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

True meditation is nothing but the cultivation of our capacity to deeply listen in this way.** Through listening—not with the ears but with our whole being—we arrive at a quiet inner knowing of what is right for us, which is not obtainable through any amount of thinking or discussing with others (though those activities can sometimes be valuable as

The ego would rather be right than happy.

When we live with the tension of the personal will directed toward an imagined future, we live in a mind-world maze of possibilities instead of the vivid aliveness of intimacy with what is.

Considering this, it is incumbent upon you to do some self-inquiry: Is your attempt to change any given behavior based in love or self-hatred? Here’s a clue: if your striving to change is hard and effortful, if you beat yourself up for perceived failures in that process and need acknowledgement for perceived successes, it’s almost definitely based

That tradition teaches that our essence-nature, the core of our being, which is also the ground of being itself, cannot be grasped by the mind and so it goes by many names (while being ultimately nameless)—in Sanskrit it is called sāra (“essence, core”), madhya (“center”), svabhāva (“true nature”), ātman (“real self, soul”), and śivatva (“divinity”

Characterizing another person’s experience, feelings, needs, or values is not speaking your truth.

You are perfectly human, right now. Your so-called flaws do not indicate unworthiness or deficiency any more than the dark spots on the moon indicate some kind of lunar unworthiness or deficiency. Everyone has flaws, and your unique set of flaws do not uniquely vitiate your value. Flaws are just part of being human. It’s how we’re supposed to be.

A great German philosopher argued that humans are precisely those creatures who always have their past with them and are always living toward their future, and that it is awareness of mortality that gives human life meaning, an idea that classical Tantra also embraced.**

This inner wisdom inclines in one direction or another for the benefit of all beings, which is one key way it is different from the desires of the heart-mind, which usually tend to move toward what is beneficial for you personally. So, the inner wisdom won’t necessarily lead you toward what you most like or enjoy. (However, through spiritual practi