The Humanity of a Teacher

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Humanity by Bryan Ledgard

I’ve written a few articles about modern issues with spiritual teachers. Students often see enlightenment as a superhuman perfection. We see the teacher as beyond mistakes. If a teacher buys into such ideas, they can create a large blind spot. Unresolved identity or unconscious needs are bound to be acted out with students. Expecting perfection, students may excuse the behaviour as “crazy wisdom” or similar. The Westernization of spiritual teaching has meant that most teachers are now independent, sometimes affiliated with a lineage and sometimes not. They’re often outside of any peer-support structure and often lack understanding of relationship power … Continue Reading… →

Nested Bliss

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Velvia Bliss by Taomeister

I’ve spoken before about nested space and about layers of bliss. The causal kosha is also known as the bliss body as we often experience it as a wave of bliss when we pass through it, as when transcending during meditation. But why then are there layers of bliss that can include massive increases and raptures? This comes back to nested spaces. We exist in a personal space, in the space of our family, in the space of our community, city, province, country, world, solar system, galaxy, galactic cluster, supercluster, unnamed region, and universe. At the event horizon of each … Continue Reading… →

Lokas and Patalas

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Kapaleeshwarar Temple by Vinoth Chandar

I’ve previously talked a little about lokas, mainly for the 2 versions of the Gayatri mantra. One describes a 3-worlds model of physical, subtle, and Divine. The other, a more detailed 7-worlds model with the physical, 3 progressively more subtle layers, and 3 heavens. Same arena divided in more detail. How many colours in a rainbow? Loka means place or world. The Vedas define lokas ranging from the physical world up into various heavens in the celestial realm. Essentially lokas are a type of nested sub-space. Just as the described koshas often stop with the causal, heavens are not usually … Continue Reading… →

Satsang in Utah

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Deer

As regular readers know, I occasionally give talks in various venues like a conference or a church. Michael Speight, a fellow BATGAP interviewee, has invited me to give a 2 part-satsang near Ogden, Utah later this month. It’s scheduled for Friday evening April 26 and Saturday morning April 27 followed by a potluck lunch. If you are in the area, you’re welcome to join us. Contact Michael for details and directions through the Contact form on his website. [Update] We’ll be recording the talks so I should be able to share them later. Davidya

Nested Dharma, Nested Karma

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Nest by Furtwangl

Down on the level of Buddhi, the intellect and intuition, the interactions of the fine devata create relationships. These structure the subtle or sacred geometry that defines the forms of our world. These subtle structures are composed of sutras or threads of light. We can describe them as structured flows of light, feeling, and sound. Those fine threads are sustained by tubes, like insulation on a wire. Flowing attention curves back on itself in a spiral down the thread, creating a tube. These tubes are embodied as subtle life-forms known as nagas. These are ancient and benevolent beings, quite different … Continue Reading… →

The Sex Chakra

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bears kiss

Sex is fundamental to our nature as humans. We have an imperative to reproduce. Most cultures set expectations around sex to ensure healthy outcomes. For example, a committed relationship. This ensures the resulting off-spring are cared for and people are treated respectfully. Too often, expectations become rules that lead to suppression. The powerful energies of creativity are distorted by unnatural guidelines. For example, in the grand cycles of time, spirituality came to emphasize renunciation and celibacy. Yet only a small percent of the population is suited to long-term celibacy. Adopting it inappropriately leads to it leaking out in unhealthy ways. … Continue Reading… →

The Wisdom of No Escape

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pier

Susanne Marie writes occasional short articles she calls Reality Bites. I particularly enjoyed this one: “Sometimes the only way to be free of something is to allow yourself to be fully trapped. Our desire to escape suffering creates it’s own bondage. Most of us are initially drawn to spirituality with the understandable desire to feel better and in general to be released from suffering. But this desire in itself plays into the belief that something needs to be done about how we are feeling. That we need to somehow disappear a feeling by replacing it with bliss or peace, or … Continue Reading… →

Vulnerability

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Vulnerability by Rabiem22

The third chakra or power center in our upper belly shows up in several ways. In the first style, it operates in a mode of forced protection. We seek to control, to influence others, to compete or dominate, to get what I want, to be the fittest, and so forth. We grasp at what we want and resist and suppress what we don’t want. In the second style, we fall into a more passive protection. We feel powerless, submissive, and have difficulty making choices. We seek others to help us but they are often the first type who victimize us … Continue Reading… →

How Does Infinity Become Lost in a Person?

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Sir Kenelm Digby

One of the more curious paradoxes of living life as a human is that we experience ourselves as limited, separate beings. It’s natural for separation to be part of our development. We have to recognize we’re separate from our mother to become a person, for example. And to recognize how we’re different from others to know what we have to offer. But once we know the platform for our life, it’s important to explore who it is that is having these experiences and return to our more universal nature. We’ll do this from a point value or specific perspective. We … Continue Reading… →

In the Big Picture

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Milky Way from Big Bend by Vincent Lock

If we see our lives as small and insignificant, we may be excused for spending it on escape. If we see our efforts at spiritual progress as temporary and with limited benefit, we can be excused for drifting away. But this is thinking small. I’ve mentioned before how Atman and Sattva, consciousness and clarity, are cumulative through lifetimes. Let’s look at this more closely. With the right practices and circumstances, we very much have the potential to awaken in this lifetime. Not everyone will shift, perhaps because of karmic backlog. But none of it is a waste. When the body … Continue Reading… →

Podcasting

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podcasting

After a failed experiment with text-to-speech automation, I decided to tackle podcasting (spoken) articles. This has taken exploration and setup to work out recording, hosting, and distribution services. But it brings the articles to another market and supports “readers” who are better able or more inclined to listen. The player, along with a download link will usually show at the bottom of articles. On the website, you’ll see the purple mic Subscribe icon with the other subscribe buttons on the right. You can subscribe through iTunes (Apple), Google, Android, email, RSS, or your favorite podcast tool. I’ve added a new … Continue Reading… →

Healing Mind, Healing Emotion

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velvet cross

In a discussion on Healing Trauma, the subject of talk therapy came up. While I’m not a psychologist, I can see the value of related therapies in digesting difficult experiences. Being able to talk it out with someone accepting can be valuable. That may be all it takes. However, if the issue has any depth, talking it out will only resolve it for the mind. If we don’t heal the deeper energetic source, that experience will come around again and shadow our life. Similarly, if there is a need to keep talking about it, the source or driver hasn’t been … Continue Reading… →