The Word "Enlightenment" Creates False Expectations
Enlightenment is our default word for spiritual awakening or deep spiritual insight. While it may serve and inspire certain students to engage in spiritual work, I also believe it is problematic and t...
15 Mar 5min
What The Word "Enlightenment" Does Right
Despite problems, the word enlightenment does capture two real aspects of awakening: transformation and insight.This is a short snippet from my episode Is Enlightenment The Right Word? on Wednesday 11...
12 Mar 3min
Is Enlightenment The Right Word?
We use the word enlightenment all the time in spirituality.But it might actually be one of the most misleading words in the entire field.It suggests a climactic transformation, a final state, somethin...
11 Mar 30min
The Late Stage of Meditation
Perhaps 1% or fewer practitioners reach late-stage meditation, where awakening has permanently altered one’s perception.Late stage says: “There is no centre for awakening to happen to.”This is a snipp...
10 Mar 9min
The Middle Stage of Meditation
Mid-stage practitioners constitute perhaps 5–10% of meditators. This is the stage where awakening begins to stabilise.A core feature of this stage is that thoughts lose their unquestioned authority. T...
8 Mar 10min
The Early Stage of Meditation
At the early stage, meditation is something you do. It is an activity during the day, set apart from life, distinct from the rest.Awakening is imagined as a future event: a breakthrough, a shift, a pe...
5 Mar 6min
The Three Stages of Meditation & Spiritual Insight
We tend to see meditation as a single spiritual practice experienced equally by all. It seems meditators sit, practice their technique, attend retreats and accumulate hours.What’s missing is the devel...
4 Mar 39min
Meaningful, Meaningless & Ameaningful
Meaning, meaningnless and ameaningful are three different words. Meaning and meaninglessness imply one another.Questioning the meaning of life is not a symptom of meaninglessness. We are obsessed with...
3 Mar 6min
