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Depression and Unhappiness
Thanks to Jeff Barton for this weeks question on how enlightenment alters our relationship to emotions.
Depression and Unhappiness from Alan Chapman on Vimeo.
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Free Will and Enlightenment
A short discourse on the nature of Will. Alternative title: Get Out Of Your Own Way!
Thanks to Tom and Brynjar for the questions.
Free Will and Enlightenment from Alan Chapman on Vimeo.
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States, Stages, Powers
In this weeks video installment, I tackle the question, ‘What is the relationship between spiritual states, stages, powers and enlightenment?’ asked by OE reader/watcher, Pied Piper. Enjoy…
States, Stages, Powers from Alan Chapman on Vimeo.
Alan's blog Articles: activism Being Ordinary emptiness enlightened life ethics Martin Kovan Mike Kewley post enlightenment practice
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Satori in Paris: An inspirational interview with Martin Kovan
If you really want to know what enlightenment means for us in a very real human way, a profound expression of what the ‘enlightened life’ looks like can be found in the recent Being Ordinary podcast: Satori in Paris, where Mike Kewley interviews the Buddhist activist Martin Kovan. It’s the perfect antidote to the current vogue of spiritual blindness, paralysis [1] and navel-gazing confusion [2] endemic within the current enlightenment zeitgeist, and perhaps one of the clearest articulations of how the enlightened rubber meets the road that I’ve ever come across. I sincerely hope this podcast is circulated far and wide. It’s nothing short of inspirational.
[1] The comments to Rev. Danny Fisher’s article Top Seven Challenges of Western Socially Engaged Buddhism, show just how the popular Buddhist scene prefers political paralysis over actual compassionate action.
[2] Such as this recent tweet from Adyashanti: ‘there is no compassion, kindness and whatever else the ego is trying to pull here.. all motivation to “help” others can only be selfish.’ It’s nothing short of embarrassing.
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Alan's blog Resources: Business dancing enlightenment ethics For-Benefit Enlightenment gurus involvement practice teaching technology tradition video Vinay Gupta
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Building a New Tradition: Part 4
This conversation brought to my attention the vast number of questions that need to be addressed and considered when it comes to developing a community or tradition (or whatever it is), and in the video you can see the very beginnings of my articulation of how I envision this tradition taking shape (a big thank you to Vinay for facilitating this). I hope to flesh out the details (and the language) over the coming months before presenting this ‘new model’ for feedback.
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Alan's blog Resources: Business cohousing dancing enlightenment earth ships ethics For-Benefit Enlightenment gurus infrastructure involvement Lahiri Mahasaya model setting off grid organisation models practice Stephen Gaskin teaching technology the farm tradition video Vinay Gupta
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Building a New Tradition: A Conversation with Vinay Gupta
A week ago I was fortunate enough to be joined in my flat by Vinay Gupta, inventor of the Hexayurt, founder of the Bucky Ghandi Design Institution, editor of The Future We Deserve, and state-failure guru, where we explored the various aspects of organisation and infrastructure necessary to develop my ideas for a new enlightenment tradition.
I video’d the conversation using my Flip HD, which has a narrow focus so you’ll have to excuse my head being partially in shot, and after ruthlessly editing down the talk I can now present the best bits in a 20 minute video.
I know what you’re thinking: without some violence, tits or CGI to hold your attention, you’re going to find it difficult to concentrate for that long. And that’s why I’ve also cut the film up into small bite size chunks, the first of which you will find below the full length film. I intend to post a new segment (of which there are 3 more) over the coming days (it might also make for a more structured conversation around the points made in each segment).
So if you’re feeling brave (or you’re particularly interested in this topic) here’s the full thing:
Building a New Tradition: A Conversation with Vinay Gupta from Alan Chapman on Vimeo.
Alternatively, here’s Part 1:
Relevant links (for part 1):
Earth ships (one example of off grid sustainable living)
Note: In the video, we touch upon stepping away from a ‘corrupt economic system’. It should be emphasised that this is not a knee jerk and all too common reaction within the ‘spiritual scene’ to money in and of itself; rather, the current economic model or system is what is being called in to question and rejected wholesale. I’m all in favour of investigating initiatives such as the Totnes Pound or even a Resource Based Economy, but exploring alternatives such as these are a natural conclusion if we take a mindful approach to money, our behaviour and the consequences of our spending seriously. Check out Hokai Sobol talking about this topic over at Buddhist Geeks.
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How to experience enlightenment
How to experience enlightenment from Alan Chapman on Vimeo.
Better late than never, eh? Videos should be more frequent from now on.
My last video transformed the blog into a forum, and amongst many other terrible accusations thrown my way I was rather confusingly compared to Andrew Cohen. Let’s see where this one takes us…
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The Folk Theory of Enlightenment: An Interview with Jody Radzik
Jody Radzik is the infamous webmaster of Guruphiliac, a site that sheds light on the scams, crimes and abuses perpetrated by the mad, bad and sad hucksters and would-be gurus of the enlightenment scene. Jody recently gave a talk on the Folk Theory of Enlightenment (FToE) at the Science and Non-duality Conference 2009, details of which can be found at his new blog, Shimmering Dead End.
As a fan of his work, I was delighted when Jody agreed to the following interview, where we discuss his spiritual career, the negativity he frequently receives from telling the truth, working with Kali, and the FToE.