Spirituality for Living

Conditioning is a terrible thing to overcome, and in identifying it we resist it. It was all we were taught to do… not identifying the source, that primal world that we still come from. We didn’t arise by accident. No body does. Accidents are human, but even that is not defining. Accidents are human, but [...]

People speak of temptation when they experience instinct and they say it is a distraction. This nature. Why supposedly is this nature unholy? This instinct. Why supposedly is there no wisdom in it? I think that it is our clearest wisdom. Who needs a religious cannon? The bible itself says that the word of god [...]

What can be said about paradox? Literally everything, that is the essence of paradox. It is why seeking one truth, proclaiming there to be only one right path…well, it just never really works. There have been atheists who are more altruistic than the more religious types. Very materialist types that espouse a spiritual paradigm for [...]

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead they speak of death as a journey. One of the signs on that path is a mirror. The path is a mirror. You grow in the way you are, not in the way you are told you are. Many dogmas stunt people, trap them. Is regrettable, but they [...]

Balance, the middle way, we hope to list toward it. At times it seems that we do not, often because we fear we are wrong. Like fumbling for a needed object in the dark, we go too far one way or too far another and we think it’s all very hard. We really make it [...]

The secret of conflict is that there is no conflict. We perceive ourselves to be in opposition. But the one who opposes you, do they oppose “you”? Or has their way run afoul of yours? They seek something in opposition.
Imagine an auto accident …is nothing about opposition, just nature interacting with nature. And adaptation is [...]

Gnosis is the concept “as within so without”. Also connected with the concept “as above so below“. That knowledge of self, is knowledge of the principle that originated you.
It is connected to astrology. Astrology could be considered a Gnostic tool. Hermetic philosophy is primarily Gnostic in its premises and the principle even emerges in quantum [...]

Madness as it relates to spirituality. It is strange. They say the more you learn the less you know. The deeper the knowing goes the less you can say anything for certain and then when you are questioned people just dismiss your responses as being obtuse. You become an expert at learning.
Buddhism is often accused [...]

Taoism is one of those world religions that sort of isn’t one. Many popular Chinese concepts are connected to Taoism and actually in many ways it’s like the Egyptian faith. The basic principle is acceptance of and living with the natural way. Lao-Tzu was its unofficial founder and one of the immortals that are venerated, [...]

There are many allegories in Taoism and much like Greek Gnosticism it is heavily experience based, though there are a body of philosophers referred to as sages who are viewed as having deep insight into the Tao, like Chuang-Tzu and other students of Lao Tzu.
Does Taoism have monks and nuns like Buddhism? No, and in [...]

The daemons are not the monsters even in angelic lore. The idea that angels are creatures of beauty and demons horrible monsters is false. Those who tend the darkness are truly kindly but the big scare isn’t demons, it’s yourself.
Yourself made manifest in all its terrible glory. So astral journeying can have a use and [...]

The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake would seem to be gratifying, but the presence of the implicate order in any field of knowledge is readily evident. All existence is limited or else it would be present solely as a potentiality spread throughout the implicate order
Gnosis and knowledge are inextricable. Even science requires that [...]

Many people in life strive for perfection which can be any loosely defined notion. The very word itself is heavily loaded. Some believe that personal perfection is impossible to attain. They see it as an impossible state, but can perfection be considered any fixed form? If so then why does the universe itself seemed to [...]

Here are a few questions that I have received in some of my talks. Maybe you’ve wondered as well. 
If our ancestors and family who have passed over are supposed to be watching over us, what exactly are they doing?  They engage in spiritual affairs and are concerned with your spiritual state. But they can’t control [...]

It is a commonly mistaken notion that Buddhists see the Buddha as especially divine. There is a school or two that does, but in fact the majority of Buddhist sects are almost agnostic as it regards deities. Zen would be one of these.
There are two branches of thought in Buddhism. One is that enlightenment is [...]

Ever see Zen art? They use simple ink and they refuse to draw from memory. They seek to trap the sense impression, so the images seem very impressionistic. Suggesting the image of say a bird, because in fact as we move about in our normal consciousness how vividly does anything register on us? Usually not very. [...]

There are stories where the Zen master says something, and the student is said to be ‘enlightened’.  In that moment the words didn’t matter as much as the students thinking, and what will do that for any student differs. This is why you see the symbol of the dorje or lighting bolt in Buddhism, because [...]

To thine own self be true is not advice to be a libertine. There is only one Tao, but the tao is infinite in its manifestations.
Am I religious? I don’t look for god. God is right here. I am knowingly religious, in that I do use techniques to explore myself and my relationship to the [...]

What is the ‘god’ structure in Hinduism? That differs, but there are some principles across the board. One is the concept of a universal spirit called by many names actually, but not in a divisive way. More as a recognition of the manifold nature of this universal spirit. It is called by the brahminists Brahman, [...]

Is someone a wise weaver of the universe fabric? Actually no. There is a heart to it all. A sort of hyperspace. The place in Buddhism called Nirvana is not oblivion. The home of the “ascended masters”. Ultimately it’s all a creative effort. A growing up and into our full potential. The angels are our [...]