I recently heard that someone said spiritual practice was self-torture, and that I am a composite of negativity. It is and I am. For a lot of people that is the truth. So much of sadhana is uncovering the truth; the truth that lies under a giant fortress of lies. The delusion that who we are is the one that …
Family Recipes….
“Life will be easier if I don’t practice.” Why will it be easier? If we practice we will have to face what we have. But we don’t want to face reality. We are driving a 1950 Buick, thinking we are at the wheel of a Porsche. Accepting reality begins with accepting our environment and our vehicles for what they actually …
How To Use a Fourchotomy….
To work with a fourchotomy, you have to begin by being honest with yourself. This means being willing to hear your honest, unfiltered answer in the moment; if you pause to think it over, you will be answering from the wrong place entirely. It takes practice to hear your honest answer and not fall prey to your mental chatter. Assertive …
What Is a Fourchotomy….
The world appears to us as we choose to see it. Most of us see the world in binary terms, framing our experience in pairs of opposites. These pairs of opposites define and limit our perception by shrinking the world into a kind of template; that template in turn limits our choices and actions. Recognizing and dismantling this template is …
The One True Sacrifice….
The last blog established how “sacrifice” can be a destructive force. From this point of view, sacrifice is a negation; it implies scapegoating, discarding, abandoning. It is not sacrifice, though, that is the problem. It is what we sacrifice, and to whom, that determine whether our offering leads to good or ill. Sacrifice Hoard / grasp Scapegoat / abandon …
What We Are Willing To Sacrifice….
We all live by rules, assumed rules. We live by unconscious rules that are so embedded in us that we believe they are universal. But when we reflect, we see that these rules are not only not universal but in many cases harmful and counter to Love. These rules have been developed in environments that promoted the shrunken self, and …
Really Being Positive….
Calling something what it is is being honest, which is truly being positive. Calling something what it is is not negative. What is really negative is not calling something what it is; it is calling something what it is not. So if I am practicing, then I am truly honest with myself. I can choose. I can see what is …
Notion-Building….
If you are identified with your idea of the “way to be”, then you are not practicing. You are not being with your experience, letting whatever comes up from that experience come up, and functioning appropriately on the physical plane. Instead, you are keeping a lid on vibrations, or calling them something other than what they are, to keep your …
Not the Way To Be, Part Two….
Last week, I wrote about how we all must uncover what we believe is the “way to be” in order to free ourselves from that idea of “goodness”. We may know intellectually that our “way to be” is wrong—even that it is destructive—yet on an emotional level we are still sure it is good. But the truth is, the “way …
The Way Not To Be….
In the ashram, people tended not to like me. My presence has always had a strange ability to bring out whatever is inside of people. Depending on where they are internally, being around me will bring out the worst or the best. Many times Baba would direct me to walk into some office of the ashram, and shortly thereafter something …