The Dharma archive gathers the essays published at Heartmind. These writings explore consciousness, non duality, and the world’s contemplative wisdom traditions. New essays are added regularly.
Dharma comes from an old root meaning to hold, to uphold, what is firm and true beneath the surface of things. Long before it belonged to any one tradition, it simply meant that which sustains reality, and the teaching that points toward it. I use it here in that oldest, widest sense: reflections on the nature of consciousness, and on what it means to live rightly in light of what is real, drawn from the yogic traditions, from Buddhism, and from the perennial wisdom found across every genuine path. This is the Dharma explored in this archive.
Browse by theme: An Ocean Journey · Contemplative Writing · Healing and Medicine
- THE SOUL MIND AND THE EGO MIND
There are two minds at work in us. The soul mind, which we can also call the Heartmind, is what… Read more: THE SOUL MIND AND THE EGO MIND - LOVE
If we are the ocean, moving for a while in a shape called you, then what is the water? The answer I have come to, after many years, is love. - FEAR
A Note Before Beginning I have drawn on Kashmir Shaivism, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, Taoism, the psychology of Carl… Read more: FEAR - WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR?
Something has been known for a very long time. Not by one tradition. Not in one place. Not by one… Read more: WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR? - AWAKENING OF THE HEARTMIND
I went to India because I had to. There is no simpler way to say it. Every obstacle fell away.… Read more: AWAKENING OF THE HEARTMIND - FRIENDSHIP
The Sacred Ground of Friendship There is a kind of friendship most of us have touched at least once in… Read more: FRIENDSHIP - THE WAVE AND THE OCEAN OF LOVE
Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine the sea. Not a stormy sea. A gentle one. Early morning, perhaps, when… Read more: THE WAVE AND THE OCEAN OF LOVE - REALITY HAS MORE LAYERS THAN THOUGHT
Most of us encountered physics in three chapters. Newton. Einstein. Quantum mechanics. And even if school made them feel dry,… Read more: REALITY HAS MORE LAYERS THAN THOUGHT - BEYOND THE SIMULATION
Consciousness, Cymatics, and the Great Mistake of the Simulation Theorists One: The Universe Speaks Before It Thinks Take a flat… Read more: BEYOND THE SIMULATION - THE GREAT FORGETTING
Consciousness, Contraction, and the Return of the Whole There is a question that runs beneath every spiritual tradition that has… Read more: THE GREAT FORGETTING - SCALES OF THE REAL
When it comes to consciousness, its depth and the architecture of awareness, one of the most overlooked insights is that… Read more: SCALES OF THE REAL - CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE WISDOM OF NOT KNOWING
A Comparative Essay on Kashmir Shaivism and Dzogchen Two of the world’s most sophisticated non-dual philosophical traditions, Kashmir Shaivism and… Read more: CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE WISDOM OF NOT KNOWING - IF HUMANITY STOPPED
A Reflection on Sovereignty, Power and the Return to True Nature Consider, for a moment, the Highland Clearances. Between 1750… Read more: IF HUMANITY STOPPED - THE OCEAN OF HEARTMIND
Some realisations arrive quietly, through years of practice and study. Others arrive in a single moment, written in red on… Read more: THE OCEAN OF HEARTMIND - THE SACRED PULSATION OF HEARTMIND
Spanda, the Flower of Life, and the Śrī Yantra There are two sacred diagrams that have travelled across civilisations, each… Read more: THE SACRED PULSATION OF HEARTMIND - PSILOCYBIN AS PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
The slender, bell-shaped fruiting bodies pictured here are Psilocybe semilanceata, commonly known as the Liberty Cap, and among the most… Read more: PSILOCYBIN AS PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE - PSILOCYBIN, NEUROPLASTICITY AND STROKE RECOVERY
Psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in certain species of fungi, has moved from the margins of counterculture into some of… Read more: PSILOCYBIN, NEUROPLASTICITY AND STROKE RECOVERY
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