Quote from Gerhard on May 25, 2025, 19:20

Shinzen Young is one of my favourite meditation teachers. He has a very interesting life story. He spent many years living as a monk in Japan during his youth, and has had a lifetime of meditation + teaching experience. He talks on YouTube experience about his Enlightenment experiences, and I find him to be a very wholesome, polite, humble, relatable person.

In this latest video, Shinzen is interviewed! I encourage everyone to watch it in full, and share their takes. For me, I had two big takeaways.

1. Even at age 80, Shinzen is excited to be involved in meditation research projects (ultrasound modulation research at University of Arizona's SEMA lab) — he is still passionate about bringing Enlightenment to the world — the bodhisattva spirit is well alive in him! That makes me super happy, and is inspiring.
2. Shinzen acknowledges the need for a more effective means of bring Enlightenment to the world. He is working to develop a technology you can point at your head, which will drop the user into deep states of equanimity — where deep spiritual shifts can happen for a trained meditator. This can in theory be much better than psychedelics, which have various downsides.

Enlightenment is such a gift to the world, but it is really difficult to attain. A lot of Buddhist traditions recognise that the process may take several lifetimes from the point of dedicating yourself on that path — even for full time monks. That is probably accurate. However, there is sense in trying to make the Enlightenment process as streamlined as possible. Hence, my encouragement for the responsible use of psychedelics, and the encouragement to use esoteric, powerful techniques.

Shinzen & Co's new technology is not yet available for commercial use. He suggests it could be on pharmacy shelves within 5 years. I hope so! I will be trying that technology. Perhaps it can replace the need for entheogens altogether, or supplement their use to even greater effectiveness.