Meditation Subtlety: Noting, Frames of Experience, and the Three Characteristics

This episode continues the beginner meditation series with a short guided set focused on “settling into time and space” by finding a comfortable posture and placing attention in the present using an anchor such as the breath, sensations in the hands or feet, or the space of the whole body. The instructor emphasizes using one-word noting (e.g., rising/falling; tingling/warmth; thinking/planning/worrying) to maintain a continuous chain of mindful attention, clarifying that progress is not stopping thoughts but staying observant even as attention shifts to mental events. As skill develops, viewers are guided to notice discrete “frames” of experience within each breath and investigate subtlety within each frame, traditionally described as impermanence/change, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self (not defining “me”). A closing meditation practices noting change moment by moment and recaps this progression.

00:00 Settle Into Meditation

02:12 Choose Your Anchor

04:23 Noting Practice Basics

08:31 Progress Without Stopping Thoughts

10:09 Frames of Experience

12:15 Three Characteristics

13:43 Guided Subtlety Practice

18:33 Recap and Next Steps

Mutual Aid, Empathy, and Integration: Social Meditation with Vince Fakhoury Horn (Part 2)

In part two of an interview on Propaganda Loves You, hosts continue their conversation with Vince Fakhoury Horn of the Buddhist Geeks organization about mutual aid, community, and contemplative practice. Horn connects disaster-driven mutual aid after Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina to rebuilding everyday human connection through communities of practice. The discussion explores empathy (cognitive, emotional, and somatic) and balancing self- and other-focus, then shifts to awakening as experience versus abstraction, perception as sense-making, and Buddhist ideas like emptiness and interdependent arising. Horn emphasizes embodied “live words” over “dead words,” and frames integration as functioning in conventional reality while incorporating transformative insights, noting risks of psychedelics including his own psilocybin-induced psychosis. They distinguish concentration (“stopping”) from insight (“looking”), recommend finding suitable meditation objects, and demonstrate a brief peer-to-peer social meditation “there is” noting practice, concluding with reflections on mutual attunement.

00:00 Part Two Setup

01:02 Mutual Aid And Community

04:21 Empathy In Social Practice

07:25 Awakening Experience Vs Concept

08:19 Perception Self And Emptiness

16:30 Live Words And Embodiment

19:17 Integration Psychedelics Risks

24:09 Disillusionment And Trust

27:20 Truth Through Illusion

29:05 Disco Ball Metaphor

29:57 Transcend And Include

32:30 Meditation Basics Explained

33:30 Concentration Vs Insight

36:42 Finding Your Object

38:59 Why Social Meditation

40:18 There Is Noting Practice

44:13 Five Minute Group Sit

49:17 Reflections And Wrap Up

https://www.buddhistgeeks.org/

First Interview Episode: Vince Fakhoury Horn on Buddhism, Narrative Framing, and Propaganda After 9/11 and Gaza

Joe and Arthur interview Vince Fakhoury (Buddhist Geeks), a Dharma teacher and Palestinian American, about generational tensions between Buddhist teachers, tech-driven “schismogenesis,” and formative experiences of propaganda after 9/11, including his grandparents’ treatment during travel and business scrutiny. Vince links propaganda to linguistic framing via “social meditation,” arguing those who control frames shape what’s discussable, and critiques “neoliberal Buddhism” for avoiding systemic issues like Gaza. He describes building connective tissue between individual practice and social liberation through relational practice and projects like Insight Diaspora, and discusses Buddhist history, non-duality, and unconditional generosity.

00:00 Housekeeping Updates

00:36 First Interview Tease

01:42 Welcome and Guest Intro

02:17 Vince Background and Work

04:42 Generational Dharma Tensions

08:30 Schismogenesis and Projects

10:41 Defining Propaganda

11:06 Post 9/11 Propaganda Impact

13:10 Meditation Framing and Language

17:31 Media Narratives and Awakening

20:31 Developmental Stages and Systems

22:49 Nietzsche and Buddhist Suffering

24:51 Early Buddhism Nirvana Escape

25:28 Mahayana Nonduality Shift

27:13 Modern Buddhism Remixing

28:28 Meditation Versus Social Media

29:19 Buddhist Modernism Limits

32:06 Lions Roar For Gaza

34:40 Neoliberal Dharma Frustrations

39:05 Developmental Lens And Growth

42:00 Social Meditation Connective Tissue

45:59 Dana And Unconditional Generosity

49:25 Closing And Support