The Direct Path

In this conversation, Sam and Stephan Bodian discuss the direct approach to self-realization—a path of inquiry that draws from nondual wisdom traditions of Zen, Dzogchen-Mahamudra, and Advaita Vedanta, and bypasses elaborate belief systems or self-improvement techniques.

They also discuss Stephan’s experience learning and teaching Zen meditation, becoming a monk, Stephan’s experience of awakening and integration thereafter, sudden vs. gradual awakening, common misunderstandings about the direct path, and the connection between meditation and ethics as it relates to student-teacher relationships.

Listen to realize that instead of meditating to achieve some special state or goal, you can learn to relax into your own natural state of inherent wakefulness from which you’ve never been separated even for an instant.