Michael Taft is a meditation teacher, bestselling author, and podcaster. He teaches meditation at top tech firms like Google and is a core faculty member of Wisdom Labs in San Francisco and an official advisor to the Therapeutic Neuroscience Lab. He has served as editor-in-chief of Being Human and long-time editorial director of Sounds True. Having meditated in various traditions and techniques from Zen temples in Japan to yogi caves in India, Michael has a ton of experience (over 35 years) in training his mind. He also interviews top teachers on his popular podcast Deconstructing Yourself. In this episode, we talk about Michael's journey to the east and through advanced meditation practice, worldviews and frameworks for understanding the mind and meditation, the trials and potential pitfalls of adapting ancient methods for a modern context and the future of meditation in the West, and his general advice for finding the right meditation practice and refining it And if you enjoy this podcast with Michael, which I think you will, then I encourage you to check out his books The Mindful Geek, Nondualism, and Ego.