When I was a freshman in college half a century ago, my favorite novelist was Doris Lessing. In one of her novels, maybe several of them, a character makes a deliberate effort to silence his or her mental chatter. The idea intrigued me because it touched a major feature of everyone’s experience yet I had […]
Tag: Sadhana
My experiment in the New York City subway
The subject of external aids (videos, satsangs, music, chanting, books, etc.) came up in a comment yesterday. These things can be very helpful by reminding us, inspiring us, and transmission. Incidentally, if you’ve never been in a large hall, especially a large wooden hall, where hundreds of people are chanting, try to arrange it at […]
The most surprising thing that ever happened to me
Instead of the title you see on this article I could have chosen, “The night I completely lost interest in my thoughts.” Both names are accurate. The experience that I’m about to describe occurred about 20 years ago, shortly after I became an earnest seeker, on a particular night when I made a much greater […]
How to pick a good spiritual teacher
Because of my limited experience in this area, you probably shouldn’t pay much attention to what I’m about to say. In fact that’s probably good advice in general. But for whatever it’s worth here’s what I think. Ideally, you should choose a spiritual teacher who is Self-realized. Unfortunately Self-realization is rare and you may not […]
How to destroy a vasana (example 1): I am a coward
This article was slightly revised on June 18, 2024. In this article, I’ll describe in detail how I destroyed a vasana that had tormented me for decades. This particular vasana was painful because it made me hate myself. Painful, self-hating vasanas are especially insidious. First I’ll tell you how the vasana got created. When I […]
This might be a powerful sadhana
The basic idea This technique is intended to make you more conscious of your vasanas in order to help them dissolve. Set your phone (mobile) or digital watch so it beeps or vibrates unexpectedly at random times. Each time it goes off, notice what you had just been thinking. Optionally, you can write the thoughts […]
The Endless Search for the MacGuffin
Even the simplest creatures move toward food. For example, the cuddly little organism in the picture above, Escherichia coli, a bacterium that lives in our intestines, swims toward sugar. I do pretty much the same thing every time I happen to see a container of ice cream. Not all living things can control their movements, […]
The Hole
You live your life on the edge of a hole incomprehensibly wide and deep. The funny thing is that you think you’re not aware of the hole when everything you do, see, know, and feel including you itself is merely your effort not to fall in. You don’t have to find the hole. It’s what […]
Ouspensky’s tragic mistake
Introduction added in 2019 During the two years since this article was published, a number of readers have posted comments below accusing me of misunderstanding Ouspensky. To those readers: this article is my reaction to a section of one of Ouspensky’s books which you can read for free at this link: Self Remembering by Ouspensky […]