The ZDoggMD Show

Dr. Zubin Damania

Interviews and live rants on healthcare, depolarizing our divided society, and the non-dual nature of reality. Hosted by UCSF/Stanford-trained physician Dr. Zubin Damania (AKA ZDoggMD).

  1. JAN 27

    Things Occur But Nothing Takes Place | Monday Zen LIVE

    A beautifully spontaneous Monday Zen LIVE (YouTube video here) that I intended as members-only but accidentally went public—and the accident was perfect orchestration by nothing for no one 🤡 We dive deep into identifying as awareness, exploring why it's a beautiful trap that feels like spacious liberation but is still an experience that comes and goes (disappears under anesthesia), and how Nisargadatta used "rest as I Am" as universal solvent until awareness itself dissolved into the magic space of nothingness. Core teaching: nothing takes place, nothing becomes real—all kinds of stuff occurring but never arriving, never becoming solid. I share a painful 3am dream where dream-self was fully mind-identified, seeking validation and connection, feeling "I will never be okay"—and how waking up allowed full feeling without secondary resistance, showing deep unworthiness conditioning still arising but now without stickiness. We explore accommodating all views without ultimate belief (genocide, shootings, political polarization), trauma integration requiring full acceptance and love, and the 2026 heart opening that's matured into natural service without seeking return. Practical experiments: energetic availability on hiking trails where open-hearted presence makes strangers spontaneously smile and greet you (reproducible N-of-1 trial), eye gazing as intimacy practice that breaks down defenses (harder with intimates where stakes are high), horses reading human micro-expressions better than we read each other, chronic illness healing or arising with awakening (body-mind changes, sensitivity increases), discovering Gospel of Thomas as Christian Zen ("kingdom of God spread upon earth yet men do not see it"), free will question collapsing into nonsense, what is your true nature inquiry ("just keep looking"), rich man/camel/needle as rich with concepts and beliefs, and pain practice at dentist using Bankei's "everything is perfectly managed in the unborn" to dissolve second arrow. See all the things, become a member and more here! 00:00 - Introduction: Fear of a Black Hat and Snowed In America 03:35 - Responding to Reality vs. Created Environment 06:11 - Identifying as Awareness: The Beautiful Trap 10:46 - The Unborn: Nothing Takes Place, Nothing Becomes Real 15:07 - Guided Drop Into Pure Awakeness (Meditation) 18:06 - Dream of Mind Identification and Validation Seeking 24:37 - The Magic Space of Nothingness 30:10 - Genocide, Gaza, and Accommodating All Views 35:41 - Trauma Integration: Feeling It Fully to Release 42:12 - Heart Opening and Being of Service Without Return 48:00 - Energetic Availability: The Hiking Trail Experiment 57:23 - Eye Gazing: Breaking Down Defenses Through Intimacy 1:08:53 - Free Will Question Doesn't Make Sense 1:11:11 - What Is Your True Nature? Just Keep Looking 1:20:43 - Gospel of Thomas: Christian Zen and Kingdom of Heaven 1:25:09 - Pain Practice: Second Arrow and the Unborn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 33m
  2. JAN 19

    What's Left When The Stories Stop? | Sunday Zen LIVE

    What happens when the mind stops telling stories? We explore insomnia and radical acceptance, the trap of identifying as awareness, why "the world is waking up" is just another story, and my journey from Doc Vader to whatever the f**k this is 😂 All the things are here. Topics and Timecodes: 0:00 - Going Live & Technical Difficulties 1:26 - When You Can't Say Anything Anymore 2:31 - Karma Yoga: Life as Sacred Practice 4:14 - Sleep, Insomnia & Radical Acceptance 7:02 - Sleep During Awakening: My Experience 8:38 - Waking Up at Night: Working with Panic & Repressed Emotion 10:24 - No Distinction Between Waking, Dreaming & Deep Sleep 11:43 - The Mind Creates Reality: Manifestation & Reconditioning 13:29 - Free Will, Determinism & Letting Go 13:53 - Dreams, Vivid Experiences & Higher Planes 15:00 - When Desire & Attachment Start to Fall Away 16:03 - Meaning Is Created: An Existentialist View 17:01 - Watching Thoughts: The Mirage of the Mind 19:02 - Who Thought This Thought? The House of Cards Collapses 21:04 - The "I Want to Wake Up" Trap 21:52 - Who Is Awareness Appearing To? 22:17 - Getting Stuck at "I Am Awareness" 23:04 - What Is the Unborn? 25:00 - Wide Angle Camera Fun (Tech Break) 26:04 - The Universe Is Unfolding As It Should 26:31 - Absolute vs. Relative: There's No Distinction 27:25 - From Doc Vader to This: My Journey Since 2019 30:35 - Burning It All Down: Deleting Twitter, Losing Followers, Finding Joy 31:05 - Gratitude for Spiritual Friends: Angelo, Simon, Ishwar 32:03 - When Suffering Arises After Awakening 33:31 - Resilience Is a Story: Working with Negativity 34:06 - Processing Emotions About Iran & the Ayatollah 36:07 - Letting Things Be Unsticky Even When You Care Fully 36:36 - Talking to Conservative Christian Parents About Buddhism 37:28 - All Paths Point to the Same Thing 40:25 - Jesus Was Enlightened 41:13 - Identifying as Awareness vs. Non-Duality: What's Beyond? 43:05 - Resurrecting Jesus by Adyashanti (Book Recommendation) 43:42 - Is the World Waking Up? (Spoiler: It's a Story) 46:05 - What's My Meditation Practice? It Changes Daily 47:03 - When Seeking Falls Away 48:00 - Don't Force-Feed Awakening: Many Called, Few Chosen 49:00 - Energy Grounding & Chakra Work 51:03 - The Brutal Side of Awakening 51:26 - Apple Watches & Fitness (Curveball Question) 52:32 - What Is "The Story" vs. Reality? 54:53 - Closing: This Beautiful Satsang Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    59 min
  3. JAN 11

    Taking the Exquisite Risk (with Simon Brown)

    A spontaneous conversation between two friends walking the path together. Why 'you're already awake' can be harmful, the impossibility of bypassing the hard painful work, K-Pop Demon Hunters as dharma transmission, and much more. Full video here. Simon Brown's YouTube channel is here and his free Substack is here. Here's our earlier podcast on trauma. And here's our prior talk on compassion. Video archive, audio podcast, music, Supporter Tribe membership, email & more. Support us with a 1-time donation. More about Zubin. 0:00 Introduction - Spiritual Friendship Across the Atlantic 2:22 "You're One of the Dearest People I Turn To" 4:00 The Mind Creates the Abyss, The Heart Crosses It 5:00 The Relational Intimacy That's More Than Its Parts 7:00 Hell Is Other People vs. Recognition of Non-Separation 10:00 Opening the Clown Chakra (Becoming Baba Z-Dogg) 12:00 Why Ram Dass Makes You Cry Instantly 16:00 Alan Watts AI Warnings 18:00 Ram Dass's Journey from Harvard to Surrender 20:00 "He Can See All of Me and Still Loves Me" 23:00 Ram Dass's Decades of Practice (Not Just Surrender) 25:00 "Everything's Already Awake" - Why This Message Can Make People Sick 28:00 Unbearable Compassion and Meeting People Where They Are 33:00 Delusion as Seeing Incorrectly What's Actually Here 35:00 The Problem with One-and-Done Awakening 38:00 "You're Going to Die. Everyone You Know Will Die" 41:00 Ram Dass Holding Hands of Strangers as They Die 44:00 Only Sensible Response Is Compassion 47:00 Turn Towards the Unconditioned/Deathless 52:00 Society's Duality and Taking Sides 57:00 The Pure Freedom Beyond Conditions 1:00:00 Play, Spontaneity, and Shame 1:03:40 The Goldfish Bowl Story - How Play Gets Beaten Out 1:07:00 "This Really Hurt and I Love You" 1:09:00 The Trance of Unworthiness We All Inherit 1:13:34 K-Pop Demon Hunters as Liberation Teaching 1:16:00 Barbie Movie and Repressed Emotion 1:18:00 Perfect Days - Liberation Through Cleaning Toilets 1:21:00 "It's a Wonderful Life" and the Universal Heart 1:24:00 What's Gone That You Don't Notice 1:27:00 Taking the Exquisite Risk of Vulnerability 1:28:40 "Pee Here Now" - The Non-Dual Amusement Park Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 32m
  4. 12/27/2025

    The Kingdom of Heaven is Spread Upon the Earth (Christmas Eve Live)

    An intimate Christmas Eve morning livestream exploring what we're really celebrating: heart-based amazement and love as the pervasive fabric of reality, not some Hallmark conception. We discuss sitting in the unknown without the constant churn of thought creating expectation, how an itch evolved from meditative deconstruction to just allowing what is, and why all religions—Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism—point at the same unsayable thing through different words. Includes reflections on Jesus's teachings about unconditional love and kingdom of heaven, Adyashanti's "Resurrecting Jesus," my grandfather's journey from atheism to experiencing God as absolute magic, and why free will versus determinism is neither/both/doesn't ultimately matter when you're here now. Video show archive, audio podcasts, music parodies, Supporter Tribe membership options, merch, social media, and email contact form: ⁠⁠https://lnk.bio/zdoggmd⁠⁠ Support us with a 1-time donation and get a personal email response from me: ⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/zdoggmd⁠⁠ More about Dr. Z: ⁠⁠https://zdoggmd.com/about-z/ Timecodes and topics: 00:00 - Introduction: Christmas Eve Live 00:36 - What We're Celebrating: Heart-Based Amazement 01:31 - Love: Human Conception vs. Pervasive Fabric of Reality 03:05 - Working Holidays as a Hospital Doctor 05:44 - Sitting in the Unknown Without Expectation 11:24 - How Do You Stay in the Unknown? 14:16 - Being Itchy: From Deconstruction to Just Allowing 17:04 - Societal Constructs: Taking Sincerely, Not Seriously 19:04 - Religions Pointing at the Same Thing 22:43 - Jesus: Unconditional Love and Kingdom of Heaven 25:49 - Resurrecting Jesus by Adyashanti 27:18 - My Grandfather in India: From Atheist to "God is Real" 29:43 - Free Will, Determinism, or Neither and Both 32:28 - Kingdom of Heaven Spread Upon the Earth 35:07 - Closing: Stay in the Presence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    38 min
4.8
out of 5
2,947 Ratings

About

Interviews and live rants on healthcare, depolarizing our divided society, and the non-dual nature of reality. Hosted by UCSF/Stanford-trained physician Dr. Zubin Damania (AKA ZDoggMD).

You Might Also Like