Spirituality
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 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…
Read MoreOn Beyond Cause and Effect
In practical mechanical affairs, cause and effect thinking can have utility. For example, your car suddenly loses power on the freeway. Using reason and your senses in a troubleshooting capacity, you can trace down the cause. Does the starter turn? Yes. That means there’s juice in the battery. The cause is not a dead battery.…
Read MoreOn Beyond Spiritual Bypassing
This article is not about showing you how not to do spiritual bypassing (or telling someone else how not to do it) but will make a case that the concept has very limited usefulness and should probably be abandoned. I hope to communicate the fact that it’s a term we would do better to replace…
Read More3P Brainwashing? A Response to Someone Distressed About a Family Member
I recently received this note from someone wanting some advice (“pick my brains”) about the Three Principles Psychology (3P), which I have written about in a number of articles. I emailed her back but her address bounced (probably misspelled). I’ll call her “A”. I thought my response would be of possible interest to other people…
Read MoreKissing a Sweet Goodbye to The Three Principles
From a recording: “If you’re listening to this in your car and you find yourself in a beautiful feeling, roll down your window, pop the tape out of the tape player, and throw it out the window. Stay with the feeling, and it will teach you everything you need to know.” ~ Sydney Banks…
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