Voodoo, Haitian, and African religions

CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Patrick Bellegarde-Smith; Krista Tippett (OnBeing.org, 1-9-14)

Shamans? Nigerian Yaruba Voodoo spirits ceremony (BaltimoreSun.com/AFP/Getty)

Real Voodoo ceremonies for Americans in New Orleans (hauntedamericatours.com)

The word "Voodoo" evokes images of sorcery and pins in dolls. In fact, it is a living tradition wherever Haitians are found. And it is based on ancestral religious concepts and traditions in Africa.  

Enslaving Haiti (Randal Robinson)

On Being walks through this mysterious tradition -- one with dramatic rituals of trances and dreaming and of belief in "spirits" (lwa or devas, kami), who speak through human beings, with both good and evil potential.

  

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ZEN: Roshi Joan Halifax (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Krista Tippett (onbeing.org, 12-26-13), Roshi Joan Halifax (upaya.org)

"The craft of loving-kindness is the everyday face of wisdom and the ordinary hand of compassion. This wisdom face, this hand of mercy, is never realized alone but always with and through others." - Roshi Joan Halifax (upaya.org)

 

Joan Halifax on Compassion's Edge States and Caring Better

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the bad news and horrific pictures in the world. This is a form of empathy, Joan Halifax says, that works against us. The Zen abbess (Upaya.org) and medical anthropologist has bracing, nourishing thoughts on finding buoyancy rather than burnout -- or compassion fatigue -- in how we work, live, and care.

• Unedited interview: Joan Halifax
• Radio Show/Podcast (MP3, 51:06) 
• Learn More about the Show

(Library of Congress) Joan Halifax talks about empathy and compassion

on the part of caregivers who are tending to the ill and dying. 

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priestess, medical anthropologist, and author. She is founder, abbess, and head teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has worked in the area of death and dying for over 30 years and is director of the Project On Being with Dying. For the past 25 years, she has been active in environmental work.

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Loving Kindness with Sylvia Boorstein (video)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Trent Gilliss (OnBeing.org, May 7, 2011)

Extending love (metta) to all quarters of the universe? The Dark Universe exhibition displays works that use light and sound to explore the boundaries of awareness (Rene Passet/flickr)

Accomplished Buddhist meditation teach Sylvia Boorstein speaks with Krista Tippett

 

Boorstein (Trent Gilliss/onbeing.org)

In February, On Being partnered with WDET to hold a live event in a quaint suburban village outside of Detroit, USA. The topic was "raising children in complex times."

Host Krista Tippett’s conversation with Sylvia Boorstein was rolling along nicely: Stories were being told, approaches to child-rearing were being shared...

 

Then, unexpectedly, Boorstein (a Jewish Buddhist teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center near San Francisco, California) offered to lead a loving-kindness, or metta, meditation for a crowd of more than 300.

 

How would the crowd react, whose members may never have attended a meditation or mindfulness retreat of any kind? What to expect? What resulted was a magical experience in which the audience fully participated in this unannounced moment of reflection.

If readers are game, On Being offers this video to use as a guided meditation. Will this live experience translate into a fruitful online experience?