Methods of Awakening

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...

I've just published a new article on Medium.com regarding the realities of awakening, the phenomenology involved and some of the potential pitfalls one can encounter along the Path. What is Awakening? - MOA on Medium Please come and give it a read, share it around if you enjoy it and let me know what you think in the comment, or on social media at all the usual places! Take care & practice well, - Tommy

THE MOA PODCAST: EPISODE THREE SOUNDCLOUD YOUTUBE In keeping with the previous plan, here's the next episode of the podcast where I narrate and comment on my previous post, " Practice Playtime ". To be honest, the comment is pretty minimal but there's a bit at the end that might be of use to someone. There's a few bits and pieces in this that I'm inclined to come back to in future posts, and I'll definitely be addressing the whole Actual Freedom malarkey in another post, but that's for another time. In the meantime, please come along and subscribe on YouTube to keep up to date with all things MOA, and follow me on the usual social media. I'm much more active on places like Facebook , Instagram and Twitter than I have been in a long time, so feel free to drop me a line on any of those platforms. Until next time, take care of yourselves and practice well, - Tommy

A Guided Meditation For Beginners YouTube Version Soundcloud Version As I'd mentioned previously, I've been doing a lot of freelance voice work lately. One of the jobs I'd recently auditioned for involved creating guided meditations for commercial use, so obviously I jumped at the chance given that I'm doing voiceovers already; and also have loads of experience in meditation and can also produce broadcast-standard audio and video super quickly. While I'm writing this blog post, I'm waiting to hear back from the client as there's still the small matter of my impenetrable accent and its clarity. In fairness, I have tried to soften it considerably and to pronounce things clearly, but whether they take me on board to produce for them remains to be seen. In the end, it's no great loss if I don't get the gig and in fact you folks actually come out winning either way 'cause I get to upload a free guided meditation! Guided meditation...

I've finally gotten around to writing an essay for Medium.com  on the topic of what I call "Corporate Mindfulness" - basically the diluted New Age-y, armchair psychology garbage that's peddled by unscrupulous employers for productivity purposes. In the essay, I've tried to explain my objections to this "Corporate Mindfulness" in a way that isn't just some 'ancap' rant, but that actually focuses on the potentially detrimental experiences that await the would-be urban yogi and how businesses don't actually understand the power of what they're teaching people. Anyhow, expect another Methods of Awakening Podcast in the next few days as I continue rambling about meditation in my incomprehensible Scottish brogue. Much love - Peace out - Tommy

I know that my most recent posts haven't exactly been educational or even necessarily related to awakening per se, so I'd like to take this opportunity to explain a bit more about where I'm at personally, and in terms of the overall development of Methods of Awakening. In doing so, I hope you'll be able to see why this is and what I've got planned for the future with the project. I quit my job on the 28th of December 2019. After over 20 years of working for other people, I decided I'd had enough and that I wanted to take control of my life. I'm now a freelance voice actor and voiceover artist, and I've actually managed to make money within the first month of putting myself out there. It's exciting and terrifying, but it's a decision I'm glad that I made as it now affords me far more time to devote to the projects I really want to work on - Methods of Awakening being a prime candidate. I've spent quite a lot of time recently just b...