Jonathan Foust: Recent Episodes

Jonathan Foust

Senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and co-founder of the Meditation Teacher Training Institute, Jonathan Foust share weekly talks, guided meditations and inquiries that explore how to cultivate an awakened heart and mind.

How has your meditation practice shifted and changed since you first took it up?

Please join this conversation with Stephen Josephs, who shares how his mediation has evolved over 60 years of daily practice.

As one of the leaders in the Kundalini Yoga tradition at it's peak in the west, Stephen was a devoted practitioner in what he calls the 'fire practices,' willful and powerful practices that can dramatically change one's state.

But after many years of dedicated effort, the fire started to go out. His practice evolved into what he calls the 'water practices' - techniques and attentional strategies that are more about dissolving the sense of a separate self.

In this conversation he shares some of the essential elements of the water practices and we explore that gnarly question: What it is that is actually dissolving?

You'll come away with some key insights from a depth practitioner and a taste of how the dissolving practices might be of benefit to you.

With over 60 years of daily meditation practice, Stephen Josephs, Ed.D., brings a wealth of wisdom to his work. His expertise spans a diverse array of mind-body systems—including yoga, tai chi, and qigong—as well as specialized training in NLP, psychodrama, and body-centered psychotherapy. This breadth of experience fosters an open-hearted approach that helps students quickly realize the benefits of mindfulness. For the past 40 years, Stephen has focused on leadership development, integrating meditation as a core pillar for executive growth. He is also the co-author of Leadership Agility, a definitive study on how leaders mature and expand their capacity to lead.

For more information and to reach out to Stephen: https://www.stephenjosephs.com/

Teachers and Resources:

Connierae Andreas and Core Transformation: https://conniraeandreas.com/

Dr. Les Fehmi and Open Focus: https://openfocus.com/home/

Bruce Frantzis https://www.energyarts.com/about/

This talk explores the culminating factor of the Eightfold Path—Right Concentration—and the profound power of a steady, unified mind. In a world of constant distraction and fragmented attention, we investigate how deep focus becomes a gateway to inner stillness, clarity, and freedom. Drawing from classical Buddhist teachings and lived experience, this talk reveals how training attention is not just about meditation, but about reclaiming the depth, presence, and aliveness of your entire life.

You'll learn how to strengthen and stabilize attention through practical, time-tested methods, how to work skillfully with common obstacles like restlessness and doubt, and how concentration naturally matures from effort into ease. You'll also discover how a steady mind supports insight, emotional resilience, and a deep sense of well-being—opening the door to a more fully lived and awakened life.

This talk explores the movement from doing to being—from the disciplined application of effort to the natural ease of presence. After training attention, stabilizing the mind, and refining investigation, there comes a threshold where practice no longer adds anything, but begins to let go of itself. Through stories, humor, and classical teachings, we'll examine how effort serves us and how clinging to it can quietly become another form of tension. We'll explore how investigation matures into direct seeing, how awareness can rest without collapsing into dullness, and how the deepest freedom emerges not from control, but from trusting the field of awareness itself.

You'll learn how to recognize when effort is skillful and when it's simply habitual, how to allow investigation to complete itself without turning it into a project, and how to rest in open awareness with clarity and balance. You'll explore the shift from trying to manage experience to allowing it to unfold, sensing how awareness is already present and functioning without your help. We'll also point toward a deeper trust—how to relax into awareness without drifting, and how to live from this understanding in a responsive, engaged way. By the end, you'll have a felt sense of when to apply effort, when to release it, and how to let practice reveal the freedom that has been here all along.

This talk explores what remains when we stop circling around the edges of practice and face the deepest truths directly. With humor, candor, and a willingness to take the red pill, we'll look at the three characteristics the Buddha pointed to—impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self—and how they shape every human life whether we like it or not. We'll explore how the heart breaks open in the face of change, how our wounds often become the source of our gifts, and how the self we work so hard to protect may be far less solid than we imagine. This is a talk about reality, about freedom, and about what becomes possible when we stop negotiating with what is true.

You'll learn how contemplating impermanence can deepen gratitude rather than despair, how dukkha reveals the hidden strategies we use to secure belonging and safety, and how the teaching of not-self can loosen fear at its root. We'll explore the "winning formulas" that shape identity, the ways suffering can become a doorway to wisdom and compassion, and how meditation invites us beyond self-improvement into liberation. By the end, you'll have a clearer way to investigate what is most real, meet the mystery of life more honestly, and sense the freedom that appears when clinging begins to fall away.

The best meditation hall has no walls.

This talk explores how nature cultivates focus, non-judgment, and belonging, and how mindfulness can help us stay engaged with the world's pain without burning out.

Bio: With 25 years of Vipassana practice and a day job in international marine conservation, Heidi Schuttenberg, PhD brings both deep personal inquiry and real-world urgency to her teaching. She mentors in Jonathan Foust's Year of Living Mindfully and is dedicated to making applied mindfulness available to those on the front lines environmental conservation and social change. Learn more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-schuttenberg-1114a658/.

This talk explores Wise Awareness as the art of seeing life clearly enough to actually live it. So much of human regret comes not from dramatic mistakes, but from drifting through our days half-awake—disconnected from our bodies, driven by unseen reactions, caught in mental weather, and estranged from what matters most. Drawing on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, we'll explore awareness of body, feeling tone, mind, and the deeper patterns of dharma as direct doorways to freedom. Wise awareness is not passive observation; it is precise, embodied, liberating seeing that brings us back to the vividness of this moment and helps us live with greater authenticity, intimacy, and presence.

You'll learn how to ground attention in the body, recognize feeling tone before it hardens into grasping or aversion, identify mind states without becoming trapped inside them, and see the lawful patterns of impermanence, suffering, and not-self unfolding in real time. We'll explore how mindfulness interrupts automatic living and reveals a more deliberate, wholehearted way of being. By the end, you'll have practical ways to deepen awareness in everyday life so that you are not merely getting through your days, but inhabiting them fully—with clarity, freedom, and fewer regrets.

The third talk in a weeklong meditation retreat, with Heidi Schuttenberg.

Our unwelcome visitors are guides to our freedom. This talk explores the Buddha's five hindrances and offers practical tools for meeting them with compassion, curiosity, and even gratitude.

With 25 years of Vipassana practice and a day job in international marine conservation, Heidi Schuttenberg, PhD brings both deep personal inquiry and real-world urgency to her teaching. She mentors in Jonathan Foust's Year of Living Mindfully and is dedicated to making applied mindfulness available to those on the front lines environmental conservation and social change.

Learn more at / heidi-schuttenberg-1114a658 .

Dana: Venmo @Heidi-Schuttenberg

The second talk in a weeklong retreat. We often assume insight arises from calm, clarity, or deep concentration. But in truth, it is often born in the very moments we want to escape. This talk invites a radical reframe: what if restlessness, doubt, and emotional turbulence are not problems to solve—but the precise conditions for awakening? Together, we'll explore how mindful investigation transforms reactivity into understanding, and how even the most difficult inner states can become gateways to freedom.

Through practical instruction and reflection, you'll explore how to investigate experience without turning practice into a subtle self-improvement project, how to shift from "my problem" to unfolding process, and how insight naturally gives way to a deep, effortless rest. As understanding deepens, something unexpected emerges—a quiet recognition that nothing needs to be fixed for freedom to be here.

This is the first talk of a weeklong retreat in 2026.

Lynn Teo starts by exploring various ways to resource the nervous system to support the capacity to be present to the moment's direct experience.

Then, we investigate what mindfulness is and how mindfulness of the body supports present moment awareness.

Lynn Teo has been teaching embodied movement and meditation for over 25 years. Deeply grateful to her teachers, she now teaches in the Insight (Vipassana) Tradition and is a Dharma teacher with Open Door Meditation Community in Portland, Maine. A deep believer in Sangha and belonging, she helps to empower community members (in particular helpers, healers, artists, activists, and people of color) with embodied practices of radical rest, resilience, and trauma/burnout recovery.

As a clinician, Lynn combines acupuncture, shiatsu, and Somatic Experiencing ® and specializes in helping patients suffering anxiety, stress, overwhelm, burnout and trauma as well as chronic pain and chronic conditions.

Learn more at www.lynnteoacupuncture.com. Dana: Venmo @Lynn-Teo.

This talk explores Right Effort as one of the most misunderstood elements of the Eightfold Path—revealing how much of our suffering comes not from a lack of effort, but from pushing, striving, and forcing ourselves in ways that create inner violence. Drawing on classical Buddhist teachings and everyday experience, the talk reframes effort as a form of care rather than willpower, inviting a wiser relationship to energy, discipline, and motivation in meditation and daily life.

You'll learn how to recognize when effort has tipped into strain, how to stop feeding unhelpful mental patterns, and how to cultivate wholesome qualities without burnout or self-judgment. The talk offers practical guidance for sustaining practice with steadiness and ease, helping you apply energy in ways that support clarity, compassion, and long-term resilience—on and off the cushion.

This talk explores the power of self-observation and what lies beyond the sense of self.

You'll learn how the witness can free you from the tyranny of the mind and your reactivity as well as what can happen when you explore being aware of the witness and what lies beyond.

This talk explores the liberating factor of self-observation.

You'll learn about how you can cultivate the optimal environment to develop the witness, the near-enemy of the practice and what it means to be aware of the light behind the observer.

This talk explores how the most simple mindfulness practices point to liberation.

You'll learn about the destination of cultivating present-moment awareness, understanding the nature of impermanence, recognizing inter-dependence and the power of non-attachment.

This talk explores Right Livelihood as a living inquiry rather than a rigid moral rule, asking how we can earn a living without gradually betraying our values, vitality, or sense of dignity. Grounded in the Buddha's teachings and everyday work life, the talk examines the ethical foundation of do no harm, the importance of inner congruence between what we do and what we feel in our bodies, and the often-overlooked relational impact of our work—how it shapes our patience, speech, and capacity for care. Rather than idealizing purity, the talk brings a grounded, compassionate lens to the real tensions people face around money, responsibility, and meaning.

You'll learn how to recognize subtle ways work can create inner fragmentation, how to listen to bodily signals and conscience as guides to integrity, and how to assess whether your livelihood is making you more humane or more armored. The talk also offers a wise, practical approach to compromise—showing how to live in the world as it is without collapsing into cynicism or self-betrayal, and how to take small, sane steps toward a livelihood that supports both survival and awakening.

This talk explores listening as a radical act of compassion at moments of loss, when words often rush in to ease our own discomfort rather than meet another's pain. We examine how common responses to grief—reassurance, advice, spiritual framing, or positivity—can unintentionally distance us, and how the impulse to fix subtly reinforces separation. Drawing on mindfulness and embodied awareness, the talk invites a shift from doing something helpful to being with what is most tender and real.

You'll learn how to recognize the fixing reflex as it arises, listen from the body rather than the mind, and rest in not-knowing without withdrawing or collapsing. Through practical guidance and reflection, you'll discover how simple, grounded presence communicates safety, dignity, and care—offering a form of support that does not try to resolve grief, but allows it to unfold and be held with wisdom and compassion.

More on how to keep you keel in the water when navigating uncertainty.

You'll learn some practical strategies for finding 'refuge,' a place of presence, particularly accessing Wisdom - clear seeing, Compassion - a heart that can hold it all, Presence - the space of awareness itself, and Skillful Action - strategies for staying deeply present in the midst of change.

This talk explores how you might cultivate greater steadiness in turbulent times.

You'll learn some practical tools for finding refuge in present-moment awareness, in cultivating Witness Consciousness and in watching the flow of phenomena with awake awareness and an open heart.

This talk explores wise intention as a living, moment-to-moment inquiry rather than a fixed decision or self-improvement project. Drawing from the Buddhist understanding of Right Intention, it reframes intention as an embodied process of noticing what genuinely supports clarity and ease, honestly recognizing what leads to contraction, and allowing the heart to recalibrate without judgment. The emphasis is on alignment over striving, and on learning directly from lived experience.

You'll learn how to evaluate your life and practice through clear cause-and-effect, recognize when effort is actually creating more struggle, and make mindful course corrections that are kind, practical, and sustainable. The talk offers simple reflections and practices to help you listen beneath habit and preference, so you can open to what most deeply calls and let wise intention guide your actions with greater trust, coherence, and care.

This talk explores the liberating power of clear seeing — vipassanā, or insight — the capacity to recognize things as they truly are rather than as we wish them to be. Through the practice of mindful attention, we begin to see through the illusions that shape our experience: the illusion that things are solid, that the self is fixed, that craving can bring satisfaction, and that suffering is personal. Each moment of genuine insight loosens the grip of confusion and reveals the luminous awareness that is already free.

You'll learn how insight unfolds through the deep investigation of perception, self, desire, and suffering; how mindfulness and compassion work together to transform pain into wisdom; and how to bring these realizations into the immediacy of daily life. Through stories, reflection, and direct practice, you'll discover how to live from the natural clarity that sees through delusion and rests in the heart of liberation.

This talk explores how to consciously direct the inner process of healing and release.

Drawing on the classic teachings of Ho'oponopono, it introduces four phrases that guide your attention to:

• Taking responsibility for your inner experience

• Attuning to the process of release

• Reflecting on gratitude and the opportunity to grow

• Resting in loving awareness

This talk explores the heart of the Fourth Noble Eightfold Path factor—Right Action—as a living expression of mindfulness and compassion. We look at how ethical conduct arises not from rigid rule-following but from moment-to-moment awareness, attunement to the body's signals, and a sincere intention to do no harm. Through stories, classical teachings, humor, and direct reflection, we explore non-harming, integrity, embodied wisdom, and the courage it takes to act wisely in a complex world.

You'll learn how to sense alignment in your actions, recognize the body as your most honest ethical compass, and translate presence into choices that support clarity, kindness, and inner freedom. You'll explore practical exercises to listen more deeply, cultivate integrity, stay grounded in challenging situations, and bring compassionate, courageous action into your relationships, work, and daily life.

This talk explores how to apply the Golden Rule in the context of mindfulness practice.

You'll learn how this timeless guidance ties into the practice of compassion (Karuna), interconnectedness (Dependent Origination), loving kindness (Metta) and non-harming (Ahimsa).

This talk explores the radical simplicity and depth of awakening to the present moment. Drawing on early Buddhist teachings and modern somatic inquiry, we'll investigate the building blocks of experience — sensation, feeling tone, perception, and awareness — to understand how the mind creates "now" and how freedom is discovered in direct experience.

You'll learn how to discern between sensation and story, how to recognize the birth of reactivity, and how to rest in awareness itself. Through reflection, humor, and practical meditative guidance, you'll discover that the present moment is not a passing instant but an infinite field of awakening — waiting to be noticed.

This talk explores the possibility of 'problems' as profound opportunities for growth and expansion.

You'll learn the importance of equanimity, cultivating convergent and divergent thinking and deep investigation into the nature of attachment and the nature of self.

This talk explores how every word we speak carries the power to create harmony or division, awakening or confusion. Drawing from the Buddha's teaching on Right Speech—truthful, kind, useful, and timely communication—you'll discover how mindfulness transforms the way we express ourselves and listen to others. Words become more than sound; they become expressions of presence, integrity, and care. Through stories, reflection, and a few moments of silence, we'll explore how conscious speech can become a profound practice of awakening in daily life.

You'll learn how to pause before speaking, feel into your intention, and sense whether your words arise from love or from fear. You'll explore the liberating clarity of truthfulness, the warmth of kindness, the power of words that serve, and the wisdom of silence. These simple but radical principles—rooted in the Buddha's Eightfold Path—can transform your relationships, deepen your meditation, and turn everyday conversation into an expression of compassion and freedom.

This talk explores the powerful and often-overlooked moment between what we feel and what we think about what we feel. Rooted in both Buddhist insight and somatic inquiry, we'll examine how raw sensation arises, how the mind instantly weaves a narrative around it, and how those stories—when left unexamined—can calcify into beliefs that shape our identity and behavior. With mindful attention, this space between sensation and story becomes fertile ground for transformation, offering a doorway into clarity, compassion, and inner freedom.

You'll learn how to recognize and decode the language of bodily sensation, investigate the stories you habitually tell yourself, and uncover the often-hidden beliefs that reinforce suffering. Through guided reflection, vivid examples, and practical teachings, this talk will show you how to rest in the liberating space of awareness—where choice, wisdom, and healing are possible.

This talk explores the power and peace found at the still point—the place of awareness untouched by the waves of thought and emotion. When we take the seat of the witness, we discover a dimension of consciousness that is both intimate and vast, both deeply embodied and profoundly free. Drawing on the Buddha's teachings on mindfulness and insight, this talk illuminates how awareness itself can become the refuge, how turning toward what arises with stillness and curiosity reveals the freedom that has always been here.

You'll learn how to recognize and rest in the witnessing presence that observes all experience without judgment or grasping. Through stories, reflection, and guided inquiry, you'll explore how to move from reactivity to stillness, from self-identification to awareness itself. You'll discover that when you bring compassionate attention to the body, mind, and heart, the turbulence of experience becomes the very path to awakening—the dance around the still point.

This talk explores the transformative power of tuning into the felt sense—the subtle, bodily knowing that lies beneath thought and emotion. Rooted in early Buddhist teachings and supported by contemporary somatic practices, the felt sense offers a direct path to presence, insight, and release. By connecting deeply with the body from the inside out, we ground our awareness in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and begin to directly experience the liberating truths of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self.

You'll learn how to recognize and trust the language of inner sensation, how the felt sense awakens the Five Spiritual Faculties—faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom—and how this embodied presence becomes a guide for wise action and compassionate insight. Through reflections, guided sensing, and practical tools, you'll discover how to stay close to what's real and alive, and how this intimacy with the body can lead to deep inner freedom.

This talk explores the simple yet profound practice of using the breath as an anchor for awareness. In a world where distraction and stress pull us in countless directions, the breath is always available as a doorway back into presence. Drawing from the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness of breathing and weaving in reflections from daily life, we’ll look at how one conscious breath at a time can ground us, reveal our inner state, help us transform reactivity, and open us to freedom in the present moment.

You’ll learn how to return to the breath as a reliable home base, how the breath mirrors both body and mind, and how conscious breathing can transform patterns of stress into calm awareness. We’ll also explore how the breath reveals impermanence and points us toward liberation. With stories, teachings, and reflections, this talk will offer practical ways to deepen your practice and remind you that awakening is as close as your next breath.

This talk explores the second step of the Eightfold Path, Wise Intention—the heart’s compass that points us toward freedom. Rooted in the Buddha’s teachings, Wise Intention asks us to orient our lives around letting go of what doesn’t serve, cultivating goodwill instead of ill will, and living with compassion that seeks to do no harm. Through stories, reflections, and practical examples, we’ll look at how our inner intentions quietly but powerfully shape our choices, our relationships, and ultimately, our destiny.

You’ll learn how to recognize the subtle intentions behind your daily actions, how to release clinging and cultivate generosity of spirit, and how to bring kindness and compassion into even the smallest moments of your life. With teachings drawn from Theravāda practice and contemporary experience, this talk offers both inspiration and practical tools for setting intentions that align with your deepest values and bring more freedom into your day-to-day life.

This talk explores the profound practice of coming home to the body—not as an object to fix or improve, but as sacred ground for awakening. Drawing on early Buddhist teachings and somatic insights, we’ll reflect on what it means to honor the body as a temple of presence. Through stor25ies, reflections, and practical guidance, we’ll explore how sensation itself can become a direct path to freedom.

You’ll learn how to ground attention in the felt sense, meet difficult sensations with compassion, and uncover insight through embodied awareness. Whether you’re dealing with physical discomfort, emotional turbulence, or simply longing to feel more alive, this talk offers a powerful invitation to inhabit your body with reverence and presence.

This talk explores how the Buddha’s Eightfold Path offers a clear, practical guide to living with greater wisdom, compassion, and inner freedom in everyday life. We’ll look at how each step on the path supports both personal transformation and the well-being of others.

Wise View, the first step, invites us to see life as it truly is—recognizing impermanence, the causes of suffering, and the possibility of liberation. It’s about shifting from a narrow, self-centered perspective to a broader understanding that our thoughts, actions, and attitudes shape our experience.

This talk explores how to begin a mindfulness practice by starting exactly where you are. Rather than striving for a particular state or trying to “do it right,” we look at how mindfulness arises through simple remembering—the act of returning to presence, again and again. We’ll reflect on how the breath can become a reliable ally, how intention can quietly shape our experience, and how there’s no wrong way to begin.

We’ll explore four key themes: (1) how mindfulness is the practice of remembering presence, (2) the power of starting just as you are, without needing to fix or change anything, (3) how setting intention deepens and sustains your practice, and (4) the breath as a steady anchor in the midst of life’s swirl. Through stories, guided reflection, and practical tools, you’ll learn how to plant the seeds of a lifelong practice.

This talk explores how to embrace impermanence.

You’ll learn about the inevitability of change and how understanding your reactivity and biases can help you access a quality of awareness that can help you move from reactivity to wisdom, compassion, creativity and enthusiasm.

This talk explores the nature of ‘true nature.’

You’ll learn more about the nature of ‘true nature,’ what gets in the way of experiencing this primal quality of being and some doorways of practice that can bring you into an intimate, embodied sense of presence.

This talk explores the mechanics for entering the flow state.

You’ll learn the role mindfulness plays in setting up the flows state, a review of triggers that can be helpful, how applying the principles of flow to meditation can deepen your practice and some cautions and concerns about the practice.

This talk explores what it means to be in flow.

You’ll learn about the magic of being in the flow state, some distinctions between mindfulness and flow and how to be more aware of how you consciously or unconsciously sabotage the flow state.

This talk explores the power of willful attention inwardly as well as in the world.

You’ll learn some strategies for inner focus in your meditation as well as some outer focus to cultivate sustained attention on what is most important to you in your life right now.

This talk explores the power of willful attention.

You’ll learn what the Buddha said about concentration and liberation, some essential practices for deepening focus and how skillfully applying concentration can open up new inner worlds.

This talk explores the power of streaming thoughts toward love, compassion, kindness, joy and equanimity.

You’ll learn about the origin of the heart practices, how here love starts as a thought and moves into an experience, the system for loving kindness and what it means to be awake both in heart and mind.

This talk explores the practice of Bare Attention and how suffering ceases in the experience of gratitude. You’ll learn about the distinction of the linear mind and the intuitive mind, the practice Bare Attention and a technique for opening to gratitude as a way of shifting the mind to a more fluid and intuitive state.

This talk explores how to deconstruct beliefs. You’ll learn about the origin of thoughts and beliefs, the art of interrupting the stream of thinking, the art of deconstructing beliefs and the importance, when you do this work, to err on the side of safety and self-care.

This talk explores the power of noting or labeling your inner experience. You’ll learn how you can cut through discursive thinking by training your attention to the sense fields, but also what it means to ‘take the seat of the witness’ and note or label what is happening inside.

This talk explores how to cut through the trance of thinking. You’ll learn how turning toward awareness itself reveals how much you rely on thinking and some practical strategies using embodied awareness for ‘remembering’ who and what you truly are.

A few years back, Tracy retired and thought to himself, “What would happen if I practiced at home with the same intensity as I would on retreat?”

He was inspired to practice the “Elephant Path,” a very disciplined approach that cultivated deepening concentration.

His journey was powerful, traumatic and brought him to his knees, but opened up vistas he could only imagine.

Here he shares his story, what he learned and what we might offer by way of encouragement and caution for those looking to intensive practice.

This conversation is with Jeff Fajans—a creative momentum coach, seasoned musician, and PhD‑backed creative performance researcher—who helps creative people bring their biggest ideas to life.

Whether you’re drafting a feature film script, launching a new business, or building a product from scratch, Jeff blends flow science, mindfulness, and creative productivity and leadership principles to move you past procrastination and into real, lasting creative momentum.

Here are some links:

More info about Jeff’s coaching:

https://jefffajans.com/creative-performance-coaching-creative-coach-jeff-fajans/

To book a free 45-minute coaching session:

https://calendly.com/jeff-fajans/45-min-intro-coaching

30 Day Creative Momentum Challenge:

https://jefffajans.com/30-day-creative-momentum-challenge/

As your practice deepens, you may begin to notice you are less identified with your thoughts. 'Observing without judgement' can open all kinds of new possibilities.

This talk explores some strategies for shifting your relationship to thinking.

Mindfulness practice can get dry and rote. When you remember why you are practicing you'll reconnect with your passion and deepest intention. When you can sustain your practice, you may notice a number of benefits.

Beyond the physiological and emotional boosts you'll feel, ultimately you'll notice the arising of two distinct faculties. Wisdom is your capacity to recognize what is true. Compassion is your capacity to allow and open to truth.

This talk explores how to manage your energy as you pursue your aspirations.

You’ll learn about four guidelines: How to prevent unwholesome states before they arise, how to let go of unwholesome states when they have arisen, how to cultivate wholesome states that have not yet arisen and how to maintain wholesome states that are already here.

This interview with Ray and Tara explores how to work with the deepest challenges of sickness, old age and death.

You’ll learn how Ray and Tara are working with Ray’s diagnosis of glioblastoma a year ago. They speak beautifully of how the practice deepens, how to find steadiness and how to open again and again to love.

The talk explores some fundamentals of a meditation practice and how (sometimes) saying 'yes' to what is present can dramatically shift your relationship to the here and now.

You'll learn my favorite definition of mindfulness, the art of 'saying yes,' how every 'no' actually means yes - and the classic instructions to more intimately deepen your mindfulness practice.

The classic teaching "Be Here Now" requires that we "Let Go Now" - of everything and anything that is not present. How do we do this?

I share some guiding principles of the art of renunciation with practical examples and teachings through the ages.

This is the first talk on my podcast, from the fall of 2011.

This talk explores how to consciously direct the inner process of healing and release.

Drawing on the classic teachings of Ho’oponopono, it introduces four phrases that guide your attention to:

• Taking responsibility for your inner experience

• Attuning to the process of release

• Reflecting on gratitude and the opportunity to grow

• Resting in loving awareness

This talk explores the power of self-observation and what lies beyond the sense of self.

You’ll learn how the witness can free you from the tyranny of the mind and your reactivity as well as what can happen when you explore being aware of the witness and what lies beyond.

This talk explores the liberating factor of self-observation.

You’ll learn about how you can cultivate the optimal environment to develop the witness, the near-enemy of the practice and what it means to be aware of the light behind the observer.

This talk explores the theme of ‘ancient future technologies,’ in particular the role of psychedelic-assisted therapy and meditation.

You’ll learn about research currently being done, a bit on the history of psychoactive substances in the west, what happens when we alter our consciousness and some of the very real precautions when exploring these medicines.

Please note that I urge extreme caution regarding this topic. While there can be profound insights in the wise and regulated use of plant medicines under the care of professional and skilled guidance, there is no substitution for a regular meditation practice, affliction with like-minded people and having access to wise and compassionate guidance in the arena of spiritual awakening.

Given these wild times, it's more important than ever to find ways to keep your practice rich and engaged.

Tara Brach adn Jonathan Foust take on a number of real-time questions on practice in challenging times.

This talk explores the possibility of ‘problems’ as profound opportunities for growth and expansion.

You’ll learn the importance of equanimity, cultivating convergent and divergent thinking and deep investigation into the nature of attachment and the nature of self.

This talk explores how to apply the Golden Rule in the context of mindfulness practice.

You’ll learn how this timeless guidance ties into the practice of compassion (Karuna), interconnectedness (Dependent Origination), loving kindness (Metta) and non-harming (Ahimsa).

This talk, from an IMCW Spring retreat, explores what happens when you deeply relax and pay attention to your moment-to-moment experience.

You’ll learn about the process of settling attention in the here and now, how to recognize the characteristics of what is changing the subtlety of how you are relating to change and paying attention to awareness itself.

This talk explores how the most simple mindfulness practices point to liberation.

You’ll learn about the destination of cultivating present-moment awareness, understanding the nature of impermanence, recognizing inter-dependence and the power of non-attachment.

Dr. Greg Madison is the founder of “The Living Process” and in this interview we explore the fusion Focusing and how somatic inquiry runs through the traditions of yoga and meditation.

I share a good bit on my personal history as well as exploring a wide variety of topics such as somatic inquiry and non-dual practices.

The Living Process is a series of conversations with people who are interested in how humans process their feelings, their thinking, and their way of being with others, especially using Focusing but also other experiential and existential practices.

The Living Process on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx3FqA70kQWuHCHmEiZnkn1VcrRIPbcvk

All about Dr. Greg Madison: https://www.gregmadison.net/about-greg/

This talk from 2022 explores the doorways from moving from fear and pain to a sense of ease and freedom.

You’ll learn how the conditioned self is dedicated to survival and self-preservation, the role of pain in waking up, how embodied presence opens new doorways to freedom and some thoughts on how to be present in these tumultuous times.

What does it mean to live a life of integrity?

You’ll learn the importance of defining your North Star and explore some helpful models that can help you refine what worked, what didn’t work and what most calls you forward in the year ahead.

I also share a few highlights from my 2024 Annual Review.

More on how to keep you keel in the water when navigating uncertainty.

You’ll learn some practical strategies for finding ‘refuge,’ a place of presence, particularly accessing Wisdom - clear seeing, Compassion - a heart that can hold it all, Presence - the space of awareness itself, and Skillful Action - strategies for staying deeply present in the midst of change.

This talk explores how you might cultivate greater steadiness in turbulent times.

You’ll learn some practical tools for finding refuge in present-moment awareness, in cultivating Witness Consciousness and in watching the flow of phenomena with awake awareness and an open heart.

This talk explores how tapping into gratitude can truly transform your life.

You’ll learn how you can overcome your innate instinct toward self-centeredness and self-preservation and how you can change this in a way that can cultivate a greater sense of connectedness, resourcefulness and if nothing else, seriously stimulate your pre-frontal cortex.

This talk explores happiness as your essential nature.

You’ll learn how the intention to be truly happy cultivates clarity, wisdom and the realization of the inter-connectedness of your life.

This talk is live from the Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington, VA in 2016.

This talk explores how to find the equilibrium between skillful action and skillful release.

You’ll learn how much of meditation practice (and life) calls for focus and sustained attention. But too tight a grip on focus can lead to missed opportunities, fresh insights and new possibilities. Learning to rest in presence can open intuitive faculties - when properly balanced.

This talk is a continuation of how to bring aliveness to your practice.

You’ll learn some inner practices as well as the invaluable qualities of finding like-minded people and the impact community can have on being more awake in your life.

This talk explore how to cultivate inspiration in your practice, particularly when it gets challenging.

You’ll learn why we stop practicing and a variety of tips, tricks and techniques for keeping your practice alive, vibrant, interesting and engaging.

This talk is from the fifth evening of a week-long Vipassana Retreat.

You’ll learn how meditation increases your sensitivity to how you hold on, how the intention to let go can set in motion a process that brings you in direct contact with the mystery — and how letting go and letting be are required to wake up to the nature of reality.

Here’s my interview with the wonderful Shawn Parell, a wonderful teacher, guide and passionate student of the dharma.

We discuss the evolution of practice, the power of somatic awareness, how to balance daily life with deep practice and how meditation can be a wonderful tool for self-discovery.

For more about Shawn and her offerings, go to www.shawnparell.com, Instagram @ShawnParell for weekly meditations and prompts for practice and lots more.

This talk explores some of the mistaken beliefs about the practice of meditation.

You’ll learn how meditation is not a quick fix for your problems, is not about escaping reality and how this practice is both an art and science … and can dramatically transform your life.

This talk explores the art of new beginnings.

You’ll learn how important it is to embrace your first reaction when things change, how to soften and release the past, how to open to new possibilities and how to engage into what most calls you forward.

This talk explores mindful strategies for overcoming procrastination. You’ll learn different ways we put things off, what gets in the way of the flow state, what flow feels like and for me, the most important question for sparking creative juices.

Jeff Fajains, Phd, offers a 30 Day Creative Momentum and helps creators bring their ideas to life. More on Jeff here: https://jefffajans.com/

This talk explores how to work with acute anxiety.

You’ll learn how to identify the triggers that cause feelings of overwhelm and some strategies for working panic, whether it be for yourself or when you accompany another when waves of intense anxiety arise.

This talk explores the fundamental elements of fear and how to release what is between you and feeling free.

You’ll learn about the essential nature of anxiety, the cause and the release of suffering through the transformative practices of awakening the Wise Heart.

This talk explores strategies for working with fear and anxiety.

You’ll learn how you can move from threat mode to opportunity mode and strategies for working with fear and anxiety in the body as well as a particular strategy for working with thoughts and beliefs.

This talk explores the art of working with anxiety and dread.

You’ll learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy fear, the roots of fear and some strategies for transforming the experience of anxiety when it arises.

This talk explores the difference between luck and karma.

You’ll learn how a mindfulness practice may help you cultivate a clearer intention, recognize opportunities and help you more quickly reset when you recognize you are off course.

For those looking from the outside, you may appear quite lucky indeed.

This talk explores the tenth of the ten perfections.

You’ll learn how you cannot make steadiness and serenity happen, but can create the conditions that allow this inner state to arise. When you remember the fundamental quality of reality, you can more easily open to embrace your true nature.

The talk explores the power of loving kindness.

You’ll learn how to be more of a well-wisher to all, some techniques to more effectively express kindness in the world and a reflection on what might happen in your life if you were to be more adept at responding to challenges with an open heart.

This talk explores the power of grit.

You’ll learn the importance of first creating goals that are fully aligned with your heart and spirit and then developing your capacity to stay on your path, developing both perseverance as well as deep, intuitive inner listening.

This talk explores how to attune to what is true.

You’ll learn how to discern between conventional and eternal truth, two essential teachings of truth and how to use your relationships and wise speech as a doorway to greater clarity and self-awareness.

This talk explores how to cultivate the quality of patience and self-restraint.

You’ll learn about the power of refraining from those who have caused you harm, how to endure hardship, how to cultivate greater confidence in ultimate truth and about the near-enemies of patience and forbearance.

This talk explores how to cultivate vitality, courage and resilience in your life.

You’ll learn how you can manage the energy you have and how to build vigor and confidence to pursue that which calls you.

This talk explores how to cultivate wisdom and insight.

You’ll learn about the importance of cultivating the wise heart, what gets in the way of seeing clearly, the anatomy of an insight and how to balance wisdom with compassion.

This talk explores the potential of mindful renunciation.

You’ll learn how critically important it is to know what is most important, cultivate the thoughts, behaviors and actions that will bring about that outcome and as well, identify and modify the the thoughts, behaviors and actions that get in the way of that outcome.

This talk explores how paying attention to your behavior can support you in your life.

You’ll learn how all traditions have guidelines regarding your moral behavior, how morality is often based on a negativity bias and how ultimately, it’s up to you to determine what you really want and define for yourself what it means to be virtuous and in integrity.

This talk explores the power of cultivating an attitude of love and care in your life.

You’ll learn what the Buddha said about giving, how intimately receiving is connected to generosity, the shadow-side of the practice and the power of taking generous actions when you feel called.

This talk explores some practices for cultivating embodied compassion and care.

You’ll explore what means to ‘heal’ as well as a few ‘deep dives’ - first into a chakra scan then a scan through the body focusing on reflection, gratitude and well-wishing.

This talk explores how to investigate the inner energy centers through the lens of mindfulness.

You’ll learn about the chakras, a bit on the origins of different approaches, the components of each one and how to explore through the lens of non-judging awareness.

This talk explores how to work with challenging energies.

You’ll learn how embodied awareness can open the door to higher degrees of self awareness and how in that recognition of what is arising you can learn to ‘ride the wave’ of resistance and discover what is on the other side.

This talk explores how to open to more subtle felt-sense awareness through mindful breathing.

Whole Body Breathing is yet another tool for drawing attention to the play of energy and sensations within and can dramatically heighten awareness of what is arising and how you are relating to it.

This talk includes a guided meditation on this technique.

This is an adaptation of the first talk of a five day retreat at the Art of Living Center in Boone North Carolina.

You’ll learn some practical suggestions for embodied meditation and how the body can be an ally in your practice.

This talk explores who you are free from the wanting mind.

You’ll learn about the nature of desire, strategies for working with a greed-filled mind, what can arise as desire lessens and finally, some thoughts on being desire-free and enlightenment itself.

This talk explores who you are in the absence of ignorance and confusion.

You’ll explore the nature of delusion, strategies for overcoming delusion and being more clearly into the nature of reality and what it means to be awake beyond the fluctuations of emotions, thoughts and beliefs.

This talk explores who you are beyond the reach of aversion.

You’ll learn about how, in our relationship to hatred there can be a rush to premature transcendence and how, by turning toward aversion, what is possible when hatred ceases, namely the arising of inter-connectedness, compassion and love.

This talk explores who you are beyond the conditioned self.

You’ll learn about what arises with the dissolution of the ego: A greater sense of interconnectedness, an increased flow of compassion and empathy and not least, a more tangible sense of freedom from stress and suffering.

This talk explores the seventh factor of awakening.

You’ll learn how this factor is the the complete expression of all and as you cultivate both spaciousness and steadiness, wisdom and compassion can flow unrestricted.

This talk explores the power of sustained attention.

You’ll learn about the consequence of chronic distraction, the levels of concentration you can achieve in your meditation practice, how to balance concentration with deep relaxation and how to bring more sustained focus into your life.

This talk explores how to cultivate a calm and relaxed presence.

You’ll learn how tranquility is critical to mindfulness practice and sets the stage for more and more intimate awareness of what is happening and how you are holding it.

This talk explores ways you can bring more joy into your life.

You’ll learn about the two essential forms of joy and how practicing ‘yes’ to life can cultivate more aliveness, radiance and upwelling of well-being in your life.

This talk explores ways you can cultivate greater aliveness and vitality.

You’ll learn how mental and physical energy, vitality and aliveness are integral to the process of being more awake, aware and present in your life.

This talk explores the power of looking closer at what is present.

You’ll learn how cultivating curiosity, examining what is arising and how you are relating to it can lead to not only greater freedom, but profound insights into the nature of reality.

This talk explores the factors that go into not only waking up, but working with the most profound challenges in your life.

You’ll learn how recognizing the filters through which you perceive is truly a key to liberation and how some specific techniques can sharpen your awareness of when mindfulness is slipping away.

This talk explores the impact of having your personal North Star. You’ll learn how helpful it can be to clearly articulate what you most want, to reflect on the good in your life, to acknowledge what grows you and what calls you. I share a bit from my own Year in Review and offer some time for your reflection.

This talk explores some tips and tricks for being more mindful during your day. You’ll learn the fundamentals of applied mindfulness, my morning routine, how I try to remind myself to be more mindful during the day …. and the importance of being mindful when you hit challenges.

Finding your optimal routines can make a huge difference in feeling more present and satisfied in your life. My routines may vary quite a bit from yours!

This talk explores the dance of trust, faith and doubt.

You'll learn what gets in the way of trust, three levels of maturing faith, how embracing and investigating doubt is integral to wisdom and and suggestions as how to navigate the leaps of faith in your life.

Please note there are a few graphic examples animal suffering from my experience working on farms that might make you uncomfortable.

This talk reflects on my journey with different diets and food philosophies.

You’ll learn why and how I landed on a plant-based lifestyle to dramatically cultivate my health and vitality, support the environment, explore how to live as cruelty-free as possible and to explore what I call ‘eating as a spiritual practice.’

This talk explores how to go with the flow.

You’ll learn how life is filled with constant challenge and how, when you learn to let go and bring full attention to the here and now, you can open to new possibilities in your life.

This talk explores to transformative power of generosity. You’ll learn how giving as a spiritual practice reveals what is between you and a truly generous heart, how generosity requires you learn how to fully receive … and the Buddha’s teachings on how fundamental generosity is to the experience of liberation.

This talk explores the art of engaging and disengaging. You’ll learn about stimulus / response and how your practice of meditation can open up more space for you to be more skillful as to how you respond to the moment — and to the challenges that arise in your life.

This talk explores moving from conceptual to non-conceptual awareness.

You’ll learn what gets in the way of feeling the mystery, how ‘the five aggregates’ make up each moment, the doorway into non-conceptual perception as well as the doorway of gratitude. How My Son Ruined My Life: Selma Baraz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojF-o_eWp-o

This talk explores the power of streaming thoughts toward love, compassion, kindness, joy and equanimity.

You’ll learn about the origin of the heart practices, how here love starts as a thought and moves into an experience, the system for loving kindness and what it means to be awake both in heart and mind.

This talk explores how to cultivate both wisdom and compassion.

You’ll learn how suffering is both internal and external, the keys to the release of suffering and how to foster your intention to be awake in the midst of turbulent times.

This talk explores how to increase your happiness level.

You’ll learn how stress and dissatisfaction can be transformed and how happiness is not only your birthright, but your greatest responsibility and contribution to others.

This talk explores the practice of Bare Attention and how suffering ceases in the experience of gratitude. You’ll learn about the distinction of the linear mind and the intuitive mind, the practice Bare Attention and a technique for opening to gratitude as a way of shifting the mind to a more fluid and intuitive state.

This talk explores how to deconstruct beliefs. You’ll learn about the origin of thoughts and beliefs, the art of interrupting the stream of thinking, the art of deconstructing beliefs and the importance, when you do this work, to err on the side of safety and self-care.

This talk explores the power of noting or labeling your inner experience. You’ll learn how you can cut through discursive thinking by training your attention to the sense fields, but also what it means to ‘take the seat of the witness’ and note or label what is happening inside.

This talk explores how to cut through the trance of thinking.

You’ll learn how turning toward awareness itself reveals how much you rely on thinking and some practical strategies using embodied awareness for ‘remembering’ who and what you truly are.

This talk explores how you can open to greater insight and wisdom in your life. You’ll learn about the characteristics of a wise person, what gets in the way of wisdom, the anatomy of intuition and insight and the natural flowering of compassion when you see clearly into the nature of reality.

This talk explores the power of paying attention on purpose as well as the power of non-judging awareness.

You’ll learn about how getting control of your concentration can make a huge difference in your life as well as what happens when you turn attention to awareness itself.

This talk includes a number of practical, experiential reflections.

This talk explores how you can cultivate lasting happiness.

You'll learn how to avoid the biggest trap in seeking happiness and how you can cultivate happiness both externally - through wise and skillful action - as well as internally - by how you pay attention.

This talk reveals the best technique for awakening heart and mind.

You’ll learn about techniques that awaken your capacity for sustained present-moment awareness, techniques for cultivating awareness of change, techniques for purifying the heart and techniques for opening to the mystery. And at the end, the best technique of all.

This talk explores what I think of as the “Frank Sinatra Sutta.”

You’ll learn the importance in meditation - and life - of willful doing combined with conscious being. The result of this balance is ‘knowing,’ the arising of insight into the nature of reality itself.

This archive talk explores how your perception of stress and suffering in the world is a mirror your inner world.

You’ll learn how, by reflecting on the core teachings of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path that leads to the cessation of suffering, you can change yourself.

And by changing yourself, you can truly change the world.

This talk explores why, after 52 years of practice, I still meditate.

You’ll learn about the science behind meditation, what all great traditions say about the practice, the power of empirical evidence and the potency of the intention to live in authentic cooperation with reality.

We’re back! We had so much fun last time we are doing another.

Here’s the second installment of practice questions with Tara Brach and Jonathan Foust.

Jonathan interviews his wife, Tara Brach, regarding common practice questions and weighs in on a few himself.

This talk explores how to increase your capacity for joy and wholesome states.

You’ll learn about the nature of Joy, what gets in the way of the experience and how to cultivate more and more positive and fulfilling qualities of presence.

This talk explores the near-enemy of love: Attachment.

You’ll learn about the nature of attachment and attachment styles in relationship as well as keys to healing what holds you back from loving fully.

This talk explores how to free yourself from feeling like an imposter.

You’ll learn the power of self-awareness, the importance of investigating inner states and how to break out of the box of the doubting mind. You’ll also explore ways you can reframe your experience and turn attention to sincerity, service and the possibility of a life of authenticity and overflow.

Soon after retiring, Tracy Budd, who had a strong meditation practice, embarked on an exploration of meditating for four hours a day following the Elephant Path and the teachings of Culadasa. In this interview we explore what happened over the course the year, the breakthroughs, the breakdowns, the insights and what he learned about doing intensive practice at home. You’ll find this interview inspiring, particularly if you have ever had fantasies of putting everything aside and doing the kids of practices reserved for monks and renunciates.

We continue our exploration on moving from Fear to clear-seeing. You’ll explore a few protocols that have helped me enormously in shifting from feeling caught to feeling empowered again. Fear can serve as an early-warning detection system and when explored mindfully, can point the way toward more skillful means.

I reference The Sedona Method, the work of Tim Ferris and the work of Byron Katie.

This talk explores how to move from Fear to Clear-Seeing and new possibilities.

You’ll learn how unresolved fear restricts the possibilities in your life and how you can turn toward fear through cognitive processes as well as somatic inquiry.

When you shift from “How do I get rid of this?” to “What can I learn from this?” you may start to feel new possibilities.

This talk explores how you can transform your relationship with your inner critic.

You’ll learn the origins of negativity bias, how that critical voice forms in your early development and how the miracle of self-awareness can lead to a life guided by wise discrimination.

This is an 'encore' session from the Monday night class at the Unitarian Universtalist Church in Arlgington, VA

This talk explores how you might transform your deepest wounds into sacred gifts. You’ll learn how stress and suffering are inevitable and how, when you deeply examine your wounds, you can unveil the gifts they offer. We’ll explore the concept of the wounded healer and how being transparent with your wounds can bring you into deeper intimacy with the world around you.

I mentioned the book Feeding Your Demons by Tsultrume Allione and the Enneagram, a powerful model for transformation.

This talk explores the mechanics of healing (and how I’m healing a bone fracture.) You’ll learn how critical it is to make room for all your reactions and how to ask yourself an important question that can make room for feeling whole. You’ll explore the art of ‘having tea with your demons,’ three steps in a healing meditation and ultimately, how to open to the quantum field for feeling more whole.

This talk explores the nature of happiness.

You’ll learn how happiness truly is ‘here and now,’ how important it is to actively explore what is between you and feeling happy, how happiness is a reflection of your true nature and a model or assessing your happiness level. This talk is from 2019, offered live at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington in Arlington, VA.

This talk explores four sutras offered by the Buddha on how to awaken your heart and mind.

You’ll learn the importance of cultivating a lifelong aspiration to awaken, to actively cultivate spiritual friendships, to be open and kind and to take time away from the complexity of life to see ever more clearly into the nature of reality. This talk is inspired by an article in Tricycle Magazine, summer 2022, by Dale S. Wright entitled “Four Ideals to Guide Your Practice.”

This talk explores how to draw on compassion when in pain.

You’ll learn how compassion must be balanced with wisdom (tough love) and a powerful technique for opening the frame of compassion that can dramatically shift your personal experience of pain.

Finally, we’ll explore the impact of opening the heart to the suffering of others and how that can influence and cultivate the heart.

This talk explores strategies for working with physical pain and beyond.

You’ll learn about your primary and secondary response to pain, how to discern your ‘pain recipe,’ the cost of ignoring the messages of pain and a practice where you’ll change the frame of awareness when working with challenging sensations.

This talk explores how to shift your relationship to physical pain. You’ll learn how pain lives in both the body and mind, how ‘pain’ is looking out for your well-being and how your attention can dramatically affect your experience of pain.

This talk offers some thoughts and practices on how to stay awake through the journey of your life …. As told through the lens of a recent travel misadventure.

You’ll learn about the nature of the ‘two selves,’ the conditioned quest for control, the power of turning toward your greatest fears and thoughts on what continues after death.

This talk explores how you can open more fully to what is considered the highest expression of practice.

You’ll learn a helpful working definition of equanimity, the near-enemies and challenges of the practice and what it means to be open to the fullness of life with a heart that can embrace it all.

This talk explores both the experience of internal joy as well as the joy that can arise on behalf of others.

You’ll learn about the habitual pursuit of joy, the radical pursuit of joy, the shadow side of joy and the classical practices that deepen and widen this wonderful state of heart and mind.

This talk explores how to cultivate a wise response to suffering.

You’ll learn the roots of the practice, the pitfalls and challenges, where to start and how you can tap into the immeasurable aspects of compassionate presence.

This talk explores how to practice being a well-wisher to all.

You’ll learn about the origination of the heart practices, where to start, how it can evolve and why these practices can be so life-changing for you.

This talk explores the power of stepping back and hitting the reset button in your life. You’ll learn about what can happen when you remember the results you are driving toward and the power of pausing and ruthlessly taking stock as to how you actually doing. When you consciously disengage from the busyness of your life and immerse yourself in presence you can refresh your sense of what is most important to you and move forward informed by creativity and infinite possibility.

This talk explores the nature of enlightenment. You’ll learn about the qualities of an awake being and some of the practices and traditions that help make awakening possible, ranging from willful effort to deep surrender. This talk contains multiple short meditations and inquiries.

You’ve heard about right brain / left brain functioning and may be familiar with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s “God” experiences when her left brain was damaged. But what happens when you experience a right brain injury? Dr. John Britton describes what happened that caused severe damage to his right brain, what happens when the left brain is in control and what he has done to find his way back to recovery. There are great lessons for all of us here in balancing the brain.

This talk explores how slowing down can transform your life. You’ll learn about the impact of slowing down not only to be more effective in getting things done, but how slowing down can open up new insights into the nature of the self. We’ll explore a specific meditation practice as well as practical ways you can apply slowing down and seeing more clearly in your daily life.

This week’s podcast is from my interview with Rachel Krantz and her wonderful podcast, “Help Existing.”

This week I'm talking with meditation teacher Jonathan Foust about the tendency of the mind to live in the future. Whether it's fantasizing or mundane planning, I know I often find my mind off in the future. Its underlying cause is an overdeveloped impulse to find pleasure and avoid danger and discomfort. Future thinking is impossible (and ill-advised) to avoid entirely --but I would like to learn to reign it in so that I can be more present in my life.

At the same time, as we talk about in this episode, future thinking has a purpose: it can alert us to what we're anxious about, where we might be headed in life, and what we value. What I got out of this conversation is that it's about learning how to work with it skillfully. This episode provides many practical tips for exercises that might help you do that.

You may remember Jonathan from last season's episode "Help Figuring Out the Most Important Thing." I often turn to Jonathan for some of life's biggest questions. He's so wise, and I've found his podcast and YouTube channel extremely helpful.

This talk explores the transformative power of gratitude.

You’ll learn how gratitude is a doorway to happiness, how gratitude is related to “evolutionary biology,” how gratitude can help you reframe your biggest challenges in life and can help you access resilience, creativity and compassion.

This talk explores the seventh factor of awakening.

You’ll learn how this factor is the the complete expression of all and as you cultivate both spaciousness and steadiness, wisdom and compassion can flow unrestricted.

This talk explores the power of sustained attention.

You’ll learn about the consequence of chronic distraction, the levels of concentration you can achieve in your meditation practice, how to balance concentration with deep relaxation and how to bring more sustained focus into your life.

This talk explores how to cultivate a calm and relaxed presence.

You’ll learn how tranquility is critical to mindfulness practice and sets the stage for more and more intimate awareness of what is happening and how you are holding it.

This talk explores ways you can bring more joy into your life.

You’ll learn about the two essential forms of joy and how practicing ‘yes’ to life can cultivate more aliveness, radiance and upwelling of well-being in your life.

This talk explores ways you can bring more joy into your life.

You’ll learn about the two essential forms of joy and how practicing ‘yes’ to life can cultivate more aliveness, radiance and upwelling of well-being in your life.

This talk explores ways you can cultivate greater aliveness and vitality.

You’ll learn how mental and physical energy, vitality and aliveness are integral to the process of being more awake, aware and present in your life.

This talk explores ways you can cultivate greater aliveness and vitality.

You’ll learn how mental and physical energy, vitality and aliveness are integral to the process of being more awake, aware and present in your life.

This talk explores what happens when your actions actually align with your highest intentions.

You’ll learn about what happens when your ego is in charge of autopilot, the distinction between aspiration and intention and practical techniques for bringing clear intention into each part of your day.

This talk explores what happens when your actions actually align with your highest intentions.

You’ll learn about what happens when your ego is in charge of autopilot, the distinction between aspiration and intention and practical techniques for bringing clear intention into each part of your day.

This talk explores the power of looking closer at what is present.

You’ll learn how cultivating curiosity, examining what is arising and how you are relating to it can lead to not only greater freedom, but profound insights into the nature of reality.

This talk explores the factors that go into not only waking up, but working with the most profound challenges in your life.

You’ll learn how recognizing the filters through which you perceive is truly a key to liberation and how some specific techniques can sharpen your awareness of when mindfulness is slipping away.

This talk explores the nature of the wanting the mind.

You’ll learn about the qualities of desire, the nature of reality, what can happen when you suspend the wanting mind and the challenges that arise when you cultivate a more radiance through your practice.

This talk explores how to embrace impermanence.

You’ll learn about the inevitability of change and how understanding your reactivity and biases can help you access a quality of awareness that can help you move from reactivity to wisdom, compassion, creativity and enthusiasm.

This talk explores how to embrace impermanence.

You’ll learn about the inevitability of change and how understanding your reactivity and biases can help you access a quality of awareness that can help you move from reactivity to wisdom, compassion, creativity and enthusiasm.

This talk explores how you can be more fully present to experiences as they spontaneously arise.

You’ll learn how energy is intelligent and evolutionary, how you instinctively shut down the flow of things, how to fully embrace what is arising and how to open to a presence beyond the waves themselves.

In this twelve minute meditation, you'll be guided to focus on particular somatic points while relaxing with progressive exhalations, softening, feeling and moving into deeper, spacious states of awareness and presence.

This talk explores what it takes to live life with a clear conscience.

You’ll learn how regret is a natural part of our human experience, how helpful it can be to slow down and address your regrets as well as how powerful it can be to deeply inquire as to the guidelines by which you will live the rest of your life to ensure you live as fully as possible.

This talk explores more on the evolution of meditation practice.

I share stories from some of my more intense explorations from my 50 years of meditation practice and here I'll talk about about the practices of will and surrender.

There will be a number of reflections for you to try on some of the techniques I explore.

This talk continues to explore how meditation practice evolves over time.

You’ll learn how your practice can unleash new possibilities, build energy and vitality and how important it is to continue to focus on purifying your desires. I share some of my experiences of living in the ashram, my years of intensive practice and what I learned along the way.

There will be a number of reflections for you to try on some of the techniques I explore.

This talk explores how meditation practice evolves over time.

You’ll learn about the sacred moment when you are first aware of the mystery of awakening, the egoic call to be somebody, the drive to be somebody special and ultimately, the call to be nobody special. I’l be sharing some of my personal practice experiences as well as some reflections.

Through your life, your personal practice can be a tool to wake up to what is most important in your life.

How do you figure out the most important thing?

Maybe you're caught between two ideas. Maybe you're trying to decide whether it's time to change careers, or whether to have kids. Maybe you're trying to discern where to best spend your energy as an activist.

Maybe you want to be able to better identify the most important thing in any given moment.

This week's conversation with meditation teacher Jonathan Foust should help with navigating all those questions and more, and was filled with practical mindfulness and life advice.

Check out and subscribe to “Help Existing” podcast here: [https://www.racheljkrantz.com/help-existing-podcast]

This encore talk explores how to wake up your deepest inner knowing.

You’ll learn how you are the product of all your teachers so far in your life, how some teachers come from a lineage while others don’t, how valuable is it to seek those who’ve walked before us and how external teachers ultimately point to waking up our own inner guidance.

This talk explores how to stay present when the going gets tough.

You’ll learn about the inherent drive for wholeness, the nature of attraction and desire, how to stay awake in a relationship and how to navigate things when a relationship is over, especially when it’s not of your choosing.

This talk explores how to work with the realm of feeling tone in your practice.

You’ll learn why the body is so instrumental in liberation practices, what you can learn by deepening attention to sensations, a review of three primary anchors and the kinds of energy experiences that can arise when you relax and pay attention.

This talk explores how to increase your happiness level.

You’ll learn how stress and dissatisfaction can be transformed and how happiness is not only your birthright, but your greatest responsibility and contribution to others.

This talk is fresh from my return from a ten-day silent unstructured retreat at the Forest Refuge in central Massachussets in 2014.
We'll explore some specific practices I found helpful for developing concentration as well as how to look deeply into the the Three Characteristics of Reality. Along with techniques for arriving, we'll talk about strategies for riding the ever-changing waves and fluctuations of sensations, feelings, moods and mind states.

This talk explores the art of practicing mindfully with grief and loss.

You’ll learn what the Buddha taught about loss, practices for being with the rogue waves of grief and how grieving fully can awaken you to be more alive, awake, clear-seeing and compassionate.

This talk explores how to amplify self-awareness and see more clearly into what is true.

You’ll learn how you tend to get locked into certain perspectives and explore a profound ‘technology’ for deconstructing thoughts and beliefs. Asking the right questions can point your attention beyond the lens of your perspective to see with greater clarity what is true.

This talk explores the possibility of ‘problems’ as profound opportunities for growth and expansion.

You’ll learn the importance of equanimity, cultivating convergent and divergent thinking and deep investigation into the nature of attachment and the nature of self.

This talk explores the power of shifting your perspective.

You’ll learn about the power of active investigation, how asking a particular question can create a shift in your viewpoint and perhaps the most radical shift of all, contemplating death as your personal advisor.

This talk explores how you can draw on mindfulness when you encounter sticky and problematic situations.

You’ll learn about the radical act of pausing, how ‘reframing’ helps you shift out of your linear, rational mind and how reflecting on karma - cause and effect - can help you access states of awareness that can open new doorways.

This talk explores how you can use your body as a tuning fork to make decisions.

You’ll learn what gets in the way of good decisions, the power of pausing and tapping into the observer and a technique for making decisions that calls on the wisdom of the body to give you feedback as to what is possible.

This talk explores the importance of cultivating somatic awareness and offers a model for practice.

You’ll learn about the importance of intention, what it means to cultivate the body as a friend and ally and you’ll get to try on a model for practice.

This talk explores the power of somatic inquiry.

You’ll learn how awareness of the body can be a means for steadying the mind as well as developing your capacity to be the non-judging observer. You’ll learn how you can develop your awareness of the ‘felt sense’ inside as powerful tuning fork for intuitive inquiry.

This talk explores the ‘how to’ of inner listening.

You’ll learn the essentials of the practice, the importance of formulating the right question and explore a model for your practice.

This talk explores the optimal conditions for inner listening and investigation.

You’ll learn about the power of sincere heart, seven faculties of mind required to be fully present and some cautionary words on the altered states that can arise in practice.

This talk explores what it means to cultivate the ‘knowing faculty” of mind.

You’ll learn what gets in the way of true knowing, what we discover when we examine what arises out of the moment and how to turn attention toward “the one who knows.”

This talk explores the power of questions in your life. You’ll learn how questions have evolved consciousness through the human experience and how inquiry, when applied correctly, can help you see more clearly into the nature of reality and to the nature of the self.

After settling into a posture of inner balance, you’ll be guided to opening awareness to the senses, turning your attention to the inner experience and focusing on feeling from the inside. You’ll explore an effortless quality of feeling and noticing, letting your awareness open into spacious presence.

This talk explores the power of the RAIN practice.

You learn how to explore and potentially convert the most challenging situations into new possibilities. I walk you through the steps and offer some reflections to help you internalize the practice.

This talk explores the power of looking for the good in yourself and others.

You’ll learn about what these teaching say about cultivating a generous heart, how being a well-wisher to all can shift your consciousness, some of the challenges and pitfalls of this practice and a contemplation on one act of generosity you might take on.

This talk explores the power of looking for the good in yourself and others.

You’ll learn about what these teaching say about cultivating a generous heart, how being a well-wisher to all can shift your consciousness, some of the challenges and pitfalls of this practice and a contemplation on one act of generosity you might take on.

This talk explores the doorways to moving from fear and pain to a sense of ease and freedom.

You’ll learn how the conditioned self is dedicated to survival and self-preservation, the role of pain in waking up, how embodied presence opens new doorways to freedom and some thoughts on how to be present in these tumultuous times.

In this interview we discuss Rachel’s recent book: Open: Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy

We explore the some of the pitfalls that occur in open relationships, the practices that have helped her in her personal exploration and her advice for those exploring relationships in these more open and fluid times.

Rachel Krantz is a journalist and one of the founding editors of Bustle, where she served as senior features editor for three years. Her work has been featured on NPR, The Guardian, Vox, Vice, and many other outlets. She’s the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Radio Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Peabody Award for her work as an investigative reporter with YR Media.

To learn more about Rachel’s book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646533/open-by-rachel-krantz/

This talk, from the Fall 2011 IMCW vipassana retreat, explores the art of letting go.

You’ll learn about the art of renunciation with practical examples, suggestions and teachings through the ages.

This talk explores new possibilities that can arise with mindful intention.

You’ll learn about the potency of ‘getting real’ with your life, assessing what’s truly working and what is not. When you can do this and embrace the reality of impermanence, you can tap into a greater sense of aliveness and passion.

You can find Jonathan’s 2021 Annual Review at: https://www.jonathanfoust.com/weekly-talk?category=writings

This talk explores tips and best practices for the five elements of your meditation practice.

You’ll learn how to use the elements of relaxation, concentration, mindfulness, investigation and surrender in ways that can bring you balance and ultimately help you let go in to new states of awareness.

This talk explores how to skillfully navigate the law of cause and affect.

You’ll learn about the power of remembering impermanence, the power of remembering karma, how to skillfully reflect on your intentions and actions and what it means to be free from karma.

This talk explores some of the ways technology can help you be more mindful and more awake in your life.

You’ll learn how technology helped bring mindfulness to the west, how technology can rot your brain and how you can match technology with your intention to deepen your practice and see more clearly into the nature of reality.

Here are some of the elements I mentioned:

Oura Ring [[] https://ouraring.com ] [https://ouraring.com]

Insight Timer [https://insighttimer.com]

Brainwave App [https://www.appannie.com/en/apps/ios/app/307219387/]

Focus@will [https://www.appannie.com/en/apps/ios/app/307219387/]

Headspace [https://www.headspace.com]
Calm [https://www.calm.com]

Ten Percent Happier [https://www.tenpercent.com]

Buddhify [https://buddhify.com]

Muse [https://choosemuse.com]

Zendo [https://zendomeditation.com]

This talk explores the transformative power of gratitude and appreciation.

You’ll learn about the nature of the selfish self, how gratitude can expand your capacity to work with challenges and point you toward the nature of reality itself.

This talk explores what it means to surrender in your practice and in your life.

You’ll learn about the skillful use of willful practice as well as the transformational aspects of consciously surrendering to presence, to your path and to reality itself.

This talk explores Tracy’s experiences following the guidance outlined in “The Mind Illuminated,” by John Yates and working with his teacher, Oded Raz.

You’ll learn about the challenges Tracy experienced in this dedicated undertaking, his perspective on small and big insights and how the heart awakens through seeing ever-more clearly in the nature of reality.

Disclaimer: For most, intensive practices require a retreat setting and guidance from a teacher. Please ensure you have support in any depth practice you feel called to.

Reference: The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness, by John Yates

Tracy’s teacher is Oded Raz, and his website is: https://www.muar.org.il/t-en

This talk is from the fifth day of 2021 Fall IMCW Vipassana Retreat.

You’ll learn how meditation increases your sensitivity to how you hold on, how the intention to let go can set in motion a process that brings you in direct contact with the mystery — and how letting go and letting be are required to wake up to the nature of reality.

This is the first night’s dharma talk from the 2021 New Year’s Retreat.

You’ll learn of the call to practice, the challenges that can arise when you are drawn to explore the nature of reality, how your body can be your greatest refuge in your adventures and some suggestions as to how to best navigate the journey toward greater freedom.

This talk explores how you got cut off from your true nature - and how to reconnect.

You’ll learn about the essential ‘mistake’ you made, the consequences of investing time and attention into not belonging and how turning to the most essential fear y0u carry inside, you can find your way again to belonging.

This interview with Peter Mellen explores the theme of pursuing awakening.

Peter is a film-maker and author of numerous books, among them Ultimate Happiness: Chasing It. Finding It. Living It. He and I shared many years in the ashram and explore the idea of self-improvement as a path as well as the path of eliminating the self.

The Path of Love: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNMcKu4i7Hg]
Ultimate Happiness: Chasing It. Finding It. Living It. [https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Happiness-Memoir-Peter-Mellen/dp/1461099226]
The Group of Seven: [https://www.amazon.com/Group-Seven-Peter-Mellen/dp/0771058152/ref=sr\_1\_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+group+of+seven+peter+mellen&qid=1631288893&s=books&sr=1-1]

Ultimate Happiness: A Memoir

The Group of Seven

This talk explores similarities in the teachings of Christ and Buddha.

You’ll learn about the principle of ‘Sanatan Dharma,” or Eternal Truth, parallel teachings on inner guidance, guidance for relationships and how to be awake in the world.

After settling and arriving through gentle movement you’ll be guided through a progressive body scan, explore softening, relaxing and letting go inside.

Moving your attention to an anchor of your choosing, you’ll sense what it means to let go of thoughts and moods and return to the here and now.

As the meditation progresses, you’ll deepen your inquiry into letting go by releasing all practices of ‘doing’ and investigate what it feels like to ‘be’ and rest in presence.

This talk explores the power of letting go. You’ll learn what the classic teachings say about letting go, how to incline your mind toward letting go, the sanctuary of selflessness and remembering how you can’t take anything with you at the end. The Five Daily Reflections 1 - I am of the nature to grow old; there is no way to escape growing old. 2 - I am of the nature to have ill health; there is no way to escape having ill health. 3 - I am of the nature to die; there is no way to escape death. 4 -All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. 5- My actions are my closest companions. I am the beneficiary of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.

This topic explores how your wounds can become super powers.

You’ll learn how turning toward your wounds can awaken wisdom and compassion, how seeing the wounds in others can you open to intimacy and how wounds are embraced as integral in spiritual awakening.

Is it possible to do the intensive practices one might only do in a retreat setting — at home?

This interview explores the journey of one such practitioner who elected to cultivate a focused, disciplined meditation practice in a home setting and his journey to and through challenges and early childhood trauma. You’ll hear some inspiring stories of what is possible when you deepen your practice.

Disclaimer: For most, intensive practices require a retreat setting and guidance from a teacher. Please ensure you have support in any depth practice you feel called to.

Reference: The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness, by John Yates

Tracy’s teacher is Oded Raz, and his website is: https://www.muar.org.il/t-en

This talk explores how to cultivate both wisdom and compassion.

You’ll learn how suffering is both internal and external, the keys to the release of suffering and how to foster your intention to be awake in the midst of turbulent times.

This talk explores the nature of ‘true nature.’

You’ll learn more about the nature of ‘true nature,’ what gets in the way of experiencing this primal quality of being and some doorways of practice that can bring you into an intimate, embodied sense of presence.

This talk explores how to find the equilibrium between skillful action and skillful release.

You’ll learn how much of meditation practice (and life) calls for focus and sustained attention. But too tight a grip on focus can lead to missed opportunities, fresh insights and new possibilities. Learning to rest in presence can open intuitive faculties - when properly balanced.

This interview explores Craig Phillips’ transition from being a business executive to working in hospice.

You’ll hear about his awakening from a privileged life as an executive to his calling to leave the business world and explore a life dedicated to waking up, embracing creativity and being of service, primarily working with the dying. He shares some of what he’s learned along the way and working with those who have come to the end of their life.

This talk explores the mechanics for entering the flow state.

You’ll learn the role mindfulness plays in setting up the flows state, a review of triggers that can be helpful, how applying the principles of flow to meditation can deepen your practice and some cautions and concerns about the practice.

This talk explores what it means to be in flow.

You’ll learn about the magic of being in the flow state, some distinctions between mindfulness and flow and how to be more aware of how you consciously or unconsciously sabotage the flow state.

This talk explores the power of willful attention inwardly as well as in the world.

You’ll learn some strategies for inner focus in your meditation as well as some outer focus to cultivate sustained attention on what is most important to you in your life right now.

This talk explores the power of willful attention.

You’ll learn what the Buddha said about concentration and liberation, some essential practices for deepening focus and how skillfully applying concentration can open up new inner worlds.

This conversation explores what it means to trust and to not trust.

In this interview with my wife, Tara Brach, we’ll explore the origins of ‘not trusting’ and how you can overcome distrust to discover the changeless inherent goodness within. We explore self-trust, trust in intimate relationships and how to be in a world so full of turmoil and suffering.

This talk explores what it means to come in contact with the varying voices, parts and forces that drive your thoughts, speech and actions.

You’ll learn about the the importance of establishing non-judging awareness as a way to explore the conditioned mind and a powerful technique for accessing what these voices want you to know as you explore what it means to be fully awake and aware.

This talk explores what it means to change your relationship with negative self-talk.

You’ll learn how the inner critic tries to be the ultimate authority and how you can shift your relationship with it in a way that can awaken greater wisdom and true freedom.

This talk explores how to work with acute anxiety.

You’ll learn how to identify the triggers that cause feelings of overwhelm and some strategies for working panic, whether it be for yourself or when you accompany another when waves of intense anxiety arise.

This talk explores the fundamental elements of fear and how to release what is between you and feeling free.

You’ll learn about the essential nature of anxiety, the cause and the release of suffering through the transformative practices of awakening the Wise Heart.

This talk explores strategies for working with fear and anxiety.

You’ll learn how you can move from threat mode to opportunity mode and strategies for working with fear and anxiety in the body as well as a particular strategy for working with thoughts and beliefs.

This talk explores the art of working with anxiety and dread.

You’ll learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy fear, the roots of fear and some strategies for transforming the experience of anxiety when it arises.

This talk explores the art of new beginnings.

You’ll learn how important it is to embrace your first reaction when things change, how to soften and release the past, how to open to new possibilities and how to engage into what most calls you forward.

This talk explores the art of re-arriving.

You’ll learn about the power of concentration, how to reframe one of the most challenging aspects of meditation and how ‘starting again’ sets the stage for insight and clear-seeing.

This talk explores how embodied awareness can support you when you feel most challenged.

You’ll learn how about what happens when you follow the call to practice - how challenges arise and how refining your awareness of what is arising within you and you relate to it can open up amazing new possibilities.

This talk is the first talk from the IMCW New Year’s Retreat.

This talk explores the tenth of the ten perfections.

You’ll learn how you cannot make steadiness and serenity happen, but can create the conditions that allow this inner state to arise. When you remember the fundamental quality of reality, you can more easily open to embrace your true nature.

The talk explores the power of loving kindness.

You’ll learn how to be more of a well-wisher to all, some techniques to more effectively express kindness in the world and a reflection on what might happen in your life if you were to be more adept at responding to challenges with an open heart.

This guided meditation starts with a reflection on kindness to yourself and offers a breathing technique to cultivate deepening relaxation. You’ll then move to classic practices for gathering attention and resting in presence and toward the end, you can freely offer kindness to yourself and all beings.

This talk explores the power of grit.

You’ll learn the importance of first creating goals that are fully aligned with your heart and spirit and then developing your capacity to stay on your path, developing both perseverance as well as deep, intuitive inner listening.

This talk explores how to attune to what is true.

You’ll learn how to discern between conventional and eternal truth, two essential teachings of truth and how to use your relationships and wise speech as a doorway to greater clarity and self-awareness.

This talk explores how to cultivate the quality of patience and self-restraint.

You’ll learn about the power of refraining from those who have caused you harm, how to endure hardship, how to cultivate greater confidence in ultimate truth and about the near-enemies of patience and forbearance.

This talk explores how to cultivate vitality, courage and resilience in your life.

You’ll learn how you can manage the energy you have and how to build vigor and confidence to pursue that which calls you.

This talk explores how to cultivate wisdom and insight.

You’ll learn about the importance of cultivating the wise heart, what gets in the way of seeing clearly, the anatomy of an insight and how to balance wisdom with compassion.

This meditation guides you into a state of progressive relaxation and somatic sensing.

You’ll explore being intimately awake to what is changing and sensing what it means to let things be.

This talk explores the potential of mindful renunciation.

You’ll learn how critically important it is to know what is most important, cultivate the thoughts, behaviors and actions that will bring about that outcome and as well, identify and modify the the thoughts, behaviors and actions that get in the way of that outcome.

This talk explores how paying attention to your behavior can support you in your life.

You’ll learn how all traditions have guidelines regarding your moral behavior, how morality is often based on a negativity bias and how ultimately, it’s up to you to determine what you really want and define for yourself what it means to be virtuous and in integrity.

This talk explores the power of cultivating an attitude of love and care in your life.

You’ll learn what the Buddha said about giving, how intimately receiving is connected to generosity, the shadow-side of the practice and the power of taking generous actions when you feel called.

This talk explores the power of actively embracing the reality of change.

You’ll explore the fact that you are going to die, the idea of your death as an ally through your life and what it means to open to the mystery of impermanence.