Kenneth Folk is a personal meditation trainer known worldwide for his innovative approach to secular Buddhist meditation. After twenty years of training in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, including three years of intensive silent retreat in monasteries in Asia and the U.S., Kenneth began to spread his own findings, successfully stripping away religious dogma to make meditation accessible to modern practitioners.
Kenneth has been recognized by Wired Magazine as an influential voice in Silicon Valley’s tech culture, a “power player of the mindfulness movement.”
Website: kennethfolkdharma.com
Summary and Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded 1/17/2015
YouTube Video Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction to Kenneth Folk
- 00:04:30 – Degrees and Levels of Awakening
- 00:09:16 – The Diversity of Spiritual Perspectives
- 00:13:45 – The Constituents of Experience
- 00:18:39 – Debunking the idea of an awareness ground state
- 00:23:19 – The Meaning of Nibbana
- 00:27:53 – The Radical Idea of Nibbana
- 00:31:51 – The relevance of Buddhism for us
- 00:36:39 – The Witness State
- 00:41:34 – The Sublime Experience of the Witness
- 00:46:32 – Evaluating Different Experiences
- 00:51:08 – The Drive to Discover Deeper Reality
- 00:54:57 – What is Mindfulness and its relation to meditation?
- 00:58:19 – The Two Types of Meditation and the Importance of Mindfulness
- 01:01:13 – Awakening through Meditation
- 01:04:20 – The Benefits of Dedicated Practice
- 01:07:29 – Different Ways of Defining Awakening
- 01:11:07 – Varieties of Experience
- 01:14:11 – The Myth of Hercules and its implications in athletics and brain development
- 01:17:31 – The Finite Resource of Attention
- 01:20:44 – Understanding Mindfulness through Concentration
- 01:24:06 – The Relationship between Concentration and Enjoyment
- 01:27:27 – Filters and Objectification in Meditation
- 01:30:32 – The Developmental Window for Awakening
- 01:33:25 – Our Umwelt and the Experience of Reality
- 01:36:40 – The Pursuit of Sublime Experiences
- 01:40:24 – The Ultimate Union with Consciousness
- 01:43:32 – The Evolution of the Spiritual Scene
- 01:46:05 – Awakening and the Power of Grassroots Transformation
- 01:49:16 – Percolating Shifts in the Industry
- 01:51:53 – Appreciation for the Audience
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