Paradigm Shifting as Enlightenment Practice

One way to understand enlightenment is to think of it as being open at all levels, in all dimensions, to the flow of divine energy running through you. We are not alive as much as we are animated by a universal spirit.

Opening to the spirit that animates us is what spiritual work is all about, and one crucial aspect of that work is changing the way we think, feel, and perceive.

​​Our perception of reality is shaped by the ideas and assumptions we have about reality. In a much more profound way than we realize we are generating our experience of reality. Our experience of reality may not be accurate, but it is binding as long as we believe in it. That means that as long as we are trapped in limiting ideas about who we are and what is possible for us, we will never gain access to our full potential.

​​Enlightenment has always meant shedding false, limiting beliefs and assumptions so that we can live into the glorious truth of who we really are.

I have always said that the most important aspect of any spiritual practice is who we think we are while we are doing it. If we are locked in a view of ourselves that cannot imagine the possibility of expanding into unknown possibilities, our practice will never bear extraordinary results. Only if we know who we are from the start, will we be open to the radical potential of practice, and only then will we be blessed with the true gifts of spirit.

​​In order to unleash the full potential for transformation we must retrain our nervous system so that we experience ourselves in a new way. That is what paradigm shifting is all about. It is possible to change how reality appears to you. You can shift from seeing yourself as a living thing in an inanimate universe, to recognizing yourself as a spiritual being living through a physical form. This is not just an intellectual shift or a new belief, this is actually an experience of a new self.

In order for spiritual practice to be fully empowering, you must do it as a spiritual being resting in the truth of who they are, rather than a physical being trying to discover the truth of who they are. You must know who you are from the start.

This is the work that we will do on retreat next week. In the morning sessions we will explore the subtle discipline of meditation. In the afternoon sessions we will work with paradigm shifting contemplations that will shift the experience of who we are. Every next morning our practice will be done from this newly expanded sense of self. Each day we will rest in greater depths of being and then expand our sense of self to accommodate those depths. The work of each day will build on the work of the day before. Each day our experience of being will go deeper and our sense of self will expand. By the end of the retreat we will individually and collectively be living in a new reality.