Choice and Surrender
There is a curious dance in the progression of life between choice and letting go. A key feature of early childhood is separation from mother and establishing a sense of personal self. As we approach …
Category: Psychology
The Bliss of Sleep
When we settle into bed, we all enjoy at least 2 states of consciousness: sleeping and dreaming. If we have a history of samadhi (yoga) in meditation, that creeps into our sleep time too, with …
Acceptance is Without Blame
There is a common idea in spiritual circles that enlightenment is “the solution” and it will make all our problems go away. This isn’t necessarily even taught or conscious. It is the mind’s tendency to …
Awakening After-Effects
An interesting article recently appeared in Psychology Today on “The After-Effects of Awakening.” Nice to see it being researched and discussed in mainstream literature. However, the outline still lacks the context of post-personal development. The …
Depth of Awakening
The initial awakening of Self Realization is key to what follows. But because it’s a new thing for which we have no experiential reference points, there is a lot of confusion about what it is …
On Spiritual Materialism
I wasn’t going to write on this until I saw a glaring example on-line. As we grow on the spiritual path and clear some of our shadows, what remains becomes more subtle and elusive. We …
Entrenched Habits
Some habits can be very difficult to change. Even if we successfully get around them for a time, they can rear their head again. They can be like a petulant child who always wants its …
What is Destruction?
We tend to see change as a loss, partly because the ego likes to feel in control. It’s also disturbing tamas, our inertia. And yet, the cycle of growth requires change: balance, disintegration, growth, integration, …
Forgetting
There is a curious experience we have as we grow into new stages of development. We forget what it was like to be in our prior stage. This is very simply because we remember prior …
The Challenges of Teaching
There is a common idea that awakened people automatically become teachers. But teaching is a skill, one that allows us to speak to the student at their level. Many don’t have this skill. They speak …
Self Sabotage
It’s very curious how we develop conflicting inner dynamics that get in the way of our own happiness. For example, we desire career success but sabotage our work by being sloppy or making mistakes because …
The Pace of Change
Many people experience the world speeding up. This is partly an effect of our perception of time. As we shift through the decades, our metabolism gradually slows and time seems to go by faster*. This …