The Western New Year is upon us. How will you change?

Swami Rudrananda, an American Tantrik teacher, talked about two kinds of change: horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal change can look very dramatic. You might move houses and jobs, find a new lover, or totally remake your appearance. You might join a spiritual community, practice really hard and even have some spiritual experiences. (more…)

Are you thinking about life, or are you living? Most people are consciously thinking about life and unconsciously living.

Tantra means the continuity of reality. There is freshness and originality to the situation of being alive and being aware in life.

In order to experience this freshness and originality, we have to step out of karma, out of time. Karma means habit patterns — good or bad. (more…)

A reader from Massachusetts asks:

I cannot stop thinking. I tried meditation, but it was so unpleasant with all these thoughts in my mind. How can I stop this and experience an empty mind?

Many people assume that spiritual practice = meditation. But meditation is really quite an advanced practice. It is normal not to be able to sit quietly and enjoy that when your mind is racing. (more…)

A student from Oregon asks, “How do you make good decisions?”

According to direct realization Tantra, human beings have six senses: smelling, tasting, seeing, feeling, hearing, and mind. Yes, the mind is a sense, not the master of the senses.

These senses have gross and also many refined forms. Most people, when they try to make a decision, are accessing the gross forms of these senses. (more…)