web02.fireside.fm Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:50:22 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Mindful U at Naropa University - Episodes Tagged with “Chaplaincy” https://mindful-u-at-naropa-university.fireside.fm/tags/chaplaincy Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:00:00 -0700 As the birthplace of the mindfulness movement in the United States, Naropa University has a unique perspective when it comes to higher education in the West. Founded in 1974 by renowned Tibetan Buddhist scholar and lineage holder Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Naropa was intended to be a place where students could study Eastern and Western religions, writing, psychology, science, and the arts, while also receiving contemplative and meditation training. Forty-three years later, Naropa is a leader in ‘contemplative education’, a pedagogical approach that blends rigorous academics, contemplative practice, and experiential learning. Naropa President Chuck Lief explains, “Mindfulness here is not a class. Mindfulness is basically the underpinning of what we do in all of our classes. That said, the flavor or the color of mindfulness from class to class is really completely up to the individual faculty member to work on—on their own. So, what happens in a poetry class is going to look very different from what happens in a research psychology class. But, one way or another the contemplative practices are brought into the mix.” This podcast is for those with an interest in mindfulness and a curiosity about its place in both higher education and the world at large. Hosted by Naropa alumnus and Multimedia Manager David DeVine, episodes feature Naropa faculty, alumni, and special guests on a wide variety of topics including compassion, permaculture, social justice, herbal healing, and green architecture—to name a few. Listen to explore the transformative possibilities of mindfulness, both in the classroom and beyond! en-us episodic Thoughts and Instruction on Mindfulness in Higher Education Naropa University As the birthplace of the mindfulness movement in the United States, Naropa University has a unique perspective when it comes to higher education in the West. Founded in 1974 by renowned Tibetan Buddhist scholar and lineage holder Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Naropa was intended to be a place where students could study Eastern and Western religions, writing, psychology, science, and the arts, while also receiving contemplative and meditation training. Forty-three years later, Naropa is a leader in ‘contemplative education’, a pedagogical approach that blends rigorous academics, contemplative practice, and experiential learning. Naropa President Chuck Lief explains, “Mindfulness here is not a class. Mindfulness is basically the underpinning of what we do in all of our classes. That said, the flavor or the color of mindfulness from class to class is really completely up to the individual faculty member to work on—on their own. So, what happens in a poetry class is going to look very different from what happens in a research psychology class. But, one way or another the contemplative practices are brought into the mix.” This podcast is for those with an interest in mindfulness and a curiosity about its place in both higher education and the world at large. Hosted by Naropa alumnus and Multimedia Manager David DeVine, episodes feature Naropa faculty, alumni, and special guests on a wide variety of topics including compassion, permaculture, social justice, herbal healing, and green architecture—to name a few. Listen to explore the transformative possibilities of mindfulness, both in the classroom and beyond! no mindful u, higher education, mindful university, school of buddhism, contemplative education, psychedelic therapy, psychedelic assisted therapy, psychedelic chaplaincy, colleges in colorado, boulder colorado university Naropa University naropamoment@gmail.com 112. The Art of Truly Listening: Spiritual Care for a World in Transition https://mindful-u-at-naropa-university.fireside.fm/10 4c99cfc1-19ad-4bc3-9dd9-a0f6b0384840 Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:00:00 -0700 Naropa University full Naropa University 54:47 no In this episode, Dr. Ji Hyang Padma—Associate Professor in Naropa University’s Master of Divinity program, Soto Zen teacher, and longtime interfaith chaplain—explores the art and profession of spiritual care .Drawing on more than twenty-five years of Zen training, including fourteen years in monastic practice, she shares what it means to serve as a “spiritual friend,” accompanying people through illness, grief, and life’s most vulnerable transitions—and how contemplative practice helps us meet suffering with spaciousness rather than trying to fix it. She shares insights from her work across university chaplaincies and contemplative education, describing how spiritual care supports meaning-making across cultures and beliefs, why presence itself can be healing, and how grounding in one’s own practice enables compassionate connection with others. She illustrates how professional spiritual care can be a profound relational practice—one that helps us face impermanence, open the heart, and discover wholeness within the realities of being human. Special Guest: Ji Hyang Padma. spiritual care, chaplaincy, chaplain, religion, spirituality, death doula, Buddhism, Zen, In this episode, Dr. Ji Hyang Padma—Associate Professor in Naropa University’s Master of Divinity program, Soto Zen teacher, and longtime interfaith chaplain—explores the art and profession of spiritual care .Drawing on more than twenty-five years of Zen training, including fourteen years in monastic practice, she shares what it means to serve as a “spiritual friend,” accompanying people through illness, grief, and life’s most vulnerable transitions—and how contemplative practice helps us meet suffering with spaciousness rather than trying to fix it.

She shares insights from her work across university chaplaincies and contemplative education, describing how spiritual care supports meaning-making across cultures and beliefs, why presence itself can be healing, and how grounding in one’s own practice enables compassionate connection with others. She illustrates how professional spiritual care can be a profound relational practice—one that helps us face impermanence, open the heart, and discover wholeness within the realities of being human.

Special Guest: Ji Hyang Padma.

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]]> In this episode, Dr. Ji Hyang Padma—Associate Professor in Naropa University’s Master of Divinity program, Soto Zen teacher, and longtime interfaith chaplain—explores the art and profession of spiritual care .Drawing on more than twenty-five years of Zen training, including fourteen years in monastic practice, she shares what it means to serve as a “spiritual friend,” accompanying people through illness, grief, and life’s most vulnerable transitions—and how contemplative practice helps us meet suffering with spaciousness rather than trying to fix it.

She shares insights from her work across university chaplaincies and contemplative education, describing how spiritual care supports meaning-making across cultures and beliefs, why presence itself can be healing, and how grounding in one’s own practice enables compassionate connection with others. She illustrates how professional spiritual care can be a profound relational practice—one that helps us face impermanence, open the heart, and discover wholeness within the realities of being human.

Special Guest: Ji Hyang Padma.

Support Mindful U at Naropa University

]]> 81. Jamie Beachy: Psychedelic Chaplaincy https://mindful-u-at-naropa-university.fireside.fm/jamie-beachy ec4597c9-e713-4031-8c96-9635d12cdc7f Wed, 29 Sep 2021 07:00:00 -0600 Naropa University full Naropa University "When we’re with people who are reviewing the end of their life or saying goodbye to a loved one, there’s this heightened sense of connection and awareness, a lot of times in crisis and sometimes difficulty. Psychedelic journeys can be — not always be easy and expansive, sometimes they’re challenging. And so there's a lot of our training, I think crosses over well into psychedelic therapies. And in particular, chaplains have this capacity to help assess the spiritual and religious landscape for a person before they go into a psychedelic experience. Because what can happen is, you can have a very powerful existential, you know, awareness of like the presence of a being or maybe a feeling of connection and — and then it becomes important to integrate that with your understanding of the cosmos and your religious and spiritual commitments. So people can go into some degree of existential crisis or just transition — it’s a very creative space. And chaplains are good at navigating those spaces as they’re unfolding. So that’s what chaplains I think, have to bring to the field, but at the same time, there are a lot of religious taboos and a lot of teachings within the religious traditions that encourage staying away from psychedelic medicines. And so that conversation is very much happening in the field right now and among religious leaders and professionals and chaplains and it’s — it’s an interesting conversation that’s taking place you know about the right use of these medicines and plants and how we can also do that without harming the communities that they come from." 55:33 no "When we’re with people who are reviewing the end of their life or saying goodbye to a loved one, there’s this heightened sense of connection and awareness, a lot of times in crisis and sometimes difficulty. Psychedelic journeys can be — not always be easy and expansive, sometimes they’re challenging. And so there are a lot of — lot of our training, I think crosses over well into psychedelic therapies. And in particular, chaplains have this capacity to help assess the spiritual and religious landscape for a person before they go into a psychedelic experience. Because what can happen is, you can have a very powerful existential, you know, awareness of like the presence of a being or maybe a feeling of connection and — and then it becomes important to integrate that with your — you know, understanding of the cosmos and the — your religious and spiritual commitments. So people can go into some degree of existential crisis or just transition — it’s a very creative space. And chaplains are good at navigating those spaces as they’re unfolding. So that’s what chaplains I think, have to bring to the field, but at the same time, there are a lot of religious taboos and a lot of teachings within the religious traditions that encourage staying away from psychedelic medicines. And so that conversation is very much happening in the field right now and among religious leaders and professionals and chaplains and it’s — it’s an interesting conversation that’s taking place you know about the right use of these medicines and plants and how we can also do that without harming the communities that they come from." Special Guest: Jamie Beachy. Naropa University, Naropa, University, Higher Education, Education, psychedelic therapies, psych studies, holistic psychology, plant medicine ceremony, chaplaincy, psychelic, psychedelic healings, plant medicine, Mindfulness, Contemplative, buddhist teachings "When we’re with people who are reviewing the end of their life or saying goodbye to a loved one, there’s this heightened sense of connection and awareness, a lot of times in crisis and sometimes difficulty. Psychedelic journeys can be — not always be easy and expansive, sometimes they’re challenging. And so there are a lot of — lot of our training, I think crosses over well into psychedelic therapies. And in particular, chaplains have this capacity to help assess the spiritual and religious landscape for a person before they go into a psychedelic experience.

Because what can happen is, you can have a very powerful existential, you know, awareness of like the presence of a being or maybe a feeling of connection and — and then it becomes important to integrate that with your — you know, understanding of the cosmos and the — your religious and spiritual commitments. So people can go into some degree of existential crisis or just transition — it’s a very creative space. And chaplains are good at navigating those spaces as they’re unfolding.

So that’s what chaplains I think, have to bring to the field, but at the same time, there are a lot of religious taboos and a lot of teachings within the religious traditions that encourage staying away from psychedelic medicines. And so that conversation is very much happening in the field right now and among religious leaders and professionals and chaplains and it’s — it’s an interesting conversation that’s taking place you know about the right use of these medicines and plants and how we can also do that without harming the communities that they come from."

Special Guest: Jamie Beachy.

Support Mindful U at Naropa University

]]> "When we’re with people who are reviewing the end of their life or saying goodbye to a loved one, there’s this heightened sense of connection and awareness, a lot of times in crisis and sometimes difficulty. Psychedelic journeys can be — not always be easy and expansive, sometimes they’re challenging. And so there are a lot of — lot of our training, I think crosses over well into psychedelic therapies. And in particular, chaplains have this capacity to help assess the spiritual and religious landscape for a person before they go into a psychedelic experience.

Because what can happen is, you can have a very powerful existential, you know, awareness of like the presence of a being or maybe a feeling of connection and — and then it becomes important to integrate that with your — you know, understanding of the cosmos and the — your religious and spiritual commitments. So people can go into some degree of existential crisis or just transition — it’s a very creative space. And chaplains are good at navigating those spaces as they’re unfolding.

So that’s what chaplains I think, have to bring to the field, but at the same time, there are a lot of religious taboos and a lot of teachings within the religious traditions that encourage staying away from psychedelic medicines. And so that conversation is very much happening in the field right now and among religious leaders and professionals and chaplains and it’s — it’s an interesting conversation that’s taking place you know about the right use of these medicines and plants and how we can also do that without harming the communities that they come from."

Special Guest: Jamie Beachy.

Support Mindful U at Naropa University

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