Meditation on sacred sound has been practiced across traditions as a way to quiet the mind, open the heart, and reconnect with the divine. In this episode, Vipin, Hari Prasada, and Rasanath focus on the maha-mantra, exploring the philosophy behind it and the lived experience of making it a daily practice. They discuss how sacred sound penetrates the consciousness, why the maha-mantra is considered uniquely potent, and what begins to shift internally as one chants. Throughout the conversation, they offer reflections from decades of practice, describing how chanting uproots materialistic desires, cleanses selfishness, and strengthens the longing of the soul for pure connection. They also provide guidance for the beginner: how to start chanting, how much to chant, and why community support is essential. We invite you to start experiencing sacred sound as a way to uncover the true self beneath all the layers of our ego conditioning.

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

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At Upbuild, mantra meditation is the centerpiece of our meditation practice. In this episode, Hari Prasada leads a mantra meditation using a very simple and sacred syllable: Ram. This syllable is very absorbing, has a strong resonance in the body, and brings a deep connection to ourselves and to our source. As yogis and sages have been doing for ages, when we ground the mind with a mantra, it's incredible the treasure that can be attained. 

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

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Instagram: @upbuildnyc
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At Upbuild, meditation is our core practice to help us move away from the ego and toward the self. In this episode, Hari Prasada leads a 20-minute guided meditation to help you become present with your breath and the three centers of intelligence: the head, the heart, and the body.

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
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With 50 years and more than 35,000 hours of meditation experience among them, Hari Prasada, Rasanath, and Vipin, dive into the topic of meditation. They discuss the definition of meditation, why it’s so important to control the mind, why it’s becoming more popular these days, and the numerous non-spiritual benefits of meditation, including calmness, focus, clarity, and productivity. They also look at how meditation has been misappropriated and share the deepest purpose of meditation, which explains all of the other health benefits for which people are using.

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
Facebook: Upbuild
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Most of us think we have a pretty good idea about what love is. After all, we have all been seeking it our entire lives. And yet, the reality is that most of us don’t really understand it at all. Inspired by recent insights from the Upbuild weekly program Remembering Who We Are, Vipin, Rasanath, and Hari Prasada delve into the concept of love as the highest form of motivation. They shed light on why most of us misunderstand love, how we tend to reduce or dismiss love, what we use as our substitutes for real love, and the conditions that need to be present for the experience of real love.

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
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Most of us keep death at arm's length. We might discuss it in a casual way or we might even joke about it, but how many of us are really introspective about death and all of the implications that come with it? In this episode, Michael, Rasanath and Hari Prasada delve into the importance of contemplating death in order to have a good life. They examine how death can help us reevaluate how we spend our time, discover the inconsistencies in our life, and challenge our existing paradigms. They conclude by discussing what we can learn from near death experiences and how facing death can help the ego die before the body dies

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
Facebook: Upbuild
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Relationships often operate on unspoken assumptions and implicit agreements. And this is one of the reasons our relationships are so dysfunctional. In this episode, Mary, Michael, and Vipin introduce the skill of “Creating Conscious Relationship” to help you turn the implicit into the explicit, and in the process, to increase the trust in your relationships. They share the key components of this skill, their personal experiences of using it, and a step-by-step process to implement it for maximum impact.

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
Facebook: Upbuild
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Conversations can be triggering. How we deal with those triggers determines everything about how effective and meaningful those conversations (and by extension, our relationships) end up being. In this episode, Michael, Rasanath, and Vipin explore the tool of “Pinch Moments” as a way to be able to recognize, call out, and address conversations that trigger us… without triggering ourselves.

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
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Are you growing or are you contracting? In this episode, Vipin and Michael introduce the framework of the comfort, stretch, and panic zones. They discuss what differentiates each zone from the others and how having awareness of these zones can help us grow towards the best version of ourselves. They share how they have used this framework on themselves and with their coaching clients, why most people spend time in either the comfort or panic zones, how the ego fits into the picture, and they provide effective strategies so that we can consciously spend more time in the stretch zone.

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
Facebook: Upbuild
LinkedIn: Upbuild

Don’t ask: Do you have faith? Ask: Where do you put your faith?
In this episode, Hari Prasada, Rasanath, and Vipin discuss how faith is foundational to our daily lives and the intrinsic relationship between faith, knowledge, and experience. They analyze why faith is often associated with “blind faith,” how faith is not just a religious construct, and the role of faith in science. And finally, they unpack how faith is pivotal to being able to answer the question, “Who am I?”

Links

The Call to Awaken. Our flagship program on spirituality. Starts March, 2026. Open for registration. Limited spots available.

Enneagram Library Live: Join our bi-weekly conversations and teachings on the Enneagram to help you see yourself, others, and the human condition more clearly. Thursdays at 6pm ET on Zoom.

Upbuild Coaching Certification Training. Starts in October.

Upbuild Website

Instagram: @upbuildnyc
Facebook: Upbuild
LinkedIn: Upbuild