Near Enemies of the Truth: Avoid the Pitfalls of the Spiritual Life and Become Radically Free

Too often people try to change their lives by using the will as a kind of hammer to beat their life into proper shape. The intellect identifies the goal of the programme, and the will accordingly forces the life into that shape. This way of approaching the sacredness of one’s own presence is externalist and violent. It brings you falsely outside yo

When Joseph Campbell uttered his famous maxim, “Follow your bliss,” he was speaking a partial truth. It is important to follow your bliss, and it can take courage, but if that’s all you do, you’ll just get blissed out. From a spiritual perspective, it can be more valid to say, “Follow your fear.” But similarly, if that’s all you do, you’ll just get

When we are real rather than nice, when we choose self-expression over self-indulgence, when we choose growth over the need to belong, and when we choose fluidity over rigidity, we begin to understand the deeper dynamics of truthfulness, and we begin to taste the freedom and goodness of this jewel.

Everybody knows it, but almost everybody is deluded into thinking there’s something more to learn, something hidden and esoteric that is revealed only to a special few. Only after years of searching do we find that there’s nothing more to find. Will we be relieved or disappointed? What is there to gain from practice, after all? We realize that our