A Conversation with Wystan

Host Michael Taft interviews meditation teacher Wystan about teaching awakening outside a strict lineage framework, cultural translation of Buddhist practice, why awakening does not “come with a Buddhist label,” the tension between preserving traditional forms and adapting them for modern students, devotion as a powerful but often avoided dimension of practice, the heartbreak of compassion as barriers of separateness break down, the importance of turning toward suffering rather than distracting from it, gratitude and forgiveness as possible “neo-Brahmaviharas,” why shamatha and vipashyana training can prepare students for more direct nondual practices, and Wystan’s encouragement that awakening is real, possible, and worth pursuing. Wystan is a meditation teacher threading together influences from training in Theravada, Zen, Vajrayana, Dzogchen, and Shinzen Young's systematic secular approach in service of awakening. Learn more at See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .

You can listen to A Conversation with Wystan online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

A Conversation with Wystan is an episode from Deconstructing Yourself by Michael W. Taft.

This episode is 00:35:22 long.

This episode was published on Apr 28, 2026.

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