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. Judson Brewer is an MD-PhD an...
Jun 07, 2020•45 min•Ep. 51
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. Daniel P. Brown, Ph.D. has been Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard for 38 years. He t...
May 20, 2020•37 min•Ep. 50
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. Ken McLeod began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1970 under the eminent Ti...
Apr 22, 2020•59 min•Ep. 49
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. Stephan Bodian is a psychotherapist and a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen and Advaita Vedanta. ...
Mar 21, 2020•48 min•Ep. 48
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. 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...
Feb 16, 2020•52 min•Ep. 47
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. 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 o...
Feb 07, 2020•59 min•Ep. 46
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. 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...
Jan 26, 2020•51 min•Ep. 45
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. Michael Charles Owens is a Buddhist teacher, translator, and author. Michael uses a sutra-based curriculum that draws from a va...
Dec 28, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 44
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. Show Notes 0:25 – Introduction 2:11 – Michael’s reasons for opposing...
Nov 22, 2019•35 min•Ep. 43
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. Andrew Holecek has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditati...
Oct 23, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 42
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. 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-...
Sep 24, 2019•44 min•Ep. 41
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. 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 e...
Aug 13, 2019•57 min•Ep. 40
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. 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 ...
Jul 31, 2019•36 min•Ep. 39
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. Douglas Tataryn received his PH.D. in 1991 and worked as a professor for 10 years in epidemiology and psychosoci...
Jul 14, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 38
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. 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, mod...
Jul 03, 2019•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 37
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. 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 perspe...
Jun 02, 2019•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 36
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. 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...
Apr 21, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 35
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 Daniel Ingram is an emergency medicine physician and long-time dharma practitioner. H...
Mar 27, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 34
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 ...
Mar 08, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 33
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. Mukti is a spiritual teacher, whose name originates in Sanskrit and is most often translated as “liberation.” Mukti has been the Associate Teacher ...
Feb 11, 2019•56 min•Ep. 32
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, Jayarava is a longtime member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, who writes about the history of ideas in Buddhism. Since 2012 he has been ...
Jan 20, 2019•59 min•Ep. 31
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. 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 techno...
Dec 14, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 30
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. Dr. Joscha Bach is an Artificial Intelligence researcher at MIT and Harvard who works and writes...
Nov 18, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 29
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 Mich...
Oct 23, 2018•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 28
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 pract...
Oct 11, 2018•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 27
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. 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 d...
Sep 18, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 26
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. Rob Burbea is a meditation teacher, musician, author, who teaches at Gaia House in De...
Aug 27, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 25
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. Christopher Titmuss is an insight meditation teacher, author, and former Theravada Buddhist monk. He is the co-founder of Gaia Hou...
Aug 14, 2018•54 min•Ep. 24
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. Evan Thompson, PhD, works on the nature of the mind, the self, and h...
Jun 30, 2018•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 23
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 insig...
Jun 11, 2018•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 22
