Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio.

I have a wonderful episode for you today.

It's with Daniel M. Ingram, who is the author of mastering the core teachings of the Buddha,

the founder of the Dharma Overground, and all around Buddhist thinker, intellectual practitioner, etc.

We discuss a lot of things that it's hard to find guests to discuss.

You almost have to have somebody that has been on the path for so long that has achieved, you

know, awakening within the Buddhist context to have honest, open, and precise conversations about

what enlightenment is, what it feels like from the inside.

Why is it worth pursuing?

After answering a bunch of those questions, we get into a lot of other stuff.

You know, Daniel's also a leftist, and so we discuss politics. We discuss

spirituality on the fascist right. We discuss capitalism, what meditation and even

enlightenment can offer in terms of a socialist or emancipatory political project and what it can't

offer, you know, what its limitations are. I think there's so

much in here that deconstructs over-romanticized and over-idealized notions around what

enlightenment is, and I think that's incredibly important, while also offering, you know, its full

benefits, because there are many to be had.

And if there weren't, people wouldn't pursue these spiritual practices.

Daniel is also a perennialist, if you will, which means that he believes that the mystical

traditions in all religions, right, mystical Judaism, mystical Christianity, Sufism and Islam,

as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.

All more or less point in the same direction.

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