Necessary Breakdown: The Sacred Art of Falling Apart with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Release Date: 08/04/2025
"There Is No Such Thing as Failure" with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
What if everything you've been taught about failure is wrong? This conversation examines three interconnected concepts that completely reframe how we approach life's challenges: crisis, failure, and perfection. Drawing from the Alice Bailey teachings and Agni Yoga, the discussion reveals that crisis isn't something to avoid, rather it is the essential mechanism through which consciousness expands and wisdom emerges. On this week's episode of Musings From The Mount, Michael Lindfield joins the conversation with an examination of crisis as opportunity rather than disaster. The Chinese characters...
info_outline
"Instinct, Intellect, Intuition" - The Three Ways of Knowing with Diana Lang & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
How do you know what you know? Most of us have been confusing three fundamentally different forms of knowing our entire lives: instinct (the body's survival mechanism), intellect (the mind's analytical tool), and intuition (direct knowing that bypasses thought). Understanding the difference isn't just philosophical, it has immediate implications for every decision you make, from choosing a career path to knowing when to trust someone. On this week’s episode of Musings From The Mount, Diana Lang joins the conversation and begins the discussions with an exploration about instinct, that primal...
info_outline
Holding Space in "Polarized Times" (Politics and Spiritual Community) with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
How does a spiritual community remain inclusive when the world is tearing itself apart along political lines? This conversation tackles one of the most challenging questions facing spiritual centers (and people) today: how to avoid alienating half your community when political polarization feels stronger than ever. The discussion doesn't offer easy answers or retreat into spiritual bypassing, but instead examines the deeper principles that might help us navigate this tension. The episode begins with a fundamental reframe: what if the two poles we see as enemies are actually necessary partners...
info_outline
The Bird With Two Wings: Creative Tension vs. Division with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
What's the difference between creative tension that births new possibilities and destructive polarization that tears everything apart? Recorded during the Libra full moon, this conversation examines how the same dualistic forces that allow the universe to express itself, positive and negative poles creating illumination, can become weapons when we forget we're part of a unified field. The discussion begins with a fundamental principle: the One expresses itself through dual aspects, like spirit and matter forming a continuum. Think of a light bulb, it requires both positive and negative poles...
info_outline
"All Books Are Prison Houses" - The Paradox of Spiritual Literature with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
What happens when the very tools we use to share wisdom become barriers to understanding it? This conversation tackles a profound paradox: how language, the vehicle for transmitting knowledge, can actually limit our access to deeper truths. Starting with Krishnamurti's famous moment of walking on stage, saying "turn within," and walking off—leaving audiences both frustrated and enlightened—the discussion explores why sometimes the most profound teachings come not from books, but from direct experience of life itself. The episode examines a fascinating teaching from the Tibetan master DK...
info_outline
"What Would Love Do?" with Diana Lang & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
How do you know when your desire to help is actually making things worse? This conversation tackles one of the most challenging questions we face in relationships, community, and our response to world events: the difference between helping and interfering. Drawing from personal recovery stories and spiritual wisdom traditions, it examines why the most well-intentioned help often falls flat—and sometimes even damages the very relationships we're trying to heal. The discussion begins with a provocative metaphysical principle: "Don't help unless you're asked." This isn't about becoming...
info_outline
The Golden Handcuffs of Materialism with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
What happens when we examine money not as numbers in a bank account, but as crystallized life energy? In a conversation recorded during the wild fires in Los Angeles and addressing questions about the nature of rebuilding, this episode tackles one of the most emotionally charged topics in spiritual circles: our relationship with money and what it reveals about our deeper values. This isn't about financial advice or investment strategies—it's about understanding money as a spiritual test and discovering what lies beyond our addiction to accumulation. The discussion opens with a fundamental...
info_outline
When The Universe Calls, We Are The Response with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
What if you've been approaching questions and answers backwards your entire life? This conversation starts with a simple observation about music—that call and response pattern where the universe makes the call and we become the response—and unfolds into a profound exploration of how wisdom actually develops through lived experience rather than accumulated information. It's not about finding the right answers out there somewhere, but about becoming the answering itself. The discussion examines the crucial difference between being smart and being wise: intelligence might help you navigate...
info_outline
Are We Teaching A.I. About the Heart with Prof. Wade Chumney, Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
What happens when artificial intelligence meets ancient wisdom? In a conversation with Ethics & Business Professor/Author Wade Chumney that bridges cutting-edge technology with timeless spiritual principles, we explore one of the most pressing questions of our time: not just what AI can do for us, but what our relationship with it means for human consciousness itself. This isn't another tech debate about job displacement or safety protocols—it's a deeper inquiry into consciousness, relationship, and what it means to be human in an age of emerging intelligence. The conversation tackles a...
info_outline
Food for Thought 4: Go Your Own Way with Strength and Silence with Michael Lindfield & Joseph Carenza
Musings From The Mount
In the conclusion of our four-part journey through "Ponder on This," we tackle perhaps the most challenging territory yet: what it actually means to live as conscious agents in an evolving world. The conversation opens with a powerful reminder that we're living in "the age of the revelation of the mysteries" - not through more books being published, but through those moments when ancient wisdom suddenly clicks and becomes lived experience rather than just intellectual understanding. Central to this final exploration is the counterintuitive teaching that forms - including our bodies, emotions,...
info_outlineIn a culture obsessed with comfort and stability, the idea of necessary breakdown feels almost revolutionary. Yet this ancient wisdom appears across traditions—from Leonard Cohen's "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in" to Rumi's understanding that "the wound is the place where the light enters you."
This week's conversation explores why our modern fear of breakdown might be preventing our greatest growth. Unlike previous generations who embraced adventure and uncertainty, we've traded our willingness to put "chips on the table" for the illusion of safety. But what if this very attachment to preserving our current forms—whether mental, emotional, or physical—is actually imprisoning the spirit within us?
The discussion reveals how breakdown isn't destruction for its own sake, but rather the natural process that allows new life to emerge. Just as a seed must crack open to become a flower, and a caterpillar must dissolve into "goo" to become a butterfly, we too must be willing to let our outdated identities dissolve when they no longer serve our deeper purpose.
Perhaps most importantly, this episode addresses the fear that letting go means losing our core principles or truth. The profound insight emerges: when we release what is false about ourselves, what remains is always the truth—solid, uncompromised, and eternal. The question becomes not whether we can afford to break down, but whether we can afford not to.
Meditation Mount and HeartLight Productions are pleased to present Musings from the Mount – a weekly podcast with host Joseph Carenza and guests in conversation exploring a range of topics drawn from the Ageless Wisdom teachings. New episodes every Monday.
If you enjoy this podcast, please consider donating at MeditationMount.org