Huston’s Yogas
I’ve been reading Huston Smith’s World Religions for ordination studies. The book is well-written but dominated by recent academic perspectives of the topic. It offers a general overview of the larger faiths, but I wouldn’t …
Category: Vedic
What is Devotion?
In this conversation, Kavitha Chinnaiyan speaks with Jacob Kyle of Embodied Philosophy on true devotion. You may recognize his voice from my interview. At first I disagreed with her statements about devotion being required for …
Soma and Agni
Agni is the cosmic fire described in the ancient Rig Veda. It is the first word of the first verse, the force that causes the world to come into being, the outward stroke. Agni has …
The Power of Mantra
Back on Transcending, I explored right mantra for a meditation practice. I’ve also talked about the language of mantra and how they’re often used. Yet there is a much deeper understanding about mantra that’s largely …
Awareness of Becoming (causal)
A reader asked me to comment further about the field of becoming where manifestation first begins. From the larger context of this blog, there is pure Divinity, the source of the source. The afterglow of …
Roles of a Teacher
By role of a teacher here, I mean the role they play in our spiritual journey rather than how they may position or present themselves as a teacher. A true teaching emphasizes practical application and …
Bhedābheda Vedānta
Vedanta means the end of the Veda or final knowledge and is the last of the 6 systems of Indian Philosophy (Yoga is the 4th). We also know these systems as the Vedanga or subordinate …
Types of Vasanas
I had a recent insight into Vasanas I wanted to share. Let’s define some terms as we go. The “pain body” is our unresolved emotions. The vasana are more subtle than this. After we’ve resolved …
Knots or Granthi
Granthi is a term from the Vedas that describes contractions in the physiology. These are places where there’s been a trauma, an unwillingness to experience something, or a grasping. They may be stored at the …
Primary Impurities
Kavitha Chinnaiyan wrote an article on the Tantric model of the 3 primary impurities or Malas. These are very subtle, on the level of the self-sense. 1) Anava mala: the sense of incompleteness 2) Mayiya …
Yoga and Meditation
I’ve described how important transcending was for awakening here. But let’s explore a bigger context. The Yoga Sutra describes 8 “limbs” or approaches to gain Yoga or union and discover our true nature. The first …
What Awakens?
Fundamentally, consciousness is simply aware. Then it becomes self-aware and interacts with itself, causing the appearance of forms and phenomena to arise. This self-interacting dynamic is true both cosmically and locally. We can say consciousness …