Michael Taft: Intro to His Meditations and the Stack Model

Michael Taft is a meditation teacher, creator of the podcast Deconstructing Yourself, and co-founder of the Berkeley Alembic meditation center.

This podcast serves as an introduction to his teaching and how to engage with his hundreds of guided, nondual meditations on youtube.

Resources:
Michael's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelTaft108
Deconstructing Yourself: https://deconstructingyourself.com
Michael's Courses: https://deconstructingyourself.org
- Hacking the Stack starts January 26, 2026

Timestamps:
0:45 Why students come to Michael after other resources (apps like Waking Up, retreats like Goenka and Jhourney, and books like The Mind Illuminated)
2:40 Where Michael fits in the meditation ecosystem
5:34 Respecting traditions while being meta-systematic
7:51 Where can practice actually go? The real goals
9:23 A student with severe chronic pain (morphine pump story)
14:38 Emotional pain uses the same brain circuitry
15:02 The Stack model, and understanding "progress" in meditation
16:47 Level 1: Conceptual (thinking about experience)
17:06 Level 2: Phenomenological (qualia, direct sensation)
21:36 Level 3: Flux (everything is changing)
24:45 Level 4: Openness and emptiness
28:14 Vast Sky Mind and applying the stack to all sense gates
30:00 Why Michael uses mantra, chanting, and visualization
31:45 The arc of Michael's guided meditations on YouTube
33:02 How to engage with Michael's work
35:00 The power of sangha and community