Dawn is a meditation expert and teacher in the Dhammakaya sect of Theravada Buddhism. She's one of two western non-monastics to have drained directly with meditation master and abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Luang Por Dhammajayo. Dawn touches on how she discovered meditation, the inner bodies of enlightenment and how to develop meditation as a habit.

What is jhana? Why do people have difficulty from first sit to absorption? What is non-duality? What is awakening? Is cessation required to have awakening? Tina Rasmussen has been practicing meditation for several decades. She is the co-author of the book "Practicing the Jhanas: Traditional Concentration Meditation as Taught by Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw. She describes her time with with Pa-Auk Sayadaw, doing a year long solo retreat and her experience teaching both jhana and dzogchen on meditation retreats.

Tina's interview contains some Pali words (ancient Indian language the Theravadin Buddhist texts are written in) and terminology that you might not understand. I explain those terms here. What we mean by the end goal in Buddhism, what jhana is, and more on the basic meditation terminology in Theravada Buddhism.

How it all started and where it all began... meditation was difficult for many years. I was fortunate to be able to learn in many different traditions under various teachers. From learning meditation to spiritual tourism and transformative insight.

For the benefit of all sentient beings, we bring you After Awakening, a show about meditation & enlightenment. I'm your host Ryan J Burton. I interview experts and am a meditation coach. Here you'll find stories, lessons and advice from meditation teachers and spiritual masters. We'll cover all the territory, all the levels and facets of awakening from beginning to end. This show is for the major questions. What is enlightenment? What does it mean to awaken? and how does that inform our lives?