Realization moves past the words and images that have formed “us” within our story, jumps into the abyss, and becomes nothing—lives the nothing it once feared becoming. Faith, not will, guides this step. This is not the blind faith that God will catch us as we fall, but the recognition that there is nothing left … Continued

This examination of the truth of the story-of-me can only be done in the immediacy of Now, at the juncture of the horizontal and vertical dimensions. It can only be accomplished through the trust of interconnectedness. Here and only here will the story end. “My” story can be modified from the horizontal dimension, but not … Continued

There is a threshold of ignorance necessary for a three-dimensional self to form, but in the unencumbered immediacy of Now that threshold is never reached. If there is any flinching from Now, the story springs back to life because that flinch is a movement of thought away from Now and a return to the horizontal … Continued

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies. They are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.—JACOB BRONOWSKI

Since our being and life are not two different events, life can never be known for what it truly is, only for what the mind makes it as it fractures life into an objective experience. To counter the tendency of mind to objectify life into something through the conclusions it forms, an authentic spiritual path … Continued

Though questioning requires a platform of stability, it threatens that stability as well. The paradox is that we can only move forward when our security is threatened, because we are never further from the truth than when we are certain. Ignorance can be detected within the conclusion of any position. When we conclude a final … Continued

We can pull out of any question, at any time, at any level, and our personal story is always there to catch our fall. Our narrative holds all our explanations, but it has no wonder. The sincere spiritual question does not stop until there is wonder. The question drops like a stone into a pool … Continued

Questions are free to roam beyond areas of self-inflicted pain, and can be driven by a simple interest, a point of curiosity, or the urge to understand. What all spiritual questions have in common is the compelling force of discovery, the willingness to put aside everything for the sake of wonderment, and the reluctance to … Continued

The Buddha understood investigation as one of the factors of awakening, fundamental to moving from the horizontal to the vertical dimension. He so highly prized investigation that he calls it the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, 4 sometimes referred to as Contemplation of the Dharma. Contemplation of the Dharma is holding a questioning attitude toward all … Continued

Occasionally my wife, Ellen, will ask me to attend to a difficulty she is having. Usually I will listen and come up with a solution, but my quick response does not usually satisfy Ellen because her intention is to have me accompany her within the problem rather than solve it. In my more worldly moments, … Continued

The lay Buddhist does not try to arrange her life to fit her spiritual intention, but rather brings forth that intention to every facet of her life. When the primary intention is used in this way, it serves the spirit of awakening. Intentions and views are the steering mechanism for our energy. Intentions move us … Continued

A great shift occurs when effort is used to comprehend rather than surmount our limitations. As our efforts move toward understanding the mind and body, we begin to release the need to control our emotions, because influencing our experience interferes with this investigation. We settle back and experience what we are without trying to become … Continued

Effortlessness reveals the natural state of all things. From this abiding we hear the truth of the Buddha’s words: “One insight is that effort is the basis of all suffering. The other insight is that by the complete cooling and cessation of effort no more suffering is produced. These are the two insights, grasp them … Continued

It is important to allow our effort to evolve with our insight, but not to fixate upon either the insight or the effort. Each time we know where we are going, an unconscious mental freeze occurs, and we get locked into a horizontal view of a vertical dimension. But right before that freeze is imposed, … Continued