The Awareness Explorers Podcast
Join Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor as they explore the many ways you can uncover the secret of joy and happiness in the background of all experience.
Become an Awareness Explorer and learn to know yourself as pure unlimited expanded consciousness...Awareness aware of awareness itself.
Includes a guided meditation with each podcast episode.
Listen or download below, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app.
The guided meditations excerpted from each episode are also available on our YouTube meditations playlist or on the AwarenessExplorers.com Meditations page.
In this episode we explore what we mean by awareness and how it can become our reliable source of peace, joy, and happiness.
• Includes a guided meditation on questions that lead to awakened awareness, as well as simple phrases that can trigger an immediate state of presence.
In this episode we talk about how to use very small disruptions and slowing down to bring pure awareness into daily life activities.
• Includes a guided method for using talking and movement as a trigger for awakened awareness.
In this episode we explore the way thinking can veil pure awareness, and we share ways to disidentify with our thoughts.
• Includes a guided meditation for calming your busy mind and bringing it into present moment awareness.
In this episode we explore three approaches to letting go… letting go of physical tension, mental tension, and spiritual attachment. We give precise methods for handling each of these, including examples of how letting go is not the same as trying to change our experience.
• Includes a guided meditation for allowing whatever is to be there without resistance.
In this episode we talk about how to use very small disruptions and slowing down to bring pure awareness into daily life activities.
• Includes a guided meditation to help put tough emotions in perspective.
In this episode we explore differing descriptions and ways of viewing enlightenment and awakening.
• Includes a guided meditation to help imagine what would be different if you were enlightened and what obstacles would no longer be there.
In this episode we explore different types of awakening, and how each type has advantages and disadvantages.
• Includes a guided meditation to help you to drop from your head to your heart so you can better access your heart awakening experience.
In this episode we explore the interplay between awareness, intuition, and decision making.
• Includes a guided meditation with a simple way of accessing intuition to help make good decisions.
In this episode we talk to Rupert Spira about happiness, and how he leads people to the recognition of our true nature as awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation from Rupert for going beyond our normal notion of self into the experience of pure awareness.
In this episode we explore how to give and receive feedback so that you can know what your specific obstacles to awakening to awareness might be.
• Includes a guided meditation to help you discover what you need to know or do to be happier and what obstacles might be good for you to face.
In this episode we talk to Stuart Schwartz about allowing and befriending the parts of you that you're judgmental about.
• Includes a guided meditation from Stuart in which he shows us how to use the breath and the phrase "I Am" to lead us to the freedom of pure awareness.
In this episode we explore how to give and receive feedback so that you can know what your specific obstacles to awakening to awareness might be.
• Includes a guided self-inquiry meditation to lead you to the deeper "I" behind what you experience as "me."
In this episode we explore the uses, abuses, and nuances of using intention to awaken.
• Includes a guided meditation for setting a clear intention in a way that allows relaxed awakening.
In this episode we discuss how to use visual, auditory, and sensory cues to help notice the ever-present field of awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation using each sense to awaken awareness.
In this episode we explore the possibility of receiving energy remotely from spiritual beings, and the advantages and disadvantages of such approaches to awakening.
• Includes a guided meditation from Lynn Marie pointing to the loving awareness that's always present.
In this episode we discuss different types of retreats, their potential value and potential limitations to aid in awakening.
• Includes a guided meditation to help you experience a head, heart, and gut awakening.
In this episode we discuss different ways to shift identity, different identities that are possible, and the ultimate shift in identity to awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation that takes you from the innocence of childlike awareness to the expansion into our innate ground of being.
In this episode we talk to Rick Archer of "Buddha at the Gas Pump" about the advantages and ethical pitfalls of gurus and spiritual teachers.
In this episode we discuss different types of retreats, their potential value and potential limitations to aid in awakening.
• Includes a guided meditation for Receiving Spiritual Energy from a favorite teacher of your choice.
In this episode we describe a cornucopia of metaphors that help people understand awakened awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation using the dream metaphor to point to nondual awakening.
In this episode we discuss will and the power of making a decision to wake ourselves up.
• Includes a guided meditation to help develop our decision-making muscle and our sincere desire for awakening.
In this episode we talk to Adyashanti about spirituality as living in a state of discovery, and ways to tap into silence in daily life.
• Includes a guided meditation from Adyashanti leading us through the three steps of experiencing meditation in its truest sense.
In this episode Jonathan and Brian reflect on our conversation with Adyashanti and share how you can apply his wisdom and methods to your life.
• Includes a guided meditation to help you use your body awareness as a barometer for living your truth.
In this episode we describe how the practice of dropping a contemplative phrase into the depths of your being can lead to joy and revelation.
• Includes a guided meditation that introduces two phrases to use in a contemplative journey within.
In this episode, we discuss how the tendencies towards control and perfectionism can interfere with our desire for peace and awareness, and how we can overcome these obstacles.
• Includes a guided meditation that walks you through the three phases of wabi sabi, imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness.
In this episode, Jonathan tells Brian about his spiritual teacher, the wild experiments he's done, and what he's found most helpful.
• In addition, Jonathan leads a guided mediation in which you contemplate your death in order to bring new aliveness to your current life.
In this episode, Brian tells Jonathan about finding a way out of depression through awareness, his theater background, and his influences in the spiritual search.
• In addition, Brian leads a guided mediation using a window of eternity metaphor to help you expand your view into infinite awareness.
In this episode, we talk to Dr. John Astin about consciousness research, songwriting, and practices for opening to pure experience.
• Includes a guided meditation, "The Borderless Field of Being" from his new book, "This Extraordinary Moment."
In this episode we discuss how to act passionately in the world while being unattached to the results.
• Includes a guided meditation to help us combine intention with surrender.
In this episode we talk to spiritual teacher Byron Katie about the false self, the benefits of not believing your thoughts, and the lack of separation between people.
• Includes a guide to meditating on your judgements using Byron Katie's worksheets.
In this episode we explore how to know if what you're doing to work on yourself is really working for you.
• Includes a guided meditation to help you find ways to allow the eternal present to resolve all difficulties and even to present solutions to practical problems.
In this episode we talk about how to use language as a tool to help you experience pure awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation that uses short phrases to point you back to your true nature as awareness.
In this episode we take a look at oneness from many angles, including spiritual bypassing and the paradox of oneness and humanness.
• Includes a guided meditation that leads us through a progression to the experience of Oneness.
In this episode we talk to Loch Kelly about Effortless Mindfulness, and how it differs from Deliberate Mindfulness as a method of opening to naturally compassionate, awake awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation or "glimpse practice" from Loch to help us know awake awareness without resorting to the thinking mind.
In this episode we introduce games that can be played with two people and can quickly lead to the joy and peace of pure awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation that uses specific questions to guide the listener into a relaxation of their body and separate ego identity.
In this episode we talk about the implications of nonduality in our spiritual and daily lives.
• Includes a guided meditation using imagination and metaphor to bring you to the experience that we're all part of one energy.
In this episode we talk to Carole Griggs and Ted Strauss about a model for accelerating conscious awakening, and the advantages of consciousness coaching.
In this episode we talk about how humility is crucial on the spiritual path and yet paradoxically cannot be directly cultivated.
• Includes an exploration of how humility can be experienced, and a guided meditation to help people let go of false ideas about themselves.
In this episode we talk about how inner experience of the body can be a useful catalyst for spiritual growth.
• Includes a guided meditation using our body sensations to connect to the larger field of awareness that we all are.
In this episode we talk to Gail Brenner about the connection between psychotherapy and awareness practices.
• Includes a guided meditation from Gail using the metaphor of the mind as the wide-open, borderless clear sky.
In this episode we talk about how spirituality has changed over the past 25 years, and how to take advantage of the most positive changes.
• Includes a guided meditation engaging your intuition to discover what has kept you back and what can accelerate your growth moving forward.
In this episode we explore whether the future exists and how our preoccupation with the future can be an obstacle to awakening.
• Includes a guided meditation to help you release the future and fully experience the peace of the present moment.
In this episode we talk to Susanne Marie about the experiences of unity and of "no self," and the role that the heart and softening have in awakening.
• Includes a guided meditation from Susanne Marie to help open your heart.
In this episode we talk we talk about how to be with fear and anxiety on the spiritual path in a way that facilitates greater awakening.
• Includes a guided meditation to help you drop the story about your fears and experience them as sensations in your body.
In this episode we talk about how to share your experience of awareness and spirituality with friends and family in an exploratory manner.
• Includes a guided meditation to rehearse all the elements needed to share in with openness and curiosity.
In this episode we talk to Dr. Patti Levin about her awakening experiences, oscillating between peace and conditioning, and the relationship between spirituality and psychology.
In this episode Jonathan and Brian take turns guiding listeners on 20 minutes of eyes-open meditations, followed by 20 minutes of eyes-closed meditations.
In this episode, we talk to Amy Lindgren about her experience of surrender, how she awakened, and what tools were most effective in this process.
• Includes a guided Pure Conscious Experience meditation, using an appealing visual image.
In this episode, we talk about how to thrive with feelings of insecurity during these uncertain times using various types of practices.
• Includes a guided meditation that helps you make friends with insecurity and uncertainty, and receive wisdom from your deeper knowing.
In this episode, we discuss the mind's desire for always wanting more and how to handle that tendency so that peace can be experienced.
• Includes a guided meditation to help bring awareness to the feeling of lack and to find peace and happiness in the feeling of enough.
In this episode, we talk about what our pets can teach us about awareness and living a good life.
• Includes a guided meditation to help us listen to and embody a pet's wisdom.
In this episode, we discuss what depression is and how awareness practices can break its grip and affect it in beneficial ways.
• Includes a guided meditation leading you through two methods for being with negative feelings in a way that helps you get unstuck from them.
In this episode, we discuss the value of questions and answer questions from our listeners.
• Includes a guided meditation that poses questions to expand your mind and help you to experience the infinite knowing beyond the mind.
In this episode we talk to Michael Lydon about The Realization Process, and explore practical techniques for bringing a sense of the ground of being into our bodies.
• Includes a guided meditation containing a sampling of Realization Process Techniques.
In this episode we outline three approaches to happiness—external, internal, and psychological—and the relative usefulness and methods of each.
• Includes a guided meditation leading us through the three elements of finding internal happiness.
In this episode we talk to Jan Frazier about what the awakened experience is like and how we interfere with the precious moments of daily life.
• Includes a guided description of how to approach daily life experiences from the perspective of allowing spontaneous moments of consciousness to linger.
In this episode we explore the many ways we avoid presence, and how to overcome them in daily life.
• Includes a guided meditation asking three questions to help us let go of obstacles to presence.
In this episode we talk to Steve Farrell about oneness, conscious business, and the necessity of having large portions of humanity wake up.
• Includes a guided meditation to help us feel into the inner light that is ever-present and connects each one of us.
In this episode we examine different types of anger, the causes of anger, and possible methods for dealing with anger and bringing it to awareness.
• Includes a guided meditation that helps us experience anger without the story attached to it.
In this episode we talk to Daniel Schmidt and Tanya Mahar about their films, Inner Worlds Outer Worlds and Samadhi, the different approaches to Samadhi, and the various paths to awaking across many cultures.
• Includes a guided meditation to help us drop all the obstacles that keep us from allowing the present moment to be exactly as it is.
In this episode we explore how relationships can be used as a vehicle for awakening and for overcoming obstacles that get in the way of knowing the nature of love.
• Includes a guided meditation asking several questions that can help deepen the connection in any relationship.
In this episode we talk to J Jaye Gold (Justin), who was Jonathan's spiritual teacher for 26 years, and discusses his unique angle on spiritual groups, meditation, and his system of tools for uncovering consciousness.
• Includes a musical meditation.
In this episode we talk to Bridgit Dengel Gaspard about how the various parts of oneself can be integrated into an aware ego.
• Includes a guided meditation to explore and assimilate two opposite parts of yourself.
In this episode we talk about the concepts of allowing vs. resisting, and how to find peace while also helping to reduce suffering in world.
• Includes a guided meditation to help allow our emotional reactions to events and thereby experience unity consciousness.
In this episode we talk to Pamela Wilson about clear seeing, honoring ourselves and all that arises within, and resting in the background of stillness, which is our true nature.
• Includes a guided meditation leading us into the silent, warm, benevolent, all-welcoming space of gratitude and stillness in the formless spiritual heart.