James Wood Teachings

Everyone around you may be lying, but that doesn’t mean you have to lie.  Liars may seem to have an advantage, but they never really do. People lie to gain some kind of temporary advantage in the world. It may seem to work, but it never does. Eventually the truth catches up to them. Eventually…

Things don’t always work out like we think they will. That can be disappointing. What’s the remedy? Be in the Now. What does that mean? It means becoming present.  It means stepping back and noticing that things don’t always work out the way you want and that’s okay. It means watching your mind and noticing that you…

Following me on Twitter @JamesWood_JWT is the best way to get timely updates from me at this point. I have never been a big fan or user of social media. But I want you to be able to get timely and fresh updates from me, especially in this chaotic time of pandemic/panic. We need good…

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sunrise. — “Eternity,” by William Blake Everything changes. What does not change is your awareness. The content changes, but your awareness does not. Like a clear Space that allows things to…

Drama wants to get you involved but in the end just gets you killed. Silence is beyond all that. All of this noise is just floating in a profound silence that, when you wake up to who you are, you find yourself identical with. And all the drama is seen for what it is —…

Moralization is saying that some things should be and others shouldn’t be. The things we think shouldn’t be we call “wrong” or “bad,” and the things we think should be we call “right” or “good.” The truth is that what is should be. Why? Because it is. Instead of thinking in terms of what should…

One thing I have noticed: I do better with questions. Some of my recent posts grew out of questions asked by people who had seen the Batgap video and had questions about it or had raised issues concerning what I said during the interview. We all want to connect, to grow, to matter. Asking questions…

A note on spiritual bypassing: In a recent post, I wrote “Compassion is necessary. But to be really strong in our compassion, we have to embrace a Transcendent perspective.” Some might think embracing a Transcendent perspective is a form of spiritual bypassing. According to Robert Augustus Masters, spiritual bypassing is “the use of spiritual practices…

I have been thinking a lot lately about what’s going on in the world these days and the questions I have been getting about how to deal with political, economic, and social chaos as someone trying to live a spiritual life. How do I, as a spiritual being, live a human life in an uncertain…

I have been receiving questions recently about how to deal with suffering in the world, and specifically about the recent events in Charlottesville. For example, one Facebook user saw my Batgap interview and asked the following: “You briefly mentioned Charlottesville at the beginning of the interview. Can you describe how you process seemingly apocalyptic news…