The Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974

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In 1974 in Boulder, Colorado, a large number of these people converged at a meeting of the Naropa Institute. Trungpa was an exiled Tibetan monk who is supposed to be like the 11th incarnation of this Buddhist priest or sub-such jazz and he from the age of five was positioned to be this great spiritual leader. Jack Cornfield and Joseph Goldstein were two lesser known students who you got which is why they came together for that gathering.

You have the power to wield neuroplasticity to your advantage.

Just as you can change your body at the atomic level by lifting weights, you can willfully alter your brain by...thinking in a certain way. In this episode we explore using your brain to change your brain at the level of neurons and synapses beyond what is possible through other methods like learning a new language or earning a degree in chemistry. With mindfulness meditation, the evidence seems to suggest that one can achieve a level of change that would be impossible otherwise. The more you attempt to focus, the better you get at focusing on command, and so a real change begins taking place - you slowly become able to think differently, to hold thoughts differently and to dismiss thoughts that before led to attention difficulties or what feels like unwanted thoughts or clutter - and that’s not magical or the result of shaking hands with a deity, it’s biological. Listen as author and meditation teacher Michael Taft explains the benefits of secular, scientific practice of modern mindfulness meditation

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