TEACHER BIOGRAPHY
Stephan Bodian
Stephan Bodian offers webinars, retreats, videos, books, and spiritual counseling that make profound spiritual teachings and practices accessible to a global audience.
He studied and practiced for many years with great masters in the non-dual wisdom traditions of Zen, Dzogchen-Mahamudra, and Advaita Vedanta, and in 2001 he received Dharma transmission (authorization to teach) from Adyashanti. Since 2007 he has led an annual, months-long intensive program in spiritual transformation known as the School for Awakening.
His ground-breaking guidebook Meditation for Dummies, which has sold nearly a half million copies, helped bring mindfulness to the mainstream. His book Wake Up Now was one of the first to offer a detailed road map to the journey of spiritual awakening, and the book Beyond Mindfulness offers a more “direct approach” to self-realization that bypasses deliberate practices and points directly to our very own awakened awareness, which is always already present.
Stephan is trained as a psychotherapist as well as being a spiritual teacher, and he has been a pioneer in the integration of nondual wisdom and Western psychology and in the embodiment of awakened awareness in everyday life. His approach to teaching and counseling blends compassionate self-inquiry, nondual insight, and transformational techniques from the field of psychotherapy.
Stephan began his spiritual journey with Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, and received ordination as a monk in 1974 from Kobun Chino. After leaving the monastic life in the early ‘80s, he spent a decade as a student of Advaita master Jean Klein, and after Jean’s death in 1998 he spent several years in intimate study with Adyashanti.
He’s also a core contributor to the Waking Up app and podcast, which features 20 of his guided meditations in the “direct approach” and several extended conversations with the app’s founder, Sam Harris.
What people are saying…
“Stephan Bodian is a master teacher.”
Stephan Bodian is a master teacher whose lifetime of realization shines through every teaching. He combines deep insight with skillful guidance, inviting us to rest naturally in awareness, love, and inner peace. His work offers a direct path home to what we already are.
Rick Hanson
“His teaching points directly to freedom that lies beyond suffering.”
Stephan speaks from long experience and genuine realization. His teaching points directly to the freedom that lies beyond suffering and opens the heart to a deeper way of living.
Stephen Levine
“Stephan Bodian offers a clear, compassionate, and beautifully articulated guide.”
Stephan Bodian offers a clear, compassionate, and beautifully articulated guide to the timeless understanding at the heart of all true spirituality. With great clarity and tenderness, he points directly to the recognition of our ever-present being.
