Author Archives: arvana

Spiritual Nutrition: food to nourish your awakening

Googling ‘spiritual nutrition’ gives us lots of links to food. We can find many suggestions about the ‘physical’ eating designed to enhance our spiritual nature. For example — which foods to eat, how to think about these foods and even the relationship we have with our foods.

Spiritual Nutrition-food to nourish your awakening. Photo by Kelly Garbato.Sometimes overlooked is a step beyond physical eating — we also consume a lot of what can be called ‘food for the soul’ or ‘spirit food’ such as thoughts, beliefs & attitudes.  So, have we checked what we’ve been eating lately?

A steady diet of positive spirit food can enhance our spiritual growth & may even promote our awakening. Just as a healthy body is more flexible & able to cope with change — a healthy spirit is also more receptive to new perceptions.  Our increasing awareness of the choices with regard to what we eat will ideally include both physical & metaphysical food.

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Zahir Kahn: pearls of wisdom from an ‘ordinary guy’

Listening to a talk with Zahir Kahn we’ll notice a British accent and a quick pace as he speaks about — his mates (friends), some geezers and blokes (male people) he’s talked to, and the many times he’s wound people up (purposely annoyed someone).  When asked if he’s a teacher he replies, “No, I just talk and get into some situations.”  He likes to say he’s an ‘ordinary guy’ with a family and a job.

Zahir Kahn: pearls of wisdom from an 'ordinary guy'. Photo by Jason A. Samfield.For the rest of the interview, Kahn’s quick and quirky style shows us why people are inviting him to ‘just talk’ —  he moves seamlessly from non-dualism, to comments about Osho or Papaji, to reminding us that words are meaningless and “there’s nothing to say”.

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Non-duality: and the stages of experiencing oneness on the path towards enlightenment

Understanding or knowing that we’re one with everything – ‘I am, yet I am not’ — is termed non-duality.  Ken Wilber says, “Boundary lines, of any type, are never found in the real world itself, but only in the imagination of the mapmakers.”

Non-duality- and the stages of experiencing oneness on the path towards enlightenment. Photo by slimmer_jimmerPeople commonly experience ‘non-duality’ in 3 stages:

  • Intuition: Our understanding or intuition is that there are no boundaries — all is one.   At this stage, we haven’t really experienced this feeling of ‘oneness’ but we know it is what we want to move towards.

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Paul Hedderman shows us that Anyone can have a spiritual awakening

Some of us look at our lives and think, “I couldn’t possibly become enlightened.” We have various reasons –our job, lifestyle, lack of involvement with spirituality — and so on. Paul Hedderman’s life shows us that this viewpoint couldn’t be further from the truth.

Paul Hedderman shows us that Anyone can have a spiritual awakening. Photo by Spencer DallenApparently, Paul’s life began with one wrong turn after another.  He started drinking at 11 years old. By age 16, he was dealing drugs from his mother’s home.  And his life just spiralled downward from there, until his 30’s — when he finally entered a rehabilitation center.

After completing a 2 year program, Paul returned to life outside.  Yet only a few days later, he was right back to drinking and doing drugs. After about 10 months of one binge after another, Paul describes a moment when, “a portal opened up and some energy that was sufficient enough to stop the stream of the selfing (the ego-based self), the alcoholism, held it at bay for a couple of minutes.  It was like a CNN newsflash, no story just a headline.  And the headline was I’m screwed. ”

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