Santtu Heikkinen
Upāsaka Niccolaggi

About me

A warm welcome to you, friend. :) For a friend you are to me, you living, breathing, beautiful jewel of a being. I know you feel, I know you think - and that makes you a friend to me. May you be happy.

I'm Santtu, a meditation coach, Dharma teacher and academic philosopher with deep experience and training in the various strands of Buddhist philosophy and practice, Western analytical philosophy, and depth psychology, with a solid grounding in the contemporary empirical sciences. My view and methodology stem from lifelong practice and study, and a driven, curious, universalist perspective that integrates material and insights from traditions all the world over, from the vast, cumulative, collective wisdom of this curious, young animal we call human. No resource or tradition is to be excluded. The mysteries of reality, of life, and of the myriad ways in which we can beautify and beatify our existence deserve as wide a perspective and methodology as possible. I teach locally in Finland and internationally through Zoom. 

​

I've been teaching meditation, spiritual and psychological practices, and philosophy as my main livelihood since 2019. My meditative practice lineage derives primarily from my personal teachers: Upāsaka Culadasa, Tucker Peck, and Leigh Brasington. In addition to them, I have received teachings and practices from a wide variety of sources during a decade of retreats and other practice-oriented forays in Europe and Asia. The Soulmaking Dharma of Rob Burbea and his associates is a practice tradition I resonate with particularly deeply. The name Niccolaggi - "a flame revealed" - is an upāsaka name, the traditional name of a dedicated lay practitioner I received from Tucker, my second teacher.

​

I teach a wide variety of meditative practices I have learned and integrated during my own course of practice. For a  beginner to meditation I would offer a basic curriculum that follows a relatively set path. I usually begin with just sitting (shikantaza or open awareness -style practice) to establish a relaxed and accepting orientation towards one's experience, followed by traditional ānāpānasati - breath meditation - to establish a sense of concentration (samādhi) and tranquillity (samatha). Then come practices of generating and cultivating positive energy states and emotions, such as the brahmavihāras (states of lovingkindness, sympathetic joy, compassion, and equanimity) and the four form jhānas. The next step is insight practice, and this can take the form either of deep auto-psychological inquiry into the content of one's mind, the sources of one's suffering in particular, or of an investigation of the mechanics, dynamics and structure of one's lived-in experience. Both approaches will in most cases be included in whatever order seems fit. Insight practice ultimately aims to establish deep insight into the core Buddhist principles of impermanence/insecurity (aniccā), the unsatisfactoriness of particular goals and phenomena (dukkha), the lack of any fixed foundation for a solidified sense of self (anattā), and finally the very essence of insight, emptiness (śūnyatā). Emptiness of self, emptiness of other; emptiness of views, emptiness of phenomena. This is liberating.

​

You may start practicing with me at any stage of your own practice, whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced. The actual route of practice we'll take is by no means set in stone: we will see what you have learned and experienced so far, and work on that basis to round out whatever avenues are yet unexplored but deemed valuable for your happiness and sense of purpose.

Philosophically my views on life, reality, the mind, and on the fundaments of a good, happy life could principally be described as Buddhist-Platonist-Jungian in character. These three strands of thought form the core essence of how I see the world and humanity's place in it. They are informed both by what I find likely, or most coherent - based not only on my scientific and philosophical training, but also on my deep involvement with my own psyche and mystical states of consciousness - and also by what I find useful, or the most beautiful. For views are tools, and, seeing the ultimate emptiness of all views (for they are only views, never reality itself), these tools can be flexibly utilized not only in the ever-elusive task of finding the factual truth about reality, but also to promote a way of relating to that reality that makes for the most beautiful, happy and harmonious existence possible, not only for oneself but for all beings.

​

I have received much from other traditions as well, and want to mention Daoism, Christian mysticism, the various Hindu traditions, and of course the sciences as perspectives I have engaged with particularly deeply. Again, I hold great respect for all  traditions. At their core they all speak of the same thing, the same reality of mind and phenomena we are all faced with.

​

As part of my academic work I have written a concise analytical exploration of panpsychism as a contemporary theory of consciousness, Panpsychism and the Combination Problem, published in 2021 by Creative Fire Press. My most recent academic work concerns contemporary formulations of idealist metaphysics - that is, views under which mind or mentality is seen as the most fundamental ground of reality.

I  have practiced taijiquan for ten years now and taught it locally since late 2019. I have undergone training in Focusing, a self-therapy technique which has informed my view on practice and the way I teach.

​

Again, a very warm welcome to you, my friend. Now that you know something about me, if you feel like it, do introduce yourself as well. You may send me an email or book a call if that tickles your fancy. :)

May you be well, may you be happy. May you never be separated from your hope, your love, your happiness. May your days be filled with beauty, insight, and grace.