Teen years are awkward for many people. If they’re lucky though, they later find themselves in their twenties and solidify a healthy sense of self that more or less carries them through life. My inauguration into adulthood was instead marked by a growing social void and increasing feelings of unworthiness. More and more, I found […]
Is life an image on a screen? Is it a one-dimensional story crafted to sell that image, to make it convincing? Or is it messy, full of ups and downs, triumphs and obstacles? Is it full of joy and laughter, but also sometimes fear, anger, and sorrow? What happens when we constantly try to fit […]
Every morning, we wake up into our personal stories. Certain memories wake up with us, coming to the forefront of our minds, and we find ourselves thinking about things that have become central to our lives in one way or another. Maybe those things make us feel good, or maybe they make us feel anxious, angry, or […]
Our deeply rooted belief in separation from others leads us to live in a state of almost constant inner isolation. We identify strongly with the details of our personal story, which exist mostly only in our minds, and are rooted in a “me” that is inherently separate from everybody else. But in truth our hearts […]
~Before I Love Another~ Before I love another I wish to love myself To cast off the last chains of self-doubt That once so constricted my heart There was a time I learned the wrong things My mind became a lonely place My thoughts became like venomous snakes I learned That to survive I must […]
What comes to mind when you hear the word “relationship”? Most of us probably think of the personal relationships we have with various people in our lives—friends, family, coworkers—but we may overlook the fact that we also have a relationship with ourselves; with our thoughts, our beliefs, our sense of self. Throughout our lives, we […]
Through various teachings and personal insight gained through inquiry and meditation, I’ve come to see with increasing clarity the source and nature of my own suffering. I see how certain experiences and beliefs from the past survive in my mind, governing my thinking patterns and the way I relate to others and myself. I’ve also come to […]
The past lives in our minds. It dictates our experience of the present from a very powerful position, operating as the very self we identify as “I”. This I is like an impostor from within our own consciousness, claiming our life experiences for its own and distorting them based on its conditioning. We see the world through […]
Am I free? Can I answer this question without simply agreeing with a preconceived notion of what freedom is? Outwardly, it seems I am free—I can go where I wish, interact freely with others, and express myself freely. So it seems I can act freely. But are my values and perceptions, which guide the choices behind […]
~Heart of Light~ There was a mirror that contained the heavens The seed of creation pulsed within A primordial ocean moaned Churning great waves that rose and rose Crashing against the void The horizon finally shattered Into infinite celestial patterns The first glimmer of dark and glorious worlds The scattered heart of light Destined to illuminate […]
~The Conversation~ God whispers eternal silence The unspoken word pervades all things Be still and it reveals itself The invisible I The one behind the many The mother of all creation The universe is born Again and again Every moment springs From the womb of emptiness The timeless cradles time The permanent beholds the transient […]
The Truth is found in silence. We, as individuals and as a civilization, have mistaken noise for truth. Most fatally, we’ve mistaken mental chatter, which is nothing less than mental pollution, for the truth about ourselves. We’ve integrated all that muck and formed our egos out of it. A civilization of individuals who bow to […]
What if we fully realized that, really, practically everything we know (being the content of our thoughts) is actually false? Imagine the innocence and awe in being able to see the world, and yourself, from the clear and exciting perspective that you actually don’t know what any of this is, and you don’t even know what you are. […]
~The War of Concepts~ Knowledge is ignorance Belief is fragmentation The root of all conflict Lies inside Competing notions of self Lower versus higher The self you think you are Versus the self you’d rather be The self you wear The war of concepts Spills into the streets The world is a mirror Right versus […]
Such a powerful meditation last night- it activated something that I’m still feeling today. I was meditating on the “I am” sense, and then inquired into what is aware of the “I am”, the sense of self. This type of inquiry points in a certain direction, and if we can go there and remain there […]
It recently occurred to me that the people I resent actually only exist in my mind (bear with me for a moment). They may have wronged me in one way or another, or perhaps they have ties to a part of my past that still causes me pain in some way, but either way the […]
I can attribute most of my personal suffering to what the spiritual teacher Mooji describes as “suffering from ideas”. Now, I could point to certain life events that had very real negative consequences, but what I’m left with years later are ideas and stories stemming from those events. For instance, I’m struggling with a severe […]
Most of us have dealt with people and situations that sent our heads spinning with ideas of blame, judgment, and anger. In all these cases though, whether it’s a family issue or a conflict at the workplace, the story we write in our heads is always incomplete. This doesn’t mean that anybody should ignore or endure harassment […]
It’s amazing how so many of us live our lives with our minds constantly distracted from what’s actually here right now. We form many deep-seated judgments and beliefs based on experiences that are, in truth, heavily distorted by our distracted and disconnected way of being. We often have a difficult time being fully present with others, […]
Thoughts and emotions, pleasurable and painful experiences, all these are transient things. We cling to them, or feel trapped by them, because we do not understand that it is in their very nature to fade into non-existence, to rise and then fall. Behind all that comes and goes, though, is something subtle and sublime that always remains […]
Behind all the noise, movement, change- silence, stillness. Notice how silence precedes everything, and everything ends in silence. We mistakenly identify the change, the movement, as reality, but dismiss the silence as mere absence. But perhaps it is not merely an absence, perhaps it is more real than all these things that come and go. […]
~Vague Worlds~ Subjective realities collide Vague worlds painted by broad strokes of the mind Fragmented realms of name and form Edges cut like lies Peering ever outwards in collective confusion Posing questions to walls Decorated with the face of God The answer sleeps in our hearts Dreams of being seen Thought forever leads us Magnificently […]
~Just One~ If I knew you I would love you Unconditionally But I don’t even know myself If I understood With all of my being Beyond the veil of perception Everything that you are The past would fall away All judgements would collapse The source of all things Alive in all things Your radiant heart […]
The world you experience as reality is literally a “reality” pieced together by your own perception; it is as much a part of “you” as your body and your thoughts. Awareness casts a light on objective reality, but your mind transforms it into a purely subjective world. For me, it’s not just a matter of […]
Why is it that we have such a hard time turning off our thoughts? If we were to vocalize all of them, the groundless nature of all that chatter would quickly become very apparent. I’ve often wondered why I’m capable of choosing when to speak, but not when to think. Unlike speech, thinking seems to […]
Over the last six months I’ve been deeply intrigued by the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti. He was not at all the type of spiritual guru many people might assume. He firmly rejected any efforts to paint him as such (he rejected the notion of being a guru, and also of having followers). In actuality, his […]
~The Temple of Ash and Smoke~ Asleep at the gates of truth The sentinel dreams A stirring vision of multitudes Arising and falling away Generations sweep across the face of the earth Seven billion ephemeral dramas Sentient waves surging and crashing A lonely tide stirs up the peaceful ocean floor Ancient and abiding Dances as […]
~The Cloud and The Pillar~ Emptiness Then everything An invisible cloud Spinning in the air Circling the immutable pillar of consciousness Who am I? Who is asking? Who is it that hears The wind In the trees In the sun A sentient haze Softly rustling Gossamer of thoughts The diaphanous fabric of mind A movement […]
The self you believe yourself to be is a fiction. How can something you believe, something you perceive, be the true you? Are you merely an object in your own mind? Can that which perceives look outward and behold itself outside of itself? You cannot be something that exists in the field of your own […]
~A Bright Light~ Every action Every thought Always grasping The heart of the human condition Ghosts behind the wheels Casting familiar shadows Painting the world in comforting projections Your mind is a beautiful thing Imagine Every moment is a precious lesson Every moment A vessel for absolute truth Breathing in Awareness Breathing out New wisdom […]
As I lay in bed the other night, I felt a deep sense of inner peace. I was lying there, soaking up a perfect moment, but then a thought crept into my head. It’s a thought connected to a story about a victim, about someone who is “lesser than”; it’s a story I’ve been telling myself for a long […]
~Before Sacred Things Became Words~ Please Let yourself be A playful child again Let the world be A perfect place For just A moment Joy and love One and the same Your birthright To be taken for granted Tangible and abundant Flowing and natural Remember How it felt To be innocent Before you knew […]
So, as it turns out, life isn’t always easy. Not only that, but it can get so hard that many of us seriously consider giving up. Some of us come to see our lives as a type of prison, feeling caught in a trap of oppressive obligations, fruitless efforts and unsatisfying relationships. But is this really […]
~The Child vs The Machine~ The child in me never died Somehow The Grand Old Patriarchy lost that battle Our forefathers were not so lucky Slaves to the gears Even the most playful souls grow weary Innocence lost To the demands of an archaic machine Heartless lines drawn in the mud of the ages Dubious […]
~Forgotten Walls~ The movement of our lives Painting rudimentary patterns on forgotten walls Day to day Repetition is decay Are we living for love? Are we growing into the truth? Barely evolving We pretend to stand so tall And yet Something vital is missing Something the birds know Where is the ease? The flow? The […]
~Still We March~ Steadily towards the blazing horizon We’re well on our way now Away from the childhoods that sent us marching Fervently waving burning flags and makeshift identities Politely shouting our egos into the stifled wilderness The neglected corridors of this naïve society Echo unheard cries This blinded new world of glittering deceptions […]
~A Lifelike Dream~ In the beginning there was a light So warm Your heartbeat The rhythm of my world Echoing softly through the ocean that held me My heart spoke You were always there Listening Wrapped in the fleece of your soft voice Cradled by your tender eyes Wheels turn Stars vanish from the sky […]
~Benevolent Creatures~ You are loved Dear child There’s nothing I want more Than for you to understand this With all your heart You are not alone All your tears Are precious jewels Glistening a simple truth I smile quietly And sigh At this familiar sorrow These loose threads Lying scattered on the ground By your […]
As I explore the world of constructed identities and realities, I believe it’s essential that I move forward with the understanding that love is real. Indeed, in this world full of so many lies and delusions, love may be the only thing that is real. As I continue inquiring into the constructed nature of self, […]
~Blush and Sigh~ Her eyes Luminous jewels Her skin Warm satin Every time I see her smile My heart is born again Beauty is my salvation Let the past burn She beckons with her naked body A vision before me Come to me She says Into me Quiet jazz We dance Skin against skin We […]
~Could You Rise?~ Every person you meet Has a special gem of wisdom to share with you Every encounter A unique opportunity To learn something vital About your true self A chance to shed the chains That bind you to the past You are more than you have led yourself to believe Every time I […]
~A Familiar Guest~ Hello old fear Welcome back But you never left Did you? Indeed You’ve made yourself at home Here In the bosom of my being Well I think I’ll join you Are you comfortable in that chair? It’s funny you picked that one It’s very special There’s a lot of history behind it […]
I wouldn’t normally endorse outside projects or products on my blog, but the Stream of Consciousness project is something that means a lot to me. I recently became acquainted with this project and a number of the truly amazing people behind it, and I’m happy to do whatever I can to help them get this […]
~Something Sublime~ Love is that sublime thing The light that creates the prism Casting rainbows on ethereal landscapes There is no darkness here Just my hand in yours My heart with yours Sparrows gliding through air Dolphins gliding through water They know nothing of air or water All they know is The divine feeling […]
“Relax, you’re a rainbow” is my favourite new personal mantra. It’s a powerful reminder that this “self” at the heart of my experience is really just as illusory as a rainbow. It’s truly enlightening to consider how the processes behind the formation of a rainbow are analogous to the processes behind the formation of the self. Instead […]
Originally posted on AWARENESS MEDITATION:
We see a rainbow, but what we have is drops of rain and light—a process. Similarly, what we ‘see’ is a self; but what we actually have is a whole lot of thoughts going on in consciousness. Against the backdrop of consciousness we are projecting a self, rather than a rainbow. If you walk toward…
Originally posted on Photographs and Memories:
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living…
All Roads Lead To Now 
Recent Comments