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 …
Category: Healing
Different Divinities
When someone uses the term Divine or God, it’s important to look for context to see what they’re talking about. This is because Divinity is different in different stages of development. Put another way, there …
Dosha Changes
Ayurveda is the ancient Indian system of medicine. It focuses on maintaining balance of the body-mind as a whole to avoid health issues. It’s often better at handling systemic and chronic conditions than western allopathic …
The Bliss of Sleep
When we settle into bed, we all enjoy at least 2 states of consciousness: sleeping and dreaming. If we have a history of samadhi (yoga) in meditation, that creeps into our sleep time too, with …
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 …
Entrenched Habits
Some habits can be very difficult to change. Even if we successfully get around them for a time, they can rear their head again. They can be like a petulant child who always wants its …
Remaining Shadows
I found a quote near the end of Kavitha Chinnaiyan‘s book Shakti Rising à propos, considering the discussion over on The Challenges of Teaching. This closely relates to the development of Sattva. “If we have …
The Importance of Actual Yoga
In Yoga, the key is settling the mind. Then the Self “behind” the noisy mind can shine through. Yoga Sutra 1 v2-3: Yoga is the complete settling of the activity of the mind. Then the …
The Strange Reality of Being Human
Most people think of themselves as a single being, distinct from others. This is my body, these are my private thoughts, and this is how I feel. However, this is just a set of ideas, …
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 …