How I Learned to Meditate

In this episode I am joined by David Johnson, a meditation teacher and author of ‘A Path to Nibbana’, a complete meditation guide to TWIM. David shares details about the life of his recently deceased teacher, Bhante Vimalaramsi, including their first meetings in the 1970s meditation scene, the last days of Bhante Vimalaramsi’s life, and the consequences of his death for the religious organisation he left behind. David recounts his own life story, including twenty years of meditation in the Vipassana movement and a detailed description of how he achieved its version of stream entry. David explains how practicing Bhante Vimalaramsi’s teachings showed to him that the stream entry achieved through Vipassana meditation is merely a mental blackout, and explains how to achieve true awakening through the practice of TWIM. David also defines enlightenment, discusses psychic siddhi powers, and questions the enlightenment of figures such as Dipa Ma, suggesting their attainments were much less than widely believed. … Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep212-path-to-nibbna-david-johnson 
Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’. … Topics Include: 00:00 - Intro 03:12 - Death of Bhante Vimalaramsi 09:12 - Meeting Bhante Vimalaramsi in 1975 11:42 - Disco killed meditation 12:24 - Becoming a millionaire and going to India 16:52 - David’s work as librarian of Bhante Vimalaramsi’s teachings 18:42 - Filming Dipa Ma and other famous teachers 21:22 - What’s next after Bhante Vimalaramsi’s death? 25:56 - David’s middle class upbringing in the USA 27:17 - Teenage interest in hypnosis 27:58 - Talking about guitars and music 30:29 - Attending Evergreen College, LSD, and Carlos Castaneda 33:04 - Bouncing between colleges 36:06 - Extensive experience in vipassana meditation 38:22 - David details passing through the progress of insight stages 45:54 - Did David achieve stream entry? 47:08 - Discovering the real stream entry 50:18 - Real stream entry vs vipassana black-outs 55:35 - The practice story of the Buddha 01:02:00 - The importance of tranquillising the mental formations 01:07:02 - The dangers of meditation and psychedelics 01:10:56 - Secularising meditation 01:13:50 - David asks Steve, ‘What is enlightenment?’ 01:16:01 - David accuses Steve of eel-wriggling 01:17:11 - David defines enlightenment in terms of the 4 noble truths 01:22:19 - Dipa Ma was not as enlightened as she thought she was 01:29:29 - Dipa Ma’s mastery of psychic powers 01:34:16 - Going to hell after suppressing the mind with concentration 01:36:58 - How to evaluate your enlightenment level 01:48:04 - Why did Buddhism go wrong? … Previous episodes with Delson Armstrong and Bhante Vimalaramsi visit: - https://www.guruviking.com/search?q=delson - https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep112-bhante-vimalaramsi-relaxing-into-nibbana To find our more about David Johnson visit: - https://www.dhammasukha.org/david-johnson For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - https://www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James