A New Dharma

I went through a process of awakening that I believe manifested for the benefit of all beings. It was so excruciatingly painful that I wouldn’t have survived it if I thought otherwise.

Having popped out the other side, I experience the world and teach in quite a radically different way to anyone else. One thing that has emerged from this is a draft version of a book, describing this new way of approaching awakening and dharma.

This isn’t about transcending our challenges or detaching from society, it’s about landing in our experience, embracing our bodies and showing up in our lives in mature and engaged ways. It’s about coming alive as individuals and collectives.

Nothing beats showing up for our lives and doing the practices that will bring these heart-mind-body-souls to life, but a conceptual understanding of some of the different ways of looking at the world that these practices can bring about can help people understand the possibilities that are open to them. Hopefully this writing does just that.

Writing all of this was an intense journey fuelled by a lot of passion – please excuse all the swearing in my writing. Or enjoy it. Whatever the fuck you want.

Meditate like the Buddha
Love like Jesus
Explore yourself like Jung
Connect with the world like a shaman
And have some fun along the way…

Part I – My Journey & Understanding of the World

These take you on a journey through my experiences, how they helped me shape my understanding of the Universe and how I believe this applies to the human experience in general.

1. A preamble to help frame all my writing – link
2. My journey of awakening. An intro – link
3. Life, what makes it worth living? The quest behind my awakening – link
4. My story in poetry – link
5. My journals. An artistic depiction of some of my experiences and insights – link
6. What it is like going mad. Perhaps not the easiest read, but an insight into some of the torture I went through – link
7. Universal love – the backstory; turns out loving the whole Universe is not as pleasant an experience as it sounds – link
8. The old white guy’s guide to full awakening. People who’s ideas and teachings helped me along the way – link
9. Enlightenment and Buddhahood, what counts? My experiences and thoughts on these processes – link
10. Listening to music while the Titanic goes down, a cosmic story. A summary of what I see when I look through the eyes of the cosmos and ultimately why I feel all of this is important – link
11. Treasure map. My distilled understanding of the entire Universe and awakening – link
12. What is interdependent origination? A key component in my understanding of the Universe – link
13. The heart states are not mental constructs. A specific and important factor of interdependent origination, which is easy to miss – link
14. The different parts of experience. This is the outcome of everything I went through and useful to understand when reading my content – link

The collective is more intelligent than you will ever be and this is the key to wisdom

Part II – A New Model for Awakening

We have forgotten the true meaning of awakening, or maybe what it needed to mean was different a couple of thousand years ago.

Our society is creaking at the seams and we need awake people who can show up and connect with other people and the world in a mature way.

I believe it is time to reframe how and why we practice and this is my vision for how this could change.

1. What is Dharma? Clarifying what I mean when I talk about dharma and how this fits compared to a more traditional understanding- link
2. Where do you get your dharma from? Taking a fresh look at how you choose to build your beliefs – link
3. The meaning of life – link
4. Suffering. What is it, why do we do it and how are we gonna ease it? – link
5. There is no single source of truth and why understanding this is important for awakening – link
6. Love, eros, life-force, sex, desire, power and how an understanding of all these things needs to be incorporated into spirituality – link
7. Dismantling the patriarchy. A short video and a transcription around what this means for awakening – link
8. The subtle narcissism of spiritual leaders – link
9. Nouns vs adjectives – the root of all spiritual narcissism – link
10. Spirit, heart and soul – time to wake up. A call to arms about why I believe this is so important – link
11. Reaction, non-reaction and expression. Building on the previous post of how awakening needs to include and validate our own desires – link
12. Reimagining spiritual practice as teachers, a process for teachers to get clear on what, how and why they teach – link

A whole load of awakening is simple forgiveness.
Forgiving other people for them not being who you wanted them to be.
Forgiving yourself for you not being who you wanted to be.
And forgiving the world for it not being what you wanted it to be.

Part III – A New Dharma

We don’t live in 500 BC anymore.

These are my writings on the specifics of how we need to approach practice differently in order to wake up in a way that is worthwhile and relevant to the modern world.

1. Overview of all practice. How different practices feed the eco-system – link
2. Heart-knowing, an intro to how our heart knowing is different to our mind’s perceptions and how this is the truth that the spiritual path can show us – link
3. The different aspects of time and how this is the key to awakening – link
4. Holding space, how we all need to rebalance the masculine and feminine in order to be able to practice and live meaningfully as individuals and a collective – link
5. The role of the subconscious within spirituality. Our thoughts and experience will be created on the subconscious base of how worthy and loved we feel we are so its important for spiritual practice to include an understanding of this – link
6. Changes in consciousness through altered states. A short post on how altered states of consciousness can change our perspective on life – link
7. The second arrow of suffering. A description of a fundamentally different way of perceiving this teaching that I believe is more realistic in helping people move forward from their struggles – link
8. What is the soul? You cannot have light without dark, or dark without light. The dharma needs to include our darkness to have any relevance or meaning to people’s lives – link
9. The true middle way. A new way of experiencing the middle way, which is vital to dismantling oppression and creating a fair and joyful society for all – link
10. No self vs. true self. How realising our true selves is ultimately the point to any spiritual practice – link
11. The inside-outside and the outside-inside. An explanation of how it is impossible to detach ourselves from society and why spiritual practice needs to incorporate changing how we interact with the world – link
12. Why emptiness is not form – link
13. What does emptiness mean and how does this apply to practice and the modern world – link
14. When emptiness becomes richness. Dismantling the idea that emptiness is some kind of ultimate truth and suggestions of some other ways of looking that are supportive for engaging with life – link
15. Tuning in to space in meditation. Often confused with emptiness, how we can tune into spaciousness and how this is the key to a lot of awakening – link
16. Expression through imaginal practice. How imaginal practice provides a safe way for us to access emotions and parts of ourselves that we wouldn’t normally open to, liberating the energy that is tied up in these contractions – link
17. Reframing the Brahma Viharas as questions. If we want to have lives where we connect with people and find meaning we need a different understanding of the boundless states of the heart – link
18. No self and the collective. A summary of how this different understanding of no self and our practice impacts on how we interact with the world – link
19. The powers. Talking about the powers in Buddhism and describing how they are actually just the life forces that create all our experiences in every moment – link
20. Engaging with social issues with friendliness and care. How we can use the balance of wisdom and passion to contribute to the world – link

The fruit of the path is to give your presence generously to each moment, whatever that brings.