Methods of Awakening

I've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes on Methods of Awakening. My freelance work has taken me away from posting as much as I had intended. I know I was away from this whole thing for about eight years, so a few months seems like nothing. That said, I had intended to be producing more content, more regularly after re-doing the older posts as podcasts. The current situation regarding COVID obviously played a part in things, but the lack of content really just comes down to me. Having been away from writing about meditation for so long, it's taking me a while to find my feet again. My own practice has changed a lot and I haven't been involved in the spiritual community online for a long time. Due to this, I think I lost my direction to some extent. As someone who'll write ten words instead of two, I often have the tendency to overcomplicate things. This is partly due to the way my mind works and the tendency to think everyone needs the same level of ...

Spiritual bypassing is something that many don't discuss, but is likely far more common than you'd imagine. In short, it involves using the world of spirituality to avoid dealing with real world problems. People will basically bury their heads in the sand, deny reality and live in a fantasy world of spiritual perfection and bliss. The reasons for this can be many, but it all really comes down to trying to avoid dealing with your real-life problems. This is something I'm very familiar with, because it's something I've done myself. I didn't even realize it until after the fact, but I can confirm that it does happen. My own experience of spiritual bypassing came during a very difficult and painful time in my life. My long-term relationship with the mother of my daughter was falling apart, so I threw myself into hardcore meditation practice and study. I had been actively meditating and studying spirituality for 10 years by this point, so it wasn't j...

I see a lot of people within the dharma community who have become quite vocal in their judgement of others. Typically it comes down to politics, which seems to have poisoned the minds of many. These are people I once had a lot of respect for, but whose authenticity I now question. It pains me, to be honest with you. One of the reasons why I found myself resonating with the Buddhadharma, was its focus on the individual. Only through investigating our own experience will we find answers. We apply what we learn to daily life, and in a way that benefits not only ourselves, but our communities as a whole. In benefiting our community, we can begin to benefit the world at large. Seeing self-proclaimed teachers spewing bile on social media really gives me, as the kids say, that big think. Don't get me wrong, I am all for people being able to voice their opinions. Especially when I completely disagree with them. That's what free speech is all about. What I object to i...

I've posted a new article on Medium regarding mental health and meditation. It's a thorny subject with many unexpected tangents, so I thought I would offer some thoughts as both a mental case and a meditator... Meditation & Mental Health You can also pick up a free copy of my latest e-book on Gumroad , or purchase the audiobook via the links provided. Be sure to subscribe to Gumroad as I'll have more free, and reasonably priced content coming up in future and you folks will be the first in line to get the best deal.

Episode Four on YouTube Bitchute: The Home of Free Speech Online Evenin' readers, Here's the latest, and last of the narrations of the old blog posts, masquerading as new content in the form of a video and Soundcloud version. I'd appreciate it if you could take the time to sign up to BitChute, which is a torrent-based alternative to YouTube, a site whose policies have becoming increasingly censorious, political and biased, which is something we really don't need in an already divided world. There'll be a few new developments coming up in the coming months for Methods of Awakening, so stay tuned and be sure to subscribe, follow and like on social media. All the best and practice well, - Tommy M

OCCUPY NOW I've just uploaded the narration of the Occupy Now blog post, which is the last post I made before stopping the project entirely in 2012. It was only a short narration/recording, so I figured it wasn't worth uploading as a podcast episode in and of itself. I've got the jhana piece recorded and ready to go, but I won't be uploading that until later on this week 'cause I'm trying to actually develop some sort of schedule. Lots more content coming up in the months ahead, including the podcast, more articles and more blog posts on the ins and outs of meditation practice. I'm planning to start a crowdfund so that I can get a video camera, a video-producing PC setup and the equipment to film on-camera material as I think it'll help people to understand this stuff way better. Explaining it in person, and being able to create complex animations to illustrate certain subtle aspects of this stuff will make it much easier for people to grasp, and...