Motivations for Embarking Upon the Spiritual Path

By George A. Boyd ©2010

When we consider why people embark on the spiritual path, we find there are seven major motivations.

  1. Fulfillment of material desires – Believers seek to invoke the Divine to obtain prosperity and wealth, to obtain coveted possessions such as a car or a house, a good job, success in school, to overcome illness and adversity, and to secure a spouse and a family. Prayer to God, or invocation of the deities of one’s faith, is central to this stage of motivation. Doing charity, doing good deeds to earn merit, reading scriptures, following moral rules, and attending worship and prayer services are also associated with this stage; it is based on the ego’s interface with the Divine, as this Universal Power can be known through faith. In the Mudrashram® system, this is the stage associated with Dharma Yoga—seeking to align with inner truth and harmony in daily life.
  2. Experiences of joy, ecstasy, or sustained happiness – Those embarking on this track seek to enter an inner state where they can feel happy, joyful, or blissful. They do meditation or hypnosis to enter the altered states of awareness where they can reach these states of ecstasy. They may contemplate a nucleus of identity, spirit, or ensouling entity; they may awaken their kundalini to awaken this spiritual essence; or they may receive Light Immersion or Shaktipat to awaken this essence within them and guide their attention into union with it. For some, this quest for ecstatic religion may be linked with a desire to forget painful and shameful experiences of the past. Others seek it to supplant the ongoing stress in their lives with an interlude of peace. Others use it to evade the responsibilities and complexities of adulthood by reposing in a simpler state of innocence. Others become addicted to these states of inner ecstasy and do not want to return to their waking state of awareness. The Mudrashram® system of Integral meditation does not give any specific meditation to produce a state of euphoria, but notes that these positive emotions are a common by-product of spiritual experience.
  3. Acquisition of spiritual powers over Nature and Mind (siddhis) – These ones seek to awaken the powers they lay hidden within their mind to gain mastery. Those that follow the Occult Path gain powers over other people through the unconscious mind. Those that follow the Yogic Path gain powers over mind and Nature. Aspirants typically awaken their inner powers through opening the kundalini through unawakened areas of the mind. Powers may also be gained by using vehicular Bija mantra (a mantra that awakens an individual vehicle of consciousness or nucleus of identity), through martial arts, Kriya Yoga, or invocation of gods or goddesses through their bija mantras (these are called invocational or therapeutic mantras). In the Mudrashram® system, we do not focus on the acquisition of powers, but note those powers germane to the Soul’s purpose and ministry will spontaneously arise in the process of spiritual evolution; no extraordinary measures are necessary to activate them.
  4. Devotion and love for God – There are certain ones whose spiritual hearts have been opened; they seek only to experience the love of God and go back to their Source. They do service to others out of love and compassion. They pine for God; they weep for God. The Bhakti Yoga paths ritualize this devotion for God; the Nada Yoga paths give the spirit the key to travel back to be with the Divine Beloved. Some Bhakti Yoga paths commonly give a mantra or other transformational method to awaken a nucleus of identity, which through practice of this method, moves into the presence of the Divine, and ultimately, enters a state of union with the Divine; Nada Yoga paths emphasize udgit, the opening of the channels of the Nada by the spirit. Many devotees translate their love into action, so Karma Yoga often goes hand-in-hand with Bhakti and Nada Yoga. The Mudrashram® system of Integral meditation teaches Nada Yoga, which is performed at the same level where the ensouling entity dwells—we have our aspirants begin their spiritual development with that ensouling entity at the cutting edge of spirituality.
  5. Discernment, Illumination, or Enlightenment – These ones seek to gain Gnosis of their ensouling entity, and to express its gifts of illumination and creativity. Jnana Yoga paths such as Vedanta and Advaita train their followers how to reach the state of union with Ultimate Reality beyond duality; Zen Buddhism trains their followers to enter the state of enlightenment. The Mudrashram® system uses Jnana Yoga and Kundalini Yoga to gain discernment, enlightenment, and Gnosis—it further emphasizes the expression of the Soul’s realization and innate abilities through Jnana Yoga and Agni Yoga.
  6. Conscious travel to inner Planes – These seekers have come into contact with their attentional principle and are awake within. They seek to travel in full consciousness to visit the inner worlds, to meet their Soul, and to see God. Raja Yoga and Astanga Yoga traditions train aspirants in these methods. In the Mudrashram® system, we teach Raja Yoga, supplemented by training in Attunement meditation, which trains the attentional principle how to minister the Light.
  7. Unfolding of the Soul’s spiritual evolutionary potentials – These ones seek to unfold their ensouling entity and its vehicles to make progress on the inner path. A variety of transformational methods are used in different spiritual traditions to accomplish this objective: Bija Mantra keyed to that ensouling entity, or Guru Kripa Yoga or Shaktipat to awaken the ensouling entity through Grace. Advanced techniques of Kriya Yoga awaken the Astral Soul, the Supracosmic Soul, and the ensouling entity of the Fourth Transcendental Path. The spirit opening the channels of the Nada in the Transcendental Paths will concomitantly unfold the ensouling entity of the Bridge Path, and Transcendental Paths One to Seven. Kundalini Shakti, in rare instances, can be utilized to move the ensouling entity to a new nodal point. The Mudrashram® system teaches Bija Mantra keyed to the cutting edge of spirituality (the Alayic Divine name) and used Guru Kripa Yoga and Shaktipat to unfold the ensouling entities of those aspirants and disciples in attunement during Light Sittings.

These seven types of spiritual motivation draw different groups of aspirants.

  • The majority of humanity seeks fulfillment of material desires through spirituality [type one].
  • Several of the Paths of the Yogi Preceptors of the First Cosmic Initiation, some of the Supracosmic Gurus, and the Seventh Transcendental Path, focus on increasing enjoyment and happiness through meditation [type two].
  • Other individuals seek powers over their body and Nature [type three]. Teachers of the tantric and magical arts, masters of the martial arts, and those teachers who specialize in invocational and therapeutic mantras train these seekers. These seekers may also find training in these secret methods from Kundalini Yoga and Kriya Yoga teachers.
  • Lovers of God, who become identified with the spirit, or a nucleus of identity, may gravitate to the devotional, type four paths.
  • A rare few seek wisdom and enlightenment, and to awaken their Soul’s creative gifts. These ones seek out teachers of the type five paths.
  • Those who identify as the attentional principle approach the masters of Raja Yoga to learn to travel through the inner Planes and to learn to minister the Light [type six].
  • Those that discern the Soul may adopt type seven paths, which emphasize accelerating the spiritual evolution of the Soul and its vehicles of consciousness.

The Mudrashram® system of Integral meditation combines types four, five, six, and seven to bring about balanced spiritual development. We introduce Kundalini in its use of awakening enlightenment and Gnosis (type five)—not for gaining powers [type three], nor for transformation [type seven].

Reflections on the Personal Zone Motivations

The first three types comprise Personal Zone motivations. The last four types make up Transpersonal Zone motivations. Personal Zone motivations mix personal needs and desires into their quest for spirituality; Transpersonal Zone motivations emphasize the awakening of a spiritual essence and actualizing the Soul’s gifts, apart from the issues of the personality.

Personal Zone motivations are called Swamartha, the approach to the Divine through the personality; Transpersonal Zone motivations are called Paramartha, the path to God beyond the personality. The Mudrashram® tradition underscores Paramartha as the core of spiritual development; it points out to aspirants who embrace Personal Zone motivations that there are issues in their unconscious that need to be uncovered and worked through before they are able to fully appreciate and utilize spirituality in its transpersonal aspects.

Using spirituality to fulfill material desires evokes images of “God as vending machine,” where the child looks to the omnipotent parents to care for all of their needs and fulfill their desires. The infantilism of this approach is transparent.

However, the great demands of trying to raise a family, to earn a livelihood, and deal with the stress and struggles of modern life make this motivation understandable. We recognize that we must sometimes call upon our Higher Power to help us make it through the vicissitudes of our lives; we invite aspirants to pray and invoke the Divine and the Masters as needed to grant them succor during these times of personal trials and difficulties.

We question the underlying issues of those who pursue type-two spirituality. Seeking joy, pleasure, and happiness through spirituality resembles the addict’s quest for a “high” through their drug of choice. This “high” can be used to escape pain and misery, to ameliorate stress, and to evade or postpone assuming responsibilities.

While spirituality brings increased energy and joy, we encourage seekers to examine the reasons why joy seeking is their primary motivation for spirituality. Sometimes we must move through pain to heal, take on responsibility to become an adult, and learn to cope with stress without living in an altered state of consciousness—instead of evading these personal growth issues by entering and remaining in higher states of awareness.

Using spirituality to gain powers may be linked to the desires to impress others, to defend oneself, and to control and bend others to one’s will. We question the morality of turning others into slaves, subject to one’s whim, and ready to serve one’s desires.

We also question the value of amazing others with one’s powers, so that they will worship one out of awe and fear. We see this behavior in despotic tyrants, in bullies, in abusive parents, in criminals, and cult leaders; we don’t believe that this should be called spirituality.

We encourage aspirants to eschew the Occult Path of controlling others; we urge them to avoid the siren call of gaining powers over Nature. We point out that it may be more valuable to gain mastery over one’s own mind through self-study and meditation, and to make genuine spiritual progress by activating the true spiritual essences and developing them.

We recognize that in some life situations, learning martial arts may be essential for survival, and may be a legitimate part of some individuals’ Dharma. We underscore, however, that these should only be used for self-defense and protection of family from attack, and must not be used as a way to force one’s will on others, or as a means of proving one’s manliness through conquest of others.

We invite aspirants to study their own motivations for spirituality, and to identify the types that resonate with them. Knowing what drives you spiritually will lead you to find those teachers who can help you actualize your spiritual destiny.

On Spiritual Boundaries

By George A. Boyd © 2017

Q: Are there spiritual boundaries?

A: Boundaries at the personal level are mediated through trust and disclosure; spiritual boundaries are constructed from ethical considerations and discernment. There are seven major spiritual boundaries.

  1. Non-injury – Non-injury means not forcing your will on another, not causing injury in thought, word, and deed. Lack of observance of this principle demarks those who work in the Lower Astral, the so-called Occult traditions, in contrast to those who work beyond the Lower Astral.
  2. Group cohesiveness – This is recognizing that certain individuals are a member of a group based on adherence to certain beliefs, doctrines, and practices. This differentiates one group from another.
  3. Plenum content discernment – This is an ability to recognize the content of the inner Planes and to discern the themes that make up a Subplane, and the collection of themes that constitute a Plane. This is primary spiritual discernment. [We teach this in a series of webinars on this topic available to intermediate students.]
  4. Vehicular content discernment – This is the ability to recognize the content of your inner vehicles of consciousness of the Conscious, Subconscious, Metaconscious, and Superconscious mind, and perceive those vehicles embedded in the matrix of the unconscious mind. This is secondary spiritual discernment. [We train you to cultivate this type of discernment in the Introduction to Meditation course, and in the Mudrashram® Correspondence Course.]
  5. Conscious essence discernment – This enables you to behold and recognize your attention, your ego, your attentional principle, your Self, your spirit, your nuclei of identity, and your Soul, both within yourself and in others. [We introduce you to personal identification centers (ego and Self), attention, and Soul in the Introduction to Meditation course. We go deeper into this examination in our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program, where you learn about the attentional principle and the spirit. You study nuclei of identity in the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.]
  6. Spiritual relationship discernment – This enables you to detect the attunements or energetic connections that identify someone as a disciple of a spiritual teacher. Spiritual teachers of other traditions, who recognize these energetic markers, do not work with these disciples, recognizing they are under the supervision and responsible stewardship of another Initiate. This allows individuals to develop spiritually in an orderly way on the Path.

We note that not observing this rule leads to a kind of spiritual promiscuity, where disciples of one tradition are subject to the ministry and influence of other traditions. This can result in a number of untoward consequences, including:

  • Developing imbalances in spiritual vehicles
  • Intuitive bifurcation – opening streams of intuition on more than one octave of the Continuum, or for more than one spiritual Path
  • Cognitive confusion – not knowing which worldview, beliefs, or values espoused by different teachings is correct
  • Emotional conflict – this leads to conflicted loyalties and wavering commitment
  • Behavioral inhibition – when you do not know which set of beliefs or guidelines to follow, this leads to passivity and immobility—you cannot move forward in your life if you don’t know which way to go is correct
  1. Discernment of the Divine Will – this enables you to know which conative impulse arises from the different octaves of your mind, and which emanates from the Divine. Those who operate outside the circle of Planetary Initiation, on the Probationary Path—comprising the Biophysical Universe, Abstract Mind Plane, Psychic Realm, and Wisdom Plane in the Planetary Realm—and in the Subtle Realm, their own choice largely governs what their lives become. When you enter the stream of the Planetary Initiations, you begin to become conscious of the Divine Will. Those who contemplate the Moon Soul or Christ Child nucleus of identity can hear the whispering of the Divine Will, even before their Soul has taken the First Planetary Initiation.

Initiates, who draw into the Presence of the Divine, receive direct communication of the Divine Will. They are immersed in it. It is clearly transmitted to them.

Those stages of spiritual Mastery where the Divine Will can be known directly include:

  1. Adepts and Adept Masters (Planetary Hierarchy)
  2. Yogi Preceptors (Zone of Mastery in the First Cosmic Initiation)
  3. Light Masters (Zone of Mastery in the Second Cosmic Initiation)
  4. Cosmic Masters (Cosmic Hierarchy)
  5. Supracosmic Master or Guru (Mastery of one Supracosmic Path under the aegis of the Supreme Guru)
  6. Transcendental Path Master or Sat Guru (Mastery of one Transcendental Path and becoming an emissary and conduit for the Grace and Power of the Divine at that level)
  7. Multiplane Master or Adi Sat Guru (Mastery of the six other octaves of Mastery, with the ability to know the Divine Will and minister at each of these levels)

Occult Adepts, who operate in the Lower Astral Plane, are emissaries of the Dark Force, called Kal or Satan. They operate outside of the Divine Will; they are responsive to the will of the Being who embodies the Dark Force. Their activity constructs and holds in place the maelstrom of collective evil that we call the Lower Astral Plane.

It is a primary task for beginning aspirants to gain discernment of the first two types of spiritual boundaries. Advanced aspirants and disciples need to develop discernment for the remaining five.

You need to develop your ability to discern these spiritual boundaries within your self and others, respect group identification and established spiritual relationships, and endeavor to follow the Divine Will that leads you to completion of your Soul Purpose and fulfillment of your spiritual destiny.

Why Mystics Don’t Identify Consciousness with the Brain

By George A. Boyd © 2017

Q: Many scientists say that consciousness is a product of neuronal functioning. They purport to measure it through the electrical currents emanating from the brain. They say there is no Soul other than an evoked potential of the word, “Soul” in the brain, and no God but the evoked resonance of the word, “God” in the brain. How is it that mystics testify to the existence of a Soul and the all-pervading Presence of God, when this cannot be detected in the brain?

A: Science objectifies phenomena, and only considers that which the senses [or their technological extensions] can detect, that reason can verify, and that the intellect can represent and manipulate as words, mathematical formulas, symbols, and models of correlated ideas.

For this reason, scientists cannot detect attention, the attentional principle, the spirit, or the Soul. They cannot examine the strata of the mind. They cannot explore the Continuum of Consciousness. They cannot find God in neurons, in the logical circuits of reason, and the problem-solving strategies of the intellect.

To have the experiences of the mystics, who encounter the Soul and God, you need to have a subjective experience, drawing attention along the thread of consciousness, where it can detect the focal points at each layer of the mind, unite with the essences of consciousness—attentional principle, spirit, and Soul—and follow that thread into the presence of the all-pervading consciousness of God.

This withdrawal of attention from full brain identification to union with the highest state of consciousness, Satchitananda, appears to pass through seven steps:

  1. Consciousness appears to be a product of brain activity.
  2. You observe the activity of the brain as a detached witness, from the standpoint of your attention. You collect attention into a sphere and become present and aware. This stage is the beginning of mindfulness. It appears that your attention is the carrier of consciousness.
  3. You gain the ability to follow the thread of consciousness with your attention to observe the content at the different levels of the mind. You may variously experience this material at each level of the mind as a seed atom upon which you contemplate, a field of phenomena, a form or vehicle of consciousness that has discrete functions, or as ever-changing content that arises in the present time. It appears that your attention is the carrier of consciousness, and it perceives the content that is present in altered states of awareness through shifting its focus.
  4. You move along this thread of consciousness with your attention until you unite with the attentional principle, and as you gain union with this essence, you shift into its perspective. It appears consciousness is innate to the attentional principle.
  5. Your attention travels further up the thread of consciousness until you gain union with the spirit. As you contemplate this spiritual essence, you merge with it and view from its perspective. It appears that the spirit also has innate consciousness.
  6. Your attention rises up into the Soul and you gain union with it. You become aware that your Soul is also a conscious essence.
  7. Your attention follows the thread of consciousness up to the highest stage of consciousness, Satchitananda. You become aware that the energy that animates the Soul and activates it emanates from this source. You become aware of the eternal source of consciousness, Satchitananda.

The methods of the scientists use senses, reason, and intellect to gather data, to organize that data into the schemas of knowledge, and to use that knowledge to predict phenomena and to invent new technology, methods, and products. Since attention cannot be reduced to neural functions, the scientist must shift from brain awareness to witnessing mind (attention) to begin the journey of meditation—to embrace a subjective, non-empirical way of knowing that the external senses cannot detect, that reason cannot verify, and that the intellect cannot fully comprehend.

You can only understand the ways of the mystic through adopting his practices. You cannot know it from without, only from within. You must shift from an objective orientation to the world to a subjective one, and journey into the depths of that subjectivity to encounter the Soul and God.

On Desirelessness

By George A. Boyd © 2017

Q: Is desirelessness a good thing? The Buddhists teach that you have to become desireless to reach Nirvana. Should I try to renounce my desires?

A: It depends on what outcome you are seeking. There are pros and cons to desirelessness. It produces some positive benefits, but it also has its downside.

Your Desire Manifesting System

To understand desirelessness, we need to clarify what is the desire-manifesting system. This has a personal aspect and a transpersonal aspect.

The personal aspect consists of the activity of the Conscious, Subconscious, and Metaconscious mind, and your personal integration centers of ego and Self.

The transpersonal aspect comprises the activity of the Superconscious mind, and your three immortal centers—attentional principle, spirit, and Soul.

The personal aspect of your desire manifesting system is fueled by your desire or ambition. The outcome it produces is the summation of your knowledge, resources, and commitment.

Knowledge grows from your learning. An evocative question to tap your frame of knowledge is “do you know what to do to succeed in achieving this objective?”

Resources grow from you obtaining what you need to reach your goal. An evocative question to tap your frame of resources is “do you have the help, capital, and tools to do what you need? If you don’t, how might you go about acquiring them?”

Commitment grows from your sustained pursuit of the goal: not letting obstacles or setbacks deter you, not quitting until you reach the goal, and not allowing your determination and resolve to waver. An evocative question to tap your frame of commitment is “are you willing to do whatever it takes to succeed and obtain this objective?”

The transpersonal aspect of your desire manifesting system is activated through your faith, your belief that your Higher Power is efficacious and merciful—in other words, that the Divine loves you, wishes for you to be fulfilled, and has the miraculous power to grant what you ask. The outcome this transpersonal aspect manifests is the product of God’s Grace, God’s Blessing, and your transpersonal will—the will of your Soul.

God’s Grace is known as the Law of Abundance, Infinite Supply, or Providence. It is the capacity of the universe to provide what you need and desire. When you invoke the Law of Attraction, you are tapping into this Source. It is always operating in the background, whatever conditions prevail in your life—whether you are rich or poor, it works when you access its power to manifest.

God’s Blessing is the spoken Word that activates the forces of the Superconscious mind. This is the affirmation, decree, or declaration that something specific shall be manifest. Using your intention to anchor an affirmation in the Superconscious mind, or asking an angel, Master, or the Divine to speak this Word brings about this Power of Blessing. Blessing activates the Law of Abundance.

Your transpersonal will is the ultimate arbiter of all you permit, allow, or direct. It gives you permission to carry out specific acts. It does not stop you when you do certain other actions that are part of your destiny. It gives you specific directions to carry out its purpose. Your transpersonal will is the master switch that allows God’s Grace and God’s blessings to flow into your life. If it does not allow these blessings to come to you, you feel cut off from the Source. If it allows them, you feel God’s love is touching you, you feel the Divine is helping you in so many ways.

All six of these aspects need to be functioning to enable you to have the drive and impetus to reach your dreams. If any of them are missing, it is like you are trying to drive your car with one or more missing cylinders.

Becoming desireless short-circuits this desire-manifesting system. By suppressing the activity of the ego, you close the door on personal effort and come to rely entirely on the Providence of God.

The Buddhist monk who lives by begging abandons personal effort to achieve his or her desires and provide livelihood, and becomes dependent on the goodwill and charity of others. In this worldview, you shift your commitment from material pursuits to commitment to achieve a spiritual objective, and you abandon and detach from your personal desires.

The Four Postures for Pursuing Desires

You can either embrace or abandon the personal or transpersonal aspects of this desire-manifesting system. Each posture provides different results:

  1. The Self-reliant posture – If you embrace the personal, but abandon the transpersonal, you rely solely on your personal effort. In this posture, you may not believe in God—or if you do, you may not invite Divine assistance because what you desire is within your ability and means to achieve it. For example, you might not have to pray to God to pick up the newspaper on your lawn, when you can just walk outside and grab it.
  2. The depressed posture – If you no longer believe in the efficacy of your Self or of God, you abandon both personal and transpersonal approaches. In this scenario, you no longer believe in anything, trust no one, and give up in hopelessness and despair. This is the posture of those who are mentally ill, or those whose every dream seems unattainable.
  3. The detached posture – If you abandon the personal, but embrace the transpersonal, you come to rely completely on God’s Grace and Blessings. You refrain from personal effort, and look to God to provide for all of your needs. If opportunities come to you, you may reject them, because you do not want to become entangled in the world.
  4. The synthesis posture – If you embrace the personal and the transpersonal, you may combine metaphysical treatment and prayer with constructive, goal-oriented personal actions toward achievement of your goal.

Each posture has certain beneficial outcomes.

  • Self-reliance brings pride in achievement and strengthens your personality functions.
  • Depression is the state of brokenness, where your whole life becomes an evocation, a cry for help. You invite a solution with every fiber of your being—and if your solution is not forthcoming, you are ready to abandon life itself.
  • Detachment allows you to focus on spiritual development, and strengthens your ability to express your spirituality, without becoming distracted by the demands of relationships, parenting, and career.
  • Synthesis allows you to use the strengths of both aspects, strengthening both and working on both.

This leads us to consider some pros and cons of desirelessness, which is an objective valued in the detachment posture.

Pros and Cons of Desirelessness

What are some positive outcomes of desirelessness?

  • You are able to shut down your personality, quiet and still your inner vehicles of consciousness, and your meditation becomes easier and deeper.
  • You don’t create as much new karma—as karma stems from desires—and you disentangle yourself from relationships and responsibilities that suck away all of your energy, time, and attention.
  • You are free from the burdens—the worry, fear, stress, and self-doubt—that pursuing desire brings.

What is the downside of desirelessness?

  • You have difficulty earning your livelihood. You must rely upon the donations, good will, and charity of others. You may need to use government welfare or community assistance to survive.
  • You might spend much of your time in an altered state of consciousness; as a result, you may have difficulty functioning in daily life. It may be hard for you to work a job, to run a business, to maintain a relationship or raise a family.
  • You may have no sense of personal purpose or reason to be alive. Your only perspective is the spiritual horizon that lies before your spiritual essence—the nucleus of identity, spirit, or ensouling entity with which you identity. Your only motivation is to move further on the Path towards which you aspire, to make spiritual progress and express the gifts of this spiritual essence in service towards others.

In Mudrashram®, we don’t advocate that you should abandon your spirituality, as in posture one; give up in despair, like posture two; or abandon your personality, and live in an altered state of consciousness, as you do in posture three. Instead, we recommend that you become effective in your personal life, while you make steady, conscious spiritual progress—embracing both your transpersonal and personal potentials.

We suggest that the problem initially is having too many desires, but as you grow spiritually, many of these will no longer fit who you have become. For example:

When I was 11 years old, my life was consumed by the desires to watch horror movies on weekends, to go to baseball games, go swimming on the beach in the hot summer sun, to eat hamburgers and soft drinks, to collect stamps and coins, and to watch my favorite shows on television.

Today, I have none of these desires: they all have fallen away; I have outgrown them.

Without desires to drive personal achievement and to make progress towards worthy objectives, you may make spiritual progress, but you may have little to show for that progress in your life. We leave you to consider:

  • Which of your desires is truly essential to your life and who you are?
  • Which desires are not essential, and you could very well live without them?
  • What would your life be like if you had no desires? What would you do? How would you live?
  • What is the right balance between desirelessness and desire for you?
  • Which of these postures fits who you know yourself to be today? Why?
  • Have you ever adopted other postures? What was the outcome? What made you change to your current posture?
  • Even though you are in your current posture, do you aspire to shift into another posture? Which one?

We have written about practical meditation, the ability to combine mindfulness and productive, goal-oriented activity in our book, The Practical Applications of Meditation in Daily Life and Education. If you seek to learn more about bringing serenity, plus a sense of purpose and direction into you daily life, you will benefit from acquiring and reading this book.

Tips for Using this Website

A Guide to the Perplexed:
Everything You Wanted to Know about
Registration and Access to the Library and Membership Areas

By George A. Boyd ©2017

A number of you have been confused about how to access the Library and Member areas on this website. We wish to clarify this for you.

Logging into Your Member Area

There are two separate log-ins on this site.

One is for the Library. You sign up for this on the Library Home page or the Library Membership Program page. This area contains articles, short videos, and some complimentary webinars.

The other is for the classes and webinars. You will be directed to register to gain access to your dashboard area, where you will be able to order and take whichever classes, programs, and webinars you choose. You access this membership area via the Membership Log in page or the login button in the menu bar.

The Mysteries of the Library Revealed

To register for your library membership, you can sign up on your Library Home page, and your Library Membership page.

Once you have registered or “signed up,” you can then access the library, or sign in on your Library Home Page, Library Membership page, or the Welcome to your Library page.

The login button in the menu bar is for the dashboard member area, which contains your webinars, classes, and programs. You won’t be able to access your Library membership from here—you need to use the Library pages to access the Library articles, videos, and special webinars.

Accessing Classes and Webinars

Classes

You can access the order pages for any class from the information page for that class.

For the Introduction to Meditation class, you can sign up at
https://www.mudrashram.com/introduction-to-meditation/

For the Accelerated Meditation Program on-line class, you can sign up at
https://www.mudrashram.com/accelerated-meditation-program/.

Make sure you select the link for the online program: there is also a by mail version of this class availbale through our sister site, Mudrashram® Publishing. You can order the by-mail version by clicking the by-mail button.

For the Mudrashram® Advanced Course on-line independent study program, sign up at
https://www.mudrashram.com/advanced-course-in-meditation/ in the box on the right hand column where it says sign in here.

Webinars

You can access webinars for each level at https://www.mudrashram.com/public-access-webinars/.

Anyone can register for Public Webinars, and when they are available, Coaching and Certification Programs. Simply click the Public, Coaching Modules, or Certification Programs accordion tabs on this page, and select the link that that says click here.

Since not all of the Coaching and Certification modules are not live yet, you can register your interest for them and we will let you know when they are ready for you to take.

If you are taking the Introduction to Meditation Class, you can sign up for these webinars in your dashboard area. You gain access to these classes and the associated webinars by clicking the link that says click here under the Introductory Webinar accordion tab.

If you are taking the Accelerated Meditation class, you can sign up for intermediate webinars in your dashboard area. You gain access to these classes and the associated webinars by clicking the link that says click here under the Intermediate and Advanced webinars accordion tab for the Intermediate training area.

If you are taking the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation on-line, you can sign up for intermediate webinars in your dashboard area. You gain access to this online version of the class and the associated webinars by clicking the link that says click here under the Intermediate and Advanced webinars accordion tab for the advanced training area.

Programs

Programs are accessible through your completer pages for the Accelerated Meditation Program (Intermediate level) and the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation (Advanced level). Programs include the Breakthrough Meditation Coaching Program, the Satsang Program Home Study Course, the Mudrashram® Correspondence Course, and the Enhanced Mudrashram® Correspondence Course [this contains the Correspondence Course, the Satsang Program Home Study Course, and our intermediate webinar series, “Adventures in Pinda,” which includes 22 webinars].

Advanced completers can additionally order the Samadhi Week Program, and when approved, the Introduction to Meditation Teacher Training Program.

I’ve Registered, but I’m Having Problems Signing In

Sometimes, the membership and Library logins will not take your login attempt on the first try. Do it again: this will typically work on the second try.

Make sure you are signing into the right area: Your Library sign in credentials will not work on your membership dashboard. Your member area credentials will not work for the Library.

If you continue to have difficulties, please contact us, and we’ll work to solve your problem.