Joey Lott is not a spiritual teacher. He’s not offering enlightenment, awakening, liberation, or any such carrot to keep you searching for something else.

Instead, he’s just a fellow person who had the fortune to discover that the willingness to stop seeking for answers, for solutions to all kinds of imagined spiritual problems, reveals the peace of just being whatever is happening - which is all that is ever happening anyway. It’s not a glorious attainment. It’s not morally or spiritually elevated. It’s very mundane, and often uncomfortable - exactly like your life now.

Joey doesn’t do formal teaching. In an ever-changing manner, he does experiment with inviting others to join in a conversation and explore the assumptions that underlie suffering.

Website: joeylott.com

YouTube Channels:

Joey Lott

Completely Ordinary

Books:

The Best Thing That Never Happened

You're Trying Too Hard: The Direct Path to What Already Is

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded 2/13/2016

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

 

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump

00:04:47 - Shifting Perspectives on Identity

00:09:22 - The Perception of Suffering and Reality

00:13:34 - The intensity of my meditation practice

00:17:42 - The Addictive Cycle of Meditation

00:20:49 - The Experience of Suffering and Inner Dissatisfaction

00:24:53 - The Relief of Stopping the Obsession

00:28:35 - Fear of Triggers and Rituals

00:32:57 - The Shift Towards Surrender

00:37:24 - Relaxation of Control and Shift in Perspective

00:41:47 - Embracing Fear and Facing Problems

00:48:43 - Finding Balance in Spiritual Teachings

00:50:41 - The Middle Ground of Purification

00:55:31 - Spiritual Teachings for the Benefit of Humanity

00:59:40 - Methamphetamine and the Brain

01:03:35 - The Marginalization of People

01:08:25 - The Reality of Experience

01:12:40 - Critique of Popular Spirituality

01:16:53 - Recognizing the Full Truth

01:21:19 - The Directness of Experience and Comparison to Ramana

01:25:22 - The Illusion of Awareness and Consciousness

01:30:06 - The Promise of Removing Uncertainty

01:33:55 - The Illusion of Ownership and Doership

01:38:35 - Appreciating Concepts, But Valuing Experience

01:42:58 - The Paradoxical Nature of Taking Action

01:46:49 - Dealing with OCD

01:50:39 - Perception of a diverse natural world and dangers of moral authority

01:54:01 - The Decline of Bee Populations and Environmental Responsibility

01:58:47 - The Interconnectedness of Life and the Power of Consciousness

02:02:37 - Ambivalent about taking money for conversations