About this episode

The episode features a discussion with Ronald E. Purser about his book Mind Space, exploring meditation beyond contemporary trends.

What does it mean to connect with mind and space without the typical baggage of contemporary meditation trends? In this episode of the New Books Network, Matthew Joseph O'Connell sits down with author and practitioner Ronald E. Purser to discuss his timely new book, Mind Space: Discovering Meditation Without the Meditator (Dharma Publishing, 2026). Drawing from his decades-long engagement with Tarthang Tulku’s seminal 1977 work, Time, Space, and Knowledge, Purser offers a refreshing, experimental, and surprisingly playful guide to understanding our structural realities. Rather than preaching a prescriptive self-help routine, Mind Space serves as an experiential commentary that invites readers into a radical, non-dualistic inquiry of how we inhabit our lives. Key Themes from the Episode Beyond McMindfulness: How Mind Space transitions away from corporate, present-moment-focused trends and pivots toward a deeper, more expansive territory of human freedom. The Anatomy of Mind and Space: An etymological and philosophical breakdown of mind as our generative source of knowledge, and space not as a passive, empty container, but as an active, alive, and accommodating dimension. The Myth…

People in this episode

Host: Matthew Joseph O'Connell

Guest: Ronald E. Purser

Topics covered

• mindfulness
• meditation
• philosophy
• human freedom
• digital anxiety
• non-dualism

Keywords

• meditation
• mind space
• consciousness
• Tarthang Tulku
• self-help
• digital colonization
• anxiety

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dharma Publishing

Books & works: Mind Space: Discovering Meditation Without the Meditator, Time, Space, and Knowledge

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