Teaching Meditation

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In this conversation with Upali, Monica Anutes traces the path from her first day-long sit to teaching in Rob Burbea's lineage.  They then land on confidence: how it grows not from one dramatic insight but from noticing freedom again and again in small moments, and how much of it is borrowed — from teachers, from books, from sangha — before it becomes your own. Along the way: why emptiness and compassion aren't opposites, what dependent arising looks like in a hard morning, and Monica's work bringing Seeing That Frees into Portuguese.

https://www.monicaantunes.com/en/about

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Upali interviews Monica Heiser, a teacher in the insight lineage Mindfulness in Daily Life (MIDL).  Monica is one of the few guests we've had on the show who is a fulltime school teacher, so she and Upali talk about how this informs her pedagogy.  She and Upali talk about effort and overeffort in practice, and how this can lead to big distractions such as lust for jhanas, and they contrast this with the positive feedback loop of wellbeing that comes from balanced practice.  You can read more about Monica at https://monicaheiser.com/meditation-awakening/ and more about the lineage at https://midlmeditation.com/

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Lysha Smith is a senior teacher in the lineage of SN Goenka, running the Dhamma Dhara center in Massachusetts.  The conversation touches on a number of issues, including 

• How they manage to keep their courses free of charge
• Why they're so "unhip"?  (We think we're the first big Dharma podcast to do an episode on Goenka)
• Do Goenka retreats cause serious mental health side effects at a higher rate than other traditions, or is it just the sample bias (way, way more people do their retreats than others)?
• How is the lineage evolving?

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Meditation teacher and attachment theory expert George Haas talks about the effects of insecure attachment, as well as how combining meditation with other modalities can cause a permanent shift in attachment style.  See mettagroup.org for more information.

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Leigh tells us the story of how he became a jhana teacher, and we learn the thrilling story of the life of Ayya Khema, his teacher.  He tells us about jhana being an endangered species, and then he tells us about his newest book: Love, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity, which includes the concept of self-Mudita.  The middle section is Leigh focusing on his search for a successor to make sure that jhana retreats continue.

For more about Leigh Brasington, head over here.

The Teachers Leigh Recommends in the Podcast

https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/person/mary-aubry/

https://heathersundberg.com/

https://southerndharma.org/teachers/1587/meagan-chambers/

https://www.cheltenhamzen.co.uk/

https://rockymountaininsight.org/dharma-talks-lucinda-green/

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In this episode of Teaching Meditation, Upali interviews longtime student-turned-teacher Robin Moisson to explore his journey from an early crisis of meaning in engineering school to intensive retreats in Southeast Asian monasteries, and ultimately back to teaching in the West. They discuss navigating cultural barriers in traditional settings, discovering pragmatic Dharma, and Robin’s path from full-time to part-time teaching as he balances financial reality with practice and teaching.

Learn more about Robin, in English or French, at https://robinmoisson.com/

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Upali interviews Boaz about the relational meditation practices he's been doing, including relational qi gong.  Their conversation then pivots to the role Boaz sees meditation practice holding in healing and altering societies.  Boaz will be speaking at a conference Dec 5 - 7, 2025, and you can find more information at this link.  Boaz's newest paper is over here.

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Professor Steven Haberlin is a professor at the University of Central Florida.  In this episode, you'll hear him talk about teaching small amounts of meditation to very large amounts of people.  Steven tells us about the benefits of this style of teaching, as well as what risks there are.  The episode then focuses on research he's been doing on technological adjuncts to meditation and the use of meditation apps.  The research forms part of his new book, Meta-Meditation for Mental Health: How Neuroscience, Virtual Reality, and AI are Changing Practice and How You Can Benefit.

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Upali interviews Anusheh, who began practicing The Mind Illuminated in order to improve her anxiety.  While it did help, it was a more convoluted path than she had been expecting.  One topic she and Upali talk about is the idea that striving is actually helpful, in that it causes you to burn out enough that you stop doing it, which is the route to good practice.  Anusheh also talks about the transition from lusting after enlightenment -- "future happiness" -- with the focusing on what happiness could look like in the present moment.  

"Rejecting your experience right now takes a lot of energy!"

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Stephen Zerfas, founder of the Jhana startup Jhourney (get it?), covers a wide range of topics in today's interview.  He and Tucker talk about the relationship of the jhanas to the rest of the path, how Stephen has succeeded in getting so much publicity, and how the larger Dharma community has responded to a tech startup teaching meditation retreats.

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