Consciousness
A Dialogue With Francis Lucille Regarding Teaching and Life Coaching
This post is a record of, first, a question the well-renowned Advaita (non-duality) teacher Francis Lucille (Rupert Spira’s teacher) was asked online a number of years ago (no longer available on the internet so I’ve posted here as a service). It follows with an email dialogue I had with Francis. I later talked with him in…
Read MoreOn Beyond Being Human: a Sort of Poem
Let’s consider this scenario: It’s all or nothing: because there is no partial Self, and self-realization is not for persons (egos) or separate entities. Since there is no one anyway. No bodies. And “Mind” with a small “m” is synonymous with movement, as in “a movement and a rest” (Gospel of Thomas, 50). We could…
Read MoreOn Beyond the Body Mind World (or, Liberation for Whom?)
Happiness and Pleasure Happiness from objects makes no sense. Where is the happiness experienced? Let’s not even talk about happiness, for the time being, let’s just look at pleasure. Where is the pleasure experienced? If you’re thinking the pleasure is in driving a luxury car, or a woman’s company, or a man’s company, or making…
Read MoreOn Beyond (Academic) Philosophy
For a while when in school, I fantasizing myself to be a future professor. Then I realized no one (not even the world-class philosophers with huge grants, who I’d previously worshipped!) knew what the mind or intelligence was, or how the brain worked, or many other things they claimed to know, especially about consciousness (and…
Read MoreNon-Duality is Not Idealism
Nor is it materialism…. But is it so obvious it’s not materialism? It will be obvious they are two sides of a mistaken coin, once you see it. First, some definitions. By “Idealism” here we won’t be meaning ethical or socio-political idealism (such as “living up to the ideals of a Judeo Christian ethically-based law”).…
Read MoreLiving For the Moment or In the Moment?
Journal missive from the balcony… another set of highly imperfect notes. I once said to a young friend who I let crash in my living room, that was deep into spiritual teachings, but seemed to be very much in her own world, closed off, and often upset, taking things personally and running away (yet again),…
Read MoreDialogue With A Sage: The Thousand Deaths
This article, after a brief discussion to set the stage, follows with is an email dialogue with a living sage* (whose identity will remain anonymous for reasons of privacy). About 38 years ago I—a past “me”, which does not exist except as a memory-thought, or traces on film in the present—experienced what was could be…
Read MoreOn Beyond Being Born
I make fun of birthdays (my “birthday” is today – this calendar date – when I’m writing this), calling them “Unborn Days”. To distill the logic to its essence (what philosophers like to do, though I wouldn’t pretend to be one, and certainly not a professional one) it’s like this: The theory, or the assumption…
Read MoreMeditation: “Are We There Yet?”
The scene: a group in meditation. The teacher guides them to “Open their attention”, and “Simply be in awareness”, and observe, notice the thoughts going by, the feelings as sensations in the body… The teacher starts to end the session and encourages the participants to gently open their eyes. A student pipes up, “Are We…
Read MoreThe Enlightenment Contest
The scene: a non-duality spiritual retreat, led my a teacher named “Francis” and his wife “Laura”. Someone gets up, in the evening, after the meditation and dialogue, when announcements are made: “I have a little announcement. Since everyone here is interested in not only becoming enlightened—or perhaps thinks they already are—and furthermore would love very…
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