How might one attain to spiritual awakening in the modern world, in these complex times? In this article we look back at the two main historical models for spiritual training, and propose a contemporary approach for today.
Spiritual Healing
The ongoing, mapped process of awakening is the ultimate spiritual healing. With awakening, the self is transcended, and thus the troubles of the self, of “me,” “my troubles,” are healed. Though any organism is inherently subject to decay and death, the process of awakening also includes actual physical healing. The agent of the healing is […]
What is Awakening?
This is the billion-dollar question, one that defies words. What we can say is this: central to the experience of awakening is a way of experiencing life that completely transcends the usual. Most people believe that Christ realization, Buddhist awakening, and the paths of the shaman are different, and perhaps this is true. However, the […]
Awakening: Beyond the Illusion of Self
Quantum physics as well as tradition Buddhist philosophy teach us that nothing in the universe remains the same for even a second. Thus we know that everything we hold and cherish will also pass on and out of our lives, if only at death. This may feel frightening initially, but acceptance allows us to enter […]
Awakening and What’s in the Mirror
I dream, I hope, I work, I love, I play, I dream, I eat. These verbs are all about me. Working, hoping, dreaming, loving, eating all continue, even when there is no ‘me’. Who is this ‘me’? Or is it a what? Is ‘me’ a person, a thing, an idea, a feeling? It’s all of […]
Waking Within the Dream
When you wake up in the morning you leave behind one world — the dreaming world — and find yourself in another world — waking life. These two worlds or states share similarities. In Tibetan Buddhism they’re two of six states termed ‘bardos’, or ‘in-between states’. Sensing, emotion and thoughts exist in both. When we […]
Trust and Awakening
I once asked Namgyal Rinpoche if trust was awakening. His response was: ‘Complete trust is complete awakening’. So the question may be, what (or whom) are you trusting? We need to remember of course that the ego only trusts itself, which is a very poor choice, as the ego by its nature is tied to […]