Blog
Nourishing the Body
“It is slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body” said Kahlil Gibran.
The words of Gibran, born in 1873 in the Lebanon, are perhaps more relevant today than ever. The mind, this tremendous creative powerhouse, experiences great suffering when it gets lost, believing its own creations. The body, on the other hand, is always in reality, receiving and responding to real time chemical and biological information.
When the mind settles into the reality of the body, m…
The Lab and The Field
In our courses we refer to the two environments in which realisation can occur.
The first is ‘the Lab’.
This is the world of spiritual books, webinars, courses, podcasts, videos and retreats. It is enquiry happening in the luxury of isolation. It is the allowing in of words, theories and ideas and the space of reflection in which they resonate or are rejected. All of it taking place as a relationship between theory and inner felt truth.
The Lab is dedicated study. It is simply the inte…
The Most Profound Perspective Change
I’ve recently started to learn rock climbing and had my first outdoor experience of it on the cliffs in the North of Sicily as part of a group holiday.
Often I would find myself desperately searching for a new foot or hand hold and there would be absolutely nothing available. The situation would look hopeless and I would be on the verge of telling my belay partner that I had to come down.
She was an excellent partner (Shout out to Shing the Great) because she would relentlessly call encour…
Three Purposes
There are three purposes of life in the form of a particular body mind.
The First Purpose is to experience what we are not.
Aliveness, consciousness, intelligence and unconditional love are absolute, infinite in time and space, beyond definition, beyond concept and are all that exists.
For any experience to occur there has to be a form. Whether this is thought, emotion, mind, body, self or object, the form is by definition limited in time and space.
It cannot be the infinite and absolu…
The Commentary Box
[Excerpt from FREE 'Commentary']
“And here she comes up on the left side. She’s had a bad season so she probably doesn't have it in her. Plus she’s been eating too much chocolate and so she’s not going to even fit in the dress she bought for the event this weekend. AND she’s going to it on her own so not only will she be not fitting into her dress, she will be standing like a lemon in a corner. What she should do now is to not eat and exercise all week. And be better at keeping husbands. Oh l…
It is Slavery to live in the mind…
'It's a Slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body'
This quote from Khalil Gibran might be the most profound, far reaching and sane sixteen words we are lucky enough to have been given.
Such a simple sentence and yet it conveys everything we need to know about human suffering and how it ends.
It is Slavery to live in the mind…
In one powerful word ‘Slavery’ Gibran describes the torture, restriction and compulsion of a life lived from an identified, believing mind.
…How Love is Veiled
[Excerpt from HOME, the return to what you already are]
In the American version of The Office, two characters Ryan and Kelly have an office romance and after a while it ends. Ryan, reflecting on their relationship post break-up, says of Kelly ‘I’d rather she be alone than with someone else… Is that love…?’
An alien researching the definition of human love according to popular culture might well agree with him.
‘Absolutely Ryan,’ it would say in its alien voice. ‘You are spot on. Love on Pla…
Getting what we want
I am often asked either in interviews or for the podcast, ‘What has changed for you through this conversation?’
There are many things I could say about how every aspect of my life has changed. And similarly, the participants on any of our courses will describe the transformations they have witnessed.
How relationships are unrecognisably easy, how much better they are doing at work, how their anxiety has gone, how things that looked impossible to attempt previously are now done with ease…
T…
The love of our life
[Excerpt from It's not you... and it's not me]
This is not an internet quick fix.
It is not a way to secure the undying love and commitment of the person who we think will make everything OK.
It is not a way to never feel rejected, lonely, sad or isolated.
It is not a way to get them back or to change their minds.
It is an orientation of healing and expansion for the rest of our life.
It is meeting each moment of suffering in its fullness, of seeing what it reveals and how it points…
The Wish List
[Excerpt from FREE, Getting real with life, unlimited]
The music comes on and the three year olds start dancing. Jumping and twirling and laughing and bouncing and falling around. They can’t help it. Because music is playing.
The entire experience of self, life and world is transient and ever-changing.
And this prompts the question: if we realise it is all so fluid why would we bother doing, creating or having anything?
Well, let’s imagine my wish list was: to be a billionaire and super f…