtalk site or on itunes any time after the show airs.

Seeking Shulman

On 1/9/12 at 7 pm EST, I will have the honor of conducting a Tiferet Talk interview with Jinen Jason Shulman about consciousness; the nature of existence; and healing the mind, body, and spirit. Shulman is the founder of both Enlightenment Online and A Society of Souls training in Integrated Kabbalistic Healing, IM/personal Movement and the Work of Return. Shulman, who has been authorized to teach the Dharma as well, is on the faculties of the New York Open Center, the Esalen Institute, and the Omega Institute. He's also a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Center for Spirituality and Psychotherapy of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies. Shulman is the author of The Instruction Manual for Receiving God and Kabbalistic Healing: a Path to an Awakened Soul.


A true seeker and an expert in many fields, Shulman also writes poetry, composes music, paints, and studies physics. He has released three CDs: The Great Transparency, Unlock My Heart, and Buddha-Cloud. To hear "Wisdom Way," one of Shulman's unreleased songs, which can only be heard on the Enlightenment Online WEB site, click here: http://www.en-on.org/jasons_music.  


Jason's teachings help students accept imperfection and restore their egos to a healthy state through honesty, acceptance, and awakening. To listen to some of Jason's lectures, click here: http://www.youtube.com/user/JinenJasonShulman?ob=video-mustangbase.

Until Monday, I will leave you with a few "seed passages" from Shulman's The Instruction Manual for Receiving God:


"We need only embrace ourselves in conscious awareness, with deep knowledge and without judgment, to feel God" (Shulman 16).


"Being with God is a nondual state. This means it can never be achieved by choosing only one side of reality in reaction to a less preferred condition or state" (Shulman 56).


"The ego likes to think it can achieve a state called 'enlightenment,' and then its work will be finished. But 'awakened' just means you'd better roll up your sleeves and pay attention, because life continues to happen" (Shulman 70).

Renaissance Woman

Now more than ever, I know so many people who perform a whole host of activities and pull them all off exceptionally well. These are not Jacks of all trades, masters of none. These are people who are tapped into the very essence of creativity, people who shimmer and glow with a seemingly unstoppable surge of inspiration and ideas. They are the ones who follow through on those ideas, acting as beacons, exemplifying what is possible for us all under the right conditions and with a lot of passion and hard work.

I do believe that we all have this potential, and I believe that one of the ways we can learn to activate it is by talking with and listening to those who are already successfully tapped in.

This upcoming Sunday night, I have the honor of interviewing Lois P. Jones, award winning poet, radio show host, published photographer, international editor, reading series producer, documentarist, and expert on Argentina's wine industry. I'm sure I forgot something. Probably more than one something. Nevertheless, I will be mining Jones's unique and generous mind for understanding as to what makes her the creative force she is.

I'm attaching a poem by Jones and a photograph she took in San Miguel de Allende in January of 2009, as well as some videos of her reading her poems. If you have any questions you'd like me to consider asking her, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. You can listen to the show live at Tiferet Talk on blogtalk radio at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time this Sunday, July 24th. Afterwards, you can listen to the archive indefinitely at the blogtalk site or access a podcast of the interview at itunes. 

Milonga for a Blind Man


Time is both loss and memory.
—Jorge Luis Borges

In the middle of the night
a man takes a key
from his pocket.

In the middle of the night
he climbs to the top of the stairs.
From his balcony he remembers daylight,

the crumbled cement and the cracks
on the tavern below. The way the sky spoke
to him, the last one with anything to say.

And the opening of the flowers
when they would open for him.
Pink or coral, her lips staining
his with a memory – a breath

and a daydream of pampas and hibiscus.
His shirt buttoned down to the waist
and the white skin of a butterfly.

In the middle of the night
he remembers a snow heart
and the red walls of morning

where he walked the streets
in search of distance. Someone
has counted his days

before he was born. And this blindness
that followed plucked out his eyes
to sleep. It always comes to this –

edges fading from the familiar,
a city vague and celestial. He has lost
count of all his endings.

Published in Rose & Thorn, Winter 2008