Stephen Zerfas: Making the Jhanas Accessible

Stephen Zerfas, founder of the Jhana startup Jhourney (get it?), covers a wide range of topics in today's interview.  He and Tucker talk about the relationship of the jhanas to the rest of the path, how Stephen has succeeded in getting so much publicity, and how the larger Dharma community has responded to a tech startup teaching meditation retreats.Support the show

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.Support the show

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 and psychotherapy.  This is distinguished from the point of practice being to get and keep an awesome feeling.Support the show

Kacee is the first in a series Upali will do with guests who are longtime students, rather than teachers, of meditation.  Kacee talks about a number of changes over her years as a practitioner, including her view of what to do when practice makes you feel worse, her view on integrating parts work into her meditation practice, and she deals with the inner critic.Support the show

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.For more information about North, head to https://boundlessness.org/ or contact [email protected] the show

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, explains its parallels with deep meditative states, and points toward how support might begin for practitioners with trauma.  Support the show

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 areas in which he has "stepped on minefields" and created controversy.  Support the show

Guest Julianna Raye joins Tucker to describe the Unified Mindfulness teacher training system.  This is the second in our series on some of the larger teacher training programs; Vidyamala Burch's episode was the first.Support the show

Vince Horn, meditation teacher and co-founder of Buddhist Geeks, talks with Upali about his path of transmission and training in Dharma Teaching.  He also explores transparency in Dana, Dharma and Sangha in the world of Web 3.0, and the power of social meditative techniques aka Multiplayer Meditation.  Support the show

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 Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind, so our conversation veers as well into helping students who are struggling with distracted minds.Support the show