In this episode, Kunal shares a surprising discovery: his most profound meditation experience happened not in his carefully curated meditation space, but in a plastic chair at an Ed Sheeran concert, surrounded by 70,000 people and eating potato chips.
Key takeaways:
- The infrastructure we build around presence—perfect conditions, quiet rooms, ideal timing—can become a form of control rather than support
- When all exits close (no phone signal, nowhere to go, sound too loud to think), presence becomes effortless rather than something to achieve
- We're already present; the real question is why we keep choosing to leave the moment we're in
Subscribe to How to Live wherever you listen to podcasts and visit howtolive.blog for more insights on finding presence in unexpected places.
Timestamps:
(0:15) Introduction and the unexpected meditation at a concert
(1:20) The infrastructure built around meditation practice over ten years
(2:35) When perfect conditions become a form of control
(3:45) How the exits closed—no phone signal, nowhere to go
(5:10) The monastery and the concert: two different doors, same room
(6:25) When volume becomes a kind of silence
(7:40) Solitude in a crowd of 70,000 people
(8:50) Stop choosing not to be present
(9:45) Closing thoughts on infrastructure and presence
