Standing Nowhere
Standing Nowhere: Real Spirituality for Everyday Seekers
A podcast for people exploring spirituality outside traditional church settings—where contemplative wisdom meets real life, not abstract theory.
Host Jacob Buehler, a working father and longtime meditator, brings raw, honest conversations about what it means to wake up in the middle of ordinary life. Through personal stories, guest interviews, and wisdom from multiple traditions, each episode invites you to look within—not to fix yourself, but to notice your life and mind in detail.
No dogma. No guru pedestals. Just genuine exploration of mindfulness, letting go, and learning to trust what remains when there's nowhere left to stand.
If you've ever questioned everything and found peace in not knowing—this is for you.
Episodes
36 episodes
The Map Is Not the Road
Most of us spend our spiritual lives in the hearing and understanding phase — and never quite cross into direct experience. In this episode, Jacob opens in real time, frustrated after seven false starts, becoming the thesis of the episode...
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Episode 36
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1:00:18
Inamorata
What do you do when relief finally arrives — and you find yourself reaching for a new kind of misery? In this episode, Jacob explores the concept of the inamorata: the beloved we can't quit, whether that's financial stress, comfortable numbness...
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Episode 35
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1:07:05
The Patron Saint of Householders
You don't need a retreat, a monastery, or a perfect morning routine to practice.In this episode, Jacob explores what it means to stop running — not from responsibility, but from the present moment itself. Through reflections on early mor...
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Episode 34
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1:00:00
When Meditation Meets Rage: Holding Anger in Awareness Without Fixing Yourself
What happens when you're a daily meditator and still choose petty revenge? After a brutal morning of delivery work and a no-tip pizza order to a 4th-floor apartment, I left the food outside—fully aware I was being petty, watching myself make th...
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Episode 33
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19:17
Meditation Doesn't Make It Go Away | Financial Stress + Negative Self-Talk
Do you ever wake up feeling good, then suddenly remember all your financial stress and it drags you down? That's where I'm at.In this episode, I'm trying something new: the "open threads" recording method. No outline, no script—just hit...
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Episode 32
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41:46
30 Episodes in 7 Months: What I've Learned (+ Afterparty with My Dad)
30 episodes in 7 months. I can't believe I pulled it off.In this episode, I reflect on what surprised me, what I've learned, and why I'm stepping back from weekly Thursday releases (for now). I also share a Zen story about a samurai and...
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Episode 31
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26:31
The Anger I Inherited | with Grant Buehler
My dad, Grant Buehler, joins me for his first podcast appearance to talk honestly about the anger he inherited, the moments it nearly destroyed him, and what finally began to change.We talk about growing up with a father shaped by World ...
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Episode 30
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1:23:53
Has Meditation Actually Fixed Anything? | 3 Years of Practice, Still Broke (An Honest Answer)
I've been meditating daily for 3 years. I'm still broke, still grinding 60+ hours a week doing deliveries, still struggling financially. So... does meditation actually work?In this episode, I answer questions I've never seen before abou...
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Episode 29
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34:53
New Year's Resolutions Reimagined: What 'Resolution' Really Means
What does "resolution" actually mean at its root? Not forcing—loosening. In the final episode of 2025, I reflect on a year of struggle, growth, and showing up anyway. Honest thoughts on time constraints, mental health, sobriety, and trusting wh...
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Episode 28
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34:34
Two True Stories of Christmas Compassion [Holiday Special]
What does compassion look like in action?In this Christmas Day special, I share two powerful true stories that changed how I think about seeing people differently.The first is "A Soft Answer" by Terry Dobson—an American aik...
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Episode 27
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22:06
Keep On Keeping On: Broken Feet, Failed Discipline, and Trying Again
At 19, I climbed Reaper Mountain in Marine Corps boot camp with hairline fractures in both feet. At 42, I'm trying to get back in shape after three years of failure. This episode is about what it means to keep showing up when you know you might...
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Episode 26
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48:12
Being Present Through Loss and Loneliness: What I'd Tell My Younger Self
What does it actually look like to stay present when you're driving 10–12 hours a day, feeling lonely in your car, grieving lost friends, and still trying to create?For this milestone episode, I tried something different—I asked C...
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Episode 25
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44:02
The Ornament I Forgot: On Gratitude, Regret, and Waking Up to What Matters
This week, I couldn't lock in a guest—and honestly, I've been struggling to lock in much of anything lately. Backsliding on habits, drowning in self-blame, stuck in the gap between where I am and where I want to be.Then, while decorating...
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Episode 24
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31:30
Dying to Yourself: A Late-Night Conversation on Trauma, Fear, and Letting Go
This one is more raw, intense, and emotionally unfiltered than usual — because real healing rarely looks clean. A late-night conversation between two brothers doing their best to stay present in the middle of real life.
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Episode 23
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53:34
Losing a Brother, Finding Purpose: A 30-Year Friendship with Artist Raphael Rozenberg
What do we do with grief, synchronicity, and the strange ways love keeps showing up?In this episode, I sit down with one of my oldest and closest friends, Raphael “Rafi” Rozenberg. We met in 1997 and have lived through almo...
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Episode 22
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1:21:05
Understanding Ego: The Illusion of the Separate Self
You've been defending this "you" your whole life—getting offended when criticized, proud when praised, anxious about what others think. But what if the self you're protecting doesn't actually exist?This episode explores ego and the illus...
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Episode 21
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32:08
Why Rest Isn't Optional: Finding Peace When You Can't Afford to Stop Working
I can't afford to take time off. But I also can't afford not to take time off. That's the bind I've been in—and maybe you're there too.This week, I hit rock bottom. Burnt out, behind on bills, working 50-60 hours a week and stil...
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Episode 20
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30:27
From Loneliness to Solitude: Finding Yourself When All Your Friends Are Gone
In your twenties, it’s easy to feel like you’ll always belong somewhere — a friend group, a workplace, a Saturday night ritual that feels like home. But what happens when those circles fade, and you suddenly find yourself everywhere in the city...
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Episode 19
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47:10
How Laughing at Scorpions and Mosquitoes Saved My Spiritual Life
Three years ago I was broke, sharing an apartment with scorpions, and couldn't see a way forward. Then I discovered that laughter—the real, spontaneous kind—can be a powerful spiritual practice.In this episode we explore why ego and humo...
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Episode 18
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36:30
Fear Is a Contraction: Facing Your Inner Demons Without Running
Fear doesn't want to destroy you. It wants to wake you up.In this episode Jacob gets unusually honest — three failed recording attempts, 63-hour work weeks, bills backed up, air conditioning out, and a podcast he's terrified isn't good e...
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Episode 17
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27:39
Why You Can't Stop Wanting Things (And How to Finally Be Free)
I've quit alcohol and cannabis. Kicked my energy drink habit that was costing me $150-200 a month. But I still can't stop buying ice cream at the end of brutal work days. And I'm obsessed with making this podcast perfect, going back to edit old...
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Episode 16
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36:56
Kill the Buddha
Spirituality can be the biggest ego trip of all.In this episode, Jacob works through Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's concept of spiritual materialism — the subtle (and not so subtle) ways the ego hijacks spiritual practice and turns it into a...
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Episode 15
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45:19
Why Smart, Strong People Stay in Abusive Relationships (ft. Therapist & Author Kate Mageau)
"Why didn't you just leave?" It's the question everyone asks about domestic violence - until they hear Kate Mageau's story and realize how trauma bonds, gaslighting, and the cycle of violence make leaving the most dangerous moment of all.
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Episode 14
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53:29
Don't Wobble: Zen, Fear, and the Art of Decisive Action
You've done the research. You've made the outline. You've prepared and prepared and prepared. So why won't you just move?In this episode, Jacob explores the Zen concept of wobbling — that state of hesitation where you're split between fa...
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Episode 13
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49:21
How My Mom Survived 11 Years of Abuse, Raised 5 Kids Alone, and Found Faith in the Fire
My first podcast guest is my mom, Diane Buehler—and this conversation goes places I never expected. She shares stories I'd never heard in detail: growing up on five acres in Indiana eating the pigs she raised for 4-H, hitchhiking as a teenager ...
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Episode 12
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1:11:23
