The Field of Action
People often think of karma as the consequences of our actions. But karma means action and is more equivalent to energy than doing or results. The consequences are technically considered the fruits of karma rather …
Category: Mind
At Death
I’ve written several times on the subject of death. What Yagyavalkya had to say on the subject, what happens with death after awakening, on the continuation of life, and so forth. The death process itself …
Spiritual Friends
Kalyaana Mittataa is a Buddhist term for “spiritual friendship”. It can include student-teacher dyads and peer groups, what one might call one’s spiritual community. This would be a community focused on spiritual development rather than …
A Natural Pulsation
Recently, I’ve been corresponding with Jerry Freeman, another BATGAP interviewee. He sent me a few of his essays. I’ve quite enjoyed them and asked if I could share this one – There is a natural …
Forms of Love
I’ve written before on the power of love and the distinction between an identified emotion we call love and the deeper Love that is the flow of life itself. The Greeks classified love as having …
On Dreams
Recently, I was asked about dreams. I’ve not written much on the subject. Basically I see dreams as mental and emotional digestion or processing. The content and the emotions are not generally connected. We might …
Being a Teacher
There’s a goofy idea some people have that awakening makes you a spiritual teacher. There can certainly be an impulse to share but teaching requires skill and a calling, not just wanting to tell the …
On Purity
I’ve spoken before in various ways about the gunas, such as the gunas in awakening. The gunas are qualities of nature. They are not actions or objects but rather subtle qualities that give those things …
The Flavours
I meet with, retreat with, and correspond with a variety of people who are awake, some very much so. As I mentioned in the Sofia panel discussion, I’ve found people tend to become more unique …
Getting off the Horses
During the second part of the Sofia panel discussion, David Ellzey surprised us with a snippet of spontaneous and surprisingly expressive mime. In the video linked below, he speaks about letting go of our stories, …
The Layers
Recently, friends have been corresponding about “the mystery”. Can reality be known or is it destined to remain something of a mystery, greater than self-knowledge? My position is that we can know it when we …
How We Know
I wrote before on 3 forms of knowing – through ideas, through experience, and through being. I’ve also talked about how our dominant sense can inform our experiences. But there’s another way we might distinguish …