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If you find yourself on the spiritual journey, then you know from experience the road is often unclear and the directions are vague. These Shortcuts are designed to help you find your way more effectively. Subscribers receive one Shortcut via email each week. Simply enter your email address below to receive your first Shortcut.
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I recently received an email from a friend of a friend wanting some help finding a spirituality that would “give [her] some peace.” As I pondered this request, it became clear to me that some sort of “Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Awakening” might be of use to her and hopefully others. This article is the first in what will probably be several on how to get started in spirituality with an emphasis on awakening.
Since many guides for beginners can at times be long and confusing, I’m going to attempt to keep these articles simple, in other words, no more than five to ten simple steps that one can take or brief comments awakening and spirituality. That should make it easier for someone just starting out to dive in easily… Read the rest →
Tagged with: spiritual awakening
I invite you to head over to takuin.com and read What Do You Believe? by my friend Takuin Minamoto. It is an extremely well done picture of what awakening looks like from the inside. Enjoy. Namaste.
Tagged with: belief, spiritual awakening
When Bill Clinton ran for President against the incumbent George Bush (the elder Bush, not W) in 1992, the US economy wasn’t doing so hot. One of Clinton’s advisers made a rather apt observation about the main message that Bill and the campaign should stick to, one that would undoubtedly prove to be the key to Clinton’s election over a rather popular George Bush. The message: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
In a sense, one of my “advisers” recently reminded me of something that I had either forgotten or failed to learn fully. While I can’t honestly say that I, Tom Stine, have a purpose for doing the spiritual teaching that I do, it is readily apparent… Read the rest →
Tagged with: spiritual awakening, teaching
Head over to TalkingPurpose.com and watch the video interview I recently did with Michelle Vandepas. I’ve done a few other interviews with Michelle, and they are fun for me and hopefully interesting for you. We discussed awakening and enlightenment and a host of other topics. Watch and enjoy! Namaste.
Tagged with: interview, spiritual awakening
By using the term “Half-Awake” I’ve probably given a somewhat false impression to many people. Saying half-awake almost implies that there are 3 states that a person can exist in:
Asleep
Half-Awake (or Half-Asleep)
Awake
However, as a few of you can attest, a schema such as this one would be grossly over-simplified and possibly inaccurate. Let me try to clarify a bit what I mean by half-awake and how it fits into what is experienced along the spiritual journey:
1. ASLEEP
The vast majority of humanity is sound asleep. When I say the vast majority, I mean to say 99.99% (and I may have left out a few 9′s). I… Read the rest →
Tagged with: half-awake, spiritual awakening
I strongly urge all of you to read Who Hears This Sound? Adyashanti On Waking Up From The Dream Of “Me” published a few years ago in The Sun magazine. Someone sent me a link to the article, and I found it to be one of the best and clearest presentations of Adyashanti’s teachings I’ve ever read. It is often hard to find succinct versions of a teacher’s ideas and thoughts, but the interviewer did a nice job of bringing greater clarity to an already fairly clear teaching. That’s one of the reasons I like Adya so much: he is extraordinarily clear for an awake guy.
Here are a few excerpts to read now… Read the rest →
Tagged with: Adyashanti, enlightenment, spiritual awakening
One of my long time readers sent me some questions about my article To Be Half-Awake (and Half-Asleep). Here are his questions and my answers:
1. You wrote: “It is almost the same experience as awakening from a dream at night. Almost.”What are the differences you observe?
Good question. Well, the big difference is that when you awaken from a dream at night, the dream world disappears and is replaced by the seemingly real world. As you awaken from the dream state as it is called, as you spiritually awaken, you find that you are still in the dream! But what a dream it is! It is still populated by the same people, the same things going on, but for some… Read the rest →
Tagged with: Jed McKenna, spiritual awakening
“I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member.” — Groucho Marx
As I mentioned in a previous post, To Be Half-Awake (and Half-Asleep), my experience of spiritual awakening has been to be in a state that I am referring to as Half-Awake. Moreover, as I discussed, there are others who are experiencing this strange state, including some of you reading these articles (and I heard from quite a few of you after the last one). It is a far more common state than we might imagine, while at the same time, not the experience of the majority of humanity.
Moreover, it has been my… Read the rest →
Tagged with: A Course in Miracles, half-awake, spiritual awakening
I am half-awake. Or half-asleep. Or even better, I am awake and asleep at the same time. It is a strange place to be, and I’m sure there are others who know what I mean. And I’m also sure there are spiritual teachers and writers who would say that such a state does not exist. But still, it is my experience.
What does it mean to be half-awake? The best way to explain it would be first to start with what being awake means. Being spiritually awake means the same thing as enlightened. I prefer the phrase “spiritual awakening” over enlightenment simply because it has less baggage associated with it. There is too much talk in the spiritual world about… Read the rest →
Tagged with: half-awake, spiritual awakening
So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Inner and outer, however, are so intertwined that it is almost impossible to speak of one without referring to the other.
Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation… Read the rest →
Tagged with: Eckhart Tolle, spiritual awakening
In case you can’t tell, I’m a bit of a puritan purist when it comes to spirituality. Awakening or enlightenment is what it is all about! But isn’t there more to spirituality than just awakening?
I suppose it depends upon what we mean by spirituality. If you look at it as an observer, you would think that spirituality was about everything but awakening. At least, if you listen to the voices in the world of spirituality speak, you will rarely if ever hear anything about awakening. So, yes, spirituality deals with far more than awakening. In it, we find everything from angels to zen and so much in between.
Let me hear from you. Is it more than “concerned with spirit,” ie, the non-material? Is it more than enlightenment?… Read the rest →
Tagged with: spiritual awakening, Spirituality
All of our thoughts are conditioned. We all are thinking exactly along the lines we are conditioned to think. Programmed like a computer. Anybody who thinks they are actually choosing of their own free will the line of thinking that they have is completely deluded by their thinking.
Tagged with: Adyashanti, spiritual awakening, thinking
Recently, I’ve written some articles concerning death and rebirth. The first one touched on the fate of an awakened one after the body dies, and the second one focused on past lives and reincarnation. I want to continue the discussion of rebirth and past lives today.
In my prior article, I took a position on past lives that caused quite a bit of disagreement. To be honest, what I was presenting wasn’t really what I believe about past lives or reincarnation because, to be honest, I don’t have the slightest idea what happens. And for the most part, I don’t think anyone really can know. But, you never know!
So, how about a counter point, one that is different from… Read the rest →
Tagged with: death, realization, spiritual awakening
I love the subject of past lives or reincarnation. I went to a “psychic” once who told me that I was one of Napoleon’s generals. I guess that explains why I love speaking French, eat French food and I’m 5 ft 6 in tall (can’t be taller than the Emperor!).
Yet even though I love the subject of past lives, I have to say that I don’t have much investment in the concept. I don’t find the subject particularly important to the spiritual journey. Moreover, I can’t even really say that I “believe” in them. Let me explain further.
Past Lives and Memories
The entire subject of past lives hinges upon one thing: memories. Many people remember the events of a life that,… Read the rest →
Tagged with: reincarnation, spiritual awakening
A reader sent me the following questions:
Something I have never quite understood is that after we come to this realization of the one self that we are not our [the] body or the mind or the thoughts, then we see the body die what then? And what is the difference in the death of a realized one and a unrealized person?
What happens when the body dies? That is a question that has plagued mortal man from the earliest days. So much of religion is basically an attempt to answer that question, with enough theories of heavens and hells to keep us debating for the rest of our lives.
So let… Read the rest →
Tagged with: death, realization, spiritual awakening
Larry Melton
I had the pleasure of interviewing a wonderful spiritual teacher, Larry Melton, who lives and teaches in Davis, California. Larry was a student of Adyashanti’s for a few years, and then after he experienced a profound spiritual awakening, he was asked by Adya to teach.
Our conversation is focused primarily on Larry’s experience of spiritual awakening, how that developed over the years he spent in spirituality, and what all of that has meant for his life. We also discussed awakening quite a bit, and it was fascinating to hear Larry’s perspectives and insights. I think you will agree. So click play below to listen now, or download the mp3 and take it with you on your iPod.
Tagged with: Adyashanti, spiritual awakening
In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.
Tagged with: Jack Kornfield, spiritual awakening
In my last article, I shared some ideas about the proverbial “enlightened guy.” As I mentioned, I prefer the term awakening as it has a little less historical baggage associated with it, but no matter, I think we all know at least something about the subject, no matter what we call it. As spiritual awakening is one of the primary topics of this site, I thought it would be good to have some more discussion about it. And interestingly, Adyashanti provided just what I needed.
Here is an excerpt from a satsang Adyashanti did at the April 2008 silent retreat of his that I attended. I’ll let him do the talking, then… Read the rest →
Tagged with: Adyashanti, spiritual awakening
I recently received an email from Ariel Bravy that I really enjoyed and couldn’t wait to answer. With his kind permission, I’m going to answer it here. Ready? I’m going to break the email down section by section and respond to each part. Here we go:
Hey Tom,You seem to be a pretty spiritually advanced seeker as well and I was wondering
if I could bounce some ideas off of you. Perhaps you could help bring some
clarity to something I’m looking at…
I’m going to start off with one of the first things Ariel mentions, not because I’m nitpicky today, but because it is something that I feel… Read the rest →
Tagged with: ego, free will, spiritual awakening
A short and sweet article for today. I simply want to state my gratitude to Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey for what they’ve given us with their collaboration a few months back in the excellent series of webinars on Oprah.com. And what have they given us? A populace buzzing with interest in our passion: spirituality. And not just any old spirituality, not your garden variety spirituality that sounds like the humdrum world of church and religion. No, I’m talking the kind of spirituality that ultimately leads to spiritual awakening.
You see, Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth, is really about spiritual awakening. He never says it in his book, for quite likely good reasons, but… Read the rest →
Tagged with: A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle, spiritual awakening
This retreat has been amazing. While the Sedona Method in general seems more like a personal growth, self-help course with some spirituality tossed in, the “advanced” retreat is completely focused on what Hale refers to as “the realization of what you are” but in other spiritual circles would be called awakening. Personally, I love the term awakening, as it captures the flavor of the experiential side of things. It feels as if one is awakening from a dream. The dream of a separate self called “me.”
Let me share with you a few gems from the past 2 days:
- If there is no separate individual, then there is no one who can or has done anything. No doer. Just bodies in motion. Therefore, I’ve never done anything, and no
Tagged with: knowing, spiritual awakening
When I ride on a roller coaster, I love to ride in the front seat. Everything seems to happen right now when you sit in the front. I put my arms up, of course, no holding on, no matter what the coaster does. Upside down, slammed to the side, you name it. It’s just more fun to be on the leading edge of the experience, arms up, come what may.
I realized recently that this same attitude is very important to take with life in general. Especially with thoughts and feelings. We usually “ride” our thoughts and feelings, especially our unpleasant feelings, in the back seat, as far from the leading edge as possible. We hope that… Read the rest →
Tagged with: now, spiritual awakening
“There is no explanation you can give that would explain away all the sufferings and evil and torture and destruction and hunger in the world! You’ll never explain it. You can try gamely with your formulas, religious and otherwise, but you’ll never explain it. Because life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense out of it. For that you’ve got to wake up and then you’ll suddenly realize that reality is not problematic, you are the problem.”
Tagged with: De Mello, spiritual awakening
I dig spiritual awakening. Do you? Honestly, I know of no other topic that lights me up and gets my attention. Therefore, I’d like to share some cool blogs that are very awakening focused. I’ve discovered these great sites and people over the past few months, and they put out some great stuff.
Takuin Minamoto writes passionately from his experience. His posts are moving and almost a meditation in and of themselves.
Davidya has a lot of great commentary on the subject of awakening. I found him recently because of a post he did on Adyashanti. He has been leaving some fantastic comments on my post Adyashanti Retreat Report, where he, J Stone and… Read the rest →
Tagged with: personal development, spiritual awakening
I attended a 5 day retreat with Adyashanti back in December, 2007, and I prepared the following report immediately afterwards. Reports like these about spiritual teachers and retreats are few and far between on the web, but since I find them to be quite helpful to me personally, I thought I would share my experience with a wider audience.
Purpose of the Retreat
The purpose of the retreat was to deepen one’s experience of Truth, to experience a true opening or moment of pure awareness, and to possibly experience a true awakening. Adyashanti is a big proponent of “awakening in this lifetime, if not now.”
Adyashanti
I’ve been quite excited about Adya and his teachings since last April. He has had a huge impact upon me. After this… Read the rest →
Tagged with: Adyashanti, retreat, spiritual awakening
A friend called me yesterday to let me know about all the good things happening over at Oprah.com with regard to Eckhart Tolle’s new book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.
I must be the last person to read Eckhart Tolle, although I’ve seen a few of his videos on You Tube. There is a real power in Eckhart’s words and presentation, so I’m diving into both of his books
It is strange how the universe often works in our lives. Another good friend bought A New Earth at the Phoenix airport when it first came out, right after we had finished a Sedona Method retreat. He loved the book, and kept texting me every time he read a… Read the rest →
Tagged with: A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle, spiritual awakening
Adyashanti is a wonderful spiritual teacher from near San Jose, California. He is “an awakening guy” as he likes to say, and his teacher is focused exclusively on spiritual awakening. For my money, he is the real deal.
Tagged with: Adyashanti, nothingness, spiritual awakening
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