Chitheads Interview

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Chitheads

On December 11, I chatted with Jacob Kyle on the Chitheads* podcast from Embodied Philosophy. He suggested we’d chat for about 45 minutes but we went an hour and a half. Even there, we skimmed a lot of the territory he wanted to cover.   They list these topics: – Davidya’s continual journey of awakening – 7 stages of consciousness – Awakening inside and outside of a tradition – Chasing experience – “Feeling value” and its role in the process of awakening – Personal and impersonal – changing focus – Ethics and awakening – three folds of the ego – Rising … Continue Reading… →

The Yog Vasishtha

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a cloud

As most readers know, I started my path through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He’s had a strong influence on my perspective as he brought great clarity to ancient philosophy and enlightenment. Maharishi spent a great deal of time translating the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutra in the 60s and early 70s (they have not published most of it). But it turns out much of Maharishi’s later programs came out of the Yog Vasishtha. The Yog Vasishtha is an ancient text describing the teachings of the sage Vasishtha to prince Rama. It is the core text of the Ramayana, the story … Continue Reading… →

Grace

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stork

Grace is an important element of the spiritual journey. Around the world, we see grace in one of two ways. The first type of grace is unexpected gifts or unmerited favour of the Divine. Peter Wehner described it as “unconditional love given to the undeserving.” For example, there is no manifest “cause” of awakening. It happens when the Divine gifts it. It is not personally earned but rather is given to move things along in the whole. In that sense, grace isn’t personal. Bono, the lead singer of U2, said “Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, … Continue Reading… →

Offering Back Everywhere

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rose garden path

Previously, I wrote about Offering it Back, then Offering Back Everything.   When we shift from being a “me” that wants to control into recognizing ourselves as wholeness, we can directly experience the benefits of offering everything that arises in life back to source. Our benefits, our achievements, our challenges – we can offer everything back. If you allow the flow of life, everything arises from source to help you heal, grow, or resolve. Curving it back to source continues the process. This amplifies the benefits and supports resolving what is completing.   Where do you offer it back to? … Continue Reading… →

Nature’s Support

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ocean of love

I wrote about Nature’s Support last spring but the topic has come around again from a different angle.   There is an idea in eastern philosophy known as the support of nature. As we stop resisting life and instead learn to work with what is arising, we cooperate with the flow of life in and around us. Our desires are then fulfilled more easily, we can work out problems faster, and what we need just shows up.   Keep in mind that everything that happens is being done. Our cooperation allows those who support us to support us more easily. … Continue Reading… →

The Soul Song

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Concerto in G minor

Every cell, every organ and system, every object in your environment, everything arises in a nested space with a specific vibration or “song.” These nested spaces are created by flowing awareness curving back on itself. Globally, this means becoming self-aware. Yet consciousness continues to flow and continues to curve back on itself in smaller and smaller loops, increasing in density until the space within the loops manifests as actual space. This continues in increasing density until it expresses as form. (There are various perspectives of this process.) “Curving Back on Myself, I Create Again and Again.” – Krishna, in the … Continue Reading… →

Dreaming Awake

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rainbow lcd

Last month, Lori Ann Lothian posted an article about her awakening process. In it she described how she recently woke up, then realized she had lost her prior awakening during a 2-year series of difficult events. She’d been living in a kind of dream or memory of being awake but didn’t realize it until she’d woken up again.   As is typical of Lori, it is an open, honest, and direct sharing. I agree that some spiritual teachers who consider themselves enlightened have fallen into a similar boat. For example, having to come back to Self to refresh it is … Continue Reading… →

Depression

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borg

The heavier emotions are “heavier” because they’re more tamas, more inertia. This doesn’t make them bad – inertia gives us a consistent physical form, for example. The key is balance. Life is a continual dance of homeostasis, of re-balancing the creative and destructive flows. Too much inertia and we get sluggish and lean towards dissolution. Dissolution helps resolve things but we don’t want the whole thing falling apart. That tamas aspect also ties those emotions more into our bodily state. Fear, for example, is closely tied to the fight, flight, freeze response. We experience a perceived threat, and the body … Continue Reading… →

Moments of Awakening

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sunrise

“Moments of Awakening” is a phrase in the following that refers to transcending, moments of pure consciousness when we briefly experience simply being, Amness, without content. Radical Brilliance is the title of Arjuna Ardagh’s upcoming book, apparently referring to the benefits of this. The below is quoted from an excerpt which also talks about burnout. “Dr. Fred Travis, the director of the Center for Brain Consciousness and Cognition at the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa, emphasizes, ‘I hope you can bring out in your book the importance of what moments of awakening do to rewire the brain. It’s not … Continue Reading… →

Desiderata

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When I was young, friends had posters of the poem Desiderata on their wall. Les Crane’s spoken version was on the charts and playing on radio stations. Its source was unknown or considered ancient. Turns out Indiana Lawyer Max Ehrmann wrote it in 1927. It was largely unknown until the 1960s and 70s when it became part of popular culture. Wikipedia has more of the story. Seems it’s a nice reminder for the holiday season, even if its source is less romantic than once thought. Desiderata Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be … Continue Reading… →

Opening Contrast

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change

An important point to understand with major openings is the distinction between what is the opening itself and what are its side-effects. Purification and experiences can accompany realizations, energy openings, and related expansions. But those accompaniments fade out. True shifts remain after the side-effects fade. However, before awakening, there isn’t a stable platform of being so openings can be inclined to get overshadowed by the ego’s dynamics. We fall back into the dust and shadow or the energy isn’t stable yet. After awakening is established, new openings don’t fade away. Then, the side-effects fade leaving just the opening. However, there’s … Continue Reading… →

Layers of Stages

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fungi

The stages of development in consciousness are not just linear nor are they exclusive. Just like the stages of development studied in psychology, we are prominently in one stage and there is a progression. But we’re not in one box, then the next. For example, one can become an adult and still have unresolved child issues. Typically, it takes over a decade to mature fully into Self Realization. Yet it’s not unusual for other stages to unfold before that. Thus, we can still be clearing old ego self-concepts and contractions when we’re living Unity stage. And I’ve seen people still … Continue Reading… →