On Astrology
Readers know I occasionally mention astrology. Through research, I’ve found that the major planets transiting over birth positions can have a powerful effect on emotions and events (karma) that arise in life. However, I don’t …
Category: Practices
Core Spiritual Practices
In the West, we live in a very mind-oriented culture. A practice like an effortless mantra meditation is excellent for balancing that experience. It uses the mind to go beyond it, into our deeper nature. …
Practices
In the recent post on Types of Meditation, I discussed three types of practices and said I would adopt the model. I’ve updated that part of the Recommendations page. I thought it would be useful …
Types of Meditation
About 15 years ago, I wrote an article about types of meditation, based on their brain EEG signature. There has been a tendency for scientists, and indeed many people, to see all meditations as equivalent. …
Embodied Enquiry
Inquiry is a practice from non-dual teachings, a practice of self-discovery. It’s used to question our minds‘ habits about reality. For example, we can observe that our thoughts are experiences and are therefore content. They’re …
Being Present
With spiritual practices, we can develop an ongoing presence, even to the degree of a detached awareness or observer that’s with us all the time. However, habits of the mind and those around us will …
Listening
One issue with living in a mind-dominated culture is that many never gain the art of listening. When someone is sharing with us, we’re often in the mind thinking about what we’re going to say …
Another Approach to Healing
In my case, as I describe on An Approach to Healing, I learned an effortless meditation first. Then I learned how to support that in processing the bigger contractions. This approach allows one to settle …
Stages of Meditation
First, I’ll note this is observations of the process. This is for verification of experience, not something to achieve, a technique, or a way to manipulate your experience. As readers of the blog know, I …
Stages of Flying
A discussion from the recent Tips article leads to some points worth discussing on Yogic flying. Why would we even practice siddhis (abilities)? We’re unlikely to get any good at many of them, simply because …
Before Meditation
Readers of this blog know I recommend an effortless meditation as a foundational spiritual practice. This is because it cultures samadhi, the basis of Yoga. The repeated experience of pure consciousness reveals itself as our …
Yoga and Meditation
I’ve described how important transcending was for awakening here. But let’s explore a bigger context. The Yoga Sutra describes 8 “limbs” or approaches to gain Yoga or union and discover our true nature. The first …