Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
A conversation on what cutting-edge neuroscience can contribute to the progression of meditation & awakening. The 4-week course is at adventuresinawareness.com
Dr Shamil Chandaria is a senior research fellow at the centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford. He is also a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, London University, where he focuses on philosophical issues in neuroscience and well-being; a research fellow at Imperial College in the neuroscience of psychedelics; and a bye-fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.
He has multi-disciplinary research interests spanning computational neuroscience, machine learning & artificial intelligence, and the philosophy and science of human well-being. He is currently working on computational theories of consciousness and meditation. Shamil has been a meditator for 38 years and has contemplative training in early Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shivaism.
Contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:
- adventuresinawareness.com/membership
- One-off PayPal donations: paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin
Follow the Adventure:
- Subscribe to us on youtube: youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness
- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness
- iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754
- Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU
- Facebook: facebook.com/adventuresinawareness
Banner art by instagram.com/jadewade
0:00 Teaser
1:00 Introduction
2:30 Transcendental meditation
5:40 Science as the language of our time
7:20 the universe has multiple perspectives
11:35 coming to spirituality through suffering
15:40 the goals of the many kinds of meditation: abiding, deconstruction, reconstruction
22:40 everything that arises is a mental construction
31:40 adrenaline can be excitement or stress
42:40 what science can add to ancient wisdom
50:40 why to cherry pick from traditions
51:44 science is on a level playing field with tradition
1:01:40 the science of perception supports meditation
1:04:40 the science of perception has reversed
1:16:40 meditation techniques keep getting better, and science is helping
1:39:40 our experience is a dependent co-arising
1:47:40 Overview of Shamil’s course
1:59:40 Waking up to the game then reconstructing it
A conversation on what cutting-edge neuroscience can contribute to the progression of meditation & awakening. The 4-week course is at adventuresinawareness.com
Dr Shamil Chandaria is a senior research fellow at the centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford. He is also a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, London University, where he focuses on philosophical issues in neuroscience and well-being; a research fellow at Imperial College in the neuroscience of psychedelics; and a bye-fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.
He has multi-disciplinary research interests spanning computational neuroscience, machine learning & artificial intelligence, and the philosophy and science of human well-being. He is currently working on computational theories of consciousness and meditation. Shamil has been a meditator for 38 years and has contemplative training in early Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shivaism.
Contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:
- adventuresinawareness.com/membership
- One-off PayPal donations: paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin
Follow the Adventure:
- Subscribe to us on youtube: youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness
- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness
- iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754
- Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU
- Facebook: facebook.com/adventuresinawareness
Banner art by instagram.com/jadewade
0:00 Teaser
1:00 Introduction
2:30 Transcendental meditation
5:40 Science as the language of our time
7:20 the universe has multiple perspectives
11:35 coming to spirituality through suffering
15:40 the goals of the many kinds of meditation: abiding, deconstruction, reconstruction
22:40 everything that arises is a mental construction
31:40 adrenaline can be excitement or stress
42:40 what science can add to ancient wisdom
50:40 why to cherry pick from traditions
51:44 science is on a level playing field with tradition
1:01:40 the science of perception supports meditation
1:04:40 the science of perception has reversed
1:16:40 meditation techniques keep getting better, and science is helping
1:39:40 our experience is a dependent co-arising
1:47:40 Overview of Shamil’s course
1:59:40 Waking up to the game then reconstructing it
