Show Notes
Stephan offers webinars, retreats, videos, books, and spiritual counseling that make profound spiritual teachings and practices accessible to a global audience. He studied and practiced for many years with great masters in the nondual wisdom traditions of Zen, Dzogchen-Mahamudra, and Advaita Vedanta, and in 2001 he received Dharma transmission (authorization to teach) from Adyashanti.
In this conversation, recorded to mark the release of his new book Infinite Awakening: A Guide to Nondual Wisdom and the Pathless Path (Shambhala, May 2026), Stephan and Michael explore awakening not as a destination but as an ongoing, infinite process. They move through trauma and trust, the limits of mindfulness, the role of intimate relationship as spiritual path, and how nondual realization speaks — or fails to speak — to the metacrisis we're all living through. The episode closes with a guided "rest and allow" meditation from Stephan.
Topics
00:00 — Reconnecting
00:04 — Awakening as a Path
00:10 — Trauma & Trust
00:16 — IFS & Somatic Therapy
00:18 — Intimate Relationships as Spiritual Path
00:21 — Spiritual Bypassing
00:27 — The Limits of Mindfulness
00:33 — Guided Meditation: Rest and Allow by Stephan
Resources & Links
Stephan Bodian
Website: infinite-awakening.org
Infinite Awakening: A Guide to Nondual Wisdom and the Pathless Path — Shambhala/Penguin Random House, May 2026
Beyond Mindfulness — referenced in the conversation
Meditation for Dummies — Stephan Bodian
Psychology Today interview: "Stephan Bodian on Our Innate Drive to Awaken"
Referenced teachers and books
Adyashanti — website — gave Stephan Dharma transmission; wrote the foreword to Infinite Awakening
Ramana Maharshi — Wikipedia — referenced in discussion of awakening ideals
Nisargadatta Maharaj — Wikipedia — "I am That"; referenced in discussion of true nature
Thich Nhat Hanh — "inter-being" — referenced in discussion of inseparability and nonduality
Ram Dass — "go home to your parents" — referenced in discussion of relationships as spiritual mirror
Andrew Holecek — I'm Mindful, Now What? (Sounds True, 2024) — referenced as a companion conversation on the limits of mindfulness
Glissando of Consciousness SAND Podcast with Andrew Holecek
Gabor Maté — referenced in discussion of trauma as universal human condition
Psychological Modalities
IFS — Internal Family Systems — referenced as a somatic approach that complements awakening
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — referenced alongside somatic therapy
SAND
The Wisdom of Trauma — SAND film
The Eternal Song — SAND film series
SAND membership
Contact SAND
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