Presence
2023 · 2 min read
Imagine sitting down to watch TV. You find a programme. Then you switch channels, watch for a bit, then switch again. Now, imagine that you get lost in this. As you flick from channel to channel,…
Writing
Notes for the inner path.
Shame
2023 · 3 min read
Shame is an experience so loathed, it can trump even our most basic instinct: to survive. The ancient Japanese samurai would willingly commit suicide to avoid shame and protect their pride in a…
Resentment
2023 · 2 min read
Resentment is like a highly infectious virus. When we see it take over people, we shudder at its darkness. It's like kryptonite for the soul, reminding us that all is not well in this place. That…
Enlightenment
2023 · 1 min read
Trying to understand consciousness intellectually is a dead end. It's a closed loop, within the confined walls of the conceptual. Another way is to stop thinking altogether. When that happens,…
The Inner Journey
2023 · 2 min read
Beneath the surface of consciousness lies the deep, the unknown, the real. In the deep waters of our subconscious live all manner of psychological phenomena. Up on the surface we may experience hurt,…
Becoming
2023 · 1 min read
Inhabiting a human body is not so different from playing a virtual reality game. Except our avatar isn't a digital asset, without feeling or sentience, it's an organic being that's alive and very…
Addiction
2023 · 2 min read
Love. We ache for it. It's as though we live with a locked box full of life, colour, zest, creativity, joy and aliveness. But we don't have the key. Our parents are the first key bearers, of course.…
Consciousness
2023 · 2 min read
At the core of human consciousness lies the experience of being someone: I. We are here. We are awake. And we know it. And yet there's not much time to ponder this extraordinary circumstance. We're…
Beauty and the Beast
2023 · 2 min read
In the fairytale Beauty and the Beast, a father has a beautiful daughter, Belle. Unlike her egoic sisters, Belle is kind and selfless. The father suffers calamity. During this period he encounters a…
Grief
2023 · 2 min read
Tragedy is inevitable. And grief is hard. We're incredibly good at coping. Without consciously realising it, we achieve extraordinary feats when faced with catastrophe. As the world gradually…
Sides
2023 · 2 min read
Existence appears double-sided. There's a North and South Pole. Left-wingers and right-wingers. A positive electrical charge, and a negative. A one, a zero. A man, a woman. Our very bodies have two…
Pain
2023 · 2 min read
Pain hurts. It can be debilitating. Torturous. It can entrap us, leaving us defenceless and unable to escape. And yet it's a simple, vital system that nature has developed to alert us to problems we…
Aloneness
2023 · 2 min read
There's an experience we all share that's so private, so extraordinary, so inexplicable, and so terrifying, that we can spend our whole lives trying to wriggle out of it. Aloneness. And yet, the…
Thinking
2023 · 1 min read
Thinking happens automatically. Unless you're consciously directing it. Like breathing. With practice, a person can learn to stop thinking altogether for short periods. That's called meditation. When…
Meaning
2023 · 2 min read
When the stories no longer work… when Santa, God and Heaven are replaced with the bleak realisation that there might not be a fundamental meaning or purpose, many of us get lost in nihilism. Like a…
The Master Relationship
2023 · 1 min read
There is one relationship we all have that is more intimate, more profound, more vulnerable, more traumatic, more beautiful and more important than any other: the one we have with ourself. Beneath…
Dreams
2023 · 2 min read
A person's consciousness transforms when they become aware of themselves from a higher perspective. It's a natural and mechanistic process. It's similar to the experience of waking up from a dream.…