In the beginning was the word. Since then many, many more. The world drowns in words, a reflection of our increasingly cacophonous inner worlds. Words, words, words. How many spoken, shared, loved, fought over? More words than atoms in the universe maybe? How many words have you thought, spoken, acted on?  In the end, what [...]

Of all the gnostic texts discovered in a cave by an Egyptian shepherd in 1947,  The Thunder Perfect Mind might be the most mysterious and profound. Likely dating from the 3rd to 4th centuries CE, the epic poem is written in the voice of the Divine Mother (Sophia) who speaks in paradoxes that reveal [...]

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up [...]

You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either. Perform every action with you heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the [...]

Some people prefer solitude. They say their peace of mind depends on this. Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are. Your surroundings don't matter. God is with you everywhere - in the marketplace as well [...]

How can it be conceived that something veils Him since.... He is the One who manifests everything? He is the one who is manifest through everything? He is the One who is manifests in everything? He is the Manifest to everything? He was the Manifest before the existence of anything? He is more manifest than [...]

Searching for peace, happiness, truth, God, meaning, I spent years exploring a variety of religious, spiritual, metaphysical, and alternative teachings. One by one, however, each failed me due to their various inventor-inspired rites, rituals, teachers, and related orthodoxies. Note here the inventor wasn't the mystic behind those religions. To the contrary, anyone who studies the [...]

Spirituality is often dismissed as the domain of fantasists, the reasoning being that if one can't touch, smell, hear, taste, see or think it, it's of no tangible benefit to those occupied by the 'real world.' Yet what most of our species thinks of as the real world - the one they're busy sensing and [...]

Because we spend our lives driven by thought, it can be terribly difficult for even the tiniest snippet of Truth to edge its way into our consciousness. Without such Truths, the inner journey lacks legs. I've always suspected this is in part what Thoreau meant by 'the mass of men leading lives of quiet desperation.' [...]

A meta-analysis of studies on psilocybin show that high doses of the substance can alleviate symptoms of depression in people at levels comparable to the SSRI drug escitalopram, which is used to treat major depressive episodes. Researchers found that patients fared better with psilocybin - the active ingredient in 'magic mushrooms' - than with placebos. [...]