Spirituality for Living

The subject is passion including the much reviled “passions”. They usually speak of them in right hand and left hand paths. One school of thought is that they are only stumbling blocks preventing peace. The teachings of the right hand path are very popular, and you can get material written on it at any book store [...]

What do you think was REALLY meant by the concept of “Original Sin”? The symbolism of the Tower of Babel, and the concept of the original sin are one and the same. A separation of reason from intuition, of language from the collective. The perception of the mind and soul as fictional or as entirely [...]

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 [...]

If we saw our own connection to our place, even as we move from place to place in a solidly experiential way, that might change things. Realizing that everything is you and you are everything. Part of sense of place is that realization. You can’t say self knowledge is complete without it, and the relationship [...]

My own spiritual path is based not on abstaining from passion, but on embracing it. When you truly embrace it and let it consume you, you learn something surprising. This you it consumed is not “you”. Not the all encompassing thing. Some have described me as having strong self control. I don’t actually. I don’t [...]

Many people consider the joy they find in the path, but if in distress they believe themselves to be off of the path. In fact our spiritual life moves in peace or in distress, in joy or in the “dark night of the soul”. Distress is in fact an opportunity.
When we are distressed there is [...]

I’ve been asked to describe a normal day of mine, or rather abnormal? My day actually starts in my night. I have some unusual conditions I deal with so taking a Taoist view helps me accept “my way” in life, since I can’t implement “common sense”. I’m autistic among other things. I always dream lucidly. [...]

In many schools of thinking being excited about life is frowned upon. It is seen as somehow irresponsible. It is supposedly better to become dead inside and tractable and to pursue only “sensible” things. What in life is sensible? What of our wants and need are rational? Take humour. What is practical about humour? But I [...]

How are we aware of our soul?  Well, awareness of the soul is scary. Like in the Egyptian book of the dead, it’s the encounter with a mirror. It’s an awareness of what about you can die and what changes.  That can make people feel very insecure. But unless you will see what changes, you won’t [...]

It has been said that each persons life has a single theme at the heart of it, and you can discover that from reflection. It is not the same for every person, but it comes from a thread that permeated their whole life, even childhood. It arises from temperament as well as other factors. It might [...]

Where does the first karma come from to get the whole karmic ball rolling? The first karma comes from a state of existence that permeates all others. The ground of being. It serves as a sort of infrastructure for all of creation, though it isn’t quite as empty and featureless as some authorities would describe [...]

Do you think they have special labs with deep thinkers on hallucinogenics? No, Leary was not very well funded, and Project Stargate is supposedly closed. Those dabbling in consciousness enhancement seem to have fallen flat on their faces. Rather than revile altered consciousness maybe they should look into it more.
They are making breakthroughs with consciousness [...]

What matters is what you did and what you learned, not what you had. Now what you have can influence what you are able to do, so that seems a good guideline for getting. So matter matters to the degree it is energy. If you go rescue a friend or loved one from being stranded [...]

Projection and how it impacts our lives. It isn’t as simple as pop psychology would have people see it, and it gets flung around too casually. It winds up being like the pot calling the kettle black, and few heed the old aphorism; Remove the timber in your own eye before trying to remove the [...]

People project onto us and we assume roles. Young people tend to worry a lot about things they shouldn’t. Thus who has had a smooth third decade? Seems to me stories of that are rare to non existent. In their twenties, who doesn’t have some comedy of errors to relate at least, if not a [...]

Mortification of the flesh to what purpose, disidentification? Yes indeed.  When people still undertook it with the proper intent, but it has no merit if it’s merely a self destructive act.
Are there not other ways less destructive to disidentify? Yes, and ’destructiveness’ is a key concept. It is not the key concept of self mortification. [...]

Example of a modern mortification of the flesh: caffeine. It tends to make us feel very alert, but also uncomfy.  However, it is so taken for granted that it is little questioned in general and we schedule our time and lives around an unnatural rhythm. It has a positive affect for some and isn’t an [...]

I live in America. A stronghold of religious weirdness, and quite feral about it. I hear India has cows, poor people who break and deform their own bodies to get daily bread. We do it here also, just not for faith and with more refined methods. We should be proud of ourselves. Advanced self destruction. [...]

Life is communication. I don’t speak the language, so I have had to pantomime. People aren’t very observant, or they choose not to see or hear. Poor choice. I’m often pointing out a self destruct. If there isn’t any danger then I let them move about as they have not chosen to do. I let [...]

There is no them, and since there is no them why not get a better image of us? Why even think over long on the idea of there being no them? There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don’t. There is a [...]