If you want to awaken, how do you know what to do? How do you know when to seek the guidance of a spiritual group or teacher, how do you know which group or teacher to choose, and how do you know when it’s time to leave that group or teacher and move on? In many ways, this problem is similar to the creative task faced by an artist, an engineer, or an entrepreneur. In this episode, I explain what the creative process is and how that relates to spirituality and awakening. I define what I mean by a mystic, and I talk about how mystics use the creative process to create their own spiritual path. I also talk about how mystics can transcend existing spiritual patterns to become spiritual pioneers. (read more)

Everything religious, spiritual, or sacred is based on something set apart as special or extraordinary. In this episode, I describe spiritual awakening as a cycle of sensing, pursuing, and integrating the extraordinary. In the first part of this cycle, we sense the extraordinary and turn our attention toward it; in the second part, we pursue the extraordinary, navigating toward it and learning to recognize it; and in the third part, we integrate the extraordinary back into ordinary life. I illustrate this cycle with examples from my life, and I describe some problems that can arise along the way. (read more)