ABOUT ME
mindo Pod
My Approach:
After decades of practice and study, I came to see that many meditation methods bring calm, yet eventually plateau. My teacher, Mark Griffin, revealed the subtle art and science of truly stopping the mind - but his teachings were often too intricate for most students to absorb fully.
My gift has been to translate that depth into a clear, step-by-step system, blending Mark’s core principles with insights from my other teachers. (See more about the system I offer)
Each stage of the teaching is practical and directly usable. You can progress steadily and with confidence, moving at your own pace - from a quiet mind to a stopped mind.
With a lifelong passion for meditation, a gift for teaching and a talent for making complex concepts easy to understand and use, I offer a unique approach for you to unlock your Self to yourself.
My life has been shaped by the guidance of many profound masters of meditation, each contributing to the path I now share.
A teacher of Transcendental Meditation™ traveled hundreds of miles to instruct a small group of us in our high school outside of Aspen, Colorado. For me, it felt like coming home. I went on to become a teacher of TM, was in the first graduating class of Maharishi’s new university, MIU, then spent a year doing in-depth meditation directly with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Europe, and attended several of his longer programs after that. I publicly taught TM for some time, then become involved with different businesses, including computer science and architectural work.
Despite my strong background, my practice eventually plateaued—I felt as though I was simply treading water. I was inwardly led to seek Shaktipat, the awakening of the Kundalini energy, and was fortunate to be directed to Shri Anandi Ma in Northern California. This accelerated my practices tremendously.
My path then led me to Gurumayi and Siddha Yoga™. Gurumayi is a brilliant teacher, as was her guru Swami Muktananda, and his guru Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. So much of who I am now has been shaped by the force of grace running through this lineage.
My exploration of meditation was furthered through my friendship with the great meditation teacher Sally Kempton, who was also part of this lineage (as Swami Durgananda).
Yet still I wanted more…
I began meditating in 1970, more than years ago...
Mark Griffin
What a Master !
Here we were with Mark in India, 2009
Years immersed in his teachings formed the foundation of the approach I share with you here.
Then I met Mark Griffin, and my search for the perfect teacher came to an end. A direct disciple of Baba Muktananda, Mark carried on the lineage I already knew and loved. During his years with Baba, his own quest for spiritual perfection matured into Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
What felt so fortunate from our perspective was that Mark was a westerner like us; he could articulate profound spiritual states and insights in language we could readily understand. He also studied with Kalu Rinpoche, so he brought the key understandings of Tibetan Buddhism into his teaching as well.
My role with Mark was unique and precious. Drawn by hunger for his knowledge—and supported by my technical skills—I edited the audio from all his talks into clean renditions and produced them as CDs. I built his first bookstore, and I edited and published many of his talks as books on Amazon under our imprint Podpublishing. With Mark’s blessing, I created a home-study course for his students, weaving his talks together with in-depth introductions. With my partner, Evelyn, I also produced a fresh rendition and translation of the Shri Guru Gita for Mark’s sangha—a version now embraced by many yoga communities across the country.
All of this work—living inside Mark’s teaching for years—let me imbibe his knowledge deeply. It has since blended with my own voice and methods, which I offer you here.
My final “teacher” has been my own private sangha - a group of friends who have been meditating online with me every day for the past several years. Some are new to meditation, while others have been sitting with me for decades.
The saying “The teacher always learns more than the student” has proven profoundly true. Many of the principles I absorbed over years of studying with great masters have only come fully alive now that I’ve had the chance to teach them.
What I discovered:
In my first 35 years of practice, I immersed myself in mantra-based meditation programs. These methods can bring calm and stability, but I noticed that most practitioners eventually plateau. They spend years — sometimes decades — treading water. The “effortless meditation” approach provides a comfortable resting place for the mind, with the occasional glimpse of stillness, but rarely the true stopping of the mind that Patanjali describes in the Yoga Sutras — the phase transition that transforms everything and reveals the true mystery of Pure Consciousness: the Self.
When I studied with Mark, he taught the subtle art of stopping the mind directly. His teachings were profound, but so deep, complex and far-reaching that many in attendance simply couldn’t absorb them. That’s why I created his first correspondence course — to bridge that gap. My own way of thinking, combined with years of carefully parsing his words, gave me a rare ability to grasp and retain his transmissions. That foundation empowers my teaching to this day.
Still, I recognized that if I presented Mark’s teachings exactly as he gave them, most students would feel lost. So I developed a unique approach: a clear, step-by-step sequence of modules that distills the essence of his core principles, integrates the wisdom of my other teachers, and makes each stage accessible, learnable, and immediately practicable. This way, you can progress steadily — understanding each layer before moving on to the next.
DOES YOUR MEDITATION FEEL LIKE TREADING WATER?
IT DOESN’T HAVE TO!
I invite you to study with me — see all the programs I offer you now.
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