Zen priest and former psychotherapist Chad Bennett sits down with Keith Martin-Smith to dismantle one of the most seductive ideas in spiritual
life: that if you just awaken deeply enough, the rest of you will sort itself out. It won’t. Enlightenment doesn’t clean up after you. In this conversation, two old Dharma brothers explore why waking up, growing up, and cleaning up have to be practiced as a single braid — not three separate projects. They get into why telling someone they’re whole when they feel broken only makes it worse, what a “frozen part” of you is actually guarding, why most people don’t try hard enough, and what it really means to befriend your own experience in a culture that’s forgotten how to be friends. Equal parts teaching, live practice, and the easy warmth of genuine friendship. In this episode: Here are some questions you can contemplate while listening to this discussion. We suggest you take some time to use these as journaling prompts. Welcome to a world on the edge. AI is rewriting the rules. Politics are more polarized than ever, with the far right and left in an endless clash. The metacrisis looms, late-stage capitalism is unraveling, DEI is evolving, and strongmen are rising once more. But that’s just the beginning. This podcast takes an integral look at the forces shaping our reality—from cutting-edge neuroscience and biohacking to cryptocurrency, global economics, and the ancient wisdom of awakening, mindfulness, and embodiment. Keith Martin-Smith brings a deep, multi-perspective lens to the chaos, cutting through the noise to find what actually matters. This isn’t just another commentary on the world. It’s a guide to seeing—and living—beyond the divide. New episodes of Integral Edge
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Start building your big picture mind & support the global emergence of Integral consciousness “Integral Life is the most important and globally-relevant platform for the leading edge of Integral consciousness evolution
” – Eugene P. Rev. Zenho Chad Bennett, MA, LPC is an Integral Zen Priest that has been practicing meditation since 2003, spending several years in Thailand and India doing extended periods of Therevadan retreat. He returned to the USA for a master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University and his teaching style is practical and experiential, stressing the importance of healthy holistic character development all the way up and down the evolutionary spiral. Chad is currently in private practice as a psychotherapist and spiritual counselor and leads the Integral Zen Denver/Boulder community as a senior student of Doshin Roshi. Keith Martin-Smith is an award-winning author, writing coach, and Zen priest. He is passionate about human connection, creativity, and evolution. His books include “The Mysterious Divination of Tea Leaves”, “A Heart Blown Open”, and “The Heart of Zen”. His most recent book is his first novel, “Only Everything”, a novel that explores the promise and the pain of following an artist’s path.