In response to why we don’t do the things which are good for us, Marc asked, reasonably, how do we even know what’s good for us? What a wonderful question!
What is it that you really want?
The conventional wisdom
The lifestyle which our conditioning and society pushes on us is not conducive to awakening. It’s a product [...]

Notes to self.
Get in the flow of Awakening: There is no end-game. It’s an ever-going process. However, there are thresholds, and with some practice, we can be in the flow of awakening, where it will continue to ebb and flow, go forward and recede, on its own, and the movement will be towards a being [...]

Why is it hard for us to do the things we know are good for us?
What is with us? Why are we not able to do the things which are in our self-interest? What is it that is so difficult about making loving choices?
Here’s a simple example. If I want to lose weight, it’s technically [...]

When I recognized I was in a “spiritual depression”, I decided I would just let it be. Instead of running after the conventional self-help solutions, what if I just allowed, and continued to rest in awareness, and continued to release?
What if I just allowed and watched?
What might I learn?

What I learned from allowing
Love: Loving ourselves [...]

Last week I wrote about the “Dark Night of the Soul”, a common experience of confusion and “spiritual depression” during the awakening process. Brenda suggested a much more appropriate title, and here it is!
The dark night is about transformation.
When we are seeking higher consciousness, we are seeking to end the tyranny of the ego so [...]

Spiritual awakening doesn’t happen because you master some spiritual technique. There are lots of skillful meditators who are not awake. Awakening happens when you stop bullshitting yourself into continual nonawakening. It’s very easy to use disciplines to avoid reality rather than to encounter it. A true spirituality will have you continually facing your illusions and [...]

You see, when the mind is totally aware of its conditioning, there is only the mind; there is no ‘you’ separate from the mind. But, when the mind is only partially aware of its conditioning, it divides itself, it dislikes its conditioning or says it is a good thing; and, as long as there is [...]

“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
I used this quotation from cool-dude Dalai Lama about two years ago in an essay about unrequited love. It’s in one my books I think.  The quotation stuck with me because when I first saw it, I was in pain, from a [...]

We sometimes have trouble understanding concepts like awareness, release, acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, non-attachment, surrender and so on. I suppose these can be called ‘spiritual’ concepts but ‘spirituality’ is word that gets caught in my throat. It really doesn’t want to come out cleanly. It’s like God—it’s so filled up with assumptions that it’s a [...]

Letting go of the F-thing is really rather simple.
Say Aloha. Hello and Good-bye.

I picked up a The Sedona Method book a while back and I don’t know why because when I did I was interested in awakening, not self-development, and I had assumed, wrongly, that this book would be about another one of those conquer-the-world [...]