Musings on PEACE, in Honor of International Peace Day

It’s International Peace Day on Monday, Sept. 21st, and since I posted on peace last year at this time, I thought I would do so again. You can check out Peace Day related events around the world, read about the Peace Alliance’s efforts to establish a U.S. Dept of Peace, or read about the founder of Peace One Day’s efforts to establish a world-wide cease-fire on this day.

Of course on this blog I write more about inner peace than global peace, but probably anyone reading this doesn’t need to be convinced that the two are related. I have been musing about what true inner peace means lately, and came upon this quote in a book I recently read by Buddhist nun Pema Chodron:

“The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace, or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.” (emphasis mine, from Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron)

I think this idea, that peace is “an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened” is what is really resonating with me this year. It’s partly because the national dialogue here in the U.S. lately seems even more vitriolic than a year ago – and I really didn’t think that was possible. Peace of any sort seems very, very far away. And it’s clear that everyone is speaking – spewing often – from a place of feeling threatened. Defensiveness leaves absolutely no room for any kind of dialogue or progress.

Obviously this is something we all already know from our personal relationships. In a disagreement, once our buttons have been pushed, once the conversation has become about defending or protecting some aspect of ourselves that we don’t want to lose or are afraid will get hurt, it’s all downhill. It becomes more about getting the next good zinger in than trying to reach common ground.

And I think the same is true for the experience of inner peace. When I think of my most peaceful moments, I definitely think of time alone, spent in a favorite spot, meditating, reading, or communing with nature. And I think we all need those moments, the space in our lives to experience that. But I’ve observed – in myself and others – that it’s also very easy to become so attached to that kind of peace, that we become irritated when anything disturbs or challenges it. And that irritation is a form of contracting, of defending, not of opening and expanding.

It’s tempting to try and control every aspect of our lives so that our peace is never disturbed. But of course, unless you live alone in a cave, that’s also completely impossible (and maybe not even then.) Learning to accept what arises, to open  to it, instead of fighting it off, is the only real path to peace. This was a big lesson for me when I became a parent, as I had been meditating daily, and undisturbed, for many years. Learning to accept whatever happened when I sat down – the possibility that my meditation would end before I planned, because of the needs of one of my children – taught me (and is still teaching me) about opening on another level.

It’s also shifted my perception of peace, and spiritual practice, and this is why the quote above struck me just right. As Pema says, “peace isn’t an experience free of challenges.” Who would want that, really? Challenge is part of how we grow, how we achieve, how we discover ourselves, how we go deeper. I was talking to a young friend recently who by her own definition has had a really blessed life, everything has come easily to her, with few challenges. But last year she got her heart broken for the first time. And that has totally opened her up in a new way, because she felt true pain for the first time. And through her pain, her capacity for compassion deepened. It was all intellectual compassion before, now it’s based on empathy.

Recognizing this has so many implications, for our own pursuit of inner peace, for parenting, for politics, you name it. If we can open to disagreement, challenges, even pain (without seeking it out, of course – that’s a different kind of problem), instead of shutting down in the face of it, instead of becoming threatened and going on the defensive, these things are transformed from hindrances to peace into stepping-stones to it. They are no longer things we need to fight off, in our minds or the world, in order to experience peace – they are themselves what we need to accept and understand, what we need to go through, on our way there.

This gives me some hope even, about the current U.S. social dialogue. Perhaps everything is coming to the surface, getting aired out, instead of getting repressed or pushed down, on the way to moving through it. Only time will tell. Certainly it’s interesting to think about the 1950’s, which are often held up as some kind of national hey-day, with economic prosperity and elevated morality for all, when in fact, much of the country could not ride in the front of a bus or drink from a water fountain of their choosing based on race, and the overall poverty rate was even higher than today. The 1950’s were a heyday for very few, but there was seemingly less conflict. That’s certainly not peace, that’s repression. So maybe now, at the very least, the repression phase is ending, and as tumultuous as things are now, we will move through this to a new kind of understanding. I choose to remain optimistic.

So those are my thoughts on peace, inner and outer. What are yours?

Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality

Well first off, I like to give credit where credit is due, and I have my husband to thank for this book, which is right up my ally. He heard an interview with the author, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, on National Public Radio (she is NPR’s religion correspondent), and prompted me to request a review copy (I never get to listen to NPR myself anymore, since the kids have co-opted the car sound system and we listen to an endless loop of Music Together CDs.)

For those of you that don’t have time to read reviews, I’ll get right to the point: If you are interested in neurotheology – the “study of the brain as it relates to spiritual experiences” – there is no book out there better than Fingerprints of God. I follow this field as best as a non-scientist can, because I find it fascinating, and because I consider holding my own spiritual beliefs up to the rigors of science an important part of my quest for truth (I regularly read atheist books for the same reason.) While some might consider this pointless, or even faithless, I think science is on the brink of a paradigm shift, and the dismissive, or even disdainful, way that it has viewed spirituality and ‘paranormal’ phenomenon over the last 200 years is starting to shift, and this is a fascinating thing to behold.

In Fingerprints of God, Ms. Hagerty has compiled all of the scientific research in this area, which could have been quite dull, but luckily she intersperses it with her own personal story, and the stories of dozens of individuals who have experienced profound transformations in their lives as the result of various kinds of spiritual practices and spontaneous experiences. Many of these tales are moving and emotional, and in my mind are enough reason in and of themselves to read the book. These individuals come from every conceivable religious background, and the commonality of their experiences and transformations, despite differences in the religious doctrines to which they subscribe, reinforce, for me, the universality of mysticism. Ms. Hagerty was herself raised a Christian Scientist, fell away from her faith as an adult, and then had a spontaneous mystic experience that re-opened the question of faith for her. Her research into neurotheology is therefore both professional and personal, as she relates in her introduction, where she lists the questions that drove her:

“Is spiritual experience real or delusional? Are there any realities that we can experience but not necessarily measure? Does your consciousness depend entirely on your brain, or does it extend beyond? Can thoughts and prayers affect the body? And that question I cannot seem to escape: Is there more than this?”

We are not simply talking about research into the mind/body connection, which at this point mainstream science has come to accept (a big shift from thirty years ago.) Most neuroscientists accept that our thoughts impact our health, and that changing our thoughts impacts the chemical balance in our body – particularly in relation to stress hormones and ‘mood’ chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. Based on that, much of the medical community has come to accept that practices like yoga and meditation, as well as variations on positive thinking, can be powerful components of a healing regimen. But that is a long way from accepting any sort of energetic or external force, or spiritual realm, outside of our body. By focusing on the research on spiritual practices and experiences, Fingerprints of God places this next step front and center in the conversation.

Here’s some of the research that she covers:

- Psychological research into individuals who have literally transformed their lives after a spontaneous mystic experience – particularly those who have recovered from addictions, or other self-destructive behaviors.

- Research into the efficacy of prayer, particularly mass intercessory prayer, and theories about the vastly different results various studies on this appear to have yielded.

- Genetic research into what genetic differences might be present in those drawn to spiritual practice or prone to spiritual experience, i.e. whether there is an inherited predisposition for spirituality.

- Research into how psychedelic drugs work on the brain, what chemicals are triggered during spiritual experiences brought on by these drugs, and possible chemical similarities to individuals who have similar experiences without the use of drugs.

- Studies of methods designed to methodically trigger spiritual experience by stimulating different parts of the brain.

- Research into epileptic seizures, and how and why the resulting brain changes often trigger spiritual experience (in fact, as the author reviews, an amazing number of history’s mystics have been written off by scientists as having been epileptic, a theory she explores in depth.)

- Neuroscientific research into the brains of ‘accomplished’ spiritual practitioners – specifically Tibetan Buddhist monks and Franciscan nuns, and the permanent changes in their brain that their spiritual practice has caused (which I covered a little in a prior post.)

- Studies on individuals who have had near death experiences (NDEs) and the resulting implications for how science views consciousness.

As I said above, this research (and more) is prevented from becoming dull by the personal stories of individuals participating in the research, and the spiritual journey of Hagerty herself. In addition, much of the research is presented through interviews with the scientists involved, who emerge as a pretty interesting lot themselves. Many of them chose this focus – considered at best an oddity amongst their colleagues – based on personal experiences they could not explain. And the author pushes them to get personal in her interviews, something most researchers do not like to do, and asks most of them to express their opinion point-blank: Do they believe their research indicates a higher power or order that functions through our brain, or the opposite – that the research suggests spiritual experience and beliefs are nothing but chemical reactions and neurotransmission ‘parties’ triggered by circumstance, drugs, or other methods?

Most say ‘we don’t know’, although some stick to the conventional materialist line – still the default amongst scientists at large – that the spiritual realm is nothing but a delusion created by our brains. But as the author demonstrates toward the end of her book, things are shifting, there is more of a willingness to explore these themes than ever before. For herself, she reaches the following conclusion:

“Science is showing that you and I are crafted with astonishing precision, so that we can, on occasion, peer into a spiritual world and know God. The language of our genes, the chemistry of our bodies, and the wiring of our brains – these are the handiwork of One who longs to be known. And rather than dispel the spiritual, science is cracking it open for all to see.”

Without the words ‘God’ or ‘One’, which aren’t really how I orient to my own spirituality, this could pretty much describe where I ended the book also. Some might say that this shows Hagerty had a position going in, an orientation all along, and this might be the case, but I think she is even-handed in her treatment, and gives both the materialist scientists and devout ‘believers’ equal time and credence. That’s more than I can say for most scientific research prior to the last decade.

So if you’re interested in this area, I do highly recommend this book. And if you want more recommendations, check out the ‘Science and Spirituality’ category in my Amazon store, which I finally got around to creating this weekend. Let me know in the comments if you have any other recommendations in this area that aren’t already listed (although I’ll have to read it before adding – every book in the store I have personally read and recommend.)

Using Death as an Adviser

Just getting back into the blogging world after spending last week in the midwest visiting my family, and something happened on our way there that triggered some thoughts for this post…

About 45 minutes into our flight, the flight attendants all rushed towards one part of the plane, and then the pilot asked if there was a doctor on board. There was, and it became clear that an elderly man was having problems – the doctor asked for a stethoscope and defibrillator, and several men on the plane moved the semi-conscious man to a place where he could lie down. Soon after, the pilot told us we would be making an emergency landing for medical reasons.

The man left the plane with help at the stop, and we continued our trip. I don’t know what happened to him, although he was conscious at the time. What was amazing was the complete shift in mood that occurred on the plane when everyone realized what was going on. In the airport I had been quite dismayed at the thoughtless and ‘me-first’ attitude of everyone we seemed to come in contact with. We had to arrive at 5am – no one’s favorite time – but the airport was already very busy, and LAX is an old airport with not enough room for modern baggage and security lines. With three preschoolers plus luggage we weren’t the fastest of travelers, and there were audible groans and frequent eye-rolling whenever anyone got stuck behind us in a passageway or line. Several times someone just pushed right past us – or over us, I should say, as the kids were almost knocked over more than once by a traveler in a rush. I tried to let it go, but I couldn’t help feeling very despondent over the more self-absorbed aspects of human nature.

All that changed instantly when the pilot asked for a doctor on the plane. We learned later that over a hundred passengers missed their connecting flights as a result, and most of them knew as soon as we were delayed that they were going to arrive much later than planned, or possibly not even get to their destination that day. But there was not a whimper of complaint or single groan at the pilot’s announcement. Everyone realized the potential seriousness of the situation. Someone’s husband, or father, or brother, or grandfather, or friend, was seriously ill, maybe even mortally so. And in light of that, any other concern or complaint was simply petty.

I thought then about how death and facing mortality throws everything into perspective, showing us clearly what matters, and even more importantly, what doesn’t. It’s a theme that comes up over and over in both personal development and spiritual teachings, and I think there is great power in facing our inevitable death head-on. Not in a morbid way, just in an honest one.

The title of this post comes from a teaching of Don Juan, in the Carlos Castaneda books. Don Juan urges Carlos to use his own death – which Don Juan describes as a menacing shadow always perched just behind him – as an ‘adviser’. He is always trying to get Carlos to let go of his ‘pettiness’, and live his life in a larger context, and teaches that maintaining a constant awareness of death is a powerful method for doing so. Of course, being Don Juan, his approach is quite extreme and his way of helping Carlos to become more aware of the reality of his own death is to scare him at night in the desert to the point where he actually believes he’s going to die. Not a gentle approach for sure, but an effective one, as anyone who has had an actual near-death experience can testify.

Eckhart Tolle, in his preface to The Power of Now, described his own near-death experience of sorts, although it wasn’t triggered by any actual physical danger. During an intense depression at thirty years of age, he came to a point where he felt he couldn’t live with himself any longer. But in the midst of that feeling, he suddenly wondered “But am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ’self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with. Maybe, only one of them is real.” As he puts it, the ’strangeness’ of this thought started him on a trajectory that triggered a profound spiritual experience. His subsequent attempts to understand and explain that experience completely transformed him, and his life.

When I first read The Power of Now, this experience reminded me of the genesis of Ramana Maharshi’s spiritual quest. At sixteen, he was suddenly struck with an intense feeling that he was going to die. He was not in any mortal danger at the time, just alone in his room. But instead of seeking out others for comfort or distraction, as most sixteen year-olds would probably do, he just laid down and investigated this feeling. He asked himself, ‘who is it that is going to die?’ and gradually moved through the different layers of his sense of selfhood – his body, his emotions, his thoughts, his sense of ‘I’ – until he was plunged into a deep realization of something beyond or beneath this. Soon after, he left home, traveling to the area where he would spend the rest of his life meditating and eventually teaching.The question ‘who am I?’ became the root of ‘inquiry’ in his lineage.

According to legend, an awareness of mortality was also one of the triggers for the Buddha’s flight from home and spiritual quest. His father had created a fabricated kingdom for the young prince Siddhartha to live in, shielding him from all contact with illness, death, or pain of any kind, in an attempt to prevent his spiritual inclinations – which were predicted by a seer at his birth – from surfacing. But Siddhartha eventually became curious about life outside the kingdom, and on a trip outside the gates, was confronted with a funeral in progress, and learned of mortality for the first time. Transience or impermanence  is one of the three marks of existence in Buddhism, and confronting death is a powerful theme in many traditions. Some Tibetan Buddhist traditions include practices performed in funeral grounds or while contemplating a decomposing body, to emphasize the impermanence of the physical world.

Although because of the belief in an afterlife traditional Christianity approaches death differently, and doesn’t have any death contemplations such as this that I know of, in the last few years I’ve been reading quite a bit about various Catholic mystics, especially medieval ones, and have been struck by how many of them experienced profound spiritual transformations during life-threatening illnesses. Their descriptions – of white light, endless love, an expansiveness and union beyond their own personal identity – correspond to the experiences of those above, although their ultimate interpretations of what those experiences represent is different. The commonality of both near-death and meditative experiences across cultures has always fascinated me, and speaks to the universality of mystic realization.

So an awareness of our own death – a real awareness at a deep, visceral level, without plunging into morbidity – enables profound transformation. It helps us let go of our self-absorption, our pettiness, and focus on what really matters. It shifts our perspective and helps us to ‘not sweat the small stuff’. It humbles us, and awakens us to our smallness in the grand scheme of things – which ultimately is a relief, freeing us from our imagined restrictions. And spiritually it can help us touch the deepest part of ourselves and reality, whatever we interpret that to be.

So have you faced your own death? Do you contemplate mortality, or do you shy away from thoughts of it, as many of us are conditioned to do? Do you fear death?

An Interview with Gangaji

I am very honored to present this conversation with Gangaji, which took place by phone on July 28th. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I think the world of her, and that her satsangs have played an important role in my own spiritual journey in the last few years. My friend and meditation student who recently passed had also attended many of her satsangs and weekend retreats, and while arranging this interview, I relayed the news of his death and sent his picture to her. I was touched that Gangaji took time out of her very busy recent Europe tour to view his picture, and it meant even more that she remembered him and his ‘radiance’, and talked about him briefly with me at the start of our conversation.

As for who Gangaji is in the ‘person’ sense – her teachings, lineage, books, and all that other stuff that we tend to focus on when discussing spirituality – I think the best source is her own foundation’s website. I encourage you to view some of her video satsangs, listen to audio, or read her books, or those by Papaji (her teacher) or Ramana Maharshi (Papaji’s teacher) – one of the most reknowned 20th-century Indian sages.

I had hoped to make the recording of this conversation available online in mp3 format, but I used an incorrect setting when recording, and while most of the interview is audible through headphones in the original format, almost none of it is in mp3 form:-( Therefore I have had to present it only in written form, with some editing and excerpting for clarity. I hope I have done her words justice.

But more important than the words is the transmission of ‘presence’ or ‘silent awareness’, or whatever word you choose to use. To receive that, I hope you can find the time to sit quietly with a hot cup of tea (or coffee, or wine, or even a margarita – whatever floats your boat) and read this more slowly than we normally can do when reading online. And when you are done, please share any comments or questions you have, and/or any suggestions for future interviewees or questions. Namaste-

Well Gangaji, you are now a fellow blogger, so I wanted to start there. What made you decide to start blogging, and why did you decide to blog on The Huffington Post, which many people know more as a political site?

They invited me. I had read The Huffington Post occasionally, and I also knew them only as a political site. But they have a lot of other writing, and they invited me, so I accepted. I also write at Intent.com, which is more of a wellness and spiritual site.

I guess I was surprised because I hadn’t heard you speak much on social or political issues in your satsangs. So I was wondering if blogging at Huffington represented any change in direction for you?

No, not really. In satsang I speak on whatever is present, whatever comes up. That might include current social or political events, or it might not. I try and use whatever is present to point to the truth. ‘Sat’ means ‘truth’, this is what we come together for in satsang. I try not to separate the internal and external. I think this separation is a myth, and it’s true that we tend to dwell on it. Many spiritual people look down on politics, choosing to retreat from the world. And many political people look down on spiritual people, believing they are flaky or out of touch.

That point is interesting to me, because I retreated for a long time, and am now finding myself more and more interested in politics, and more interested in becoming socially engaged. But I have a hard time reconciling the two. Politics can feel so ego-driven, positions are so fixated. It makes me want to retreat again.

Yes, and that is needed sometimes. There is a place for true retreat. I always tell people there is no formula. Some people retreat their whole lives – that’s how Ramana did it. Some feel called, or are constitutionally more suited, for engagement. I think I’m a little of both. Sometimes I will go weeks without reading the newspaper, and then re-engage. Either way, it is about recognizing the moment, and being true to it. It is available in both. But it is true that it is helpful to recognize what you need at any given time.

It’s interesting that you say that, because recently you wrote a post that I loved on suspending diagnosing for a day – suspending the tendency to judge and diagnose our own state and that of others all the time. How does this fit with what you are saying about recognizing what we need in the moment?

Diagnosis is a wonderful tool. This ability to see what is going on with us, to identify a problem and address it, is one of our great gifts as humans. But like any tool, it can be over-used. We can get trapped in labels and judgments, of ourselves and others. All we can see is our categories. We become completely focused on ‘fixing’ – ourselves, others, the world. What if we just let go of that, as an experiment, for a day? And just let things be what they are? That is suspending diagnosis.

This is a bit how I think about detachment. I heard you speak once at a satsang on passion and detachment, which is connected for me to the issue of retreat vs. engagement. It seems we need passion, need strong opinions, to act in the world, especially on social issues. But then we run the risk of acting from a place of attachment, of ego. How do we decide which is which?

I don’t use the word ‘detachment’ much myself, but I know it can be useful for some. I like the word inquiry, as Ramana used it, in the sense of inquiring into the truth. Both detachment and inquiry can be over-used, can become habits of mind, but true inquiry can really open us. When you inquire, when you look honestly at what is going on with yourself without judgment, you can discover a place where you don’t fear attachment. That’s passion. You are connected. There isn’t any fear of connecting or of attachment. There is no problem.
But even inquiry can be over-used. We can become ‘the inquirer’ and create a new story around that. Then we are not really inquiring, we are telling ourselves a story.

So does the need to inquire ever end? It’s often said that the spiritual process continues forever, that it’s the journey, not the destination, that matters. But in your view does there come a point when the ego – or whatever – can no longer move us away from presence, or get caught in a story? When spiritual practice is not needed?

Well, I would not call inquiry spiritual practice, although it can become that. I think there is a point when you know that presence – or silent awareness as I sometimes call it, we have many words for it – is right there, whatever the circumstances. And you will be tested, life will always test you. But you can come to a point where the moment any disturbance arises, you see that, and you inquire, right there.
For example, hypothetically, I might notice I am thinking about my daughter, and why she hasn’t called me in a long time. I might develop a story about how I always have to call her, or how she neglects me. Or I might worry. I add layers on top of that initial disturbance. But if I inquire, if I just sit with that disturbance and inquire into it, I might see an emotion underneath. I might see that the real issue is that I am hurt, or that I am missing her. Then I can inquire into that emotion, and so on. In the end, I might call my daughter, or I might not, but either way, it is not the result of some story I have told myself.
So spiritual practice can be useful. We have many techniques of mind that can help us to calm ourselves, or heal ourselves, or energize ourselves. But inquiry is not practice in this sense.

Speaking of your daughter, I wanted to ask you about parenthood. I find I have this story I can fall into of ‘if only I had more time to myself, I could pursue my spirituality’. I find this is so common for parents. Can you speak to this?

Oh yes, we have all kinds of stories we tell ourselves along these lines, whether about parenting, our jobs, our health, or some other aspect of our lives. We convince ourselves freedom is about being free of some obligation or affliction. But there is always the opportunity to inquire, in every situation. It doesn’t take more than 10 or 12 seconds really. Or even a moment – there is always a moment – an opportunity, right now. And in that moment, in inquiry, we can realize that our sense of a lack of freedom is – not there.
I’m not in anyway saying that having three young children isn’t difficult, because it is. Your body is not free in the way it once was. Your emotions are not free in that way. You can’t just do whatever you want, you have three other beings to consider. So that part of the story is true. But in your innermost being, there is still freedom, and you can take refuge in yourself. Even when you feel you are at your worst.

Yes. And I feel as if in my children it is so easy to see when they are disturbed, in the way that you mean. They are like a little mirror – if something in my awareness is disturbed I will see it reflected back to me in their state or behavior.

Yes, well there it is. Right there you see the opportunity in parenthood. We have this story of ‘well, if I could just escape this, I would be OK’, but that example right there shows you the truth. Your kids are actually helping you see what is really going on.

Yes, definitely. Ok, so moving on to kids, I know you are a mother and a grandmother. What do you think is the greatest gift we can transmit or relay to our children as they grow up, in order to help them connect to presence themselves, and maintain that connection into adulthood?

Well, you know, my grandkids are far away and I am not with them all the time. But I know when I am, kids have this ability to sense authenticity. They know right away if you are not being authentic with them. Really I think that is all anybody wants from anybody – authenticity. So trying not to be what we think we should be, or what we think our kids, or anybody else, wants us to be. Just being with them as we really are, fully. And kids pick up on that, and understand they can be authentic too. It is transmitted, from generation to generation.
I feel like I am seeing the results of this now, of the different way some kids are being parented, in some of the older kids – teens especially – that come to satsang with their parents. It’s quite wonderful actually. There’s a confidence there, and a consciousness. A recognition of something deeper. A willingness to face this adventure called life with this deeper consciousness.

Well, it’s interesting you mentioned this new generation, because I wanted to ask you some questions about the future. My own family, and my husband’s, are very diverse in religious and political views, and live all over the country. Sometimes I feel like I am right in the middle of this ‘cultural divide’ that the media is always telling us about. Everyone seems to feel like the world is at a crises point, and that their own way needs to be followed, in order to set things right. So I am wondering, what do you make of this divide?

Well, I know we are at a time of great awareness of that, and I know that every religion and political group right now senses we are in a period of great change. Some feel it is apocalyptic and some feel we are on the brink of a great breakthrough. I say – we’ll wait and see.
But what an interesting position you are in! To be confronted with all these different views, among people you love, and to therefore be prompted really, to see if you can relate beneath those differences and feel that love. To not relate only at the level of difference, to practice not seeing those with different views simply as ‘other’. Then there is a possibility that something can be discovered, a new common ground even, or at least an acceptance and shared presence. This is available to anyone, of any religion, and all walks of life.
You know, I wrote in that diagnosis post of this woman I spoke to recently who believed there was a chip in her head, and that the government or some other group was trying to control her through it. Instead of debating the reality or non-reality of that chip, I asked her to just sit and inquire what she felt right now, in the midst even, of that worry and pain. And she got it, she shifted. She relaxed, and felt peace herself. Whether she can find that again, who knows, but it is always available to her, to anyone. We pile lots of stuff, stories, on top of it and call it different things, especially in different religions, and we create obstacles to seeing it, but it is always there.
So your situation is ideal really. You have this opportunity to look beyond differences, beyond the perceived obstacles to connecting.

Yes, it is has done that for me. I can’t otherize or demonize people who disagree so easily. And it does feel like in today’s world those disagreements are so reinforced. With all the different cable stations and internet mediums – it is easy to just seek out content that matches what you already think, and to isolate yourself in that way from other points of view.

Yes, that is certainly true. This isolation, this is something we do on a lot of levels.

Along those lines, you just returned from an extended stay in Europe. Do you think there are differences between the U.S. and Europe in regards to this? Or in relation to spirituality?

Well, I don’t know so much about a difference from the U.S. But certainly there is a difference since I first started holding satsangs there 15 years ago. There is such an openness and eagerness.

Do you find Europeans more open to what you have to offer?

I don’t know if they are more open. There seems to be more openness everywhere in a way. But perhaps there is less fear, less anxiety there right now. People are of course worried about the economy, and about changes in the world, but it didn’t feel as anxious there. Whether that is because of the differences in government, or religious views, I don’t know. But the anxiety level here felt very palpable when I returned.

So here there is kind of an undercurrent of anxiety, that is hard for us to see?

Yes, perhaps so. And unless you can see it, it can cloud your judgment, cloud your views on how you should live your life.

Because it becomes all about self-protection? Protecting ‘me and my own’?

That’s right. And that instinct is natural to some extent. But when we become fixated on that, it obstructs our relationship with others, with the world. We act from a place of fear. And this we can see acted out on many different levels, from our personal lives to politics.

Yes, thank you. Well, I have just one last question, related to teaching. Over the years I have seen a lot of spiritual teachers, many with ‘big names’, you might say. But since the first day I saw you, your transmission has always seemed to come through so powerfully and purely. Is this just a quirk of your being do you think? Is this ability to transmit a skill that some teachers possess and others do not, regardless of the depth of their own realization?

You know, I don’t know. This might just be a resonance between you and myself. Some people, many people really, come to my satsangs and say ‘nice to meet you, thanks’, but don’t feel that connection. But they might feel it with someone else. In a way, it is a mystery. And different teachers can suit our needs at different times, depending on what we are ready for. When I met Papaji, there was this instant resonance for me, but I was in a certain place, I was ready. So you have to follow your heart.

Thank you so much Gangaji.

Please add your own thoughts or suggestions in the comments, and if you like this post, please also Subscribe and (StumbleUpon is a favorite.)

7 Steps to Seeing

When I posted a couple of weeks ago,  I had hoped to be more fully back online by now, but that got slowed down a bit when I dropped my Macbook in my kitchen, shattering the screen and toasting the circuit board. I just switched to a Mac 4 months ago, so this is not an auspicious beginning. Although, from the looks on the Apple tech’s faces when I brought it in for repair, this level of damage is not something they see very often. I thought I detected real fear in their faces while they surveyed it, like I might be a serial killer, or at the very least, a serial destroyer of sacred technology.

So I am sharing my old Gateway laptop with my husband, which he inherited when he gave me the Macbook for my birthday. We share many things well, including a one-sink bathroom (which derails other couples, I know), but a computer is another thing entirely.  I am sure many of you understand:-)

In addition to that little complication, last week was the week of the half-written blog posts. I started three, and couldn’t quite get any of them into a finished state I liked. In the end, I decided to write on seeing, which is something I have been contemplating recently. As I mentioned in my last post, I am trying to see many things about my own life and future direction right now.

I think of seeing as the ability to discern patterns and structures under the surface of events, our own minds, and the minds of others. All of these are connected, of course – ‘as above, so below’ and all that. Personally I think of intuition as a more ‘in the moment’, situational type of insight. If I’m talking to someone, and suddenly have the strong sense that he or she is feeling something other than what is said, that is intuition. If in that moment, or later on, I suddenly understand that emotion or interaction in the context of a larger pattern, a fuller understanding of what is motivating or moving the individual and the dynamics between us, that is seeing. Personally, I don’t try and do either with other people, unless our relationship is such that they ask me too. But the same skills applied to myself is a powerful part of my own approach to my life and spirituality.

I think based on our deepest intents for our lives, we can connect to different ‘flows’, in a tao-like fashion. Some phases of my life have been about manifestation, about intending new things into my life based on what I wanted at the time. Success in getting them was really about aligning myself with a certain flow of power. I think this is largely what teachings on the ever-popular ‘law of attraction’ are about, and to the extent that is true, I value those teachings. But for me personally they have limitations (one of those half-written blog posts that maybe I will finish someday – I did put some basic thoughts on this into Is the Law of Attraction Buddhist?, at BellaOnline.)

But there are other flows we can connect to, including the one leading ‘home’ to ourselves, enlightenment, liberation, realization, or whatever you want to call it. And that flow rarely seems to be about just pursuing what we want, although the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Sometimes life is about listening, rather than manifesting. That is what my own life feels like right now. I am listening, watching, trying to see what’s next. Trying to align myself with light, with ‘the tao’ (or again, whatever word you like.)

Someone recently asked me how I go about this, which got me thinking about it in a way I hadn’t in awhile, so I decided to post my answer, and ask you to share yours in the comments.

1) First, I clarify what I am trying to see. I think it’s really important to at least attempt to define what you are trying to see. Otherwise, it’s too easy to just flounder around in uncertainty indefinitely. Sometimes you can’t really define it, or sometimes it turns out there is more than one question in play, but the attempt to whittle it down gets the process started. For me, this is like sending an arrow from my conscious mind into the depths, and then letting it stew there, while I …

2) Wait. Patiently. Not a strength of mine personally, but a necessity, I have found. I have learned this one the hard way, by too often rushing an answer, and discovering later it was driven more by ego than seeing. I always think of the chess movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, where the teacher is always telling Bobby ‘wait, just wait, until you see it’, whenever it is his turn to move in a match. Sometimes, he waits for hours. So what do I do while I wait? Well, I…

3) Create Some Space in My Life. I think we all process differently. In Awakening Intuition, Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz emphasizes the importance of sleep, as I know many professional psychics do. For me, it seems to be more about a sense of space and openness than sleep. Maybe that’s because I don’t seem to be much of a dreamer, or receive many insights that way. Of course meditation is a big part of creating this space for me. But I also love to read. Sometimes when I am working on something, I will stay up late reading many nights in a row – something light and engaging (I read the entire Twilight series this way a few months back.) To do this, of course, I can’t be in a stressful, highly-scheduled phase of my life. Interestingly, I have found playing with my young children also creates this sense of space. They are so in the moment, and when I am present with them, it creates an easygoingness (excluding tantrums, that is!) So this summer has been perfect for us all, very open-ended, with just a few classes and playdates when we are together (which is not all the time – I also have a sitter some days, part of creating that much-needed space).

But I don’t always just wait, sometimes I like to…

4) Stalk. ‘Stalking’ and ‘dreaming’ are two opposing methods of seeing presented in the books of Carlos Castenada. Stalking, in the context I am using it, is seeking out relevant ‘data’ for the seeing part of my awareness to work with. This might mean consulting divination systems like astrology, the tarot, or (my personal favorite) the I Ching. Or it might mean seeking out details related to the specific decision I am contemplating (if it is a decision – seeing isn’t always about that, of course.) So if I were trying to decide whether or not to move, for example, or change jobs,  I would research and visit areas or people with other jobs. But I wouldn’t make my decision based on a logical, pros-and-cons assesment of what I find (I am honestly just incapable of that – it’s not the way I’m built) but instead just let the information sit, and simmer. Or I might use it to…

5) Dream. As I use it, this tool is perhaps the closest to ‘visioning’ that you find in many law of attraction and cosmic ordering teachings. Sometimes it’s useful to imagine different options, and see how they feel. Which one has the most power behind it? Which one has a flow? Which one do I fear? Which one do I desire and why? I don’t make my decision here, I just let it all sit. But at some point…

6) Something Like Insight Appears. I don’t know that any of us can clearly define what insight feels like, as opposed to just a normal ego-driven thought, but most people  I have talked to acknowledge that it does feel unique. It seems to come from a different location than our other thoughts, within or outside us. Figuring that out is a journey of a lifetime I think, for all but a few highly-gifted seers. For me, it’s rarely an epiphany moment. It’s  often a gradually emerging certainty. And when it emerges, I rarely just jump on it, even though that is what some teachers suggest. Instead, I write it down, clarifying exactly what it is I am thinking, and then I…

7) Question It. Call this the ‘quality assurance’ phase of the process (I DID work in software development for many years!) This is about separating the wheat from the chaff, or in this case, insight from ego. I try and discern what in my answer might be purely ego-driven  – what is just what I want to believe? What might I have added to the insight unconsciously, because of my own desires or fears? What old patterns or baggage might be in play? There is a careful balance to be struck in this phase – the wrong kind of questioning just generates useless doubt, while none at all results in too much wishful thinking. So this phase is a delicate swing, from certainty to questioning, honing and honing, driving closer to the truth.

So there you have it – my own process. Of course, sometimes insights just arise – there is no process. This is more when there is some sense of seeking involved. It is how I seek.

How do you seek or see? Do you have a process? How do you distinguish ego-driven thoughts from seeing? Are you a stalker or a dreamer?

(And if you like this post, please also Subscribe and )

Spiritual Experience vs. Realization (or What’s The Point, Anyway?)

I have been musing lately about the relationship between spiritual experiences and spiritual realization. I said in a prior post on chakras that I don’t think dramatic spiritual experiences necessarily lead to personal insight or wisdom. I said this because I am a lover of meditation, but I know firsthand that you can have wonderful meditative experiences – moments of stillness, joy, love, or even dissolution – but not change much off your meditation cushion. I know it’s not spiritually PC to say so, but you can meditate and still be ignorant, arrogant, uptight, mean, or insecure.

In fact, attachment to meditative states can actually become a hindrance to spiritual growth – many Buddhist and yogic texts warn against becoming addicted to spiritual highs or blisses. This is especially true within the traditions that teach chakra and kundalini meditation, which is what I mostly practice and teach, because these high-energy techniques can result in dramatic shifts in awareness. And if you’re meditating just for those, you might as well be bungee-jumping. I mean, experience is fine, you could even make a case that diverse experience is what life is all about, but collecting experiences is not happiness, or peace, or enlightenment.

So what exactly is the point of meditation then? Or of spiritual practices and techniques at all? Or, for that matter, of this vast expanse of techniques and traditions (heavily marketed these days I might add) that we call ’spirituality’?

Gangaji was asked this question once at an event I attended, and simply said, ‘to be kind.’ The Dalai Lama has said something similar. A classic Buddhist answer is simply ‘to be happy’. Some, such as Eckhart Tolle, might say that spiritual growth has become necessary for humanity to survive – that evolving beyond ego-based living has become an imperative. Another teacher I once had said spiritual seeking was just a personal preference or proclivity – much like Mozart’s pull to music or Shakespeare’s to words. Some of us are just drawn to the other side.

Others would argue that all of life is a spiritual journey, that everything we learn is part of the process, and that distinguishing something called ’spirituality’ is pointless and divisive. In principle I agree with this, but it’s also true that spiritual paths – methods and advice for experiencing the mystic or divine aspects of ourselves and the world – have emerged within virtually every culture. So there is something different going on here – a desire to consciously seek light and direct knowledge emerges at some point for many humans.

Spiritual practices, and particularly meditation when it’s practiced in a spiritual context (which of course it isn’t always), are tools for opening the doorway to light and direct knowledge. And this direct knowledge, or direct experience, of spirit/awareness/presence/the other side/God/Goddess/divinity/the sacred dimensions – or whatever term you prefer – is the mark of a mystic in any tradition, as I see it. Of course meditation isn’t required for that – people often have spiritual experiences outside meditation. Anytime our usual perceptions or fixed identity drops away, and our awareness opens up or expands, we’ve touched this. And many different things can trigger such moments. Meditation is simply a structured way of opening up, of releasing, into this – rather than leaving it to chance, you could say.

But from what I’ve seen, on its own even the best meditation practice isn’t enough to change someone, to evolve them, to make them kinder or wiser. For that to happen, meditative experiences have to be processed, and they have to be integrated into a larger context of spiritual practice.

This makes sense if you think about it, because we have all sorts of experiences in life and don’t necessarily learn anything from them, unless we put some effort into processing them. For example, our psychological hang-ups might pull us back to the same types of dysfunctional relationships over and over, and it takes conscious work to break the cycle. Unraveling and releasing these kinds of patterns is a big part of what modern personal development, and ancient spiritual practice, is all about. Whether you call it karma or conditioning or the ego or just being stupid, by default we are driven by mostly unconscious mental and emotional patterns. We have to dredge that stuff up into the light of day to work through it and let it go.

Part of the reason I’ve always liked Buddhism is that it emphasizes a holistic spiritual path, it is really a way of life, and meditation is just one part of it. The Noble Eightfold Path, a foundation teaching that is accepted in some form by most branches of Buddhism, outlines eight aspects of practice, and meditation is one aspect (or maybe two, depending on how you interpret them.) I think the best teachers within any tradition emphasize this holism. I was amazed when I first read St. Theresa of Avila’s books (the queen of dramatic spiritual experiences), as she outlines a very similar integrated spiritual path. And it is found in the writings of mystics within every tradition, I think.

When this integration isn’t present, spiritual practice just breeds arrogance, or confusion. I’ve seen a lot of this in spiritual communities I’ve been a part of over the years, and I’ve suffered through phases of it myself. Although I may be inviting trouble by saying so, I think it’s a particular problem with born-again Christianity: There’s a sense that this one dramatic experience saves you, and changes you forever. There’s little support for the idea that you need to process this experience to understand what it represents, or that you need to work to stay true to it, and be on guard for your ego’s attempts at distortion.

So, that’s my take on meditation and spirituality, from 10,000 feet: Meditation in any form (and there are many types) helps open our perceptual boundaries, and awakens us to realms of awareness – and spirit – that are hard to find amidst the busyness of our daily lives and minds. And sometimes the resulting experiences are dramatic, sometimes they are more subtle. Either way, on their own these experiences mean little. It’s what we do with them that matters. What do they show us about ourselves, and who or what we thought we were?  How do they shift our ideas about ourselves in relation to others and the world? What do they teach us about the nature of reality and our role in shaping it?

Just my two cents, what’s yours?

(And if you like this post, please also Subscribe and )

Chakra Yoga MP3s – Guided Walkthroughs

Below are the guided chakra walkthroughs that I mentioned in the 21 Ways to Care for Your Sacral Chakra post, plus a couple extra (and for those of you interested in that post, I added a note on Kegels – yes, Kegels! – to #9.) A few notes:

- The reason I wanted to do these as recordings is so that a transmission can (hopefully) occur, which is how most of us best learn this stuff – connecting mind to mind, beyond language. I am doing the techniques as I talk, and the idea is that this will help you better connect to your own chakras. Although I also talk about the chakras during the walkthroughs, I am never dropping my chakra focus, so just keep your own chakra focus and hopefully the talking will not get too bothersome!

- I call these chakra ‘yoga’ instead of chakra ‘meditation’ because they are very active visual and sensory techniques. Even if you already have a meditation practice, these are a great clearing and preparatory technique, just as physical yoga is a preparatory technique for formal sitting meditation.

- I wanted to expand a bit on the distinction I made in the 2nd Chakra Motherhood and Creating post between chakra healing vs. spiritual techniques. I think the chakras are best discussed as mind-body-spirit intersection points. When doing healing work you are usually pulling energy from the spiritual/energetic realm through the mind/awareness level into the physical body, i.e. the movement is spirit->mind->body. In what we’ll call ’spiritual’ techniques such as what I’m doing in these recordings, you are moving in the opposite direction, i.e. body->mind->spirit. Focusing on a physical location helps you connect with the state of awareness associated with the chakra in that area, and that in turn allows you to go through the doorway of that chakra into spiritual planes it connects with.
(And I don’t really like to talk in terms of spiritual planes, because it implies something separate from reality, but I am trying to use terms everyone is familiar with.)

- I don’t know much about digital audio files, so if  you have problems with these let me know. From what I understand, you should be able to just click on them to play them from your computer, or right click and do a ’save page as’ to download them. On some computers you may have to start playing them first and then do a ’save as’.

Chakra Yoga MP3s

7 Chakra Cycling, 9 minutes – Technique for cycling through all 7 chakras to awaken the kundalini and move the energy up through them into the upper chakras (the traditional focus of chakra meditation techniques.)

7 Chakra Lotus Variation, 4 1/2 minutes – A variation on the first technique, but with a lotus blossom pictured in the 2nd chakra, which is particularly relevant for women.

4 Chakra Core Meditation, 11 minutes – A classic core chakra meditation technique using the navel, heart, third eye and crown chakras. Time in each chakra can be expanded to make a longer meditation.

Bliss Bubble, 3 1/2 minutes – Visualization designed to awaken a uniquely feminine ‘bliss’ energy, activated through the 2nd and heart chakras.

Protection Visualization, 3 1/2 minutes – Visualization for learning how to use the navel chakra energy to create an energetic shield. Note that in the 21 ways post I described a red sphere of light, and I didn’t use that in this recording (I just used white), but you can use red or red-orange if you like, as that has a martial flavor.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or requests for other techniques in the comments.

I never really considered this a teaching blog, but these recordings were made from my ‘teaching’ aspect, so I wanted to offer a traditional blessing at the end, customary in many traditions, but particularly Buddhist ones:

May these recordings represent light, power, and truth.

May they serve to empower, enlighten and awaken all who listen.

And, just to help you connect energetically even more, here is where they were made:

Zion Rainbow

And if you like this post, please also Subscribe or

2nd Chakra Series – 21 Ways to Care for Your Sacral Chakra

This is the last post in a series on the 2nd, or sacral chakra, in women. The prior posts were on Tantric Sexuality, Intuition and Seeing, Motherhood and Creating, and Spirituality and Bliss. Those posts all gave lots of reasons why attention to your 2nd chakra, and 2nd chakra issues, is so important for women. Hopefully you’re convinced!

This turned into quite the thesis, which I hadn’t intended. I have mixed feelings about the size of this list, because most women don’t need any more ’should’ or ‘to-do’ items added to their busy lives (not to mention that many of you probably don’t even have time to read this!) I am very anti-guilt. So understand that I was just trying to be comprehensive, and you should determine – with your intuition of course! – what is relevant to you. As you read the list you will probably be drawn to some and not others, and that may change over time.

Also, I feel like I should add a disclaimer along the lines of those medical ads that say “This is not meant to replace a diagnose from a qualified medical doctor.” While I am a firm believer in our ability to each heal and develop ourselves, sometimes a guide or helping hand is essential. So if you really feel like you have some deep-seated 2nd chakra issues, or want to delve further into the chakras themselves, consider finding a therapist, energy healer, meditation teacher, astrologer, Akashic record reader, past-life regressionist, or whatever resonates with you, to help you do so. Let your intuition guide you to the right approach and practitioner (some of the blogs in my blogroll are written by practitioners of various types.)

Along those lines, I realized I couldn’t post this without including some of my own favorite meditation techniques related to the 2nd chakra, and those are not normally relayed in print. I decided to include some basic instructions anyway, but I have also made mp3 recordings of them, as that is often a more effective way of learning these kinds of things. I have to be in a certain ’space’ to do that, and am not sure exactly when that will be, but I’ll get them up as soon as I can.

THE LIST: 21 Ways to Care for Your Sacral Chakra

The first part of this list has to do with healing any damage that may have been done to your 2nd chakra, or any latent discomfort you may have with your own sexuality, sensuality, or reproductive issues that could lead you to shut it down in some way. I hesitated about including this section, but in the end I had too, because I think it is the #1 problem facing many women. From my perspective, if you are a woman, owning your 2nd chakra energy is owning your personal power, so the cost of not facing these issues is high, and long-term, far outweighs the discomfort of doing so.

1) Face and release any past sexual abuse or assault. ‘Face’ is a vague term, and could mean different things depending on the extent to which you have already examined these events from your past. Of course professional therapy or counseling might be needed, or, if you have already done some work in this area, a briefer revisiting, with the intent of really releasing the past. Details on this are beyond what I can do here, but the important thing is, don’t ignore it. Don’t say ‘it was a long time ago, it was just once, it doesn’t matter anymore, etc.’ if there are ANY unresolved feelings of disempowerment, guilt, shame or fear, it will impact your ability to access your 2nd chakra energy. Of course, there is also always the danger of over-identifying with the past, and taking on a permanent victim-mentality, and that’s problematic too. So work with these ideas of facing and releasing.

2) Review your romantic and sexual history (not always the same thing!), and deal with any continuing attachments to your past, particularly to unhealthy or disempowering relationships. Sex, and even romantic attachments without sex, build some of the strongest possible energy bonds, and if you are holding on to past relationships in your awareness, it can impact your 2nd chakra. Taisha Abelar gives an extreme view of this in her memoir The Sorcerer’s Crossing, and recapitulates every encounter she has ever had, working to reclaim the energy lost in each one. While this method isn’t for everyone, focus on cutting past ties inwardly, and reclaiming attention dispersed in this way. You can even create a ritual to this effect, where you picture yourself cutting a line between yourself and a visualization of the other person with a pair of scissors, and then the energy that was flowing out from you through this line coming back into your own body.

3) Face and release any pain you may be holding onto regarding past miscarriages, abortions, or fertility issues. This is similar to #1, but instead the focus is on issues related to procreation. There are multiple issues here – the first is properly mourning whatever perceived losses  you have suffered, and working at letting them go. The second is letting go of any misdirected self-blame or shame you may be harboring. And the third is the more general issue of sorting out your identity relative to procreation. Women receive so many societal messages tying our worth to our ability or decision to procreate (or not), that we can end up ‘hanging our hat’ on this aspect of ourselves. Own your life and your decisions – this is particularly important for women who decide not to have children, or for whom it just never works out, because there are a lot of ridiculous social messages implying that this leaves us somehow ‘incomplete’.

4) Look at your overall comfort level with your body, sexuality, and sensuality. Do you feel comfortable with your sexuality? How do you use it with others? Do you try and hide it? Do you use it to attract attention? What’s your relationship with your own body? Are you comfortable with it? Look at parental imprinting too – did you ‘inherit’ a generational discomfort with sex and related topics from your mother? Try and unpack your own relationship to your sexuality, and make sure it feels healthy, honest, balanced, and clear.

5) Look at your overall attitude towards being a woman. This is really about facing your own feelings about being a woman, and any negative conditioning that you may have picked up regarding what it means. Are you out to prove something? Have you adopted, or been determined to rebel against, any particular female stereotypes? Face and release any anger you have regarding any situation in which you have been prevented or discouraged from doing something because you were/are a girl/woman.

6) Own your sexual choices. If you are celibate, own it. If you are sexually active, own it. Don’t just let things happen, one way or the other. Of course, these things aren’t 100% within our control, so part of working with this one may be accepting the situation you are in, and trying to work with the benefits it has. From an energetic standpoint, celibacy has the benefit of helping you consolidate and clear your energy field, because you are not dealing with the powerful energy lines to another person that sex creates. Sexual activity, in a healthy situation, has the energy benefit of helping you clear and activate your 2nd chakra through release. Own your situation, whatever it is, and work with it. And, if it’s possible, consider working with periods of one or the other by choice when you need to.

The next few items have to do with the absorbent nature of women’s energy bodies, because of the centripetal action of our 2nd chakras, as discussed in the Intuition post.

7) Work to refine your awareness of the energies you absorb from others. This is very important, because otherwise over time your awareness will just get more and more dispersed from the constant stream of energies you are absorbing, and you will not be able to focus well or draw on your personal power (let alone access your intuition.) Developing this awareness is mostly a matter of just starting to pay attention to it. Monitor how you feel before and after group situations, and before and after individual encounters. Review times when your mood or mental state dramatically shifts for no apparent reason, and see if you can identify an energy source for the shift. Don’t get paranoid about ‘negative energies’ (this is a slippery slope that leads downhill fast!) The goal isn’t to become a hermit – the goal is to develop your ability to recognize when this unconscious absorption is happening, so that you can halt the absorption, or use the awareness of energies to foster your intuition.

8 ) Protect your subtle body. Over time, you can learn to make your subtle body less absorbent when you need to – to shield it in a sense. One simple way to develop this skill is to try the following exercise, which is available as an mp3 file here:

- Sit quietly with your eyes closed, and place your hands over your navel chakra, about one inch below your navel. This is the 3rd chakra in the system I use, not the 2nd as in some systems, and is associated with will, intent and personal power. Some systems place the 3rd chakra higher, up by the solar plexus, so experiment with what placement feels right to you. Belly breath for several breaths.

- Imagine a red-orange sphere of light sitting right under your hands.

-Visualize this sphere growing larger and larger until it surrounds your entire body. Sense how you are holding this protective shield in place with your awareness.

Because the 3rd chakra is associated with intent and personal power, a more yang energy, by focusing on it in this way you can learn to ’solidify’ your energy field a bit. Eventually, the visualization will not be not necessary – you will be able to trigger this sense of protection in an instant. Try this whenever you are heading into a crowded place or potentially difficult situation. (And BTW, this is closer to how most men’s energy bodies feel all the time.)

9) Establish regular routines for clearing your subtle body. Everyone has different ways of doing this, but the two biggies are nature and exercise. The elements from nature that I personally most associate with the 2nd chakra are water and trees. So spending time near one or the either is great (and yes, a nice warm bath is a mini-version of clearing in this way too.) In terms of exercise, intense aerobic exercise can really help push out negative energies you have absorbed. And then of course yoga is entirely designed to clear and open the chakras, although it is not always explicitly taught that way. So find a combination that works for you and your life – when I worked in Manhattan and dealt with a lot of abrasive energies on a daily basis, I needed more aggressive forms of exercise (martial arts and aerobics) to clear my subtle body. For most energy healers of psychics, this kind of intense clearing is usually essential. Now I am more into walking and yoga, and that works for the energies I am dealing with.

One technique associated with physical pelvic health that can also be useful is Kegel exercises (here’s an explanation of how to do them.) Although often associated with childbirth preparation, Kegels are simply one way to exercise and strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. They are also part of many yoga asanas (although not usually called Kegels), and even chakra meditation techniques taught in some traditions.

The next few items have to do with learning to work with your natural cycles and life phases, many of which are ruled by 2nd chakra functions.

10) Recognize the life phase you are in, and contemplate how you can work with it. As women, the phases of our lives are driven by our reproductive phases in a way that men’s are not. Each of these phases draw on and challenge our 2nd chakra energies in different ways. I talked about this a bit in Women’s Energy Bodies – Cycles and Phases, and a book mentioned in the comments on that post, Joan Borysenko’s A Woman’s Book of Life, has a lot of interesting material along these lines.

11) If you are a mother, routinely assess your energetic balance. Recognize the phase of mother/child relationship you are in, and think about pacing, balance, and energy access issues as discussed in the Motherhood and Creativity post. Allow yourself solitude.

12) Learn to recognize, accept and work with your personal cycles of going inward and outward. A lot has been written about women’s menstrual cycles, and how that impacts our energy field and awareness. The general theme is that during the first half of our cycle, from the end of menstruation to ovulation, we are more externally focused, yang-driven, and intent and creation oriented. Then during the second half, from ovulation to the start menstruation, we are more internally focused, yin-driven, and intuition and incubation oriented (and more absorbent.) But I think many women have other larger personal cycles too, of going inward and outward in phases (and of course, if you don’t menstruate or are irregular, your cycles may be different also.) So the point is, try and look for these cycles of naturally turning inward and incubating vs. moving outward and creating. Learn what you need to provide for yourself during each phase, and communicate with those around you regarding them, to the extent possible.

There are thousands of different techniques and methods for balancing and clearing the chakras. Here are just a few to consider in relation to the 2nd chakra.

13) Experiment with different food choices that are associated with a healthy 2nd chakra. There are lots of different theories on what foods contribute to the health of each chakra. But guess what one of the most commonly sited signs of a 2nd chakra imbalance is? An unhealthy level of craving for sweets and carbs. The 2nd chakra is partly about desire, and when it’s off balance, we can attempt to fill the resulting void with a ‘quick fix’ of sweet satiation. Although I hesitate to recommend just one chakra food system, a recent book that I did like was Chakra Foods for Optimum Health, by Deanna Minnich. If you feel you have food-related issues, this book is worth your time (and it has recipes!) Some of the foods she associates with a healthy 2nd chakra are: Water, healthy oils and fatty acids, fish, seeds, tropical fruits, nuts, and orange-colored foods (orange is associated with the 2nd chakra in many chakra systems.) Here’s some of the associated recipes: Honeyed Papaya with Raw Coconut flakes, Grilled Salmon with Apricot Orange Sauce and Baby Carrots, Yam Pecan Bake, and Walnut Pesto. Yum!!

14) Explore other chakra balancing/healing/clearing methods. There are lots out there, so explore what resonate with you. They all work on the same principal – each chakra is associated with a certain vibration, and when you come in contact with elements of that same or a supporting vibration, you strengthen that chakra. Some popular examples are essential oils, crytals/gemstones, sound vibrations, and color therapy.

The following items all have to do with supporting feminine power and yin in your life and endeavors.

15) Explore your creative power. We don’t often put ‘creative’ and ‘power’ together, but for women, this is exactly what it is, as explained in the Motherhood and Creativity post. So make sure you have a creative outlet in your life, of any type. Sometimes you may love it, and sometimes it may torture you, but that’s the muse for you. When you create, you are drawing power through your 2nd chakra, and since that is the seat of the kundalini or life force for women, you are in fact empowering all your chakras, and your entire being.

16) Have some activity in your life that forces you to draw on your personal power, as distinct from creative power. This is especially important for women who are too yin. It is possible to become so absorbed in intuitive and creative processes that you end up swinging your 2nd chakra too far in that direction. Signs of this might be difficulty focusing, difficulty completing projects, chronic indecision, or difficulty manifesting change in your life. If this is so, you actually need to bring some power through your 2nd chakra and up into your 3rd chakra, associated with will and intent. Challenging exercise, concrete goals and target dates, a goal-oriented career or project, and martial arts are all examples of activities that can help you draw on this.

17) Compile a selection of powerful and iconic female images. This might be pictures or statues of favorite goddesses, female symbols, deities, or female saints. As i talked about in a recent Art and Mysticism post, art and symbols are doorways, and we can use them to connect to energies we need. My own favorites are pictures of Tibetan Buddhist female teachers and deities such as Yeshe Tsogyal (called the ‘Bliss Queen’) and Green Tara (deity of compassion.)

18) Consider the yin/yang balance of your surroundings/decor, clothing etc. Does your decor and.or clothing reflect a healthy balance of yin and yang? Do you feel nurtured and supported within it? Do you find it beautiful? Experimenting with color can be very helpful here – red-orange is traditionally associated with this chakra, but I find a healthy dose of colors we often associate with femininity – yes, I actually mean pink – can be nice in this regard. One week when I lived in NY and was feeling particularly stressed and off-balance, a friend into color therapy told me to surround myself in pink all weekend. I wore pink, bought pink roses, burned pink candles, ate pink food, and more. It actually worked. I have occasionally done this with red-orance too, when I felt the issue was more about feeling depleted. So experiment. Everything is vibration.

This last part is the most esoteric, and has to do with the principles behind Tantric sprituality and sexuality. As I discussed in the Tantric Sexuality and Spirituality and Bliss posts, technically this is about 1) going into the 2nd chakra, as a doorway to bliss, and 2) bringing the kundalini up through all our chakras. It is really about transmuting the energy of desire into bliss. While teaching how to do that is entirely beyond the scope of this post, here’s a few meditations you can experiment with along these lines (and here’s an mp3 recorded walkthrough of each too)

19) Meditation 1: 2nd Chakra Bliss Bubble – First a note on location. I mentioned in the Tantric Sexuality post that I use the 2nd chakra location that is low, at the cervix, or bottom of our uterus. But it is a plane of energy, and encompasses our entire lower belly or womb area, and the lower part of our spine, 2-3 inches from our tailbone. So you can use any of those locations to access it, and in fact, I usually recommend that people use either the belly or lower spine locations as a point of focus during meditation, because the internal focus can trigger strong sexual energies that are difficult to redirect. But it’s up to you, so experiment.

- Place your hands over your lower belly and take several deep belly breaths.

- Imagine a sphere of gentle white light centered in whatever 2nd chakra focal point you are working with.

- With each breath in, imagine this sphere getting slightly larger, covering a little larger area. Hold the size on each exhalation. Gradually expand the sphere until it engulfs your entire body.

- See if you can feel a blissful energy emanating outward and engulfing you through this meditation. At the end you may want to move directly into a few minutes of the next meditation, your heart chakra, or another meditation form that you like, because staying with your full attention on your 2nd chakra is often not a good idea.

As an aside, this is a great meditation to do while holding your children, pets or another loved one when they are sick, stressed, or otherwise in need of balance and nurturing. Include them inside your ‘bliss bubble’.

20) Meditation 2: Kundalini Rising – An aside here: Kundalini rising techniques are often considered risky because of the energy that can be released, and lineages that teach them often say that they should only be transmitted through direct student-teacher interactions, so that the teacher can assess if the student is ready. For various reasons, in this day and age, I have decided that I think that is complete rubbish, at least in the context of basic meditations like this. All the same, if you experience any discomfort, stop.

- This actually requires picturing light at all the chakras, so if you are not familiar with them, look at some of the resources listed in the next section, and/or the diagram in the Tantric Sexuality post.

- Picture a white sphere of light at your tailbone (root chakra). On the inhalation, imagine it getting slightly larger, and then on the exhalation, imagine a white column of light streaming up your spine and out the top of your head.

-  Picture a white sphere of light at your 2nd chakra (use focal points described above), and do the same thing – on the inhalation, imagine it getting slightly larger, and then on the exhalation, imagine a white column of light streaming up your spine and out the top of your head.

- Do the same thing with each chakra moving your way up: navel, heart, throat, third eye, and crown. For all the chakras after the 2nd, I usually use a focus point on the front of the body, instead of the spine, but either is fine.

- Repeat, 2-3 times.

- Center yourself in your 2nd chakra for a moment, picturing a white sphere of light there for a minute or so there.

- Repeat for the navel, heart, and third eye chakras (note that you skip the root, throat, and crown.)

- Transition to another meditation form that you like, or just sit in stillness and/or silence. It might take a moment to quiet down your awareness after this, because it activates the kundalini. So sit with it a bit.

As an aside, some form of this meditation is taught as part of Tantric Sexuality – i.e. trying to activate the kundalini rising during sex. So experiment with that if you feel so inclined.

21) Find your bliss. ‘Nuf said.

Other Resources

The 2nd chakra is just one chakra, and I chose to write about it because I think it so central for women. But if you want to learn more about all the chakras, this site Chakra Energy is one of the better ones that I found. It is coming from a healing perspective, which is different from my own, as I discussed at the start of the Motherhood and Creativity post. Also, the site uses the more common 2nd and 3rd chakra locations, as described in the Tantric Sexuality post. But I think it is a good general resource.

As I mentioned in a comment, one of my favorite intro books about the chakras from an overall healing perspective is Anatomy of the Spirit, by Caroline Myss, because she discusses them from a physical, psychological and spiritual point of view (this book has been mentioned in no less than three blog posts I have read this week, so I am not the only one that likes it!) And of course, I’ve already reviewed Cyndi Dale’s The Subtle Body, although that is more of a reference book for healers. (She mentioned in our interview that one of her other books is being re-released this summer, so I might review it at that time.)

I listed some other relevant books at the end of the Women’s Energy Bodies – Cycles and Phases post, and wanted to add a couple more here:

The Chalice and the Blade, Riane Eisler – If you are interested in delving into how yin/yang imbalance gets expressed in our culture, and how it got that way, check this classic out. While I’m not comfortable with some of the historical statements she makes, the premise itself is compelling and a great read.

Liquid Light of Sex, by Barbara Hand Clow – This is an astrology book that discusses several key life passages, particularly the Uranus opposition, which occurs around 42, and is associated with mid-life crises. The author believes Uranus is associated with the rise of kundalini (the energy said to move up through the chakras) and that a spontaneous rising of this energy is what is partly going on during this transit.

Energy Medicine for Women, by Donna Eden. I have not yet read this book, but the outine and premise sounds very interesting, and it has a forward by Dr. Christiane Northrup, whose books I like and listed on the Energy Bodies post.

If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve invested a lot of time, so you might as well comment! I always love to hear feedback and questions…

And if you like this post, please also Subscribe or

2nd Chakra Series – Spirituality and Bliss

This is the fourth in a marathon series I am doing this week on the 2nd, or sacral chakra, in women. The prior posts were on Tantric Sexuality, Intuition and Seeing, and Motherhood and Creating, and the post after this is on 21 Ways to Care for Your 2nd Chakra. As you can see, I am a bit of a chakra geek. We all need our obsessions.

I was trying to decide how to start this post, and finally settled on the question, what is bliss?

I ask this because in the yogic and meditative traditions that address women’s 2nd chakras, it is associated with a certain kind of bliss. Not happiness, or connectivity, or mindfulness, or love, or clarity, or even epiphany, but specifically bliss. So what is bliss?

I’m not sure it can be described by a non-poet such as myself, but mystics in virtually every tradition have described a kind of bliss, or rapture (St. Theresa of Avila’s choice of word), where all boundaries, all sense of a limited self, fell away. A dissolution really, into the pure light – or pure love – of existence. It’s like being a wave in the ocean (I know I’ve used that phrase before, but I warned you I’m not a poet, so my metaphors are limited!)

All of that sounds a bit cliche, and bliss really is very different from other spiritual experiences. Bliss is an integrated mind/body/spirit experience – it isn’t only a physical sensation, or an emotion, or a mental realization, or spiritual transcendence ‘outside’ the body. It is simultaneously experienced physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, because it is touching the essence of all of those planes.

In meditative traditions that address it, women’s 2nd chakras are specifically associated with bliss, as is the entire female, or yin, aspect of existence. Men can of course experience it too, because any human can experience any state, but energetically women’s 2nd chakras are the most direct access to it. In fact, as I mentioned, this is one of the approaches within Tantric Sexuality – a man and woman both travel with their awareness through the doorway of the women’s 2nd chakra during sex. This bliss is really associated with creation, and as I’ve already discussed in the last post, the 2nd chakra is energetically the root of creation.

I think almost everyone gets glimpses of this bliss, ‘nectar’ it is sometimes called in Eastern writing, throughout their lives, particularly anyone that is actively seeking in some way. And interestingly, the word ‘bliss’ is sometimes used to describe two distinct female physical experiences that are associated with the 2nd chakra – the aftermath of orgasm, and nursing a baby. Of course both of these release hormones that ripple through the uterus and contribute to these sensations. But considering the link between the uterus and the 2nd chakra, it’s fascinating to me that I see that word used so often in that context.

There are all sorts of other spiritual experiences we can have, bliss is just one. In fact, there are distinct experiences associated with each of the four paths I described in my Four Paths to Freedom post, and each can be tied to a chakra: Service is associated with the navel chakra, devotion with the heart, inquiry with the third eye, and yoga/mysticism with the crown. You don’t have to be aware of your chakras at all for this to happen – it just does. Exploring the chakras is just a way for understanding it in a new way, and may open up new experiences.

As I mentioned in the first post, meditative traditions that revolve around the chakras focus on one of two approaches: 1) Raising the kundalini, or life force, up through all the chakras into the crown, or 2) Going through one particular spiritual ‘doorway’, usually the heart for devotional paths that revolve around the realization of divine love, or the third eye for those that revolve around recognizing the true nature of reality. And of course, Tantric sexuality uses the 2nd in a unique way. Of course all paths, and all of life, use all the chakras, because they are the nervous system of our energetic body. Just as we can’t really do much with just one part of our body, we can’t do much with just one chakra. But different paths do ’specialize’ in different ones, much like different forms of exercise use one part of our body more than others.

Regardless of what ‘path’ you consider yourself on (and even if it’s not explicit), if you are a woman I think there is special value in understanding your 2nd chakra, and of caring for and exploring it in certain ways, because of the unique role it plays in our energetic body. That unique role is part of what I’ve been trying to outline in the last three posts. But from a meditative perspective, it has an additional role, if you buy into the idea (as I do) that it is really the primary seat of our kundalini or life force, rather than the 1st chakra, as is usually taught for both men and women. This means that the health of our 2nd chakra is essential to any spiritual experience or realization, because the kundalini can’t move up into our other chakras otherwise.

In addition, because our 2nd chakra is so essential to our being, bliss is a special proclivity of ours. It’s a spiritual doorway uniquely available to us. So find your bliss!

And don’t get me wrong – spiritual experience is not spiritual realization. A good chakra meditator can get very proficient at opening their heart chakra (for example) during meditation, and feeling great waves of love, and then get up from their meditation cushion and still be a jerk in real life. I have been in and out of spiritual communities my entire adult life, and I see it all the time (and have to admit, experienced this myself too!) Opening a chakra, and experiencing its energy, is a technical skill, and translating that into wisdom requires an integrated practice. So I’m not trying to say bliss – or any other spiritual experience – is the be all and end all. But it can sure help open your awareness and loosen your attachments to heavier states. And who doesn’t want to experience bliss?

I’ll talk about caring for your 2nd chakra in the final post tomorrow, but I did want to talk about one way that I think the centrality of our 2nd chakras influences women’s journeys, and that is that we are much more cyclical. We of course have monthly cycles, and as I discussed in my Women’s Energy Body post, we also have life cycles. But I think most of us also have natural energy cycles of incubation and creation, even in our daily lives. This is sometimes wrongly labeled as ‘moodiness’. Banish that word! I think we just naturally move in these inward and outward cycles related to our 2nd chakra energies, and learning to honor and work with that is essential. I’ll talk a bit more about this later too.

I welcome your thoughts and suggestions…

And if you like this post, please also Subscribe or

The final post in this series is 21 Ways to Care for Your Sacral Chakra.

Introduction to the 2nd Chakra and Tantric Sexuality

Awhile back I said I was going to write a series on the 2nd chakra, and particularly the 2nd chakra in women. I’ve delayed and delayed it, because I was having a really hard time clarifying for myself everything I wanted to say. It’s become a bit of a block. I’ve finally just decided I have to spit it all out quickly, over a few days. So, I am going to post on the 2nd chakra related to the following this week: 1) Tantric sexuality (this post), 2) Intuition and Seeing, 3) Motherhood and Creativity, 4) Spirituality and Bliss, and then wrapping it all up with 5) 21 Ways to Care for Your 2nd Chakra.

I usually only post once a week or so, but I’m planning on doing these one a day over the next 5 days. So for those of you that subscribe, sorry if I back up your Reader or Inbox, and don’t worry, it’s not a permanent change!

As background, I talked a bit about why I wanted to do this series in this post, and about women’s energy bodies in general in this one. I don’t think you need to have read those posts to follow this series, but I do want to repeat one theme from those posts: I think anyone, and particularly any woman, can benefit a lot from some contemplation and understanding of the 2nd chakra, even if your own chosen spiritual path does not address chakras.

I don’t want to get bogged down with too much background on the chakras, but I do think it’s worth mentioning that current Western chakra writing primarily focuses on chakras from the perspective of health – mental, emotional and physical health. That’s a relatively new development in the history of chakras, because classic sources (which are mostly Indian and Tibetan) were interested in them for occult and spiritual purposes. I feel both are valid, but my focus here is more on the latter, and thus some of what you read might be quite different from sources that are more health oriented.

One of the differences you find between the traditions is the chakra mappings themselves, particularly the placement of the 2nd chakra. Here’s the map I use, which corresponds to that used in most Tibetan lineages that address chakras (and sorry I couldn’t find a picture of a woman, or at least a cuter guy – for some reason these mappings are always very unattractive!):

Chakra Mapping

As in most chakra systems, the 1st chakra is at the tailbone, and you work your way up to the 7th at the crown of the head. The mapping most Westerners are familiar with places the 2nd and 3rd chakras differently from this picture – the 2nd is typically at or just under the navel (where the 3rd is here) and the 3rd is at the solar plexus (where there is just a black dot here designating a minor energy node.)

As Cyndi Dale discussed when I interviewed her, there are actually many different chakra mappings that have developed around the world, and even pretty profound differences in mappings amongst classic Indian and Tibetan sources. How to account for these differences? I think of them in terms of different types of maps: You can have a roadmap, a geologic map, a hiking map, a natural resources map, and more, all for the same area. They are all equally valid, they are each just meant to serve a different purpose. And none of them is the place itself. So various chakra mappings are tools for helping us identify and work with energy patterns and structures within our non-physical being. And they are each slightly different depending on the purpose for which they evolved.

The chakras are often described as mind/body/spirit nexuses, or intersections of our physical and non-physical energies. Within the Tantric traditions, of which there are both Indian and Tibetan Buddhist lineages, they are often also described as awareness vortexes. Some people describe the shape of them as spheres, others as cones, others as planes. Don’t get caught up on the shape. The important thing, for women especially, is understanding the centerpoint of the 2nd chakra in this system. It is at the cervix, the opening of the uterus. In some women, this corresponds to the g-spot, the semi-mythical point of maximum sexual arousal (hopefully that sentence won’t get me boycotted by the search engines, which a friend warned me about!) Assuming this location, this chakra is associated with some pretty amazing experiences and functions in our physical body: It is associated with internal orgasm, with holding a baby into the womb during pregnancy, and with opening to bring that baby into the world during the birth process.

Is it any wonder then, that as a spiritual doorway, it is pretty intense?

In the meditative systems that utilize chakras there are two different themes or ‘purposes’ to chakra meditation that you find: 1) Bringing the kundalini, or life force energy, up through all the chakras into our crown chakra, and 2) Going through the ‘doorway’ of each chakra into spiritual dimensions of awareness (I don’t like that phrase ’spiritual dimensions’ but the words used are usually something along those lines.) What fascinates me is that the experiences described by mystics from pretty much any tradition – Christianity to Zen to Sufism to Eckhart Tolle to Kaballah to Vedanta – correspond to one or more of those described in the classic chakra texts. So, one of these two things occurs spontaneously whenever we have an experience that we classify as ‘mystic’ or ’spiritual’ – either some kundalini has risen up our main spinal energy channel or we have ‘walked through’ the doorway of a particular chakra. We may not describe it that way, but ‘under the hood’ of our energetic system, that is what is going on.

Ok, on to Tantric sexuality. You may be familiar with this term from the numerous ’sex aid’ books on the market bearing this name. These have little to nothing to do with true Tantric sexuality. Most of these books have just borrowed a few positions and ’sex is union’ or ’sex is sacred’ type themes from the original texts, and repackaged them as methods for attaining maximum physical and emotional pleasure from sex. Which I have no problem with. Life is short, have as much fun as you can. BUT, this is not Tantric sexuality.

I also feel duty-bound to mention that most modern Tibetan Tantric Buddhist traditions do not incorporate actual physical sex into the practice. All those robed Tibetan monks that you see are not secretly having orgies behind monastery walls. Tantric Buddhism does work with themes of desire differently than other Buddhist branches, and often visualizations of male and female deities in sexual union are one of the meditative techniques used, but for most that’s as far as it goes. The best introduction to Tantric Buddhism in this regard that I have found is Lama Yeshe’s Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire.

For those lineages that do practice Tantric sex (and there are Hindu yogic lineages that do so also, not just Buddhist ones), the same approaches are described as in meditative techniques: The ‘goal’ is either to bring the kundalini up through all the chakras into the crown, OR to catapult through a particular chakra, using it as a vortex into pure awareness or source. The difference is that you are using the incredible energy of sexual desire – one of the most powerful human urges – to drive this process. Properly directed, you use this energy to catapult yourself into experiences that could take years to reach sitting on a meditation cushion. Basically, you are using rocket fuel instead of plain old gasoline. In formal lineages, it takes years of preparatory training before you’re allowed to try this, and even then it’s considered a challenging practice.

So why am I talking about this?

Because the biographies of some of the female teachers within these lineages, and some other completely unrelated traditions (like some pagan texts, the Carlos Castenada books, and the books of female ’sorceresses’ within his group), elude to another possibility within this kind of sexual practice. They discuss the womb – or really, the 2nd chakra, NOT the associated physical organ – as a doorway into creation itself. It is in a way the ultimate vortex, a doorway directly into the creating aspect of the universe/God/Goddess/the tao/nirvana/whatever-name-you-want-to-use. And both partners can walk through this doorway – the doorway of the woman’s 2nd chakra – during sexual union.

This aspect of the 2nd chakra in women – as the ultimate vortex into creation itself – is the background I wanted to provide for the rest of this series, and the only reason I wanted to cover Tantric sexuality at all. I went through all this to support the idea that women’s 2nd chakras are fundamentally different from men’s. (Other contemporary women writing about chakras have said this also – Cyndi Dale mentioned that she believes the 2nd chakra is the true seat of women’s kundalini, rather than the 1st chakra, which is the traditional teaching.) So this is the technical case for why, if you are a woman, you should view your 2nd chakra, and an understanding of it, as particularly important.

Hopefully that didn’t leave you blurry-eyed, and peaked your interested enough to read the next post on Intuition, which should be a little less theoretical…

Please feel free to comment, dispute, or ask any questions you have in the comments, so that I can address them as the series progresses…

And if you like this post, please also Subscribe or