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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star

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… →

Self Actualization

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Abraham Maslow

About 70 years ago, Abraham Maslow proposed a theory of self-actualization and helped found a new branch of psychology. He suggested that if you meet more basic needs like physical and safety, you can address higher relational and esteem needs. Once you meet most of your needs, you reach a place of self-actualization – of self-acceptance, freshness, equanimity, authenticity, and so forth. Later in life, Maslow saw self-transcendence as a possibility post-self-actualization. Self-transcendence is the primary topic of this website. You’ve probably seen images of his Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow apparently didn’t use his model in this way. Recently, I … Continue Reading… →

BatGap Second Interview Live

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Rick Archer and I sat down for a second Buddha at the Gas Pump interview shortly after I arrived in California for the SAND18 Conference. In the first part, I shared updates since the first interview in 2015. But that required an extended preamble to review the prior stages in consciousness so the updates had some context. Then we explored ParaBrahman and how that is activating influences that are supporting and accelerating global awakening. (Update: Changes since the interview are mentioned in comments below. The aspects are waking up in their universal nature now.) If you haven’t already, you can … Continue Reading… →

Truth

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glacier national park

I can define truth as facts yet facts are items of information or data. How we see that data depends on the perceiver. Similarly, truth can be defined as a proposition or idea that is accepted as true. We might call this shared truth. But again, this is relative to the perceivers. We once considered it true that the world was flat and that the sun revolved around us. In a deeper sense, and the way I use the word here, truth is a “transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality.” But even there, what we recognize as truth is relative to … Continue Reading… →

The Inner Child

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Felicia dancing, Maracas fishing village, Trinidad

After we wake up, we become conscious of remaining shadows more quickly. Often we’ll uncover challenges around fear, anger, and a wide assortment of contractions from unresolved experiences. In time, we’ll find they get more primitive and, to the intellect, less defined. The key is noticing reactivity and following it back to its roots to make it conscious. Then it can be resolved. Making it conscious is sometimes the last step in healing. The challenge is in facing our ghosts. If we adopt an attitude of being beyond such things or suppress what doesn’t feel “spiritual,” we will not heal … Continue Reading… →

It’s Not About You

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monumental eclipse

One of the most important lessons of the spiritual journey is letting go of the habit of making it about you, of taking life personally, of thinking what happens is about how it affects you. When we’re identified with our ego or sense of personal me, this taking everything personally is natural. That is how we’re experiencing the world. The ego tries to maintain an illusion of personal control and thus takes everything as mine and about me. Curiously, the ego know it’s faking it but wants to keep this secret from us to feel in charge. It’s another little … Continue Reading… →

The Hard Nuts

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deus-dios-god

As we shift into a greater awareness of our energy and feelings, we can find all sorts of contractions and resistance. But over time, simple awareness allows us to experience, release, and resolve whatever we discover.   But usually there is some crusted areas like the heart chakra, covered for “protection” but thus constrained and made less conscious. There can also be some hard knots or nuts that are more so. Often quite old, these are very tight contractions. They can be so tight they become inflamed, much as a star can light up from intense gravitational forces. This inflammation … Continue Reading… →