The Podcast format

I’m sitting down and having a chat with other meditators from around the world to talk about their practice, the lessons they have learned and what they want the world to know. From Zen, Christianity to Secular, all traditions have valuable insights and approaches to awareness, and in this podcast, we explore those with you.

Exploring Meditation

In this episode of the podcast, I have a chat with Mike Finney. Mike Finney is a software developer, blogger, writer and book club moderator in our online community. Mike Finney got interested in meditation from a very young age, after seeing Luke Skywalker levitate things with his mind in Star Wars.
Finney emphasizes exploration as an important part of his practice and life with meditation. Exploring how to train your mind, improve yourself and get the most out of your everyday life.

Open Awareness Meditation

Finney talks about his three main practices. Vipassana, Loving-kindness and open awareness Meditation. We go a bit more in-depth about open awareness meditation and what it entails. According to the Institute of Noetic Sciences:

“Open Awareness The objective of these forms of meditative practices is to open the mind into a panoramic awareness of whatever is happening without a specific focus. Often this awareness is compared to the spacious sky or a river with objects floating by. The capacity to be present with whatever arises is developed through this practice. The Zen sitting practice zazen, or shikantaza, is an example of this form of meditation practiced in the West.”

Raw Data

Finney talks about how our sensory input is taken in as raw data, without judgment. To talk in developer terms, seeing the code behind the experience.

In his own words:
“When a person is doing software well, they are creating worlds within in their mind. And then what they do is, they give shape and form to those concepts such that it bridges into real life.”
This connects with the open awareness meditation and Finney explains in the podcast how he does this practice.
Finney encourages us to approach meditation with a mind of exploration. See what works for you, how you can enhance your life and your career.

Want to learn more?

Make sure to visit Finney’s blog to stay in touch with everything Finney does and get updates on his latest publication here: http://www.finneycanhelp.com
Finney also posts blogs on our website, you can find them easily through this link: https://projectmindfulness.com/author/finneycanhelp/

If you’d like to talk about this podcast or have some feedback or ideas, please let me know by joining our community here https://discord.gg/FKWFeYq and simply use @christiaan or send me a DM! I would love to hear from you.

With warm regards,

Christiaan