UPBUILDING THE SELF

Meditation: Transforming The Mind From Worst Enemy To Best Friend

With 50 years and more than 35,000 hours of meditation experience among them, Hari Prasada, Rasanath, and Vipin, dive into the topic of meditation. They discuss the definition of meditation, why it’s so important to control the mind, why it’s becoming more popular these days, and the numerous non-spiritual benefits of meditation, including calmness, focus, clarity, and productivity. They also look at how meditation has been misappropriated and share the deepest purpose of meditation, which explains all of the other health benefits for which people are using.

Podcast Hosts: Vipin, Rasanath, and Hari Prasada

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform

Meditation #1: Guided Meditation To Become Present and Grounded (Apple / Spotify)

Meditation #2: Mantra Meditation (Apple / Spotify)

Highlights

  • [02:50] Why is meditation such a rage these days?

  • [07:20] Defining meditation

  • [09:30] Why is controlling the mind different from most other types of control we try to expert

  • [10:00] The controlling level of consciousness from the Enneagram

  • [16:00] Regaining control of our minds

  • [24:30] Exploring the tangible benefits of meditation

  • [31:20] Rasanath’s search for superpowers

  • [36:30] Meditation and self-awareness

  • [44:40] Hari Prasada’s journey with meditation

  • [53:00] How to get started

  • [54:50] Differents types of meditation

Quotes

  • “Meditation has just been scientifically validated to work on calming the mind, helping us feel more in control, more stable, more secure, and more equipped to deal with life, more focused.” - Hari Prasada

  • “Consider for a moment that I were here today discussing a new drug, And the scientific evidence indicated this new drug could successfully treat a wide variety of prevalent medical conditions. It's completely safe, no side effects, It can even prevent the conditions from occurring or recurring. The drug is demonstrated to decrease doctor's visits by as much as 50%, leading to annual cost savings of more than 54  billion. The discovery of such a drug would be front page news and immediately embraced.” - Dr. Herbert Benson

  • “Meditation is commonly defined as a contemplative reflection or mental exercise designed to bring about a heightened level of spiritual awareness or train the mind in a specific way.” - Dr. Andrew Newberg - How God Changes Your Brain

  • “To sit and be with myself and to deal with this mind that I'm so resigned to, and I have so many justifications for, that takes tremendous courage and tolerance, patience, endurance, stamina, all of the good qualities that we admire in others and we fancy for ourselves or aspire for or think, ’Oh no, no, I won't have those qualities.’ They're all available to us. But we have to make that choice.” - Hari Prasada

  • “The real effect of meditation is to uncover the true self; it is self-realization.” - Rasanath

For first timers, welcome to Upbuilding the Self

About the podcast: Two former monks, a former startup founder and CEO, and a former equity derivatives trader dive into how to be our best selves, free from the ego. Our egos are the identities we create for ourselves and wish the world to validate, but when we are not seen as we want to be, we feel insecure. This podcast lives at the intersection of leadership and spirituality. It will help you understand your ego and shed light on your inner world so that you can act with greater clarity, compassion, and the freedom to be your best self.

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