— “My purpose is to wake up as many people as possible as quickly as possible to help heal our world crises. Any nondual purist might be quick to point out, “Wait a minute, isn’t that also a kind of sandcastle? A constructed goal? An egoic mission?” Yes, it is, and this is where I also want to remind you of my intention to deconstruct any scaffolding I’ve created. One scaffolding was a neuroscientific story of enlightenment, and I can dismantle that by noting (as I mentioned before) that not only can we never know for certain whether biological brains even exist outside of consciousness, but also no matter how many EEG and fMRI brain scans we use to determine the neurological correlates of enlightenment, all that data will never capture the experience of This, just like a list of all the organic flavor compounds in an apple will never capture the taste. And yes, my other scaffolding has been a soteriological or liberatory mission to enlighten. Ultimately, this must be surrendered as well. And this doesn’t mean giving up on our world crises, because that would be attachment to doing nothing. There is an attachment to doing something and an attachment to doing nothing.
What’s it like each moment to let go of all ideas of what should be done and abide as the spontaneous awareness that composes everything? When we get attached to the view of "I've gotta do something about these crises,” we may go to a protest, rabble-rouser in our organizations, volunteer for a nonprofit, or deliver a talk at a nonduality conference (!). Not that we shouldn’t do any of these things. I have gone to anti-racist & anti-fascist protests, and I am often vocal about the need to foster more equity and diversity within nondual communities. I also have volunteered for social justice nonprofits, and here I am giving this talk. But if ego is driving the boat, then you'll see toxic dynamics emerge in the work because it's ultimately about fear, control, self-aggrandizement, and rigid ideas about what’s capital Right. When the pendulum swings the other way, when we get attached to "There's nothing to do. We live in a 4D block universe and have no free will. It's all complete, so I'll just sit on my couch watching Netflix while the world burns," we are also stuck in an egocentric view because we think we know what's going on and what we should do, in this case nothing. It’s eternalism vs. nihilism all over again. What's destroying the planet is ultimately the ego's fear-driven tendency to want to Know and Control, so both of these seemingly opposite crisis-response orientations lie squarely within the bounds of the same toxic operating system. What’s it like to shift operating systems--perhaps with the help of nondual psychedelic integration--to one of Not-Knowing and Surrender, dancing each moment in and as the mystery of neither doing something nor doing nothing?” – Says Mira
Valeria interviews Mira Funk — She is a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker based in Corvallis, Oregon.
She studied comparative literature at Harvard, psychodynamic psychotherapy at Smith College School for Social Work, Zen Buddhism with Kwan Um Zen Master Bon Soeng, and psychedelic integration coaching with Shiri Malcolm Godasi.
Mira is the founder of Nondual Psychedelic Integration, a private psychotherapy and transformational coaching practice committed to holistically optimizing psychedelic growth with a personalized blend of somatic, mindfulness-based, nondual, and neuroscience-informed approaches. In late 2023, per Oregon's groundbreaking Measure 109 legislation, she will begin offering guided psychedelic journeys as a fully licensed psilocybin mushroom facilitator.
To learn more about Mira Funk and her work, please visit: nondualpsychedelicintegration.com
— This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.
