The Waking

  In most countries, the majority of the adult population believe that life after death is either ‘probable’ or ‘certain’, according to surveys carried out by the Pew Research Center between 2023 and 2024. There was wide variation though, ranging from 85% in Indonesia to 38% in Sweden. In the United Kingdom, where I live, the figure is 53% and I count myself in that group. Like many who don’t simply adopt the religion of their family or culture, with the view of the afterlife that goes with that, I have wondered what the afterlife is like and whether anything that I do now will make a difference to the afterlife experience. This blog is a crib sheet of some of my main findings. By the way, before I go on, if anyone who has not studied the afterlife much before wants to get into the topic by looking into the more credible sources, then the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) essay competition of 2021 is a good source that is packed with solid information (link below)....

  Introduction I intended to move on from the previous blog to this one relatively quickly, but it took me longer to get around to this than I anticipated so you might want to have a quick look at that one before going further. It is at https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2026/04/should-i-explore-jhana-meditation.html I ended th at previous blog with, “ In the next blog I will explore the variety of people’s subjective experience of jhana states, to give practitioners an idea of where they can take you.” The eight jhana states are usually given as: The material jhanas: 1. Rapture or Delight 2. Happiness 3. Contentment 4. Equanimity   The immaterial jhanas: 5. Limitless (or infinite) space 6. Limitless (or infinite) consciousness 7. Nothingness (or no-thingness) 8. Nether perception nor non-perception I will focus here on the immaterial jhanas. They feel deeper than the material jhanas and differ more from familiar, day-to-day states. My guess is th...

    The author, Peter Russell, described this book as being suitable for those just starting a meditation practice and also for those who have been meditating for many years. I agree. It is clear, accessible, concise and practical in a way that will be helpful to those with little or no prior experience.  He also draws on his 50 years of experience as a spiritual teacher as he gives helpful insights and suggestions that will benefit most of those who have also been meditating for many years.  In a crowded field, this book stands out and can be embraced by just about anyone with an interest in meditation.     Citation  Russell, P. (2026). How to meditate without even trying. New World Library.

    Introduction The jhana meditation states can be defined as eight (my preferred number – see my blog of https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2023/04/what-are-jhanas-and-how-can-they-help.html) progressive states of deep meditative absorption, mainly used in Buddhist, particularly Theravadan, practice. They are characterised by increasing depth and concentration, from initial access concentration and rapture, to subtle, formless awareness beyond perception. I’ve written several blogs about them as they are a regular part of my meditation practice and have been for several years. However, there are some who say they are not worth including in your practice. In this blog I will describe the main criticisms of the jhanas and then say why I think they are worth including in a practice. I will also add a bit more on how they can be used by those from different spiritual backgrounds, as I first mentioned in https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2025/04/jhana-meditation-extending-and.ht...

  ‘Monastery Window.’ A photograph by Thomas Merton from an exhibition devoted to his work at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, in 2014 What is it? Philosophers, theologians, mystics, spiritual teachers and others have explored the ‘ground of all being’ or ‘divine ground,’ while describing an ultimate, foundational reality that underlies all existence, sometimes experientially and sometimes conceptually. These ideas can go under other names too, like ‘the One,’ ‘Being-itself,’ or ‘Godhead.’ Why go there? Why would a normal, sane person want to experience the ground of all being? Well, assuming that I am a normal, sane person, this is what got me into it: 1. To uncover deep peace and stillness. You know that endless inner chatter that your mind is so good at? That isn’t in the ground. You’ll experience inner stillness as you never have before! 2. It is deeply real. For most people, day-to-day life feels real enough, but it’s possible to go deeper without the aid of ps...

  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"   John 1:1   The only parts of the following that were written by me were the questions I asked of an AI, in this case the free version of Grok. I wanted to write about this here, in part because I found it enjoyable to produce and the results very interesting.  I also thought that one or two people might also find it interesting to see that, with a short series of questions, you can go from first principles about the existence of the universe, to a daily schedule of activities that most closely reflects how you see your part in it all.  You might not resonate with the questioning route I took in producing this but, with a few tweaks, you could get interesting ideas and pointers that are relevant to your life.  Using AI can be part of a spiritual practice. How do you use it? What follows is quite long and heavy so I’ll cut the preamble and get started... I began with a questi...