The Role of Kundalini
The ongoing exploration and discussion of ways of modelling the diverse experiences of awakening had a new round recently, based on the article Kundalini: Up, Down, or ? by Peter Holleran. It’s a fascinating overview …
Category: Practice
The End of Suffering
Patanjali mentions the causes of suffering in the Yoga Sutra 2v15 Suffering is caused by change, anxiety, impressions, and by opposing the activity of nature. Indeed, discriminating persons know that everyone is suffering. 2v3-11 The …
True Yoga
In my neighbourhood, there are quite a few yoga studios. Only most of them don’t actually teach yoga. Some teach a form of asana or posture, but in many cases it’s about fitness. In fact, …
Chasing Experiences
One of the hazards of the spiritual journey is chasing experiences: looking for flash or the return of something good experienced before. Thus you see people using techniques to push kundalini, taking hallucinogenic drugs, or …
The Shadow Drives
This came up in another forum. I thought it worth sharing here, editing for context. Humans are human. It is very rare for someone to have no shadow, even a great guru. Much can be …
Skills vs Consciousness
There is a distinction between level of skill and level of consciousness worth exploring. This is an important distinction. It’s one thing for spiritual awakening to unfold. It’s another for us to make skilled use …
Family Charges
Recently Adyashanti, the Zen based teacher, appeared on Oprah around his book, Falling into Grace. A little more advanced than Eckhart’s approach. One of the interesting details when touching on the pain body was how …
The Pain Body
I recently saw a piece of the ’08 conversation between Eckhart Tolle and Oprah, talking about the pain body. He also associated this with the ego. I wrote several articles on the series back at …
Myths of Enlightenment
While there are many reasons to seek enlightenment, there are also a boatload of myths about it. Some are even perpetuated by teachers. I will become enlightened Nope. It is not the me that gets …
Experience Whatever is Here
“ When a painful story arises, it’s a belief from the past that arises in the moment. There’s the possibility that rather than tightening up and bracing yourself against what’s here, you could actually embrace …
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: …
Stages of Development and EEG
The journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences did a special edition on meditation research. In one article, Dr. Travis summaries various studies on experiences of pure consciousness. Initially this is experienced during …