Spirituality for Living

I find that just as in physics, resistance plays a big part in spirituality as well. What we resist isn’t removed by our resistance, and much of orthodox religious teaching seems to extol resistance, denial, asceticism. I suppose they can create a supportive context for spiritual growth, but these days in most cultures there really [...]

Observation is really a keystone of spirituality as well as science. The capability we call observation runs deeper than the sense. As a matter of fact, there are whole scientific and military disciplines focused on “training” observation even though our senses work. The eastern teachings pointed out that senses are distracting and meditation is in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Some would embrace their dreams and deny their nightmares, and say that they know what it is to dream. They will indulge in pleasure and shun pain, and say they know what it is to feel. But when confronted with the reflection of what they seek, its mirror image, they ask “why do I experience [...]

What exactly is meditation? There are many definitions. Meditation isn’t an action. That is the tricky thing. Meditation is a settling. A disengagement from action. The techniques are for stilling the mind. We seek to meditate not so much to find a new level of awareness. It isn’t a special state. It’s a primal state. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

‘Focus determines your reality’. Your reality is more than what you see with your eyes. Can you recall a time when you really only had one thing on your mind? When you’re doing a task that you’re really absorbed in?
Have you ever been in that state where you desired companionship and didn’t perceive yourself to [...]

Why can’t people accept that they can’t control their life or others? They misidentify themselves so they don‘t know who they are. They think there is a ‘them’ that needs to struggle. For example, accepting a suicide is hard, and there is no such thing as merely accepting. Life exists in a pattern of tensions [...]

Some think that spirituality and materialism are exclusive of each other, but if you embrace that you are spiritual then where does your existence arise from? What reason do we have to believe that the physical existence is somehow separate from its physical counterpart? In looking at life (the very physical life that we see around us [...]

How does a demon go about being spiritual? Demons are spiritual. Darkness is merely the mirror image of light, and much is declared dark from prejudice only. Bad is debatable. The spirit that challenges you to know the truth of yourself is bad? The spirit that reminds you of the value of life, or what [...]

The monk is passionate, passionate in ascetic seeking. The zealot is also passionate, passionate in persecution. Some believe the monk is trained to forget his physical humanity, and to focus on the mind and that is not passion but doctrine. I would disagree. There are surfaces and there are depths. Monks live in their own “chosen” world [...]

Action stems from passion. You may passionately believe I am mistaken, and feel powerfully moved to tell me so. The world moves and we move in it. There is a reason they say ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
I am not advocating a stance that in any way obfuscates personal [...]

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 [...]

Hinduism is actually a blanket term for multiple spiritual paths. A common disposition among those who pursue most of the schools is that they don’t have a salvationist view. Most of them are more concerned with understanding as individuals than as a “faith”. Many don’t even see themselves as a faith as it’s defined in [...]

Do you have a very difficult time doing anything without your heart being involved? Then don’t exclude your heart. It isn’t necessary. The only way it’s ‘meant’ to be done (if that word has any meaning at all) is the way it’s naturally done.
People often expect great mystical events from meditation, yet most often meditation [...]

People doubt the overblown concepts, sensationalized belief systems, and I don’t think that’s bad. Spirituality should be just as subject to testing and evaluation as science and technology are. If there isn’t any readily available wisdom that you can apply then why believe it?
How do you test spirituality? Do the doctrines or insights of the [...]

Ancient Egyptian religion can be summarized as shamanism under the influence of nationalism. Like the native American cultures, they saw the world as a spiritual place and the relationship between the ancient tribes of Egypt changed over time before the organization of the two kingdoms. They didn’t have a Cartesian view like modern thinkers do, [...]