What happens if you drop the mental labels, constructs and THOUGHTS about reality, and just look directly at your immediate experience? Strap yourself in because psychologist John Astin helps us see what's right in front of us, now and always 🤯John Astin is a meditation teacher, musician, and the author of four books on spiritual practice, including Searching for Rain in a Monsoon. He has a Ph.D. in health psychology and is an adjunct professor of clinical and counseling psychology at Santa Clara and Notre Dame de Namur Universities. Find his books, teachings, and more on his website. Here's the interview with Donald Hoffman that we referenced and check out all our videos on consciousness, meditation, and awakening.Video: https://zdoggmd.com/podcasting/john-astin/Topics & Timecodes0:00 Introduction9:01 The role of psychedelics, self transcendence & wonder13:25 Awakening to non-dual reality18:10 The miracle of our present experience25:00 How words and concepts can’t capture experience28:35 Conceptual vs. Experiential perspective: an exercise34:10 Analogy to the vase illusion image: parts and whole coexist49:28 The inconceivability of any experience, including emotions like worry and anxiety58:29 The fractal/holographic nature of reality, the oneness of experience1:01:28 Awakening as a sense of homecoming1:05:15 The paradox of suffering and our frame of reference1:09:50 “Relative” medicine vs. “Ultimate” medicine, clarifying the nature of pain1:17:18 The impermanence of experiential phenomenon1:26:40 The paradox of striving/seeking, allowing experience to be1:29:00 Drifting reality and what is attention, the groundless nature of experience1:33:28 The paradox of meditation and effort, the role of teachers1:43:06 The dreamlike quality of waking experience1:45:20 Zoom as an abstraction vs. in person experience1:48:50 What is meditation? What is common to all experience: one taste1:55:05 What is consciousness? Reality is “just this”; what is “presence”2:04:55 All views are partial, the Alt-Middle, Integral perspective, thoughts are just thoughts2:07:43 McGilcrist and left brain vs right brain, Jill Bolte Taylor2:10:40 Wrapping up, links, and the book This Extraordinary Moment

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