AI scientist and Buddhist teacher Dr. Nikki Mirghafori explores the mystery of consciousness, the ethics (and limits) of AI, and the irreplaceable power of human connection.

This time on the CSM Podcast, Dr. Nikki & David discuss:

• Cooling the fires of greed hate and delusion
• Cessation within the Theravada tradition of Buddhism
• “Visiting” rather than dwelling on any particular experience
• Artificial intelligence and the ways it lacks nuance
• Ethical considerations in using AI for dharma teachings
• Mr. Potato Head and our tendency to anthropomorphize inanimate things
• How science still doesn’t fully understand consciousness and the book The Blind Spot
• Repairing our own consciousness and becoming a vehicle of service for all beings
• A Buddhist book recommendation from Dr. Nikki: What The Buddha Thought
• Accessing the full range of teachings across traditions

“In our business, being held, being met by another conscious human being, it does something to your heart—you feel seen. Another bot, no matter how sycophantic it is or how it tries to make you feel seen, in the back of our minds we know we’re interacting with a bot.” –Dr. Nikki Mirghafori

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About Dr. Nikki Mirghafori:

Dr. Nikki Mirghafori is an Artificial Intelligence scientist and an internationally recognized Buddhist teacher. She serves as a Stewarding Teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, where she is also on the Board of Directors, and a Dharma Teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. She teaches with clarity and warmth on topics ranging from mindful leadership to cultivating kindness, with a rare expertise on mindfulness of death. Dr. Mirghafori is widely published in AI, has led international research collaborations as a Berkeley academic, and advised technology startups. She is of Persian heritage, an advocate for wisdom and compassion in daily life, as well as ethical AI in our zeitgeist. Learn more and connect via her website HERE.

“Bringing it back to A.I. and consciousness, it’s a big question mark, it’s too naive to make predictions or assumptions one way or the other, we don’t even know what this thing is- this thing being alive, having consciousness, how can we describe it to this other thing that as a black box is spewing out patterns. I am open to being surprised, but conservative.” –Dr. Nikki Mirghafori

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Exploring Rigpa, the nature of mind, Loch Kelly and David Nichtern discuss transforming trauma through the love and presence inherently within us.

This time on the CSM Podcast, Loch & David discuss:

• Distinguishing mahamudra practice from everyday mindfulness
• The love and presence that is inherent within us
• Learning from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
• Melding together the relative and the ultimate
• Small glimpses of pure awareness repeated many times
• Calming the nervous system, body, and mind
• Working with deeply ingrained habits
• Loch’s holistic work in nondual therapy and effortless mindfulness
• Using rigpa (the nature of mind) to work with trauma and identity

“The nature of mind, rigpa, is necessary. If you look at the problem but you just deconstruct it without giving a new 'who', you don’t have an experience of now ‘who am I’ or ‘what has the capacity’. The nature of mind has the capacity more so than the small self to be with and even titrate unconscious material and trauma.” –Loch Kelly

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About Loch Kelly:

Loch Kelly is the creator of the new groundbreaking meditation and wellness app, Mindful Glimpses. An award-winning author, psychotherapist, and non-dual meditation teacher, Loch is the founder of the nonprofit Effortless Mindfulness Institute. Loch has master’s degrees from both Columbia University and Union Theological, where he was awarded a traveling fellowship to Sri Lanka, India and Nepal. There, he trained with some of the great meditation masters of the modern era. Informed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch teaches Effortless Mindfulness, an ancient form of non-dual meditation. His nondual mindfulness talk on Sam Harris’s Waking Up app was the most-listened-to audio of the year. Loch has co-taught with IFS-Founder Dick Schwartz and collaborated with neuroscientists at Yale, UPenn, and NYU to study how awareness training can enhance compassion and well-being. He also worked as a community mental health professional in NYC for over 30 years. Loch is known for his unique practical methods and warm sense of humor. He has a talent for leading people to their true nature, which he frames as the next stage of human development. In the Mindful Glimpses app, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness through simple yet advanced micro-meditations. These short meditations open the door to well being, clarity, and compassion. Mindful Glimpses weaves together ancient non-dual practices, cutting-edge psychology, and neuroscience research. Keep up with Loch on his website.

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From wrathful love to Buddha-nature, Noel Coakley and Victoria ‘Vee’ Wikler discuss the next generation of Buddhism and waking up the ‘sleepy Buddha’ in us all.

In this episode, Noel, Vee, and David explore:

• The creation of Noel’s book, Wake Up Sleepy Buddha
• The concept of ‘wrathful love’
• Inherent goodness and the Buddha-nature within us all
• Living with both relative and ultimate truth
• Taking a feminist perspective on Buddhism
• Looking to the next generation of Buddhas
• Direct practice as the real teacher
• Blending together psychology and Buddhism
• Therapy as an external mindfulness practice

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About Victoria ‘Vee’ Wikler:

Victoria B. Wikler (Vee) is a mindfulness meditation teacher, peer counselor, doula, tattoo artist & Thai-American witch. She has over 10 years of training in Mindfulness and Zen meditation, 6+ years of Tarot consulting experience, and expertise in supporting altered state experiences. Check out Vee on Instagram.

About Noel Coakley:

Noel is a mental health counselor (LMHC) with a Master's degree in Counseling from Lesley University and Special Education from UMass Boston. He is also a certified yoga instructor, supporting a holistic, mind & body approach to wellness. His experience from years as a special education teacher benefits his ability to support differentiated learning styles and needs. Noel has been practicing meditation since 1996, beginning initially with the Indo-Tibetan traditions and then the Yundrung Bön tradition since 2013. Over the years, Noel has been fortunate to learn from over 100 teachers, including HH the Dalai Lama and HH the 34th Menri Trizin. Noel recently authored the book Wake Up Sleepy Buddha, which provides a 600+ page, fully illustrated guide to Buddhist practice beyond mindfulness. Noel’s book bridges ancient wisdom, modern psychology, and everyday life.

“We all feel weird and alienated when we’re in this story of not realizing our Buddha nature…but we’re just hidden from our Buddha nature. I think about this in my psychotherapy. Anybody I meet with, the task is: can I see their already perfectness, their level of being where nothing needs to be improved or changed?” – Noel Coakley

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Founder of Shambhala Publications, Samuel Bercholz, reflects on a lifetime of dharma and encourages us to challenge our often distorted perceptions of reality.

Check out Dharma Moon’s free online talk this September, Light & Shadow on the Spiritual Path.

This time on the CSM podcast, Samuel and David explore:

• Samuel’s new book, Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path
• Shaking up our concepts of reality and social phenomena
• Working with our addictions and habits
• The unpredictability and spontaneous manifestations of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
• Learning how to walk the Bodhisattva path
• Intergenerational dharma and having an enlightened family
• Practical Buddhism and simply being ‘dharmic and decent’
• How Buddhism has traveled from East to West

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About Samuel Bercholz:

Sam Bercholz is the founder of Shambhala Publications, one of the leading independent publishers of Buddhist and Eastern spiritual literature. He started the company in Berkeley in the late 1960s and later moved it to Boulder, Colorado, where it grew into a major publishing house for authors like Chögyam Trungpa and Pema Chödrön. A senior teacher in the Nyingma and Kagyu lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, Bercholz studied closely with both Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, who empowered him to teach dharma. He has taught Buddhist philosophy and meditation across North America, Europe, and Australasia for over forty years, and is also the author of the new book, Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path.

“The way I perceive and most humans perceive is 180 degrees from the way things actually are. For the most part, we live in a fantasy world of make-believe, and we believe it.” –Samuel Bercholz

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Reflecting on a lifetime of practice, Joseph Goldstein explores how an intimate investigation of suffering can open the doorway to liberation.

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In this week’s episode, Joseph and David explore:

• Joseph’s spiritual lineage and tying the concept of bodhicitta to his motivation for practice
• The inseparability of compassion and emptiness
• Holding an intense interest in whatever we are experiencing
• A tip from Joseph: ‘Don’t waste your suffering’
• The mental energy it takes to investigate our suffering
• Teaching from the heart of Buddhist suttas
• ‘Tuning in’ to the gratitude channel and thanking the universe for the blessings of our lives
• Utilizing Ram Dass’s concept of ‘how can I help?’ as the north star of life

Join Dharma Moon this fall to learn about The Business of Teaching Meditation.

About Joseph Goldstein:

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Check out Joseph’s podcast on Be Here Now Network or one of his numerous books.

“When my mind is distressed in some way or other, it piques my interest. I want to understand what the cause of the suffering is. That’s a little different than enduring it until we get to a happier place; it’s using the suffering as fuel and as the impotence to investigate.” –Joseph Goldstein

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Honoring both psychological and spiritual work, Trudy Goodman explores how she built resilience through years of dharma practice.

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In this week’s episode, Trudy and David explore:

• Trudy’s voiceover work on The Midnight Gospel, playing ‘Trudy the Love Barbarian’
• How meditation and dharma practice strengthen resilience
• Both Trudy and David’s work in Buddhist Psychology
• Looking inwards through both therapy and mindfulness
• The three personality types within Buddhist Psychology: deluded, greedy, and aversive
• Hitting the “jackpot”: Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman’s love story
• Reflecting on life as an answered prayer and Trudy’s upcoming memoir

“To come back to resilience, I really credit the dharma. I think through meditation and dharma practice, we open our consciousness, our hearts, our awareness.” –Trudy Goodman

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About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy Goodman, PH.D., is the founding teacher of InsightLA and cofounder of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She has taught at universities and retreat centers worldwide for over 40 years. Trudy has trained in Insight meditation and Zen since 1973, holds a graduate degree in developmental psychology from Harvard, and was one of the first teachers of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Jon Kabat-Zinn. She is a senior Buddhist teacher in the U.S., a faculty member at Blue Spirit Costa Rica and a psychotherapist who is widely known for her role as the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series "Midnight Gospel”. Trudy is a contributing author: Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness (Springer, 2008); Compassion and Wisdom in Psychotherapy, (Guilford Press, 2011); Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, (Guilford Press, 2013). Learn more about Trudy at TrudyGoodman.com.

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Contemplative Scholar Andrew Holecek joins David Nichtern to delve into the powerful practices of dark retreat, bardo yoga, and dream yoga.

Grab a copy of Andrew’s book, Total Eclipse of the Mind, to discover more about the power of darkness for creativity, healing, and transformation.

In this episode, Andrew and David explore:

• An inquiry into the nature of mind and reality
• How asking questions is much more important than having answers
• Going into dark retreat and practicing bardo yoga
• Entering spiritual teachings as if immersing into a different realm
• The Buddha as the ultimate lucid dreamer
• Dream interpretation and liminal dreaming for insights into the self
• Working mindfully with artificial intelligence
• The balancing principle that darkness represents
• Becoming sensitive to other beings and archetypes when in dark retreat

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About Andrew Holecek:

Andrew Holecek is an interdisciplinary scholar-practitioner in Tibetan Buddhism and other nondual wisdom traditions. He is the Resident Contemplative Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, and a research consultant for the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Northwestern University. His work involves studies on dream yoga and the practice of dark retreat. Dr. Holecek is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the author of nine books, and a concert pianist. He has completed the Tibetan Buddhist three-year retreat and is a frequent subject in scientific studies on meditation and lucid dreaming. His work integrates ancient wisdom traditions with contemporary perspectives, aiming to help individuals navigate spiritual challenges and end-of-life experiences. He is currently writing two books on dark retreat. Holecek holds degrees in classical music, biology, and a doctorate in dental surgery. Learn about his upcoming retreat events.

“I have died so many times with psychedelic experiences, with extended meditations; I’ve been doing dark retreat for 30 years. This is what dark retreat is largely about; it’s fundamentally a bardo yoga designed to bring about highly concordant experiences with the death process.” –Andrew Holecek

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M.J. Schwartz explores how to meet perfectionism with mindfulness and heal the cultural messages that keep us striving for impossible standards.

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In this episode, David and M.J. chat about:

• M.J.’s introduction to mindfulness and meditation
• How mindfulness was incorporated into M.J.’s work as a doula and midwife
• Learning how to wisely deal with perfectionism
• Healthy striving versus tethering our identity to a certain result
• How childhood parentification can lead to adult perfectionism
• Other-oriented perfectionism and criticizing those who do not meet our expectations
• Picking up perfectionism from the world around us
• Perfectionism’s role in eating disorders and the obsession with body size in our culture
• Synchronizing the mind and body

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About M.J. Schwartz:

M.J. Schwartz is the founder of Studio138 Family Yoga and Mindfulness. Having started practicing yoga and mindfulness at age twelve, M.J. is passionate about sharing these modalities with families of all stages and configurations. As a parent and grandparent themselves, they understand the nuances of a practice that evolves alongside life's many changes.

M.J. holds a B.A. in psychology from Smith College, where they studied perfectionism with a leading researcher in the field, along with certifications in mindfulness, yoga, and Intuitive Eating. Before returning to school in midlife, they worked as a doula, childbirth educator, and midwife, and continue to teach pregnancy and postpartum classes that blend mindfulness with evidence-based information. Check out M.J. on Substack.

“Other-oriented perfectionism goes hand in glove with self-oriented perfectionism. If a parent is hyper-perfectionistic, there is a chance that they are then very hard on their children.“ –M.J. Schwartz

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