Teaching Meditation

In this episode of Teaching Meditation, Upali interviews longtime student-turned-teacher Robin Moisson to explore his journey from an early crisis of meaning in engineering school to intensive retreats in Southeast Asian monasteries, and ultimately back to teaching in the West. They discuss navigating cultural barriers in traditional settings, discovering pragmatic Dharma, and Robin’s path from full-time to part-time teaching as he...

Professor Steven Haberlin is a professor at the University of Central Florida.  In this episode, you'll hear him talk about teaching small amounts of meditation to very large amounts of people.  Steven tells us about the benefits of this style of teaching, as well as what risks there are.  The episode then focuses on research he's been doing on technological adjuncts to meditation and the use of meditation apps.  The rese...

Upali interviews Anusheh, who began practicing The Mind Illuminated in order to improve her anxiety.  While it did help, it was a more convoluted path than she had been expecting.  One topic she and Upali talk about is the idea that striving is actually helpful, in that it causes you to burn out enough that you stop doing it, which is the route to good practice.  Anusheh also talks about the transition from lusting after enlightenm...

Upali interviews Yuri, a Ukranian-British meditator.  Yuri talks about how difficult his first retreat was, and how permanently his life changed following this.  He then goes into how much better he became as a father as a result of his meditation practice.  Later, Upali asks Yuri about what it was like when his country was attacked while his family was still there, and what impact his practice had on his ability to cope with this.

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Upali interviews Tucker in this episode.  In a wide-ranging conversation, they touch on:

• Many of us look for self esteem to pretty much everyone we meet, or to no one at all, rather than in a sane place.
• Doing what you'd like to do, and being in community, are opposite stances.  How do we balance these?
• Tucker talks about Sanity & Sainthood, both the name of his book and what he sees as the two goals of dharma practice an...

Dharma teacher North Burn has been on a meditation retreat for most of the last twenty years.  He teaches a 3-month retreat each spring in California.  Tucker talks with North about choosing a monastic life rather than dating, marriage, and a career.  North opens up about his relationship with his own teacher, including a period where their relationship was temporarily severed, and what this was like for him.

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Marianne Bentzen is a psychotherapist and trainer in neuroaffective development psychology.  She is the author of a number of books including Neuroaffective Meditation: A Practical Guide to Lifelong Brain Development, Emotional Growth, and Healing Trauma.  Marianne talks about her path to becoming a meditation teacher as a psychotherapist and how to connect with heartfulness and playfulness in teaching.  She also defines trauma, ex...

Dr. Daniel Ingram is a retired emergency medicine doctor who is the author of two versions of the book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha.   His current projects are the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium and a charity called the Emergence Benefactors.  Daniel discusses the way in which he became a dharma teacher, where he actually began by working with the most advanced practitioners, and he discusses a number of a...

Shaila Catherine rejoins us on the program.  We discuss several ancient practices, including the asubha practice (sometimes called "foulness of the body") and what the Buddha calls "crushing mind with mind," and how these practices do and don't work for modern students.  Shaila also describes her own process for finding a teacher once one is already a teacher.  She has just written a new book called Beyond ...

Lopön Chandra Easton is a Westerner who grew up in the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition.  She did nine years of preparatory (ngondro) practices and spent 5 - 10 years training to be a teacher.  She is a lineage holder under Lama Tsultrim  Allione, author of the book Feeding Your Demons.  She is currently on the Tara Mandala Board of Directors and the Tara Mandala Bay Area coordinating committee, through which she teaches and organizes ...

Australian teacher Kynan Tan, PhD only recently began teaching meditation and was quickly able to leave his regular job and become a fulltime teacher.  In this interview, you'll hear how he prepared himself to teach, how he gets continuing education and supervision as a new teacher, and what steps he thinks allowed him to attract so many students in a short time.  You can learn more about Kynan and contact him at https://kynan...

Vidyamala Burch is the founder of Breathworks, has a teacher training program with over 600 alumni, has been teaching mindfulness for pain for many decades, and has been voted one of the most influential disabled people in the United Kingdom.  Hear Vidyamala's story of growing up in New Zealand, moving full-time into a retreat center, and starting and steering Breathworks.  She'll discuss how to keep the "heart"...

Mukti is a teacher in a nondual lineage.  She received her authorization to teach from Adyashanti, her husband.  You can learn more about Mukti over here.

Mukti’s teachings invite attunement to the act of being and to the heart of awareness. Such attunement can awaken Spirit to reveal Itself as your essential self and as the essence of all of life. This revelation is known as Self-realization, and is the birth of conscious...