Josh and Rama talk about healing in community
[00:00:00] Yeah, so there are those people who when you have something hanging out of your nose, don't say anything. Then there are those people who let you know right away. We tend to like those people. Then there are those people who wait till the podcast is done recording and everyone's leaving the room to let you know you have something hanging out of your nose and to point out that they're one of those people who would want to let you want to be known themselves before letting you know.
[00:00:25] And that's the kind of man that Bobby Dart, who recording our podcast, is the third option. I'll let you know later. He's nodding. He's nodding. No, that happened when we were recording Rama, our podcast on Community with Zamira. I will only say that she didn't say anything at all. Wow. Whatever that says about Reverend Zamira and her authenticity.
[00:00:47] Yes. I mean, it could have been an illusory thing coming out of the nose. But anyways, I'm so grateful today to hang out for a little bit with Rama Newton. He's the newest assistant minister on our staff here at Mile Hi Church. He is not new to Mile Hi. He's been attending here a very long time. He's been on our staff as our production director.
[00:01:08] But I'm so excited to have you on our ministerial team, Rama. You bring an awareness of spiritual practice. You have great knowledge about body, physical wisdom. You care about sacred space. And I think you deeply care about what's our initiative here at Mile Hi Church, which we've been recording podcasts about this year, this idea of community and healing in community.
[00:01:33] And the question I've been asking all of our ministers as we've been conversing besides welcome is about the relationship between your call to ministry and this thing called community, what it means to you and why it's called you to choose a wonderful but sometimes challenging career too. Yeah, that's great. It's great to be here. It's great to consider all of these things and to participate.
[00:02:00] And yeah, community is, I mean, we're humans. So community is such a human aspect, component of who and what we are. So being a part of community is crucial, I think, in so many ways. And we see that with the things like isolation and all that comes, the cascade that comes from being isolated, from being alone, how that affects us mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, all the things. Yeah, I resonate with that.
[00:02:54] Where my pain exists, where I'm kind of stuck. And I do think that community is one of those places, even though we kind of find it through solitude, which sounds contradictory in some ways, it does help us get out of our isolated states. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you bet it does. You know, the community, my background is so varied with all of the different studies that I've done. And one of them being TRE, traumatic trauma release exercises.
[00:03:23] And that's something that you can do alone, these exercises that move the nervous system. And when we do them together in a community fashion, what we've seen, learned, and understand is that our nervous systems are constantly bouncing off of each other. And so this is like on a very scientific level of things versus the spiritual end, but it connects into the spiritual end. So our nervous systems are always bouncing off of each other.
[00:03:50] And when we come together and are in a group, it doesn't take too long for our nervous systems, our heart rhythms, our beings to harmonize, to find a harmony between them. And so when we're in community, if we're way off, the community helps us to find a different resonance, a different balance. And that's fantastic. It's incredible to have that experience and to see that. I love that.
[00:04:14] And I remember someone sharing with me, I don't know if it's true, but it spoke to the natural environment. And if you were sleeping next to the ocean for a long period of time, that your heart rhythms and breath might even start to model the rhythm of the waves of the ocean and the tide. And I always loved that idea, whether it's scientifically accurate or not. But I do think there's something about what you're saying in community and in your own spiritual path.
[00:04:42] Was that something that led you to do what you're doing now, that experience? I would have to say yes, that there's got to be some component of doing all of that and witnessing the power of community and how that works to bring us so much insight. And, you know, to, yeah, that was part of my seeking a spiritual community to begin with.
[00:05:06] In my early 30s, I was realizing that I was feeling a little more isolated and wanting to have some more like-minded people and opportunities to explore. And I needed sounding boards. I needed people to be able to do that with, to have, to hear their experiences and ideas and understandings of what our lives are all about so that I could reflect back what my experiences are. And then we can come to some common ground or not, but have that dialogue, have that interaction and contemplation. And that's what's grown me so much.
[00:05:36] And absolutely through there, here I am sitting as a minister now. Yeah, no, I love that. And one of the things I love about you is you can hang. You know, you're kind of, you're fun, practical, down to earth. And yet you have this ability to make things really real, really fast, you know, into. So, you know, I can imagine you, you know, here at church, but also with friends or whatever that is, you know, just being in that place where you're joking around having fun.
[00:06:01] But then, you know, your ability to step into your own spiritual awareness and speak truth and really create powerful environments for people is something that I've noticed about you that's really, really inspiring. And I think that, you know, having, I don't think you do that without some deep experiences of community. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that, witnessing that. That's huge. Now, your name is Rama, and I've lived quite a while, and I can't count on one hand how many Ramas I know.
[00:06:29] Do you mind, you know, telling me a little bit about how you got your name, what it means to you? Sure. And, you know, a little bit about, you know, communities that you may have grown up in. I heard what you said about the early 30s, so in a sense you may have exited from a lot of the communities of your youth. But, you know, I'm sure I know everyone wants to know a little bit more about you as well. Sure. Thank you. Yeah, I can count on one finger the number of Ramas that I know.
[00:06:54] And that, well, outside of myself, I've met one other, and it took 23 years before I met another Rama. So it's a unique one here anyway it is. Yeah. So my namesake comes from Hinduism, and my parents and their varied lives met on a hippie commune in Lyons, Colorado. And at that time, Baba Muktananda was making his way around the United States sharing the wisdom of Hinduism, and they fell in love with it.
[00:07:21] And through their studies and practices, that's where, as they were building their family, our names came from. So my brother's got this elaborate long name that has been shortened since then. And then my sister's name was a little shorter, and then they got to me, and it was just Rama. So it's kind of fun to watch that progression. Things got edited down over time. They did. They did. And so part of that experience for me, when I was really young, I got to spend, I think it was about six months in an ashram in the Bay Area.
[00:07:50] And that was the first real community. Like, I have actual memories as an almost three-year-old of being in this community of spiritual beings who were all hanging out, doing tons of meditation, and living in a very communal way where they would share meals. They would share the duties of keeping upkeeps and all those components. And I would hang out and be immersed in all of that community. It was a profound, like, early, early memory to have in my life. Yeah.
[00:08:19] Would you say that that was a spiritual experience for you, like, that you were encountering the divine at the time, or it was just life? That's such a great question. You know, only in looking back to it would I say that it was a spiritual experience. I don't think in the moment that I realized the spiritual nature of it, being two and turning three there. But looking back to it, I can see the huge spiritual component of that.
[00:08:44] You know, finding my mom in morning meditation, waking up and she's not there and going and finding her and she's sitting in morning meditation and they're all chanting. And a lot of the chants that are in Hinduism include my name. So then I'm back in my mom's lap falling asleep with my name being repeated by however many people are in this room. And Baba Muktananda, the Swami sitting at the front of the room. Huge, huge spiritual intonations there. And, you know, so much foreshadowing to, you know, what you've stepped into and what you're doing now, too.
[00:09:13] So, you know, I hear a little bit of a ministerial origin story, you know, in there. What an interesting synchronicity. Yeah. So you, eventually that wasn't a long-term experience. Experiencing communities of Hinduism. And at some point you grew out of that. You know, sounds like you lived life just like everybody else, but there was something missing and calling you to something more. Yep. That's exactly right.
[00:09:39] You know, through my childhood, while Hinduism has always been a real bedrock to it all, as our family continued and moved through things in the Boulder area, we ended up doing a lot of, I almost would say, pagan stuff. Where it was like moon dances and equinox celebrations, things of that nature. And that was all different community, too. And I got to see the power of those communities.
[00:10:04] I have wonderful memories of doing these different connections with all these people and the spiritual components that were there. And they still stay a big part of my visualizations when I go into a deep spiritual connection place. And then, you know, life goes on. You get into your teenage years and early 20s. And I found myself not at all really immersed in spiritual stuff. And that's where I started seeking more connection, more opportunities to explore. And I was looking for a little more organized way of looking at it, too.
[00:10:33] This was all pretty hippy-dippy, all over the place, woo-woo stuff. So when I found Science of Mind, I was like, oh, here's basically everything that I understand and relate to. But it's in a way, literally a book that I can read, try to process, because Ernest is kind of thick with his wording. But it was a great guidepost along the way, for sure. And all of this upbringing as well, as my own hires know, because the Newtons come out and help us to begin the Hanukkah season, at least the last couple of years that you had.
[00:11:04] Judaism is an important part of your spirituality growing up, too. It sure is. Yeah, you know, my mom is Jewish through and through. She actually did 23andMe years back. And she's like 99.9% Ashkenazi Jew. And so with the Jewish folk, there's Judaism as the religion. And then there's Jewish people, like a culture of people. So it's a both and. And that carries down through the mother. And my mom was raised pretty Jewish.
[00:11:31] Had a lot of the pieces, but she wasn't like Orthodox. She wasn't hardcore in it. So then as she continued her life, she found that there was still a lot of value in those holidays and traditions and rituals that come through Judaism. So she would share those with us as I was growing up. And they were just really rich. So much content in it. And community now that I think about it.
[00:11:53] Like a Passover Seder is all about having many people at your table and expressing and experiencing the story of what the Seder was and learning those pieces and doing it in a way that's not just hearing about it or talking about it. But then there's songs and there's rituals to the whole aspect of it as well that I've always enjoyed a lot. So it's still a big part of my life.
[00:12:15] And it sounds like all of the multiculturalism, hippy-dippy as you use the term, that it didn't create an identity crisis for you, that it more helped you kind of clarify who you were over time. Or it's like you got a little bit of taste of everything and you had to find your own way eventually. Yeah, I'd say all of the above. What I realized and that was part of my coming into Science of Mind was this idea of the golden thread that goes through it all.
[00:12:43] And that's where I was seeing it through the Judaism that I had, these more pagan, more woo-woo component trees of it, the Hinduism and my dad were being raised Catholic. So I had sprinklings of Christianity, Catholicism in there. It was like there's so much more commonality through it all. And what are the parts that really resonate with me that I identify with and I can hold truth to so that my faith can grow? That was what all those gave me.
[00:13:10] And then as I found Science of Mind, it was a handbook to really look at how does that apply and how can I put some practice in place that really continues to work for me. That's awesome. And that's a courageous spiritual path too, to find those things and to stick with it and grow with it and all those different areas.
[00:13:26] For people listening who maybe have had experiences like both of us have had in isolation, what's your advice to them, whether it's getting involved at a place like Mile High or somewhere else? Yeah. I think that it's really crucial. I think that community is just a really important component of who we are and how we heal, grow, learn, and be.
[00:13:53] I think about this kind of massive surge of like yoga studios that we see across the United States and how that is serving in some ways a really spiritual component. And part of that, of course, is the community. You become a part of the community of people who do yoga and those practices of your body movement that become a spiritual practice as well. And a good yoga studio is going to involve some of the yogic teachings in there too.
[00:14:18] And even if they don't, you're spending time with your own body and being and listening to it in deep ways that reveal so much. And then you're doing that with a community and you have the opportunity to share with somebody else what that experience was and what their experience was and you grow from that. Yeah. I love that. And for me, community was always about I had to trick myself because I think I had big ego.
[00:14:44] And the joke that I make sometimes, but there was truth to it, is if I didn't go to – if I wasn't a minister, I wouldn't go to church. There was something about, okay, I've got to be there to be in service of people. I love helping people. But as I look back on my life, deep down, what I needed was to know what I valued and what I cared about. And community gave that to me. It wasn't so much being alone. It was getting people who thought differently or who were 80 years older than me or whatever it was. There was something really cool.
[00:15:13] And yet I think it demands for people the humility to step out of the know-it-all-ness that we build for ourselves in isolation to actually separate us from folks, to get engaged and to say, yeah, I need to take this class. Yes, I need to go to yoga every day. Yeah, I do need to read a book. And it is good to talk about ideas with different people. It's a very enriching thing. Yeah, you bet. It helps us to see our blind spots. It helps us to acknowledge our biases when we don't even know that we have them.
[00:15:42] All of a sudden, it's like, oh, there is an alternative to that. There's a different way to conceive or perceive those pieces. It's really important. And it's important to – it takes work even in community to move out of isolation. We can sit, especially a place like Mile Hi Church where it's so big, we can find ourselves here and present yet still isolated in the room, in the class, in any of those pieces depending on how we're willing to allow ourselves to open and share, be vulnerable, express, receive.
[00:16:12] It takes work. Yeah, and I love that point that isolation isn't a state of one's environment. It's a state of consciousness that we get caught up in and we can be in the most crowded place in the world and feel more isolated. And in fact, that's true. Yeah. How – because we all love your family here. It sounds like your spiritual path was somewhat aligned with you co-creating this beautiful family that you have together. Is that true?
[00:16:42] I would say 100%. I mean a huge piece of me being here is my wife, finding Mile High, finding signs of mine. She was involved deeply and was really aware that as we started our relationship that she needed a partner who was willing to do the spiritual work too. And that was a jumping off point for me to really move into more.
[00:17:02] And so then as we developed and started growing our family, it just made 100% sense to be in this community that is super supportive of all the different explorations and ways to nurture and grow, not just a family and the little beings that you're growing, but to do that in a way that is still very heart-centric so that we can be great parents and also have the hard times too and know that we're still great parents even though there's the tough stuff there.
[00:17:30] Oh, I'm still learning that lesson. Yeah. That's good. No, you're clear as well. Okay. Thanks, Rama, for being here, Healing in Community. Just lastly, you've got your first official accredited class that you're teaching.
[00:17:58] Will you tell us what it is and how you're feeling about it? Yeah, I'm really excited to be stepping in. I've been desiring seeing myself as a teacher for a very long time. So this opportunity to step into teaching is just fabulous. So this is the – I think the title of the class is The Art and Science of Spiritual Mind Treatment. And as complex as that is, it's about prayer. This is a class about prayer. How do we pray? There is no right or wrong way to do it.
[00:18:23] There's some steps and some pieces that we like to look at in Science of Mind as the way to do this, and we will investigate those. And it's really about finding your own power in the words that you speak and how you express them so you can help affirm and grow the life that you're looking for. Fantastic. That's going to be great. Thank you so much for your time, Rama. It's a pleasure to be here.