Awakening in Times of Collapse: Stephan Bodian

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

• [email protected]