For over 20 years, my own personal journey involved segueing between two spiritual paths: the Vipassana Buddhist path and the Nondual, Advaita Vedanta path.  It was like riding two bicycles at the same time!  In delving into the nondual path and having numerous “opening experiences”, sometimes lasting for days at a time, I would return to my Buddhist path of Vipassana Meditation.  Back then I would say “the nondual path is too “wispy”, meaning these remarkable openings would eventually recede and I would return to a conventional, dualistic understanding of who I am: “me and myself”.   Well, not quite… instead, it became an “enhanced” conventional understanding, where prolonged experiences of living in presence would indeed shift something deep inside, like shuffling a deck of cards. Early orientation to this inward shift, coupled with decades of sincere Vipassana practice (on and off the cushion), revealed there was a transition happening that I couldn’t quite explain.  

It wasn’t until I met my teacher, Miranda Macpherson, that I was able to fully integrate and embrace the nondual path and in so doing, formally let go of my beloved Buddhist orientation.  Over these decades of attempting to bridge these two paths, I have come to understand just how deep, confusing, even perplexing the evolution from the “progressive path” to the “direct path” is.  Hence, as a nondual teacher, my passion is to help students evolve and transition from one to the other. 

My mission is to be a bridge from the progressive path to the direct path. Note: these terms progressive and direct path were first introduced by Sri Atmananda (Krishna Menon).

The Progressive And The Direct Path 

The term Progressive path includes most Western and Eastern spiritual paths where one submits to a teacher and teachings that include ritual and practices to help stabilize one’s mind and body (emotionally and physically).  Study is essential, as well as meditation, and some form of yoga or systematic movement of the body.  In most cases one embarks on this type of path for many years, if not many decades.  Most of the world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, etc.) are aligned with this “progressive” perspective. * (Note: there are exceptions to this.)

Even within these practices, because of the deep conditioning to know ourselves through our many identities, habitual patterns of thinking, and how we relate to our bodies, we inevitably reinforce the fabric of “me” through the many vicissitudes of our day and for that matter our life.  While these practices bear fruit and often point to a nondual understanding, they never quite satisfy the seeker for reasons that one is inherently in a dualistic relationship with oneself. 

The Direct path is one of waking up to this duality and in so doing, one naturally surrenders into the timeless open and boundless space that we are. 

The Direct path is a nondual approach where the practitioner is living more and more in their actual direct experience.  There is an emergence from understanding oneself through thought (conceptual understanding) to a direct relationship to reality as it is.  The words  “waking up” or “awakening” are just that, a moment by moment establishment of oneself in presence, i.e., that which is real and not obscured by thought or identification with feelings.  A good illustration of this is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.  Those living in the cave mistake the shadowy objects illuminated by fire as physical reality, whereupon leaving the cave for the first time, they see the sun and expansive surroundings as that which is undeniably real in contrast to what appeared real inside the cave.  The awakened mind is empty and thus intimately present with what is, as outside the cave. Identification with thought and associated feelings – the shadows on the wall – drop. 

The Offering 
What I offer is an experiential approach to naturally letting go through inquiry into one’s direct experience.  It’s an unraveling or a tracing back and resting in the emptiness (or fullness) of one’s being. Even these words are a concession to the experience they point to.  

I offer groups and class series as well as individual sessions where we explore and establish a ground where a shift happens naturally of its own accord.  One could say it’s a profound letting go into what is.  This sometimes happens gradually over time, yet for some it happens rather quickly; there is a shift in awareness and understanding that radically changes one’s life.  

My mission is to wholeheartedly support you on your journey of awakening.  Along the way there is less emphasis on knowing oneself through the familiar thinking mind.  In its place a deeper and truer knowing arises that is naturally there moment to moment. This knowing is effortless and inherently trustworthy.  One could say it is like an active intuition  (and even this misses its true quality).