{"podcast":{"title":"Awareness Explorers","slug":"awareness-explorers-939256","podcast_index_feed_id":939256,"rss_url":"https://awarenessexplorers.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.awarenessexplorers.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/9/2/1/f/921f16b9c35042d8/Awareness_Explorers_Green_Sky_GIMP_2_80pct_487kb.jpg","author":"Jonathan Robinson","episode_count":214,"summary":"If you want to awaken peace and love in daily life, pure awareness is always available as the background of all experience. Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor explore ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awareness-explorers-939256"},"episode":{"title":"196: Stephen Zerfas, Guest Explorer","slug":"196-stephen-zerfas-guest-explorer","published_at":"2025-09-26T12:29:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awareness-explorers-939256/196-stephen-zerfas-guest-explorer","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awareness-explorers-939256","url":"https://awarenessexplorers.libsyn.com/196-stephen-zerfas-guest-explorer","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/awarenessexplorers/AE_Episode_196_Stephen_Zerfas_Guest_Explorer.mp3?dest-id=640914","summary":"In this episode we talk to Stephen Zerfas, co-founder of Jhourney, which offers retreats facilitating rapid access to jhana meditation states, described as positive feedback loops between attention and emotion, offering profound states of gratitude, peace and non-duality. • Includes a guided meditation focusing on relaxing the body while turning our attention to positive concepts such as gratitude and wishing for the well-being of all others. To learn more about Stephen Zerfas, please visit: https://www.jhourney.io/ and on X: @jhanatech https://x.com/jhanatech?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor The Oxford professor Stephen mentions in this episode is Shamil Chandaria. To learn more, please visit his YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@ShamilChandaria And the books recommended in this episode: Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhānas, by Leigh Brasington The Path to Nibbāna. How Mindfulness of Loving-Kindness Progresses through the Tranquil Aware Jhānas to Awakening, by David C. Johnson Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature. NEWS: Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts on Goodpods: # 6 in the Top 100 awakening All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 joy All time chart # 6 in the Top 100 awareness All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 consciousness All time chart # 48 in the Top 100 meditation All time chart To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/ If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z Or on our Aware…","meta_description":"In this episode we talk to Stephen Zerfas, co-founder of Jhourney, which offers retreats facilitating rapid access to jhana meditation states, described a…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3434,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/awareness-explorers-939256/episodes/196-stephen-zerfas-guest-explorer/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awareness-explorers-939256/196-stephen-zerfas-guest-explorer.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}