Cortland Dahl Archives

Cortland Dahl

Cortland Dahl, PhD, is a scientist, translator, author, and meditation teacher with a lifelong interest in meditation and the science of flourishing. His journey began in the early 1990s when he first learned to meditate. His passion led him on a journey around the world, from monasteries in Burma to zendos in Japan, as well as eight years living in Tibetan refugee settlements in Nepal and India. During his travels, Cort became fluent in Tibetan and became a translator and scholar, receiving a master’s degree in Buddhist studies and publishing 12 volumes of translations. He went on to study at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was mentored by the renowned neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson and received a PhD in mind, brain, and contemplative science, the first-ever degree of its kind awarded by the university. He has since published numerous scientific articles, including a new scientific framework for the cultivation of well-being, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). As part of his PhD dissertation, Cort created the Healthy Minds Program, now a free mobile app that has been featured by The New York Times, Vogue, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications. More recently, he authored “A Meditator’s Guide to Buddhism: The Path of Awareness, Compassion, and Wisdom” and the forthcoming “Born to Flourish: How to Thrive in a Challenging World,” with Dr. Richard Davidson. Cort currently serves as executive director and board member for Tergar International, the organization that oversees the Tergar community in the West, as well as a senior instructor for the Tergar community. He is also a scientist at the Center for Healthy Minds and chief contemplative officer for its affiliated nonprofit, Healthy Minds Innovations.

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Cortland Dahl, PhD: The Energizing Force of Compassion

Cortland Dahl — January 21, 2025

Imagine how our world would change if all of our actions were rooted in love and compassion. Is that even possible? In this podcast, Tami Simon sits down with Dr. Cortland Dahl, the renowned Buddhist scholar, translator, scientist, researcher, and author of several books including his newest, A Meditator’s Guide to Buddhism, to discuss how compassion can become the energizing force that motivates you and inspires you each and every day.

Listen now for their insights on attuning to the intelligence of your heart; a neuroscientific approach to healing anxiety; the exciting research and new modalities emerging from the study of contemplative practice; how quickly we can begin to enjoy the profound benefits of meditation; the four pillars of a healthy mind: awareness, connection, insight, and purpose; appreciation and noticing the positive; living life in a meditative way; bringing your innate compassion up to the surface of conscious experience; doing the dishes as an act of love—how every action can become a gift; generosity, the inner richness that can never be exhausted; how empathy and compassion activate the brain’s “care network”; compassion in relationships; the universal longing for meaning and purpose; transformative pain, and why physical discomfort does not equal suffering; dealing with uncertainty; unlocking the insights of our emotions and finding the beauty in difficult experiences; a pith instruction: look at your mind; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

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Richard Rohr: Gratuitous Goodness in an Age of Outrage

Richard Rohr — April 22, 2025

The prophets and mystics of the Judeo-Christian tradition each had their ways of bringing attention to the hypocrisies and injustices of their particular period in history. Here in the year 2025, as we navigate our own time of disruption and upheaval, how can we as individuals raise our voices and become the compassionate, conscious change agents our world so desperately needs? In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher Richard Rohr about his new book, The Tears of Things, and what we can learn from the “sacred revolutionaries” who came before us.

Tune in to explore: the prophet’s mission and “making good trouble”; self-critical thinking (and how it’s unknown to most major institutions); sacred criticism and the revelation of the shadow; the paradigm of order, disorder, and reorder; outrage, cosmic sadness, and unlimited praise; using anger to cover up sadness; grief work and “getting to the hallelujah”; discovering the foundation of hope; contemplative thinking; conversion and transformation; opening to grace; letting go of control; why “what we don’t want to see is the problem”; waking up from our collective illusion (especially around power and control); living in a deceit-allowing culture; the word “evil”; an ever-present sense of goodness in the world; holding the tension of opposing truths; gratuitous goodness; realizing a joy that cannot be taken from you; the prophet Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations; why the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty; acting from the highest levels of motivation; and more.

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Suzanne Giesemann: Dancing Between Being a Soul and a ...

Suzanne Giesemann — April 15, 2025

What is the soul? How do we stay in relationship with the eternal aspect of ourselves? Is it possible to honestly trust that “everything is in order” when all we see is chaos and confusion?

In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with acclaimed author and evidence-based medium Suzanne Giesemann about her journey from being a commander in the U.S. Navy to one of today’s most sought-after guides on the path of spiritual awakening. In this eye-opening conversation, you’ll learn about: the two keys to communicating with the departed: belief and intention; the three Es: educate, experience, and engage; the Sip of the Divine practice; the observer perspective and the importance of one’s point of view; patterns of consciousness interacting across time and space; a meeting with Albert Einstein; past lives; preparing for “a good and free and blessed death”; Wolf’s story; passing through an “elevation”; shifting out of left-brain dominance; curiosity and playfulness; the emotional heart and the spiritual heart; vagus nerve breathing; why there is “purpose in every passing”; Earth as a school for the evolution of our souls; transcending the sense of incompleteness inherent in “the story of you”; and more.

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John J. Prendergast: Meeting Your Deepest Ground

John J. Prendergast — March 25, 2025

At a time when things feel utterly groundless for so many of us, Dr. John J. Prendergast offers a practical approach to “meeting your deepest ground”—a stabilizing core of awareness and truth that is at once within and all around you. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with the retired therapist and spiritual teacher about his new book, Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality.

Settle back for a fascinating conversation filled with both practical insights and esoteric wisdom for anyone on a path of growth and transformation. Tami and John explore overcoming deep inner resistance to what we would rather not face; how traumatic “material” becomes frozen in the body; Kundalini awakening; how to attune to your body’s “subtle sensitivity” to receive the wisdom it has to offer; relaxing the mind; touching reality through and beyond the body; the “underground dimension” that is both personal and collective; the work of Carl Jung; becoming more intimate with the archetypal dimension of life; the challenge of defining the undefinable “absolute ground” of our being; transmitting a felt experience within a shared field of openness; the two kinds of inner blockages, psychological and existential; the core theme of safety; welcoming difficult feelings and experiences in order to better understand them; activating the light of awareness that leads to transformation; the practice of paying attention to the space behind you; mindfulness and witnessing our thoughts; humility and the pilgrimage from the head to the heart; the futility of “seeking” what is always already here; the disorientation that often precedes a reorientation; common symptoms people experience during the process of unwinding core contractions; letting go (and doing it with trust); the rainbow bridge between heaven and earth; why psychological healing is a necessary component for spiritual awakening; and more.

Cortland Dahl

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Cortland Dahl, PhD: The Energizing Force of Compassion

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Richard Rohr: Gratuitous Goodness in an Age of Outrage

Suzanne Giesemann: Dancing Between Being a Soul and a ...

John J. Prendergast: Meeting Your Deepest Ground

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