Equinox Spirituality

The yogas have been classified as general paths to the same goal of enlightenment or freedom. They denote spiritual work on oneself through time to that goal. But yoga has also denoted a lifestyle or way to smooth the mental and physical states to create balance in the mind and heart of the practitioner. Sometimes in certain texts yoga has been presented as a way to cheat nature with warnings that those with impure intentions can cause great harm to themselves or others, this spiritual sense of purity comes with the possibility of self righteousness.  The simplest and most available yogas are devotion or love, knowledge, and practice or meditation. They are available to everyone, and are described in various texts that are prevalent everywhere. It is interesting that the yogas may turn out to be stages that a practitioner goes through on a spiritual path once one decides to start to undertake one. For some it is a leap to even begin to explore the mind and heart, and for others the...

It is a roundabout way to go from one supposed state of consciousness to another, to believe that within consciousness there lies a key to the great mysteries of life or death.    It is not a great voyage to be in love when consciousness itself, the simple seeing of one’s own being, is the love one may project to outward things and other people.   Even in dower moods and flights of thought when the mind is supposedly occupied even with great themes, consciousness is the ever present core of mind and heart.   Even in the depths of depression and darkness one is still alive and awake in that which seems so elusive and yet is present and full.   It does not go high or low nor far or near. It is just such, present with mind and alive in sight.   Some have described this present being in Dzogchen texts or as The Highest Yoga Tantra, but let’s lose the names for a moment, and look out with simple eyes. That consciousness can be loved is one thing, but that it is ...

Is it my personality judging the eyes of others. Looking in the mirror judging myself most harshly ... The eyes, the seat of the soul ... The lamps of the body, a moving marionette trying to form volition ... trying to grow a soul ...  The fundamental purpose of living to solidify the sweetness enough to form the ball of matter, ... a soul; And what of those who do not or can not? Boulderdash. The original meaning, the false interpretation, the haressy of "original sin" ... That we may not be born whole, that we may need to form a soul.  Gurdjieff thought this, and he passed it through and from teachers to teachers, as we are all teacher, and the word teacher is synonymous (or should be), with student ... So perhaps it is we who must learn the soul ... the things of soulfulness, or most probably to remember, remember the origin. To remember the origin of that point of birth, or is it, that which has never been born, for perhaps, it can not die? But I'm not sure. Please te...

To integrate the mind towards expansive knowledge, or for general health, or to better understand the mind. These and other themes may be a catalyst to begin a spiritual practice. I think it's best to become one's own teacher by finding meaning in every interaction. In this way everything may teach you, the rain and sun, and the wise and the young.  Devour books on every spiritual or religious subject you can find, search high and low for clues. But mostly you are learning to study yourself, and eventually to know yourself. Keep a journal of dreams, and ideas, synchronicities, and themes you have studied. Be aware that you may start feeling very highly of yourself. As for meditation... Sit with a straight back in a chair or indian style, let yourself relax, observe the natural rhythm of your breathing, let that go... Go through your body feeling from feet to the top of your head, or start with your eyes and see every body part just relaxing, then feel and see the whole "yo...

A short story about the transfer of knowledge from student to teacher. A giant's vision ... A Goddess's war ... With cosmic roots, and earthly factions. eBook Link

During the school year the coffee shop was always crowded, but in the summer it was quiet and the outdoor seating was empty. I would go to watch the people, and fill up on coffee. I had been studying meditation, reading every book I could find on the things of the spirit. Jobless and bored I sat, empty of thought, with the heat of the summer, and my coffee. Those summer days, back when I had no cares used to last seemingly forever, and the friends of my youth I remember with a smile. For a long time I had tried to embrace the good, trying to raise the lever of positives over negative, trying and trying. On this day however, I was not trying. I had nowhere to be and nothing to do. I was nothing, but what I saw was everything. It came into my consciousness like an orange wave full of white light. I saw up and out, over in the sky another sun, it was a dimple of entirety, everything all at once and forever. It lasted for a brief moment and filled my mind and breath with itself, a view so ...

Who are you, and where do you think you’re going? We think we are going somewhere, to a point in time after the life. We think, perhaps, it is a continuation or an improvement of this life. But it may be better to say that we are not going towards something, but coming from somewhere. We are expanding outward from a point of eternity. A singular unified point that is synonymous with entirety. From that point we are not going towards any other locus, but should remember the origin, the starting point where we began. Less

Life is as a dream There is a great wholeness or totality It is empty We walked on the sidewalk near the stonewall enclosed river through the little town from one bar to another. Speaking of tipsy thoughts about mind and being. He seemed to be the center man as I was on the periphery, I listened and added little to the conversation. At one point something was said that stuck out in my mind, I was able to talk to him directly about it when we sat down at the next bar. He said, “even though we are in prison, at least they serve beer here”. I brought up his statement after the group ordered drinks, and asked what he had meant by it. He sipped, and looked up, speaking about a feeling that kept returning to him lately. He said, “I have been feeling like this is all a dream, that life is a dream, and I am trapped in a vacation, or a prison”. It is interesting to note that the tone of the first statement and his explanation elicited laughter from those who heard it. And the conversation was f...

  I tend to run when I feel enclosed or surrounded, that is better than fighting which I used to do. If it was perfume, loud like the music in the place, the enchantment seemed high pitched and that is why I ran away. In the order of demands this winter I can not say a woman is one. It is usually a feverish magnetic pull that I can not shake off. Anyway, early in the week I had bought the crystal after holding several in my hand. The others felt heavy and dull, but this crystal gave sensations I originally attributed to the smiling sales girl. I created my intentions almost immediately about positive transitions, but from a shadow and in spite of myself I thought of the type of mergers bankers pay for, of muted perfumes in curtained corners while a laser show and DJ fog the adjacent stage, as snow-globe figurines weep the snow of money. Wishing comes easy for everyone and we never remember what we wish for so we do not know if they come true. I am the unlucky sort that all my wi...

It seems we had been repeating ourselves. It was like waking up after being knocked out, or coming back into focus after inhaling nitrous. Everything was making sense, then awakeness, an open and real view, like waking in the morning - Groggy and not understanding, "where am I?"... What is the topic? Something about the sight, eyes from here to there, or eternity -  sight unbounded - An entirety; The whole Enchilada! We had been saying the same thing over and over arguing, the same thing in different words. It was better to have someone to listen to than imbibe too much silence for very long. Silence becomes so loud, so full of echoes. When alone in silence for too long the dead start yelling through the shadows, and the sound of breathing becomes strange, "Is that me breathing?"... 

was I walking here and there in China, a young person.  going to crowded places - Moving adroitly, Kung Fu -  older, practicing movements, blocking, martial arts etc.     young again being fed concrete water, buried up to my neck - expelling dross, minerals and gold, gold forms expelled  from my mouth/ writing

It was not without coincidence traveling past the old red barns everyday, abandoned to the sun that used to make ripe the river valley fields. Crops of tobacco that in modern days became wrappers for foreign cigars. He studied the soil and plants, painting red dots on baby apples to count the pest pressures in orchards to the east. His study was tedious, longing for ownership of his own farm filled his mind at night in his dormitory. Parallel only to his imaginings of Lucy who had traveled ahead to the west, to the arid desert of Arizona where she sifted sand looking for old bones and her own accolades for a degree. They kept in touch by letters through the mail, writing and drawing their experiences with youthful vows of companionship in words and pictures. It was not easy, the distance and separateness. Lucy was venturing into other realms which he did not understand as of yet. She described them in her letters, veague tribal ceremonies that she only admitted as spiritual. She intone...