Daniel Thorson - The Journey from Avoidance to Deep Intimacy

Daniel Thorson is a former monastic, podcaster, writer, and coach. He spent five years as a resident at the Monastic Academy and has accumulated two years of silent retreat experience. 

Daniel is also a certified Aletheia Coach and Circling facilitator, whose work weaves together embodied inquiry, attachment-based healing, philosophical exploration, and relational presence. 

For many years, Daniel hosted the Emerge podcast, a pioneering platform that helped catalyze emergent dialogues and shape what many now call the liminal web. He currently writes The Intimate Mirror on Substack, a publication exploring meaning, transformation, intimacy, and the search for religion in the age of Artificial Intelligence. 

In this episode we speak about Daniel’s extensive experience living and training at a Monastery, turning break downs into break throughs, developing a better relationship with conceptuality and rationality, Secure attachment with reality, leaving Buddhism, creating a Dharma capable of addressing the meta-crisis and many other resonant threads on personal and collective transformation.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Daniel’s personal site & coaching services
• Subscribe to Daniel’s Substack
• Follow Daniel on Twitter/X
• The Upper Middle Path & Tech Bro Buddhism by Daniel Thorson
• Daniel Thorson speaking about Secure Attachment to Reality on the Meta-Game podcast
• Daniel speaking about consensus Buddhism and pragmatic dharma on the Buddhist Geeks podcast
• Monastic Academy (MAPLE)
• Transformational Connection
• Aletheia Coach training
• Daniel P. Brown
• David Elliott - Repairing Attachment | Elevating Consciousness podcast

📝[Show Notes] 📝

0:00 - Introduction 
5:06 - Daniel’s experience living as a monk 
13:32 - Going through a psychological breakdown 
17:29 - Discovering attachment work and the ideal parenting protocol 
21:56 - Developing a better relationship with conceptuality and rationality 
25:25 - Emotional attunement, relational practices, and the importance of safe containers
34:15 - Secure attachment with reality 
38:54 - Trusting the intelligence of every experience 
40:30 - Is the fundamental nature of reality love?
44:35 - What is missing from Buddhism?
52:10 - Towards a Translineage spirituality 
55:50 - Is there anything afforded by identifying as Buddhist or Christian?
1:06:05 - From emptiness/deconstructing to soulmaking/skillfully playing with identity 
1:09:29 - A dharma capable of addressing the meta-crisis
1:11:36 - Daniel’s current meditation practice 
1:14:20 - Integrating ethics with eros and clarifying desire 
1:17:36 - Reflecting on the Human Transformation in a Time of Meta-Crisis conference at Harvard 
1:22:17 - The liberation of creative agency

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