The Self is the dearest of all things, and only through the Self is anything else dear. The Self is the origin of all finite happiness, but it is itself pure bliss, transcending definition. It remains unaffected by deeds, good or bad. It is beyond feeling and beyond knowledge, but it is not beyond the meditation of the sage. —Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad

All great traditions tell us that our true nature is that of the divine Self, whose nature is unconditional bliss—yet the presence of this eternal bliss is meaningless unless we consciously make contact with it. If bliss is ever-present within us but we don’t experience it, then it’s up to us to uncover that level of consciousness. To do so we have to let go of whatever is preventing us from feeling and sustaining bliss in our lives.

It’s really a matter of picking up the phone and calling that place in ourselves, rather than choosing not to and therefore perpetuating some other, more limited experience....

Holokautoma is a Greek word that means “whole burnt offering,” with the further explanation, “consumed on the altar of dedication to God.” Hercules is generally remembered for his feats of strength, which were actually feats of service. Hercules was a vira, a spiritual warrior whose death was regarded as a perfect one by the Greek gods. He had fully manifested both his mortal and divine nature during his lifetime on earth, and thus, at the end of his life, he himself ended up being the offering into the fire sacrifice on the top of the mountain. In this sense, he was a wholly burnt offering, consumed on the altar of dedication to God.

Intention Put Into Action

The essence of our intention to live in freedom is the offering of ourselves unconditionally to God in both thought and action. We may feel a beautiful desire to serve, and yet the pressures of life may seem to be in conflict with that, or at least have the capacity to derail our commitment to service....

Śaktipāta is the descent of grace that comes directly from the Divine. We experience it as an awakening of the desire to know our true Self, which leads us to seek a teacher who can provide the energy necessary to allow that initial opening to further unfold. So what exactly is the role of śakti transmission in a student’s sādhana?

To answer that question, let’s take a step back and look at the structure of Consciousness to see how we come into existence. Ultimately, we are nothing other than the manifestation of Pure Consciousness as it expresses itself in individuated form, which is called kuṇḍalinī śakti. The purpose of that expression is simply the overflowing of the joy of God’s own being, the celebration of the power of Consciousness to express itself in the universe, in form, in individuation. Kuṇḍalinī is literally the individuation of that supreme cosmic force, the power of Consciousness.

Kuṇḍalinī is understood to have three fundamental dimensions: prāṇa...

If you ask me to be your teacher, it’s a declaration of your intention to formalize a relationship that has been developing over time. You may have begun the practice with a casual level of involvement, but have become more actively engaged and consciously committed.  

The Dalai Lama has said, “There are thousands of paths to God, choose one and become a master of it. 

The Value of Commitment 

When you become my student you are affirming that our practice is the path you are choosing on the journey to God. I believe this is the commitment that opens you so that you can more deeply receive Divine Grace. You may experience a more palpable connection to our lineage of teachers. And certainly, you’ve openly declared what you hold as sacred and have committed to freedom. 

While there is sometimes fear associated with making a commitment, it is, in fact, commitment that frees you. There is a tendency to be involved in all kinds of activities in life,...

There’s one single purpose in our sādhana—and that’s to know God. My experience is that although it’s also the very purpose of life, it requires tremendous inner clarity to be certain that knowing God is what we really want. As students, we must be honest and ask ourselves: do I really want to know the highest in me?

The real challenge for all of us in our spiritual life is to come to true insight about that, because it requires an unwavering focus and decisive fierceness to hold on to what we say we want. There are millions of reasons to lose sight of our purpose—both within ourselves and while living in the world. The essential problem is that the ego doesn’t want to surrender itself; we as individuals don’t want to surrender our identity. We therefore have to find the part of us that does want to know God, and then make everything else in our life be in support of our wish.

The Power of Our Longing

I’ll never forget being in a room...

Learning to live in the stillness of the heart is vital to spiritual growth. An authentic spiritual practice provides us with the tools to contact this deepest resonance of our heart—both during our meditation and as we extend ourselves out in to the world. We anchor ourselves in our center, in the stillness of our heart, and this is what creates a profound, permanent immersion into the heart of God.

When we find ourselves caught in turmoil, it is a strong clue that we need to get still. Instead of immediately reacting to the incessant need to do something, find something, or get rid of something, we must learn to rest in stillness. If we do that, whatever we are attached to will lose its grip. It is vital to recognize that our personal willfulness emerges from and perpetuates our patterns of desire and attachment. That need to control life comes from the mind, which is able to create an extraordinary amount of delusion in us.

Desirelessness is freedom from the incessant...

One of my guru Rudi’s most important teachings can be summed up in his following statement: "The formula for growth is to give not what you want to give, but what is wanted and needed." This is such an important message, and it touches on the many conversations we’ve had about seva, or selfless service. For me, Rudi’s statement clarifies how important it is to recognize that the act of not giving is precisely what prevents us from receiving. And most of us spend our lives not giving; or rather, we spend our lives giving what we want to give, instead of what is asked of us. An even deeper capacity of service is to not even have to be asked, but to recognize what is needed and to simply give it.

While this applies to all dimensions of our lives, as spiritual students, what is being asked of us is to discover the joy and freedom that lie within us, as our true essence. When that moment of grace awakens in us some profound longing for a spiritual life, realize that...

A Tenuous Consciousness, a Fragile Openness: Revelation must be established and strengthened by conscious choice, then perfected through disciplined action.

The opportunity and possibility for living in a state of openness is fragile. The crystalline encasing of our own consciousness can be broken, penetrated, or shattered by something insignificant, like a discomforting word that was said to us. Revelation is only possible in the moments when we can stop our reaction and pull ourselves back into the heart. What ensues is the simple joy that comes from resting in our own consciousness. Unless these moments become a permanent state, our consciousness remains fragile and tenuous.

To establish ourselves in joy we must bring consistent, convicted attention to our awareness. We must be like Shakyamuni Buddha, sitting under the Bodhi Tree. With his fingers extended, touching the ground, he called forth the earth as his witness, affirming, “I will not move from here until I know...

To see beyond the apparent requires the discriminating awareness of the hamsa bird, a mythical creature that has a unique talent. If milk and water are mixed together, the bird can extract the milk from the mixture, and then can extract the sweetness from the milk.

In nondual traditions, the term used to describe the discriminating awareness within us is buddhi. It’s important to realize that we can access this level of consciousness — one that is free from the constraint of only seeing the appearance of duality. Buddhi can be understood as vimarśa, or self-reflective capacity. In its highest sense, this is the capacity of God’s infinite Consciousness to know Itself as Consciousness. And, since we are never separate from God’s awareness, we are also able to know ourselves as that same Consciousness. However, to have this level of realization, we first need to know our own state. Buddhi provides the ability to recognize where we are functioning from in...

The ego is like a spider trapped in its own web of tensions, contractions, patterns, and samskaras.

When a spider spins a web out of its own body, its experience is restricted to the very web it creates. The ego does much the same thing. It weaves a sticky web made up of tensions, patterns, karma, and samskaras (latent tendencies), creating the blockages and limitations we experience in life. In fact, this is all the ego is capable of doing. It cannot see or experience any level of reality outside of its own limitations — nor does it want to!

When a storm destroys a spider’s web, it immediately spins another one. Unfortunately, the ego does the same thing. And if we aren’t free from the ego’s grip, we keep spinning the same experience of life, unaware that there’s a deeper experience available to us. At the highest end of the spectrum of reality is God’s infinite Consciousness, but the resonance of that Presence remains forever outside the...