There are no wrong turns on your path if your intuition and instincts are your guides. Be careful about letting others take away your inner voice and your inner power. This path is about liberation and freedom, not freeing ourselves from our own ego only for it to be replaced by someone else’s ego. No enlightened being would charge huge sums of money for their “secret.” Retreats in beautiful places will…
Q: Dear Todd, can you explain the dual and non-dual aspects of mindfulness, especially in relation to experiencing both ultimate and relative bodhicitta?TODD ANSWERS: Using the mind intentionally and consciously is exactly what it was designed for. When we are fully mindful and present, we become one with our surroundings and our conscious awareness expands beyond ourselves. So, I think it is really non dualistichttps://youtu.be/unm8ROYfrmU These 5 Minutes Could Shift…
Q: Dear Todd,I sincerely wonder if by taming our egos, we are serving the ruling elite. We remain grateful for having nothing while they privatize resources, declare wars, and enslave us through debt for basic needs.TODD ANSWERS: I think it's a great question and we need to be on the lookout for people who would twist this ancient knowledge for some personal motives. I hope everyone can have all the…
Imagine a person standing with their arms stretched out to both sides. Someone is standing on each side of this person pulling their arms in opposite directions with all their might. This is how most of us live. We’re living in a constant battle between two opposing forces. It’s a state of constant stress — the tension from our mind almost being torn in half. On one side is what we crave,…
I am watching Peaky Blinders these days. I’m not usually one for such violence, but the family likes it and so it’s good bonding time.One line stuck out to me in particular. Uncle Charlie says to his nephew Tommy in regard to avoiding going crazy or committing suicide, “You have to move around or the guilt catches up with you... You have to keep moving or it all catches up…
Every cell of your body plays a role,has an intelligence,and they work together to create the illusion of a single individual self. Your cells are conscious. They are aware of their surroundings and react accordingly. They are imbued with universal consciousness. They’re just not so advanced, like us, to be able to falsely believe they are separate from the whole. They do their job, focused, and play their role without the ego’s need for praise…
You are trapped. Not in a physical cage, but in a mental one. Luckily, this is a cage of our own making, and we each possess the key to freedom.The cage is made of our conditioned likes and dislikes. We think they are not conditioned, that they are natural, innate to us. But they are all conditioned, and they can be changed. I used to hate olives and cilantro. They made…
If you pull out your phone to avoid your emotions, you are not ready to pull out your phone. Everything you do on your phone will be neurotic, dependency-based, and ultimately destructive.Imagine you find out your car is in need of repair. It’s starting to make a weird noise. Instead of having a mechanic fix it, you fill up the gas tank with sand. This is what we are doing…
We are an outward-focused species. We believe that fortunate circumstances will make us happy. On vacation, we’re supposed to be happy and the rest of the year is supposed to be a struggle. But what kind of life will we lead when only the extraordinary brings us joy? Whatever we do frequently becomes ordinary, so even the extraordinary will quickly become dull to us.Rather than waiting for an extraordinary vacation to be…
Isn’t it funny that scientists are now thinking we live in a simulation, when it’s like, “Yeah, we are living in a simulation. Our mind simulates reality.” The observation by scientists is astute, but it doesn’t mean we’re inside a computer. It means that we live inside our head.Every single thing we experience in this physical universe is experienced inside our mind. It is the result of our eyes, ears…
If something here helped you feel less alone, would you help me keep it alive?
Even the smallest support matters.
Weekly Writings from the Desk of Todd Perelmuter
