Stephan offers webinars, retreats, videos, books, and spiritual counseling that make profound spiritual teachings and practices accessible to a global audience. He studied and practiced for many years with great masters in the nondual wisdom traditions of Zen, Dzogchen-Mahamudra, and Advaita Vedanta, and in 2001 he received Dharma transmission (authorization to teach) from Adyashanti.

In this conversation, recorded to mark the release of his new book Infinite Awakening: A Guide to Nondual Wisdom and the Pathless Path (Shambhala, May 2026), Stephan and Michael explore awakening not as a destination but as an ongoing, infinite process. They move through trauma and trust, the limits of mindfulness, the role of intimate relationship as spiritual path, and how nondual realization speaks — or fails to speak — to the metacrisis we're all living through. The episode closes with a guided "rest and allow" meditation from Stephan.

Topics

00:00 — Reconnecting
00:04 — Awakening as a Path
00:10 — Trauma & Trust
00:16 — IFS & Somatic Therapy
00:18 — Intimate Relationships as Spiritual Path
00:21 — Spiritual Bypassing
00:27 — The Limits of Mindfulness
00:33 — Guided Meditation: Rest and Allow by Stephan

Resources & Links

Stephan Bodian

Referenced teachers and books

Adyashanti — website — gave Stephan Dharma transmission; wrote the foreword to Infinite Awakening
Ramana Maharshi — Wikipedia — referenced in discussion of awakening ideals
Nisargadatta Maharaj — Wikipedia — "I am That"; referenced in discussion of true nature
Thich Nhat Hanh — "inter-being" — referenced in discussion of inseparability and nonduality
Ram Dass — "go home to your parents" — referenced in discussion of relationships as spiritual mirror
Andrew Holecek — I'm Mindful, Now What? (Sounds True, 2024) — referenced as a companion conversation on the limits of mindfulness
Glissando of Consciousness SAND Podcast with Andrew Holecek
Gabor Maté — referenced in discussion of trauma as universal human condition

Psychological Modalities

IFS — Internal Family Systems — referenced as a somatic approach that complements awakening
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — referenced alongside somatic therapy

SAND

Contact SAND

podcast@scienceandnonduality.com