Jason Gregory

Second episode of The Kybalion series out now! The Kybalion is a relatively unknown occult classic that outlines the seven Hermetic principles that govern the universe. Many don't know about this book nor the Hermetic laws it outlines. But once one assimilates these teachings, it helps understand numerous other philosophies and spiritual teachings. In this podcast, we will explain the universal principles three, four, and five of Hermeticism. CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO WATCH THE FULL PODCAST: www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-podcast-146199806?ut…

1 hour ago | [YT] | 26

Jason Gregory

My new interview about my recently published book ‘The Tradition of Natural Taoism’ on the New Thinking Allowed is out now. It was great to reconnect with Jeffrey Mishlove after ten years since my last interview on his show. I remember when I was younger watching whatever was available of the original Thinking Allowed show with guests such as Huston Smith, Michael Talbot, Terence McKenna, Ram Dass, and many others. It was one of the only shows on television that delved deeper into the nature of consciousness back in the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s. So back in 2015 after my book ‘The Science and Practice of Humility’ was released, it was a welcomed surprise when Jeff emailed me out of the blue asking if I would like to come to Las Vegas to have an interview about my book on the 'New Thinking Allowed' show. Coincidently this lined up with a lecture tour I was about to embark upon in the UK and US about my book. So, the stars aligned somewhat and I found myself staying in Jeff’s house in Las Vegas and I was like a kid in candy store exploring his massive library full of classics.

It is amazing sometimes how life unfolds, from my younger self watching his interviews and marvelling at his wisdom and ability to hold a conversation with some of the greatest minds in the world to me being opposite him in that very seat that those greats sat. Never let anyone tell you life isn’t amazing and full of wonderful surprises because the truth is it is and even more than that if you keep your eyes and ears open to the rhythm of the universal song that we are a note of.

To watch my new interview, click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu2j0...

To watch the interview from 2015, click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3IMS...

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5 days ago | [YT] | 122

Jason Gregory

Modern culture and specifically advertising sell us this idea of how our lives should be, such as the “American dream,” which fuels our consumerist habits. Marketing ramps up what we think we need, but in truth, we don’t need any of what they’re selling. We are fooled into believing that we need the latest smartphone, car, clothes, haircut, computer, television, and whatever else is deemed trendy by advertising. We also think we need to be famous or known and respected in some way, even if, in truth, we’ve accomplished nothing to gain it.

These artificial desires are built on the lie that we actually need all this rubbish, but you don’t need any of it. I’m going to let you in on a little secret that all these great motivational speakers of modern culture won’t tell you—not everyone can have financial success or fame, and not all of us can have a brilliant idea. And you know what? None of it matters in the end because that’s not why all of us are here.

We will never know why we are honestly here nor will we know our true nature if we’re usually chasing our tail, and this is Lao-tzu’s point. He recognized that we were so often pursuing empty desires, the desires of the eye. Keep in mind that Lao-tzu’s criticisms were aimed at Confucius’s carving and polishing ideology of self-cultivation, with its focus on artificial desires and an attempt to induce naturalness, which is mild compared to our modern culture.

Just imagine if Lao-tzu could see the world now; he would surely fall off his ox. Nevertheless, his advice and reaction would be the same: we need to turn our back on modern culture and return to the way of nature, the Tao. Lao-tzu’s remedy for the hypnosis of the desires of the eye is to return to the natural desires of the belly.

Excerpt from my new book, 'The Tradition of Natural Taoism.' To order a copy today, please click the following link: amzn.to/4aD3X6B

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 288

Jason Gregory

The fear people have concerning the dissolution of identity is that they incorrectly believe they won’t function without an identity, as if there is nothing intrinsically there without the ego. This is simply not true and something you will learn later in this book. People in the modern world, and especially Westerners, are often more favorable toward Taoism and Yoga, but they are more suspicious of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism because of the inaccurate belief that the underlying premise of the dissolution of self of the latter two traditions doesn’t exist in the former two. This is simply untrue.

To be sure, the dissolution of the ego, self, or identity is the common principle and goal of many Eastern spiritual traditions. The methods and philosophy to achieve that end are different among the traditions and explained differently, but the principle is the same. Achieving such a dissolution is referred to in Hinduism and Buddhism as enlightenment but worded differently when referring to the sage in Taoism, as we discover with the word zhenren. Nevertheless, there is a natural state of being that we fundamentally are but has been suppressed. Essentially, we are all inherently enlightened but we’ve forgotten and must unlearn to realize this truth.

This fundamental truth of innate enlightenment within the Eastern spiritual traditions I sum up with one phrase: Enlightenment is the dissolution of “I” and the reidentification with the ultimate reality. The ultimate reality, as discussed, is known as either Brahman in Advaita Vedanta or Tao in Taoism. The reidentification with the ultimate reality in Advaita Vedanta is known as the realization that Atman (undifferentiated consciousness) within all is Brahman. You are one with Brahman as Brahman. Likewise, in Taoism, reidentification is the result of letting go of identity and merging as one with the river of Tao. To merge with the river of Tao requires a complete dissolution of identity.

Excerpt from my new book, 'The Tradition of Natural Taoism.' To order a copy today, please click the following link: amzn.to/4aD3X6B

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 304

Jason Gregory

The Kybalion is a relatively unknown occult classic that outlines the seven Hermetic principles that govern the universe. Many don't know about this book nor the Hermetic laws it outlines. But once one assimilates these teachings, it helps understand numerous other philosophies and spiritual teachings. In this NEW podcast, we will explain the first two universal principles of Hermeticism. CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO WATCH NOW: www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-podcast-144062512

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 127

Jason Gregory

The Hundun story is a timeless warning that any society, culture, or ideology has a political desire to shape what or whoever is different from them according to their own image. This political desire, as we all surely know, informs many conflicts and wars. The Hundun story, then, is in part a critique of interventionist politics that meddle heavily with people and nature, which is diametrically opposed to Taoism’s essential teaching of wu-wei, noninterference. Even the editor of the Chuang-tzu, Guo Xiang, in the fourth century, stated that Shu and Hu destroyed Hundun with their activist interference. Taoism itself is a critique of interference in general, and Hundun represents the danger for anyone who internalizes and conforms to the machinations of socialization.

At the end of the story, Hundun dies. Why? Shu and Hu’s so-called noble intentions are misguided and their course of action inept. They try to shape Hundun in their own image, and they kill him. Shu and Hu are not wise sages or rulers after all, but rather damn fools who are the puppets of interventionist politics. They failed Hundun because they fell for the “naturalize what is not natural” model proposed by Confucius. Hundun was completely whole and at peace until the socialization police came knocking. Hundun could not thwart their actions, and so he represents a failed Taoist sage just like the failures of Shu and Hu.

There is no real winner in this story. Hundun is a failure because he cluelessly submitted to the psychological conditioning of socialization. He lacked a strategy of evasion and could not conserve his natural simplicity. He conformed without question. Hundun allowed Shu and Hu to mutilate his nature, which killed him. The reason Hundun died is because the process of social indoctrination kills your true nature, shaping you to whatever the overarching ideology dictates. We have all gone through this type of death naively.

We fail ourselves when we allow socialization to shape us. We willingly accept the false myths that indoctrinate people, which then create illusionary knowledge and give false authority and power to those who spread such unreliable wisdom. Once we believe in the powerful but often hollow mythologies of any time, when we embrace the ideologies and false narratives they entail, and when we internalize the moral norms they impose on people, we allow the process of socialization to drill holes into our faces so that we adopt an artificial identity.

We all resemble Hundun still to this day when we uncritically identify with the ideological conditioning drilled into us by the dubious authorities who surround us. We accept the rule of authority in many guises. We don’t question and instead accept the way it is, or I should say, the way we think it is—the way of the Tao is the way it truly is. When we accept the ideologies and narrative of our time, we die just like Hundun. We crucify ourselves to an artificial dogma to suit the society and culture to which we believe we belong. But the story of Hundun’s death ridicules and deflates grand narratives of any age proposed by any world view. Taoism has no grand truth claim or universal knowledge of a creator God. Rather, it is based on the way of nature, the way of the Tao.

From the still point of the Tao, the zero perspective, all grand narratives and ideologies are mere constructs of language and employed politically to mold people in the image of the magical wordplay of an ideology. We want to bend nature to suit our view of life. Our eagerness to build the world in our image reveals an underlying psychopathy within human beings.

Excerpt from my new book, 'The Tradition of Natural Taoism.' To order a copy today, please click the following link: amzn.to/4aD3X6B

1 month ago | [YT] | 226

Jason Gregory

We are continually trained to label and categorize every part of reality with names and designate meaning to things. This is useful for convenience but a hindrance when we believe that world is the world. Society’s indoctrination process wants you to believe in the artificial linguistic conventions it designed. To reinforce this programming, we are sent to school and educated in the ways of upholding and contributing to socialization. The best at memorizing and internalizing education are rewarded with more education at university. Those with the rose-colored glasses of the educated will succeed in any form of indoctrination. However, that is not true success from a Taoist perspective because most probably never realize the real world and are stuck in an illusory world.

Very few make the symbolic journey and jump on the back of an ox, like Lao-tzu, and return to the real world beyond the artificial thought structure socialization creates. Education makes sure this journey rarely if ever happens, as it continually drills into us an artificial partial system of seeing and interpreting the world. This again is not to assume education is inherently bad, but rather that it is only useful as a public utility and should never be confused for how the world truly is.

The majority of education is to serve socialization, nothing more, nothing less. It trains us to survive and function by society’s rules. Once the complex reality of education is downloaded to the best of our capabilities, we are thrust into the world as an adult. As adults, we confuse the map of education through the lens of partiality with the impartial terrain of the natural world. As a result, people tend to become more fearful and political to justify their perspective over others. Actually, fear can only arise from partiality because in fragmenting our reality, we separate ourselves from the rest of the world. We measure the world according to our partial lens of education, and we become fearful of other perspectives that don’t correlate with our own. Only conflict and confusion can result from living in such fear.

We essentially have different drishtis colliding. Forget about a clash of cultures, it is more like a clash of artificial linguistic frameworks. Because we all don’t see the true natural world, we destroy each other and the natural world due to the complex reality we dwell in within our minds. The complex world we’ve been indoctrinated with is superimposed onto the natural world. As a result, we don’t genuinely see the world; instead we interpret the world through the artificial linguistic conventions of partiality we’ve been trained with. We then live in that illusory world, dealing with those illusory problems.

Excerpt from my new book, 'The Tradition of Natural Taoism.' To order a copy today, please click the following link: amzn.to/4aD3X6B

1 month ago | [YT] | 366

Jason Gregory

What is divine grace, and how do you receive it? Many religions refer to the grace of God but in a way that is incorrect due to them having no understanding of the metaphysics of the divine and science of surrender. But in the Eastern spiritual traditions, they explore divine grace to its nth degree. In this BRAND NEW podcast, we will explain the Sanskrit word Kripa and what that word means in relation to the divine grace we feel when we surrender to the Ultimate. CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO WATCH NOW: www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-podcast-142474903

1 month ago | [YT] | 373

Jason Gregory

Many religions teach us to fight our natural instincts and intuitions under the impression that humans are uncultured beasts. Taoism, on the other hand, teaches us to embrace our nature and understand that any self-cultivation method is actually what can turn us into beasts (something I will explore more in chapter two). Most of us have rarely or never been taught to accept ourselves as we are. In a roundabout way, society, some religions, education, and, in some cases, our friends and family subtly cultivate in us a sense of not being good enough as we are and also that we don’t belong. Taoism’s the opposite. It explains that we are innately good enough and that we do belong. We actually cannot be disowned. This natural belonging and intrinsic value are big factors as to why it is hard for someone to truthfully follow the Tao when they are part of a different religious or philosophical worldview.

We are so shortsighted when we try to discredit Taoism. We will make up all sorts of excuses why Taoism doesn’t work: How can we be fundamentally good when we see the bad actions of others? How can allowing nature to run its course without interference achieve anything? We can’t see that, for example, it is society that creates people with wrong intentions, and so it should be the social structures and belief systems that should be reevaluated. We have built the world in reverse, where the world is informing you rather than you informing the world. The Tao is not induced in us but rather moves through us naturally. Nature is grown from within to without to beautify the world. But if the conditions are wrong and we accept this reverse system of without to within, then this is where all sorts of trouble begins. The reverse stream is basically the template for many differing schools of thought—the idea that Tao is induced rather than naturally within us. Taoism is the way of radically reversing this stream to its original position.

Instead of criticizing Taoism from fear of it being so different, why not just try it and test it for yourself? It is hard to honestly criticize something unless you’ve been intimate with it. The irony is, when we criticize Taoism, we are criticizing ourselves and nature, which is in part why we have a domineering relationship to nature. The fundamental point is most of us have never tried Taoism wholeheartedly. We’ve rarely given it a chance outside of how it will benefit us and accentuate our preexisting beliefs. We have almost never been taught to accept ourselves the way we are as humans. We’ve almost always been uncomfortable in our own skin, so we designed all sorts of beliefs to make sense of life and alleviate this unnecessary discomfort. But what is staring us in our faces all the time is that we need to accept the human condition rather than avoid it.

In avoiding the human condition, we suppress our nature, which causes all sorts of psychological damage and social unrest. It is through accepting the human condition that equanimity of mind and peace on Earth will prevail. Taoism, the way of nature, is that vehicle waiting for all of us if we are willing to accept it wholeheartedly.

Taoism is pushing humanity to evolve by being radically human, not some transcendent philosophy about overcoming our humanity. We need to lean into our humanity to push through the boundaries that divide us from each other and the Tao.

Excerpt from my new book, 'The Tradition of Natural Taoism.' To order a copy today, please click the following link: amzn.to/4aD3X6B

1 month ago | [YT] | 310

Jason Gregory

One of the greatest statements to ever be uttered or written down about free will versus predestined karma came from the great twentieth-century sage Ramana Maharshi to his mother, when she pleaded with him to break his silence. In this BRAND NEW podcast, we will explain this short, yet extremely profound message and teaching that Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi gave to his mother. CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO WATCH NOW: www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-podcast-141413509

2 months ago | [YT] | 316