On Knowing
Due to the BATGAP interview and SAND talk, this blog is attracting many new readers. Some are coming in search of concepts that can help them make a better story about enlightenment. This is natural …
Category: Process
Surrender to Discrimination
Several recent events have reminded me of a key point worth clarifying. The spiritual path is dominated by surrender. It requires we let go of attachments, of the grasping “me”, of suffering, of whatever binds …
Cosmic Stages
I’ve written before about the stages of childhood development. Using the Alexander model from psychology, we can describe the dominant stages of: Body & Senses (learning to sense and walk and talk) Desires & Emotions …
Male and Female Paths
Funny how ideas sneak up on you. How the grander picture often emerges in increments. For example, I’ve long known of higher states of consciousness. More recently, I’ve shown a more complete model, like this: …
Belief or Experience by example
When you explore spiritual subjects, it’s useful to be alert to where the person is coming from. Do they seem to be speaking from belief or experience? If from experience, what stage do they seem …
Stages of Development in Consciousness
aka higher states of consciousness or stages thereof One of the most popular articles on this blog over the years has been on states of consciousness. First as an outline of the 7 states of …
Belief or Experience
When talking about God or angels and related topics, the discussion usually revolves around belief. One’s statements are categorized as Theist (believer), Agnostic (dubious), and Atheist (Non-believer). Militant atheists like Dawkins go so far as …
Conscience to Consciousness
In human growth and development, we follow a track some suggest reflects our evolution as a species. In the terminology of Loevinger’s Ego stages, we go through Symbiotic, Impulsive (terrible 2’s) and Self-Protective stages as …
Shadbhava (the 6 Houses of our Life)
While people may speak of past karma or desire driving the form of this lifetime, the qualities of the life that unfold are found in various factors. Shadbhava is a term from Ayurveda meaning 6 …
What is Consciousness? – part 1 of 3
I’ve been invited to contribute to the on-line magazine Science to Sage. It’s a graphically rich magazine that shares the works of a number current thinkers and artists. Each issue is themed and the March …
The Samadhis of Patanjali
Awhile back, I wrote an article on the samadhis listed in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali*. At the time, I explored definitions from several translations. The result however was less than clear. Let’s try again. …
108 Reasons to Seek Enlightenment
For fun, I thought I’d see if I could find 108 good reasons to want to be enlightened. It turned out to be easy. These are essentially side effects of purification and development so are …