The Inner Science of Pain: Compassion, Contemplation, and Healing w/ Richmond Stace
What if understanding pain was a contemplative act? Richmond Stace, creator of Pain Coaching, brings together neuroscience, psychotherapy, and contemplative insights to rethink chronic pain not just as a biological condition, but as a human experience shaped by meaning, attention, and awareness.
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Being Deeply Well: Dharma, Discomfort, and the Healing Path w/ Melina Bondy & Arti Mehta
What does it really mean to be deeply well—not just symptom-free or spiritually polished, but truly grounded, embodied, and alive? In this episode, Dharma teachers Melina Bondy and Arti Mehta explore this question through the lenses of contemplative practice, psychotherapy, somatics, art, and community care. Together we reflect on how meditation and the Dharma shape our understanding of wellness—not as an escape from life’s struggles, but as a courageous turning toward them. We discuss how to stay with discomfort without bypassing, the role of the body in healing, and the tensions between spiritual ideals and lived experience. We also ask: Can wellness itself become a form of resistance? What does it mean to be well together? And how can we honour both safety and challenge in our communities? This is a rich and honest conversation about the nonlinear path to being deeply well—and what it takes to share that path with others.
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How Compassion Works w/ Lama John Makransky
In this episode, Lama John Makransky joins us to explore the inner architecture of compassion. Drawing from his new book How Compassion Works, we discuss how Buddhist meditative practices, attachment theory, and cognitive science can come together to help us cultivate deep well-being, unconditional love, and wise responsiveness in the face of suffering. Lama John reflects on the importance of accessing “innate qualities of goodness” through inner refuge practices, the role of secure relationality in healing, and how these insights can transform not only individual experience but social engagement. Whether you’re a clinician, a meditator, or someone interested in the meeting place of science and spirituality, this conversation offers a powerful vision of compassion as a force for inner and outer liberation.
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Is Meditation Philosophy? w/ Rick Repetti
In this episode, we speak with Rick Repetti—philosopher, meditation teacher, and editor of The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Meditation. We explore whether meditation can be considered a form of philosophy, how it might deepen our understanding of the mind, self, and agency, and whether a distinctly Western philosophy of meditation is emerging. Drawing on both scholarly insight and personal practice, Rick offers a compelling vision of meditation not just as a spiritual tool, but as a philosophical method in its own right.
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Science and Practice of Dark Retreats w/ Andrew Holecek
What happens when you spend days—or even weeks—in complete darkness? In this episode, Andrew Holecek — an expert in Tibetan Buddhism, lucid dreaming, and meditation — guides us through the profound practice of dark retreats. We explore how extended time in darkness can shift perception, support mental health, and catalyze deep spiritual awakening. Blending ancient traditions with emerging science, this conversation sheds light on the hidden power of darkness and what it can teach us about waking life.
What can cutting-edge science tell us about spiritual development? And how are ancient contemplative practices helping us to investigate the nature of well-being? On The Contemplative Science Podcast, host Dr. Mark Miller speaks with the real experts, from Monks to Neuroscientists, to get clear on how contemplative practices work and how they might help us improve our lives. Our diverse range of guests will cover everything from mindfulness and wisdom, to sex, death and enlightenment.
South Africa