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This week we talk to Shinzen Young about the science of enlightenment
Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant.
His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Vermont in the burgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience.
He is the author of The Science of Enlightenment, Natural Pain Relief and numerous audio offerings.
In This Interview, Shinzen Young and I Discuss…
- The One You Feed parable
- His new book, The Science of Enlightenment
- The five fundamental good wolves
- The skill set of mindful awareness
- How meditation helps you concentrate
- How the ability to concentrate is at the base of the pyramid of anything you want to do
- That mindful awareness is the ability to focus on anything you want, whenever you want for as long as you want
- Untangle and be free
- How to break down our inner space
- How to track your sense of self
- Breaking the self down into these three things: Mental images, mental talk and body emotions
- That when you have a strong emotion you almost always will have a change in body sensation
- How to parcel body sensation into emotional and non-emotional
- The experiment you can do when you move into a situation that is emotionally intense but that is not currently intense
- How to suffer less in life and be 10x happier
- The difference between pain and suffering
- The habit of equanimity
- That one of the goals of meditations is to achieve happiness regardless of conditions
- The periodic table of meditation techniques
- The unified mindfulness system
- A “name and claim” meditation
Shinzen Young Links
A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other.
One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear.
The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”
The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feedThe Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable.
This parable goes by many names including:
The Tale of Two Wolves
The Parable of the Two Wolves
Two Wolves
Which Wolf Do You Feed
Which Wolf are You Feeding
Which Wolf Will You Feed
It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.
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