Kenneth Folk is a personal meditation trainer known worldwide for his innovative approach to secular Buddhist meditation. After twenty years of training in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, including three years of intensive silent retreat in monasteries in Asia and the U.S., Kenneth began to spread his own findings, successfully stripping away religious dogma to make meditation accessible to modern practitioners.

Kenneth has been recognized by Wired Magazine as an influential voice in Silicon Valley’s tech culture, a "power player of the mindfulness movement."

Website: kennethfolkdharma.com

YouTube Channel

Summary and Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded 1/17/2015

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 - Introduction to Kenneth Folk

00:04:30 - Degrees and Levels of Awakening

00:09:16 - The Diversity of Spiritual Perspectives

00:13:45 - The Constituents of Experience

00:18:39 - Debunking the idea of an awareness ground state

00:23:19 - The Meaning of Nibbana

00:27:53 - The Radical Idea of Nibbana

00:31:51 - The relevance of Buddhism for us

00:36:39 - The Witness State

00:41:34 - The Sublime Experience of the Witness

00:46:32 - Evaluating Different Experiences

00:51:08 - The Drive to Discover Deeper Reality

00:54:57 - What is Mindfulness and its relation to meditation?

00:58:19 - The Two Types of Meditation and the Importance of Mindfulness

01:01:13 - Awakening through Meditation

01:04:20 - The Benefits of Dedicated Practice

01:07:29 - Different Ways of Defining Awakening

01:11:07 - Varieties of Experience

01:14:11 - The Myth of Hercules and its implications in athletics and brain development

01:17:31 - The Finite Resource of Attention

01:20:44 - Understanding Mindfulness through Concentration

01:24:06 - The Relationship between Concentration and Enjoyment

01:27:27 - Filters and Objectification in Meditation

01:30:32 - The Developmental Window for Awakening

01:33:25 - Our Umwelt and the Experience of Reality

01:36:40 - The Pursuit of Sublime Experiences

01:40:24 - The Ultimate Union with Consciousness

01:43:32 - The Evolution of the Spiritual Scene

01:46:05 - Awakening and the Power of Grassroots Transformation

01:49:16 - Percolating Shifts in the Industry

01:51:53 - Appreciation for the Audience