Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck with David Nichtern cover art

Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck with David Nichtern

Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck with David Nichtern

By: Be Here Now Network
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David Nichtern, founder of Dharma Moon, is a senior Buddhist teacher who has been practicing and teaching meditation for over 40 years.

He was one of the initial American students of renowned meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and studied closely with him soon after his arrival in the United States in 1970. He is also a business consultant with companies creating a variety of offerings integrating meditation in a larger health and well-being context – including Goldman Sachs, Journey Meditation, Creative Live, True Nature Meditation (Tokyo), Balanced Athlete, The Center for Health & Healing, Om Births, and Kobre & Kim law firm among others.

He has been featured in The New York Times, FOX News, Netflix's The Midnight Gospel, Huffington Post, The Buddhist Geeks podcast, Duncan Trussell Family Hour Podcast, Pete Holmes' You Made it Weird Podcast, and many others. David is the author of the critically acclaimed Awakening From the Daydream: Reimagining The Buddha’s Wheel of Life and his recently released Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck. He mentors individual students both in person and online, and leads meditation teacher training programs around the world.

David is also a multiple Grammy-nominated and Emmy award-winning musician. He has recorded and played with Stevie Wonder, Christopher Guest, Jerry Garcia, Lana Del Rey, Maria Muldaur, Paul Simon and many others. Among his many credits in records, film and TV, David wrote the classic song “Midnight at the Oasis” and has produced multiple records for and periodically tours with Grammy-nominated kirtan artist Krishna Das.

Creativity Spirituality & Making A Buck with David Nichtern highlights creative people who share a passion for integrating their livelihood with their personal well-being and spiritual life. David hosts in-depth conversations with artists, musicians, comedians, authors, and thought leaders about life, creative pursuits, meditation, and how to build a sustainable business doing what you love.

© Be Here Now Network Economics Spirituality
Episodes
  • Ep. 65 – Dealing with Perfectionism with M.J. Schwartz

    Ep. 65 – Dealing with Perfectionism with M.J. Schwartz
    Jun 19 2026

    M.J. Schwartz explores how to meet perfectionism with mindfulness and heal the cultural messages that keep us striving for impossible standards.

    Help us celebrate 10 years of Be Here Now Network and support the next chapter of Ram Dass Here and Now. Gifts are matched dollar for dollar through June 30. Learn more and give here: BHNN 10th Birthday Fundraiser

    In this episode, David and M.J. chat about:

    • M.J.’s introduction to mindfulness and meditation
    • How mindfulness was incorporated into M.J.’s work as a doula and midwife
    • Learning how to wisely deal with perfectionism
    • Healthy striving versus tethering our identity to a certain result
    • How childhood parentification can lead to adult perfectionism
    • Other-oriented perfectionism and criticizing those who do not meet our expectations
    • Picking up perfectionism from the world around us
    • Perfectionism’s role in eating disorders and the obsession with body size in our culture
    • Synchronizing the mind and body

    Join Dharma Moon’s for their Body of Meditation Training or learn about The Business of Teaching Meditation

    About M.J. Schwartz:

    M.J. Schwartz is the founder of Studio138 Family Yoga and Mindfulness. Having started practicing yoga and mindfulness at age twelve, M.J. is passionate about sharing these modalities with families of all stages and configurations. As a parent and grandparent themselves, they understand the nuances of a practice that evolves alongside life's many changes.

    M.J. holds a B.A. in psychology from Smith College, where they studied perfectionism with a leading researcher in the field, along with certifications in mindfulness, yoga, and Intuitive Eating. Before returning to school in midlife, they worked as a doula, childbirth educator, and midwife, and continue to teach pregnancy and postpartum classes that blend mindfulness with evidence-based information. Check out M.J. on Substack.

    “Other-oriented perfectionism goes hand in glove with self-oriented perfectionism. If a parent is hyper-perfectionistic, there is a chance that they are then very hard on their children.“ –M.J. Schwartz

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Ep. 64 – Annette Knopp is a Mystic Nomad

    Ep. 64 – Annette Knopp is a Mystic Nomad
    Jun 2 2026

    With both insight and vulnerability, Author Annette Knopp explores how our earliest attachment experiences shape the way we love, relate, and walk in this world.

    Help us celebrate 10 years of Be Here Now Network and preserve the complete Ram Dass Here and Now archive. Gifts are matched dollar for dollar through June 30. Give here: BHNN 10th Birthday Fundraiser

    In this episode, David and Annette chat about:

    • Connecting to our own personal experiences within a creative process
    • The intersection of healing and liberation
    • Annette’s journey through complex post-traumatic stress disorder
    • How our unhealed parental projections create issues within our relationships
    • Attachment trauma and somatic healing work
    • How our psychological blueprint begins as early as the womb
    • The theory of being a ‘good enough’ parent 30% of the time
    • Offering repair and having a baseline of secure attachment
    • Working with our unmet needs through awareness and observation
    • Looking at the message (imprint) rather than the messenger (trigger)
    • The motherly presence that is within the path of healing

    Join Dharma Moon’s for their 100-hour course on teaching mindfulness meditation or for a course on meditation and embodied wisdom

    About Annette Knopp:

    Annette Knopp is the author of Mystic Nomad: A Woman's Wild Journey to True Connection and co-founder of Blue Spirit Retreat Center in Costa Rica. A meditation teacher, somatic educator, and nature mystic rooted in 30 years of personal contemplative practice, she weaves Indo-Tibetan meditation, Andean earth-based practices, and modern Western approaches to trauma resolution into transformative teaching and mentorship. Her work bridges ancient wisdom and contemporary healing in service of human dignity, wholeness, and embodied connection.

    Grab a copy of Annette’s book, Mystic Nomad: A Woman's Wild Journey to True Connection, or join her in Costa Rica for an upcoming retreat.

    “These imprints are laid down in phases before we have the brain development to have even a narrative around it. When we work in trauma with people, it’s all about making what has been implicit, explicit.” –Annette Knopp

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    1 hr
  • Ep. 63 –The Art of War for Modern Life with Jim Gimian

    Ep. 63 –The Art of War for Modern Life with Jim Gimian
    May 26 2026
    Student of The Art of War, Jim Gimian, shares how we can relate constructively to conflict and win without fighting.In this episode, David and Jim have a conversation about:The classic Chinese text, The Art of War, by Sun TzuThe refined wisdom of understanding conflict‘Taking Whole’: the concept of winning without fightingHow leaders (and all people) can learn from The Art of WarPast conflicts, karma, and vicious coincidenceBeing present for the opportunities that arriveLetting phenomena play rather than counteractingHow the brain is hard-wired for bias and predictionTapping into our natural connection to othersRuthlessly evaluating your biases & projections out of compassion for the bigger wholeRealistically dealing with challenges without perpetuating aggressionCheck out Jim Gimian's course, Rules of Victory, to learn about leadership strategies for today’s challenges from The Art of War. You can also inquire about getting personalized coaching from him!Join Dharma Moon’s for their 100-hour course on teaching mindfulness meditation About Jim Gimian:James Gimian has been studying and teaching The Art of War (the Sun Tzu Bing Fa) since 1980. He served as the general editor of the best-selling translation The Art of War: The Denma Translation (2001) which received critical acclaim from military officers, business leaders, and Asian Studies scholars. Gimian followed that with The Rules of Victory: How to Transform Chaos and Conflict—Strategies from the Art of War (2008), co-authored with Barry Boyce.Gimian has been presenting lessons from the Art of War to business and non-profit leaders in North America, Australia, and Europe since 1985. His work takes the form of seminars, leadership training programs, consulting, and coaching. The core of this work is presenting the text’s profound strategic thought in clear, simple, and accessible training that enables today’s leaders to employ these tools in their work and lives amidst the challenges of an increasingly complex and uncertain world.Gimian has served in leadership roles in the magazine and book publishing industry since 1972, including stints at Shambhala Publications, publisher of Lion’s Roar magazine, and most recently founding publisher of Mindful magazine and Mindful.org, a media launch in 2012 that has grown to reach over 2 million people per month. Gimian also founded Trident Booksellers and Café in Boulder, Colorado in 1980, which continues to serve as an employee-owned community institution. He became a student of the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the early 1970s and has continued the practice and study of the dharma since that time. Gimian currently serves as the Executive Director of the Foundation for a Mindful Society.“The problem with complex systems to fix things is you never have time to go back and read the manual when shit hits the fan. That’s why this work has to be at the level of being, not at the level of learning tricks because they’re like bandages, they’re going to fall off. You’re only going to respond with whatever is integrated into your being as a way of seeing the world and acting and being in the world.“ –Jim GimianSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 14 mins
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