GLOBAL SPIRIT is a unique television series that investigates philosophical and existential issues of the 21st century, tracing the eternal, yet still evolving human quest for meaning, truth and wisdom.The 12-part series brings together ancient wisdom traditions, with the perspectives of world religions and modern science to help viewers define who we are as human beings, and explore how this affects our relationships with our families, communities, environment and the world at large. Weaving compelling filmed segments with informed, engaging studio conversations, GLOBAL SPIRIT offers an intimate, discovery-filled viewing experience. Presented by composers and musicians Carlos and Cindy Santana and hosted by writer and spiritual seeker Phil Cousineau, the series brings together a rich mixture of philosophers, writers, scientists, religious and spiritual teachers, and practitioners of a wide range of faiths and traditions. GLOBAL SPIRIT gives viewers an opportunity to discover how people of various perennial philosophies around the world think, believe and address life’s core, eternal questions. While shedding new light on different dimensions of faith, belief and identity, each one-hour program serves to promote understanding, tolerance and respect for different traditions and world views. airs Wednesdays 3-4 a.m. beginning 11/27
- #201 – Love, Fear & Beyond – While most people consider the opposite of “love” to be something related to the English word, “hate”, this program explores the oppositional relationship between love and fear, featuring guitarist and spiritual practitioner Carlos Santana, drummer-composer Cindy Blackman Santana and authors and therapists Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. and Diane Cirincione-Jampolsky, Ph.D. Mixing exciting concert footage with deep conversation, this unique program highlights the more selfless dimensions of love and the pain and suffering of fear and isolation, to ultimately provide powerful glimpses of what is here called “the beyond,” a transcendent relationship with oneself, and with all of life.
- #202 – The Pilgrimage Experience – For thousands of years people of every tradition have embarked on long, difficult and often costly journeys to sacred places in search of various benefits, from health or material well-being to a spiritual renewal. But why do millions of pilgrims endure such hardships? What are they ultimately in search of? This episode utilizes compelling film footage from pilgrimages to India and Peru, and brings together Peruvian anthropologist Zoila Mendoza and renowned travel writer Pico Iyer. These guests, together with host Phil Cousineau, shed light on various dimensions of this timeless ritual, which is an important part of most, if not all religions and spiritual traditions.
- #203 – The Power of Community – This Global Spirit episode explores the powerful role that intentional communities have played for many hundreds of years in supporting the well-being, growth and transformations of many individuals. The program visits two contemporary communities to witness their most important practices, and to access their potential to transform consciousness and catalyze positive societal change. The program features Zen Buddhist Abbot Roshi Joan Halifax of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, N.M., and Christian youth activist Adam Bucko, who heads the Reciprocity Foundation, which has become a sanctuary for homeless youth in New York City. Both guests bring considerable compassion and many useful insights as they apply their traditions, their experiences and their hearts to work with young LGBT and other communities of need in the U.S.
- #204 – Inside Sacred Texts – This Global Spirit episode explores the powerful role that intentional communities have played for many hundreds of years in supporting the well-being, growth and transformations of many individuals. The program visits two contemporary communities to witness their most important practices, and to access their potential to transform consciousness and catalyze positive societal change. The program features Zen Buddhist Abbot Roshi Joan Halifax of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, N.M., and Christian youth activist Adam Bucko, who heads the Reciprocity Foundation, which has become a sanctuary for homeless youth in New York City. Both guests bring considerable compassion and many useful insights as they apply their traditions, their experiences and their hearts to work with young LGBT and other communities of need in the U.S.
- #205 & #206 – not scheduled
- #207 – The Art of Living and Dying – Our most basic understanding of life is in many ways determined by our understanding of death. While to some, death is an end in itself, to others it is the final test of faith in the existence of a God or of an afterlife. This program presents a powerful conversation between dedicated spiritual leaders in the end-of-life movement, meeting for the first time. Harpist, singer and lay Benedictine Therese Schroeder-Sheker, founder of the Chalice of Repose Project, joins Frank Ostaseski, the Zen Hospice Project co-founder and current director of the Metta Institute, to explore how a less fearful and more conscious relationship to death can radically shift our experience of life.
- #208 – Rumi and the Sufi Path of Love – How did a 13th century Sufi mystic from Central Asia become the most widely read poet in the United States? Why did UNESCO declare 2007 as “the year of Jalaluddin Rumi”? This “Global Spirit” program brings together two distinguished studio guests from different cultural traditions: Sufi sheikh Kabir Helminski of the Mevlevi Sufi tradition, and Iranian filmmaker and multi-lingual website host Parisa Soultani, who presents portraits of Rumi “lovers” from her “gathering of lovers” project. This program mixes knowledgeable, in-depth conversations with evocative film segments from Turkey, Iran and the USA to explore the depths of Rumi’s poetry and teachings. Host Phil Cousineau explores questions such as: What does Rumi’s poetry and message have to offer to raising religious tolerance in today’s world?What does Rumi’s perspective offer to discussions of extremism? What is Rumi’s concept of divine Love or “Iskh”? and How is this love similar or different than what other great teachers, such as Jesus taught?
- #209 – Sacred Ecology – This program explores the natural world as an access point to the sacred. With global warming on the rise and the number of animal species now declining at alarming rates, this program asks if we humans are trapped in a never-ending destructive cycle fed by our ever-increasing desires. Or do our most serious environmental problems stem in part from our very concept, or understanding of “self”? Eco-philosopher and Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy meets global ecologist, anthropologist and filmmaker Michael Tobias to explore some of the most basic existential questions: How do we see “ourselves” amongst the wider family of earth’s inhabitants? Are our human notions of ‘ecology” or of “the sacred” blind to nature’s fundamental laws and truths?
- #210 – The Call of Wisdom – The ancient Greeks believed there was another dimension beyond logic and reasoning and they called it Sophia, or wisdom, which they believed to be the ultimate good. In Eastern traditions, wisdom is often synonymous with the Truth, as in “the true nature of existence, ” available only to those who can see beyond the ephemeral, the ever-changing. This program examines the true nature of wisdom, how it is recognized, and why our survival today as a species and a planet may depend on it. The program features Jean Shinoda Bolen, an author, Jungian analyst and activist, and Roger Walsh, a professor of psychiatry, philosophy and anthropology. These two engaging guests come together for the first time to discuss this rich topic and address a range of important questions such as: Are we now as a species, headed for wisdom or catastrophe?
