We live inside of a paradigm based on an assumption of separation and division. We have been trained to believe that we live in reality and we have been taught that the reality we live in is a universe of empty space populated by things that are inherently isolated from one another. And because this […]
May
04
The Experience of Suspended Limitation
posted by Jeff Carreira
The experience of spiritual freedom is a condition of suspended limitation. I remember a very profound moment in my life when I realized that I didn’t really know what was possible. Stop and think about that for a minute. What if you really didn’t know what was possible? The moment of this realization was a […]
April
18
The Three Stage Process of Evolving Selfhood
posted by Jeff Carreira
This summer I will be leading a 5-Day retreat based on the insights and perspectives explored in my new book The Soul of a New Self. I feel that this retreat is the best opportunity I’ve ever had to teach the full breadth of what I have learned, experienced and assimilated over 25 years of […]
March
24
Spiritual Growth and the Emergence of the Meta-Being
posted by Jeff Carreira
The purpose of spiritual growth is the expansion of self-awareness. As we grow we become more aware of who we are. Human life is our spiritual path. It leads to the gradual expansion of self-awareness. At times the path may seem random and haphazard. There is a gradual increase of self-knowledge but only in fits […]
February
18
William James and Radical Empiricism
posted by Jeff Carreira
William James is the author of The Varieties of Religious Experience and one of my biggest philosophical heroes. He was born in upstate New York in a family rich with inherited wealth. James was a indecisive young man who was moved from school to school in an attempt to give him the best possible education. […]
January
26
Participatory Ontological Emergence: Questioning Some Foundational Assumptions of our Current Reality
posted by Jeff Carreira
It takes a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious. – Alfred North Whitehead Ontology is the branch of philosophy that asks the question “What is Reality?” This is a profound question, perhaps the most profound you can ask. The question, “What is Real?” is also deep, but even this question assumes […]
December
18
Embracing Radical Pluralism – or – Can we really live with Paradox?
posted by Jeff Carreira
Ontology is the branch of philosophy concerned with questions about the essential nature of reality. When you ask, “Is this real?” you are asking an ontological question. Ontology is often what we think about when we think about philosophy. In fact, for a long time ontological considerations were the bedrock of philosophical inquiry, but something […]
November
26
The Secret of Perpetual Awakening a Holiday Essay
posted by Jeff Carreira
For the past few years I have been exploring and teaching about a distinction that I speak about as the first and second surrender of spiritual awakening. The first surrender is the utterly passive acceptance of all that is. The meditation practice of No Problem that I teach allows us to rest in that pristine […]
November
05
THE NON-LOCALITY OF SELF
posted by Jeff Carreira
The literary movement known as Romanticism actively embraced the idea of multiple perspectives. The Romantics were in part reacting against what they saw as the limitations of the Enlightenment. One of those limitations was that for all of its magnificent advances the Enlightenment thinkers were still in some ways committed to a single view of […]
October
29
A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL VIEW OF CONSCIOUSNESS
posted by Jeff Carreira
Most of us have been taught to understand mind, thought, and self through a dualistic model of reality. I call that model of reality things-in-space consciousness, and it was born in the West during the time period known as the Enlightenment. Over the course of about two centuries we moved out of the worldview of […]
