Video summary
The podcast explores a pragmatic and attainable approach to enlightenment, challenging the notion that one must retreat to a cave or spend decades in silent isolation to achieve spiritual awakening. The host argues that while such extreme measures may benefit some spirits, they are not feasible for most people. Instead of expecting permanent, self-perpetuating states of bliss where mindfulness sneaks up on you effortlessly, the speaker proposes building momentum through consistent practice. Having completed over 2,000 meditation sessions in seven years, he observes that regular mindfulness strengthens the mental "muscle" required to wrangle one's mind and exist fully in the present moment. This approach accepts that while continuous nondual awareness may remain elusive for almost everyone, accumulating moments of genuine calm insight is a powerful alternative. A central argument redefines success not as achieving permanent enlightenment but as stringing together frequent instances where the mind rests with the body. The speaker suggests aiming to align one's thoughts and feet in the same location five or ten times daily, viewing each instance as a moment of being truly awake rather than lost in dream-like distraction. He references Sam Harris's concept that living distracted by thoughts is akin to dreaming while conscious but unaware; therefore, catching oneself for even 10 seconds feels alive constitutes significant progress. This reframing shifts the goal from an impossible standard of perpetual bliss to a realistic target where individuals can repeatedly return to presence throughout their day, effectively countering the tendency toward dissatisfaction that arises when expectations are set too high. To illustrate this practical application, the host shares anecdotes involving Sam Harris and his own daily routines as evidence of how these brief moments transform ordinary life. In one story, Sam Harris realized he was rushing due to stress about being late for a podcast; by pausing, acknowledging his anxiety regarding traffic or apologies, he stopped, kissed his wife goodbye with intentionality, and left the house grounded in reality. Similarly, the speaker finds immense joy in washing dishes because the activity engages enough of the brain's front end to prevent distraction without demanding full cognitive load, allowing him to feel water hitting his hands and smell scents vividly. These examples demonstrate that driving or doing chores can serve as opportunities for mindfulness if one chooses to engage with them intentionally rather than letting the mind wander aimlessly. The conclusion emphasizes that this method of accumulating small victories is far more useful and sustainable than striving for a state few ever reach, which would likely lead to perpetual dissatisfaction. By accepting human limitations regarding abiding nondual awareness, practitioners can avoid the trap of feeling like failures when their mindfulness slips away after achieving it temporarily. The speaker admits he might be "selling himself short" compared to teachers like Jed McKenna who claim permanent non-dual abiding is possible, but maintains that his path offers a realistic strategy for anyone willing to try. Ultimately, the goal is not to achieve an unattainable spiritual peak but to consistently catch oneself in moments of presence, thereby living more intentionally and feeling truly alive amidst the chaos of daily existence without needing permanent transcendence.
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talking about a realistic path to
difficult things, I came up with this
idea about a realistic path to
enlightenment. So, as much as moving to
a cave in the woods, spending a decade
in silent retreat might be great for
your spirit, it's not going to be doable
by pretty much anyone. And if you've
meditated enough, you know that you
accumulate momentum in mindfulness, kind
of like a swell moving underwater. And
after enough time, there's a force and
power to your ability to drop into the
present moment. And sometimes even waves
of little bits of genuine calm insight
break above the surface. And it's
lovely. But if you're anything like me,
it doesn't result in an extended
self-perpetuating enlightenment. Doesn't
even really work on its own where your
mindfulness sneaks up on you and you're
in the present moment without realizing.
And I've done 2,000 sessions of
meditation over the last seven years. So
consistent meditation and a focus on
mindfulness strengthens strengthens the
thinking muscle that you use to wrangle
your mind to actually exist right now.
You learn to punctuate your day with
instances where your mind finally
settles into the moment and then it's
gone. But then you can get it back later
in the day. And as far as I can tell,
this is a much more realist realistic
path to enlightenment. You are never
going to become fully blissed out in
perpetual nondual astral realm
synchronicity, right? But you can string
together a few moments of peace so that
at least for a few moments each day,
your mind rests where your feet are. And
I always used to think that this was a
failure. That if I can achieve
mindfulness but not permanently, if I
achieve it and lose it, it's not
persistent enlightenment. So I failed.
And instead, I think it's smart to
reframe the goal that if you can just
have your mind and your feet in the same
location five or 10 times a day, that's
five or 10 times when you were literally
awake. As Sam Harris refers to it, being
distracted by thoughts is the same as
being dreaming but but not being asleep.
That you're lost in the mind and you
haven't realized. In the same way as
when you're in a dream, you are lost in
the dream and you haven't realized. The
only difference being that your eyes are
open and you're kind of conscious.
You're also kind of not conscious at
all. If you can spend five or 10 times,
even for just like 10 seconds going,
"Huh,
I'm really here. Holy [ __ ] I'm alive.
And I can feel the floor beneath my
feet. And I can smell whatever it is
that's coming into my nose." And [ __ ]
like, this is where I am.
that is so much further ahead than
almost anybody else. And then maybe you
can push it to 15 or 20 or 100. And the
reason I love this as an idea and as a
goal for mindfulness is that it seems
important
and attainable and really useful. You
know, just finding these moments where
you can catch yourself. And it did Sam
actually on the episode I did with him a
few years ago. He gave this wonderful
story where he said he was late coming
to the podcast and he hates being late
and he was rushing around the house and
his wife was leaving at the same time as
him and he's putting his shoes on and
and grabbing his stuff and all the rest
of it. And then he caught himself,
realized that he was rushing, realized
that he was sort of think he would been
stressing about being late. What's Chris
going to think? I'm going to have to
apologize. What about the traffic?
He stopped,
caught himself, scooped his wife up,
gave her a kiss, put it down, and left.
You know, that's a 10second punctuation
of whatever obsessive minations you've
got going on in your mind that you're
currently captured by until you stop and
you look and you realize where you are
and your mind and your feet are in the
same location and you do
something with so much more
intentionality and presence and then you
move on with your day.
Stringing
a sequence of these kinds of moments
together to me seems so much more
attainable, so much more realistic. And
I think that's what I'm aiming for.
Maybe that's me just selling myself
short. Maybe I should be, you know,
permanent blissed out, non-dual abiding
awareness is what I should be going for.
But my
fledgling Jed McKenna, who's this super
enlightened spiritual teacher, um, maybe
that's me. Yeah, being cucked and and
leaving it on the table. But again, you
know that expectations and happiness
thing for expectations is the only time
that you can be satisfied. Uh I have put
some work in to get to a mindfulness
level where I feel it. But if I have
abiding non-dual awareness, it's not
going to happen for pretty much anybody.
So you're perpetually going to be
dissatisfied with your own mindfulness
practice. Whereas, I think this seems to
work. And I know that I can do it. And I
know that pretty much every single
person listening to this who's ever
tried mindfulness knows what it feels
like. You're washing the dishes and you
catch yourself and you actually feel the
water hitting your hands. You're like,
"Holy fuck." Like, "This is me. I'm
alive. This is crazy." or when I'm
driving, like one of the saddest things
in the world is that driving is maybe
like probably top three opportunities to
be mindful. Uh I guess flying in a plane
is another one too, but driving even
more so active. I guess if you're the
pilot of a plane perhaps. Uh but there's
nothing else that you can really be too
distracted by, but you're not
sufficiently engaged that it's taking up
all of your mind share. I think this is
why I I'll make an admission. I really
love doing the washing up. Washing the
dishes to me is one of the best parts of
my day. And uh
it just captures the front of your mind
enough.
It's engaging enough to be to stop you
from being distracted or bored and
nowhere near sufficiently engaging to
actually capture most of your brain. Um,
but yeah, I think stringing together a
bunch of these seems pretty [ __ ]
enlightened to me. So anyway, that's my
realistic path to enlightenment.
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