True enlightenment can never be lost. Many people, throughout many stages of their spiritual journey, may experience what feels like enlightenment. They have a moment of being, pure bliss, and free from thoughts, only to immediately have their clinging and grasping mind try to analyze and hold onto it, which of course instantly ruins the moment. This happens because they don’t fully understand their experience. With total enlightenment, we become…
How Can Beginners Start a Daily Meditation Practice Congratulations on taking the decision not to settle with having a stressful mind. Learning to meditate is about more than just learning to sit still with your eyes closed. It’s about learning to be present and to see things as they really are. Our constant thoughts, judgments, and opinions are like a fog that obscures our view of reality. The more we…
To be alive is to be on a lifelong mission of learning. That means that we will have regrets, mistakes, failures, setbacks and difficult challenges in our lives. While we think our past determines our present, it's actually how we relate to our past that matters. In this podcast, I talk about how we can change our relationship with a difficult past. I share ways we can reframe our pain,…
There are many more questions that envelope the idea behind meditation and spirituality. But one of the major questions that everyone asks is can meditation help fight depression? Depression is one of the most common yet most debilitating forms of mental illnesses a majority of us are suffering from today.The idea is that with meditation, you can begin your journey towards healing from this demon of depression. But what is…
This is the story of how I cured my ADHD with meditation. When I was 13 years old, being a bit impulsive and a bit of a dreamer, neither of which was too pleasing to my school teachers, my parents took me to a place with many doctors and experts in lab coats who specialized in diagnosing children with various behavioral disorders. I didn’t really understand what was going on…
Why did you choose New Zealand?During a meeting with the high Buddhist lama, Karmapa, he asked me which forest I was going to meditate in for 50 days and if there were any bears or tigers there, as he was living in India which has both. I told him I was thinking about New Zealand and that they did not. “Very good,” he said. That really sealed the deal for…
Q: Dear Todd, how can I practice stillness?TODD ANSWERS: It is much better to practice watching your breath because your breath is always with you. You don’t have to try to freeze, because your brain will always be receiving information (light, sound, etc…). But what you can practice is stilling your focus.Focus on one thing very intently, whether it’s your breath, a mantra, or a flower. And just practice extended…
If we were to put all of our focus on one little ant, that ant would take up all of our attention and awareness. Similarly, even though there’s always so much happening within us and around us, if we put all of our focus on our thoughts, those thoughts will become the only things that exist to us. Similarly, when we become triggered because of traumatic events in our past, we…
In Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, we learn how Holocaust prisoners were more likely to survive if they felt there was some meaning to their senseless circumstances. In this evil place and time where life had no meaning, to survive meant finding and creating meaning wherever they could. For many, becoming hopeless meant certain death. Meaning and hope are like oxygen for the soul. So how do we…
Society rewards success. It is the most alluring addiction there is because it is the only addiction that we are celebrated for having. It becomes ingrained into everyone of us that we should delay our happiness until we have achieved success later in life. But what happens when we postpone our happiness? Is happiness greater than success? Will wealth bring us happiness? Can we have both success and happiness? In…
“I thought my biggest fear was growing old and dying in prison. In truth, my biggest fear was growing old and not knowing myself.”
- Rick Smith, Albama inmate
Path to Peace - A newsletter not just for your mental health but also for your spiritual health.
