New Interview w/ Frank Yang! – Full Natty Arhat - Guru Viking Podcast

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Steve James, modified 3 Years ago at 9/12/20 5:09 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 9/12/20 5:08 PM

New Interview w/ Frank Yang! – Full Natty Arhat - Guru Viking Podcast

Posts: 104 Join Date: 2/15/19 Recent Posts
I just published a full interview with Frank Yang in which he discusses his path and practice in detail.



Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/ep60-frank-yang-full-natty-arhat/

Audio version of this podcast also available on iTunes and Stitcher – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Steve James, modified 3 Years ago at 9/12/20 5:08 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 9/12/20 5:08 PM

RE: New Interview w/ Frank Yang! – Full Natty Arhat - Guru Viking Podcast

Posts: 104 Join Date: 2/15/19 Recent Posts
Here are the show notes:

In this episode I am joined by Taiwanese Youtube Fitness star Frank Yang who, on May 25th 2020, declared himself to be an arhat - the highest level of enlightenment in Theravada Buddhism.

Frank discusses his intense spiritual quest, from his early days as a bodybuilder struggling with sex addiction, to a multi-year deep dive into Buddhist meditation practice.

We learn about Frank’s initial awakenings, kundalini phenomena, encounters with entities, and journeys to astral dimensions.

Frank lifts the lid on his successful Youtube channel of over 160k subscribers, and shares his personal advice for all those who seek enlightenment.


Topics Include:

0:00 - Intro
0:46 - The collective dark night of the pandemic
1:46 - Bodybuilding, sex addiction, and beginning meditation
8:33 - Plato and the link between physical training and meditation
10:48 - Frank’s relationship to his body
12:25 - Sex and philosophy
14:33 - Discovering Daniel Ingram and experiencing the Arising and Passing
16:54 - Frank’s first dark night
19:40 - Psychedelic explorations
23:54 - Stream entry on second Goenka retreat
31:18 - Frank’s meditation influences
32:07 - Kundalini awakening
37:16 - The affects of Frank’s Kundalini awakening
38:17 - Attaining 3rd path
41:16 - Attaining 4th path
51:14 - Controversy around attainments
52:38 - The effects of enlightenment on Frank’s sex addiction
57:34 - Stream entry to arhat in 1 year
58:42 - Out of body experiences and astral realms
1:01:06 - Frank’s encounters with negative entities
1:04:01 - Sensing energies in people and places
1:05:38 - Changes to personal relationships after awakening
1:08:10 - Why Frank is sometimes lonely
1:08:36 - Frank’s bi-polar diagnosis and his meditation path
1:11:15 - Frank’s Youtube channel and his creative vision
1:19:06 - Advice to those seeking enlightenment

...

https://www.guruviking.com/ep60-frank-yang-full-natty-arhat/

Audio version of this podcast also available on iTunes and Stitcher – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Edward, modified 3 Years ago at 9/14/20 8:29 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 9/14/20 8:29 AM

RE: New Interview w/ Frank Yang! – Full Natty Arhat - Guru Viking Podcast

Posts: 129 Join Date: 6/10/19 Recent Posts
Excellent interview.
Small Steps, modified 3 Years ago at 9/14/20 1:28 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 9/14/20 1:28 PM

RE: New Interview w/ Frank Yang! – Full Natty Arhat - Guru Viking Podcast

Posts: 246 Join Date: 2/12/14 Recent Posts
This seemed less an interview (I think I heard Steve utter less than 200 words throughout emoticon ) than an opportunity for the subject to rant and reveal something about his state of mind.

I genuinely hope this guy reached "final enlightenment," and is genuinely happy and remains so. Given his bi-polar diagnosis, I also hope he isn't driving himself off a cliff.
Z , modified 3 Years ago at 9/19/20 11:23 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 9/19/20 8:03 PM

RE: New Interview w/ Frank Yang! – Full Natty Arhat - Guru Viking Podcast

Posts: 201 Join Date: 3/16/18 Recent Posts
Good, inspiring stuff. Had me grinning the whole time. emoticon
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 3 Years ago at 9/19/20 10:49 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 9/19/20 10:49 PM

RE: New Interview w/ Frank Yang! – Full Natty Arhat - Guru Viking Podcast

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
First, nothing I say below has anything to do with confirming, denying, diagnosing, etc. his attainments.

Second, I also find him amusing.

Third, I realize that I am such an audio geek that I could barely pay attention to him due to noticing that his Yeti microphone, which is a side-address cardiod (directional) microphone, not an end-address (or omnidirectional) microphone, was pointed away from him towards the ceiling, not his mouth. This is like fingernails on a blackboard to me. If you are going to bother to buy a decent microphone, which the Yeti is, at least read the basic instructions on how to use it. Or watch this very helpful video: https://youtu.be/Ty8YLqOmbV4?t=434

Fourth, it is really easy for people to get this stuff wrong, so hopefully time, honesty, patience, and an appreciation of the subtleties of experience will help sort any potential diagnostic errors on his part. Again, this IS NOT a diagnosis, just a general wish.

Fifth, while his 360-camera and other video tricks are amusing from an entertainment point of view, I really worry that, combined with his very loose, beyond-Boomer-esque imprecision with terminology, metaphor, and lingo, they will give numerous confusing impressions of any results he may actually have gotten. His descriptions are sort of like what would happen if you dissolved 10 dharma books from 10 radically different traditions in Everclear, added four hits of acid and two of MDMA, put it in a blender, and set it to Liquify, with this sentence obviously being very loose metaphor. Perhaps his audience is sufficiently savvy to realize which words he says that he means literally and which he appears to mean poetically, artistically, metaphorically, etc., but, given that it is sort of an explosion of these in his classic hypo-manic style, it is very likely that something will get lost in translation and some viewers will be befuddled and lead astray.

Sixth, I appreciate Guru Viking engaging with him and hope that much good and little bad comes from the interview.

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