A deep dive down the rabbit hole of our astonishing, non-conceptual experience of what IS. John Astin is a health psychologist, meditation teacher, musician, and the author of four books on spiritual practice, including This Extraordinary Moment. His guided meditations can be found on Sam Harris's Waking Up app. 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 our prior interview with John. Here are all our videos on consciousness, meditation, and awakening. Video: https://zdoggmd.com/podcasting/john-astin-2/ Topics & Timecodes: 0:00 Intro 1:52 What are we? How consciousness identifies with its contents 6:33 The thought/conceptual world vs. the experiential world 11:25 Concepts can’t capture raw experience, quantum physics vs gross reality 16:24 The conceptual world and the spiritual “journey”, the nature of impermanence 23:37 How “long” is NOW? 28:06 What is living truth relative to the thought world, the pragmatic benefit of realization 34:43 Integrating absolute realization into daily life 41:09 Mind reduces infinity to finite and a sense of lack, non-duality 44:47 Coming off retreat and “reintegrating”, the “commentary” of thought consciousness 52:31 What IS anxiety experientially? 57:04 Conceptual thought world removes “magic” from experience 59:30 The power of attention and discernment in inquiring into experience 1:06:20 The apparent spiritual “journey” 1:10:38 Awakening and realization over time 1:12:52 We are wired to seek enjoyment 1:19:48 The radiant beauty of everything regardless of mental labels, what is art? 1:29:37 The miracle of what IS 1:40:17 A guided meditation/inquiry on presence: intro 1:42:19 Guided meditation on presence Video show archive, audio podcasts, music parodies, Supporter Tribe membership options, merch, social media, and email contact form: https://lnk.bio/zdoggmd Support us with a 1-time donation and get a personal email response from me: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/zdoggmd More about Dr. Z: https://zdoggmd.com/about-z/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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