Joshua Jordan

The Journey

I've been experimenting with consciousness since I was too young to have the vocabulary for it.

Middle school: I discovered I could watch my thoughts without being pulled into them. And I experimented with trance states. I didn't know any of it was meditation. I thought I was just daydreaming differently or staring at a wall. At night, I'd induce hypnagogic states, cultivate lucid dreams through trial and error, and compare notes with the few other kids and adults curious about how minds actually work. Most people thought these things were eccentric and childish.

High school: A summer tai chi course gave me my first real structure. That teacher introduced actual meditation techniques beyond my intuitive experimentation. The standing and movement practices resonated with my teenage energy in ways seated practice never could at that time.

Then I joined the US Army.

I trained at Fort McLellan, Alabama, then served in South Korea and Kansas. During OSUT, I'd use standing meditation in formation under that brutal Alabama sun with sweat running down my shaved head, body locked in place for hours. The techniques worked. They kept me present and kept me spacious. But I didn't yet understand why the techniques worked.

After service, I spent six years traveling through East Asia, Southeast Asia, India, and Türkiye. I learned from monks and teachers across multiple traditions whenever I made the time. This is where vocabulary finally met experience. This is where I could articulate what I'd been exploring since childhood. This is where technique became recognition and where my practice shifted from accumulating methods to understanding what makes any proper method actually work.