The Ryan Merkle Podcast: Recent Episodes
Ryan Merkle
Chaim and I discuss sexuality, gender, and other topics in sociology and religion and how it pertains to the quadrant model pattern
Chaim follows Orthodox Judaism and is a member of Chabad. We discuss the controversial topic of intermarriage. We do not just discuss intermarriage in regards to religions, but races, species, and even levels of being such as divinities and terrestrials.
I discuss with Chaim how the quadrant model pertains to Judaism. Just some examples we discuss are The four camps of the Israelites represented the four animals- Judah- the Lion- the constellation Leo Ephraim- the Ox- the constellation Taurus Reuben- the Man- the constellation Aquarius Dan- the Eagle- the constellation Scorpio (Rabbis say that scorpio the scorpion transforms into an Eagle) We also discuss how in Ezekiel's vision he sees four faces and each face has four faces making a 16 quadrant quadrant model. The four faces are the lion, ox, man and eagle representing the four cardinal signs of the zodiac. After that we go into many many more examples of the quadrant model We talk about how my hebrew name, Matisyahu means "gift of Yahu" which means gift of the tetragrammaton. Tetra is four. Also we discuss how the Yahoos in Gulliver's travel were named after the tetragrammaton, and the search engine Yahoo was named after them. I discuss how the tetragrammaton is found in acronym four times in the Book of Esther and Rabbis say that the book of Esther is special because the tetragrammaton is never explicitly mentioned but is found four times in acronym in it. They say when the Messiah comes he will, like in the Book of Esther, show that the tetragrammaton is everywhere in existence, although it might be difficult to see. That is what I did with the quadrant model. Did I explicitly say I am the messiah? No. But I did say I did what Rabbis say the Messiah will do, so I suggest you show some respect. Basically all of the Bible is the quadrant model. Even sevens in the Bible are four plus threes.
Chaim and I do another study on the quadrant model. Chaim told me he wants to invite many other people to study the quadrant model. He described how Jews like to have Minyan's at least ten people studying at one time. We want to shoot for that but hopefully I would like to teach quadrant model to the whole world and the whole world acknowledge it as the theory of everything
Chaim and I already talked about Schumacher and Aristotle's four levels of being, mineral, vegetal, animal, and human, as well as Joseph Campbell's four stages of religion, animal spirit, mother goddess, patriarchal, and axial. We also talked about the four world religions, Buddhism is air, Christianity is water, Islam is Earth, and Hinduism is fire. According to sociologists Judaism is not the fifth world religion because it does not proselytize, and there are only four. Today we talk about Omi and Winant's model of the four races that I learned in my sociology class at UCSD- the "racial positioning model". I discuss how Asian corresponds to air, White corresponds to water, Black corresponds to Earth, and Brown corresponds to fire. I briefly mention Nolan's four political ideologies, communism is air, fascism is water, capitalism is Earth, and libertarianism is fire. We also discuss Fisher's four brain chemical types, estrogen, serotonin, dopamine, and testosterone and Myers and Briggs four personality types.
I talk with Chaim about the quadrant model of reality. Chaim and I are thinking of doing a weekly or biweekly class, and Chaim is thinking of inviting friends along so we can explore the quadrant theory that I discovered in 2010
I talk with Lucien Vattel about alchemy, mysticism, relationships, astrology, and other topics. I met Lucien maybe five or so years ago at spiritual events and always felt a very powerful and compassionate, loving presence around him. He is somebody who you can truly learn a great deal from and I look forward to learning more from him in the future. He is also the CEO of Become Agency. Becoming is the 19th square of the quadrant model
This was an interesting podcast. Dimes came over to my crib and I started the interview and we recorded about 20 minutes but then I realized I was not logged into anchor and the recording did not work. We freestyled and everything and the 20 minutes was lost. So we started over and did a little more freestyling and we talked about Dimes music and got into philosophical conversation. At the end we had an incredible synchronicity. In the middle of the interview I typed in Jedi Mind Tricks in my phone because I wanted to end the podcast with listening to my favorite song on the album. In the 20 minute interview that was lost Dimes told me how music brings about nostalgia and I told him how listening to music that I listened to when I was younger puts me in a happy state. Then I asked Dimes what thought he wanted to leave off on and I was going to end the interview and I forgot I was going to play the Jedi Mind Tricks song and Dimes said "psycho social biological electromagnetic" which is a quote from the Jedi Mind Tricks song I was going to play but forgot. But I had it typed in and ready on YouTube already and I showed it to Dimes. Again revealing the metaphysical domain of existence live on the podcasts in real time.
In 2016 my friend who is a member of Hare Krishna, Francisco invited me to go to West Virginia with him so that he could meet a woman who was a prospect for marriage for him. On the way there we met Nikunja at the Hare Krishna temple in Colorado. We stayed with Nikunja and took him to Kansas city where we stayed as well in a Hare Krishna temple. Then Francisco and I went to West Virginia and stayed at a temple there. After we came back to Kansas city and stayed and back to Colorado and finally back to San Diego where I was living at the time. So I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks with Nikunja and learned a great deal from him. At that time I knew barely anything about Hare Krishna and Hindu mythology but since then Nikunja and others inspired me to delve deeply into the mythology. I watched a lot of movies on Hindu mythology, such as a tv serial on the Vishnu Puran and the Shiva Puran and the Mahabharata and now I would say that I have a lot of knowledge on Hindu scripture. In this podcast Nikunja and I talk a lot about Hare Krishna philosophy. I bring up how during our travels I did a lot of rapping. I mention to Nikunja how on the trips I got nervous because I was so far from home and I was able to write raps well and freestyled well and I posted those raps and freestyles on FaceBook. That was a big reason I wanted to get back into basketball so much, even despite the serious injuries I incurred in 2014, because I could only rap well and write raps well when nervous. During the car rides with Nikunja we did a lot of Hare Krishna Maha Mantra chanting and I did a lot of rapping freestyling and writing, incorporating the transcendental philosophies of the Hare Krishna movement into the raps. Nikunja has serious expert knoweldge in Hare Krishna philosophy, and one thing I noticed about him when I travelled with him was his extraordinary passion and devotion. So it was a treat to interview him today for the podcast and I learned some deep concepts. One example is Nikunja taught me that the word mantra means to free the mind. In the flow the mind is freed, and the ritual of mantras help to transcend mundane ego centered thoughts and thus help to cultivate the flow
I have a conversation with my really really good friend Julian Andrews. I started playing basketball with Julian about four years ago. My friend invited me to play with a club basketball team in Culver City and Julian was on the team and we became teammates and have been playing together since. I played with Julian for a few seasons on that club team but I sprained my ankle while playing one on one with Julian. We decided to meet up and play one one one at a park a couple years ago and I sprained my ankle while we were playing. I also jammed my finger bad while playing with that club team and had to take a break. This was compounded with all of the injuries that I already had. I took a break until I started playing with ULA and Compton College last summer. Julian was the best basketball player on our team. He played college basketball. I talk to Julian about last Summer when I played with the University of Los Angeles in Compton as well as Compton College and how my game improved drastically over the Summer to the point where when I was playing with Compton College I was playing very well. Sadly third week of practice I sprained my ankle bad. But Julian and I chopped it up about basketball. Julian works in broadcasting and he is responsible for making the highlight videos of NBA and College basketball on television. Julian is also friends with my best friend from high school Renaldo Woolridge. Renaldo Woolridge was the number one ranked basketball player in California in high school and played in the NBA. Renaldo told me that soon he plans to have me on his podcast that he just started
I had the good fortune today to talk to Blu Yogi. It's always a pleasure to learn from him and I am looking forward to hopefully posting soon further podcasts where we can engage in further exploration and deepen our understanding
Blu is definitely a seeker and explorer. We met each other at the Los Angeles Hare Krishna Temple a few years ago. We both have studied many spiritual paths and have come to similar ideas about the unity and oneness and beauty of reality
I talk to my Grandma C about her life growing up. Her Dad worked for AT@T and she lived in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. We talk about what life was like in those times. I get emotional at the end of the interview when we talk about my Grandpa C. My Grandpa C died in 2012.
We plan to hopefully have another podcast soon.
My friend Atom Nuke and I freestyle and then we talk about his rap career. At the very end Isaiah, Ajani, and I freestyle
https://thriveglobal.com/authors/jose-angel-manaiza-jr/?fbclid=IwAR37GYHfFhMFU3plb8lZEjUn1Wa7lKYH7VLh2GXI0Xubbag_Myz3VorZg5g
I had an amazing time interviewing Jose today. I talk to Jose about how he was the tutor to Russel Westbrook and Kevin Love and other NBA players who went to UCLA. We talk about other topics and look forward to hopefully further podcasts together in the future where I can ask him more about the incredible and inspiring life he has lived. Jose is known as the "tutor to the stars" and he tutors a lot of celebrities children, especially in mathematics. I met Jose at a toastmasters meeting in Malibu. I am not a member of toastmasters, but I asked a friend how I could get the quadrant model promoted and she recommended I go to toastmasters and meet people there, because she said there should be people there who could help me. That was when I was playing at Compton College. My teammate at Compton College Rommel and I after one of our practices went over to Malibu and had the pleasure of meeting Jose and Jose was very interested in the quadrant model and we have been friends since. At some point I will try to get a podcast with my friend Rommel and we will see how he is doing.
https://thriveglobal.com/authors/jose-angel-manaiza-jr/?fbclid=IwAR146l3Io5kqEnx1-la8cIsgYq8GbHOYLtHV49Fu2JJbsegRT-RSrnYyCRM
Here is a bio of Jose
I met my friend Mike at an interfaith meeting of Christians, Jews, and Muslims maybe six years ago. Over the years we have frequented many Churches together, movie theaters, and restaurants around Los Angeles. Mike grew up Catholic, for ten years became a Buddhist, but for the past 10 or so years identifies as Christian. In this podcast we talk about the Bible and the Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim scriptures.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that I had a spectacular time speaking to my friend Craig Weinberg for this podcast today. I first met him maybe five or so years ago. His material and mindset always seemed to me congruent and on the same wavelength as mine in terms of his disposition to see the mystical and the metaphysical and magical and his orientation towards reality and understanding. Hopefully enjoy this podcast where Craig Weinberg and I converse about metaphysical, philosophical concepts.
I have had different best friends during different periods of my life. In elementary school my best friend was Brandon Sherman. In middle school my best friend was Malik Story. Malik Story plays professional basketball now and was the number one three point shooter in the University of Nevada's history. In high school my best friend was Renaldo Woolridge. Renaldo Woolridge was the number one ranked basketball player in California and also played professional basketball and raps as well.
My Freshman year of college at UC San Diego my best friend was my Triton teammate Jay Wey. Jay Wey left UCSD my Sophomore year of college to play basketball at University of San Francisco. But before he left we had great times together. When he left UCSD was the same time I quit basketball to focus on rap music. Just I didn't realize at the time when I quit basketball I would not be able to write new raps because I could only write raps when nervous and only serious basketball got me nervous.
But Jay Wey played basketball at UCSD, USF, and after college played professional basketball in Taiwan. He is a comedian and right now has a popular channel with his fiance on Tic Toc that has close to a million views.
In this podcast Jay mainly just talked to me about the shootaway machine and my experience with my Dad. I explain to Jay how I have never in my life been diagnosed with a mental illness and every doctor who has ever given me any tests has said I do not have any mental illness. We didn't get to talk a lot about Jay too much in this podcast, but I plan to hopefully have him on again soon. Jay and I in college always philosophized and had great conversations and hopefully soon I can share more podcasts where we do that.
My Grandpa and I talk about how when he grew up on a farm on Ohio with 12 brothers and sisters, the community would dress my Grandpa up in blackface for the minstrel shows. He says that the community always made him the Black boy because he could sing. My Grandpa describes that he was friends with the "Black" people in his community and didn't even see them as "Black". We also talk about Will Smith and other topics
I had an absolute blast talking with my friend from college Akash Kataria. We caught up a little bit and talked about geology, as he was a geology major, his work in film, and his life now in Texas after growing up in Orange County
I talk with Chad Vice a little bit about the quadrant model but also about my experience winning an AAU national championship, playing on South Coast the number one basketball team in the nation and the P Miller Ballers, Master Ps basketball team when I was 14 and being on Nickelodeon on the show "The Team", and being the starting point guard on Varsity and winning a CIF championship my Freshman year of high school, the first player in my schools history to start on varsity. I also talk about the shootaway machine and basketball DVDs and talk about how I played with ULA and Compton College this summer before I sprained my ankle third week of practice.
I get passionate in this podcast. I talk about synchronicities and seeing things like numbers in license plates as signs and seeing signs through animals- communicating with the Reality and Reality communicating to you if you are open to it and recognize the mystical order of existence
My Grandpa and I discussed things. I ask the question "who is better off, Wilt Chamberlain or AC Green?" A thousand women or 0? Is it better to be a Shiva worshipping demon or a Vishnu worshipping demigod?
I ask my Grandpa about his thoughts on some of the quadrants of the quadrant model of reality, like what he thinks the definition of thinking is and the definition of contemplation and the definition of passion and what he thinks belief is. Other topics are also discussed
Kind of a chaotic talk with my Grandpa. I would like for him to respond to my emails each day but he is acting like he doesn't want to and he really doesn't care. I want to be able to study with him more than once a day. Since he has refused to study with me more than once a day for many years I would at least like him to respond to a few emails I send him a day. For many years he refused to teach me period trying to force me to get a job and mocking the quadrant model.
My Grandpa and I talk a little about emotion and feeling through the lens of transpersonal psychology. My Grandpa grew up on a farm in Ohio and became a Christian minister. He was a Christian minister up until he was 40 years old when in New York he met Dr. Hora, the founder of metapsychiatry. Then my Grandpa got his PHD in transpersonal psychology.
My Grandpa and I talk about beauty and at the end we listen to a clip from Jordan Peterson where he says that there is "good and evil", and I relate it to the transpersonal perspective.
My Grandpa and I discuss Jordan Peterson, somebody whom my Grandpa has never listened to before this podcast, and other topics
My Grandpa and I get into some interesting topics like romantic relationships and how a special relationship can be a stage in moving out of self preoccupation to at least focus on another, as a process in the evolution towards mutual participation and the flow.
I ask my Grandpa who has a PHD in transpersonal psychology about some things. My Grandpa got his PHD studying under the founder of metapsychiatry Dr. Hora. My Grandpa was born in Ohio and had 12 brothers and sisters and worked on a farm. Out of high school he became a Christian minister. For the next 20 years he was a Christian minister. At the age of 40, while in New York, my Grandpa met Dr. Hora and got his PHD in transpersonal psychology. Dr. Hora was the founder of a school of psychoanalsis called metapsychiatry. Metapsychiatry is a form of psychology that combines the teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism and other spiritual practices. Actually Dr. Hora's school of psychology was called "existential metapsychiatry" because it also incorporated the teachings of existentialist philosophers such as Nietzche. I read some of Dr. Hora's works. One of Dr. Hora's big teachings was that "there is no thing and there is no self". He even in one of his books invoked Susskinds discoveries in physics that argue that the Universe is a holographic projection
Here is an article that explains metapsychiatry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metapsychiatry
My Grandpa and I talk about the s's of development to transpersonal consciousness and talk about some controversial laws of Leviticus and how they may have emerged from an ancient culture functioning under dualistic survival modes of consciousness, but at the same time they pointed to the transpersonal mode of being
In this episode Ryan Merkle discusses the social constructions of race, mental illness, gender, and sexuality and how these are all continuums, and he discusses the transpersonal flow, which is the transcendence of these ego identities and the limitations inherent in adhering to any ego identity in the interpersonal dualistic virtual reality