The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #364 - 06JUN20

Podcast: This week we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Hokai Diego Sobol and Tibetan Buddhist teacher Ken McLeod. In this penetrating discussion, we explore the nature of Vajrayana Buddhist practice and its antecedents in the Tantric tradition, the primacy of the teacher-student relationship and the intimacy of spiritual transmission, as well as the body as the foundation for the awakening experience. Hokai Diego Sobol started practice and study of Buddhism in 1985. After 10 years of exploring Buddhist thought and practicing martial arts, while broadly learning from sources Eastern and Western, mainstream and fringe, Hokai became a practitioner and eventually instructor in the Shingon esoteric tradition of Japanese Vajrayana, under the private tutelage of Ajari Jomyo Tanaka. Hokai founded the Mandala Society of Croatia in 1999. Continuing to explore and cultivate his own Buddhist practice, Hokai maintains an ongoing conversation with a number of teachers and senior practitioners. Starting from 2012, he focuses on mentoring individuals to deepen their practice in the context of their lives – those who pray, learn to meditate; and those who meditate, learn to pray. Hokai’s areas of special interest include mystical principles and esoteric practices in daily life, sacred apprenticeship, and deep semiotics. He is based in Rijeka, Croatia. After learning Tibetan, Ken McLeod translated for his principal teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, and helped to develop Rinpoche’s centers in North America and Europe. In 1985, Kalu Rinpoche authorized Ken to teach and placed him in charge of his Los Angeles center. Faced with the challenges of teaching in a major metropolis, he began exploring different methods and formats for working with students. He moved away from both the teacher-center model and the minister-church model and developed a consultant-client model. Ken is the founder and director of UnfetteredMind.org. He is the author of Wake Up to Your Life: Discovering the Buddhist Path of Attention, The Great Path of Awakening, An Arrow to the Heart, Reflections on Silver River, and his most recent book, A Trackless Path. More information about Hokai Diego Sobol and Ken McLeod's work can be found at: Hokai Sobol's website: hokai.eu, Hokai Diego Sobol on Twitter: @hokaisobol, Ken McLeod's website: unfetteredmind.org., Ken McLeod on Twitter: @kenmcleod.