Ep. 74 : Reverse Meditation with Andrew Holecek

Where does your feel good strategy go when you don't feel good?  Meditation is not just about 'getting zen'.  Instead, can you believe that what may hold you back in your meditation practice {any unwanted experiences} can actually help accelerate it?  In today's episode, Andrew Holecek covers the not-new and somewhat-radical concept of 'reverse meditation', a practice rooted in Tibetan Buddhism.


He calls this "industrial strength meditation" with these practices being a "demolition meditation" as they can help the practitioner deconstruct suffering back into pain and even deconstruct pain into something even more transmutable :
By coming one with your pain, there's no one to hurt.


This episode is full of powerful quotables - original, historical, and contemporary, and will leave you with your eyes even more open to the possibilities within your meditation to live more fully and alive and ultimately to help you handle anything.


Other topics woven in and around :
- his life journey including years as a dental surgeon + prescribing pain meds
- how to go in when there's no way out
- where does the body fit in to meditation?
- purifying one's pain
- avoiding new age narcissism


As he shares, "by putting your meditation into reverse, you'll find yourself going forward" you'll not only gain a new awareness of meditation and yourself, you'll also be guided through his simple four step 'OBEY' method of reverse meditation and be guided through a short practice to experience it for yourself.


Take a listen and explore reversing your meditation to see what you may not even know is there waiting for you, to help you live this precious life.




Andrew Holecek teaches seminars on spirituality, meditation, and dream yoga.  He studied with the greatest living meditation masters in India and Nepal, and has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat.  His books include "Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition" and "Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep".  His new book offers a radical new way to relate to physical pain and emotional hardship.  For more information, visit andrewholecek.com.


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Chapters

• 1:20 What is reverse meditation?
• 5:16 Limitations of mindfulness
• 7:24 How to handle a pain point with reverse meditation?
• 9:26 OBEY method
• 11:39 Deconstructing pain and suffering
• 17:29 Bumping up against the blocks in your meditation
• 19:08 What is pain anyway?
• 20:47 Where does freedom fit in?
• 24:35 Tantric background and approach
• 30:02 The somatics {body's role} of meditation
• 34:19 Andrew's background/life journey
• 38:55 The importance of spiritual service
• 42:32 Short reverse meditation practice
• 47:35 Why is modern mindfulness important?
• 49:48 Where to find/follow Andrew