Spiritual Odyssey

If you will go and live with a great Yogic teacher, you will find that that being is equivalent to consciousness. Since consciousness implies duality, this means there is something besides consciousness (awareness). Man is [...]

In 43 years of following a spiritual path, what has always amazed me is that my own inner experience has very seldom coincided with the written and spoken teaching I had been exposed to. There [...]

One of the hardest things for a beginner to understand is the fact that there must be physical changes for spiritual changes to take place. We are so used to thinking of spiritual as being [...]

As soon as we have words we have concepts. No matter how articulate the speaker, how believable the teacher, using words forces the speaker to form concepts in order to convey ideas to others. When [...]

Many books are being written by sociologists and psychologists, in which they glibly speak of “higher consciousness” and “Enlightenment,” without in the least knowing what they are talking about. It is fashionable to make reference [...]

A monk asked a great Chinese Chan (Zen) Teacher, “Where will you go when you die?” “Straight to hell!” was the unexpected answer. Surprised, the monk pressed on, “Why would you, a great Chan teacher, [...]

On my recent visit to Albuquerque I gave a talk to over 200 people on The Spiritual Life (in a busy world). Many points were similar to the Merging Sense with Essence talk [...]

At the recent, very enjoyable teachers’ conference in Albuquerque [in 1989], I was pleased to hear frequent ref- erence to the “T’ai Chi Chih community.” I do not take this as an organizational reference – [...]

For T’ai Chi Chih to grow in the future the way it has in the past, it is necessary to maintain an idealistic attitude. I believe teachers should earn good money from sincere teaching – [...]

"When the horse in Szechuan catches cold, the cow in Hunan sneezes,” say Zen Patriarchs. This means more than the usual statement that we are all somehow connected, each “a spark of the divine flame.” [...]

Shambala publishes a book called Sword of No Sword by John Stevens that should be of interest to all teachers. That does not mean I agree with everything in it, but it stresses the strength [...]

Zuigan was a Zen Master who was famous for the admonitions he gave himself each day, ending with “Don’t be misled by others,” to which he answered, “Yes sir! Yes sir!” More interesting to me [...]