I could listen to Daniel go on and on about this stuff for hours and not get bored. The guy is a real treasure. I hope that one day he gets the recognition that he deserves
Same. In fact I do listen to him for hours most days while I'm working and meditating in daily life! His obsession with the maps was a game changer for me and his ability to talk about the practices, how to do them, what they lead to, their benefits, their cons, and everything changed my life. I have become more of an advanced rather than intermediate meditator in a short period of time because of him and I have tremendous gratitude that he is such a good example of what many of us want to become and he did it and shared the whole path with us. Legend. Like, I NEVER understood three characteristics until he taught them and now I have become very good at doing them in several variations all day long and I went from having an a&p once in childhood to having hit the arising and passing and equanimity at least ten times now in the past two years, many of those phases being so powerful for me that I mistook it for stream entry until they settled down over some months. I love this guy.
Thanks for sharing this :) totally agree that he’s an inspiration. It’s so clear that he walks the walk by the way he talks the talk hahahaha He’s done so much for allowing the west to be more aware of what awakening is and how to attain it. The number of hours he’s put towards practice, theory, and community inspires me heavily
Great choice of teacher to interview man. Awesome. Makes me excited when people are smart enough to recognize that this is who they need to be talking to.
00:05 Interview start 00:10 Q: What are the ethical implications of introducing mindfulness to large scale organizations/corporations in the West? 00:37 A: The history of how Mindfulness came to us helps explain... 16:45 Q: Why is the Arising & Passing Away insight stage so important? 17:23 A: There's a line in people's lives that marks before and after, like 'spiritual puberty'... 22:25 Q: How can we better diagnose A&P and Dark Night experiences? 23:05 A: The Emergent Phenomena Research Consortium (EPRC)... 27:10 Q: Are there marketing efforts to raise awareness of this territory? 27:20 A: The EPRC has a small budget for these efforts, but it's not enough... 29:07 Q: What can help people cycling through the Progress of Insight? 29:51 A: This is a huge topic (>90 min), but one problem is imbalance from a meditative point of view - and what kind?... 31:23 A: Figuring out these imbalances is a lot of what I do... (questions) 34:05 Q: What are the mental muscles of the mind that can be strengthened, and how? 34:45 A: I'll talk about the modes of attention known as Vipassana Jhanas... 39:55 A: There a bunch of ways to conceptualize this from other traditions... 40:07 A: The morality component is the critical one... 42:39 Q: What are your tips for helping people sit every day if they want to? 43:04 A: First is to question the assumption that they should sit every day... 46:20 Q: If someone is in Equanimity and looking for stream entry, what do you recommend (and you've got 3 minutes)? 46:37 A: I'll highlight a few things that can happen in Equanimity that will 'mess it up'...
YES. With mindfulness/meditation practice, even trying to help people understand what they are consenting to can stir the beginnings of stuff we need their consent for. After considering this for some time, as excited as I get about this stuff sometimes, the general ethical guidelines seem to be to be vague and gentle, giving more details, explanations, and information only as the seeker demonstrates more sincerity than mere intellectual curiosity.
Totally agreed here. It’s such an amazing and transformative practice but the depth of experience that someone can encounter is far beyond anything we can warn someone for What is your relationship with meditation?
I really appreciate his acknowledgement that different paths work for different people, and the willingness to look at and study them from a scientific perspective. As an empath, where they did an EEG and thought they had to recalibrate the machine because it was so low, it seems as though the areas of my brain that need more work to develope are different than someone with a different neural default. Gary Weber also looks at the Neuro correlates. I find that very helpful.
Totally agreed here, thank you for sharing :) everyone is so different. What resonates and works for one person may not resonate and work for another. Just speak to the beauty of this journey in the sense that we know ourselves best and all answers are within us
I love how Daniel uses terms like "inertia" his appeal will be to the highly intellectual communities. People with Medical/engineering and Physical sciences will love him.
Exactly what Sondretski said! Mastering the core teachings of the Buddha. Here’s the online version: www.mctb.org/ Chapter 30 may be of interest to you :)
Great talk, has psyched me up to re-establish a regular practice again. Can I ask what practices you did specifically to get to the A & P stage? I got into concentration after reading Dan's book & watching/reading Leigh Brassington talk about the jhana's & was surprised how easily piti arose for me & I began entering the first 4 jhana's over several months. After the amazement wore off I sort of lost interest a little and wasn't really sure what to do with it - I read that you can begin insight practice once in the 3rd or 4th jhana but I was a little lost with what/how to do it even after reading that section in Dan's book. When I was super relaxed in the 3rd or 4th jhana's it seemed as though nothing was coming up to notice & perform insight practice on?
I had been doing random UA-cam meditations pretty infrequently before that event. Didn’t even really have a concept of what meditation was which I think was probably helpful for that to happen in hindsight hahaha I had no expectations, no spiritual knowledge, and no attachments to the practice then. It was just pure curiosity Interesting to hear about the jhanas. I can’t even definitely say I have any experience with them so it’s hard for me to relate
@@joeniemchak so it sounds like the A & P came about for you quite unexpectedly then. Do you think the random practices you were doing had anything to do with it occurring or could something else have contributed to it? I'm just interested because insight seems really elusive to me, even when observing the autonomous no-self nature of thoughts, feelings, perceptions etc along with their impermanence and dissatisfactoriness it all just seems intellectual to me and not a life changing, ground breaking realization or shift in the way I see things unfortunately. But who knows, maybe because my practice has been so concentration heavy such things just won't hit as hard or be as blindingly obvious? I've really got no idea... All I know is that I kind of just wish SOMETHING would happen to confirm that I'm on the right track.
@@DamienMcKinnon I think it was less about the practice and more about a pure surrender paired with complete lack of expectation. I was SO curious and open to any type of experience without any fear. There also wasn't any dogma in my head about what to "expect" from some type of mystical experience To think there is a "track" defeats the purpose of this whole endeavor. Whatever you're looking for can only be found right NOW and nowhere else. It's not about mystical experiences or the character having something happen to them. You can never sink too deeply into what IS. Finding this moment with full intimacy, unconditional love (without expectation), and zero fear are what has helped me This means not to desire anything other than what's here. Why wish for anything (like an A&P) other than what is arising right now? These are all just concepts you've read in a book, heard on a podcast, or made stories up through thought form. This isn't something that can be thought through or done by a perceived sense of "you" Simply just noticing what's arising and investigating the sheer impermanence of it all is what has been most beneficial for me Hoping this helps, don't mean to sound harsh in any way either. Life has just been much more freeing when letting go of any idea of "progress" or "attainments"
@@joeniemchak no harshness detected at all, this is all very useful to hear and I appreciate you taking the time to give such a thoughtful response. I certainly agree and resonate with everything you've said, while at the same time realizing there still needs to be some "doing" in order to rewire habitual patterns and unskillful ways of relating to perceptions. Expectation is a tough one esp after reading the progress of insight map laid out in MCTB, that chapter could do with a massive dislaimer at the start! :-D Surrendering, letting go, and being fearless is definitely something I'm familiar with - you can't enter the jhanas without doing this, I'll just have to start applying this in daily life.
@@joeniemchak I came across him last year. If I remember correctly, the first time I heard about him was through Frank Yang :) btw I just saw your latest video. I think it's wonderful that you are focusing on building community! 🙌 I wish you all the best for it Joe! 🌱💜
It points to a self that is still there to make claims about its "achievement". Also it goes against the very tradition that trained him in this form of meditation which actively disourages people from making public claims as they simply boost the ego and can often be wrong
I don't really know why anyone would lie about being free from human suffering especially in Daniel's case from listening to him talk a bunch. Are there any rules for laypeople like himself for claiming freedom? What makes the Buddha able to freely say that he's enlightened?
An important corrective to the Buddhism lite which has made its way to the West, ........but Daniel is a bit of a paradox......he's interested in neurophysical correlates to Buddhist stages and states, yet his own experiences include occult/metaphysical experiences which suggest that tying spiritual experience to biophysical processes might be rather wrong headed..... this feeds into our Western materialistic paradigm. But for Buddhism, as I understand it, all is empty and this is just a rainbow body illusion so I worry about all this brain wave stuff and neurotransmitters.......? Do w even have a brain which exists in linear time space? Am I my brain? Or are we part of a holographic cosmic brain (my crude way of stating Hwa Yen cosmology)......
I could listen to Daniel go on and on about this stuff for hours and not get bored. The guy is a real treasure. I hope that one day he gets the recognition that he deserves
Agreed! He can talk about the most specific stuff for hours. He’s a gem :)
Same. In fact I do listen to him for hours most days while I'm working and meditating in daily life! His obsession with the maps was a game changer for me and his ability to talk about the practices, how to do them, what they lead to, their benefits, their cons, and everything changed my life. I have become more of an advanced rather than intermediate meditator in a short period of time because of him and I have tremendous gratitude that he is such a good example of what many of us want to become and he did it and shared the whole path with us. Legend. Like, I NEVER understood three characteristics until he taught them and now I have become very good at doing them in several variations all day long and I went from having an a&p once in childhood to having hit the arising and passing and equanimity at least ten times now in the past two years, many of those phases being so powerful for me that I mistook it for stream entry until they settled down over some months. I love this guy.
Thanks for sharing this :) totally agree that he’s an inspiration. It’s so clear that he walks the walk by the way he talks the talk hahahaha
He’s done so much for allowing the west to be more aware of what awakening is and how to attain it. The number of hours he’s put towards practice, theory, and community inspires me heavily
@@user-fg3fv9hl3b Beautifully written. My experiences exactly. Love Daniel. He’s not wrong he’s just early (and society is catching up).
Great choice of teacher to interview man. Awesome. Makes me excited when people are smart enough to recognize that this is who they need to be talking to.
Thank you so much :) hoping you enjoyed the interview
00:05 Interview start
00:10 Q: What are the ethical implications of introducing mindfulness to large scale organizations/corporations in the West?
00:37 A: The history of how Mindfulness came to us helps explain...
16:45 Q: Why is the Arising & Passing Away insight stage so important?
17:23 A: There's a line in people's lives that marks before and after, like 'spiritual puberty'...
22:25 Q: How can we better diagnose A&P and Dark Night experiences?
23:05 A: The Emergent Phenomena Research Consortium (EPRC)...
27:10 Q: Are there marketing efforts to raise awareness of this territory?
27:20 A: The EPRC has a small budget for these efforts, but it's not enough...
29:07 Q: What can help people cycling through the Progress of Insight?
29:51 A: This is a huge topic (>90 min), but one problem is imbalance from a meditative point of view - and what kind?...
31:23 A: Figuring out these imbalances is a lot of what I do... (questions)
34:05 Q: What are the mental muscles of the mind that can be strengthened, and how?
34:45 A: I'll talk about the modes of attention known as Vipassana Jhanas...
39:55 A: There a bunch of ways to conceptualize this from other traditions...
40:07 A: The morality component is the critical one...
42:39 Q: What are your tips for helping people sit every day if they want to?
43:04 A: First is to question the assumption that they should sit every day...
46:20 Q: If someone is in Equanimity and looking for stream entry, what do you recommend (and you've got 3 minutes)?
46:37 A: I'll highlight a few things that can happen in Equanimity that will 'mess it up'...
YES. With mindfulness/meditation practice, even trying to help people understand what they are consenting to can stir the beginnings of stuff we need their consent for. After considering this for some time, as excited as I get about this stuff sometimes, the general ethical guidelines seem to be to be vague and gentle, giving more details, explanations, and information only as the seeker demonstrates more sincerity than mere intellectual curiosity.
Totally agreed here. It’s such an amazing and transformative practice but the depth of experience that someone can encounter is far beyond anything we can warn someone for
What is your relationship with meditation?
Awesome Joe it's great to see you two together. ❤
Thank you :)
I really appreciate his acknowledgement that different paths work for different people, and the willingness to look at and study them from a scientific perspective. As an empath, where they did an EEG and thought they had to recalibrate the machine because it was so low, it seems as though the areas of my brain that need more work to develope are different than someone with a different neural default. Gary Weber also looks at the Neuro correlates. I find that very helpful.
Totally agreed here, thank you for sharing :) everyone is so different. What resonates and works for one person may not resonate and work for another. Just speak to the beauty of this journey in the sense that we know ourselves best and all answers are within us
I love how Daniel uses terms like "inertia" his appeal will be to the highly intellectual communities. People with Medical/engineering and Physical sciences will love him.
Agreed! He makes awakening make sense to those types of people which I find to be quite valuable
😁
Wow! This is f*****g awesome dude! 💥😍🙏
😁😁😁
He’s amazing! I’d love to learn Kasina magic from him.
Agreed and agreed!!
Thanks 💚
You're very welcome! Thank you for watching :)
ooh, even more fun
☺️🙏🏻
Thank you Joe. Don’t understand the equanimity. Which Daniel’s book illustrates the details of the dark nights and equanimity?❤
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha
Exactly what Sondretski said! Mastering the core teachings of the Buddha. Here’s the online version: www.mctb.org/
Chapter 30 may be of interest to you :)
@@joeniemchak thank you so much ❤️
As a newly attained arahant i appreciate his vibrarions
❤️❤️❤️
You aren’t an arahant
@@ishowinertiaare you?
great advice...I think buddhist teachers not share the come to me if something weird happens or that old trauma can resurface with meditation
Yes, so much "stuff" can come up with meditation practice
Great talk, has psyched me up to re-establish a regular practice again. Can I ask what practices you did specifically to get to the A & P stage?
I got into concentration after reading Dan's book & watching/reading Leigh Brassington talk about the jhana's & was surprised how easily piti arose for me & I began entering the first 4 jhana's over several months. After the amazement wore off I sort of lost interest a little and wasn't really sure what to do with it - I read that you can begin insight practice once in the 3rd or 4th jhana but I was a little lost with what/how to do it even after reading that section in Dan's book. When I was super relaxed in the 3rd or 4th jhana's it seemed as though nothing was coming up to notice & perform insight practice on?
I had been doing random UA-cam meditations pretty infrequently before that event. Didn’t even really have a concept of what meditation was which I think was probably helpful for that to happen in hindsight hahaha
I had no expectations, no spiritual knowledge, and no attachments to the practice then. It was just pure curiosity
Interesting to hear about the jhanas. I can’t even definitely say I have any experience with them so it’s hard for me to relate
@@joeniemchak so it sounds like the A & P came about for you quite unexpectedly then. Do you think the random practices you were doing had anything to do with it occurring or could something else have contributed to it?
I'm just interested because insight seems really elusive to me, even when observing the autonomous no-self nature of thoughts, feelings, perceptions etc along with their impermanence and dissatisfactoriness it all just seems intellectual to me and not a life changing, ground breaking realization or shift in the way I see things unfortunately.
But who knows, maybe because my practice has been so concentration heavy such things just won't hit as hard or be as blindingly obvious? I've really got no idea... All I know is that I kind of just wish SOMETHING would happen to confirm that I'm on the right track.
@@DamienMcKinnon I think it was less about the practice and more about a pure surrender paired with complete lack of expectation.
I was SO curious and open to any type of experience without any fear. There also wasn't any dogma in my head about what to "expect" from some type of mystical experience
To think there is a "track" defeats the purpose of this whole endeavor. Whatever you're looking for can only be found right NOW and nowhere else. It's not about mystical experiences or the character having something happen to them. You can never sink too deeply into what IS. Finding this moment with full intimacy, unconditional love (without expectation), and zero fear are what has helped me
This means not to desire anything other than what's here. Why wish for anything (like an A&P) other than what is arising right now?
These are all just concepts you've read in a book, heard on a podcast, or made stories up through thought form. This isn't something that can be thought through or done by a perceived sense of "you"
Simply just noticing what's arising and investigating the sheer impermanence of it all is what has been most beneficial for me
Hoping this helps, don't mean to sound harsh in any way either. Life has just been much more freeing when letting go of any idea of "progress" or "attainments"
@@joeniemchak no harshness detected at all, this is all very useful to hear and I appreciate you taking the time to give such a thoughtful response.
I certainly agree and resonate with everything you've said, while at the same time realizing there still needs to be some "doing" in order to rewire habitual patterns and unskillful ways of relating to perceptions.
Expectation is a tough one esp after reading the progress of insight map laid out in MCTB, that chapter could do with a massive dislaimer at the start! :-D
Surrendering, letting go, and being fearless is definitely something I'm familiar with - you can't enter the jhanas without doing this, I'll just have to start applying this in daily life.
@@DamienMcKinnon I resonate with all of this dude, nailed it all on the head. May we all be liberated :D
Great talk Joe!
I sent him an email which you can find on his website. If you send me an email @ niemchakjoe@gmail.com then I can send it to you from there as well!
@@joeniemchak ah okay, easy as that. Thanks for your answer! 🙏
@@MareikeHuisinga Absolutely :) how long have you known about Daniel?
@@MareikeHuisinga Absolutely :) how long have you known about Daniel?
@@joeniemchak I came across him last year. If I remember correctly, the first time I heard about him was through Frank Yang :) btw I just saw your latest video. I think it's wonderful that you are focusing on building community! 🙌 I wish you all the best for it Joe! 🌱💜
Hey Joe, are you looking for a video editor by any chance?
Yes!!!! This would be amazing! Shoot me an email @ niemchakjoe@gmail.com
I speak about Daniel in my video. Love him as a teacher but the whole Arahant claim to me is still bizarre lol
Hahahaha why is the claim bizarre to you?
@@joeniemchak It's on my video. Why claim anything?
It points to a self that is still there to make claims about its "achievement".
Also it goes against the very tradition that trained him in this form of meditation which actively disourages people from making public claims as they simply boost the ego and can often be wrong
And so many people just believe him unquestionably. It’s honestly baffling.
I don't really know why anyone would lie about being free from human suffering especially in Daniel's case from listening to him talk a bunch. Are there any rules for laypeople like himself for claiming freedom? What makes the Buddha able to freely say that he's enlightened?
An important corrective to the Buddhism lite which has made its way to the West, ........but Daniel is a bit of a paradox......he's interested in neurophysical correlates to Buddhist stages and states, yet his own experiences include occult/metaphysical experiences which suggest that tying spiritual experience to biophysical processes might be rather wrong headed..... this feeds into our Western materialistic paradigm. But for Buddhism, as I understand it, all is empty and this is just a rainbow body illusion so I worry about all this brain wave stuff and neurotransmitters.......? Do w even have a brain which exists in linear time space? Am I my brain? Or are we part of a holographic cosmic brain (my crude way of stating Hwa Yen cosmology)......
This whole process and the concept of non duality will always be paradoxical. It’s all just concepts ;)