Soul Food

Based on the spiritual videos that I’ve shared in my Soul Food column, many have likely surmised by now that I have a predilection for unambiguous, direct pointers. This method reflects my communication style in general, I suppose, but I also feel that with fewer words, what remains becomes more powerful. That being said, this is not the only type of content I recommend. I also groove on more detailed examinations of the religions, spiritual Masters, and philosophical traditions that interest (sometimes fascinate!) me, which brings us to today’s missive about the wonderful YouTube channel, Let’s Talk Religion. In my second book, Reflections of Consciousness, I wrote the following about this awesome online resource:

Filip Holm, the channel’s host and content creator, conducts highly enjoyable and unbiased examinations of all types of religions and historical religious luminaries. Qualitatively, these explorations are scholarly, but they are presented in a manner that renders them easily understood. … I encourage anyone interested in these subjects to investigate and support Filip’s channel.

While Filip has done numerous videos that I admire, the one I am featuring here is a recent post titled, The Islamic Idealism of Ibn ‘Arabi.

This looks at how Idealism (the philosophical view that consciousness is the ontological primitive of existence and that Reality is fundamentally mental) fits well with the teachings of Ibn ‘Arabi, who many (including me) regard as the greatest Sufi mystic and teacher ever. Due to his influence and mega-prolific writings, historians and Sufi practitioners alike have bestowed on him the honorific title, Al-Shaykh al-Akbar (the greatest Shaykh), from which the term “Akbarism” is derived. After this initial investigation, Filip then confesses to something he rarely does. In the next portion of the video he conducts a comparison (an approach fraught with difficulties for several reasons, but also the key factor that made this so interesting for me) between Ibn ‘Arabi, the extraordinary Kashmir Shaivism mystic, philosopher, and author Abhinavagupta, and Dr. Bernardo Kastrup who is (in my estimation) today’s most articulate voice for Idealism. I am always delighted in how the teachings of widely disparate sages from totally different times convey the Nature of Reality in ways that so beautifully complement each other. Of course, there are some exoteric differences, but this is to be expected. Still, as Filip so adroitly illustrates here, on the esoteric level, these three philosophers are deeply aligned and thus, for those who appreciate elegant philosophy like I do, this presentation will provide much to reflect on. 

In addition to the video highlighted above, for those of you who would like to explore Ibn ‘Arabi further, I recommend the following Let’s Talk Religion videos: Ibn ‘Arabi and the Unity of Being; The Unity of Being (Wahdat al-Wujud); and The Bezels of Wisdom: Ibn ‘Arabi’s Controversial Masterpiece. For Filip’s look into the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism and Abhinavagupta’s immense contributions to it, please check out: What is Kashmir Shaivism? And finally, at the time of this writing, Filip hasn’t done a video specifically about Kastrup’s Analytic Idealism (or its influential Schopenhauerian antecedent). However, there are a bazillion YouTube videos with Bernardo, two of my favorites being his conversations with Rupert Spira. The first, Is Everything Made of Matter or Consciousness?, is aptly moderated by Simon Mundie and the second, With Reality in Mind, is on the excellent Adventures in Awareness podcast.

I hope that you enjoy these profound and captivating philosophical explorations as much as I have, and that they assist you Here-Now in the Remembrance of your Eternal Essential Nature – The Light of Infinite Awareness.

Love and Light,

Phil

This latest edition of Soul Food showcases videos from the YouTube channel SpiritualRelief, which explicates Sufic wisdom and teachers throughout the ages. As with the other channels I’ve featured in Eli’s newsletter, owing to their large amount of content, I can’t vouch for everything on it. Still, I’ve truly appreciated the videos below and so I am sharing them with you now.

One of the facets of these videos I admire is that there is a bibliography at the end of each one and that all major quotes/passages are correctly attributed, the latter being something that, in my estimation, is often done far too carelessly. Moreover, according to the host (who has even more material on Substack), some of the works cited haven’t been translated into English yet, being sourced from the original Arabic and Persian manuscripts (not secondary sources) housed in scholarly/historical collections, therefore making some of these texts rather rare here in the west.

While I have included links to several excellent videos below, the one I am highlighting is titled Sufi Ma’rifa: The Knowledge That Cannot Be Taught. The reason I chose this video to write about stems from a conversation I had with one of Eli’s students a while back, in which she asked me if Awakening required one to read some or all the many books I referenced in my books, Grace Happens and Reflections of Consciousness. I advised her not to worry about spiritual erudition, and that Self-Realization doesn’t necessitate a huge amount of studying (unless of course it does), because the intellect is not where one’s True Nature is found! While reading religio-spiritual treatises may be helpful for some (it was for me to a certain degree), Ma’Rifa – the lived non-experience of Being Here Now – (the collapse of the apparent subject-object relationship) is both prior to and beyond thought and discursive reasoning. Thus, the goal is Ma’Rifa: Direct Perception that comes through the Grace of God in/as Its eternal and infinite Self-Disclosure. To further illustrate this vital point, here are my chosen quotes that I transcribed from this pithy video; the bracketed inserts are mine for clarity:

Love is the sea where the intellect drowns.

The scholar reads about wine; the gnostic drinks it.

Ma’Rifa is never taken, It is only received. It arrives when there is nothing left in you that could resist It.

The reality of gnosis is bewilderment [i.e. the Cloud of Unknowing in and as This Moment].

It [Self-Realization] is not about crossing a [imagined!] boundary. It is about dissolving the map.

The gnostic doesn’t learn about the Real; they become the location where the Real Knows Itself.

Gnosis is to See the Real in everything without confusing It with anything.

You can’t force Ma’Rifa, but you can clear the space where It might arrive.

Ma’Rifa cannot be attained because It was never absent.

When I reached Him [God], I saw that I had always been there.

Here are 7 other videos that I really liked: Ancient Sufi Remedies for Spiritual Healing (Common challenges on the path; e.g. dry periods and the “I had it, I lost it”); Baraka (The transmission of Grace); The Barzak (The human “isthmus” between the physical, astral, and causal planes of existence); The Insan al-Kamil (The Perfect Master); The Luminous Void (Sufism’s Black Light teaching); The Sufi Majdhub (The God Intoxicated); and The Sufi Paradox (Stations vs. States). I hope that you enjoy these timeless Sufic teachings as much as I have!

“Everything in manifestation acts as both a veil and a gateway to Truth. And the determining factor comes down to our perception.” ~ Phil Weber, paraphrased from an old Sufi axiom

Sending Love and Light,
Phil

This new edition of Soul Food features two ten-minute videos that recently appeared in my YouTube feed. I hadn’t seen this channel before, and as there is so much of this kind of content out there, I rarely look at something unless I’m intuitively guided to do so. Regarding these two, something very clearly said “watch these.” Occasionally, The Divine Hand uses one of Its infinite means (in this case the near-omniscient YouTube algorithm!) to send something powerful and beautiful my way and when this happens, I frequently feel the energy to disseminate it, which I’m doing here for all who may be called to these very direct pointers.

The first video is called “If Maya is unreal, why can’t I drop it?” and here are some incisive one-liners from it that I really liked and transcribed. All italics are mine.

Unreal does not mean non-existent. 

Maya has no power of its own. It lives on un-Clear awareness;
Maya exists only where Awareness is obscured. 

You do not experience Maya. You become it. 

The instant illusion is seen as illusion, it loses authority.
Not tomorrow, not gradually. NOW. 

Maya is not a force attacking you from “outside.”
It is the shadow created when Awareness “turns away” from Itself. 

Unawareness is habit pretending to be Reality. 

Even the search for Truth can become Maya’s finest disguise. 

Clear Seeing is dangerous because it leaves nothing to hold onto.

Fear needs a center. Unawareness provides it. Without unawareness, fear has no address.

Awareness does not remove Maya.
It exposes that Maya was never there as an independent reality.

Bondage was never Real. It was assumed.

In the second video titled “If Maya is unreal, who am I?” we witness a no-punches-pulled conversation between a sincere “seeker of Enlightenment” and the primordial yogi Shiva (God). From this, one sees that if one truly wishes to call this type of dialogue forth, one needs to be ready to have the proverbial rug pulled out from under everything one is hanging on to!

I sincerely hope that these newest Soul Food offerings assist you in the Remembrance of your True Nature – The Light of Awareness – Here, Now.

Sending Love and Light,
Phil

Arjuna asks Krishna: If Maya is unreal, why can’t I drop it? – 10 min

Seeker asked Shiva: If Maya is unreal, who am I? – 10 min

To start off the New Year, this latest edition of Soul Food features a wonderful YouTube resource that I’ve been enjoying for several years. The channel is Samaneri Jayasara – Wisdom of the Masters. Samaneri is a Theravada Buddhist nun and resides at the secluded Viveka Hermitage in Australia. She also has a Ph.D. in education, specializing in comparative spiritual traditions, Buddhism, and psychology, and prior to her monastic life, she taught psychology and worked in the mental health field.   

If you are new to her channel, I recommend looking at the Playlists tab, as her voluminous videos (both with and without background music, plus some guided meditations), are listed by category. The readings are in her wonderful voice and are not confined to Buddhism, as she appears to be very ecumenical, which naturally appeals to yours truly!

My favorites tend to reside in the Dzogchen and Zen playlists, and below is one of my favorites from the latter category – Zen Master Mazu Daoyi. Daoyi (a.k.a. Master Ma), was a giant in the Chinese Chan tradition, and influenced many other notable Masters, my personal favorites being Dazhu Huihai (author of Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening), Linji Yixuan, Zhaozhou, and most especially Huang Po. I deeply admire the directness of the Zen Masters, and this short video is about as to-the-point as spiritual teachings get. If you are interested, I hope you will check out and support Samaneri’s channel, especially if you prefer listening to spiritual texts rather than reading them, as it’s a large and important repository for many high-end religio-spiritual teachings and teachers.

Blessings to you for a joyous and prosperous New Year!

Love and Light,
Phil

Mazu Daoyi ~ Suchness ~ 14 min
(Phil’s favorite from Zen)

Garab Dorje ~ The Truth of Your Being ~ 46 min
(Eli’s favorite from Dzogchen)

If you’ve read my books, you know that they were written in part to showcase the spiritual teachers and teachings I deeply admire and have been aided by the most. As my voyage of discovery continues to unfold, I keep finding books, interviews, and podcasts that are so extraordinarily well done that, whenever possible, I share them with like-minded souls. Thanks to Eli’s Insights, I am blessed with another way to make my new discoveries known, and today is the first of these “Soul Food” offerings.

James Finley was a novice monk under the spiritual direction of Thomas Merton at The Abbey of Gethsemani in the 1960s, and I’ve long appreciated his books and audio/video recordings. Readers of my first book will no doubt remember that in September of 2017, I was listening to Jim’s Sounds True audio course titled Meister Eckhart’s Living Wisdom: Indestructible Joy and the Path of Letting Go when the breakthrough moment of ego-transcendence occurred. Fast forward eight years and I find myself listening to him again in a wonderful podcast series from the Center for Action and Contemplation called Turning to the Mystics.

In these profound yet practical talks, Jim and his co-host Kirsten Oates examine the lives and teachings of some of the most renowned Christian mystics. Throughout its eleven seasons, this series explores Thomas Merton, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, the Carthusian monk Guigo II, The Cloud of Unknowing (a spiritual guidebook by an unknown 14th century mystic), Julian of Norwich, my favorite Meister Eckhart, Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Way of the Pilgrim (a 19th century Russian book by another anonymous author), T.S. Eliot, and Gabriel Marcel.

I am sharing this information with you because Finley offers such a brilliant explication of these mystics. More importantly, I’m highlighting this series because of Jim’s eloquent and seemingly effortless distillation of the essence of these esoteric pedagogies. In so doing, he provides listeners with methods for applying them in their spiritual practices and busy everyday lives.

In addition to the CAC website, one can listen to this wonderful series on most platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. I hope that you’ll find these talks as wonderful as I have. If you’re unfamiliar with Finley, I recommend listening to Episode One of Season One.  Additionally, Episode Two of Season One provides a short outline of the series and the contemplative path. Otherwise, these talks may be listened to in any order.

I pray that you will find the timeless wisdom of these mystics to be beneficial in the Remembrance of your Essential Nature: The Light of Awareness.

In Service,
Phil