SDI Encounters
What are the big questions in your life? Where are you on the spiritual journey? Do you have people in your life who listen to your deepest questions, with contemplative presence and compassion? SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney hosts conversations on spiritual direction, guidance, contemplation, and community. This podcast offers a wide range of perspectives, stories, and conversations about the contemplative, healing modality of spiritual companionship, across a wide range of religious traditions and vocations. Discover the benefits of spiritual companionship and deep listening.
Episodes
![Reconsidering Spiritual Companionship - Full Conversation with Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Monday May 01, 2023
Monday May 01, 2023
In this recent April 2023, SDI Executive Director Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares and SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney had a wide-ranging conversation about spiritual direction and companionship, and in particular, reconsidering some of the elements we might consider to be “universal.” Are there common elements to the work of spiritual companionship that we can identify? For example, we often cite “deep listening” as a common practice. But what do we mean when we say that? We also consider, and reconsider, the generation of “spiritual heat,” how spiritual companionship has elements of contemplative practice, opening to new depths of awareness, and how to befriend the overwhelm that can come when we gain insight into the depths of our existence. We have this conversation posted as a five-part video series on our YouTube channel, but here you can listen to the conversation in its entirety. We hope you enjoy it and reconsider for yourself some of the building blocks of your own practice as a spiritual companion.
SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.
![A Conversation with Fr. Adam Bucko - Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Monday Apr 03, 2023
A Conversation with Fr. Adam Bucko - Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Recently we at SDI hosted a free preview webinar session with Fr. Adam Bucko, who will be facilitating an upcoming webinar series called Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide – Spiritual Direction and Companionship for a World That Has Lots Its Way. This episode we share the audio of that free preview webinar conversation. Join our community of spiritual companions and wayfarers for this 3-part webinar exploring Heartbreak for Spiritual Directors and how to turn it to our advantage. Through readings, deep conversations, dialogue and discernment with one of SDI’s most compelling teachers, Fr. Adam Bucko, your heart will open and be renewed. We will be reading portions of Fr. Adam’s newest book, Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide – designed for every person trying to live at the intersection of contemplation and justice, but will be specially resonant for spiritual directors and companions.
![Carmen Acevedo Butcher - Mystical Wisdom and Practice from The Cloud of Unknowing and Brother Lawrence](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Thursday Mar 30, 2023
Thursday Mar 30, 2023
Recently, SDI hosted a free webinar with Carmen Acevedo Butcher, an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, educator, and poet. Carmen specializes in Early Modern French, German, Latin, Middle English, and Old English mystic writers. You can watch the webinar on Vimeo.
SDI is starting a four-part series on two mystics: Brother Lawrence and The Cloud of Unknowing. The series will be hosted by Carmen Acevedo Butcher and begins on April 5th, 2023. You can join anytime and watch the recorded sessions at your convenience. Learn more and register on our website.
Join us for a deep dive into the writings and teachings of these great mystics. Carmen Acevedo Butcher will facilitate the series and guide us in exploring the meaning beyond the words. We will engage in practices like singing and contemplating to experience the deep love underlying their writings.
These writers lived through plagues, wars, and trials similar to what we face today. They are relatable spiritual companions who have walked these paths before us. How did they grapple with the crises of their times? Join us to nourish our souls with hope.
Carmen Acevedo Butcher is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, educator, and poet. She is an award-winning translator of works in Early Modern French, German, Latin, Middle English, and Old English by writers including Brother Lawrence.
![Website Chat Support, Compassionate Listening, and Growing Peppers - Ryan Hinson - SDI Technical Support Specialist](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Thursday Mar 16, 2023
Thursday Mar 16, 2023
Have you ever noticed on the sdicompanions.org website, a small purple chat bubble that follows you in the lower-right hand corner of the screen? It looks like this:
The ‘SDI Chat’ feature is there to assist you with questions you might have about most things related to our website, how to do things like renew your Membership, access a Webinar. And, lest you think it’s a virtual assistant AI robot, oh no, there is a live, breathing human being on the other end of that chat. And his name is Ryan! Ryan Hinson is our Technical Support Assistant, and I thought it would be fun to talk with him and give the opportunity for you to get to know him a little bit. Ryan is interesting and thoughtful and has the perfect calm, unflappable demeanor for dealing with our Members’ technical issues and helping them find and do what they need. I personally promise you will learn something new and interesting in this conversation.
Ryan Hinson (he/him) brings his skill and patience as a technology literacy professional to the Technology Support Position. He has two decades of experience in online teaching, educational writing, tutoring, and tech support, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Outside of this professional role, Ryan enjoys growing hot peppers and native fruits, foraging, cooking, and playing video games.
![Eric Massanari - SDI Board Chair - An Invitation to Community](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Eric Massanari - SDI Board Chair - An Invitation to Community
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
In this interview we talk to Eric Massanari, Chair of the SDI Board of Directors. Eric invites all SDI Members to join him and the rest of the SDI Board for virtual teatime gatherings on March 10, 2023. Learn about what it's like to serve on the Board and bring your questions! Bring your tea or coffee to this informal online gathering on March 10th at either 10am Pacific, or at 4pm Pacific! Register here.
On a related note, the Board is accepting applications and nominations for new members to serve. the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, and Executive Director oversight responsibilities. As part of this Board’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, we strongly encourage people from diverse backgrounds, gender identities, ethnicities, nationalities, and religious traditions and/or spiritual orientations to apply. We deeply value, cherish, and encourage applicants from these diverse areas, and others.”
Eric Massanari (he/him) is an ordained pastor in the Mennonite tradition, living in northern Washington state where he serves as the Executive Conference Minister for the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA. He also maintains a private practice in spiritual direction. Eric has served on the SDI Board of Directors since 2018 and brings a passion for inter-faith and inter-spiritual connections, community formation, peace and justice building, and companioning people who are at diverse places on the spiritual journey. An avid poet and essayist, Eric is a contributing author of An Open Place: The Ministry of Group Spiritual Direction.
In his own words: “I celebrate how spiritual companioning takes so many vital forms across time, place, traditions and cultures. In its myriad expressions it’s a practice that our world needs now more than ever, as together we seek the paths that make for enduring peace.”
![Rabbi Myriam Klotz - SDI Board Vice-Chair - An Invitation to Serve](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Thursday Mar 02, 2023
Rabbi Myriam Klotz - SDI Board Vice-Chair - An Invitation to Serve
Thursday Mar 02, 2023
Thursday Mar 02, 2023
In this interview we talk to Rabbi Miriam Klotz, vice-chair of the SDI Board of Directors. Rabbi Myriam invites all SDI Members to join her and the rest of the SDI Board for virtual teatime gatherings on March 10, 2023. Learn about what it's like to serve on the Board and bring your questions! Bring your tea or coffee to this informal online gathering on March 10th at either 10am Pacific, or at 4pm Pacific! Register here.
Rabbi Myriam Klotz is a spiritual director and supervisor in Jewish seminaries and in private practice since 1999. Myriam consulted with several rabbinical schools to introduce spiritual direction to their students and faculty. She coordinated the spiritual direction program at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from 2010-2020, and has been the director of the Bekhol Levavkha Spiritual Director Training program since 2014. Myriam is also a Senior Program Director with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality where she teaches somatics and embodied practices from a perspective of deep listening and honoring of our bodies’ sacred wisdom. Myriam lives in Philadelphia, PA with her spouse Rabbi Margot Stein. She is the proud mom and step mom of two sons.
On a related note, the Board is accepting applications and nominations for new members to serve. the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, and Executive Director oversight responsibilities. As part of this Board’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, we strongly encourage people from diverse backgrounds, gender identities, ethnicities, nationalities, and religious traditions and/or spiritual orientations to apply. We deeply value, cherish, and encourage applicants from these diverse areas, and others.”
If you’re interested in applying or nominating a qualified individual to serve on the board, please go to our website sdicompanions.org, and on the homepage you’ll find the graphic which will take you to the appropriate forms.
![A Conversation with Busshō Lahn - Singing and Dancing are the Voice of the Law](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Friday Feb 17, 2023
Friday Feb 17, 2023
Busshō Lahn is a Zen student and teacher, and the guiding teacher of Flying Cloud Zen Spiritual Practice Community. He’s also a popular speaker, retreat leader, spiritual director, author, and a Senior Priest at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center.
Busshō has just published his first Zen book, Singing and Dancing are the Voice of the Law, by Monkfish Publications.
In this episode we discuss this book and its exploration of the Zen poem, The Song of Zazen, and other things such as how we first connected at SDI, persevering with ideas we feel called to create and make, paradoxes such as giving up safety in order to find Safety, the Nature of the Universe – you know, the things we commonly talk about here on this podcast. Bussho is a friend and a lively conversationalist and deeply contemplative - I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law introduces us to one of the great works of Zen literature, “The Song of Zazen.” Zen teacher Busshō Lahn illuminates Hakuin’s enigmatic poem in plain language, unpacking it and applying it to contemporary life. His book offers a wealth of information on the context and content of this eighteenth-century work, clearly evoking its themes of abiding wisdom, meditation, compassionate self-regard, and our own everyday life’s potential to express deep spiritual truth.
Learn more about the book, and purchase links, here: Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law - Monkfish (monkfishpublishing.com)
Busshō first came to Soto Zen Buddhism in 1993, was ordained as a novice in 2009, and received Dharma Transmission (authorization to carry the lineage and teach independently) in 2015. Busshō remains rooted in his Zen tradition but cultivates an openness to the beauty and wisdom of other faiths. Through appreciatively understanding other paths, he feels that he becomes a better Buddhist.
![An Exploration of the Psalms - Song and Poetry Swap with Simon de Voil and David Wallace](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
In this week's episode, Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil and Rev. David Wallace swap poetry and song ahead of their upcoming 4-part webinar series entitled "Deep Calls Unto Deep: A Contemplative Exploration of the Psalms in Our Life and Practice", which begins on January 30.
This Interspiritually-minded and experiential webinar highlights works from The Book of Psalms, a revered sacred text across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which is cherished for its deep wisdom, beautiful poetry, and broad exploration of the joys, sorrows, despairs, and longings at the heart of the human condition. We will be learning about and engaging with the Book of Psalms through teaching, music, writing, and contemplative listening, with opportunities for sharing and for spiritual companionship. All spiritual wayfarers from any spiritual orientation or tradition will find wisdom, song, and practice to nourish their souls.
Learn more and register for this webinar series at sdicompanions.org.
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Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil, is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister, trained to be a sacred presence outside the conventions of traditional religion. As a sacred musician, spiritual mentor and worship leader he incorporates chant, ritual, poetry, storytelling, and mindful practice to create a space for profound connection and sacred witness. Simon provides music for worship, ceremony, and prayer in a wide variety of churches and non-religious spiritual communities. He particularly loves to create music for meditation, healing services, and rites of passage.
Simon is also an experienced workshop and retreat leader, drawing on 15 years of study, training, and practice that grew from his time living and working in Iona Abbey. Although influenced by many traditions, Simon’s spiritual path and teaching is deeply rooted in Celtic Christianity, the wisdom of the earth, and in the Scottish land where he’s spent most of his life.
Learn more about Simon on his website: simondevoil.com
Rev. David Wallace recently retired as a dean and senior teacher for One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City, and is a faculty member of the spiritual direction program at the Rowe Center and an active officiant and spiritual director. He is a graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, and has continued those studies as a lifelong student of the “great books” of philosophy and archetypal psychology. Rev. Wallace offers teaching and retreats at spiritual venues worldwide, and specializes in poetics, contemplative practice, and the wisdom texts of both the Eastern and Western traditions.
![An Interview with Lerita Coleman Brown - The Enduring Wisdom of Howard Thurman](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Monday Jan 09, 2023
Monday Jan 09, 2023
SDI Executive Director Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares and Lerita Coleman Brown discuss the work of Howard Thurman, anticipating the upcoming webinar series from SDI - Listening for the Sound of the Genuine.
This 4-part series will provide an overview of Howard Thurman’s contributions to spirituality, mysticism, and sacred activism. During this webinar, we will walk through the life and writings of Howard Thurman and listen for the genuine; the words and ideas that Spirit holds uniquely for each of us and our ministries of spiritual direction/companioning. With this clarion call for the authentic, what do we hear about living as a contemplative, a holy child of God, an everyday mystic, a prophetic leader, and with inner authority as we answer our sacred call? In what ways does it help us to companion ourselves and those we journey with? Join us as we uncover the depths of inner freedom that emerge when we listen for the genuine, to what makes us come alive.
Sign up for this four part webinar today at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/listening-for-the-sound-of-the-genuine/
![Aimee Bostwick - Community and Spiritual Life at Kanuga Conference Center - Forest Bathing Journey with SDI](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/3995638/SDI_Encounters_Podcast_Logo_-_1400x1400_rev47u9pk_300x300.jpg)
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Hi! Matt Whitney here – Creative Director, and one of the Guides for the Nature Immersion and Deep Listening Journey we have put together for all spiritual directors, companions, and wayfarers.
In this episode, I have a conversation with Aimee Bostwick, who is Coordinator of Community and Spiritual Life at Kanuga Conference Center (our hosts for this retreat) in North Carolina about what it's like to live and work there, being in the landscape, and what retreat participants can expect.
We still have spots for YOU! As I write this, we are a little more than three months away. Our retreat dates are March 19-25, 2023. This is the perfect time to register. Right now, SDI is having its Solstice Sale, with 15 percent savings across all our offerings. A single room reservation saves $375!
This is my dream retreat. I designed it the way I would want a retreat to be. What would I need to find deep rest and reconnection? Where would I want to be? What would the flow of a day look like? Who would I want to share this with? All are welcome. 🌲🌳
![Image](https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/7api3a/SDI_Encounters_Half_Page_-_Podcast_Add705acf3-fed0-5731-3412-deca4397e124.jpg)
About Spiritual Directors International (SDI)
Join us on the path of awareness, practice and presence. Not everyone has a religion, but everyone has a spirit. Why not choose to know that spirit in an authentic way?
Please remember that this journey of spirit need not be taken alone. That’s why spiritual directors and companions do the work they do. That’s why SDI is here – to listen, to support, to embrace deep connection and invite all others to do the same.