“As we get deeper into it, we begin to realize that the real benefits of meditation ultimately transcend any of our personal wants, needs, and desires and we’re really awakening and evolving as part of a greater process that's happening in consciousness and in life and in the cosmos. The real benefits are for the whole.” –Craig Hamilton

For many of us, the desire for inner peace, greater wisdom or spiritual enlightenment is what called us onto the spiritual path. However, meditation teachers frequently warn us that wanting any results from our practice can actually take us off course and prevent us from accessing the extraordinary potential of genuine awakening. This presents us with both a fascinating paradox and a sacred opportunity.

In this episode, Craig dives into the heart of this apparent paradox, inviting us to discover for ourselves what it means to meditate without any agenda whatsoever. During this 20-minute guided inquiry and meditation, he asks us to consider, “why does wanting something become an obstacle in meditation, and what would it be like to give ourselves to the meditation for its own sake, wanting nothing in return?” Then, he guides us into an experience of the freedom and fullness that comes from not needing anything at all. 

If you haven’t already, we also encourage you to tune in to our previous episode, The Life-Changing Power of Letting Go: Part One, in which Craig creates a powerful, evolutionary context for this practice, illuminating how letting go of wanting can connect us to a deeper imperative to evolve for the greatest good.

To access the full transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on MeditationChangesEverything.com. 

If you’re interested in exploring more of Craig’s meditation experiments, you’re invited to tune in to a 90-minute online workshop Craig will be hosting called Meditation 2.0 – The Miracle of Direct Awakening. Register for free at FreeMeditationWorkshop.com.

“Spirituality is no longer about leaving the world. It's about letting go of the world inwardly so we can become a spiritual revolutionary in the world. So we can bring forth a revolution of the human spirit and become an evolutionary actor.” –Craig Hamilton

Letting go of our attachments can free us to do the right things for the right reasons. But it doesn’t stop there — there's a bigger reason to let go! Ultimately, we let go to become available to a source beyond our personal wants. As Craig says, we open to the “exhilarating energy and creativity of the evolutionary impulse.”

In this week’s episode, Craig shines a light on what it really means to “let go” in meditation. He illuminates the often subtle ways in which our preferences and desires can distort our perception, and how the meditative practice of letting go of wanting opens the door to an extraordinary life aligned with our highest values and empowered by the impulse of evolution itself. As we release the need to control reality, we discover ourselves to be naturally, inherently and passionately committed to uplifting the world around us.

To access the full transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on MeditationChangesEverything.com. Also, if you’d like to try a guided meditation with Craig on letting go, check out this short meditation on his blog, Guided Meditation: The Art of Letting Go. 

If you’re interested in exploring more of Craig’s meditation experiments, you’re invited to tune in to a 90-minute online workshop Craig will be hosting called Meditation 2.0 – The Miracle of Direct Awakening. Register for free at FreeMeditationWorkshop.com.

“When you’re awake to your true nature…there’s a fundamental satisfaction that’s untouched by anything that happens. It doesn’t stop you from being an evolutionary force in the world — quite the opposite. It can make you quite the evolutionary revolutionary but all from a place of profound contentment with what is.”

There are hundreds — possibly thousands — of different kinds of spiritual experiences. They can be wonderful and transformational, and propel us on the spiritual path.

Spiritual awakening, however, is not any of these experiences. It is a very particular kind of realization of who we are beyond any experience. What happens after spiritual awakening changes the way we experience everything going forward.

In this week’s episode, Craig shares two life-altering insights at the core of spiritual awakening. When these insights come together, they not only transform our understanding of who we are — they revolutionize our entire experience of being alive.

Listen to discover how spiritual awakening changes the ways we interpret experiences, explore ideas, relate to others, make choices, envision future possibilities, and more. Craig also explores how we can practice living from the posture of awakening right now — because it’s already who we are.

To access the full transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on MeditationChangesEverything.com. If you’re interested in exploring more of Craig’s meditation experiments, you’re invited to tune in to a 90-minute online workshop Craig will be hosting called Meditation 2.0 – The Miracle of Direct Awakening. Register for free at FreeMeditationWorkshop.com. 

“The main event of a human life is the fact of awareness, and yet we almost never notice its existence. We’re always focused on things that arise within awareness. But something extraordinary happens to us when we learn to bring our attention to the seat of awareness itself.”

At the heart of meditation lies the mystery of our own awareness. When we allow our attention to release its fixation on the outer world of objects, we begin to become aware of the vast expanse of awareness itself.

In this episode, Craig guides us on an experiential journey into the nature of our own awareness. He asks us to consider the relationship between our outer reality and the mysterious inner world in which that outer reality is experienced. Then, he invites us to explore one of the greatest mysteries of the inner world — the self. Who really is the self and is it any different from consciousness? What would happen if we allowed ourselves to be fully captured by consciousness, or awareness, itself?

This episode includes several periods of meditation, so please plan to listen when you are in a safe, quiet place where you won’t be interrupted. 

To access the full transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on MeditationChangesEverything.com. For a deeper experience of Craig’s approach to meditation, consider joining our Awakened Life membership program which offers in-depth guidance, a meditation workshop, and a live online retreat with Craig. Register today to receive your first month for 50% off at AwakenedLifeMembership.com.

“Meditation is not about having a profound experience every time you practice. It’s about consistency and openness to possibility. It invites an ongoing revelation that arises mysteriously until it ultimately overtakes us with its power.” – Craig Hamilton 

Spiritual practice offers us various gateways through which we can directly experience the profound freedom of awakened consciousness. In this episode, Craig leads us through a series of “meditation experiments” that guide us beyond the mind’s obstructions into this remarkably accessible experience of inner freedom. He then shares how meditation practice allows us to access and express awakened consciousness more consistently in our daily lives. 

In this episode, we’re offering something experiential. As Craig leads us through several inquiries and periods of guided meditation, he encourages us to notice that meditation is actually always already happening. In any moment, we can recognize that nothing is ultimately missing and that nothing needs to be known by the mind for us to access the freedom of our true nature.   

Please don’t attempt to listen to this episode while driving or doing anything else that requires your attention. To get the full benefit of the guided meditations, we encourage you to listen when you are in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.   

To access the full transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on MeditationChangesEverything.com. If you’re interested in exploring more of Craig’s meditation experiments, you’re invited to tune in to a 90-minute online workshop Craig will be hosting called Meditation 2.0 – The Miracle of Direct Awakening. Register for free at FreeMeditationWorkshop.com.

If you would like to share your experience of the podcast or have questions about Craig's teachings, please feel free to email us at [email protected].

“You don’t need to have a quiet mind to meditate. In fact, having a quiet mind really limits the potential of your meditation because meditation isn’t about just sitting in a still, calm, empty place. It’s a path for gaining insight into the nature of the mind — insight into the nature of reality.” – Craig Hamilton 

In this episode, Craig explores what it really means to be “free from the mind” in meditation. You’re probably familiar with the idea that meditation is about going beyond the mind, but how do we actually do this? And why does it often seem so difficult? 

Craig shares three perspectives on one of the most common confusions people encounter when starting a meditation practice—the misconception that the goal in meditation is to have a quiet mind.  Craig confronts us with the fact that the only reason we find it hard to let go of the mind is that we’re interested in what the mind is telling us. What if we became even more interested in what lies beyond the mind? 

To access the full transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on MeditationChangesEverything.com. For a deeper experience of Craig’s approach to meditation, consider joining our Awakened Life membership program which offers in-depth guidance, a meditation workshop, and a live online retreat with Craig. Register today to receive your first month for 50% off at AwakenedLifeMembership.com.

If you would like to share your experience of the podcast or have questions about Craig's teachings, please feel free to email us at [email protected].

“Meditation contains the seeds of a revolution that can transform every aspect of our lives, and ultimately all life on Earth.” – Craig Hamilton   

Can meditation really change everything? It’s a big claim — and in our inaugural podcast episode, Craig invites us on a journey into this possibility. He guides us beyond meditation’s many practical, emotional, cognitive, and relational benefits to the “supercapacities” of awakened consciousness that can serve us and our world. 

What happens when we shift our relationship to meditation itself — from seeing it as a practice for health and wellbeing to a daily doorway into spiritual awakening? What changes in our lives when we begin living from the depths of our true nature, in touch with the inherent meaning of life and connected to our highest virtues? 

In this episode, you’ll hear about some of the extraordinary capabilities that start to emerge when we awaken. You may also sense how our actions in the world can become exponentially more significant than they were prior to the emergence of awakened consciousness within us. Craig also explores why meditation is one of the most potent practices we have to catalyze spiritual awakening and how it offers us an opportunity to give all of our attention to practicing being awake. 

To access the full transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on MeditationChangesEverything.com.

For a deeper experience of Craig’s approach to meditation, consider joining our Awakened Life membership program. Each month, you’ll receive four guided meditations, a meditation workshop, and a live online retreat with Craig. Register today to receive your first month for 50% off at AwakenedLifeMembership.com.

If you’re interested in exploring more of Craig’s meditation experiments, you’re invited to tune in to a 90-minute online workshop Craig will be hosting called Meditation 2.0 – The Miracle of Direct Awakening. Register for free at FreeMeditationWorkshop.com.

If you would like to share your experience of the podcast or have questions about Craig's teachings, please feel free to email us at [email protected].