Methods of Awakening

I've published two free ebooks on meditation and mindfulness , aimed at beginners. These have both been based on reworkings of some of the content on this blog, but both have been updated quite a bit. Please help yourselves to your free copy by clicking the links below! If you enjoy my content, please let me know in the comments or via e-mail. I'd love to hear from you and hear more about what you'd like me to talk about. Stay tuned for much, much more activity from your friendly neighbourhood agnostic mystic! The Urban Yogi's Handbook Vol. 1: Concentration The Urban Yogi's Handbook Vol. 2: Mindfulness/Attentiveness Audiobook Version Open Skies: 60 Minutes of Meditation Music

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.

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...

I know I'd attempted some sort of 'comeback' with the Methods of Awakening YouTube channel a few years ago, but it fell flat due to various circumstances that I won't bore you with. What's gone is gone and can't be changed, but we have this moment to play with and play with it we shall! Today, the 31st of January 2020 marks the launch of the Methods of Awakening podcast. Click Here - Remember to Subscribe! In the first few episodes, I'll be making audio versions of the original posts with some additional commentary as I narrate them. I want to make an audio version available on all future posts, so incorporating the older content as part of the podcast allows me to bring it all together and have a few articles ready to rock in advance. At the moment, I'm expanding the online presence of Methods of Awakening and creating all the usual social media accounts as, much as I'm not crazy for the world of social media at all, it's the on...

Updates & Changes I've gone back through my previous posts and edited them a bit to correct a lot of dreadful grammar! I was young and impressionable...o.k., so maybe I wasn't that young but the point remains. 😁 I intend to start posting more regularly as my set-up expands, so I wanted to make sure that the information already available on here was up-to-date. If you'd like to check any of the new edits out, please click the following links and share them wherever you think they'd be useful! Attentiveness: A Primer Access Concentration Practice Playtime: YouTube, Attentiveness & Insight Stop! Jhana Time! Occupy Now Remember to subscribe to the Methods of Awakening channel on YouTube. I'm currently working on setting up a small studio for filming material, so there will be new uploads in coming months. I might look into possibly crowdfunding the studio idea 'cause it'd be fairly cheap to set up. I do all of ...

It's been a long time. I could make a Led Zeppelin joke here, but I can't be bothered. Anyhow, it has indeed been a long time. A long time away from this blog, and probably even more time away from discussion of spiritual progress and meditation. Not that it's something I've ever lost interest in; on the contrary, I still walk the Path and practice daily in some form or another but I lost interest in talking about it. It's only now, as 2020 takes its first burning breaths, that I feel moved to begin writing again. Let's cut to the chase: I claimed to be 'enlightened' but I can quite confidently state that I am not. What I do know for certain is that I have experienced several different, what we could call “shifts” for the sake of convenience, wherein my baseline of consciousness has changed dramatically and without ever reverting to its previous state. Having been actively engaged in meditative practices for about ten years before ...