We had our first guest on our podcast - first guest that is still on the planet that is!
Robert Thurman.
I had the good fortune to take a class with Robert Thurman at Columbia University back in the 90's. As noted in my talk at the Conference of Living and Dying recently via Tibet House, I was working for Charles Grodin on his talk show when I audited this class in philosophy. It led me to study Tibetan philosophy - Buddhism in particular, which I find to be a peerless philosophy.
Robert is an author of many excellent books about Buddhist philosophy, including but not limited to "Inner Revolution" and beautiful translation of the "Bardo Thodol" in the "Tibetan Book of the Dead." His book "Circling the Sacred Mountain was instrumental in my own trip to Mt. Kailash with him in 2004. I've had the privilege to travel with him and his wife Nena to Ladakh, and then later a trip across Tibet where I filmed the journey for a documentary on YouTube "Journey Into Tibet with Robert Thurman." https://youtu.be/MqbG_RY4eiY Robert is one of the wisest, most insightful humans I've met - it's a privilege for him to appear on our podcast. He recently became aware of this podcast during my talk for the Conference, so it was his suggestion he come on to see if he could communicate with anyone "no longer on the planet." It was in that spirit we tried this experiment. As Jennifer notes, she isn't aware of his life or journey outside of knowing he's the father of Uma, and that he's a Buddhist scholar. He's a passionate speaker, and at the moment clearly wanted to express his dismay over the war in Ukraine, and his solidarity for the people who are suffering, as well as the suffering of the Russians who want no part in killing their neighbors. My apologies for playing the role of moderator here - to keep us on track to speak to people on the flipside who might want to speak to Robert. As noted - I texted Jennifer and said Robert wanted to come on the podcast, and she replied "His mentor wants to talk to him." (Jennifer had no idea who that would be.) Later she texted "His mom really wants to talk to him." Then "Steve Jobs told me that he knows him." We didn't get to Robert's mom, but we did get to the other two. For the skeptics in the audience, allow me to say "this podcast isn't for you." That's fine - skepticism is healthy - we can't really understand skydiving until we jump out of the plane. For those who are devout Buddhists who may find this disconcerting, I can vouch that Robert has spent his whole life sharing the dharma, Buddhism across the globe. I recall a monk coming up to us in Tibet, in a cave, outside the view of the soldiers in the courtyard and saying "thank you americans for remembering us." I heard him whisper it in English in Robert's ear - the comment brought me to tears. "Thank you for remembering us." The same can be said of those who are no longer on the planet. "Thank you for remembering us." This podcast is dedicated to remembering those who have gone before us - one can imagine that everything that is said in this podcast is subconscious information, but I suggest looking for new information that could not be cryptomnesia - something someone heard or read. Jennifer is not trying to prove there is an afterlife, she works with law enforcement agencies daily helping people with details to solve cases (the investigators consider it a way to gain new information that turns into evidence). We do this podcast in the same vein - consider this as gathered intelligence that point to a greater truth. It may very well be that we are pulling these concepts out of thin air - but after having filmed people accessing this information for over ten years, 100s of examples indicate otherwise. As always with any insight, we hope that sharing this information heals someone who is in need of healing, sharing this information helps people who need help, sharing these concepts help people to open their minds to the possibility that life continues on and if so, it makes sense for us to learn something new from those no longer with us. After all, the love doesn't die - they still care about us as we did then, it's only we who stop caring about them by pretending we cannot hear them. I can't help but reflect on how my friend Luana's passing led me to Robert's class, which led me to Tibet and India, which led me to this podcast, which led me to this episode. The "red string" of our lives continues on. I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we did making it. Love love. For more information about Robert and Tibet House, see thus.org . His books, lectures and teachings are priceless - find more about him at BobThurman.com For more information about Jennifer, she's at JenniferShaffer.com - I'm at RichMartini.com - or MartiniZone.com for those who are first time viewers, buckle up - to quote Bob's pal Ram Dass; "we are all just walking each other home."
