Dena Merriam joins Melanie for an exploration of karma, past lives and restoring the Sacred Feminine in our world.
For over 35 years, Dena Merriam has been a student of Paramahansa Yogananda and a practitioner of Kriya Yoga meditation. She is also a long time student of the great texts of the Vedic tradition. Ms. Merriam received her Master’s Degree from Columbia University and has served on the boards of the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, The Interfaith Center of New York, the Manitou Foundation, All India Movement (AIM) for Seva, Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association, and Seven Pillars. She has served as Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nation in New York and founded the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) in 2002, an organization chaired by a multi-faith group of women spiritual leaders. Learn more at gpiw.org.
Show Notes
A Journey Through Time (Opening) – Dena Merriam discusses her memoir, My Journey Through Time, which recounts not only stories from her current incarnation but from past lives as well. She shares the experience of fist recalling former incarnations and the karmic lessons she has learned through them.
“Meditation I would say is the foundation of my life. Yogananda stressed intensive, long hours of meditation, and I attribute my experiences to that. Everyone has a different spiritual experience, this happened to be the way it came to me.” – Dena Merriam
Then and Now (19:10) – We hear the ways in which Dena’s past-life experiences affect her day to day life. She shares how her relationship to herself and others has been transformed by these experiences.
“It has helped me be more attentive to the karma that has been set in motion in this life that has yet to come to conclusion.” – Dena Merriam
Our Shared Karma (33:10) – Melanie and Dena discuss the interconnected cycles of karma and what the reverberations of karma can teach us about our actions. They look at the joy and pain that must be processed when looking at past lives.
Robert Thurman sits down with Raghu Markus for a conversation about understanding karma on Ep. 239 of the Mindrolling Podcast.
Being Women Together (43:00) – Dena talks about her work helping women in conflict and post-conflict regions facilitate healing in their communities. She reflects on the interconnection between the ecological and social suffering that the world has experienced and the absent role of the Sacred Feminine.
“There came a point when we made the connection that the suppression of the feminine energy and the destruction of the earth is the same; it is the same mindset that is allowing it to happen.” – Dena Merriam
