What Survives When Spiritual Beliefs Wash Away

Evelyn Reed · 2026-08-24

Imagine having everything you think you know stripped away in an instant. That's exactly what happened to meditation teacher Delson Armstrong just days before sitting down for this conversation. He'd narrowly survived a catastrophic flood—a literal and metaphorical washing away. His near-death experience frames a profound dialogue about what remains when our most cherished spiritual ideas fall away. What's left when the concepts we cling to are suddenly gone? ### When Everything You Know Washes Away Delson and host Michael Taft dive deep into that raw space beyond belief systems. They explore primal awareness—that fundamental sense of being that exists before we layer on philosophies, practices, and identities. It's like discovering the clear sky after a storm has blown all the clouds away. We all build spiritual identities, don't we? The "experienced meditator," the "devoted practitioner," the "enlightened teacher." Delson calls this the spiritual ego, and he suggests it might be the last fortress we need to surrender. ### A Love Letter for Weary Seekers Here's where it gets really interesting. Delson is compiling a collection of Sanskrit aphorisms he describes as a "love letter to the exhausted seeker." After years of chasing enlightenment, he's synthesizing wisdom from multiple traditions: - Buddhism's clear-eyed awareness - Vedānta's non-dual recognition - Yoga's practical embodiment - Sāṃkhya's analytical framework - Tantra's transformative energy It's not about creating another spiritual buffet. It's about pointing toward what these traditions all hint at—that fundamental aliveness that doesn't need any label. ### The Paradox of Teaching Without Being a Guru They touch on something every mindfulness professional wrestles with: how to teach with authority without taking the role too seriously. Delson shares his approach to holding space without claiming special status. It's a delicate dance between sharing what you've discovered and remembering you're just another human being having an experience. As one teacher wisely noted, "The moment you think you've arrived is the moment you've missed the point entirely." ### Beyond Consciousness: Paraconsciousness and Play The conversation ventures into fascinating territory: - Paraconsciousness—what exists beyond our normal awareness - Karma not as punishment but as divine play - Insights from Nisargadatta Maharaj's radical teachings - The Śrī Vidyā tradition and the goddess Lalitā as expressions of creative energy What emerges isn't another spiritual map to follow. It's an invitation to stop following maps altogether and discover the territory of your own direct experience. After all the seeking, what if what you're looking for is already here—in the space between thoughts, in the awareness that reads these words, in the simple fact of being alive after everything else has fallen away? That's the real conversation Delson and Michael are having. It's not about adding more spiritual furniture to your mental room. It's about noticing the space the furniture occupies—and realizing that space was never lacking anything to begin with.