Chasing Demons
I ran into this quote online: “Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön… describes how Milarepa reacted when he came home to find his cave filled with demons. First Milarepa tried reasoning with the demons. But they ignored …
Category: Practice
On Channeling
In a discussion on another forum on some channeled material, I was asked what I mean by channelling and why I had issues with it. I thought it useful to share my response here. OK …
Efforting
There is a subtle but profound difference between simple acting and efforting. Hawkins called this Power vs Force. Our culture celebrates individual effort but does not discriminate between these. The result is many people trying …
Can Lower Life Forms Become Enlightened?
This is from a debate over the title subject. A little more speculative than usual. Edited for context. It’s an interesting consideration. We tend to take a human-centric view of it, seeing ourselves at the …
The Cure for Pain
Rumi says it so well. Pain is a signal that something is wrong. If we acknowledge the pain, it’s job is done and it will stop or wind down significantly. This is true of both …
It’s Time
Karma, in this case referring to the consequences of past action, is described as having 3 types. With awakening, we are said to roast the mountains of our backlog and to stop creating new problems …
Kristin on Release
Finally got a chance to listen to Kristin Kirk‘s talk from last years SAND conference. Called “Dissolving the Substance of the Conditioned Self”, she explores the awareness and release process she adopted. My own process …
The Value of a Story
We might rightfully ask – What is the value of telling an awakening story? It is after all just a story. As I was reminded recently, “Those who know do not say, those who say …
Gossip
Another area where we need discrimination is in the stories we encourage and pass on. If we spend time with gossips, it’s easy to fall into the trap ourselves. I remember taking a step back …
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 …
Deep Yoga
Last year, I did a series of articles on the Yoga Sutra, emphasizing how Yoga (union) was much more than postures. It’s also useful to be reminded that Yoga is much older than the commonly …
On Karma, Bliss, and Love
This came up in another non-spiritual forum. I was asked some questions about Yoga. This was the result. You’re wise to focus on results rather than concepts. Too much of philosophy and religion is about …