HAPPINESS IS GOOD. BLISS IS BETTER. We have a higher standard of living and more ways to instantaneously fulfill every desire than ever before. Then why are we unhappy? Because happiness isn’t what we really want. Happiness alone is fleeting and not deeply transformative.
Bliss is a spiritual state where happiness, profound meaning, and enduring truth converge. With bliss comes an unshakable joy, a practical wisdom, and a lasting solution to our personal and planetary sufferings. Based on a successful seminar taught by Sean Meshorer, a leading spiritual teacher and New Thought minister, The Bliss Experiment contains dozens of stories of real people learning from everyday situations, backed by more than five hundred scientific studies. This is the one essential book that distills and unifies seemingly competing practices, philosophies, religions, and psychologies.
Meshorer includes exercises that have worked time and again for people from all walks of life—including him. Meshorer suffers with severe chronic pain and is able to live his life to the fullest through the practices he shares here. Bliss helps with stress, anxiety, and depression. It makes people more successful, better able to see and seize opportunities, and build or improve relationships. Give these ideas and practices twenty-eight days of dedicated attention and you will see results. You only need a moment of bliss to benefit the rest of your life. The text includes links to bonus videos of Sean Meshorer expanding on the book’s themes and demonstrating the exercises.
Happiness Is Good, Bliss Is Better
Video trailer for the book, The Bliss Experiment: 28 Days to Personal Transformation by Sean Meshorer.
This is Scott Kiloby’s second book on non-duality or enlightenment. It is a book of daily expressions or pointers to spiritual awakening–one pointer for each day of the year. The clarity is astounding. This demystifies spiritual awakening, strips it of all fundamentalism, and presents it in a clear and easy-to-read way. This is about the timeless presence that you already are.
Each pointer peels away beliefs, positions, and ideas about spirituality, including the idea that you exist as a separate self, only to reveal–in the end–that nothing is excluded. Its central message is that there is only One Life appearing in a myriad of forms. You are that One Life. This is when the distinctions between absolute and relative, form and formlessness, timelessness and time, no self and self, One and many, and all other boundaries collapse into a great and loving mystery that Scott calls ‘This.’
Scott Kiloby – Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview
Scott Kiloby is a “Non-Dual” author/teacher from Southern Indiana (USA). He is the author of “Love’s Quiet Revolution: The End of the Spiritual Search” and “Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment.” He is also the creator of a revolutionary addiction recovery method called Natural Rest. His book, “Natural Rest: Finding Recovery Through Presence,” is scheduled for release in early 2011. In addition to details of his meetings and retreats, there are many essays, quotations and videos which can be viewed on his web site. He also holds frequent meetings all over the world, in person and online via Skype and teleconferencing.
To quote Scott, “We live our lives asleep. Our minds are programmed for self-centeredness. This programming causes us to spend our lives seeking the future for a sense of contentment we can’t seem to find. It causes conflict in our relationships. To say that we live in self-centeredness is not a moral judgment. It’s a statement of fact. The good news is that awakening from this self-centered dream is possible in this lifetime. This awakening reveals a depth of freedom and contentment that no relationship, job, material item, self-improvement plan, or any other accomplishment or attainment in the material world can bring. This level of freedom frees us from our endless seeking towards future. It frees us from conflict so that our real nature as love shines through, affecting every area of our lives.”
Interview recorded 12/4/2010.
Scott Kiloby – 2nd Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview
Scott Kiloby is reaching out to all people who are suffering or seeking or cannot seem to find fulfillment in this life no matter where they go or what they do. He is communicating to them that freedom is available and that it is actually contained in their very presence, yet it is overlooked. The benefits of recognizing presence are living with a mind that is at peace, a heart full of love and compassion for others, and the end of looking for happiness outside ourselves.
Scott is the author of “Love’s Quiet Revolution: The End of the Spiritual Search,” “Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment,” “Living Realization: Your Present Experience As It Is,” and “Living Relationship: Finding Harmony with Others” (this upcoming book was the main focus of this interview).
He is also the creator of a new addiction/recovery method called the Natural Rest Presence Method. His book, by the same name, is scheduled for release in 2012.
Scott’s main websites are www.livingrealization.org and www.kiloby.com. These sites contain writings, videos, and audio interviews with a wide diversity of teachers, authors, scientists, and psychologists as well as information about private sessions with Scott and online interactivity groups.
The Facilitators trained by Scott can be found in the Facebook room “Relationship and the Unfindable Self.”
Overview
Prepare for the journey of your life. Literally. This book does not aim to make your life carefree, to make your problems disappear, to turn you into a saint free from blemish or blame. In fact, you may end up utterly bewildered by The Mystery Experience at times. But you will also be intrigued. Curious.Questioning. Loving. Loved. Overjoyed. Seduced out of the numbness of banality. And most importantly, awake. Gloriously awake, and full of wonder.
Philosopher and author Tim Freke leads us on a journey through the nature of the ‘Mystery Experience’, via quantum physics, Gnosticism, the essence of Tao, meditation, Walt Whitman, Greek mythology, Buddhism, Dub Punk musician Jah Wobble, and Carl Jung. But what is the ‘Mystery Experience’? You can taste it by simply focusing your attention on the mystery. But what is the mystery? The mystery is life. The mystery is the journey. The mystery is you. The mystery is me. The mystery makes you want to say, simply: WOW. No one has the answers, but asking the questions is what makes us come alive.
Wherever you’re coming from, you will find this journey rewarding. The only real requirement is that you’re willing to wonder about life … to be curious and open … to be an explorer. Now prepare to leave base camp, because we’re about to set off on a grand adventure.
Tim Freke has spent his life exploring the ‘Mystery Experience’ and sharing it with others. He has an honours degree in Philosophy and is an internationally respected authority on world spirituality. He is often featured in documentaries and interviewed by the global media, such as the BBC and the History Channel. He is the founder of the Alliance for Lucid Living (ALL) and author of more than 30 books that have established his reputation as a scholar and free-thinker. He co-authored the acclaimed The Jesus Mysteries, which was a Daily Telegraph ‘Book of the Year’ and a Top 10 bestseller in the UK and USA and his book Jesus and the Lost Goddess was cited by Dan Brown as an inspiration for The Da Vinci Code. For more information see www.timothyfreke.com Tim Freke – Stepping into the mystery experience of life – recorded in Glastonbury UK
Timothy Freke (born 1959) is a British author of books on religion and mysticism.[1] [2] Freke is perhaps best known for his books, co-authored with Peter Gandy, which advocate a Gnostic understanding of early Christianity and the Christ myth theory,[3] including The Jesus Mysteries: Was the “Original Jesus” a Pagan God? and The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom.
Pulling a raisin out of a two-year-old’s nose probably wasn’t on Buddha’s path toward enlightenment, but it was one of the obstacles for author Polly Campbell. For many, stuck raisins and other real-life moments provide sometimes the only opportunity for spiritual growth in a day. Imperfect Spirituality shows readers how to integrate those every-day moments with traditional spiritual techniques to experience personal growth and greater well-being all in the course of your regular routine. Any activity can be transformed into a spiritual practice. Don’t have a half-hour to meditate? Can’t drop everything à la Elizabeth Gilbert and trek to Italy or India? Do a mini-meditation while stopped at a red light. Working to be mindful and present? Start by brushing your teeth.
Imperfect Spirituality is filled with practical tips and dozens of examples like these, as well as anecdotes from real people who are striving to grow both spiritually and personally. Each chapter features fascinating research about how the mind body spirit connection really works as well as illuminating quotes, and informative, easy-to-do takeaways from leading-edge academic and spiritual experts who both study and practice the techniques explored in the book.
Campbell is also a professional speaker and instructor with The Daily Om. Her writing appears regularly in national magazines and she has tested and tried many of the self-improvement strategies she writes about in her own quest to find more happiness, tranquility — and some days just socks that match. She is a writer, wife, mother, cat-litter changer, and avid player of Candyland from her home in Portland, OR.
MANUAL FOR A PERFECT GOVERNMENT
For the last quarter century, Dr. Hagelin has led an international investigation into the nature and origin of consciousness, including higher states of human consciousness. In his seminal book, Manual for a Perfect Government (now in its second printing), Dr. Hagelin shows how, through educational programs that develop human consciousness, and through policies and programs that effectively harness the laws of nature, it is possible to solve and to prevent acute social problems, and to profoundly enhance governmental achievements. Excerpt
“Governments everywhere are in crisis—torn by conflicting interests and facing seemingly intractable challenges. This is because governmental theory and policy are rooted in obsolete 19th century principles, not in a comprehensive scientific understanding of how Nature functions.
“Today’s unified quantum field theories reveal the ultimate unity underlying all life, confirming the timeless wisdom of the ages. This unified reality and its applied technologies, from both modern science and the ancient Vedic science of consciousness reformulated and systematized by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, promote an ideal, problem-free administration in which myriad tendencies in society are managed with the same skill and efficiency with which Nature governs the vast universe.
“The problems of our age are human problems. Crime, terrorism, drug dependency, even pollution result from failure to comprehend life’s essential unity. The only way we can overcome these problems is through the expansion of consciousness—education that actualizes the full potential of the brain. With maximally expanded consciousness, individuals naturally behave in their own best long-term interests while simultaneously promoting the interests of society as a whole—action fully aligned with natural law.
“We now possess a profound and scientific understanding of natural law that can bring peace to the world, and at last fulfill the dreams of America’s Founders—a self-governing nation, where all citizens naturally respect and promote each other’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Is the impulse to evolve a clue—and a cue—for us to open our minds to radical new possibilities for human existence? Explore these and other questions about consciousness, evolution and human destiny with visionary futurist Peter Russell. View Here
Note: This video clip should be viewed as a follow-up to the ” The 3 faces of Evolving Spirit”
Here Diane talks about the ever present and unchanging nature of enlightenment as it manifests in the changing field of time and evolution.
Diane Hamilton – Understanding the Shadow
Join Diane Musho Hamilton, Zen priest and Integral spiritual teacher in a lively discussion about the Shadow: those tendencies and forces within us that hinder our spiritual practice and limit our attainment, with host Craig Hamilton
The Three Faces of Spirit is one of the most important insights that Integral theory offers to the field of spirituality. All human approaches to spiritual practice and mystical realization can be seen to fall into three broad categories — First-Person Spirituality, Second-Person Spirituality, and Third-Person Spirituality.
The Mystery of existence, the matter of ultimate concern, is the ultimate profundity. No perspective can possibly capture it. By its very nature, Spirit itself, the great Mystery, transcends all perspectives.
But human nervous systems are perspective-making machines. We can’t help taking perspectives. And thus, since the most ancient times, our spirituality, and our descriptions of it, always make use of our fundamental perspectives. The structure of language gives us a hint to the deep structure of our perspectives and our spirituality — we organize our speech in three broad categories.
The first-person. There is “I” or “me” the first-person perspective; from this vantage-point I can explore the rich depths of interior experience, of what it’s like inside me, of my consciousness, my intuitions, my thoughts, my experiences, and my feelings. In language, the first-person is the one speaking.
The second-person. When I am able to connect with someone, that one goes from being (for me) an “it” to becoming “you.” We connect. There is at least the most basic kind of communion. We are able to understand each other, reach mutual agreements, and a culture can arise. And in any kind of inter-subjective connection, a “we” arises. In language, the second-person is the one spoken to.
The third-person. When I contemplate anything or anyone, or when I act upon anything or anyone in my world, whatever I contemplate or act upon is the object of my attention or action. I can see it, observe it, examine it, sense it, and affect it. This is the domain of objective information and experience. Herein lies all objective knowledge, including all our sciences. In language, the third-person is the one spoken about.
Based on the distinctions between the first, second, and third person perspectives, we can see three distinct “families” of spiritual experience and practice. We’ll consider third-person spirituality first, then first-person spirituality, and finally second-person spirituality.
Third-person spirituality often involves contemplating the mystery of existence (“looking at it.”) This can take a wide variety of forms; two of the most important and familiar expressions of third-person spirituality are (1) nature mysticism, and (2) philosophy or theology. Nature mysticism is found in all spiritual traditions, and it is important in the lives of most post-postmodern practitioners. It involves contemplating the natural landscape, light, sky, sun, moon, stars, and creatures, seeing them, in a sense, as the body of the Mystery of existence. In reading, writing, or discussing philosophy, we contemplate existence, noticing the abstract patterns that connect and underlie our world and experience. Philosophy and nature mysticism are entirely different undertakings, but they both involve “contemplating it,” looking at aspects of the Mystery, and letting that process transform us. In Integral Life Practice, the core third-person spiritual practice is called Kosmic Contemplation.
First-person spirituality involves awakening to the unchanging IAMness that is always present as the still and silent Witness of experience. This IAMness is the pure consciousness that is present during every experience, every sound, sight, smell, taste, sensation, thought, or feeling, however pleasant or unpleasant. Such pure consciousness is often described as the ultimate realization, the goal of Eastern mystical paths. It is experienced when eyes open after meditation, and there is an experience of Oneness with all existence, of Union, of non-separation. And long before we achieve any ultimate nirvana, we can experience a glimpse of IAMness (also called Suchness) via meditation, inspiring conversation with a spiritual teacher, or spontaneously, as a graceful accident. The paths that focus on first-person spirituality usually focus on meditation, on transcending our “monkey mind” tendency to be absorbed in our constant stream of thoughts, and on the open field of consciousness that naturally arises when the mind relaxes. In Integral Life Practice, the core first-person spiritual practice is called Integral Inquiry or Integral Awakening.
Educated post-postmodern Westerners tend to feel a natural openness to both of these forms of spirituality. Modern science questions the idea of personal identity and validates the inherent oneness of the cosmos. Both first-person and third-person spirituality make sense to a contemporary worldview. The Western discovery of Eastern spirituality has primarily sparked trans-rational explorations of first-person, and to a lesser degree, third-person spirituality.
Second-person spirituality involves communion with the Mystery of existence as one’s universal beloved intimate. It is a direct relationship between the individual “I” with the “you” of Spirit, turning directly into feeling-contact with the universal beloved. It can be expressed through prayer, and through a devotional life of worship, service, and celebration. Second-person paths usually begin with insight, the acknowledgment that the heart tends to close, cutting us off from others and life. On that basis, there is practice, the intention to open the heart, loving surrender to the source of grace, and devotional enjoyment of intimacy with Spirit.
Second-person spirituality is a difficult sticking-point for many Westerners. One reason is that Western culture was long dominated by Christian second-person religion with a dogmatic mythic conception of God. When Western cultures made their transition into modernity, they (rightly!) rejected mythic religious conceptions of God. But they threw out the baby (second-person spirituality altogether) along with the bathwater (a mythic version of God.) It can be especially difficult for Westerners to accept trans-rational prayer, since they often imagine that communing with the Mystery must inherently presume a metaphysical conception of God. (“First, tell me exactly who I would be praying to?”) But that dogmatic skepticism fails to notice that we can relate to Spirit trans-rationally, as the graceful nature of reality, the universal “other-ness” implied by the experience of “me-ness.”
But second-person spirituality is essential—and it’s one of the most transformational opportunities opened up by an Integral view. Human brains and nervous systems evolved in hunter-gatherer bands, and therefore we are mentally and emotionally structured for relating to others. Those relational capacities are not engaged by first-person awakening to IAMness or third-person contemplation of nature or philosophy.
A love relationship with existence is the essence of second-person spirituality—and love enables us to access tremendous power and energy. Second-person spirituality implicates us personally, revealing our closed hearts and contraction for what they are—a violation of our inherent love-relationship with the Mystery of existence. The universal drama of a love-relationship with the universal Beloved quickens our blood and brings us alive. Love is what unleashes the power of our whole being. And what is spirituality without love? In Integral Life Practice, the core second-person spiritual practice is called Integral Communion.
Terry Patten – The Three Faces of Spirit
Join Integral coach Terry Patten as he discusses the evolution of spiritual practice, the essential modules of Integral Life Practice and the role of the spiritual teacher in modern society, with host Craig Hamilton.
In Spiritual Partnership, bestselling author Gary Zukav reveals a profound new relationship dynamic that enables us to reach our full potential and create authentic power and a joyful life. Spiritual partnerships are not only for couples in marriage; they can be created anywhere two or more individuals decide to engage as equals for the purpose of spiritual development.
In this extraordinary book, Gary Zukav shares a revolutionary new approach to life, relationship, and evolution. Filled with poignant examples and including specific guidelines, Spiritual Partnership empowers and enables you to explore your emotions, your intentions, your choices, and your intuition and to use them to create profound spiritual growth. Deepen your joy. Begin the journey to authentic power today. Deepen your joy. Begin the journey to authentic power today. The world is changing around you and within you, and Spiritual Partnership is the road map to that change.
A Personal Note from Gary Zukav
I wrote Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power, to try to get out of my own cage. I wanted, and needed, to connect with people, not just reach them, but really connect for my own well being and hopefully for theirs as well.
I have learned that the difficult times in my life are not because of other people, they are because of me. They occur because of parts of my personality that are painful to experience. When I am with someone who brings them up in me, that is a painful time, but I know that it is not about the other person when I feel angry or impatient or irritable. It is about me, and so I am intent to use my experiences with others to learn about me so that I can change me because I am really tired of trying to change other people. And not only am I tired of it, I don’t want to. It doesn’t feel good. I know deep in me that it is a wrong path for me to take, and I feel that it is a painful path for anyone to take.
Spiritual partnership is a partnership with another person or other people who feel the same way. It is a partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth. So when my spiritual partners and I have difficult interactions, we do not point fingers at each other, we try our best to respond instead of react, and to support one another in doing that also. Spiritual partnership is a new kind of relationship, a different kind of relationship. We do more than talk about hair styles, life styles, car styles, children, and work. We do all those things too but those conversations take on a different meaning. While I am having them, I am noticing what I am feeling. I’m noticing if anything gets triggered in me and if it does, I pay attention to it, especially if I am becoming upset because those are the experiences that keep me from loving. They keep me apart from people.
“You cannot heal the fear of another and no one can heal yours, but you can inspire others with your emotional awareness, responsible choices, intuition and trust in the Universe.
—Gary Zukav
For a long time I thought that if I could change people enough, and get some that were just right around me, it would be easy to be loving, but it doesn’t work like that because everybody has parts of her or his personality that are loving and also parts that are not loving. I would say the not-loving parts are the frightened parts of the personality, the parts that are angry, jealous, vengeful, feel superior, feel inferior, etc. And when these parts become active, and this always happens sooner or later, that’s when the learning potential begins. Of course, it also begins when the loving parts come out, the parts that are grateful, patient, appreciative, content, etc. Being a spiritual partner means really wanting to support people because you see when they are in pain how they might learn from their pain, too, if they’re open. If they’re open.
My focus is on changing myself because I know that other people can’t change me, but I also know that each of my spiritual partners wants to change himself or herself, too. He wants to find and challenge the painful, destructive parts of his personality and cultivate the constructive, blissful parts of his personality, and so I assist him whenever I think I see that they might be active. I don’t just say, “This is what is happening in you, and this is what you ought to do.” I ask her if she is open to looking at something that I think I might be seeing. For example, some parts of my personality that I have become very familiar with over years feel superior, entitled, impatient, and don’t really care about the needs of others, but not everybody is like that. One of my spiritual partners feels a need to please other people when a frightened part of her personality is active; to see them smile or value her because of what she can do or give. So when I see that part come out in her behaviors and thoughts and attitudes, if she is open I will help her see them. And there are specific ways, very helpful ways that we can assist one another. This book gives them to you.
Once I started this book I kept writing because it felt so good. I love it when creativity begins to flow and I can think of a better way to express something—a story, or a metaphor, or a process. I love that experience of sharing. The more I stretched myself to think, “How can I say this in a way that is not by rote? How can I not take refuge in what I know how to say but really communicate in an even more meaningful way?” the deeper my understanding of spiritual partnership became and the stronger my ability to share it. One idea lead to another, one chapter lead to another, and after a few chapters I began to see an outline for the book, and that outline became WHY, WHAT, HOW, and WHO. That’s how this book unfolded.
There is a saying that people teach what they really need to learn. Doing this in a heart-felt way has worked well for me. I can tell that I am becoming more able to connect with people because to my surprise I have become interested in them. Let me put it this way, I am aware now, much more aware of how important people are to me than I have been in the past. I like hearing their stories. I like hearing what is happening in their lives. For example, Linda Francis, the spiritual partner I live with, and I met a couple on a plane and found them to be wonderful. He told me that he has pancreatic cancer and that he and his wife were going on a cruise to Mexico. When he learned that his illness was terminal, he realized that he could spend his last days in a hospital, but that didn’t sound inviting to him. Or he could spend them really living his life, and that invited him. That is what he is doing. What I really like about him is his aliveness, his interest, his interest in me and his excitement for what I am doing. He is as grounded as he is delightful and vibrant. He said, “I am a little afraid of what it will be like to die. I am not sure about that. I know I am going to get sick. I have done my homework on pancreatic cancer. It is an ugly way to die, but I feel so alive and so grateful for every moment.” In the little time we were together, I learned about myself as well as about him, but mostly I enjoyed myself and I enjoyed him, and I feel that he enjoyed himself and he enjoyed me.
Open Your Heart
So those are the kind of experiences that are coming into my life now. And I also know that when it comes to spirituality, I am not special. If I can create authentic power and spiritual partnerships, you can. If I can make the journey from an angry, drug-using, sex-addicted, motorcycle-riding, angry—did I mention angry?—young man to someone who is now enjoying becoming an elder, anyone can. As I began to open my heart up many wonderful role models came into my life over the years, men and women who have opened their hearts or are opening them, and they are still coming. Perhaps I can be one of those role models for you, and you can be one for someone else. We are all opening our hearts, but it is not a matter of opening your heart and, there, that’s a done deal. It is a matter of continuing to open your heart moment by moment. This book is about that, and how to do it.
Love,
Gary Zukav
Spiritual partners Gary Zukav and Linda Francis invite you to create spiritual partnerships and authentic power. Learn about meaningful relationships, emotional awareness, and responsible choice.
Gary Zukav is a spiritual teacher and author of four consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Beginning in 1998, Zukav appeared more than 30 times on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss transformation in human consciousness concepts presented in The Seat of the Soul.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Zukav
Linda Francis has been practicing the creation of authentic power since she read The Seat of the Soul in 1989. In 1993 she met Gary Zukav and they created a spiritual partnership which is in its eighteenth year.
During this time, she co-authored with Gary two New York Times bestsellers, The Heart of the Soul: Emotional Awareness and The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice. They also co-created Thoughts from the Heart of the Soul and Self-Empowerment Journal: A Companion to the Mind of the Soul.
Linda is a co-founder of the Seat of the Soul Institute, the premier organization dedicated to assisting individuals in the alignment of the personality with the soul—the creation of authentic power.
Linda has been in the healing profession for three decades, first as a registered nurse and then as a chiropractor. At the present time, she is involved fully in co-creating curricula and events with Gary. Linda also guides the Authentic Power Program, which is designed to give people the tools to create authentic power and spiritual partnership in their everyday lives. http://seatofthesoul.com/about/linda-francis/
The Cosmic Game discusses the broadest philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual insights gleaned in Grof’s research concerning human nature and reality, addressing the most fundamental questions human beings have asked about the nature of existence since time immemorial.
Insights from research into nonordinary states of consciousness portray existence as an astonishing play of the cosmic creative principle that transcends time, space, linear causality; and polarities of every kind and suggest an identity of the individual psyche in its furthest reaches with the universal creative principle and the totality of existence. This identity of the human being with the Divine is the ultimate secret that lies at the core of all great spiritual traditions.
About this author
Grof is known for his early studies of LSD and its effects on the psyche—the field of psychedelic psychotherapy. Building on his observations while conducting LSD research and on Otto Rank’s theory of birth trauma, Grof constructed a theoretical framework for pre- and perinatal psychology and transpersonal psychology in which LSD trips and other powerfully emotional experiences were mapped onto one’s early fetal and neonatal experiences. Over time, this theory developed into an in-depth “cartography” of the deep human psyche.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment..