Kenneth Folk is a personal meditation trainer known worldwide for his innovative approach to secular Buddhist meditation. After twenty years of training in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, including three years of intensive silent retreat in monasteries in Asia and the U.S., Kenneth began to spread his own findings, successfully stripping away religious dogma to make meditation accessible to modern practitioners.
Kenneth has been recognized by Wired Magazine as an influential voice in Silicon Valley’s tech culture, a "power player of the mindfulness movement."
Website: kennethfolkdharma.com
YouTube Channel
Summary and Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded 1/17/2015
YouTube Video Chapters:
00:00:00 - Introduction to Kenneth Folk
00:04:30 - Degrees and Levels of Awakening
00:09:16 - The Diversity of Spiritual Perspectives
00:13:45 - The Constituents of Experience
00:18:39 - Debunking the idea of an awareness ground state
00:23:19 - The Meaning of Nibbana
00:27:53 - The Radical Idea of Nibbana
00:31:51 - The relevance of Buddhism for us
00:36:39 - The Witness State
00:41:34 - The Sublime Experience of the Witness
00:46:32 - Evaluating Different Experiences
00:51:08 - The Drive to Discover Deeper Reality
00:54:57 - What is Mindfulness and its relation to meditation?
00:58:19 - The Two Types of Meditation and the Importance of Mindfulness
01:01:13 - Awakening through Meditation
01:04:20 - The Benefits of Dedicated Practice
01:07:29 - Different Ways of Defining Awakening
01:11:07 - Varieties of Experience
01:14:11 - The Myth of Hercules and its implications in athletics and brain development
01:17:31 - The Finite Resource of Attention
01:20:44 - Understanding Mindfulness through Concentration
01:24:06 - The Relationship between Concentration and Enjoyment
01:27:27 - Filters and Objectification in Meditation
01:30:32 - The Developmental Window for Awakening
01:33:25 - Our Umwelt and the Experience of Reality
01:36:40 - The Pursuit of Sublime Experiences
01:40:24 - The Ultimate Union with Consciousness
01:43:32 - The Evolution of the Spiritual Scene
01:46:05 - Awakening and the Power of Grassroots Transformation
01:49:16 - Percolating Shifts in the Industry
01:51:53 - Appreciation for the Audience