Spirituality for Living

One paradox is that expectations are an interference with genuine practice…like meditation. One quote is: A true practitioner has an absence of expectation and doubt. -Lama Dodjum Dorjee. So we have this paradox, we are attempting to do something difficult, bring some clarity to the overactive mind. But we need to have that intention and [...]

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 [...]

Dissonance, as in different notes or tones conflicting is the concept. Spirituality is often compared to music metaphorically, but in many ways it’s not strictly metaphor. Many people speak of spiritual presence as being like a voice or sound and we each of us contribute to this. We each make more of an impact on [...]

There are more paths than this. You may find in your practice that this reflective work is not clicking. There are common elements of the mind but there are notable deviations also. Mine is one such. The Greeks used to seek out those who suffered from the condition I had as a juvenile to serve [...]

So what do the psychic realms of function mean personally? We all come to a metaphysical or spiritual practice with our essence as it always was, even if we don’t understand our own nature well and often times we engage the first path we come across. Like the very “spiritual” and popular mysticism, and if [...]

Omens are phenomenon that occur independently of any “practice” you might be involved in. They are like the little signs that occur before a quake or volcanic eruption or a violent storm, and this is part of how you can recognize an omen from an unrelated event. Because daily you also move through events that have come [...]

The material uses of things in magic (or whatever you prefer to call your practice) stem from one type of insight, that the world is interconnected. Hermetic philosophy refers to these connections as correspondences, and they have been viewed in literally every mystical practice across the world.  This raises the question of what is power, [...]

Mortification of the flesh means putting the flesh to death. It has been and is still practiced in all cultures in some way across the world, though the exact intention and result is often different. There is a lot of speculation in today’s world about what motivates it. Meditation is an act of mortification, yet [...]

So to speak more on mortification of the flesh practices, they often show that there is more to us than our desires. Practices served as rights of passage, much like tribal ritual scarification. It still is practiced in the Opus Dei. They are flagellates if I recall. Opus dei, work of god in Latin. Some [...]

So, are you advocating for self-mortification? No. I am advocating experience. No one practice. When you are impassioned, and begin cleaning house despite physical fatigue, you restructure your whole living space. You ache miserably after pushing yourself so hard, but from somewhere not explained by your body something moved you. Experience of this I see [...]

Halloween is very much ingrained in our collective unconscious, and has a very long history. It was basically the Celtic New Year. Like the Norse legend of the world being born of ice, they see winter as the first season not the last (or rather they did). Halloween is more like the traditional thanksgiving. This [...]

Health is related to spirituality, the mind-body connection. Like how laughter is healing or at least stabilizing. I have made some observations in life, and in my observation those who are truly happy tend to be very healthy.  Also, peoples issues tend to correspond to their temperament. Anyone else observe this?
So by default if I’m [...]

Judgement, what it is and what it does. Judgement is an inherently restrictive force in the mind, but it lays no restrictions on others not without some overt force. Our judgements restrict us. We do not perceive our world directly. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we judge them [...]

Part of why some metaphysical practices seem to fail is that you deal with the energy of doubt, of fear, of hope. If you try to manifest you confront the whole world within you. This is why people often feel anxiety at the prospect of manifestation and here is the real trick. If you try [...]

Cartomancy is a relatively new method of the more general practice of divination. It arose in the late medieval era as a way of preserving initiatory murals in a way that could be kept safe and transported. The major arcana specifically is those big spooky cards you often see in movies and are read about [...]

Normally Tantric rites are observed in a very sacramental way. Selective diet before the coming together, contemplative meditation, prayer to ready the participants mentally and emotionally because during the embrace there is surrender. Totally for the female, and surrender in the context of the forms for the male.
The actually embrace is not hastened through. It [...]

How psychic readings can be done is that some seem to visualize their thoughts as parts of their brain. This isn’t actually so, but the thoughts are energy patterns in a collective field that we are all present in. They have even discovered that dogs can be trained to sense the neural spiking in seizure [...]

Buddhism isn’t what many perceive it to be. It is a very old “faith”, but doesn’t center on concepts of worship as most understand them today. It’s primarily concerned with a path of seeking, and a body of practices with a code of conduct. The code of conduct is referred to as the eight fold [...]

The eightfold path breaks down the aspects of life, and elaborates on how they are reached and what they are like. Most schools of Buddhist thought are not “dogmatic”, so you can find many texts with very broad opinions, even by modern authors. This is no break from Buddhist teaching. They refer to life in [...]

If you’re proud of defying tradition, fine. Then if you don’t measure up, hell, you can defy your own tradition and go again. Don’t let the tradition rule you, you rule it. The old rites of passage were for dealing with what scared us, because honestly we are living things and whether we like it [...]