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This week I discuss discernment: What it is, why it’s important, how it can prevent ridiculousness, why that matters, and how to increase our discernment. As part of this discussion, I explore the Yog-Vedantic theory of mind and specific practices that can help us be more discerning, including self study, kriya, classical Tantrik practices, having a teacher you can trust, spiritual community, working with sacred plants, meditation, and good old psychotherapy, including psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. 

The philosophy, cosmology and consciousness masters program I’m enrolled in at the California Institute of Integral Studies has the following goals:

1. To open our consciousness, through learning and imagination, to those creative and evolutionary energies suffusing the Earth, the Universe, and the deep psyche that will enable us to participate fully in the regeneration of human communities and their enveloping life systems.
2. To analyze the current devastation of planetary life and to strive to liberate ourselves and our communities from the underlying causes of alienation, consumerism, militarism, androcentrism, and unsustainable modes of life.
3. To draw from the deep wells of philosophical, spiritual, and religious wisdom together with other scholarly and scientific insights in order to bring forth a profound vision of a vibrant planetary era.

Other references from the episode:

• Joanna Macy’s Active Hope and The Spiral of the Work That Reconnects
• The full Daily Show / Jordan Klepper segment about MAGA + Gematria
• An example of a discerning analysis of someone like Jordan Peterson that fails to offer a positive ethos
• The podcast episode about gurus and a guru sex scandal 
• Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
• The Bhagavad Gita

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