Spiritual Development
Q and A w/ Eric: Part 2 – Am I Cheating When I Use Technology to Assist My Spiritual Growth
This is the second video of a new series in which Eric Thompson, Chief Technical Officer and Creator of the iAwake Technology, answers questions he receives from iAwake practitioners. Here Eric is exploring inner meditation technologies versus outer meditation technologies, such as the Profound Meditation Program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxKOgDmzsCg What do you think about Eric’s response? Do…
Read MoreTaking a Universal Perspective and What We Can Do to Evolve
Why is the whole big picture—everything, the universe—part of our conversation? It’s because we’re evolving the human brain, which means we’re evolving consciousness. I don’t know of anything more important going on right now, because everything else flows from that. There’s not a problem in the world that I can think of offhand that is…
Read MoreEmptiness and Fullness by Bill Epperly
There are two essential capacities for awakening: emptiness and fullness. What I mean by emptiness is access to radical emptiness—abiding in the place where self can seemingly dissolve to nothing, where we are in the presence of nothing, and yet have the felt sense of tremendous presence that is pure potential. I want to contrast that with…
Read MoreQ & A with Eric: Am I Cheating When I Use Technology to Assist My Spiritual Growth?
This is the first video of a new series in which Eric Thompson, Chief Technical Officer and Creator of the iAwake Technology, answers questions he receives from iAwake practitioners. What do you think about Eric’s response? Do you have any further questions or comments? Let us know!
Read MoreTo a Friend in Need: Opening the Way for Inner Healing & Transformation
I understand that it can be hard seeing yourself as able to make a big shift, especially when everything in your past says you can’t. The way I’ve been able to make that shift is to realize that there is a reality much bigger than my past and my conditioned identity (I tend to refer to this…
Read MoreBrainwave and Biofield Entrainment and Ultimate Spiritual Liberation
Can brainwave and biofield entrainment help in ultimate spiritual liberation? Perhaps, according to some views that still rely on subject-object dualism, it can’t or at least may not matter that much, since they are more concerned with the empty side of the table, the transcendent Subject, which, in their schools, is divorced from the manifested…
Read MoreIntegration and Mindfulness: A Dynamic Duo
Something I find quite extraordinary about the Profound Meditation Program is the integrative power of the practice. In other words, you really get through your trauma and shadow issues. They come out during the process, and often they’re expressed not just in cognitive ideas but in bodily-felt sensations. This doesn’t necessarily happen with traditional meditation. Because the Profound Meditation Program is…
Read MoreArt from the Edge of Everything: Painting as Spiritual Practice
Louis Parsons’ art SoulScapes was recently featured in the Integral Art Gallery – December 2012. ___________________________________________________________________________ Louis Parsons, Artist, iAwake Guest Blogger I’ve been painting professionally, in a very particular way that has become known as “SoulScaping,” for over ten years. During this time, painting has been my major spiritual practice. You see, to be honest, I’m not that good at meditating. I have a very…
Read MoreHow to Open Your Heart with Centering Prayer
There is not a whole lot of theology attached to Centering Prayer, but there is a lot of phenomenology―meaning inner experience. Centering Prayer is an invitation to center down and not only clear the mind and be present, but to be present to God, basically. When we surrender like this, then there is no such thing as an…
Read MoreTransformational Practice: How to Reach Higher Stages of Development
If we understand stage development, we understand the challenges that face us as a world; with so many people at so many different levels all thinking they are absolutely correct and everyone else is wrong, it’s really hard for people to even speak to each other. If you think I’m wrong, go home for Thanksgiving or…
Read MorePracticing Meditation to Reach Higher States, Higher Stages
One of the great benefits of brainwave entrainment meditation is that it is one of the only things that has been shown to actually facilitate and speed up the process of moving stably into higher developmental levels. I love it that we can now watch exactly what happens in the brain when someone is practicing…
Read MoreSharpen Your Swords
Recently, my wife Pam and I were at a conference focused on where contemplative wisdom and technology intersect. It was a very interesting, extraordinary experience. One of the remarkable things that went on was hearing from a number of MIT-, Harvard-, and Brown University-trained neuroscientists talk about meditation and neuroscience. As I listened, it became…
Read MoreCreativity and Conscious Evolution
I picked up a book the other day by Rollo May called The Courage to Create, published in 1975. Rollo May was an existential psychologist, and I think he was quite influential in some of Ken Wilber’s early stuff. His half-brother, Gerald May, wrote a classic in the recovery field, calledAddiction & Grace. Anyway, The Courage to…
Read MoreSo, what is enlightenment anyway?
I want to talk about non-duality and enlightenment and open up that whole can of worms, because there’s just a lot of talk about it these days. We put ourselves through all kinds of crazy things in order to achieve it: we join ashrams, follow spiritual teachers, spend lots of money, and really do all…
Read MoreSpace and the Art of Letting Go
In the moment just before the Zen archer releases the arrow to strike the bull’s-eye, all inner static vanishes with the emergence of effortless clarity. Before any action has begun, the martial arts master stands poised in infinite silence, completely centered and ready for anything. Scientific research reveals an interesting neurological phenomenon correlated with inner…
Read MoreBrainwave States in Traditional Buddhist and Hindu Teachings Part 4
Causal Body, Causal State Termed the karana sarira in Vedanta, the causal body is deemed to be limitless and expansive in nature, a body of bliss and spirit. It is the seat of deep wisdom and insight. Certain Buddhist manuscripts have asserted this state to be approachable through the state of deep, dreamless sleep. As such, its…
Read MoreBrainwave States in Traditional Buddhist and Hindu Teachings Part 3
Subtle Body, Subtle State In Mahayana Buddhism, the sambhogakaya refers to the subtle body, or the astral body, which is made of brilliant, clear light. Vedanta calls this the sukshma sarira, correlating it with the “dreaming self” that supports the emotional-sexual, mental and higher mental capacities. Its corresponding state is one in which the mental capacity for discernment…
Read MoreBrainwave States in Traditional Buddhist and Hindu Teachings Part 2
Gross Body, Gross State The densest body in Vedanta is the gross body—the sthula sarira, which supports the waking state of consciousness as well as the annamayakosha, the outermost of five sheaths which cover the deepest Self like a 5-layered lampshade. It is the physical body made up of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and…
Read MoreBrainwave States in Traditional Buddhist and Hindu Teachings Part 1
WAKING, DREAMING, SLEEPING by Eric Thompson The four brainwave patterns most often studied in science (Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta) represent states of waking, dreaming and sleeping through which we pass every 24 hours. While all brainwave patterns are usually present throughout the day, Beta activity is dominant during the waking state. Alpha and Theta appear…
Read MoreSpiritual Growth Through Bi-Directional Causality
Ever since the emergence of behaviorism, the trend to interpret the material world as being primary and the world of conscious awareness as being secondary (and therefore without the capacity for causation) has increased steadily and rapidly. The wisdom traditions, on the other hand, have usually maintained that the intangible world of spirit is primary.…
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