Cultivating Internal Stability Through Meditation's "Home Base"

Deep Dive

The discussion begins with an introduction to Jeff Warren, a meditation teacher and co-author of "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics," who is featured as the teacher of the month for December on danharris.com. Listeners are informed that Jeff will be creating custom guided meditations for the podcast's episodes and hosting live sessions on Zoom every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. The episode highlights Jeff's personal journey, including a life-changing accident and diagnoses of ADHD and bipolar disorder, and his subsequent decades of learning to work with his mind. The conversation between Jeff and DJ Cashmere aims to provide practical strategies for meditating with a busy mind, staying grounded during emotional distress, and finding a "home base" for calm.

Jeff Warren shares his unconventional path to becoming a meditation teacher, explaining that it was never a planned career. He initially pursued journalism and was always interested in consciousness, lucid dreaming, and altered states of mind. This interest intensified after a severe accident at age 20 where he broke his neck and hit his head, leading to a significant change in his consciousness and a return to a highly distractible, associative way of thinking, akin to severe ADHD. This experience provided him with a direct contrast to his previous mental state, sparking curiosity about the mind. He later received ADHD and bipolar diagnoses, which he believes may be partly related to the head injury.

The narrative then details Jeff's exploration into consciousness and meditation. This interest led him to write a book about the neuroscience of consciousness, and through that work, he became involved with science of consciousness conferences. He observed a shift in these conferences towards valuing subjective, first-person experiences of consciousness, with Buddhist monks often being key figures. This observation, combined with an interest in alternative descriptions of consciousness, motivated him to attend meditation retreats starting around 2002. He eventually met his mentor, Shinzen Young, a meditation teacher who encouraged him to start guiding practices.

Jeff describes his teaching style as having a "crazy flavor," stemming from his initial reluctance and feeling of being a "dysfunctional dipshit" trying to navigate life. He believes a good teacher shares what is true about their own experience, and his experiences with significant internal suffering due to mental health diagnoses have provided him with a broad bandwidth of insights for managing these challenges. This has led him to be particularly interested in working with neurodivergent individuals. He emphasizes being "real" about life's difficulties, finding joy in acknowledging his own perceived neuroticism while noting that practice has made his life less so.

He further elaborates on his teaching approach by highlighting the creative aspect of meditation. As a writer, he enjoys using his creativity to develop various meditations, metaphors, and framings. He views consciousness itself as the ultimate creative medium, amenable to adjustments and shifts in attention that can alter experience. This perspective emphasizes creative autonomy within practice. More recently, his teaching has focused on translating this plasticity of awareness into practical action for the present challenging times, aiming to help individuals show up more effectively and be part of solutions.

The conversation shifts to the concept of a "home base" in meditation, a central theme in Jeff's custom meditations for the month. He explains that meditation is fundamentally about learning to become a home to oneself, a place of true belonging. The practice involves directing attention intentionally, often re-applying it when it drifts to worries or to-do lists. He offers various "home bases" as an adventure for people to discover what is stable and simplifying for them, suggesting sensory locations, aspects of the breath, body sensations, or even inner sounds or mantras. The key is finding something one can settle with, which creates stability and allows clarity to emerge.

Jeff clarifies that the concept of a "home base" operates on two levels: an on-cushion practice focusing attention on an object, and a broader, day-to-day sense of finding internal home and self-regulation. This ability to settle and regulate, he notes, is a powerful upside of practice that extends beyond the meditation cushion. He likens this to putting a hand on one's chest to settle, encouraging a return to one's own center from which to meet life, contrasting it with being overwhelmed, having lost one's center, or being in a fight-or-flight response. The more one practices finding this "right here" feeling, the more often they can access it and the greater the intensity of life experiences they can remain present with.

The idea of "I have arrived. I am home," often seen in calligraphy at Plum Village monasteries, is discussed as a powerful reorientation. Jeff agrees that it's aspirational and about learning to come back to the present moment and one's own body as home, regardless of geographical location or personal history. This sense of being home also involves trust -- trusting that one is in the right place for the current moment, has what is needed, and can trust their responses. He suggests there's a "rightness" to the now, even when challenging, viewing it as a curriculum.

Jeff addresses the potential misinterpretation of accepting the present moment as passively surrendering to injustice or abuse. He clarifies, referencing another meditation teacher, that accepting the present moment is about the "exact moment" and one's response to it, not necessarily remaining in a difficult situation. Equanimity with present moment experience means recognizing the sensory reality of the moment without secondary resistance. This allows for skillful response, whether it's choosing a boundary or simply settling into the truth of what is happening, rather than reacting. He emphasizes that in challenging times, it is a responsibility to get still and settled to discern how to respond sanely and be part of the solution.

The discussion concludes by previewing Jeff's ten meditations for December, noting that the "home base" concept is a through-line. These meditations explore finding one's home base when faced with demands, people-pleasing, personal or others' suffering, or even under the influence of substances. Jeff also highlights creativity as another theme, mentioning singing, a robot voice, and using imagination as elements within the meditations. He emphasizes that anything can serve as a home base, including one's best intentions, values, or embodied sensations, presenting the month's meditations as a fun adventure through different approaches. The episode also promotes Dan Harris's weekly live meditation and Q&A sessions on Zoom, held every Tuesday, and the custom meditations available through a subscription on danharris.com.