Rabbi Rami Shapiro Archives

Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award winning author of over two dozen nonfiction books, whose poems and short stories have been anthologized in over a dozen volumes, and whose prayers are used in prayer books around the world. Rami received rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and holds a PH.D. in religion from Union Graduate School. A congregational rabbi for 20 years, Rabbi Rami is currently Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Middle Tennessee State University where he also directs The Writer’s Loft, MTSU’s creative writing program, and co–director of One River Wisdom School, a training program in the Perennial Philosophy.In addition to writing books, Rami writes a regular column for Spirituality and Health magazine called Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler. He can be reached via his website, rabbirami.com.

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Rabbi Rami Shapiro: Living in Free Fall: The Path of t...

Rabbi Rami Shapiro — February 14, 2017

Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award-winning author, teacher, and former congregational rabbi whose written prayers are used in books around the world. With Sounds True, he has published the spoken-word offering How to be a Holy Rascal and the forthcoming book Holy Rascals: Advice for Spiritual Revolutionaries. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Rami and Tami Simon talk about the concept of the “holy rascal” and just what it takes to become one. Rami speaks on his background as a rabbi and how he came to a practice of “nondual Judaism.” Tami and Rami also discuss his encounters with God as a mother figure, and how these mystical experiences led to a burning away of his clinging tendencies. Finally, Rami underlines the importance of ecstatic experiences and why holy rascals are needed now more than ever. (68 minutes)

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The Forgiveness Challenge: Shifting from Narrow Mind t...

Rabbi Rami Shapiro — December 25, 2013

Tami Simon speaks with Rabbi Rami Shapiro, the co-director of the One River Wisdom School. Rabbi Rami writes the column “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler” for Spirituality & Health magazine, and hosts the How to Be a Holy Rascal show on Unity Online Radio. With Sounds True, he has created The Forgiveness Challenge, a three-week online intensive course on radical acceptance. In this episode, Tami speaks with Rabbi Rami about dealing with situations where we find it challenging to forgive, the importance of asking others to forgive us, and how looking deeply into the areas of life that require forgiveness can illuminate meaning in our lives. (71 minutes)

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The Forgiveness Challenge – with Rabbi Rami Shap...

Rabbi Rami Shapiro — November 5, 2013

Friends, we’re happy to announce a new online program with Rabbi Rami Shapiro, entitled The Forgiveness Challenge: 21 Days of Radical Acceptance. We’re taking registrations now and the course will begin officially on January 29, 2014. Once the course becomes available in January, you will be able to work through it at your own pace. When you register for the the course, you will also receive a free copy of Rabbi Rami’s ebook Forgiveness.

We’ve all been taught that forgiveness is an integral part of our spiritual lives. We understand that forgiveness enables us to let go of pain and anger, heal our relationships, and grow in compassion and humility. But what is forgiveness, really? And why does it often seem difficult, if not impossible, to achieve?

The Forgiveness Challenge offers you a 21-day training program in what Rabbi Rami calls “Self-awakening”—or realizing directly that you are at once both a worldly self and a divine Self that transcends time and space. For the next three weeks, you will experience a variety of contemplative practices and psycho-spiritual exercises that work five core dimensions of being: body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Each endeavor is designed “to awaken the narrow to the spacious” and allow the acceptance of the experiences of self in the larger context of Self.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all online in January! Learn more and register here.

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Richard Rohr: Gratuitous Goodness in an Age of Outrage

Richard Rohr — April 22, 2025

The prophets and mystics of the Judeo-Christian tradition each had their ways of bringing attention to the hypocrisies and injustices of their particular period in history. Here in the year 2025, as we navigate our own time of disruption and upheaval, how can we as individuals raise our voices and become the compassionate, conscious change agents our world so desperately needs? In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher Richard Rohr about his new book, The Tears of Things, and what we can learn from the “sacred revolutionaries” who came before us.

Tune in to explore: the prophet’s mission and “making good trouble”; self-critical thinking (and how it’s unknown to most major institutions); sacred criticism and the revelation of the shadow; the paradigm of order, disorder, and reorder; outrage, cosmic sadness, and unlimited praise; using anger to cover up sadness; grief work and “getting to the hallelujah”; discovering the foundation of hope; contemplative thinking; conversion and transformation; opening to grace; letting go of control; why “what we don’t want to see is the problem”; waking up from our collective illusion (especially around power and control); living in a deceit-allowing culture; the word “evil”; an ever-present sense of goodness in the world; holding the tension of opposing truths; gratuitous goodness; realizing a joy that cannot be taken from you; the prophet Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations; why the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty; acting from the highest levels of motivation; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

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Suzanne Giesemann: Dancing Between Being a Soul and a ...

Suzanne Giesemann — April 15, 2025

What is the soul? How do we stay in relationship with the eternal aspect of ourselves? Is it possible to honestly trust that “everything is in order” when all we see is chaos and confusion?

In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with acclaimed author and evidence-based medium Suzanne Giesemann about her journey from being a commander in the U.S. Navy to one of today’s most sought-after guides on the path of spiritual awakening. In this eye-opening conversation, you’ll learn about: the two keys to communicating with the departed: belief and intention; the three Es: educate, experience, and engage; the Sip of the Divine practice; the observer perspective and the importance of one’s point of view; patterns of consciousness interacting across time and space; a meeting with Albert Einstein; past lives; preparing for “a good and free and blessed death”; Wolf’s story; passing through an “elevation”; shifting out of left-brain dominance; curiosity and playfulness; the emotional heart and the spiritual heart; vagus nerve breathing; why there is “purpose in every passing”; Earth as a school for the evolution of our souls; transcending the sense of incompleteness inherent in “the story of you”; and more.

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John J. Prendergast: Meeting Your Deepest Ground

John J. Prendergast — March 25, 2025

At a time when things feel utterly groundless for so many of us, Dr. John J. Prendergast offers a practical approach to “meeting your deepest ground”—a stabilizing core of awareness and truth that is at once within and all around you. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with the retired therapist and spiritual teacher about his new book, Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality.

Settle back for a fascinating conversation filled with both practical insights and esoteric wisdom for anyone on a path of growth and transformation. Tami and John explore overcoming deep inner resistance to what we would rather not face; how traumatic “material” becomes frozen in the body; Kundalini awakening; how to attune to your body’s “subtle sensitivity” to receive the wisdom it has to offer; relaxing the mind; touching reality through and beyond the body; the “underground dimension” that is both personal and collective; the work of Carl Jung; becoming more intimate with the archetypal dimension of life; the challenge of defining the undefinable “absolute ground” of our being; transmitting a felt experience within a shared field of openness; the two kinds of inner blockages, psychological and existential; the core theme of safety; welcoming difficult feelings and experiences in order to better understand them; activating the light of awareness that leads to transformation; the practice of paying attention to the space behind you; mindfulness and witnessing our thoughts; humility and the pilgrimage from the head to the heart; the futility of “seeking” what is always already here; the disorientation that often precedes a reorientation; common symptoms people experience during the process of unwinding core contractions; letting go (and doing it with trust); the rainbow bridge between heaven and earth; why psychological healing is a necessary component for spiritual awakening; and more.