Alle afleveringen
116 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Talking about Zen Koans with Henry Shukman
19 augustus 2021 · 40 min
Zen teacher, author, and poet Henry Shukman talks with host Michael Taft about Mountain Cloud Zen Center, Henry’s series on the Waking Up app, meditation for awakening vs. meditation as a “band aid,” the role of psychotherapy in spiritual practice, the power of working in the “old way,” the path of working with Zen koans as the journey of a lifetime. Lees meer
Henry Shukman is a teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage, and is the Guiding Teacher of Mountain Cloud Zen Center, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Henry is an award-winning poet and author of several books, including One Blade of Grass, which details his spiritual journey. And is excellent. His struggles and traumatic experiences as a youth, combined with a spontaneous awakening experience at age 19, paved the way for Henry to develop a well-rounded approach to spirituality and meditation – one that includes love for self and the world as its foundation.
Henry Shukman at Mountain Cloud Zen Center
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Vajrayana as a Living Practice, with Ken McLeod
21 juli 2021 · 1 uur 14 min
Host Michael Taft talks with teacher and author Ken McLeod about his insights into Vajrayana, spiritual practice as "choosing a way to live," the Tibetan idea of lam khyer, the power of prayer as a kind of raw, naked stance, why the seeds of spirituality need to be nurtured in secret, difficulties Westerners face when attempting to work within traditional Asian religious systems, and the true meaning of spirituality. Lees meer
Ken McLeod began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1970 under the eminent Tibetan master Kalu Rinpoche. After completing two three-year retreats, he was appointed as resident teacher for Kalu Rinpoche’s center in Los Angeles, California, where he developed innovative approaches to teaching and translation. After his teacher’s death in 1989, Ken established Unfettered Mind, a place for those whose path lies outside established institutions. His published works include The Great Path of Awakening, Wake Up to Your Life, An Arrow to the Heart, Reflections on Silver River, and A Trackless Path.
Ken's website: Unfettered Mind
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Dimensions of Nonduality with Tina Rasmussen
30 juni 2021 · 58 min
Host Michael Taft talks with meditation teacher and author Tina Rasmussen about ways to understand nondual awareness and the progress of nondual meditation, including her own unique comparison between the Formless Realms of early Buddhist meditation and the Boundless Dimensions taught by Hameed Ali (aka Almaas) of the Diamond Approach. Lees meer
Tina Rasmussen, Ph.D., began meditating at age 13, and has practiced in the Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions for over 30 years. In 2003, she completed a year-long solo retreat, was later ordained as a Buddhist nun and became the first Western woman authorized to teach by renowned meditation master Pa Auk Sayadaw. Tina has been studied by the Yale Neuroscience Lab, and is the co-author of Practicing the Jhanas, as well as several books on human potential.
Tina Rasumussen’s website: luminousmindsangha.com
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Show Notes
00:44 - Intro
03:30 - The
core four practices of Buddhism that help us with the current crisis: shamatha,
vipassana, heart, and self-transcending practices
06:19 - How
Tina teaches shamatha (the Theravada way: anapanasati and brahmaviharas)
09:08 - The difference between anapanasati and pranayama
11:45 - The similarities and differences between the Theravadan and Tibetan practices
16:18 - How Tina teaches a hybrid set of Theravadan and Tibetan practices on retreat
18:44 - Shamatha is needed for stability
20:44 - The
different flavors of nonduality (unity/emptiness)
24:37 - The Buddhist map of the realms of existence (form/material realm:
physical/brahmaviharas; formless/immaterial realms:
1) boundless space;
2) boundless consciousness;
3) no-thingness/void;
4) neither perception nor non-perception;
5) the Deathless/Absolute/Nameless mystery)
28:53 - How ‘awareness’ is more fundamental than ‘consciousness’
30:55 - Comparison of the formless realms in Buddhism and in the Diamond Approach
(Ridhwan…
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Meditation and Communication with Shinzen Young
2 juni 2021 · 55 min
Shinzen Young talks with host Michael Taft about his new ideas around applying the systematic mindset of mindfulness meditation and the scientific method to the many challenges of human communication and miscommunication. Topics include the coming of Unified Mindfulness to China, the new phenomena of online retreats, training the spirit of science into mindfulness and communication, and much more. Lees meer
Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant. His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation, known as Unified Mindfulness, has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the University of Vermont in the burgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience. Learn more about Shinzen at his website: Shinzen.org
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Spiritual Bypassing and the Spiritual Friend
17 mei 2021 · 23 min
Host Michael Taft talks about the phenomenon of spiritual bypassing, what it is, what it means for our practice, and whether it is as big of an issue as many seem to think, as well as the importance of having a meditation buddy, and the ageless tradition of the “soul friend.” Lees meer
Michael Taft’s website
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Meditation and Healing Trauma with Thomas Hübl
1 april 2021 · 1 uur 5 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with spiritual teacher and author Thomas Hübl about trauma and healing, aspects of collective and cultural trauma, Jungian psychology, meditation, spirituality, and much more. Lees meer
Thomas Hübl is a contemporary mystic, international spiritual teacher, and author whose work seeks to integrate the core insights of the great wisdom traditions with the discoveries of modern science. Thomas’ teachings combine somatic awareness, advanced meditative practices, and analysis of multigenerational and collective trauma with transformational processes that address trauma and shadow issues. Since 2004 Thomas has been leading workshops, multi-year training programs, events and festivals, and is the author of the book Healing Collective Trauma.
Thomas Hübl's Website
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A Conversation with Spring Washam
12 maart 2021 · 51 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with meditation teacher and shamanic practitioner Spring Washam about the "dharma of Harriet Tubman," the inner vs. the outer journey of finding liberation, how the "meditation bubble" can actually block spiritual growth, bringing the wisdom of meditation to activism, the role of plant medicines in healing ourselves and our world, and much more. Lees meer
Spring Washam is a well-known meditation teacher, author, and visionary leader based in California and Peru. She is the author of A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage, and Wisdom in Any Moment. Spring is considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based healing practices to diverse communities. She is one of the founders and core teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, located in downtown Oakland, CA. She received extensive training from Jack Kornfield, is a member of the teacher’s council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California, and has practiced and studied Buddhist philosophy in both the Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism for the last 20 years. In addition to being a teacher, she is also a shamanic practitioner and has studied indigenous healing practices for over a decade. She is the founder of Lotus Vine Journeys, an organization that blends indigenous healing practices with Buddhist wisdom. Her writing and teachings have appeared in many online journals and publications such as Lions Roar, Tricycle, and Belief.net. She has been a guest on many popular podcasts and radio shows. She currently travels and teaches meditation retreats, workshops and classes worldwide.
Spring Washam's website
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Talking with People about Things, with David McRaney
3 februari 2021 · 1 uur 2 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with science journalist, author, and podcaster David McRaney about how people do (and do not) change their minds, how brains form their view of reality, conspiracy theory, the method of "technique rebuttal" vs. "topic rebuttal,' QAnon, motivated reasoning, the psychology of belief, and much more. Lees meer
David McRaney is a science journalist and an internationally bestselling author, podcaster, and lecturer who created You Are Not So Smart.
David began a blog writing about the psychology of reasoning in 2009. That blog became an internationally bestselling book published by Penguin in 2011, now available in 17 languages. His second book, You Are Now Less Dumb, released in July of 2013, and his third book, How Minds Change, all about how people do and do not update their beliefs and attitudes as indiviudals and cultures, will be released by Penguin in 2021.
David currently hosts a bi-weekly, top-100 podcast about human judgment and decision-making, and travels around the planet giving lectures on the topics he covers in his books, blog, and podcast. In 2015, David appeared as himself in a national ad campaign for Reebok which he co-wrote. His writing has also been featured in campaigns for Heineken, Duck Tape, and others. He is currently working on a documentary about IQ and genius and a television show about how to better predict the impact of technological disruption.
- youarenotsosmart.com
- medium.com/@davidmcraney
- twitter.com/davidmcraney
- davidmcraney.com
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Soulmaking Dharma, with Catherine McGee
9 december 2020 · 50 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with meditation teacher Catherine McGee about Soulmaking Dharma; her journey into meditation practice; using the word “soul” in a Buddhist context; working with the energy body; connecting with the imaginal in meditation; what sort of person thrives in the Soulmaking Dharma practice; and expanding beauty and sacredness in our lives. Lees meer
CATHERINE McGEE has been teaching Insight Meditation at Gaia House and internationally since 1997. Her teaching emphasises working with perceptions of the body on the path of awakening and in the healing of the individual and collective crises of our times. She is an advisor to One Earth Sangha and a long term student of the Diamond Approach and collaborated with Rob Burbea in shaping and teaching a Soulmaking Dharma.
Listen to Catherine McGee on Dharmaseed
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Dreams and the Spiritual Imagination, with Steve Aizenstat
6 november 2020 · 59 min
Depth Psychologist Steve Aizenstat speaks with host Michael Taft about dreams, the living image of dreams and their innate intelligence, the healing and creative power of the deep imagination; how dreams relate to meditation and spiritual practice, and the way that we are "all cyborgs now." Lees meer
Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., is the Founder of Dream Tending, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and Academy of Imaginal Arts and Sciences. He is a world renowned Professor of Depth Psychology, an imagination specialist and innovator. He has served as an organizational consultant to major companies, institutions, Hollywood films, and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Asia and Europe. He is affiliated with the Earth Charter International project through the United Nations where he has spoken. Professor Aizenstat is the Chancellor Emeritus and Founding President of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has collaborated with many notable masters in the field including Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, Marion Woodman and Robert Johnson.
Professor Aizenstat's pioneering work has impacted thousands of students, clients, major companies, institutions and influencers through one-on-one sessions, visionary courses, and sold-out lectures, webinars, digital pop-ups and wildly popular global seminars.
Steve Aizenstat’s website: dreamtending.com
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Love Unveiled with A. H. Almaas
7 oktober 2020 · 48 min
Spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas speaks with host Michael Taft about the centrality of love to our spiritual nature, how to tell the difference between emotional love and spiritual love, how the wounds of love can become openings for awakening, various “flavors” of love, and the necessity of love to approach truth. Lees meer
A. Hameed Ali, whose pen name is A. H. Almaas, is founder of the Diamond Approach to Self-Realization, a contemporary teaching that developed within the context of both ancient spiritual teachings and modern depth psychology theories. Almaas has authored eighteen books about spiritual realization, including the Diamond Heart series, The Pearl Beyond Price, The Void, and The Alchemy of Freedom.
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Show Notes
00:38 - Intro
03:31 - The book ‘Love Unveiled’
04:24 - Love vs awareness in spirituality
07:11 - Difference between emotional love and spiritual love
10:59 - Relationship between consciousness and love
12:51 - Love is the maturation of realization
14:38 - Difference in the expressions of emotional vs spiritual/essential love
16:54 - Spiritual love as a medium and the nectars/flavors of love
19:07 - Yearning and desire in different traditions
25:37 - Teaching the opening of the heart
26:47 - Working with the barriers/obstacles in different qualities of love
31:03 - Pointing towards the way into the heart
32:20 - Nectars of love
34:08 - Phenomenology of love
36:09 - The three centers of human beings
37:49 - Difficulties with feeling love and loved
41:47 - Working with the wounds in the heart
44:20 - Hameed’s favorite flavor of love
45:18 - The three-volume series on love
48:23 - Outro
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Vajrayana and Deity Yoga with Chandra Easton
21 september 2020 · 55 min
Buddhist Teacher and author Lopön Chandra Easton talks with Michael Taft about Vajrayana, her own pilgrimage and experiences in India, the struggle to bring motherhood, sexuality, the feminine, and the female voice into spiritual life, the power of yidam or deity yoga, how Westerners relate to deity yoga, and a look into the practice of the 21 Taras. Lees meer
Chandra Easton is a teacher and translator of Tibetan Buddhism who focuses on the lineage of the 11th-century yogini Maching Labdrön and Lama Tsultrim Allione, founder of Tara Mandala retreat center. She has taught Buddhism and yoga since 2001 and cotranslated the book Sublime Dharma: A Compilation of Two Texts on the Great Perfection.
http://www.shunyatayoga.com/
https://www.taramandala.org/
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Evolving Ground with Rindzin Pamo and Jared Janes
25 augustus 2020 · 1 uur 13 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with Rin’dzin Pamo and Jared Janes about their new project, entitled “Evolving Ground,” which is a community of practitioners that seeks to reinterpret and revitalize Vajrayana practice in a contemporary Western context. Topics include: the failure of Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to Western culture, the importance of the worldview in practice, creating new language around meditation, cheese-filled dorje snacks, and much more. Lees meer
Rin’dzin Pamo is a British born Vajrayana practitioner living in the US. They were an apprentice in the Aro gTér tradition of Tibetan Buddhism for twenty years and are an experienced Dzogchen meditator and mentor. Rin’dzin received the London School of Economics Fei Xiaotong prize for their Masters research on the Chinese tech industry. They worked on international development projects in India, Africa and the Middle East and as a program director for Amnesty International.
Rin’dzin writes at vajrayananow.com and tweets @_awbery_
Jared Janes is an American-born yogic practitioner living in Denver, Colorado. His early practice was influenced by pragmatic dharma, Unified Mindfulness, and The Mind Illuminated book. With the help of Rin’dzin, he transitioned into Vajrayana-inspired practice in early 2019. Jared’s career started in digital operations and management and he’s now a full-time consultant and podcast producer.
Jared Janes’ website
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A Conversation with Ken McLeod
3 augustus 2020 · 1 uur 20 min
Writer, translator, teacher, and business consultant, Ken McLeod speaks with host Michael Taft about the chaos unleashed by new forms of communication, dedicating your whole life to meditation and spiritual experience, what evokes a deep sense of the sacred?, how teachers point out awakening to students, what is it that epitomizes the essence of Vajrayana, and much more. Lees meer
Ken McLeod began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1970 under the eminent Tibetan master Kalu Rinpoche. After completing two three-year retreats, he was appointed as resident teacher for Kalu Rinpoche’s center in Los Angeles, California, where he developed innovative approaches to teaching and translation. After his teacher’s death in 1989, Ken established Unfettered Mind, a place for those whose path lies outside established institutions. His published works include The Great Path of Awakening, Wake Up to Your Life, An Arrow to the Heart, Reflections on Silver River and A Trackless Path.
Unfettered Mind
Ken’s article: How Is the Medium Changing the Method? https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/article/how-is-the-medium-changing-the-message/
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Paranoia, Conspiracy, and Covid, with Erik Davis
14 juli 2020 · 57 min
Author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and cultural historian Erik Davis speaks with host Michael Taft about QAnon as a new religion, Gnostic psychology and the power of the secret truth, new narrative warfare exploiting human psychology, technologically-sophisticated divination techniques, the “disenchanted paranormal,” taking responsibility for your own processing of reality, the angel of the library, Metal Hurlant, and more. Lees meer
Erik Davis is an author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and popular speaker based in San Francisco. He is probably best known for his book TechGnosis a cult classic of visionary media studies that investigates how our fascination with technology intersects with the religious imagination. Erik’s most recent book is High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies.
Read Erik’s newsletter The Burning Shore
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Effortlessness in Meditation, with Jud Brewer
7 juni 2020 · 45 min
Neuroscientist and mindfulness expert Jud Brewer speaks with host Michael Taft about his research into the four steps of Rigpa (with teacher and psychologist Dan Brown), effortlessness in meditation and the feeling of openness vs. closedness, the neurochemistry of reward, the historical Buddha's insight into the results of exploring gratification "to its end" and how that leads to effortless change (the system corrects itself), and the fact that willpower is a myth. Lees meer
Judson Brewer is an MD-PhD and a thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery,” having combined nearly 20 years of experience with mindfulness training with his scientific research. Jud is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center and associate professor in psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Brown University, as well as a research affiliate at MIT, and has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and anxiety.
Jud's website: DrJud.com
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Awakening and the Path of Liberation, with Dan Brown
20 mei 2020 · 37 min
Psychologist, author, translator, and meditation teacher, Dan Brown talks with host Michael Taft about the three levels of practice from a taste of awakening to "full buddhahood," the details of what a taste of awakening entails, the path to complete liberation, his neuroscience of nonduality studies with Jud Brewer, whether dzogchen is a complete path, and the future of dzogchen in the West. Lees meer
Daniel P. Brown, Ph.D. has been Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard for 38 years. He trained and taught with top Indo-Tibetan Bon & Buddhist lamas for more than 48 years. He is the award-winning author of 24 Books, and winner of the 1999 Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association. He trained with the Dalai Lama throughout the 1970s and is one of only a few Western individuals trained in the Tibetan Bon tradition and he runs meditation retreats around the world to help the average person achieve awakening.
Dan's website: MindOnly.com
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Learn more about nonduality: https://deconstructingyourself.com/nonduality
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Vajrayana, Compassion, and the Importance of the Teacher, with Ken McLeod
22 april 2020 · 59 min
Writer, translator, teacher, and business consultant, Ken McLeod speaks with host Michael Taft about Coronavirus, social distancing, nature doing what it does, overcoming cultural conditioning, enlightenment as a "system change," practices for overcoming cultural conditioning and developing compassion, the importance of the teacher-student relationship, the viability of Vajrayana practice in the West, and much more. Lees meer
Ken McLeod began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1970 under the eminent Tibetan master Kalu Rinpoche. After completing two three-year retreats, he was appointed as resident teacher for Kalu Rinpoche’s center in Los Angeles, California, where he developed innovative approaches to teaching and translation. After his teacher’s death in 1989, Ken established Unfettered Mind, a place for those whose path lies outside established institutions. His published works include The Great Path of Awakening, Wake Up to Your Life, An Arrow to the Heart, Reflections on Silver River and A Trackless Path.
Unfettered Mind
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Why Do Narcissists Become Spiritual Teachers, with Stephan Bodian
21 maart 2020 · 48 min
Nondual teacher and psychotherapist Stephan Bodian and host Michael Taft discuss how and why narcissists rise to the top of spiritual organizations, the ways that nondual traditions like Zen may be especially prone to teacher misbehavior, the problem with “crazy wisdom” teachers, as well as exploring Stephan’s own spiritual journey with Suzuki Roshi, Maezumi Roshi, Jean Klein, and more. Lees meer
Stephan Bodian is a psychotherapist and a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen and Advaita Vedanta. After training as a Zen monk and studying Advaita with Jean Klein, he received Dharma transmission from Adyashanti in 2001. His books include Wake Up Now; Beyond Mindfulness; and Meditation for Dummies.
Learn more about Stephan Bodian's work at stephanbodian.org
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Questioning Assumptions about Buddhism, with Evan Thompson
16 februari 2020 · 52 min
Evan Thompson discusses his new book, “Why I Am Not a Buddhist” with host Michael Taft. Topics include the myth of Buddhist exceptionalism, how Buddhist modernism presented a false picture of Buddhism as a value-neutral “mind science” rather than a religion, his own lifelong journey with Buddhism, and much more. Lees meer
Evan Thompson, PhD, works on the nature of the mind, the self, and human experience. His work combines cognitive science, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially in Asian traditions. His most recent book, Why I Am Not a Buddhist, examines the role of Buddhism in the modern world.
Evan Thompson's website: https://evanthompson.me/
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The Nondual Heart, with John Prendergast
8 februari 2020 · 59 min
Nondual teacher and psychotherapist John Prendergast speaks with host Michael Taft about the heart area as an opening to infinite space, contacting the “dark matrix” of the ground, the body as a vibrant expression of emptiness, moving out of the cycle of reactivity into the creative life, working with energy in meditation, and much more. Lees meer
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D., is the author of the books The Deep Heart and In Touch. He is a spiritual teacher, psychotherapist, and retired adjunct professor of psychology who offers retreats in the U.S. and Europe.
John Prendergast's website: www.listeningfromsilence.com
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Nonduality and Awake Awareness, with Loch Kelly
26 januari 2020 · 51 min
Nondual teacher and psychotherapist Loch Kelly speaks with host Michael Taft about what nondualism is, schools of effort vs. non-effort (and those in between), the five foundations of effortless mindfulness, awake awareness and rigpa, stabilizing nondual awareness, balancing the brain's default mode network, and more. Lees meer
Loch Kelly is an author, meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and founder of the non-profit, Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. Loch teaches in a non-sectarian lineage based in the earliest non-dual wisdom traditions, modern science, and psychotherapy.
Learn more at lochkelly.org
Read more about nondual awareness here.
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Meditating with Buddhist Sutras, with Michael Owens
28 december 2019 · 1 uur 16 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with Michael Owens, a Buddhist teacher and author, about being a monk in Taiwan, Buddhist sutras as portals to alternate realities, understanding dependent origination, the nondual ground and extreme psychedelia of the Mahayana sutras, the Vimalakirti Nirdeśa Sutra, explaining the "inconceivable," Suchness as the opposite of Emptiness, and more. Lees meer
Michael Charles Owens is a Buddhist teacher, translator, and author. Michael uses a sutra-based curriculum that draws from a variety of traditions to teach the history, philosophy, and practice of Buddhism. His teaching style weaves humor and storytelling with modern scholarly research to create a unique learning experience. He teaches regularly for the San Francisco Dharma Collective and he also runs Lotus Underground, a repository of his teaching activities, audio recordings, and writings.
MC Owens - Lotus Underground on Soundcloud
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Reversing the Stack— A Nondual Practice Map, with Michael Taft
22 november 2019 · 35 min
In this episode, host Michael Taft remixes his map of deconstructing sensory experience, and talks about how to use it to work in nondual traditions. Essentially the idea is to reverse the stack by starting out with Stage 4 (pure awareness) and then working your way up to stage 3, etc. Michael also spends some time talking about maps of meditation, problems therewith, and why he is already reworking this map after a short time. Lees meer
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
2:11 – Michael’s reasons for opposing maps, and creating the Deconstructing Sensory
Experience map
5:05 – Critiques Michael has heard about the map since first presenting it, and his responses
10:13 – Brief review of stages 1-4 of the map
14:41 – The logic behind putting cessation as stage 5 in the previous map; why it’s now
removed from the map
18:19 – How each stage is useful and no stage is lesser than the others
21:13 – Description of stage 4, pure awareness; how this stage is viewed in other traditions
25:43 – Reversing the stack, using this model bidirectionally
29:56 – The observer trap and how reversing the stack overcomes this problem
34:34 – Outro
Note: this is only a map, only a model. Just like a menu is not food, this model is not claiming to be reality. It’s just a handy way to help you orient your practice.
This model doesn’t count for nondual meditations, high-concentration/jhana practice, etc. It is only to help you with your vipassana practice.
These are not discrete or digital stages. They are analog, and shade into one another. Each stage is desirable and useful for various things. No stage is somehow better than another.
In vipassana practice, however, we are usually attempting to tranverse the stack from stage one to stage four.
When doing nondual practices, we transverse the stack from bottom to top (4 -> 1) and do what we might call “nondual vipassana” or something akin to many Mahamudra practices—which is what this episode describes.
Level 1 - Conceptual - Thinking ab…
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What Does Dreaming Have to Do with Meditation? with Andrew Holecek
23 oktober 2019 · 1 uur 7 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with Dream Yoga expert Andrew Holecek about how the dream state (and dreamless sleep) can effect meditation practice. Topics include: the fantasy-filling model of lucid dreaming vs. spiritual awakening; dream yoga, sleep yoga, and Bardo yoga; the love of napping, meditation in a dream or in dreamless sleep; reification as the "original sin of Buddhism"; lucid dreaming for meditators; and much more. Lees meer
Andrew Holecek has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat and offers seminars internationally on meditation, dream yoga, and the art of dying. He is the author of many books, including Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep. Andrew is masterful at joining the wisdom traditions of Asia with the knowledge of the West. He holds degrees in classical music, biology, and a doctorate in dental surgery.
Andrew Holecek's website
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Deconstructing Sensory Experience, with Michael Taft
24 september 2019 · 44 min
In this episode, host Michael Taft shares a map of deconstructing sensory experience. This is intended to help orient you to your vipassana meditation practice; helping you to understand where you’re at, where you’re going, and what to look for next. A basic map of vipassana. Lees meer
Note: this is only a map, only a model. Just like a menu is not food, this model is not claiming to be reality. It’s just a handy way to help you orient your practice.
This model doesn’t count for nondual meditations, high-concentration/jhana practice, etc. It is only to help you with your vipassana practice.
Very important: the inclusion of “Cessation” as level 5 doesn’t mean that level 5 is the final goal of practice. It’s just something that can happen, and is included for the sake of completeness.
These are not discrete or digital stages. They are analog, and shade into one another. Each stage is desirable and useful for various things. No stage is somehow better than another.
In vipassana practice, however, we are usually attempting to tranverse the stack from stage one to stage four. Stage five may or may not be something that happens.
When our practice is very skilled, we can also tranverse the stack from bottom to top (4 -> 1) and do what we might call “nondual vipassana” or something akin to many Mahamudra practices.
Summary of Stages
Stage 1 - Conceptual - Thinking about sensory experience objects using words.
Stage 2 - Phenomenal Object - Contacting the phenomenology of sensory experiences in the form of objects.
Stage 3 - Flow / Change - Contacting the phenomenology of sensory experiences as vibration, waves, or change.
Stage 4 - Pure Awareness - Noticing awareness itself with no content.
Stage 5 - Cessation - Sudden collapse of awareness.
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Vajrayana, Engineering, and Jiu Jitsu, with Rin’dzin Pamo
13 augustus 2019 · 57 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with Vajrayana teacher Rin’dzin Pamo about Vajrayana meditation practice currently, adapting practices for our times, their practice of The Mind Illuminated, the role of the guru in practice, how meditation practice is like engineering (and Jiu Jitsu), and much more. Lees meer
Rin’dzin Pamo (also known as Charlie El Awbery) is a British born Vajrayana practitioner living in the US. They were an apprentice in the Aro gTér tradition of Tibetan Buddhism for twenty years and are an experienced Dzogchen meditator and mentor.
Rin’dzin received the London School of Economics Fei Xiaotong prize for their Masters research on the Chinese tech industry. They worked on international development projects in India, Africa and the Middle East and as a program director for Amnesty International.
Rin’dzin writes at VajrayanaNow.com and has recently been publicly journaling their progress through Culadasa’s system The Mind Illuminated.
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Why Metadharma?, Pt. 2, with Vincent Horn
31 juli 2019 · 36 min
Why Metadharma? is an unusual episode of the Deconstructing Yourself podcast, in that it’s Part 2 of a joint interview between Vince and Michael Taft. Part 1 appeared on the Buddhist Geeks podcast recently, and they continue the conversation here. Lees meer
The topic of these discussions is a subject that both speakers are actively developing, called “metadharma.” In brief, metadharma refers to the many different ways that the dharma is being adapted, remixed, and redefined to meet the unique challenges and opportunities of the current moment.
Vincent Horn is part of a new generation of teachers & translators exploring dharma in the age of the network. A computer engineering dropout turned full-time contemplative, he spent his 20s co-founding the ground-breaking Buddhist Geeks Podcast, while simultaneously doing a full year, in total, of silent retreat practice. Vincent began teaching in 2010 having been authorized in both the Pragmatic Dharma lineage of Kenneth Folk, and by Trudy Goodman, guiding teacher of InsightLA, in the Insight Meditation tradition. Vincent has been called a “power player of the mindfulness movement” by Wired magazine and was featured in Wired UK’s “Smart List: 50 people who will change the world.” He currently lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina with his partner Emily Horn and their son Zander.
More about the Buddhist Geeks farm here.
Listen to David Chapman talk about metasystematicity here.
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Meditation, Emotions, and the Bio-Emotive Framework with Douglas Tataryn
14 juli 2019 · 1 uur 20 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with clinical psychologist and life coach, Douglas Tataryn, Ph.D. about meditation and psychology. Topics include his work with meditation teachers such as Culadasa, the “wake up, clean up, grow up, and look around” model, Wilber’s integral model. working with trauma and the dark night, and his system of emotional processing known as the Bio-Emotive Framework. Lees meer
Douglas Tataryn received his PH.D. in 1991 and worked as a professor for 10 years in epidemiology and psychosocial oncology. In 2001 he entered private practice where he applied and continued evolving what he now refers to as the bio-emotive framework, a new way of understanding the emotional system and its unappreciated role in many of our most common mental health disorders. Doug began what became a very intensive meditation practice back in 1975 and he and his wife receive and give teachings within the Namgyl Rimpoche stream of the Karma Kagyu lineage.
Resources
Dr. Tataryn’s website has lots of resources, some free and some for pay: https://bioemotiveframework.com
You’ll find thought provoking interviews and video recordings with Douglas Tataryn at this link: https://bioemotiveframework.com/blog/
Upset about a recent event? Use one or both of these forms to turn that upset into a better understanding and expression of how you are feeling about it.
1. This is help you find the inter-personal feelings about the situation: http://tinyurl.com/BEFstress
2. This form will guide you through the core feelings related to the situation. We tend to take core feelings very personally and often feel we are the feelings instead of being someone who is having those feelings: Http://tinyurl.com/BEFCore
Hear Culadasa speaking about his work with Douglas Tataryn here.
Listen to more more about meditation and psychology with Tucker Peck.
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Loch Kelly on Awareness, Freedom, and Effortless Mindfulness
3 juli 2019 · 1 uur 35 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with Loch Kelly on nondual practices, contemporary forms of ancient awareness techniques, dzogchen, mahamudra, advaita, the role of psychotherapy in awakening, the need—or not—for a guru, open-hearted awareness, internal family systems therapy, and more. Lees meer
Loch Kelly is an author, meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and founder of the non-profit, Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. Loch teaches in a non-sectarian lineage based in the earliest non-dual wisdom traditions, modern science, and psychotherapy.
Loch Kelly’s Website
Support the Deconstructing Yourself podcast via Patreon.
Show Notes:
00:43 - Intro
03:05 - Loch’s meditation background
06:59 - Shifting from concentration practice to choiceless awareness practice
10:01 - Meeting Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
12:23 - The experience vs explanation of ‘pure awareness’ in different traditions
14:38 - Mahamudra
15:31 - The dualism in stopping halfway at ‘pure/spacious awareness’
17:54 - Recognition vs realization
20:02 - The possibility of ‘awake awareness’ in different traditions
22:53 - Contacting nondual awareness
24:00 - How can awareness be aware of awareness, if you are not aware from awareness?
28:10 - The contemporary teaching of unhooking ‘local awareness’
34:42 - The vipassana model/map vs natural awakenings
37:42 - Upgrading the mahamudra map and instructions (from ‘pure awareness’ to ‘awake awareness’)
43:07 - The four or five levels of the mind in mahamudra (1. everyday mind, 2. subtle mind, 3. pure awareness, 4. simultaneous mind, 5. open-hearted awareness/bodhicitta)
46:13 - Thoughts and emotions in ‘open-hearted awareness’
50:09 - Teaching moving from ‘spacious awareness’ to ‘awake awareness’
56:02 - Wonder, freedom, and joy in wisdom mind
01:02:14 - Postural yoga and pranayama in mahamudra
01:05:18 - Integrating ‘one-pointed awareness’ into the ‘field of awareness’
01:08:37 - Psychotherapy as a “preliminary” practice
01:10:42 - The “crazy yogi”: waking up wi…
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Culadasa on Meditation and Therapy
2 juni 2019 · 1 uur 19 min
In this special episode, Culadasa talks about the domains of meditation and psychotherapy, where their areas of effectiveness overlap and where they don’t. He also shares a powerful personal story of his own emotional processing work after awakening—why it was needed and how it helped. Lees meer
Culadasa has been practicing Buddhist meditation for over four decades, and is the director of Dharma Treasure Buddhist Sangha, where he teaches meditation and Buddhism from a modern, progressive scientific perspective. His groundbreaking book, The Mind Illuminated is a modern road map to Buddhist meditation for a Western audience which combines age-old wisdom teachings of the Buddha with the latest research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Dharma Treasure website: https://dharmatreasure.org/
Dr. Douglas Tataryn’s website: The Bio-emotive Framework
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
2:54 – Michael opens up the intended direction of this show, what meditation can improve and heal and what psychology can improve and heal, where the two might overlap, and places that maybe only psychology can handle.
4:35 – Culadasa begins discussing how inner conflicts and baggage are brought to the surface and handled in the meditation system described in The Mind Illuminated.
10:47 – Minimizing psychological distress when beginning to have insight experiences.
13:52 – Different effects of samatha versus vipassana on noticing and working with difficult psychological material; how the arising of such material may unfold in Culadasa’s meditation system.
19:48 – The necessity of sati and introspective awareness in samatha practice to eliminate dullness and trigger purifications; how to progress from attending to bodily sensations, to emotions, to any associated mental content.
23:32 – Practicing samatha in the way it was intended to be practiced is training the mind in vipassana at the same time.
27:25 – Spiritual bypassing – how people with high meditative skill can fail to notice harmf…
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Meditation for the End of Civilization, with Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
21 april 2019 · 1 uur 13 min
Host Michael W. Taft speaks with bestselling author and meditation teacher Rick Hanson about how to maintain resilience in the face of the coming potential collapse of civilization, the problem with agriculture, meditation methods to build inner strengths, Rick’s upcoming book Neuro-dharma, and more. Lees meer
Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author. His books include Buddha’s Brain, Hardwiring Happiness, and the new book Resilient. Rick began meditating in 1974, has trained in several traditions, and teaches at meditation centers around the world.
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
1:56 – Michael talks about Rick’s background in meditation and his public persona, then introduces the topic for this episode, the potentially apocalyptic future
7:30 – How growing strengths and resources inside, and turning states into traits, gets trivialized as ‘positive psychologizing’
12:59 – Punctuated equilibrium: things tend to go along steadily until the bottom drops out; knowing that apocalyptic scenarios can occur, giving thought to what one can do that’s rational, given one’s values, resources, karmas and responsibilities in life
16:54 – The game-changing threats of thermonuclear exchange, runaway AI, totalitarian regimes exploiting surveillance technology and genetic engineering, climate change
21:03 – Working in practice with impermanence and remembrance of death
26:36 – “Time held me green and dying, though I sang in my chains like the sea” – claiming to oneself again and again, in the face of forces that make one feel powerless, what one can do inside one’s own mind; counteracting learned helplessness
35:09 – The balance of compassion and equanimity in facing death and environmental destruction; different paths to developing compassion and equanimity
46:15 – How the move away from living in small hunter-gatherer bands changed people’s relationship with governance; the lack o…
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The Liberating Practice of the Fire Kasina, with Daniel Ingram
27 maart 2019 · 1 uur 15 min
Author and meditation teacher Daniel Ingram speaks with host Michael W. Taft about how the Fire Kasina practice can be used as an insight practice. Subjects include: the background of kasina practice in the Thervada tradition, using kasinas to go into jhana, how vipassana practice interacts with jhana practice, meditation on the Three Characteristics, and detailed instructions for doing the Fire Kasina practice Lees meer
Daniel Ingram is an emergency medicine physician and long-time dharma practitioner. He is the author of the seminal text Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha — now out in its second edition- and also the main force behind the radical dharmaoverground website, which specializes in a brand of unusually-frank discussion of meditation.
The book Michael mentions is Theravada Meditation by Winston King
Daniel explains how jhanas and ñanas can be matched across systems in this video.
The Fire Kasina website
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
2:13 – Michael’s experience with the fire kasina at Denman Island, realizing the practice can lead to awakening
5:34 – Setting the general context for using any kind of kasina, and how it fits in with Theravada practice
9:25 – How and why Daniel started kasina practice, objects he used; whether there’s something special about the fire kasina
14:22 – Elemental imbalance, taking other elements (air, water, earth) besides fire; once you can do one element really well, you can get all the other colors and elements
17:00 – Using kasina practice to enter the jhanas or develop jhanic factors; how insight slips into concentration practices
21:21 – Beginning to describe the stages of working with a fire kasina, and what it means for jhanic factors (and the nanas)
23:48 – The appearance of the red dot nimitta and its characteristics
27:45 – The first jhanic factors that come with tracking and steadying the red dot nimitta; changes in the color of the nimitta and the dropping of sustained thought (being second jhanic facto…
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Meditation, Madness, and Psychology, with Tucker Peck
8 maart 2019 · 1 uur 13 min
Tucker Peck, meditation teacher and clinical psychologist, talks with host Michael Taft about how whether awakening (both in the traditional “stream entry” sense or in other definitions) actually “fixes” a person’s psychology or not. Topics include: the validity of the Progress of Insight model, Tucker’s hellacious Dark Night experience and the dukkha ñanas in general, when to switch from shamatha to vipassana practice, whether people who have mental illness should practice meditation, and much more. Lees meer
Tucker Peck, Ph.D., is a meditation teacher and clinical psychologist whose specialties include working with advanced meditators and using meditation to help those suffering from psychological disorders. Tucker is a published author on the scientific study of meditation, focusing on how meditation affects the brain and is a faculty member of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Tucker was also a founding board member of Culadasa’s Dharma Treasure sangha.
Tucker Peck’s website
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
2:54 – Tucker’s teaching activities, how his background in clinical psychology influences teaching meditation
5:26 – The myth that you can lose your psychology/personality/emotions by meditating enough; getting smacked in the face with emotions on retreat
8:29 – How Tucker got into meditation; hitting A&P, and the heart opening
13:43 – How Tucker got into clinical psychology; his long Dark Night experience, and using choiceless awareness to get out of it
23:49 – Progressing towards first path; magga phala; how seeing nonself changed the experience of practice
29:23 – How stable attention helps mitigate Dark Night effects; purification through samatha
33:43 – Tucker’s challenges learning to practice with The Mind Illuminated; description of the TMI stages; when to introduce vipassana practices
41:19 – Whether Tucker’s students are getting stream entry and whether the samatha-first way of working mitigates Dark Night effects in his students; the f…
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Embodying Awakening, with Mukti
11 februari 2019 · 56 min
Nondual spiritual teacher Mukti talks with host Michael Taft about the debate between the Direct and Progressive paths of realization, working with energetics and embodiment, her childhood background in the Self Realization Fellowship of Paramahansa Yogananada, pointing out the sense of space in realization, her own experience of awakening, and more. Lees meer
Mukti is a spiritual teacher, whose name originates in Sanskrit and is most often translated as “liberation.” Mukti has been the Associate Teacher of Open Gate Sangha since 2004 and has been a student of her husband, Adyashanti, since he began teaching in 1996, when they founded Open Gate Sangha together. In addition to her teachings, Mukti offers talks, dialogues, silent retreats, private meetings, and online broadcasts and courses.
https://www.muktisource.org/about-mukti
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
2:24 – Mukti’s teaching activities and retreat offerings
4:00 – How Mukti came to be involved in teaching through Adyashanti; prior experiences with Yogananda and how those impact her current work; the differences of approach between the progressive paths and the direct path teachings
13:49 – Moving from a sense of a separate self into wholeness/oneness, followed by a return to the sense of distinct forms of self, other, and experience; coming back into distinction in a healthy way, seeing through conditioning that’s based in a sense of assumed separation
17:39 – The mistake of interpreting teachings on the initial recognition of self as the ultimate fix; practitioners’ reluctance to attend to things that are difficult; revisiting and working with old patterns through the thinking mind and on an energetic level in the body
25:37 – Whether people are more often having awakening moments and then spending a lot of time trying to integrate them, or building up to awakening through embodiment teachings
30:27 – Mukti describes her awakening experience; working on the embodied aspect of holding that awakening
36:19 …
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Deconstructing the Heart Sutra, with Jayarava Attwood
20 januari 2019 · 59 min
Buddhist scholar Jayarava Attwood speaks with host Michael Taft about the history of the Pali Canon, how ideas about karma & dependent arising contradict each other, the shifting grounds under the apparent solidity of the suttas, monism vs. pluralism, meditation as a subjective or objective practice, and the fact that the Sanskrit Heart Sutra is a forgery, Lees meer
Jayarava is a longtime member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, who writes about the history of ideas in Buddhism. Since 2012 he has been mainly focused on revising the text and history of the Heart Sutra, and also writes about karma and how it changed over time. His blog explores the clash between modernity and tradition with respect to Buddhism. He also works in various art forms, including music, painting, photography, and calligraphy.
Links
Jayarava. (2018) ‘Anupalambhayogena: An Underappreciated Mahāyāna Term’. http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2018/05/anupalambhayogena-underappreciated.html
Huifeng. (2014). ‘Apocryphal Treatment for Conze’s Heart Problems: “Non-attainment”, “Apprehension”, and “Mental Hanging” in the Prajñāpāramitā.’ Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. 6: 72-105. https://www.academia.edu/8275423/Apocryphal_Treatment_for_Conze_s_Heart_Problems_Non-attainment_Apprehension_and_Mental_Hanging_in_the_Praj%C3%B1%C4%81p%C4%81ramit%C4%81_Hrdaya
On the anupalambha meditation practice:
Cūḷasuññata Sutta. Majjhima Nikāya 121. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.121.than.html
Satyadhana. (2014) ‘The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness (Cūḷasuññatasutta, Majjhima-nikāya 121): translation and commentary.’ Western Buddhist Review 6: 78–104. https://thebuddhistcentre.com/system/files/groups/files/satyadhana-formless_spheres.pdf
Anālayo. (2014). Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhism. https://www.windhorsepublications.com/product/compassion-and-emptiness-in-early-buddhist-meditation/
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
2:29 – How Jayarava got involved with the Triratna Buddhist Order…
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Robert Anton Wilson, High Weirdness, and Buddhist Meditation, with Erik Davis
14 december 2018 · 1 uur 5 min
Michael Taft speaks with Erik Davis about author Robert Anton Wilson, anarchism in the 1970s, Terrence McKenna, P.K. Dick, psychedelics, cultures of awakening now and then, Zen practice, and more. Lees meer
Erik Davis is an author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and popular speaker based in San Francisco. He is probably best known for his book TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, a cult classic of visionary media studies that investigates how our fascination with technology intersects with the religious imagination. And his podcast, Expanding Mind has long been a favorite of mine.
Techgnosis.com
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction
2:58 – Erik’s book, High Weirdness, Drugs, Visions, and Esoterica in the Seventies
6:11 – The impact of Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger; guerrilla ontology; libertarianism, anarchy, and radical individualism
13:34 – Wilson’s anarchism’s basis in his cosmic view against institutionalized and concentrated power
15:43 – Ontological anarchism – ‘multiple perspectives all the way down’ ; relationship of metasystemic thinking and emptiness/nonduality; the challenge of wrestling with different perspectives that don’t quite fit together and the insight that comes from it
23:10 – How trying to fit everything into one map doesn’t work, and the place of psychedelics in recognizing that; realizing that language constructs reality, and learning to deconstruct and go beyond language and maps
27:23 – Wilson’s Quantum Psychology, its exercises in switching models and taking new perspectives; what makes a spiritual teacher different from somebody who is handing you a lot of very useful techniques and practices
33:00 – Why tech/STEM people might be interested in meditation and psychedelics; how younger generations connect more horizontally rather than vertically (between generations or between different statuses in society); psychedelics as learning experiences rather than tool-using experiences
37:26 – Capitalism’s influence on vie…
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What Can AI Tell Us about the Human Mind? with Joscha Bach
18 november 2018 · 1 uur 3 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with Joscha Bach about artificial intelligence; the sense of self; building a civilizational intellect; what it is like to be a mind?; the relationships between motivation, emotion, and behavior; the “cargo cult” model of civilization; what is learning?; how artificial minds may be different from human minds, the enlightenment industry, the Tower of Babel myth; and much more. Lees meer
Dr. Joscha Bach is an Artificial Intelligence researcher at MIT and Harvard who works and writes about cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, and multi-agent systems. Bach’s mission to build a model of the mind is the bedrock research in the creation of Strong Artificial Intelligence, i.e. cognition on par with that of a human being.He is especially interested in the philosophy of Artificial Intelligence and in the augmentation of the human mind.
You can help to create future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.
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Doubt, Faith, and Fun in Meditation Practice, with Daniel Ingram
23 oktober 2018 · 1 uur 15 min
Daniel Ingram and Michael Taft talk about the Fire Kasina practice, how making mental objects the focus can lead to deep awakening, balancing wisdom and faith, processing trauma with meditation practice, and how beauty can be a great support and inspiration on the path. Daniel shares about his experiences and spiritual development with Fire Kasina work, co-teaching with Culadasa, the increasing numbers of people attaining stream entry, and the over-diagnosis of attainment. Also discussed is Michael’s experience with faith and guru based practice, the effects of of impermanence insight on concentration, “hindrances for smart people,” rapture, and more. Lees meer
Daniel Ingram is an emergency medicine physician and long-time dharma practitioner. He is the author of the seminal text Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha — now out in its second edition — and also the main force behind the radical dharmaoverground website, which specializes in a brand of unusually-frank discussion of meditation.
Links
Dharma Treasure
The Mind Illuminated (TMI)
Shinzen Young
Shannon Stein/The Hermitage
DY Fire Kasina Interview
Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness
The Body Keeps the Score
DY Stream Entry Interview with Culadasa
Show Notes
2:26 – Daniel’s recent visit to Dharma Treasure
4:34 – Daniel’s teaching model
9:11 – Fire Kasina update
12:16 – The “Play and Fun” of Fire Kasina work
17:23 – Waking up the mind
25:14 – How Daniel processed trauma from working in emergency medicine
27:12 – Hindrances for smart people
29:22 – How skillful faith can clear the way through the analytical mind
32:45 – Michael’s shift from sarcasm and skepticism to beauty and love
36:57 – The inspiration and dignity of beauty in spiritual practice
40:47 – Daniel’s journey to embracing faith
44:57 – Pragmatic faith
47:05 – Working with analytical thinking
51:02 – The meta-hindrance of self-loathing
54:05 – Addressing attachment to intellect and drivenness in spiritual practice
58:18 – Daniel’s ti…
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Feminism, Sexual Misconduct, and the Guru in Buddhism, with Chandra Easton
11 oktober 2018 · 1 uur 23 min
Chandra Easton and Michael Taft talk about gender and sexual misconduct in Buddhism, why compassion must be a part of spiritual practice, and the place of the guru in modern culture. Chandra shares her personal story of dealing with sexual misconduct at the hands of her teacher, tantric practices as a technology for awakening, internalized patriarchy, and how love and kindness is the whole point of spiritual practice. Also included are guidelines for choosing a teacher, reimagining Tantric practices in non-binary ways, and much more. Lees meer
Chandra Easton studied Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and Tibetan language at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India, and translated Tibetan Buddhist texts on meditation with B. Alan Wallace. Chandra has taught meditation and yoga since 2001. She has studied with many Tibetan and Western Buddhist teachers such as H.H. Dalai Lama, H.H. Karmapa, Lama Tsultrim Allione, B. Alan Wallace,Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, and Jennifer Welwood. She is currently the Assistant Spiritual Director & Head Teacher at the Tara Mandala Retreat Center. To learn more visit www.shunyatayoga.com and www.taramandala.org.
Links
The teachings of Chöd
Namkhai Norbu
Lama Tsultrim Allione
The Alchemical Body
The Anam Cara
Show Notes
2:57 - Chandra’s move to Colorado
4:14 - The Tara Mandala retreat center
6:35 - The Chöd practices
11:33 - Namkhai Norbu and “self-secret”
14:33 - The technology of Tantra
20:38 - The motivation of compassion
25:54 - Guru sexual misconduct and The Feminine in Buddhism
34:04 - The Buddha’s views on women
37:38 - The Tantra movement
40:01 - Women in Buddhism and what needs to change
44:41 - Women-run sanghas
47:39 - Gender in Tantric practices
52:16 - Sexual abuse and spiritual leaders
59:05 - How to choose a teacher
1:05:04 - Qualities to look for in a teacher
1:10:11 - Is the guru still needed?
1:13:05 - The Soul Friend
1:15:40 - The story of the Grandma and the Dog’s Tooth
1:19:54 - The …
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Deconstructing Michael, with Erik Newton
19 september 2018 · 1 uur 2 min
Turning the tables on the usual show format, host Michael Taft gets interviewed by Erik Newton. They talk about the meaning of awakening, the paradox of suffering, the end of seeking, the value of personal experience vs. scriptural understanding, Erik’s awakening experience, new technologies of awakening, the genesis of the Deconstructing Yourself podcast, and more. Lees meer
Erik Newton is a lawyer and was the head of a successful family law firm, which gave him the opportunity to take part in 1000s of divorces. As the result of his experience, two things happened: one was that he created the wildly popular podcast entitled “Together” — the podcast that explores the truth of human relationships — in which Erik uses his hard-won knowledge of the many failure modes of relationships to help couples understand how come together. The second was that he had a major awakening experience.
Links
Kenneth Folk on DY
Am I Mindful Right Now
The Cosmic Joke
Masters of Oblivion
The Forest Refuge
Michael’s Book on Non-Duality
Daniel Ingram on DY
Meditation Magick Fire Kasina
Popping the Bubble of Projection
Michael’s Article on Awakening
The Mindful Geek
Show Notes
3:50 – How The DY Podcast Began
6:58 – The Conversation of Awakening as a Creative Journey
9:30 – The Joy of Getting Inside Somebody Else’s Mind
10:40 – What is “The Path”?
12:09 – Where Did the Name “Deconstructing Yourself” Come From?
14:48 – Deconstructing Leads to Reconstructing
16:13 – Deconstruction and Reconstruction in Buddhism
16:57 – Erik’s Awakenings and Emptiness Experiences
18:58 – “Heaven is a Place Where Nothing Ever Happens”
20:24 – The “What Next” Factor Leads Us Back to The World
21:30 – The Pros and Cons of Michael’s Style of Learning and Teaching
24:04 – The Value of Academia and Scripture
25:24 – Everything is Partially True and False
26:43 – Michael’s Time as a Seeker
28:00 – What is a Seeker?
28:36 – The Slow Death of the Seeker
31:02 – Awakening Can Save the World
32:36 – N…
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Emptiness, Liberation, and Beauty, with Rob Burbea
27 augustus 2018 · 1 uur 1 min
In this episode host Michael Taft speaks with Rob Burbea about Rob’s book, Seeing That Frees, the power of perception (ways of seeing), his creative methods of working with meditation practice, meditating with a more analytical vs more phenomenological focus, how analytical meditation works, Rob’s “soulmaking dharma,” the emptiness of conceptual frameworks, facing the end of life, and the meaning of emptiness. Lees meer
Rob Burbea is a meditation teacher, musician, author, who teaches at Gaia House in Devon, England. Rob is the author of the groundbreaking meditation practice book entitled, Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising. Rob and Michael discuss it at length in this episode.
Seeing that Frees on Amazon
Show Notes
0:24 – Introduction
1:49 – Seeing That Frees, the idea of ways of looking that are liberating
4:34 – Example of the classical Buddhist anattā way of looking, unhooking identification, and moving towards less fabrication of perception
14:14 – Rob’s teachers and how his creative meditative exploration unfolded
22:57 – Following the lead of beauty and the sense of liberation into new territory
27:01 – What is emptiness?
35:10 – An example of analytical meditation on time and its effect on the fading of perception
41:38 – Soulmaking, skillful fabrication, and broadening the scope of the purpose of meditation beyond just the release of obvious suffering
44:55 – Working with soulmaking and images that are intrapsychic or in the world of material objects, contextualizing these practices, and parallels with meta-rationality
48:54 – Gauging the progress of insight into emptiness through palpable senses of relief and release and senses of perception opening up in wondrous and beautiful ways
53:12 – On a personal journey of soulmaking through health crises and the possibility of dying
1:01:12 – Outro
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Walking, Nature, and Engaged Buddhism, with Christopher Titmuss
14 augustus 2018 · 54 min
In this episode, host Michael W. Taft speaks with senior dharma teacher Christopher Titmuss about yatra—meditative pilgrimage without a destination—the power of nature, the importance of deconstructing the self, the psychedelic 60s, Vietnam, engaged Buddhism, the role of spiritual practice in the current world crisis, and the central role of liberation in meditation. Lees meer
Christopher Titmuss is an insight meditation teacher, author, and former Theravada Buddhist monk. He is the co-founder of Gaia House, a large Buddhist retreat center in Devon, England, where he has been teaching since the early 1980s. A renowned proponent of engaged Buddhism, Christopher is the author of numerous books, and twice ran for election as a top Green Party candidate in England.
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Lucid Dreaming, Meditation, and Consciousness, with Evan Thompson
30 juni 2018 · 1 uur 14 min
In this episode, philosopher, author, and meditator, Evan Thompson speaks with host Michael Taft. Topics include: the meaning of awakening; lucid dreaming and noticing the construction of the waking state; the 3-fold structure of Awareness, Contents of Awareness, and then Identification with Contents; The cosmopolitanism of Buddhism, and the myth of Buddhist exceptionalism; consciousness hacking and psychedelics; and much more. Lees meer
Evan Thompson, PhD, works on the nature of the mind, the self, and human experience. His work combines cognitive science, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially in Asian traditions. His most recent book, Waking, Dreaming, Being, examines the self and consciousness in neuroscience, meditation, and philosophy.
Show Notes
1:50 - Evan’s personal practice and retreat in Nelson, British Columbia.
4:55 - Central metaphor of awakening from sleep-wake cycle. Fractal nature of awakening.
8:50 - Phenomenal sense of insight into waking up, false awakening.
11:40 - Is waking up a recurring process as in the ordinary sleep-wake cycle?
15:10 - Awakening as metaphorical concept and not a state. Ethics, values tied to awakening.
17:15 - Embodied nature of consciousness and awakening.
19:55 - Extended consciousness involving brain, body and environment vs panpsychism.
23:35 - Meditation is not first person science, more similar to dance and martial arts.
28:25 - Basic structure of Waking, Dreaming, Being based on Upanishads.
29:05 - Unpacking the Upanishadic structure in the context of meditation.
33:45 - Lucid dreaming for cultivating awareness rather than dream control.
37:45 - Connection between framing of dream and waking states.
38:50 - Consciousness versus contents of consciousness. Sense of self while awake, dreaming.
43:25 - Neuroscience of self and memory while dreaming.
45:30 - Neuroscience of self and memory while awake.
46:20 - Brain as active while asleep as awake, but in different local and…
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Are More People Achieving Stream Entry These Days? with Culadasa
11 juni 2018 · 1 uur 22 min
In this episode host Michael Taft speaks with meditation teacher, neuroscientist, and author John Yates, also known as Culadasa. Topics covered include: Are more people achieving stream entry these days?, a clear definition of stream entry, the Buddha’s concept of yathābhūtañāṇadassanaṃ or “seeing things as they really are,” reaching a tipping point of stream enterers to avert the coming world disasters, tips for meditation in action, using consciousness hacking and/or drugs to accelerate insight, paṭiccasamuppāda – the interpenetrating nature of phenomena, quantum entanglement and individual minds, the nondual viewpoint, an explanation of reincarnation and past life experiences, and much more. Lees meer
Culadasa has been practicing Buddhist meditation for over four decades, mainly in Tibetan lineages. He is the director of Dharma Treasure Buddhist Sangha in Tucson, Arizona where he teaches meditation and Buddhism from a modern, progressive scientific perspective. His groundbreaking book, The Mind Illuminated, is a modern road map to Buddhist meditation for a Western audience which combines age-old wisdom teachings of the Buddha with the latest research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Learn more at culadasa.com.
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Emotions, Stress, and Heartbreak, with Eve Ekman
29 mei 2018 · 1 uur 29 min
In this episode emotions researcher and meditation teacher Eve Ekman speaks with Michael W. Taft about embodied emotions, the difference between suppression and healthy expression, impermanence of sensation and moment by moment contact with emotion, emotion-laden cognitions, HH the Dalai Lama, punk rock and Gilman St., surfing, being nice to cats, the Vagus nerve and kundalini, the epidemic of stress and burnout, modern dystopia, struggling with cynicism, the embedded ethnography of heartbreak, and much, much more. Lees meer
Eve Ekman PhD, MSW designs, delivers and evaluates trainings on the development of emotional awareness and the cultivation of deep seated contentment. Eve draws from educations and life experience in clinical social work, integrative medicine and contemplative practice. Eve is a second generation emotion researcher and has had meaningful collaborations with her father, renowned emotion researcher Dr. Paul Ekman. Their most recent project, The Atlas of Emotions, is an online visual tool to teach emotional awareness, a project commissioned and supported by the Dalai Lama. Eve is a founding teacher for Cultivating Emotional Balance, an evidenced based training with a rich contemplative science lineage of Western and Eastern approaches to emotional and genuine happiness.
eveekman.com
atlasofemotions.org
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Why Good Teachers Go Bad, with Shinzen Young
18 mei 2018 · 1 uur 29 min
In this special one-year anniversary episode, Shinzen Young talks with host Michael W. Taft about becoming a meditation teacher, the unrealistic paradigm about what meditation delivers, Shinzen’s codependency disaster, Bill Hamilton, the great unsung hero of vipassana in the Western world, homology theory, how science can influence meditation in the West, sociopathic teachers, and what we can do to make sure that good teachers don’t go bad. Who is a teacher? What’s the family test? These questions and more. Lees meer
Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant.His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation, known as Unified Mindfulness, has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the University of Vermont in the burgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience. You can learn more about Shinzen on his website shinzen.org.
Show Notes
1:40 – Shinzen Intro
3:00 – Shinzen talks about Homology Theory
7:50 – Meditation and science complement each other like algebra and geometry
9:30 – Coupling of science and contemplative practice
12:50 – What science can teach contemplative practice
13:49 – In some ways scientists have less ego than meditation masters
15:50 – All meditators are teachers
20:55 – Ability of a “professional meditation teacher” to lead students through all goals
24:24 – Why meditation teachers should have respectful but open and unhurried dialog to improve the field
36:44 – Improving science by reducing ego in other ways via Meditation
38:25 – The contradiction of advanced meditators exhibiting unacceptable behavior
42:44 – The high profile flagrant behavior of a few tends to overshadow the overall positive impact of practice
46:30 – What’s missing in the case of advanced meditators who go morally off track
59:30 – Unrealistic paradigms of what liberation and meditation delivers and how it’s possible to do wrong from a place of emptiness
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Deconstructing Dependent Arising, with Leigh Brasington
29 april 2018 · 1 uur
Leigh Brasington speaks with host Michael W. Taft about Dependent Arising. Dependent Arising, also called Dependent Origination, is a Buddhist theory of reality that is famously complex, arcane, important, and fascinating. In this episode they discuss early Buddhist metaphysics, Pratītyasamutpāda—the “curious old rune”, the four noble truths version of Dependent Arising, the Vedic Hymn of Creation, Leigh’s model of SODAPI (Streams of Dependently Arising Processes Interacting), and how to use the teaching of Dependent Arising in practice and in life. Lees meer
Leigh Brasington has been practicing meditation for decades and is the senior American student of the late Venerable Ayya Khema. Leigh began assisting her in 1994, and began teaching retreats on his own in 1997. He teaches in Europe and North America and is the author of the book Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas. Find more about Leigh’s teaching and schedule at leighb.com.
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Seeing Your Blind Spots, with Kelly Boys
15 april 2018 · 44 min
Kelly Boys talks with Michael Taft about integral restoration, nondual awakening, the work of Kahneman, spiritual bypassing, gendered aspects of awakening and spiritual teaching, when knowing less is better, engaged Buddhism, Christianity and the experience of being held, digging into illusory egoic material, and how to see your own blind spots. Lees meer
Kelly Boys is a consultant with the United Nations Foundation where she helped to create and works to deliver a mindfulness and well-being program for UN humanitarian aid workers on the front lines in the Middle East and beyond. She is also a freelance producer at Sounds True Publishing and the author of the forthcoming book entitled The Blind Spot Effect: How to Stop Missing What's Right in Front of You. Kelly is a mindfulness teacher and founding advisor for the meditation app Simple Habit. She teaches retreats and workshops at spots like the Esalen Institute.
You can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.
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Popping the Bubble of Projection, with Daniel Ingram
2 april 2018 · 58 min
Daniel Ingram talks with Michael W. Taft about teacher-student models, graduate school models of practice, creating meditation peer groups, working with “co-adventurers” on the spiritual path, overcoming projection as a teacher, and more. Lees meer
Daniel Ingram is an emergency medicine physician and long-time dharma practitioner. He famously exploded the Buddhist world when he declared himself to be an arhat and published the seminal text Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book in 2008. He is also the main force behind the radical Dharma Overground website, that specializes in a brand of unusually-frank discussion of meditation practice.
You can learn more about Daniel at his website, www.integrateddaniel.info.
You can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.
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