Happy Friday!
Not my usual time to appear in your inbox, I know. We are thinking of making Friday the new Home Base publishing day, both to save my team and I from working on the weekend, and to spread out our signal of support. A meditation practice thrives on consistency. A guided meditation on Friday, and then a Do Nothing Project community sit on Sunday – these can be part of a steady rhythm of practice. We’re also thinking of offering a spontaneous early week meditation via Substack Live. Let us know in the comments how all this sounds to you.
Now, I want to talk about this guy:
No teacher on the planet has been as influential for me as Shinzen Young. For many years I attended his retreats, and would call him up all hours of day and night to ask him “urgent” questions about the nature of consciousness. Hours of questions. And he’d answer them! Poor guy. He had terrible boundaries back then.
He changed my life. Or at least his techniques did, and his understanding. Shinzen is deep and broad and he draws on the arts and science as much as contemplative insight. At a time in my life when I honestly did not know what to make of all the vague and confusing claims coming from spiritual scenes, Shinzen had a way of talking about all of it that was rigorous and clear and confidence-building. “Taking the ‘mist’ out of mysticism,” is how he put it at the time. Amazingly, he did this without compromising the mind-blowing transformations that live at the heart of Buddhist practice, and psycho-spiritual practises more broadly. Eventually, he convinced me to start guiding meditation myself, something that was definitely not on my life / career radar. So you have him to blame for that. And now, at 81, Shinzen is retiring … in order to pivot to neuroscience research.
As one does.
This post is a mini celebration of the world’s greatest meditation nerd. First, you get to experience an actual guided Shinzen meditation – more on that in a sec. Second, if you want to go deeper, my beloved
is hosting him online this Saturday for his last-ever teaching event with them – link below.I’ll repeat that: last ever. If you’ve never had a chance to experience Shinzen’s teaching live, this is your opportunity. It’s also a fundraiser for the CEC, a not-for-profit that’s struggling at the moment. Consider buying a ticket even if you can’t make it; you’d be doing a great service to a great organization that’s given of itself quite selflessly over the years.
So, what’s a guided Shinzen meditation like?
Extremely geeky and precise! Shinzen is like a Hubble telescope for the mind. He’s about as scientifically objective as you can get when it comes to subjective experience, which is one reason he’s popular with neuroscientists. You can build testable research protocols out of his categories. And more importantly for everyone reading this, you can go deep into your moment-to-moment experience, and notice stuff you wouldn’t ordinarily notice – a rabbit hole that keeps going, and going, all the way to liberating nothing whatsoever.
This recording comes from a Home Practice Program I did with him back in 2011. The short version covers body flow and visual flow and “gone,” terms he’ll explain in the meditation. The extended meditation for paid subscribers includes all this plus auditory flow and some additional forensic goodness.
Long before an AI could guide you in meditation, there was a Shinzen, over the phone, watching Mixed Martial Arts during the quiet parts. No robot was ever so magical. I love you, Shinzen. You will always be my Roosevelt-era Jewish super Buddha.
Love to all my friends too.
Jeff
PS - This Thursday is our next Home Base Hangout (link to register is at the end of this post). Come join us, we always have a great time.
Meditations for This Fractious Moment
A virtual half-day retreat with Shinzen Young
Saturday, October 25, 2025 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM ET
Online Via Zoom
Join the Consciousness Explorers Club for a four hour virtual meditation retreat with Shinzen Young, the founder of Unified Mindfulness and CEC’s much-loved mentor. In this experiential workshop, Shinzen will clarify the mechanism whereby being “okay” in the current sensory moment is related to having a positive impact on this moment in world history. “Particularly with regards to immature rhetoric in political, economic, and social discourse,” says Shinzen. Ok! The clarification will come through a combination of discussion, guided meditations, and vigorous prostrations to angry foreign Gods.
Home Base Hangout
Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 12pm ET
Online Via Zoom
On Thursday, October 30 at 12pm ET, we’ll host Home Base Hangout, a virtual gathering for paid subscribers. It’s a chance to connect with Jeff and fellow subscribers; expect a mix of guided meditation, open discussion, laughter, deadly serious practicalities, and a few drooly parts. Click below to register.
