A Darkness Retreat for Your Soul
Would you be willing to immerse yourself in a manmade cave without light for a day, a week, or longer, with the hope of accessing some mysterious and potentially life-changing aspect of your self? That's the idea behind 'dark retreats,' a modern approach to an ancient and advanced Buddhist practice during which participants spend extended [...]
Let’s Talk About Vision Quests
For as long as self-aware humans have occupied this planet, they've been busy attempting to understand and improve themselves. In this post, we'll look at vision quests, which actually lends itself to other aspects of personal development, including meditation, mindfulness, silence, and self-inquiry. Although there is evidence vision quests have been practiced for thousands of [...]
-
Where the Mind Goes, So Goes I
How often I feel like a fish trapped in a bowl, a prisoner to something called life. To an outsider this sounds depressing and at times I suppose it is. But it's all I've ever known. Like a 3-legged dog, I've only ever known hopping. Fifty-two years of hopping proves one thing: all that 'you' [...]
When Universes Collide – Conclusion
In the late 1800s Swiss geologist Albert Heim was enjoying a climb in the Alps when a powerful gust of wind lifted him from the mountain and sent him plummeting to almost certain death. But a peculiar thing happened during his fall: instead of terror Heim experienced an overriding sense of love, joy, peace. “I [...]
Catch You if You Can
Several years ago, at the absolute depths of my personal crisis, a horrendous and hideous thought suddenly occurred to me: What if there is no God? What if this entire existence is … meaningless? What if all of the suffering and anguish and turmoil – not just within me, but in the world itself – [...]
The Forensics of “I” – Part 1
Rather than kick things off with the usual navel-gazing, let’s be more interactive and get you involved. This only takes a moment and can be an eye-opening experience depending on how deep you want to go. It starts with the following question: What happens when you awaken each morning? Literally, what happens during that very [...]
Knowing Me, Knowing Me
A key conceit of spiritual study is that we don’t really exist – at least not in the sense most of us imagine, which is to say a distinct body, name, personality, history, beliefs, etc. There is no “me,” per se, just a share of the same total consciousness that permeates everything. At least that’s [...]
-
A Darkness Retreat for Your Soul
Would you be willing to immerse yourself in a manmade cave without light for a day, a week, or longer, with the hope of accessing some mysterious and potentially life-changing aspect of your self? That's the idea behind 'dark retreats,' a modern approach to an ancient and advanced Buddhist practice during which participants spend extended [...]
-
Let’s Talk About Vision Quests
For as long as self-aware humans have occupied this planet, they've been busy attempting to understand and improve themselves. In this post, we'll look at vision quests, which actually lends itself to other aspects of personal development, including meditation, mindfulness, silence, and self-inquiry. Although there is evidence vision quests have been practiced for thousands of [...]
-
Where the Mind Goes, So Goes I
How often I feel like a fish trapped in a bowl, a prisoner to something called life. To an outsider this sounds depressing and at times I suppose it is. But it's all I've ever known. Like a 3-legged dog, I've only ever known hopping. Fifty-two years of hopping proves one thing: all that 'you' [...]
When Universes Collide – Conclusion
In the late 1800s Swiss geologist Albert Heim was enjoying a climb in the Alps when a powerful gust of wind lifted him from the mountain and sent him plummeting to almost certain death. But a peculiar thing happened during his fall: instead of terror Heim experienced an overriding sense of love, joy, peace. “I [...]
Catch You if You Can
Several years ago, at the absolute depths of my personal crisis, a horrendous and hideous thought suddenly occurred to me: What if there is no God? What if this entire existence is … meaningless? What if all of the suffering and anguish and turmoil – not just within me, but in the world itself – [...]
The Forensics of “I” – Part 1
Rather than kick things off with the usual navel-gazing, let’s be more interactive and get you involved. This only takes a moment and can be an eye-opening experience depending on how deep you want to go. It starts with the following question: What happens when you awaken each morning? Literally, what happens during that very [...]
Knowing Me, Knowing Me
A key conceit of spiritual study is that we don’t really exist – at least not in the sense most of us imagine, which is to say a distinct body, name, personality, history, beliefs, etc. There is no “me,” per se, just a share of the same total consciousness that permeates everything. At least that’s [...]