Self-realization
This Side of Paradise and the Unexamined Self
Last night I watched an old Star Trek original series episode that had come to mind: “This Side of Paradise“. The story in it always intrigued me: artificial happiness and the cult-like dramatic conflict when the agricultural lifestyle colonists encounter the Star Trek crew, as well as the entertainment value of what happens with the…
Read MoreNon-Duality in Action: Compassionate Response
Non-dual teachings sometimes give people license to behave badly or not work on themselves: they can become arrogant or rude, or use it as an excuse to use drugs or do other self-centered things, saying “it doesn’t matter what we do” or “I don’t exist” and “it’s all predetermined” etc. Or they may not look…
Read MoreHow To Stop Thinking
“When you enter the silence you enter a profound peace, bliss consciousness, pure awareness. That’s what the silence is. It’s not being quiet. It’s beyond that. It’s not just quieting your mind, like I say all the time. It’s understanding that there’s no mind to quiet. When you realize there’s no mind, you automatically become…
Read MoreOn Beyond Two Sides of Existence
The picture we are seeing here—knowing it’s just a picture (a map)—is of two sides of existence: one, the appearance, the phenomenal, the apparent material world, the mortal dream, Body, Mind, and World (BMW) which arise simultaneously to play Maya, or spacetime and matter; and two, “outside” of this world as it were, the spiritual,…
Read MoreBeginning and Advanced Meditation: Meditating on Meditation
Now, I’m a nobody (not a famous teacher, and don’t want to teach at all: writing is my “teaching”), but this is how I see the “game board” of meditation: We could say there are roughly three stages of meditation, three squares on the field of “spiritual progress” (it’s just a map, and they can…
Read MoreWhat Is Maya? What is Real?
POEM What is Maya? Maya is a word. A word is a sound. Sound is Maya. The real question is: what is not Maya? When I know what is deathless and without sound, I will know what Maya is. Every thing. Therefore even Maya is Maya. ESSAY What is Maya? What is illusion and…
Read MoreWhy No One Can Give You Enlightenment
The following are some notes regarding how one must “go the final mile” oneself, and no teacher or guru can hand you liberation on a platter. Enjoy. “A Master is a fully-realized Being. A Guru (or Sat Guru) is a Master who has chosen to help others find their Freedom. God, Guru and Self are…
Read MoreTrue Meditation: A Quiet Mind Versus A Silent Mind
A Quiet Mind versus a Silent Mind is a key discernment with vast implications. What you are about to read is about my actual experience, and derives from insights I had, not theory or concepts. They have since then been validated by various sages’ experiences. “When you enter the silence you enter a profound peace,…
Read MoreHow Can I Have an Experience of Non-Duality?
Q: I understand there’s no world “out there” that it’s all “inside” but how can I have an experience of this? My conditioning from this Western culture is so strong that my experience of the world, the way I assume it is, is that it is outside, over there, surrounding me. A: It would require…
Read MoreWho Becomes Enlightened?
I’ll sometimes hear or read comments like, “he’s an enlightened master”, or there is a story around some sage’s enlightenment, or a teacher or life coach states they become enlightened at some age, or there is an obvious assumption among student hanging around a teacher that they are enlightened. Or, more importantly someone is gunning…
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