Ask Me Anything with Shinzen Young | Active Presence Mindfulness Professionals Training 2025 Cohort

This intimate discussion brings together mindfulness professionals from around the globe — psychotherapists, coaches, and practitioners from various fields — as they near the completion of their certification program. Shinzen offers wisdom, caution, and inspiration for those preparing to bring mindfulness practices into their professional work.

Key Topics Discussed

Being Big & Small: Shinzen introduces the paradox of carrying a large mission (representing the "spirit of the times" in an AI-driven world) while staying profoundly small — walking "in the unborn" to navigate any situation with mastery and peace.

Focus on Rest vs. Avoidance: How to distinguish between genuine restful states that replenish and mere evasion strategies. Shinzen maps this onto the "happiness grid" — a multi-dimensional framework for well-being covering sensory fulfillment, suffering reduction, insight, and behavioral improvement.

Spontaneity vs. Reactivity: Exploring the critical difference between genuine spontaneous wisdom and impulsive reactions driven by unconscious patterns. Shinzen shares a striking story about Hitler to illustrate how channeling without epistemological humility leads to tyranny.

The Role of AI in Mindfulness: Shinzen discusses his current work on mathematics as applied to teaching mindfulness in the AI age — envisioning a future where AI helps us maintain rigorous, correct reasoning: "the bots got your back."

Stages of Practice: When asked about stages of enlightenment, Shinzen responds that he's "reached the stage where I'm not interested in stages anymore," emphasizing instead the original treasure that's always present and the ongoing challenge of being "an admirable ordinary human being."

Getting Unstuck: Practical advice on working through periods of stagnation, building experiential confidence through repeated cycles of breakthrough, and the importance of intense practice (retreats, challenging ceremonies) to push through plateaus.

Markers of Progress: Are your skills getting stronger? Is your life getting better? Shinzen advocates for "sober optimism" — acknowledging suffering while optimizing happiness across multiple dimensions.

The Teacher's Challenge: Taking seriously the possibility of classical enlightenment ("What, me, the fuck-up?") and serving as a midwife to students' transformation, especially when life's inevitable catastrophes force them into "the monastery" of difficult circumstances.

Notable Moments

Shinzen's story of holding a meditation retreat during the 9/11 attacks.

His encounter with a German woman who knew Hitler — illustrating the danger of confidence without epistemological humility.

The metaphor of walking into an empty airport "radiating a smallness that carried a cloud of comfort".

His reflection that "waking up" and "growing up" are separate dimensions — you can be deeply liberated yet still misguided.

The realization that after enough practice, "there's very little difference between seated practice and just going about life".

This session offers both philosophical depth and practical wisdom for anyone on the path of mindfulness practice or teaching.