Welcome to Integral Spiritual Meditation

by L. Ron Gardner on May 13, 2014

This is my initial post at this new blog. I will generally, but not always, post at least one new article each month. The article will generally, but not always, pertain to the subject of Integral Spiritual Meditation (ISM). I am also “reviving” my website, electricalspirituality.com, at this time, and also will be posting a […]

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Why “Effortlessness” Alone Is An Incomplete Meditation Practice

by L. Ron Gardner on May 1, 2026

[This is an excerpt from my book Radical Dzogchen:The Direct Way to En-Light-enment, which is available in Kindle and paperback at Amazon and from other book sellers.] But Dzogchen is about the Great Perfection, which is already the case prior to any attempt to attain Union. Hence, true Dzogchen practice is simply effortlessness. There has never been, […]

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The Sword of Thusness

by L. Ron Gardner on October 7, 2018

[This is a raw, unedited subchapter from my forthcoming book on Zen. In this subchapter, I quote some excerpts from “The Zen Teaching of Huang Po” and provide my interpretation of the Sword, or Way, of Thusness.] “The Sword of Thusness is a MEANS to Enlightenment; the Royal Treasury is the Bhūtatathatā—the Absolute regarded as […]

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The Zen Teaching of Huang Po

September 17, 2018

[This is an article consisting of quotes from “The Zen Teaching of Huang Po,” followed by my comments (in parentheses). I’m a HUGE fan of Huang Po (died 850 AD), easily my favorite Zen Master.] The Master said to me: All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which […]

Who Am I?

July 19, 2018

[This is a raw, unedited excerpt from my forthcoming book on Zen.]   Thanks to the teachings of the iconic Indian sage Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), Self-enquiry—finding out who one truly is—has become a popular spiritual practice among those into Hindu Advaita Vedanta. Buddhists also employ Self-enquiry as a means to Awakening, and given that we find different […]

Dialectical Kabbalistic Meditation

December 23, 2017

What’s common to all proper descriptions of mystical meditation, including those in Kabbalah, is an activistic approach (thesis) immediately followed by a passive state (antithesis). The synthesis that results (through the medium of the influx of the Holy Spirit) is divine union. In his fine text “Kabbalah: New Perspectives,” author Moshe Idel’s descriptions of the […]

Trekcho: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

September 9, 2017

[This is  a raw, unedited excerpt from my forthcoming Dzogchen text, which, barring unforseen circumstances, will be published in late 2018.]   You’ve described Trekcho as “cutting through spiritual materialism to get to Spirit itself.” Can you describe this practice in more detail? Trekcho, typically defined as “breakthrough,” is the implementation of one’s consciousness as a […]

Rigpa: Primal Presence

August 26, 2017

[This is an excerpt from the Dzogchen book I’m now writing. It will be finished and published in 2018.] Q: Rigpa is the prescribed practice in Dzogchen. How would you describe it? A: Rigpa is the practice of primal presence, which bestows radical (or gone-to-the-root) gnosis (or spiritual knowledge) and whole-body en-Light-enment (or Spirit-current irradiation). […]

Meditation for Smarties

April 10, 2017

[This is an article I recently wrote for a friend’s blog.]    Most everyone nowadays knows that meditation is a healthful, stress-relieving practice, but which method should you practice to derive the most benefit psycho-physically as well as spiritually? Before I describe the practice that I recommend — Plugged-in Presence – I’ll briefly consider probably […]

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