Chicago Gnosis Podcast

The Gnostic Academy of Chicago

Free lectures on spirituality, religion, mysticism, meditation, psychology, kabbalah, alchemy, tantra, sacred sexuality, runes, dreams, astral projection, kundalini, yoga, the Bible, and more. From the Gnostic Academy of Chicago, a non-profit organization.

  1. 3 MAY

    The Way of the Bodhisattva 10 Meditative Concentration: Establishing Serenity to Access Insight

    Those who wish to comprehend and eliminate the internal causes of suffering must cultivate meditative concentration: the ability to serenely focus attention upon one thing with continuous application, so that the mind settles, thoughts diminish, and clarity opens one's consciousness. In this state it becomes possible to receive insights or visions with one's imagination: the capacity to perceive non-physical imagery representing objective reality. By receiving vivid images about our internal universe, one can explore the hidden psychological causes of suffering, so that by extricating their roots, we liberate ourselves from afflictive conditions and emancipate our true nature. Yet if we lack serenity, the lake of the mind becomes perturbed and incapable of reflecting the heavens within. Explore some tenets, anecdotes, and principles for cultivating serenity to help prepare for meditation, examining the problems with superficial associates and the troubles of family ties; advice for social interactions; reasons for cultivating non-attachment, meditative serenity, empathy, and bodhichitta; Buddhist and Gnostic notions of internal silence and psychological solitude so as to conserve energy; reflections to diffuse the powers of lust; meditations on impermanence, wealth, and death; methods for strengthening our relationships with others, society, and divinity; and much more.  Resources and References: https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/meditative-concentration-establishing-serenity-to-access-insight

    1hr 18min
  2. 11 APR

    The Way of the Bodhisattva 08 Patience: How to Voluntarily Endure Suffering

    Our modern world deifies, celebrates, and defends anger. However, the world scriptures detail infinite reasons why this negative emotion is destructive and harmful. Despite conceptual knowledge about anger's detriments, extricating this afflictive state from one's mind stream is a daunting task. Fortunately, Shantideva's scripture expounds upon methods for identifying and transforming anger in the moment, specifically through spiritual analyses and meditation. Discover how to comprehend and disempower anger in its multitudinous forms. By countering anger's reasoning with the logic of divinity, one learns to no longer repress or bottle up such explosive emotions (which only resurface with more force later). Through comprehension, one also does not cave in to what anger wants, but diffuses such states with a much more powerful and crushing force: kindness coupled with intelligence and wisdom. See how through an exploration of anger's futility, its nature, dangers, and consequences; the qualities and dynamics of patience; techniques for developing compassion in daily life; reasons why we should not invest in resentment; the purpose of voluntary suffering to acquire wisdom; how and why blame is good and praise harmful for spiritual development; humiliation as a means of initiation;  principles for why we should honor everyone; and the true characteristics of compassion, not complacency with crime. Lecture was recorded on April 4th before Easter Sunday. Resources and References: https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/patience-how-to-voluntarily-endure-suffering

    1hr 1min
  3. 2 APR

    Gnostic Anthropology and Cosmology | Mayan Precepts of Awakening

    A continuation of Mayan Principles of Being, this lecture explores the nature of psychological forces, attention, divine states, and mystical reality within The Flight of the Feathered Serpent, a book of Mayan esotericism. To understand the clarion call of its author, it is necessary to confront our current condition and the common state of humanity. Despite our best intentions, we live in a state of illusion, thinking we are awake, when in truth we are hypnotized and identified with material life, investing our identities within superficial external phenomena without understanding their correlation with the deepest parts of ourselves. It is by cultivating conscious perception and insight into the internal causes of suffering that we can comprehend how to positively change the trajectory of our lives and society, for if we do not truly know ourselves, ennobled action in daily life becomes impossible. Through meditative techniques like self-observation (actively watching our internal states in body, heart, and mind), self-remembrance (connecting our inner states with divinity), and energy conservation (purifying the way we save and spend our creative capital), we fuel our capacity for awakening our latent potential for the betterment of the world. See how through the mystical lyricism of this powerful esoteric text. Resources and References: https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/mayan-precepts-of-awakening

    1hr 10min

About

Free lectures on spirituality, religion, mysticism, meditation, psychology, kabbalah, alchemy, tantra, sacred sexuality, runes, dreams, astral projection, kundalini, yoga, the Bible, and more. From the Gnostic Academy of Chicago, a non-profit organization.

You Might Also Like