My meditation teacher, Roger Thisdell (21/30)
I'm writing 30 posts in 30 days at Inkhaven. This is number 21.
I am a big proponent of DIY enlightenment — speedrunning it on your own using resources available online and developing your own understanding.
If you are opinionated like me, you might instinctively be skeptical of teachers. But the right kind of teacher can actually support an independent approach. A teacher who is further ahead, and can guide you — not as a guru but as a coach. Someone who doesn’t surround enlightenment in a fog of mystique but gives straightforward technical advice on meditation.
Roger Thisdell specializes in exactly this. I’ve been working on and off with Roger over the last two years and I had a dozen sessions total. You can work with him regularly, or — like I do — just check in on your progress every few weeks.
Roger describes himself as “a philosophy graduate and phenomenologist, turned meditation teacher.” He teaches Vipassana, one of the most popular and systematic approaches to meditation. In Vipassana, the journey to enlightenment is mapped out and divided into four paths with each path split into 16 stages.
Roger claims to have reached the 4th path — “full enlightenment” in Vipassana. For him, enlightenment is a technical thing: a phenomenological & psychological phase shift towards centerless boundaryless non-duality. He’d actually prefer not to use the label “enlightenment” at all, because he considers it to be “a gross nebulous abstraction”.
That’s quite different from the more traditional “ethics-maxxxed” definition, where enlightened people have perfected morality in addition to their psyche undergoing. An enlightened person has a permanent 5.0 Uber rating, returns the cart at the supermarket every single time, never doomscrolls, and definitely doesn’t argue on Twitter. There are good reasons to think enlightenment nudges people in kinder and more moral directions, but I don’t think you need to be enlightened to behave in an upstanding way. Roger himself considers ethics important, even though he doesn’t include it into the definition of enlightenment.
My sessions with Roger, briefly
I’d have a session every few weeks and Rogers would always meet me where I am. We’d discuss my recent progress, my goals and what on my mind meditation-wise in general. Some examples of specific things we discussed from different sessions:
pros and cons of specific meditation techniques (Do Nothing, various “focus on your breath” techniques, Noting, etc) as well as challenges that arise applying them;
conceptual models of enlightenment, “Progress of Insight” maps, psychological changes alongside the path;
philosophy of different branches of Buddhism, its frameworks and how it can be restructured;
philosophy of personal identity;
burnout and how meditation can help it.
I’d also discuss specific experiences and their phenomenology. Roger would advise me on how to gain specific meditative skills to deepen my insights — as well as how to best put them into words, which is important for me as I write about meditation.
After each session I’d have a few specific practical takeaways or pieces of advice I’d apply on my own.
Who Roger Isn’t For
Roger’s approach is a technical, pretty Western and pretty individualist. If you’re looking for practice in a religious context, with shared rituals, values, and community, you’re better off approaching a traditional Buddhist sangha, or a modern internet one such as Evolving Ground.
If you are looking to study meditation under a spiritual master — Roger is 100% *not* that person. He is a coach — a session with him is like a session with a sports coach but for meditation. In my life, I worked with three sports coaches — two powerlifting ones and a boxing one. Working with Roger is similar in vibe, except for mental fitness. This isn’t just my metaphor: on patreon many of Roger’s recordings are titled “meditative workouts”.
Even though I’m using this “mental fitness” frame, and meditation has helped me tremendously with my mental health, if you have signifcant mental health challenges you’re still better off working with a therapist or a coach specialising in mental health. It’s similar to how, if you have a physical injury, you’re better off seeing a physiotherapist — with a coach playing a supplementary role.
Pharmhacking enlightenment
Traditional religions, including most forms of Buddhism, tend to condemn drug use. Roger doesn’t. You can talk to Roger about drugs openly, including about using to accelerate them on the path of insight. Case in point: in the most recent session Roger and I discussed using Modafinil in meditation. After the session I sent him the link to the above tweet and he responded: “I am not surprised. It works.” I have ADHD — and I confirm that meditating on amphetamines (specifically, lisdexamfetamine) works.
Psychedelic enthusiasts might enjoy working with him too. Roger is on the board of Qualia Research Institute — a non-profit studying consciousness and psychedelics. That said, he’s not straightforwardly pro-psychedelic when it comes to enlightenment: his view is that psychedelics usually ramp up the “energy parameter” in a non-specific way, whereas meditation is more likely to produce the actual insight breakthrough. But he’s definitely not anti-drug.
Consider booking a session
If you’re looking for a pragmatic, technical teacher rather than a guru, I recommend booking a session with Roger. He uses an income-adjusted sliding scale — $45 / $85 / $120 / $190, depending on your level of income. You can book a session with him here.
Links to Roger’s stuff
Website • Blog • Twitter • YouTube • Patreon • Book a session
I really enjoyed reading this Sasha, thanks for posting it!
I’m very curious about your experiences with meditation and modafinil, would you consider writing more on this topic? I’m familiar with the effects of modafinil but had never considered meditating on it before seeing you mention it here. My interest is piqued, I’d like to try experimenting with the two now.