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Dedicated to liberation in all its forms, Deconstructing Yourself is passionate about fearlessly investigating, attempting, and questioning all things to do with awakening, meditation, mindfulness, brain hacking, consciousness, neurofeedback, and more. Your host Michael W. Taft interviews some of the most interesting thinkers, authors, and teachers around, as well as other offerings. In this hard-hitting, radical, and fun podcast we look at secular post-, non-, un- Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, ...
Host Michael Taft speaks with meditation teacher Catherine McGee about Soulmaking Dharma; her journey into meditation practice; using the word “soul” in a Buddhist context; working with the energy body; connecting with the imaginal in meditation; what sort of person thrives in the Soulmaking Dharma practice; and expanding beauty and sacredness in o…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Dreams and the Spiritual Imagination, with Steve Aizenstat
58:51
58:51
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58:51
Depth Psychologist Steve Aizenstat speaks with host Michael Taft about dreams, the living image of dreams and their innate intelligence, the healing and creative power of the deep imagination; how dreams relate to meditation and spiritual practice, and the way that we are "all cyborgs now." Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., is the Founder of Dream Tending,…
Spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas speaks with host Michael Taft about the centrality of love to our spiritual nature, how to tell the difference between emotional love and spiritual love, how the wounds of love can become openings for awakening, various “flavors” of love, and the necessity of love to approach truth. A. Hameed Ali, whose pen name is A.…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Vajrayana and Deity Yoga with Chandra Easton
55:15
55:15
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55:15
Buddhist Teacher and author Lopön Chandra Easton talks with Michael Taft about Vajrayana, her own pilgrimage and experiences in India, the struggle to bring motherhood, sexuality, the feminine, and the female voice into spiritual life, the power of yidam or deity yoga, how Westerners relate to deity yoga, and a look into the practice of the 21 Tara…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Evolving Ground with Rindzin Pamo and Jared Janes
1:13:09
1:13:09
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1:13:09
Host Michael Taft speaks with Rin’dzin Pamo and Jared Janes about their new project, entitled “Evolving Ground,” which is a community of practitioners that seeks to reinterpret and revitalize Vajrayana practice in a contemporary Western context. Topics include: the failure of Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to Western culture, the importance of the world…
Writer, translator, teacher, and business consultant, Ken McLeod speaks with host Michael Taft about the chaos unleashed by new forms of communication, dedicating your whole life to meditation and spiritual experience, what evokes a deep sense of the sacred?, how teachers point out awakening to students, what is it that epitomizes the essence of Va…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Paranoia, Conspiracy, and Covid, with Erik Davis
57:14
57:14
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57:14
Author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and cultural historian Erik Davis speaks with host Michael Taft about QAnon as a new religion, Gnostic psychology and the power of the secret truth, new narrative warfare exploiting human psychology, technologically-sophisticated divination techniques, the “disenchanted paranormal,” taking responsibility…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Effortlessness in Meditation, with Jud Brewer
44:33
44:33
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44:33
Neuroscientist and mindfulness expert Jud Brewer speaks with host Michael Taft about his research into the four steps of Rigpa (with teacher and psychologist Dan Brown), effortlessness in meditation and the feeling of openness vs. closedness, the neurochemistry of reward, the historical Buddha's insight into the results of exploring gratification "…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Awakening and the Path of Liberation, with Dan Brown
36:50
36:50
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36:50
Psychologist, author, translator, and meditation teacher, Dan Brown talks with host Michael Taft about the three levels of practice from a taste of awakening to "full buddhahood," the details of what a taste of awakening entails, the path to complete liberation, his neuroscience of nonduality studies with Jud Brewer, whether dzogchen is a complete …
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Vajrayana, Compassion, and the Importance of the Teacher, with Ken McLeod
59:13
59:13
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59:13
Writer, translator, teacher, and business consultant, Ken McLeod speaks with host Michael Taft about Coronavirus, social distancing, nature doing what it does, overcoming cultural conditioning, enlightenment as a "system change," practices for overcoming cultural conditioning and developing compassion, the importance of the teacher-student relation…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Why Do Narcissists Become Spiritual Teachers, with Stephan Bodian
48:27
48:27
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48:27
Nondual teacher and psychotherapist Stephan Bodian and host Michael Taft discuss how and why narcissists rise to the top of spiritual organizations, the ways that nondual traditions like Zen may be especially prone to teacher misbehavior, the problem with “crazy wisdom” teachers, as well as exploring Stephan’s own spiritual journey with Suzuki Rosh…
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Questioning Assumptions about Buddhism, with Evan Thompson
52:23
52:23
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52:23
Evan Thompson discusses his new book, “Why I Am Not a Buddhist” with host Michael Taft. Topics include the myth of Buddhist exceptionalism, how Buddhist modernism presented a false picture of Buddhism as a value-neutral “mind science” rather than a religion, his own lifelong journey with Buddhism, and much more. Evan Thompson, PhD, works on the nat…
Nondual teacher and psychotherapist John Prendergast speaks with host Michael Taft about the heart area as an opening to infinite space, contacting the “dark matrix” of the ground, the body as a vibrant expression of emptiness, moving out of the cycle of reactivity into the creative life, working with energy in meditation, and much more. John J. Pr…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Nonduality and Awake Awareness, with Loch Kelly
51:29
51:29
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51:29
Nondual teacher and psychotherapist Loch Kelly speaks with host Michael Taft about what nondualism is, schools of effort vs. non-effort (and those in between), the five foundations of effortless mindfulness, awake awareness and rigpa, stabilizing nondual awareness, balancing the brain's default mode network, and more. Loch Kelly is an author, medit…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Meditating with Buddhist Sutras, with Michael Owens
1:16:26
1:16:26
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1:16:26
Host Michael Taft speaks with Michael Owens, a Buddhist teacher and author, about being a monk in Taiwan, Buddhist sutras as portals to alternate realities, understanding dependent origination, the nondual ground and extreme psychedelia of the Mahayana sutras, the Vimalakirti Nirdeśa Sutra, explaining the "inconceivable," Suchness as the opposite o…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Reversing the Stack— A Nondual Practice Map, with Michael Taft
34:44
34:44
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34:44
In this episode, host Michael Taft remixes his map of deconstructing sensory experience, and talks about how to use it to work in nondual traditions. Essentially the idea is to reverse the stack by starting out with Stage 4 (pure awareness) and then working your way up to stage 3, etc. Michael also spends some time talking about maps of meditation,…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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What Does Dreaming Have to Do with Meditation? with Andrew Holecek
1:07:21
1:07:21
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1:07:21
Host Michael Taft speaks with Dream Yoga expert Andrew Holecek about how the dream state (and dreamless sleep) can effect meditation practice. Topics include: the fantasy-filling model of lucid dreaming vs. spiritual awakening; dream yoga, sleep yoga, and Bardo yoga; the love of napping, meditation in a dream or in dreamless sleep; reification as t…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Deconstructing Sensory Experience, with Michael Taft
43:30
43:30
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43:30
In this episode, host Michael Taft shares a map of deconstructing sensory experience. This is intended to help orient you to your vipassana meditation practice; helping you to understand where you’re at, where you’re going, and what to look for next. A basic map of vipassana. Note: this is only a map, only a model. Just like a menu is not food, thi…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Vajrayana, Engineering, and Jiu Jitsu, with Rin’dzin Pamo
57:15
57:15
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57:15
Host Michael Taft speaks with Vajrayana teacher Rin’dzin Pamo about Vajrayana meditation practice currently, adapting practices for our times, their practice of The Mind Illuminated, the role of the guru in practice, how meditation practice is like engineering (and Jiu Jitsu), and much more. Rin’dzin Pamo (also known as Charlie El Awbery) is a Brit…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Why Metadharma?, Pt. 2, with Vincent Horn
35:36
35:36
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35:36
Why Metadharma? is an unusual episode of the Deconstructing Yourself podcast, in that it’s Part 2 of a joint interview between Vince and Michael Taft. Part 1 appeared on the Buddhist Geeks podcast recently, and they continue the conversation here. The topic of these discussions is a subject that both speakers are actively developing, called “metadh…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Meditation, Emotions, and the Bio-Emotive Framework with Douglas Tataryn
1:20:11
1:20:11
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1:20:11
Host Michael Taft speaks with clinical psychologist and life coach, Douglas Tataryn, Ph.D. about meditation and psychology. Topics include his work with meditation teachers such as Culadasa, the “wake up, clean up, grow up, and look around” model, Wilber’s integral model. working with trauma and the dark night, and his system of emotional processin…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Loch Kelly on Awareness, Freedom, and Effortless Mindfulness
1:35:14
1:35:14
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1:35:14
Host Michael Taft speaks with Loch Kelly on nondual practices, contemporary forms of ancient awareness techniques, dzogchen, mahamudra, advaita, the role of psychotherapy in awakening, the need—or not—for a guru, open-hearted awareness, internal family systems therapy, and more. Loch Kelly is an author, meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and foun…
In this special episode, Culadasa talks about the domains of meditation and psychotherapy, where their areas of effectiveness overlap and where they don’t. He also shares a powerful personal story of his own emotional processing work after awakening—why it was needed and how it helped. Culadasa has been practicing Buddhist meditation for over four …
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Deconstructing Yourself
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Meditation for the End of Civilization, with Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
1:13:17
1:13:17
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1:13:17
Host Michael W. Taft speaks with bestselling author and meditation teacher Rick Hanson about how to maintain resilience in the face of the coming potential collapse of civilization, the problem with agriculture, meditation methods to build inner strengths, Rick’s upcoming book Neuro-dharma, and more. Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist, Senior Fell…
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Deconstructing Yourself
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The Liberating Practice of the Fire Kasina, with Daniel Ingram
1:15:02
1:15:02
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1:15:02
Author and meditation teacher Daniel Ingram speaks with host Michael W. Taft about how the Fire Kasina practice can be used as an insight practice. Subjects include: the background of kasina practice in the Thervada tradition, using kasinas to go into jhana, how vipassana practice interacts with jhana practice, meditation on the Three Characteristi…
