Michael Taft: Intro to His Meditations and the Stack Model

Michael Taft is a meditation teacher, creator of the podcast Deconstructing Yourself, and co-founder of the Berkeley Alembic meditation center. This podcast serves as an introduction to his teaching and how to engage with his hundreds of guided, nondual meditations on youtube. Resources: Michael's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelTaft108 Deconstructing Yourself: https://deconstructingyourself.com Michael's Courses: https://deconstructingyourself.org - Hacking the Stack starts January 26, 2026 Timestamps: 0:45 Why students come to Michael after other resources (apps like Waking Up, retreats like Goenka and Jhourney, and books like The Mind Illuminated) 2:40 Where Michael fits in the meditation ecosystem 5:34 Respecting traditions while being meta-systematic 7:51 Where can practice actually go? The real goals 9:23 A student with severe chronic pain (morphine pump story) 14:38 Emotional pain uses the same brain circuitry 15:02 The Stack model, and understanding "progress" in meditation 16:47 Level 1: Conceptual (thinking about experience) 17:06 Level 2: Phenomenological (qualia, direct sensation) 21:36 Level 3: Flux (everything is changing) 24:45 Level 4: Openness and emptiness 28:14 Vast Sky Mind and applying the stack to all sense gates 30:00 Why Michael uses mantra, chanting, and visualization 31:45 The arc of Michael's guided meditations on YouTube 33:02 How to engage with Michael's work 35:00 The power of sangha and community