A Calling
As I wrote about recently, many things in life require action. Life is movement and flow. It requires activity to be sustained. We need to breathe, to eat, to consume, to move to live. If …
Category: Ego
Troublesome Themes
Many people I know on a spiritual path have discovered a recurring theme in their life. They may even discover it goes back thousands of years. They find ongoing reason to feel angry or abandoned …
Styles of Action
The world is as you are. The way we experience life has a lot to do with how we experience who we are. When we’re ego-identified, we’re often in an adversarial relationship with others and …
Nature’s Support
I’ve worked with the concept of “nature’s support” since the 70’s and have come to perceive the mechanics. I’ve written on the topic before, but sometimes more obscurely. The subject came up on Choice and …
The Awakening Intellect
On a recent retreat, Lorne Hoff spoke of the role of the intellect in awakening. I thought the point valuable to share. When we first wake up, there is often an unknowing. We step into …
Choice and Surrender
There is a curious dance in the progression of life between choice and letting go. A key feature of early childhood is separation from mother and establishing a sense of personal self. As we approach …
Acceptance is Without Blame
There is a common idea in spiritual circles that enlightenment is “the solution” and it will make all our problems go away. This isn’t necessarily even taught or conscious. It is the mind’s tendency to …
The Great Shadows
While I’ve explored karma in several other posts, I thought it would be useful to take it another step into application. As the saying goes, we come into this life with a suitcase of karma …
On Spiritual Materialism
I wasn’t going to write on this until I saw a glaring example on-line. As we grow on the spiritual path and clear some of our shadows, what remains becomes more subtle and elusive. We …
How Many Brains?
In some ways, the whole body can be seen as a “brain” in the sense that the brain is an interface with mind and consciousness. However, there are certain centers that are more focused as …
What is Destruction?
We tend to see change as a loss, partly because the ego likes to feel in control. It’s also disturbing tamas, our inertia. And yet, the cycle of growth requires change: balance, disintegration, growth, integration, …
The Challenges of Teaching
There is a common idea that awakened people automatically become teachers. But teaching is a skill, one that allows us to speak to the student at their level. Many don’t have this skill. They speak …