The Great Updraft

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 11/3.

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, something rare and special. Yet the lived experience of awakening is usually quieter, slower, and far more ordinary.

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 snippet from my episode from Wednesday 11/3, The Three Stages 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. They are still present, but they are no longer automatically taken as reality. Thoughts are seen as appearances rather than truths: as thoughts, nothing more, nothing less. This is a snippet from my e...

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 permanent state waiting at the end of sufficient effort. This is a snippet from my episode on Wednesday 4th March, 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 developmental dimension of meditation. This practice unfolds in recognisable developmental stages. These are not rigid categories, but shifts in identity, perception and relationship to experience. What c...

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 meaning, and yet life could be ameaningful.

The question "What Is The Meaning of Life?" is fraught with difficulties and blindspots. It's so tempting to overcomplicate it, to oversimplify it, or to blindly rely on others to tell you the answer. This is an extract from my latest episode "What Is The Meaning Of Life?"

Why are you here? How does personal meaning work? What questions can we ask to get to the core of our personal meaning structure? This is a snippet from my episode "What Is The Meaning Of Life?" from 25th Feb.

What is the meaning of life? When we get down to it, why are we here as individuals? Why does life itself exist? What is all this for? I round off this month's theme of deep questions with the mother of all existential questions.

When we deconstruct paradigms like self and other, it's tempting to dismiss it outright. But self-other consciousness serves a clear function, and without it you would be lost. We want not to lose it, but to see through it. This is a snippet from last Wednesday's episode on Do Other People Exist?

You have not always had a sense of self and other: you had to develop it during childhood. It is not a given, but a construct. This also means you can see beyond it and realise it is not the whole story. This is an extract from my episode on Wednesday 18th, "Do Other People Exist?"

We tend to assume that other people are separate from us and have their own, independent experiences. Except these are highly questionable assumptions that we will begin to see through in this snippet from my last full episode "Do Other People Exist?

We tend to assume other people are separate and independent from us. But what if this was simply a useful assumption or paradigm, not the be all end all? Do other people exist? My conclusion: well... kind of. Resonate with my work? Fortnightly updates & free 20-min coaching taster: https://deep-psychology.com

We tend to assume other people are separate and independent from us. But what if this was simply a useful assumption or paradigm, not the be all end all? Do other people exist? My conclusion: well... kind of. Resonate with my work? Fortnightly updates & free 20-min coaching taster: https://deep-psychology.com

I propose that the materialistic paradigm is deeply flawed. While it is extremely useful and explanatory, it is underpinned by some highly questionable assumptions. In this snippet from last week's episode Is The World Physical?, we address those assumptions.

There are very good reasons why materialism is the standard philosophical paradigm in the modern world, and here I outline them in a practical way.

There are three simple, essential critiques of materialism that seriously jeopardise its legitimacy. This is a snippet from yesterday's episode, Is The World Physical?

There's no shortage of big questions this month, and today we discuss whether the world is physical or not. This is part of my February philosophy series in which I aim not to promote a creed or doctrine but to honestly explore and inquire into these questions and encourage this in you.

This is a snippet from last week's episode on Does An External World Exist? In this part, we cover naive realism, assumption v reality, and why naive realism is an assumption.

This month we get very existential and I start with a big question: does the external world exist? That is, is there a physical, permanent, 3D world beyond your current experience?"You do not know the external world because there is no external world" - me!

"Effort accumulates to the point where it is unstoppable."We round off this month with a distilled, concise summary of all the best principles and tips I know for setting goals and following through on them. We discuss goal-setting keys, long-term vs short-term, exponential change, developmental psychology, hockey sticks and pianos. Subscribe to my newsletter for fortnighthly updates: http://eepur...

Episode 2 of my January series of Why NY's Resolutions Fail. We cover a lot of ground today, from the top 3 learning myths, the source of these myths, to the fundamental assumption of pre-Achiever levels of development, to the keys to learning and success, to why talent is false, and more. Key insight: Before Achiever levels of ego development, the self is seen as fixed. Free 20-min coaching sessi...

This month, we discuss why New Year's resolutions fail, beginning with a little-known but crucial insight: that achievement requires particular, developmentally guided inner machinery that many people lack. Find out more about my coaching for deep psychological insight: https://deep-psychology.com

Let's discuss how to celebrate Christmas like a mystic - how to maintain and develop your spiritual practice throughout the Christmas period.