Open-Secrets

Tag: spiritual path

  • The New Spiritual Path for the Age

    The New Spiritual Path for the Age

    Neuroscience Will be the Basis for the Next Spiritual Path

    neuroscience-spirituality religionMy interest in the interface between neuroscience and consciousness continues – as does my reading of The Ego Tunnel. My meditations are taking an interesting turn as well under the influence of this interest.

    My 27-year interest in the Diamond Approach is fueled, in part, by seeing it as a “teaching appropriate for our times.” The Diamond Approach incorporates modern psychological knowledge and understanding into a new spiritual teaching paradigm.

    As I observe the influence of my recent readings on my meditations, thought processes, matrix of attention and index of curiosity, I have little doubt that within my lifetime, I will see a new spiritual path emerge that draws heavily on the insights and knowledge afforded us by those pioneering the field of neuroscience.

    The beginnings of this can already be seen in books like Mindsight, where Dr. Dan Siegel is applying understandings of awareness, attention, and mindfulness to his psychological work with clients. Of course, spiritual teachers have understood much of this for millennia. However, spiritual knowledge and insight evolve as consciousness evolves.

    Over the entire course of time, spiritual paths have arisen to meet the present-day needs of people’s consciousness and capacity for understanding. Deeper understanding of neuron firing, neural resonance, and brain synchronicity will lead to specific techniques and technologies to influence an individual’s state of consciousness or even deliberately induce a transcendent state of consciousness.

    Neuroscience is taking a look from a unique lens at the fundamental spiritual question – Who am I?

    I don’t think any amount or degree of technology will remove or reduce some of the basic barriers and hurdles to enlightenment, namely the challenge of embodiment and integration of the nondual as well as the clarification of the personality & ego structure into a transparent vehicle for consciousness. As I learned early in life – spiritual experiences are a dime a dozen, but real change is as rare as a selfless politician.

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  • Path of Inner Discovery

    The Diamond Approach – A Path of Inner Discovery

    I’m working my way through a 6-CD set interview by Tami Simon with A. H. Almaas, originator of the Diamond Approach.

    A.H. Almaas, whose writings brilliantly illustrate the unity of modern depth psychology and traditional spiritual wisdom, is a respected, pioneering teacher. Jack Kornfield has called him “one of the most significant voices for a new and remarkably integrated spiritual vision.”

    Now for the first time ever, Almaas is creating with Sounds True an accessible audio introduction to his lifetime of work. Called The Diamond Approach, this program features insights refined from Almaas’ 30 years of teaching including how he has helped thousands around the globe “do the work” by investigating reality, developing emotional wholeness, uncovering their true essence, and realizing the non-duality of being.

    I’ve only listened to the first disc. Tami Simon is a great interviewer. Her questions are very insightful and I expect this will be the best interview of Almaas I have ever heard. It certainly is one of the clearest introductory elucidations of the Diamond Approach that is in the world.

    Importance of the Personal Life

    Order Here >

    Curiosity Quenchers

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  • Rapprochement

    Rapprochement-conflictIn Googling rapprochement, 3.3 million results are returned. In scrolling down the page, it appears that more than 90% of the returns elate to rapprochement in its use in diplomatic relations.

    A rapprochement, which comes from the French word rapprocher (“to bring together”), is a re-establishment of cordial relations, as between two countries. In the political scene of an individual country rapprochement means the bringing together of diverse political factions.

    In terms of human development, rapprochement refers to a human developmental milestone occurring around 18 months. The child moves away from and then returns to the mother for reassurance.

    The rapprochement conflict is something that recurs on the spiritual path more than most people are aware of. The rapprochement conflict usually reasserts itself anytime we are challenged with leaving the familiar for the unknown. On the spiritual path, this happens a lot.

    This rapprochement conflict is usually reenacted in our work, after the Personal Essence is experienced in a sustained manner… We find that every individual, regardless of how integrated he is on the ego level, has an unconscious rapprochement conflict. A.H. Almaas

    Maintaining a familiar sense of self is JOB #1 at ego central. Thus, venturing afar from our familiar identity can trigger insecurity and anxiety. This usually quites down when we return to the familiar and is one of the reasons why the ego likes to reify or co-opt spiritual experience – so, it becomes part of the familiar.

    When identity shifts from ego to true nature, the rapprochement conflict ends as identity is not fixated now but resides in a flow of consciousness from one unknown moment to the next.

    What do you notice about your relationship between the unknown and the familiar? Do you love wandering afar into new territory, but also feel the need to return to the familiar? Can you spell – rapprochement?

     

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  • Ego Functions

    Ego_functionsIs your ego functioning? What are ego’s functions? Do they serve you or entrap you?

    The granddaddy of psychology, Sigmund Freud, said the ego functioned to manage the instincts and defenses against them.

    According to Carl Jung, the four ways of interpreting reality are the four ego-functions – Sensation, Thinking, Feeling, and Intuition. These consist of two diametrically-opposed pairs. Thinking is the opposite of Feeling, and Sensation the opposite of Intuition.

    Sounds like the foundation of the Meyers-Briggs test. Are you more thinking or feeling? More sensate or intuitive?

    Heinz Hartmann has a few more ego functions up his sleeve – synthesis, integration, regulation, organization, anticipation, tension, decision making, delay, drive taming, identification, intelligence, intention, judgment, language, memory, motility, neutralization, object comprehension, object relations, perception, productivity, reality testing, self-preservation, speech, symbolization, thinking, defense and volition.

    The deeper our knowledge and wisdom of psychology goes, the more we learn about ego, ego structure and ego function, but the question remains for those on the spiritual path – what is being served, defended against or ignored?

     

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