Spiritual Maturity, The Growth of Certainty
“Lead me from the Unreal to the Real.” This is the great Vedantic prayer that represents the height of spirituality. In the realm of illusion, we inevitably find misery; we are bound and unable to exist in freedom. Sometimes the chains by which we are bound are [...]
Visualization, Chih-kuan & Great Circle
There are other meditations that can be helpful in achieving an expanded awareness. While all meditations can be helpful, some types that lead to trance, deep immersion and otherworldly feelings do not fit our idea of what we are looking for in the quest [...]
Meditation & Transformation
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 have been exceptions. When I first read The [...]
Epilogue for Joy Thru Movement
Let’s talk about energy for a bit. While food is necessary, and we do derive some vitality from it, the true energy is the result of the Chi (Prana). If it were only a matter of food, an overweight person, or [...]
Prana At Work
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 something ephemeral that we cannot at all relate [...]
The Meaning of Suffering
The Buddha, 2500 years ago, pointed out that three conditions are common to all beings: impermanence, lack of any lasting ego-self, and suffering. Dukkha (suffering) means more than pain as the opposite of pleasure, and the Buddha said that such suffering is the inevitable [...]
Meditation Classifications: An Introduction to Different Modes
Few people, and particularly teachers, have had the opportunity to be exposed to diverse types of meditation, so that many do not know that there are different forms. Far fewer have had the opportunity to experience – and train in – more than [...]
All Things Are As They Have Always Been
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 one Zen teacher continually counsels his followers to [...]
The Guru Business
The guru business is good and getting better. Almost any teacher or would-be teacher from India, Tibet, China, or Japan can come to the United States wearing robes and immediately acquire a coterie of followers, ready to kiss their feet and gift them with fruit [...]
