The ZDoggMD Show

By Dr. Zubin DamaniaMedicine Health & Fitness Religion & Spirituality Spirituality

The ZDoggMD Show episodes

November 13The Single Greatest Obstacle To Liberation (w/ex-Monk, Tobias Ricardo)
Pain happens, but suffering needs an owner. Former Hindu monk Tobias Ricardo on why people hold up their story like it's a baby, and why the me gets so mad when you won’t take the bait.

Youtube video here.

Click here for all my usual links, music, videos, podcast, Supporter Tribe and more.
Why Tobias’s one-on-ones keep circling back to the belief that “I’m here, and one day I won’t be”

Why watching videos to reach liberation is energy spent on “this isn’t it”

The moment he realized the speakers weren’t describing a destination

What to say when someone wakes up feeling like a me and wants it to stop

Why liberation was never a me going away: the illusion and its timeline fall together

Hitting a brick wall as a long-term monk, and why the search was the interesting part

People who disappear for months, the rubber band effect and the end-stage seeker’s last tricks

Terror at the bedroom window when the awareness experiences ran out

Awareness teachings, the asymptote and why celebrities love them

Whether the seeking was a necessary preparatory step

The Darth Vader “search your feelings” moment of relief, and no chooser, no shame

Why a speaker with no personal energy can’t offer a path to liberation

Radical non-duality as an energetic dance rather than an explanation, and whether it’s just another dogma

Pain vs suffering, and people showing off “my suffering” like a baby

Why people get angry when you won’t treat their pain as theirs

Unworthiness, and what’s left when its energetic bottom drops

Why you can’t explain an illusion, and the mirage that never had water

Awareness reified into the Uber me

Fifteen years as a monk and no opinion on something that didn’t happen

“Nothing is happening” and the bathtub plug

The iron filings and the magnet of personal energy

The death of the questioner: pneumonia, Neptune and just this

Parenting without ownership, and how fighting creates the opponent

Why nobody wants “this is it already,” and why everything continues

Where to find Tobias: his YouTube channel, the WhatsApp group and one-on-ones

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1 hr 1 min
November 02Why Every Non-Duality Speaker Is Lying (w/Kat van Oudheusden)
True lies such as self-help is hopeless, "selfless leadership" is anything but, and spiritual bypass IS THE WHOLE POINT 🔥 The innocent, impersonal simplicity of THIS.
Kat Van Oudheusden's books, free Zoom meetings, and more here.
Why Kat’s personal story and “how I woke up” don’t make sense anymore, and the relief when story stops mattering

Why seekers cling to the story of what Kat did, and what it’s like being a female voice in the male-dominated radical non-duality space

The two extremes: “no one here, nothing to do” versus “we’re all love and a higher version of me,” and why they meet in a circle

How self-inquiry can use the selfing mechanism to short-circuit itself

Natural inquiry versus “artificial” inquiry from YouTube teachers, and life disillusioning beliefs one at a time

Why everyone sees this in their own sequence, and how the mind turns whatever happened just before into the teaching

Kat’s six aspects of no self and the essential inquiries in her book Seeing No Self

Testing inquiries with more than 100 people over three years, mostly by WhatsApp

Inquiry as a framework without a fixed path, process, or recipe

Zubin’s early intellectual understanding, the energetic knot, and the belief that things always work out for the best

If there is no doer, does “stop seeking” even make sense, and how radical non-duality and inquiry compare

Zubin’s fossil record of contradictory expressions, from stages of enlightenment to “there is nothing to do”

“We’re all liars”: no one can speak the truth about non-duality, and 8 billion versions are equally true or untrue

Why judging another version of non-duality means you don’t understand it

“I am no one” as another form of selfing, and freedom when it’s all seen as impersonal

COVID, “alt-middle,” and how all positions were seen as impersonal

Irreversible seeing versus the lived experience, which can still be contracted, egoic, and selfing

A body that isn’t owned, being 50 and 53, parenting, and playing roles without believing in them

The non-dual identity, and the relief when the camera turned off

Why all of it is useful nonsense, and how Rupert Spira’s and Tony Parsons’s messages each landed

Inquiry as breadcrumbs, direct recognition, and the seeking mechanism going into overdrive

Why the spiritual world is full of ego, $10,000 retreats, and the myth of progress in being human

Donald Hoffman’s nightly meditation, and Zubin’s spontaneous inquiry into materialism versus consciousness

“We’re all end-stage seekers,” and the seahorse analogy for belief in a separate self

The pretend game of separation, TED talks, and years working in university systems

Why nobody wants what impersonal offers, and the non-duality police versus the personal religion crowd in the comments

Morality, the separate soul that needs saving, and “sinners in the hands of an angry God”

Zubin’s unworthiness reactor, and being grateful that nothing solved it

Never having mystical experiences, and why that makes it doubtless

Non-duality as the next lingo, and posting insight on social media

AI-generated clips of soundbites, and doing meetings anyway

The recursive loop of confusion, and “my thoughts are also just this”

The end of hope, and impersonal hope

The descriptive versus prescriptive fallacy, and practicing non-attachment

Why it’s all innocent, and Kat’s book title joke “Isness”

Romantic music, the hero’s journey, and not taking any of it seriously

Servant leadership as selfless leadership, and why a self trying to be a servant leader is the worst kind

Zubin’s wife as an example of effortless servant leadership

Momentary glimpses, and “where did the moment go?”

Shadow work and internal family systems, and why digging through the trash only finds more trash

Looking where the self is not, rather than into more of it

Spiritual bypass: “you have to bypass,” and why accusing others of bypassing is the least spiritual thing to do

Kat’s name, growing up in Thailand, and plans for a part two

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1 hr 24 min
October 30Do you really need all this spiritual crap? | Thursday Zen, LIVE
Polish the turd of “me” long enough and it still won’t shine. A Thursday Zen rant for anyone who’s done everything "right" and is still seeking that enlightenment fix.
From our live YouTube conversation here.

Topics:
A warning to the seeking energy that wants to polish itself until the self disappears

Zubin’s story: the doctor and YouTuber who was miserable no matter what he achieved

The core sense of brokenness, unworthiness, and separation behind the seeking

The spiritual path as becoming an enlightened self, and the books and teachers that went with it

Meditation, self inquiry, and resting as the I am, and why it felt like torture

Glimpses and retreat insights as experiences for a “me”

The spiritual industrial complex and why YouTube feeds it

A slow, torturous disillusionment with every practice and guru

A message for seekers: there is no future, no better, and no one

Why wanting to lose the me is the me wanting the me gone

Shadow work and trauma stories as more of the same story

The nuclear reactor of unworthiness, and what happened when it collapsed

What changed: spontaneous yes and no, no more people pleasing, and a nicer guy

Whether you need spiritual practices (if they show up, they show up)

Preferences remain, but nobody is left to own what people think

Comment: panic attacks, the second arrow, and life showing up as panic

Why it feels impossible to the one who wants it

The mirage and the water, and how nothing is rejected

Tony Parsons and Jim Newman, and how everyone points differently

Disillusionment with teachers, and “I’m not a teacher”

Free will, progress, and moving through the universe

A Star Trek tangent (Kirk versus Picard)

Zoroastrian roots, the Avesta, and why no belief stuck

Is “no self” just another belief, and how daily life has changed

Is non-duality another form of escapism, and what spiritual bypass looks like

Money, wealth, and a message with no conditions

Zen at war and why beliefs are useless

The word “influencer,” and the loving character underneath the oppositional one

Money fears, doubt, and Tim Cliss’s “doubtless uncertainty”

Supporting your kids and the fear of ending up on the street

Would mega wealth change anything, and billionaires as powerful seekers

Studying Zen Buddhism, and why practice is an epiphenomenon

Why awakening seems correlated with practice

The descriptive versus prescriptive fallacy, and teachers who sell techniques

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1 hr 1 min
October 25ZPupp's Home From College! (LIVE)
I sent a kid off to college and a some sort of crazy adult came back 🫣😂 WARNING: contains spiritual ego collateral damage and one ANGRY cat named The Mitch! From our YouTube Live conversation.
Nina (Z-Pupp) is home from Vassar for fall break, and the live is for Nai Nai to see her

Why Nina left California for a school where she knew no one

Double majoring in music and econ, and why she didn’t go to NYU for the music business

Chamber music, her professor, and live-streamed orchestra concerts watched at home on the big TV

Mendelssohn, and the screen photo texted to her mid-concert

Making friends, her surprise roommate, and the case for a small liberal arts college

Poughkeepsie versus New York City, and the train into the city

A violin lesson in San Francisco, playing a Sarasate duet, and favorite composers

The one dining hall, the bagel place, and the acai bowl shop where strangers pitched Vassar to her on the college visit

Winning a concerto competition, and Nina’s opinion of Vivaldi

The campus petting zoo and its ferret, chinchilla, and baby kangaroo

The Mitch the cat: escape attempts, getting caught, and Nina the cat whisperer

Professors’ outfits, music theory capes, and the jean jacket comeback

The Cocteau Twins, and whether they count as emo

Whether the Mitch is fat or just fluffy, and “you can’t win with women who know everything”

What Nina misses most about home (her car), and feeling stuck in Poughkeepsie

San Francisco tech bros, cappuccino art, and the vocal fry of Pacific Heights

Dining hall slop, the freshman 15 in reverse, and joining a squash class and biking

How Stanford benefits help pay for tuition

Drop-off night, hotel bourbon, and a musician tip from the chat

Professor Navega’s threat to “snap her neck” for being late

Affluent classmates, generational wealth, and debutante parties

Parties, Halloween weekend, and Zubin’s freshman 15 at Berkeley

Nina’s take on the awakening stuff: “we just gotta live in the here and now, even though that doesn’t exist”

Zubin agrees that awakening talk is nonsense, and why he keeps talking about it

Vermont hippie colleges and the leg hair debate

Crying (or laughing) at drop-off, and doom scrolling in the rental Volvo

Halloween costumes: a chicken onesie and a Love Island robe with dollar store snakes

Is college worth it in the age of AI: connections, Swiffers, and learning to be an adult

Side hustles, and “what is a Zubin” showing up in Shorts feeds

Donald Hoffman, conscious agents, and the homunculus

Whether the kids had an awakening: telling Nina “nothing is real” during COVID and her existential crisis at 10

Spiritual ego, and why a “me” with a new insight wants to inflict it on its kids

Watching Nina grow up on the channel, the Big Pharma video, and Dr. House of Cards

“Gaffes” and “C’s get degrees” versus “P equals MD”

The stumbling block of teaching what you just learned

Amenemope, the Bhagavad Gita, and Nina’s plan to take it next semester

Using AI, just not for art or music

Zubin’s Zoroastrian upbringing and chanting from the Avesta at 11

Zubin’s “it’s all just this” take on oneness and consciousness

Arjuna, Krishna, and killing your brother’s army

AI flattery, and Zubin’s British lady Claude voice in the car

Nina’s cognitive science class, “Chat with Pat,” and why the chatbot folds under pushback

Whether Claude is conscious, and who is having the experience

Saying please and thank you to AI, and older people finding company in chatbots

Waymos, who is liable when AI goes wrong, and the doomer argument

Dallas hospitality, a midnight hotel check-in, and an Uber ride into the MAHA conspiracy

Chatty Ubers in Poughkeepsie and New York

Whether Dallas counts as the South

Wrap-up, solfege, and sending Nina back to school (she’ll be back in December)

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1 hr 3 min
October 13 Ex-Hindu monk on the utter failure of spiritual seeking (w/ Tobias Ricardo)
Tobias Ricardo spent 15 years as a Hindu monk and had pretty much every spiritual experience on the menu: kundalini fireworks, blissed-out “I am” states, retreats, the works. The real freedom turned out to be seeing that all of it was happening to and for a “me” who was never actually there. If you’ve had glimpses that never seem to stick, and you keep thinking you just need one more retreat, maybe check this conversation out 😉

Click here for all my usual links, music, videos, podcast, Supporter Tribe and more.

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1 hr 28 min
October 02 The Only True Compassion (w/ Tim Cliss)
I sat down with Tim Cliss to talk about how nobody's home, how there's no prize at the end of the "spiritual" search, and how compassion works a lot better once there's no "you" left to get in its way. Also featured: psychedelics, ego death, and the surprisingly good news that hope is doomed 🥳

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1 hr 5 min
September 28The end of seeking is NOT what you think
I got an email this morning with the subject: "I died and you helped. Thanks." 😳

Here's the resulting YouTube LIVE discussion!
Topics covered:
Reading an email from a longtime viewer describing two years of awakening, contraction, and finally the realization there was never anyone on the journey

Why the end of seeking is surprising precisely because it's so ordinary, not some mystical attainment

Why "unconditional love" and other spiritual language are imperfect pointers, and what they're actually gesturing at

A follow-up phone call with email author, and what it's like when nothing lands or sticks between two people who've been through this

Losing the impulse to fix or save other people once agency is seen through

Compassion as natural, unforced acceptance of everything, including one's own conditioning

The nuclear reactor analogy for how unworthiness gets walled off in childhood, and what happens when it melts down

Processing anger and grief, including a viewer whose son is becoming homeless, and why there's no such thing as spiritual bypassing

Revisiting the fury felt at the Hiroshima museum and how it naturally resolved

Money, financial fear, and how the drive to "keep hustling" has changed

Why the VPZD show and other seemingly contradictory activities still arise and make sense

How the self attaches itself to actions after the fact to preserve the illusion of free will and agency

The self described as a verb ("selfing") rather than a fixed thing

Heaven, hell, and why eternity of any single experience, even pleasure, becomes hell

Marriage, kids, and whether family changes how someone relates to death

Closing reflections on watching a daughter start college, liberal arts education, and the peace out

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1 hr 24 min
September 23 Beliefs are tricky...
The sense of self may die, but these termites eating my house are still VERY much alive 😉

My recent livestream on TikTok. Some of the topics touched on:
Beliefs as an endless, dissolving process.
The VPZD show as a dance of conditioning between hosts and audience.
Fighting for a cause as really fighting for identity.
Communicating needs with a partner.
Book recommendations for exploring non-duality.
A partner's neediness as a mirror for one's own conditioning.
Doctor as just another fallen-away identity.
Finding meaning in a meaningless existence.
Why human consciousness defaults to negativity.
Letting go of the belief that you should be positive.
Getting contradictory antivax and pro-vax accusations back to back. Substituting one identity paradigm for another.
Reflecting on the 30s, 40s, and 50s as different flavors of seeking.
Flu shot risk tolerance and personal choice.
The shingles vaccine decision.
Nothing is happening, yet the characters keep playing their story out. Political yard signs causing friction with a spouse.
Sitting with the shock of losing a friend badly.
What is the point of any of this.
Termites, relative and ultimate reality.
Letting go of tribal fighting.
The Macklemore and Ed Sheeran controversy revisited.
Viewers sharing Macklemore songs and other political art.
Richard Wagner as beauty coexisting with bigotry.
Working with insects as a way to understand fear.
Closing thoughts on why this TikTok live feels accepting.

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48 min
September 02 There's no bypassing life, like, EVER
A live YouTube conversation about dropping our oldest child off for college, ending with an overpriced bottle of hotel Jim Beam drunk out of plastic cups by a Homewood Suites firepit. Yeah, enlightenment ain't what the gurus have been selling us 😭😅

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56 min
August 08 Alone, Together
Back from Japan to talk about being "alone together," why the "loneliness epidemic" is something engineered by the "me", and how bliss, grief, Fauci, and a three-dollar vintage shirt all fit into the same perfect unfolding.

Video show archive, audio podcasts, music parodies, Supporter Tribe membership options, merch, social media, and email contact form: ⁠https://lnk.bio/zdoggmd

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1 hr 14 min

About The ZDoggMD Show

From the publisher's feed

Interviews and live rants on healthcare, depolarizing our divided society, and the non-dual nature of reality. Hosted by UCSF/Stanford-trained physician Dr. Zubin Damania (AKA ZDoggMD).