Deconstructing Yourself
Michael W. Taft
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, Vajrayana, nondual Hindu Tantra, philosophy, the neuroscience of the sense of self, neurofeedback and the consciousness hacking movement, aspects of artificial intelligence, entheogens, and much more.
If you’re looking for fresh directions, free from dogma and conformism, think of the Deconstructing Yourself podcast as the radical cafe where you can hear from the most interesting luminaries either from the outside edges of dharma, or a fresh take from more traditional teachers. If you’re interested in more, check out the Deconstructing Yourself website at https://deconstructingyourself.com.
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Top 10 Deconstructing Yourself Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Deconstructing Yourself episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Deconstructing Yourself for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Deconstructing Yourself episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Meditation, Magick, and the Fire Kasina, with Daniel Ingram
Deconstructing Yourself
09/27/17 • 87 min
In this session, host Michael W. Taft and radical dharma author and practitioner Daniel Ingram discuss the Fire Kasina practice, meditation and magick, working with archetypal forces and entities, Daniel’s description of a fruition experience, siddhis and visionary experiences, Daniel’s wizarding worldview, and much more. We also discuss the second edition of his classic work Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, as well as his new book on the Fire Kasina.
Daniel Ingram is an emergency medicine physician and long-time dharma practitioner. He famously exploded the Buddhist world when he declared himself to be an arhat and published the seminal text Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book in 2008. He is also the main force behind the radical Dharma Overground website, which he founded together with Vince Horn, that specializes in a brand of unusually-frank discussion of meditation practice.
You can learn more about Daniel at his website, www.integrateddaniel.info.
You can download a free PDF of The Fire Kasina book here.
Show Notes
00:25 – Introduction and overview
2:10 – Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha 2, its purpose and release
4:55 – The fire kasina: what it is, what happens as concentration increases, and how it provides immediate feedback on the strength of concentration
8:01 – Fire kasina’s benefits beyond concentration: insight, crafting your reality, fusion of śamatha and vipassanā
12:57 – The awakening components of fire kasina practice, fruitions
17:28 – The ontological status of deities seen during fire kasina practice and the meaning of joint powers experiences
22:50 – Daniel’s fire kasina experiences and teaching the practice to others
29:42 – The line between madness and meditation
35:30 – Siddhis, synchronicities, and the collective unconscious
40:22 – Daniel’s cutting edge in practice and use of magick
51:24 – Dzogchen and the post-magickal
59:19 – Deconstructing sensory experience into fruition
1:10:44 – What meditation teachers get wrong: lack of warning about potential dangers
1:21:49 – The cross-pollination and experimentation the internet affords the meditation scene
1:24:51 – The Fire Kasina, a book with Shannon Stein
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Listen to more with Daniel Ingram.
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The Craving Mind, with Judson Brewer
Deconstructing Yourself
10/25/17 • 66 min
What do the neurocorrelates of enlightenment, the activation of the posterior cingulate cortex, and the extinction of craving all have in common? They relate to the work of Judson Brewer. Jud talks with Michael W. Taft about his brain biofeedback machine, the neurophenomonolgy of effort vs. non-effort, the feedback loop of reward-based learning, working with the black hole of anxiety, self-referential thinking as a kind of addiction, and much more.
Judson Brewer is an MD-PhD and a thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery”, having combined nearly 20 years of experience with mindfulness training with his scientific research.
A psychiatrist and internationally known expert in mindfulness training for addictions, Brewer has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments. He has also studied the underlying neural mechanisms of mindfulness using standard and real-time fMRI. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, Fetzer Trust among others.
Check out Jud’s recent book, entitled, The Craving Mind.
In this TED talk, Jud describes how to “get out of your own way.”
Show Notes
3:37 – Has Jud found the neurocorrelates of enlightenment?
4:40 – The Default Mode Network and science, the PCC – Craving and tanha – Details of fMRI experiments
5:57 – Trying, Flow and PCC activity, contraction vs. expansion
9:36 – Jud’s own practice in the scanner, metta, calibrating the scale of exp/con
20:45 – High concentration vs. effortlessness – no force necessary – 7 factors of awakening
28:54 – What has Jud found? Excitement vs. happiness – a learning tool
30:30 – What we see with experienced meditators / Best use of his neurofeedback technology
36:09 – Michael’s experience in the device
38:30 – Neurophenomolgy effort vs. non-effort, and the feedback loop of reward-based learning – the perpetual Skinner box of relative rewards – anger vs. kindness
42:30 – Addiction – allcohol, cocaine, smoking – smoking tastes bad when you pay attention
45:50 – Paying attention to eating – Joie de vivre – PCC and digital therapeutics – apps
53:24 – The trickiness of the black hole of anxiety – Unwinding Anxiety app
56:20 – Do we have to practice abstinence or not? – Is addiction a disease?
1:00:27 – Jud’s new book, The Craving Mind
1:01:37 – Self-referential thinking as a kind of addiction – Instagram addiction
1:04:05 – Meditation from the Lab – Dependant Origination (PDF Download) – Siddhis
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Tantra and Embodied Awakening with Christopher Wallis.
Deconstructing Yourself
09/29/23 • 53 min
Host Michael W. Taft speaks with Tantra scholar and teacher Christopher Wallis about the word “enlightenment” in English and the words in Sanskrit it is typically the translation for; the differences between awakening and liberation; karma, samskara, and the deep unconscious; Shiva-oriented practice and the importance of including Shakti, the teachings of Abhinavagupta, and the centrality of embodied awakening.
Christopher Wallis, also known as Hareesh, is a Sanskritist and scholar-practitioner of Classical Tantra with thirty years experience. He was initiated by a traditional Indian guru at the age of sixteen, and received education at yoga āshrams, both in India and the West. He holds several degrees including an M.Phil. in Classical Indian Religions from Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from U.C. Berkeley. Hareesh is the author of several books including The Recognition Sutras, and a new book entitled Near Enemies of the Truth.
Hareesh.org – Christopher Wallis’ website
Check out his new book, Near Enemies of the Truth
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A Conversation with Sam Harris
Deconstructing Yourself
12/02/23 • 61 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with author, philosopher, and neuroscientist Sam Harris about the fusion of vipassana and nondual practice as the “gold standard” for practitioners, insights into selflessness through mindfulness and concentration, the distinction between moment-to-moment experiences and peak experiences, personal experiences with MDMA and psilocybin, the role of psychedelics in initiating spiritual introspection, concerns about the misuse of psychedelics and potential pitfalls, and more.
Sam Harris is a renowned author, philosopher, neuroscientist, and podcast host, who weights in on issues around religion, morality, and the human mind. Harris holds a degree in philosophy from Stanford and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA, and he has practiced meditation for more than 30 years with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers. Harris is particularly recognized for his exploration of meditation and non-duality, delving into their significance in understanding consciousness and the self. He’s also well known in the meditation community for his book Waking Up, and for the app of the same name.
Get a free month of the Waking Up app here.
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Practicing the Diamond Sutra with Ken McLeod
Deconstructing Yourself
07/24/24 • 46 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with eminent Buddhist teacher, translator, and author Ken McLeod about how to use the Diamond Sutra as a practice text. What is the sutra really getting at? Is it merely an ancient and enigmatic philosophical puzzle or can we use it as a powerful pointing out instruction?
Ken McLeod began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1970 under the eminent Tibetan master Kalu Rinpoche. After completing two three-year retreats, he was appointed as resident teacher for Kalu Rinpoche’s center in Los Angeles, California, where he developed innovative approaches to teaching and translation. After his teacher’s death in 1989, Ken established Unfettered Mind, a place for those whose path lies outside established institutions. His many published works include Wake Up to Your Life, A Trackless Path, and his latest book, entitled The Magic of Vajrayana.
Ken's website: Unfettered Mind
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Attention, Awareness, and the Great Adventure, with Culadasa
Deconstructing Yourself
12/04/17 • 66 min
Culadasa talks with Michael W. Taft. After decades of Buddhist practice, Culadasa exploded on the scene a few years ago with his groundbreaking book The Mind Illuminated, an incredibly comprehensive guide to meditation. It’s an erudite mixture of neuroscience, traditional Buddhist practice, and Culadasa’s own ideas about how to gt the most out of practice. In this episode we talk about his definitions of attention and awareness, how his system compares to that of his friend teacher Shinzen Young, how the meditative brain works, dealing with aging and death, and much more.
Learn more about Culadasa and his teaching at culadasa.com
Show Notes
0:15 – Introduction and overview
2:30 – Culadasa’s system vs. Shinzen Young’s: stability of attention
7:55 – Sustained attention and effortlessness
10:20 – Culadasa’s system vs. Shinzen Young’s: sensory clarity and peripheral awareness
19:55 – Mindfulness as the optimal interaction between attention and awareness
22:55 – Conceptual overlays and the lower limits of conscious perception
32:50 – Attention selects objects from peripheral awareness
35:00 – The interactive role of attention and awareness in maintaining mindfulness in daily life
38:30 – How strong mindfulness affects emotions, wholesome and unwholesome behavior, and the practice of virtue
43:50 – The importance of the Eightfold Path post-awakening
47:20 – The Ten Fetter, Four Path Model: characteristics of paths and the dropping of fetters
59:49 – Spiritual development does not end at Fourth Path
1:01:57 – Old age, sickness and death are part of the Great Adventure
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John Vervaeke on Relevance Realization
Deconstructing Yourself
10/05/22 • 49 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with professor John Vervaeke about relevance realization—the process by which we decide what matters in any given situation—and its application to meditation, how we gain an increased sense of meaning in life, and why there is no panacea in practice. John also answers the question: what is a wise person?
John Vervaeke is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Buddhist Psychology. His areas of interest include wisdom, mindfulness, meditation, relevance realization, general intelligence, rationality. He is the author of the Youtube series Awakening from the Meaning Crisis and co-author of Zombies in Western Culture: A 21st Century Crisis.
You can learn more about John’s work at: https://www.youtube.com/user/johnvervaeke
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Transgression with Erik Davis
Deconstructing Yourself
12/31/23 • 69 min
Host Michael Taft speaks with author and journalist Erik Davis about the power of partaking in the forbidden and the loss when formerly forbidden things become normalized, particularly in the case of psychedelics; Tantric and Christian modes of transgression, power relationships and the guru, hedonism, rule-breaking, the desire for having safe spiritual practice environments, and the role of risk in spiritual development.
Erik Davis is an author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and popular speaker based in San Francisco. He is probably best known for his book TechGnosis a cult classic of visionary media studies that investigates how our fascination with technology intersects with the religious imagination. Erik’s most recent book is High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. Erik is also a long-term practitioner of meditation, particularly in the Zen tradition.
Erik Davis' Substack: The Burning Shore
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Enlightenment’s Evil Twin, with Shinzen Young
Deconstructing Yourself
09/08/17 • 100 min
Meditation teacher and neuroscience consultant Shinzen Young and host Michael W. Taft talk about what mindfulness teachers are getting wrong, Shinzen’s Periodic Table of Happiness Elements, informed consent for awakening, effective strategies for dealing with the Dark Night of the Soul, and the phenomenon that Shinzen calls “Enlightenment’s Evil Twin.”
Learn more about Shinzen Young at Shinzen.org.
Also here is a pdf of Shinzen’s Periodic Table of Happiness Elements.
Show Notes
0:25 – Introduction and overview
2:38 – Defining mindfulness, and what mindfulness teachers can improve on
15:20 – Fulfilling the ethical duty to inform students about the possibilities and challenges of deeper meditation work
20:05 – The Dark Night and DP/DR, and the amount of guidance students need to integrate emptiness
25:24 – Addressing student concerns about becoming derailed or idle if they make spiritual progress
28:24 – Clarifying what the Dark Night is, what it might look like, and how to address it prophylactically and remedially
51:31 – More about what mindfulness teachers can improve on
1:19:28 – Frosting Shinzen’s buns by shutting down a meditator’s no-self experience
1:26:06 – Being careful not to set up barriers that keep people away from practice
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Why Good Teachers Go Bad, with Shinzen Young
Deconstructing Yourself
05/18/18 • 88 min
In this special one-year anniversary episode, Shinzen Young talks with host Michael W. Taft about becoming a meditation teacher, the unrealistic paradigm about what meditation delivers, Shinzen’s codependency disaster, Bill Hamilton, the great unsung hero of vipassana in the Western world, homology theory, how science can influence meditation in the West, sociopathic teachers, and what we can do to make sure that good teachers don’t go bad. Who is a teacher? What’s the family test? These questions and more.
Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant.His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation, known as Unified Mindfulness, has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the University of Vermont in the burgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience. You can learn more about Shinzen on his website shinzen.org.
Show Notes
1:40 – Shinzen Intro
3:00 – Shinzen talks about Homology Theory
7:50 – Meditation and science complement each other like algebra and geometry
9:30 – Coupling of science and contemplative practice
12:50 – What science can teach contemplative practice
13:49 – In some ways scientists have less ego than meditation masters
15:50 – All meditators are teachers
20:55 – Ability of a “professional meditation teacher” to lead students through all goals
24:24 – Why meditation teachers should have respectful but open and unhurried dialog to improve the field
36:44 – Improving science by reducing ego in other ways via Meditation
38:25 – The contradiction of advanced meditators exhibiting unacceptable behavior
42:44 – The high profile flagrant behavior of a few tends to overshadow the overall positive impact of practice
46:30 – What’s missing in the case of advanced meditators who go morally off track
59:30 – Unrealistic paradigms of what liberation and meditation delivers and how it’s possible to do wrong from a place of emptiness
1:10:20 – Role/Power of a meditation teacher and culture
1:16:01 – Plane crash analogy and Shinzen’s story of going off-track
1:21:40 – The feedback that helped Shinzen fix co-dependence
1:24:50 – Bill Hamilton, “the great unsung hero of vipassana in the West”
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FAQ
How many episodes does Deconstructing Yourself have?
Deconstructing Yourself currently has 98 episodes available.
What topics does Deconstructing Yourself cover?
The podcast is about Meditation, Enlightenment, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Podcasts and Mindfulness.
What is the most popular episode on Deconstructing Yourself?
The episode title 'John Vervaeke on Relevance Realization' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Deconstructing Yourself?
The average episode length on Deconstructing Yourself is 62 minutes.
How often are episodes of Deconstructing Yourself released?
Episodes of Deconstructing Yourself are typically released every 26 days, 17 hours.
When was the first episode of Deconstructing Yourself?
The first episode of Deconstructing Yourself was released on May 22, 2017.
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