Episode 21: The Podcast So Far: a fireside conversation
Episode 21 of M3CS’s Contemplative Science Podcast saw our hosts Jamie Slevin and Dr Mark Miller take stock of the show thus far, reflecting on how best to encourage safe contemplative practice within our individual windows of tolerance.
For the full podcast, check out the episode here.
In this episode, we cover...
Why we all need to practice within our own windows of tolerance.
Reflections on different contemplative training styles, such as The Mind Illuminated.
The value of having a support network of friends and teachers in your practice.
Now on our twenty-first episode, we have been privileged to welcome a wealth of cognition and mindfulness experts from all over the world. As experienced meditation practitioners themselves, Jamie and Mark reflect on the unifying lessons learned from our myriad guests to shine light on the pitfalls of reckless contemplative practice.
Here are some of the key insights from the conversation..
Training one particular cognitive ability ignores the fact that these abilities work in unison together.
”You are a really complex ecosystem. You are an ecosystem of mental, emotional, perceptual, behavioural dynamics. It would be weird to think that training one of our myriad abilities is going to be so favoured over the others... and think that there's going to be a positive outcome.”
Mark emphasises that retreat should be something to build up to, not begin with.
”The best way I think to do retreats, is get into a progressive training programme, spend months or however long it takes to grow up your practice and to understand how the practice works... and you let that all happen organically from the bottom up. Then when you feel like you can't go any further without going into a more exclusive environment... that seems like the right time for going on a retreat.”
Training individual skills is a path to the ultimate aim of practice: transformation.
”The attention and awareness training are just opportunities to hone some of the consciousness skills and abilities that you have available to you, that make you more prone to see these certain things in the world that you tend to overlook. If you believe these Traditions, by overlooking them, you get into trouble, and if you could see them, then you could be changed in a way where you would work better. It's always the transformation that matters... the skills and abilities are just one of the ways that you find a better fit.”
See you next week!
