Ep318: Modern Mindfulness - Victor Shiryaev
Victor Shiryaev is a teacher of Buddhist and modern meditation and somatic practices.
Available on Youtube, iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Victor recounts his childhood in the Soviet Union, early underground exposure to the New Age, and subsequent study of Avaita Vedānta and Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory.
Victor details his discipleship under American mindfulness teacher Shinzen Young, reflects on the tension between tradition and innovation, and shares stories of his own awakening experiences.
Victor also lays out his disagreements with Shinzen Young’s approach, critiques the Pragmatic Dharma’s use of maps and stages, and presents his own understanding of the spiritual experiences to be expected on the road to awakening and beyond.
00:00 - Intro
00:56 - Childhood in the Soviet Union
02:24 - Exposure to the New Age and psychotherapy
07:15 - Studying Chinese History at university
08:07 - Advaita Vedānta and Ken Wilber
09:18 - Unity experience
10:21 - Altered states and psychic phenomena
13:14 - Personal crisis
14:52 - Awakening in Myanmar
17:19 - “I know what I have is working”
19:17 - Meeting Shinzen Young and adopting his model
24:50 - Observational statistics
27:29 - Studying with Shinzen
29:27 - Divorce and launching meditation teaching career
31:00 - Finding a path thru crisis
37:10 - Writing a letter to nature
42:48 - Finding purpose in spirituality
44:15 - Victor’s teaching approach and activities
48:58 - Why go deeper in practice?
51:17 - Creating a culture of openness
58:33 - Shinzen & Ken Wilber vs Victor
01:05:16 - Being a clear conduit
01:19:32 - I am not a Buddhist teacher
01:12:40 - Experience vs faith
01:15:58 - Disagreements with Shinzen
01:17:43 - Disagreements with Theravāda
01:19:32 - Shinzen’s modernism and scientism
01:25:19 - Steve’s understanding of Shinzen
01:28:15 - Victor’s update on Shinzen’s scientism
01:30:50 - Heretics and reformers
01:33:39 - Fundamentalism and the world-centred view
01:30:39 - A world-centred view is also fundamentalist
01:42:50 - Victor on the Pragmatic Dharma movement
01:46:55 - Hypocrisy of Pragmatic Dharma
01:49:29 - Traditional vs modern practitioners
01:58:13 - Critique of maps and stages
02:06:18 - First stage: thoughts to presence
02:09:41 - Second stage: all experience is consciousness
02:12:09 - One taste
02:13:38 - Intimacy with all things
02:15:26 - The consciousness trap
02:18:18 - We shape our experience
02:19:10 - The pregnant void
02:22:32 - Victor’s view of the path
To find out more about Victor Shiryaev, visit:
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James