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Jonny Miller's avatar

Beautiful words. There are moments when that Mary Oliver line has broken me open (breaking the living deathness spell) as if being stabbed through the mid-line by some poetic blade

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Passional Glance's avatar

Daniel, I have really enjoyed all of your posts but I have read this piece several times.

Through jhana practice, TRE, dreamwork and IPF, I acutely feel a lot of previously-repressed shame and insecurity at the moment. I hope that this means progress, but it's slow to move and I can find myself stewing in it. My regular commitment to practice falters and loses direction.

I understand you are busy with a series at the moment, but I would love to read more someday about the process of uncovering one's intrinsic desires, if it fit into your wider plans. It seems so crucial to have a connection to an erotic compass while trudging through the mess.

Thank you again for your important work.

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Daniel Thorson's avatar

I'd be happy to schedule a call to speak with you about this. I love following an alive inquiry and seeing where it goes, and maybe I can create an article out of our conversation. :)

Send me a DM if you like and we can set something up.

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Misha Yurchenko's avatar

On a twitter post you've touched on the overlap between jhanas and Aletheai qualities of presence. I'd be curious to get your take on this now and how you're viewing it.

What tends to happen to me is that I drop into what I'd term light jhana through doing dyad unfolding work, which also has a certain quality of presence like compassion, unconditional love, etc. So on one hand it seems that jhana and qualites of presence are interchangeable for me.

However, I also notice a difference. If I simply drop into a meditation and go into jhana, the ripple effects of this are generally short-lived. But if I’m entering through parts/process work and then drop into the quality of presence (which feels like jhana), the after effects of being presence last for longer — usually a couple of days or more.

It feels as though the “entry point” matters. Unblocking something (parts, sankharas, etc) leads to a more sustained presence, whereas jumping straight to jhana can feel like skimming the surface. It seems to me that the deeper work of unraveling and integrating actually seeds a longer‐lasting wholeness, which makes total sense.

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Florian Popp ("@Flow")'s avatar

This is actually (skillful) psychotherapy. 🙏

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Steve Barr's avatar

Daniel: Have you read Art Kleps work? Available at okneoac.org. BTW, I really appreciate your writing. Steve

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