(This is a transcript of a podcast interview. If you notice any mistakes, please let me know.) Michael: Welcome to Deconstructing Yourself, the podcast for modern mutants interested in mindfulness, meditation, awakening, hardcore dharma, consciousness hacking, emptiness, and more. My name is Michael Taft, your host on the podcast. And in this episode, we’re gonna turn the usual host and …
What Is Emptiness? An Interview with Rob Burbea
by Michael W. Taft (The following is a (fairly) verbatim transcript of a podcast interview I conducted with Rob Burbea. Please let me know if there are any errors in the text.) Rob Burbea is a meditation teacher, musician, and author who teaches at Gaia House in Devon, England. Rob is the author of the groundbreaking meditation practice book entitled …
Roshi Joan Halifax on Standing at the Edge
(A transcript of Deconstructing Yourself podcast episode DY 016. Please let me know if there are any errors in the text.) Michael Taft: Welcome to deconstructing yourself, the podcast for modern mutants interested in mindfulness, meditation, awakening, compassion and much more. My name is Michael W. Taft, your host on the podcast and in this episode I’m very happy to …
Effort vs. Effortlessness in Meditation Practice
by Michael W. Taft started out trying way too hard in meditation practice, and continued to practice like that for a very long time. Waking up was serious business, the most important thing in life, and I threw myself into practice with almost comedic fervor and dedication. The Indian scriptures I was reading at the time tended to reinforce that …
Guided Sleep Meditation – Relaxation
Enjoy this sleep meditation, guided by Michael W. Taft Press play to listen now. Download audio using Right Click here. Play this audio when you want to go to sleep. It’s a 34 minute long free guided meditation for deep sleep that will allow you to drift off and enjoy your rest. It is peaceful and soft, so if you …
Do Nothing Meditation
by Michael W. Taft The sages of many spiritual traditions have said that the highest state of spiritual awakening is present in our minds at all times. Total enlightenment has always been there, is there now, and always will be there. In Buddhism this is referred to as the Buddha nature, in Hinduism it is called the Self. It’s funny …
What Is the Self? An Interview with Thomas Metzinger
by Michael W. Taft Thomas Metzinger is a German philosopher. As of 2011 he holds the position of director of the theoretical philosophy group at the department of philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies and on the advisory board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation. From 2008 …
Nondual Meditation: One Practice of Total Awareness
There are many pathways into nondual awareness. Most forms of meditation, if you push them to their farthest limit, will take you into a nondual experience. Which one(s) will work for you is a matter of practice and experience. In this post, I’ll lead you through one practice that I’ve found works well for people who’ve done a fair amount …
Meditation: The Cosmic Joke
by Michael W. Taft God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. The lines of the famous Serenity Prayer (written by Reinhold Niebuhr) suggest that there are two types of situations in life: those we can change and those we cannot. If we …
Just Keep Meditating: Cultivating Acceptance in Meditation Practice
by Michael W. Taft Meditation works best if you do it every day. Establishing and maintaining that kind of steady, daily practice presents a challenge, even for people with a strong motivation to sit. For example, in the past, I’ve traveled to India for meditation intensives. These trips were expensive—both in time and money—and required engineering my entire life around …
Dimensions of Focus and Concentration
Want to learn how to focus and concentrate? Start here What do you think of when you think of focusing? For most people it means narrowing the attention to a single point. But actually there are several dimensions of focus or concentration that are relevant. We can think of concentration as having at least three important dimensions: Width (or “scope”) …
Warning: More than You Ever Wanted to Know about the Meaning of Concentration and Focus
by Michael W. Taft The Oxford English Dictionary defines the meaning of concentration as: The keeping of the mental faculties fixed on one object or set of objects. Keeping your mind on one subject at a time, in other words. One way to paraphrase this definition is to describe concentration as bringing all your efforts (whether mental, physical, emotional, etc.) …
The Sensuality of Everyday Experience
How to Use Sensory Clarity to Deepen Your Mindfulness Meditation Practice—and Enliven Your Life by Michael W. Taft Once some friends of mine were trying to get pregnant, and were having a hard time. They went to all the usual doctors, but—even though everything was deemed to be in working order—no baby. Eventually, the doctors said there was only one …