Adventures in Awareness

Dr Shamil Chandaria is a senior research fellow at the centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford. He is also a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, London University, where he focuses on philosophical issues in neuroscience and well-being; a research fellow at Imperial College in the neuroscience of psychedelics; and a bye-fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. He has multi-disciplinary research interests spanning computational neuroscience, machine learning & artificial intelligence, and the philosophy and science of human well-being. He is currently working on computational theories of consciousness and meditation. Shamil has been a meditator for 38 years and has contemplative training in early Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shivaism.To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comYour contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/

To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comYour contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/

Workshop with Andrew Holecek 4th Sep: https://dandelion.events/e/w0dr9Full discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcUOXFASQm4To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comYour contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/0:00:00 Blindspots of highers states Jhanas | cessation 0:10:00 Enlightenment is expansion 0:14:00 Questioning awakening0:15:00 the goal posts are always moving0:18:00 How to stay open and focus0:26:00 abiding in the light0:31:00 dealing with pain0:39:00 suffering = pain + resistance0:49:00 total equanimity in pain0:50:00 plans for workshop on luminous awareness0:55:00 idealism vs emptiness1:07:00 one vs none 1:10:00 cessation vs idealismaduality vs nondualityJay Garfield vs Bernardo Kastrup

Workshop with Andrew Holecek 4th Sep: https://dandelion.events/e/w0dr9To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comYour contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/00:00 Intro6:40 Schools of Tibetan Buddhism10:00 Buddhism as a description of reality10:40 3 Turnings of the wheels in Buddhism14:00 Pixilated nature of reality = reduce suffering17:40 Andrew’s path into Tibetan Buddhism23:20 The value of understanding before realisation31:00 Three Year Retreat35:00 Lucid dreaming and sleeping38:40 Are the best teachers in the east? 46:00 Blindspots in the east48:00 What is the goal of life? Waking / Play55:00 Path of freedom vs Path of fullness56:00 Limitation of radical nonduality 58:00 Transcend and include59:00 You both need therapy1:01:00 Scandals and abuse in spirituality

A conversation with Dr  Ruben Laukkonen—cognitive scientist, neuroscientist and meditator —exploring the cutting edge of contemplative science and the mysterious experience of consciousness coming to a complete stop - cessation. - https://rubenlaukkonen.com/To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.com/Ruben completed an award-winning PhD on the cognitive science of insight at The University of Queensland in 2019, followed by post-doctoral research at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam on the computational neuroscience of meditation. Ruben is now a Senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University where his lab uncovers empirically grounded and experientially authentic models of meditation, insight, psychedelics, and consciousness. Using a combination of methods including neuroimaging, machine learning, and phenomenology, his team is investigating some of the rarest states of consciousness available to human beings- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin- https://adventuresinawareness.com- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawareness00:00:00 Introduction00:04:54 What Makes Meditative Cessation Unique?Defines how intentional cessation differs from sleep, anesthesia, or trauma.00:10:52 From Mindfulness to Advanced States: A New Wave of ResearchIntroduces a shift in meditation science toward rare and transformative states.00:21:08 EEG Findings: What Happens in the Brain During Cessation?Reveals broad changes in brain activity linked to deep meditative absorption.00:41:09 Computational Reset: - reduce grasping by resetting deep mental patterns.00:44:08 Have You Personally Experienced Cessation?00:45:55 How Science Informs Meditation (and Vice Versa)00:47:04 Predictive Processing and the Present Moment00:48:33 Understanding the Four Selves in Meditation00:49:39 Science vs. Philosophy: Are They Really Separate?00:51:00 Why All Maps Are Just Maps00:52:23 Meditation, Science, and the Mystery of Insight00:54:08 Did Science or Meditation Come First?00:55:46 Balancing a PhD with Deep Practice00:57:28 Is Awareness Just Another Dependent Arising?01:02:08 Did Ramana Maharshi Experience Cessation?01:04:02 Grasping at Awareness: A New Kind of Samsara01:06:44 Emptiness, Insight, and the Path that Keeps Unfolding01:08:17 Is the Goal of Buddhism Reducing Suffering or Knowing Reality?01:10:46 Wisdom and Compassion as Two Wings of the Path01:13:36 Could We Ever Measure Clinging in the Brain?01:17:02 Using Brain Flexibility to Detect Reduced Clinging01:18:50 Can Meditators Adapt to Reality Shifts Faster?01:21:45 Does Meditation Increase Mental Model Stability?01:22:04 Does Cessation Challenge Idealist Philosophy?01:24:46 Why I No Longer Start From Consciousness01:26:08 Consciousness: A Useful Concept or an Assumption?01:28:32 Cessation Undermines the Idealist View?01:30:12 Just Before Cessation01:32:00 Investigating the Nature of Awareness Itself01:34:00 Not Everyone Needs Cessation – And Why That Matters01:36:59 Reuben’s View: Emptiness Over Idealism01:38:38 On Being Misrepresented by “Metaconsciousness” Critics01:41:03 The Subtle Dualism of “Everything is Consciousness”01:44:14 Open Audience Q&A Begins01:45:05 What Meditation Practice Leads to Cessation?01:47:15 Why Integrity and Sincerity Matter More Than Method01:51:03 Upcoming Conference Appearances (Europe 2025)01:53:04 What Is Cessation Really? And What Is Emptiness?01:57:11 Emptiness as the Lack of Essence in All ThingsVideo editing by https://www.willbourchier.com/Banner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/