Metaphysical Mayhem: The 4 Kinds of Dualism
In spiritual circles, it is common to use the words “dualist” and “non-dual.” Often the actual meaning implied is quite vague because these terms have multiple reference points. Unfortunately, under the popularity of extreme relativism, when someone says you are being a “dualist” it is often an indication of nothing more than perhaps having suggested that some things/beliefs/experiences are better or worse than others, which they clearly... Read More
Patanjali 2.0: Purity? It’s All A Remix Anyway!
Matthew Remski “Good composers borrow, great composers steal.” Igor Stravinski I love that Matthew Remski chose to call his new book “a remix of patanjali’s yoga sutras.” At least, that’s the subtitle. The title (and the lower case is in the original) is threads of yoga. Like Remski, I am captivated by the felt sense of yoga as being a living tradition, a vital, engaged path of inquiry.It evolves, dependent on culture and timeframe, perpetually... Read More
Getting Lost in Your Own Head: The Search for Your True Self
I’m going to take you on a strange psychological survey that has to do with fabricated selves, religion and mental illness. It begins with nuances in Vedantic ontology and archaic terminologies in a dead language, and it ends with my own addition to an epitaph for god written by a syphilitic German philosopher. As a Monk I Learned to Obey As a boy I was trained in classical Vedic epistemology (pramanas), which undergirded the metaphysical truths of the Vedas. According to this... Read More
Reality, Trauma & Grounded Spirituality
INSTINCTIVE ALCHEMY We are sophisticated animals. Our nervous systems have evolved in response to a brutal world, one in which we fought one another for dominance, hunted and killed prey and fled from predators who wanted to eat our flesh. Today, in the presence of stressful enough stimuli, we all react from these instincts. Adrenalin and cortisol stream through our veins, heart rate accelerates, blood rushes form the core of the body to the muscles that will enable fight or flight,... Read More
The Jewel of Reality: Spirituality 2.0
There comes a point at which living in reality is the spiritual prerogative. Actually, this has been the gradual process of human progress in general. The “Enlightenment” era or Age of Reason in the 18th century was a radical shift away from monarchy, religious tyranny, and their roots in irrational superstition. No, God did not decree that your rich royal family should rule over the peasants in perpetuity. No, you do not get to legislate from the pulpit and rule your country... Read More
The Great Obstacle of Stubbornness
Joseph Campbell remarked that we must recontextualize our mythologies every generation or else the stories will be without value to the latest generation. Many myth cycles we study and cite today occurred during the Axial Age (500 BCE-500 CE). Treting them as influences, we have a wealth of stories to borrow from as we create our own tales. Unfortunately, too often we gaze backwards, pretending those stories fit perfectly in modern society. This can quickly be evidenced by observing... Read More
Yoga and The Invisible Brain
I love teaching and practicing yoga. The combination of breath, embodied awareness, and mental focus provide rich opportunities for psychological insight, emotional healing, self-development and connection with community. I love spirituality. But I may have a different definition of this word than most people. My sense is that the word usually conveys some kind of supernatural belief. Yet when I use it I mean a combination of things that basically add up to an interest in what... Read More
