We're In This Shift Together
As a rabbi, Matthew Ponak knows the significance of community in the good times and the bad. We’re in this Shift Together explores the meeting place between ancient spiritual teachings, cutting-edge research and innovation, and the needs of our era. The conversations cover insights and experiences that improve our world and give us hope during these tumultuous times. In our secular society, millions of people are dedicating themselves to the work of innovation. Simultaneously, camps of traditionally religious people are tending the fires of insights and practices which have sustained them for thousands of years. Leaders and thinkers from all arenas benefit from cross-pollination and there is much more common ground between these two camps than is often acknowledged. When approaching any new problem today, religious and spiritual insights can offer a sense of how our ancestors grappled with similar issues. At the same time, inherited wisdom is, by definition, from a prior era. In dialogue with scientific expertise and new circumstances, the storehouses of human knowledge inevitably grow and mature. Together these different perspectives help us navigate our transitioning world. Host Rabbi Matthew Ponak is a teacher of embodied mysticism, a spiritual counsellor, and the co-founder of the Mekorah Institute — an online spiritual centre. Also holding an MA in Contemplative Religions from the Buddhist-inspired Naropa University, Rabbi Matthew weaves world wisdom with ancient Jewish insights. He received ordination from Hebrew College where he specialized in the study of Hasidic spirituality and Kabbalah. Visit matthewponak.com to learn more.
We're In This Shift Together
An Inter-Spiritual Panel
Four contemplatives share, reflect and face challenging questions. Christian, Buddhist and Muslim healers and teachers join Rabbi Matthew Ponak to discuss the gifts that our traditions can offer the world in these changing times — and the ways in which these traditions are (or ought to be) changing as well.
Charlotte Z. Rotterdam is a Buddhist teacher, meditation instructor and contemplative educator. She received the title of Magyu Lopön, lead teacher of the Mother Lineage at Tara Mandala Retreat Center, by Lama Tsultrim Allione in 2016. She is the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education at Naropa University and an Instructor in Naropa’s Core College, World Wisdom Department, and Graduate School of Psychology. She co-developed and teaches Naropa’s Mindful Compassion Training, a secular program to cultivate compassion in personal, professional and societal contexts. Charlotte received a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. The mother of two boys, she has published essays on the intersection of spiritual practice and daily life in Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, Mandala and Fearless Nest, an anthology. www.skymind.us.
Sameera Qureshi, MS OTR, is an Occupational Therapist and Sexual Health Educator. For the last thirteen years, she’s worked at the intersections of mental and sexual health education within Muslim communities, both in Canada and the United States. After working in non-profit spaces for the majority of her career, she founded her own business in the Fall of 2020, titled Sexual Health for Muslims. The goal of her work is to revive Islamic traditions of the soul for online sexual health education and therapeutic services for Muslims. Sameera regularly facilitates professional development opportunities for sexual and mental health providers who intersect with Muslim clients. You can learn more her work on Instagram @sexualhealthformuslims, and through her website www.sexualhealthformuslims.com.
Gordon Peerman, D.Min., is an Episcopal priest, psychotherapist, and mindfulness meditation teacher living in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of Blessed Relief: What Christians Can Learn from Buddhists about Suffering, and his most recent book, The Body Knows the Way: Coming Home through the Dark Night. He teaches at One River Wisdom School Nashville, an interspiritual gathering, and leads retreats and workshops on the intersection of contemplative practice and psychological growth. He has taught mindfulness practices at Vanderbilt’s Osher Center for Integrative Health, and at Vanderbilt Divinity School he taught courses in pastoral theology and Buddhist-Christian Dialogue. His website is www.oneriverwisdomnashville.org