What do you want to get from your spiritual practice?

I want to transform my consciousness, which is why I am very aggressive about making sure I am doing the kind of practice that I think will truly transform me as a person. I don’t want to just ‘train my mind’ like a dog to perform the trick of ‘being quiet’ so if I tell it to sit, it sits. I want to become a totally different order of human being.

How much time do you want to spend on your spiritual practice?

2 hours a day

What is the goal of your life?

To transform my consciousness. To explore the furthest possible dimensions of being human. To expand my capacity to be present. To embody very unusual, profoundly grounded and expanded states of awareness. To clear my body and mind of old patterns. To become emotionally spacious. To live at higher levels of consciousness, not just visit them once in a while. To actualize the deepest yearnings of my soul. To know God as I understand God. To transcend mind. To inspire other people to look inward. To use the power of my example and presence to help others transform themselves.

Are there any spiritual teachers that you have found helpful or important?   If you care to, explain why they are/were important.

My main teacher, Master Healer, totally transformed my life. I feel blessed to have had a spiritual teacher. He was important for a million reasons, but I think it all boils down to his capacity to love, and how he modeled that. My teachers Myoung-he Sa Bum Nim and Master Hane were profoundly powerful women who also contributed greatly to who I am today.

What self-transformation approaches have you tried?  If many, list in order of most practiced to least practiced (roughly)

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) (Richard Schwartz)

  • Authentic Movement

  • Dahn Yoga

  • Vegetarianism

  • Meditation

  • Journaling

  • Poetry

  • Literature / Reading

  • Calorie Restriction with Optimum Nutrition (CR / CRON)

  • Acupuncture

  • Traditional Chinese Medicine

  • Chakra healing

  • Rolfing

  • Feldenkrais

  • Pilates

  • Kirtan

  • Co-Active Life Coaching

  • Organizational and Relationship Coaching / Process Work

  • World Work / Deep Democracy

  • Inquiry process (Diamond Heart Work)

  • Kundalini Yoga / Sadhana

  • Ecstatic Dance

  • Voice Dialogue

  • Macrobiotics

  • Narrative Therapy

  • Storytelling

  • Soul Motion

  • Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

  • Alexander Technique

  • Massage

  • Journey Dance

  • T’ai Chi

  • Energy Healing

  • Positive Discipline

  • Enneagram

  • Psychodrama

  • Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT)

  • Art Therapy

  • Voice Healing

  • Dance Movement Therapy

  • Sociometry

  • Applied Improv

  • Five Elements

  • Shiatsu

  • Zen

  • Thai Massage

  • Holotropic Breathwork

  • Dagara Grief Ritual

  • Hatha Yoga

  • Iyengar Yoga

  • Bikram Yoga

  • Sivananda Yoga

  • Body-Mind Centering (Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen)

  • Meisner Method

  • Somatic Experiencing

  • Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

What spiritual / spiritual books / authors are important to you?

  • Thoreau

  • Rumi

  • Richard Schwartz

  • Tarthang Tulku

  • Lao Tzu

  • Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

  • Books about the Deming System

  • Robert Fritz

  • David Allen

  • Osho

What spiritual books / authors were once important to you, which are no longer so important?

  • Krishnamurti

  • Eckhart Tolle

What is it okay for your spiritual to transform?

In the course of my spiritual practice, I have received messages to sell my refrigerator, to sell my bed, to shave my head, to end old friendships, and to end intimate relationships, to name a few.  All of the things I was called to do, I did.  Over time I have come to trust that action and spiritual practice are one.

  • I am willing to live more and more simply, with less possessions

  • I am willing to give up eating certain foods

  • I am willing to let go of old relationships

  • I am willing to dress, talk, walk, speak, drive, move and appear differently than I do now

  • I am willing to give up the entire personality I have now, as long as it is done safely so that I remain sane and competent in the process

  • I am willing to give up the way I meditate now, if another method makes itself clear as a better path

  • I am willing to allow habits and hobbies I have now, to be transformed and even eradicated

  • I am willing to limit the places I go and not expect that I will fit in everywhere

  • I am willing to give up old dreams

  • I am willing to give up old beliefs

  • I am willing to suffer emotionally, to feel extreme and painful grief for all the losses that occur during the process of transformation

  • I am willing to sleep more than average to recuperate from these changes

  • I am willing to have nightmares

  • I am willing to see things I fear to see and accept things I fear to accept

  • I am willing to spend the majority of my earnings on self-transformation

  • I am willing to be misunderstood, ostracized and criticized by others as a result of these choices

What is it not okay for your spiritual practice to transform?   Or at least, not right now?

  • I am not ready to give up my car!

  • I do not want my entire house to burn down, so I am not ready to give up everything I own

  • I am not willing to give up my health or to accept more physical limitations

Have you ever had a transcendent experience?  If so, describe a bit.

I’ve had too many to mention individually. One of the more common is the falling away of thought. Total silence. At first when it happens spontaneously I might notice I am bored. It can be flat and dull at first. If it deepens, it sometimes becomes luminous. Other times it does not deepen and just disappears. Other times, all mental sound—all thoughts—disappear, but I can still feel emotions rising in my body, and they are extremely heightened. This can be disturbing if they are anxiety or tension. If this happens the inner silence often disappears and does not deepen.  When it deepens sometimes I can think without words, following images in my mind and sensations in my body. I deeply enjoy thinking without words, but it’s rare. These events just spontaneously arise and fall away from time to time.