'10% Happier': Mark Epstein | ABC News

Love the conversation, Thanks!

Very good. I am loving all those conversations about such interesting topic, meditation.

Great conversation!

i stumbled upon this - over a year after published! i am enjoying mark E very much... blessings to you and your wife / recovery from surgery etc... thank you!

I love this guy! Great voice great speaker and sense of humour is fabulous.

Many years ago I read "going to pieces..." translated into polish, what a surprise, and the reading did similar thing to me as to Dan. I i loved the book and it opened me up to my journey through... well hard to say through what, but I but the journey is fascinating. I remember that when I read the book I felt, well...happy, strange I know. Anyway thank you Mr Epstein, I and thank you Mr Harris, nice conversation.

This is SO GREAT !!!!!! Thank you Dan

Dan Harris is one of The last GREAT 🇺🇸 American News Anchors. His voice is commanding and instills trust in the listener. Idk about you, but there are NOT MANY people associated with ANY of (the ruthlessly backstabbing betraying and traitorous) media, that I would describe as honest, respectable, or beneficial to society but Dan Harris is one. He has my respect for being straightforward and honest, transparent and willing to humble himself for the greater good.

Very wonderful talk

That man was 64 at the time of the interview! same as Joseph Goldstein being 75!! speaks well for meditation practice!

I suggest an interview with Reginald Ray from Dharma Ocean for a truly Deep understanding....

I enjoyed this and got a lot out of it. I like this Epstein guy's vibe, kinda chill but smart too.

Lots of wisdom and truth in this conversation. They get me to lighten up a little. I hadn't thought about the title of Mark Epstein's book as having some humor in it, but yes, of course "the trauma of everyday life" doesn't have to be as scary and heavy as it seems. Thank you both!

Dan what’s the tittle of the book Bianca your wife gave you to read , when you were frustrated with Echart Tolle ? And any other recommendation reading. Thank you

I like Mark and how he is. I also appreciate the interviewer and his straight-forwardness!! Great interview! My intention is for liberation. I feel from what I learnt and what makes sense to me that is a total release of programming and having our Buddha Nature in charge and awake - no longer on automatic and reactive and the mind is not running the show but our Buddha Nature is... and ego is servant to that aspect of who we are... that is ego is serving Buddha Nature 100% naturally.. to me that would be freedom.... and liberation. Loved the episode and I got to know Mark through this interview better and I like him a lot. Very down to earth and real. Thank you Dan!

From my perspective, and I'm way behind in my Journey and yet, realizing not as behind as I made my Self believe is there is "self" and there is "Self". I understand what you and Mark are saying. Here is how I have applied it and perhaps you may see it different or see its the same said differently: "self" is Ego, it's our illusions of us as a being, he it our purpose, supposed calling, even our thoughts which should be our own but in so many ways are shaped by our perceptions of what we believe we should think. Then there is " Self", this is free of ego, illusions, preconceived notions/conceptions/thoughts. Is is the True Us, the Higher Self, that exists within all of Us if we get out of our own way and allow for Higher Self to Act/Respond not self reaction/deflection. Higher Self exists as Enlightenment. This thought and meditation came out of a "conversation" I had with one of my horses I struggled with because I came at her with Ego ( something I've never done with any of my horses) and she "enlightened" me as to why that was not working for her and I, and especially , me.

Mark says he's pretty sure enlightenment is not about surrendering your agency and also that enlightenment is bound to not be what he thinks it is. My teacher Ramana Maharshi says there never was a self which could have agency. I have read some scientific research done with fMRI which identified the area of the brain responsible for locating us in time and space called the Default Mode network. The research shows that this area shuts down during meditation. This speaks to the timeless feeling and the feeling of interconnection. One primary Buddhist principle is that of Interdependent co-arising which states that it is impossible to separate or truly extricate any object from the whole, this is a illusion which is useful and the basis of focused rational thought and language itself. This the very foundation of the subject/ object relationship is a error, as useful as it is comes with a price and that is to be convinced that the objects in consciousness are really real as they mention in the interview. These objects are as real as you allow them to be. The self is real however all our changeable interpretations of it are not real. That which is constant is all that is really real.

Tibetan translation of Enlightenment is ( cut off of all roots of wrong doing or ignorant and remaining in ocean of Wisdom) in order to gain enlightenment you have to sacrifice lots like (material life style) be humble and you need infinite compassion towards fellow human being as well as right method to cut off the roots of ignorance. Then you have guarantee golden ticket to reach enlightenment, sadly very few can do this!

I read Benson, practiced Progressive Relaxation for years. Must get back to it. Thanks for the reminder. I've gotten way out of the habit of meditation/conscious breath. Now that I'm getting back, my monkey brain is so undisciplined that I concentrate on the exhale and the mind ifs off & running before the exhale. I needed to find this!

To me enlightenment is being able to be consistently in the non judgmental witness awesomeness consciousness at all times. Detached from the restless chatter of the mind. Free of the need to create an identity from the thoughts that rise up and tell us “ who we think we are”.