Thomas McConkie, The Mormon Meditator
Dan Harris interviews Thomas McConkie, founder of Lower Lights School of Wisdom, about his journey from Mormonism to Buddhist meditation and back. McConkie discusses integrating meditation into a traditional faith context and the importance of community (Sangha) in spiritual practice.
Deep Dive Analysis
12 Topic Outline
Introduction to Thomas McConkie's Unique Path
Listener Questions: Grief Meditation and Community (Sangha)
Thomas McConkie's Early Life and Discovery of Zen
Understanding Zen Practice: Koans and Breath Meditation
The Unexpected Return to Mormonism
Navigating Mormon Orthodoxy and Belief
Healing Family Relationships After Leaving the Church
Founding the Lower Lights School of Wisdom
Translating Meditation for a Mormon and Christian Audience
Exploring Christian Centering Prayer and its Similarities to Buddhism
Universal Principles of Contemplative Traditions
The Future of Organized Religion and Spirituality
6 Key Concepts
Sangha
One of the three core parts of the Buddha's teaching, alongside the Buddha and Dharma, referring to the community. It is important for modern meditators as it normalizes practice, provides accountability, and offers a framework for life rituals like weddings and funerals.
Think Hole
A state where excessive thinking leads to more thinking, creating a quicksand-like trap. It's a seductive mental state where one doesn't realize how they got there, and a mental note can help break free from it.
Koan Practice
A Zen meditation technique where a teacher presents a riddle that the rational mind cannot solve, effectively 'jamming circuits.' This practice frustrates normal problem-solving paths, leading to a different kind of action and understanding beyond intellectual thought.
Trigger Practice
An intentional meditation approach where one enters a highly activating or triggering environment, such as returning to a challenging community. The practice involves observing how feelings of annihilation, challenging emotions, and negative thoughts arise in the body and 'sitting with' them.
Christian Centering Prayer
A contemplative practice involving noticing when awareness is occupied by an object (thought, feeling) and then returning to a prayer word or simply letting go of that fixation. The goal is to return to an expansive quality of awareness, distinct from a mantra which is continuously repeated.
Perennial Philosophy
A concept, referenced by Aldous Huxley, suggesting that core spiritual teachings and practices appear universally across diverse cultures and geographies. It implies an innate human genius for finding ways to cultivate well-being and reduce suffering in our internal environment.
9 Questions Answered
The 10% Happier app currently has an oversight regarding grief meditations, but the team plans to add them. Listeners can also refer to a previous podcast episode dedicated to meditation and grief, featuring guest Joe DiNardo.
The Buddha emphasized Sangha (community) as one of the 'three jewels' of his teaching, alongside the Buddha and Dharma. While often overlooked by modern meditators, community is powerful for normalizing practice, holding individuals accountable, and marking life's rituals.
Zen practice can include innovative approaches like 'Big Mind' (using voice dialogue), Koan practice (riddles that challenge the rational mind), and standard sitting meditation focused on observing the breath, thoughts, and sensations as they arise and pass.
Koan practice and basic breath meditation are both separate and can coalesce over time. Koans help bring the thinking mind to its knees by frustrating rational problem-solving, while breath practice involves observing thoughts. Eventually, the koan can spontaneously arise during sitting meditation.
Modern Mormonism exhibits a spectrum of beliefs, from literal interpretations to metaphorical resonance. While not reducing all truth claims to metaphor, there's a subtle understanding beyond strictly historical literalism, acknowledging Joseph Smith's spiritual experience as a desire to share a message of joyful living.
The church hierarchy, composed of lay clergy, is generally open to adopting practices that contribute to people's happiness and spiritual satisfaction. They are eager to embrace anything that works, especially when universal human principles and practices can be responsibly translated into a Mormon context.
Meditation is presented not as a foreign graft but as a practice connected to existing traditions within Mormonism and Christianity, such as cultivating concentration (e.g., 'keep a single eye on the glory of God'). It is framed as a universal human practice that communicates directly to people's humanity.
In Christian Centering Prayer, a 'prayer word' is used only when the mind is pulled away by an object of awareness, helping to let go and return to an expansive state. A mantra, in contrast, is typically repeated continuously to bring the mind back into concentration.
It suggests that religious traditions are being reinvented to meet contemporary needs for higher meaning, joy, and community rituals, while potentially moving beyond limiting belief systems. This work demonstrates how practices can be adapted to specific cultural contexts, fostering a global network of shared wisdom.
22 Actionable Insights
1. Heal Strained Relationships
Cultivate self-awareness to recognize your own lack of acceptance towards others’ authentic beliefs, allowing hardened negative beliefs to soften and making way for reconciliation.
2. Engage Triggering Environments
Intentionally return to and “sit with” highly triggering or activating environments, observing how challenging emotions and negative thoughts arise in your body as a practice for healing and growth.
3. Seek Spiritual Community (Sangha)
Actively look for and engage with a local or online community of people who share your spiritual or meditative practice, as this provides support, normalizes the practice, and fosters accountability.
4. Practice Basic Meditation
Regularly sit still, watching your breath and observing thoughts and sensations as they arise and pass, which can reduce anxiety, improve sleep, and increase overall well-being.
5. Escape “Think Holes”
Recognize when you are caught in a cycle of unproductive, endless thinking (“think hole”) and understand that more thinking will not solve it; make a quiet mental note of the “think hole” to help break the cycle and allow for a different kind of action.
6. Share Practice Generously
If you have personally benefited from a spiritual or meditative practice, adopt the Bodhisattva vow to generously share its goodness and lessons learned with others.
7. Create Inclusive Spaces
When sharing practices like meditation, strive to create communal spaces that honor, meet, and see every individual, regardless of their diverse belief systems or backgrounds.
8. Adapt Communication for Audiences
Tailor your language and approach when communicating teachings or complex ideas to different generational and cultural backgrounds to ensure better understanding and absorption.
9. Integrate New Practices
When introducing new practices (e.g., meditation) into traditional or religious contexts, identify and highlight existing teachings or scriptures that align with and support the new practice to facilitate acceptance.
10. Practice Christian Centering Prayer
Notice when your awareness is fixated on a thought or feeling, and then gently let go of that fixation, returning to a prayer word only if the mind is pulled away, rather than repeating it continuously.
11. Seek Meaning in Life Void
When experiencing an intense hunger for meaning or a void, actively seek a practice or path to channel your devotion and find support.
12. Provide Feedback to Creators
Offer suggestions and feedback to podcast hosts, app developers, or content creators to help them address deficiencies, improve their offerings, and better serve their audience.
13. Optimize Social Media Engagement
To ensure a company sees your tweet, tag both the individual and the company’s official handle (e.g., @DanBHarris and @10percent) in your message.
14. Explore Specific Podcast Episodes
When facing a specific challenge like grief, seek out and listen to dedicated podcast episodes or resources that directly address the issue, such as the Joe DiNardo episode on meditation and grief.
15. Utilize Meditation App Features
Download and explore meditation apps like “10% with Dan Harris” for guided meditations, live community sessions, and direct access to coaches to support your practice, utilizing any available trial periods.
16. Support Podcasts You Enjoy
Subscribe to, rate, and suggest topics or guests for podcasts you appreciate to help them grow and continue producing valuable content.
17. Set Up Google Alerts
Create Google alerts for topics like “meditation and mindfulness” to automatically receive relevant articles and stay informed about your areas of interest.
18. Immerse in Wisdom Traditions
If deeply committed to a spiritual or wisdom tradition, consider immersing yourself fully, even by traveling to its origins, to deepen your practice and understanding.
19. Reinvent Religious Traditions
Actively participate in reinventing traditional religious or spiritual practices to make them relevant for contemporary needs, focusing on universal desires for meaning, joy, and reduced suffering, while leaving behind limitations.
20. Leverage Cultural Values for Change
When introducing new ideas or practices into a community, identify and leverage existing cultural values (e.g., seeking truth widely) to facilitate acceptance and integration.
21. Learn from Case Studies
Study how others have successfully engaged their particular neighborhood, community, or cultural context to introduce new practices, and share your own learnings to contribute to a global network of shared knowledge.
22. Learn More About Thomas
To learn more about Thomas McConkie’s work and teachings, visit lowerlightsslc.org or listen to the “Mindfulness Plus” podcast.
8 Key Quotes
You're not going to think your way out of a think hole.
Thomas McConkie
The daily meditation practice was really a lifeline for many, many years.
Thomas McConkie
I literally just drifted back into a Mormon chapel a few days after that experience. And I connect them because I remember sitting in this Mormon chapel and kind of looking around me like, how on earth did I get here?
Thomas McConkie
Meditation practice is moment to moment how I'm meeting life.
Thomas McConkie
Salvation in Mormonism is social. You don't get saved alone. We get saved, you know, the community gets saved or we don't get saved.
Thomas McConkie
I carried a belief that we're never going to get better. We're never going to heal. I'm never going to talk to these people again. And as you know, as a meditator, you start to see those scripts, you start to see those thought forms that congeal and possess us. And they just, they softened over time.
Thomas McConkie
I think over time we may discover underlying mechanisms that train a suite of meditative skills.
Thomas McConkie
I think there's something just intuitive and innate about these traditions that crop up. And I'm, I'm quite fascinated by this great human tradition where we're learning how to not just master the external environment, but you know, how to make more of a home to come home to in our internal environment.
Thomas McConkie
1 Protocols
Christian Centering Prayer
Thomas McConkie (describing Cynthia Bourgeau's teaching)- Notice when something (a thought, feeling, etc.) is occupying your awareness.
- Return to your prayer word (if using one), or simply practice letting go of the particular contraction or fixation in awareness.
- Repeat this practice of noticing and letting go to return to an expansive quality of awareness.