Tag: mindfulness

All Perspectives, Held at Once

The mind is trained to move. It scans, compares, chooses, rejects. Such motion gives the impression that reality must be approached piece by piece, perspective by perspective, as though truth were a puzzle assembled over time. Yet there is another mode of knowing; one that does not move at all.

When awareness rests in itself, perspectives no longer compete for dominance. They appear simultaneously, without hierarchy. Subjective feeling, objective fact, cultural meaning, and systemic pattern are no longer separate lenses fighting for authority. Each arises as a facet of the same totality, already complete.

Grasping all perspectives at once does not require encyclopedic knowledge or intellectual speed. It requires the absence of contraction. The moment the need to stand somewhere collapses, the whole field becomes visible. No viewpoint is excluded because none is defended.

Contradiction dissolves here; not because differences vanish, but because opposition depends on identification. When awareness is no longer anchored to a single position, opposing views reveal themselves as complementary expressions of one indivisible reality. What once appeared irreconcilable is now seen as mutually arising.

This capacity does not belong to the personality. It is not a skill developed through effort or refinement. It emerges naturally when the sense of being a separate observer relaxes. What remains is a silent comprehension that does not argue, does not conclude, and does not seek resolution.

From this clarity, compassion becomes effortless. Every stance, every belief, every action is understood from its own internal logic. Judgment falls away, replaced by direct recognition. Even confusion is seen clearly, without resistance.

Such seeing does not flatten the world. It deepens it. Distinctions remain, yet none claim ownership of truth. The full spectrum of existence is held without strain, like light containing every colour without favouring one.

Nothing new is acquired here. Something false simply stops obscuring what was always present.

Morgan O. Smith

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Beyond the Lens of Devotion

How Presence Reveals Consciousness

Most people think of darshan as a moment where a seeker looks upon a teacher, saint, or deity. Yet something far more nuanced unfolds beneath that outward exchange. The gaze, the silence, the presence, each thread of the encounter shapes consciousness in ways that depend on the inner maturity of the one receiving it.

A childlike stage approaches darshan with awe charged by emotion. The world feels animated by invisible forces, and a teacher appears to hold the keys to destiny itself. Nothing is questioned; everything is absorbed. Power seems to live outside the self, radiating from the figure who stands upon the altar or sits upon the asana.

A more developed stage begins to untangle symbol from projection. Presence is recognized not as magic, but as psychology refined into ritual. A teacher’s gaze becomes a mirror through which hidden material rises. Nervous systems synchronize, emotions unravel, archetypes awaken. What once felt supernatural becomes profoundly human, yet no less sacred for being understood.

A deeper stage meets darshan without seeking a blessing at all. Awareness recognizes its own reflection across an imagined divide. The teacher’s presence becomes a steady flame, revealing the same light in the one who looks. The moment turns transparent; subject and object thin into a single field. No transmission is required because nothing is actually transferred. Consciousness simply stands revealed to itself.

Darshan, then, is not a singular practice but a spectrum. It can soothe fear, unlock psychological insight, or open the doorway into the unbounded. Each layer is valid. Each layer meets the seeker where they stand. The mystery lies in how the same ritual changes meaning as consciousness evolves.

Perhaps the most profound realization is this: the power of darshan has never been contained within the one who gives it. The power rests in the depth of the one who receives.

Morgan O. Smith

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How Meditation Affects the Subtle Bodies

We continue our Bodhi in the Brain Virtual Group Meditation via Zoom/YouTube, this evening, 8–10pm.

(Headphones or Earbuds Required)
Meeting ID: 859 0097 8411
Passcode: 676036

How Meditation Affects the Subtle Bodies

Modern science studies the brain’s waves, yet ancient wisdom charts the frequencies of being itself. Meditation doesn’t just calm the nervous system, it reorganizes the architecture of existence that extends beyond the skin. The physical body is the outermost layer of a far more intricate continuum, a series of subtle fields known as the etheric, emotional, mental, causal, and ultimately the nondual body. Each meditation deepens the conversation between these dimensions, aligning them into coherent resonance.

The first transformations begin within the etheric field; the energetic counterpart of the physical form. Breath slows, the heartbeat steadies, and prana, or life-force, begins to flow more evenly. This harmony clears stagnation and revitalizes the channels through which energy circulates. As vitality expands, the emotional body awakens. Old patterns surface to be felt and released. Meditation becomes the silent therapist, allowing the residue of unprocessed emotion to dissolve without resistance. The emotional body’s purification is not about suppression but integration; the merging of past experience with present awareness.

As meditation matures, the mental body is refined. Thought loses its compulsive gravity. The gap between thoughts widens, and awareness begins to see the structures of perception themselves. Beliefs, identifications, and judgments reveal their impermanence. A clarity dawns that no longer seeks to control reality but to understand its nature. This clarity is not cold detachment; it is spacious intimacy.

When these bodies are harmonized, the causal body, often associated with the witnessing consciousness, becomes luminous. Meditation pulls back the veils until only pure presence remains. Every subtle sheath becomes transparent to the light of awareness, allowing consciousness to know itself directly. This recognition transforms the very experience of being alive. The universe no longer feels external; it vibrates as one’s own inner current.

Understanding this process matters because human suffering is not merely psychological; it’s energetic. Distortion in one layer ripples through the rest. A clear mind cannot inhabit a body holding unresolved pain, and a peaceful heart cannot flourish in a field clouded by mental noise. Meditation realigns the total system, restoring coherence between all layers of being.

When the subtle bodies function as a single continuum, existence ceases to feel fragmented. The physical world, emotions, and thought merge as one stream of intelligent energy. Meditation reveals this unity not as belief but as direct knowing; the living pulse of reality experienced through every cell and every silence between heartbeats.

Morgan O. Smith

Executive Director

Bodhi Mental Care & Wellness

Our Virtual Group Meditation Session Nov 12th!

Join us for our free virtual group meditation session this Wednesday, November 12th at 8:00 PM ET.

Please have your headphones or earbuds ready for the full experience.

Take an hour for yourself to unwind, breathe, and reconnect.

Meeting ID: 859 0097 8411
Passcode: 676036

Warm regards,
Morgan O. Smith
Bodhi Mental Care & Wellness

The Fragrance of Awareness

Why Everything Begins to Appear Beautiful

Long-term meditation reshapes perception not by adding new qualities to reality, but by stripping away the distortions that once filtered it. What was previously judged as ugly, tragic, or unjust begins to reveal a quiet radiance beneath its form. The world does not change; awareness does. Beauty ceases to depend on preference. It becomes the natural scent of existence when the mind grows still enough to notice.

When thoughts slow and habitual interpretation dissolves, perception rests directly on what is. The ordinary becomes luminous because there is no longer resistance to what appears. A cracked wall, a wrinkled face, or a moment of loss can shimmer with the same grace as a sunset. Meditation gradually erodes the reflex that divides life into categories of like and dislike, pleasant and unpleasant. What remains is an intimacy with reality so complete that even pain acquires a certain sacred texture.

Beauty, in this sense, is not sentimentality; it is clarity. The mind that no longer insists on how life should look begins to perceive how extraordinary it already is. Awareness witnesses decay and creation as one movement. The tears of grief and the laughter of birth flow from the same source, both radiant with the light of consciousness itself.

This transformation of perception is not a psychological trick; it is the awakening of the senses to their original purity. Meditation returns vision to its natural state; unburdened by personal story, untouched by grasping. To the silent witness, everything breathes with equal dignity. The beggar and the saint, the chaos and the calm, all belong to a single wholeness that can only be described as beautiful beyond reason.

When the veil of self-interest lifts, beauty ceases to be an object and becomes the very field of being. One no longer seeks it. One lives as it.

Morgan O. Smith

Get Your Free Copy of My Book, Bodhi in the Brain!

https://subscribepage.io/oTSZQu

Chase Your Own Tail with Full Awareness

The mind has always been fascinated with pursuit; chasing meaning, purpose, love, and even itself. Every spiritual seeker eventually discovers that what is being sought is also what is doing the seeking. This circular dance is not an error of logic but an essential revelation of consciousness attempting to know its own face.

Self-awareness begins as observation: the witness looking at the one who thinks, feels, or reacts. Yet as the circle tightens, the observer realizes it too is being observed. Awareness turns upon itself, chasing its own tail. The chase appears endless, yet there is no distance between hunter and hunted. Each rotation refines perception until the realization dawns; nothing was ever outside the circle.

To chase your own tail with full awareness is to engage life without trying to escape its paradoxes. The ego may protest, craving resolution, but awareness thrives in the friction between motion and stillness. Every question collapses into its own answer when seen through this lens. Each loop reveals that the seeker and the sought are made of the same light, turning endlessly within a field that neither begins nor ends.

Such pursuit is not futility; it is awakening disguised as repetition. The circle is not a trap; it is the geometry of return. The tail you chase is your own forgotten wholeness, the reminder that every step forward curves you back into what has always been whole, complete, and awake.

To awaken is not to stop the chase, but to see that you were never moving at all.

Morgan O. Smith

Get Your Free Copy of My Book, Bodhi in the Brain!

https://subscribepage.io/oTSZQu

The Silent Agreement Beneath All Voices

Every conviction, no matter how radical or righteous, is an echo of the same unspoken longing to be understood, to belong, to find meaning amid the vastness. Each culture, religion, and ideology carves its own path toward that longing, often believing itself to be the only way. Yet beneath the words, beneath the gestures of defence or devotion, there hums a single vibration that does not divide.

Those who dare to listen beyond preference hear it clearly. The louder the debate, the clearer it becomes that all sides are pleading for the same recognition of their humanity. The fundamental call is not for dominance but for understanding; to be seen through the eyes of unity rather than difference.

Beliefs are useful until they are mistaken for truth. When held too tightly, they become walls. When held lightly, they become windows through which consciousness observes itself from a thousand angles. The awakened mind learns not to choose sides but to perceive the underlying harmony that holds both sides together.

True wisdom is not born from agreement but from capacity; the capacity to listen without fear, to allow contradiction to breathe, to see that diversity of expression is the universe conversing with itself. Every person, every nation, speaks a dialect of the same cosmic language. The argument is never between right and wrong but between two reflections of the same light, each insisting that its brightness is original.

When this is seen, opposition dissolves. The wars of ideology lose their fuel. You begin to recognize that all are reaching toward the same ineffable truth, merely using different words to describe it. What remains is not a conclusion but a profound peace; the peace of seeing through the illusion of difference.

Morgan O. Smith

Get Your Free Copy of My Book, Bodhi in the Brain!

https://subscribepage.io/oTSZQu

Today is the Day!

We’re excited to launch our new group meditation series under my new organization, Bodhi Mental Care & Wellness!

📍 Location: Malvern Family Resource Centre’s Youth Hub, 1321 Neilson Rd
🗓 Every Wednesday from Oct 1 – Nov 5
🕔 5 PM – 7 PM
💲 Free of charge

If you live in the Toronto area, this is the perfect opportunity to join us for guided meditation, sound entrainment, and mindfulness practice.

Parking is available on-site. If it’s full, additional parking can be found across the street at the mall. Feel free to bring a yoga mat for your comfort.

Come join us as we cultivate presence, calm, and inner balance together.

The Impotent Monk

What Remains After the Fire

Most men may never understand what it feels like when the body pauses in response, even as doctors insist there is nothing wrong; no hormonal imbalance, no medical explanation, nothing. For nearly six years, I have lived with the stillness of fire that began not after an illness or injury, but after the most profound spiritual awakening of my life.

The event unfolded as a complete rupture of ordinary consciousness. A massive surge of energy, like a serpent coiling and rising along my spine, tore through every chakra until my crown split open. What followed was a cascade of light, as if every particle of my being erupted into ecstatic union, each atom proclaiming with clarity and force: I AM GOD. My body convulsed as though gripped by a seizure, yet my inner experience was one of perfect union with the entire cosmos. Every movement of mine was the movement of the universe, and every movement of the universe was my own.

That experience was ignited months after receiving darshan from Paramahamsa Vishwananda in 2019. Life has not returned to what it once was. The challenges below the waist have resisted every attempt at permanent resolution. Sessions with a chi master provided brief relief, but soon after, the absent spark would return. And yet, despite this, my relationship to the situation is not one of despair. Desire for vitality remains, but acceptance has settled in deeper than disappointment.

For men whose identity is tightly woven to the fire of physical intimacy, such a loss could feel devastating. For me, the years of spiritual preparation softened the impact. I knew that awakening could arrive with consequences. It was not only bliss that I had trained for, but the burning away of old attachments.

Ironically, from a fading of the physical echo came an experience of Tantra more profound than any physical act could offer. Without the presence of another, I encountered the total union of my inner masculine and feminine, the Anima and Animus dissolving into wholeness. The union was so complete that it redefined intimacy itself, showing me that sexuality is not bound to flesh but can open into direct communion with the soul.

Not long after that experience, I faced the deaths of colleagues and a high school friend. The timing was a reminder that awakening is never an escape from life’s fragility. Transformation and loss often arrive hand in hand.

The path that led to that awakening back in 2019 was punishing at times; physically, emotionally, mentally. Yet when I ask myself if I would choose differently, the answer remains no. I would walk this road again, and again, even when the body does not follow the heart, which many would find unbearable. Because what was given cannot be outweighed by what was taken.

Awakening strips away what is temporary to reveal what cannot be lost. Even if the body falters, the truth that was seen remains untouched.

Morgan O. Smith

Get Your Free Copy of My Book, Bodhi in the Brain!

https://subscribepage.io/oTSZQu

Designed for Longing

The Gift of Dissatisfaction

Satisfaction often appears as a destination, something to be reached, secured, and held onto. Yet the moment one grasps it, a subtle hunger begins to stir again. The new job, the relationship, the recognition, the spiritual experience—all of it, no matter how profound or fulfilling, eventually reveals its transience.

What if this is not a flaw in human nature, but the very design of it? To never be fully satisfied is not a curse but a compass. It pushes us forward, beckoning us into deeper terrains of discovery, love, and creativity. The ache of incompletion is what keeps us alive to possibility. Without it, our spirit would stagnate.

Satisfaction is not the absence of desire but the willingness to engage with desire without being enslaved by it. To live in peace with dissatisfaction is to realize that fullness and emptiness coexist. The longing itself becomes a teacher, whispering that no object, achievement, or moment will ever be enough, because “enough” is not an endpoint, but an ongoing movement.

To accept this is to loosen the grip on perfection. You no longer demand that life provide a final fix, a permanent conclusion. Instead, you walk with the paradox: satisfaction arises from embracing dissatisfaction. The search for completion unveils the truth that nothing was missing in the first place.

The wisdom here is subtle. Contentment does not mean settling. It means seeing the beauty of being forever unfinished, of being shaped by desire but not consumed by it. Your very dissatisfaction becomes evidence that you are part of an unfolding reality, one that will never exhaust its depth.

Satisfaction lies not at the end of longing, but in the freedom to let longing remain.

Morgan O. Smith

Get Your Free Copy of My Book, Bodhi in the Brain!

https://subscribepage.io/oTSZQu