Just thought I should put some sort of text post within the art and weekly posts to remind everyone, particularly myself, that this is, in fact an actual blog. I will be getting back to the THEM as Hypersigil posts – there are two remaining in that series, but I want to leave a bit of a gap between the first two and the last two so that there is a bit of space between the posts.
GET SOME HEADSPACE
My Meditation practice has been going well, so much so that I actually am beginning to enjoy it. I am as shocked as anyone over this. Meditation has always been a chore and dread to me – something that I must force myself to do rather than want to do. I have spoken about Meditation here before; it has always been something I was trying to do but never succeeding in keeping it consistent over an extended period of time. But I feel (as I always do, so watch this space) that this time is different. The enjoyment of meditation is a very new experience, but as to whether that is a good or a bad thing remains to be seen – it feels currently like a good thing, but who knows? There could quite easily be a post in a few months about how Meditation is once again a chore and I was only fooling myself thinking I enjoyed it. Hopefully not though, I would like to think I have crossed that particular barrier.
I am following the Headspace course on Meditation which is a sort of guided meditation, but not guided in the sense of path working. The guidance is more on how to practice, what to expect, and when to start and end the different sections of your actual daily practice and that sort of thing. I like Headspace, Andy is a good teacher, and I would recommend it as something of value, but only with the Caveat that everyone is different and you may hate it. You get the first ten days free, so you have nothing to lose in trying it out other than ten minutes a day.
THE CORE TEACHINGS
I currently reading Daniel Ingram’s book – “Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book” and I am REALLY enjoying it. The Chapter on Magick (or The Powers as they are called in Buddhism) was surprising and very enlightening. Surprising in the sense that I always forget that there is a whole Magick side to Buddhism that often gets forgotten about or ignored. Ingram is quite open and pragmatic about The Powers and while he discusses them openly and with the proper level of appreciation, he also doesn’t go overboard with it. He knows their usefulness and their place, while also noting that they aren’t the end all and be all.
Daniel Ingram
He also talks about the Stages of Enlightenment, what you can expect and how to gauge where you are on the path. I feel this is a good and helpful thing. There is a big section of the Buddhist, Magick and Meditation circles that never talk or even allow talk about personal attainment of Enlightenment – it is somewhat frowned upon and often considered egotistical or bad judgement to assume you have any sort of Enlightenment. It’s not that Enlightenment isn’t possible it’s just that YOU can’t have it. I have spoken about this sort of stuff before with regard to Chapman and Barford who are also fans of Ingram.
Anyway, “Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book” is probably the best book on Buddhism I have read in years (YMMV obviously) and I still have about 100 pages left to go as of writing. Check it out of Buddhist style Concentration and Insight Meditation are something you are interested in or if the stages and signposts of the Enlightenment journey is something you want to know more about.
And that’s it for now, I hope all of you are doing well.