Methods of Awakening

[Edited January 27th 2020: No major corrections here, just a few minor grammatical errors. An audio version of this post will be made available in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!] Occupy Now   A Quick Guide To Being Here This is a simple series of steps that will allow you to be present and attentive to experience with very little effort. Nothing complicated, nothing you won't already be familiar with and nothing special about it. this is a process I've used successfully in my own practice and I hope that it can be of use to others. It's not "my" invention or anything, it's just a practical, step-by-step approach which may facilitate your practice in some way.   It's also fun and can be turned into a game, if you find it helpful, so play around with it and find out what works for you.  It comes down to basic attentiveness/mindfulness. Nothing more complicated than that, but in this moment lies wisdom and thr...

[Edited January 27th 2020: Corrected a few bits and pieces. At the moment, I am undecided as to whether to continue using the term, "jhana", to describe the concentration states I'll be discussing. Without going into detail, I would rather develop a more universal framework than confuse matters by appropriating Buddhist terminology, and particularly if the states are not in keeping with traditional understanding. An audio version of this post will be made available in coming weeks, so stay tuned.] Stop! Jhana Time In a previous post, I talked about access concentration as being the foundation of meditation practice, so I suppose it makes sense to continue the discussion by talking about what gets built on top of this fine, but very basic foundation. I will use the Buddhist framework to describe this as it’s a simple but incredibly accurate model, although I’ll try my best to describe any map-specific terminology in terms of actual practice and physical/mental...