What is the Inner Journey of Awakening?
Read MoreWe are all on an inner journey... but to where?
Seeking to discover deeper understanding of what lies behind all that happens, and with this, more peace and the sense of flowing creatively with life.
The Inner Journey
This series of short sections explains what happens during the Inner Journey of Awakening. This explanation is based on my own experience over 40+ years, and from talking to many others, and from researching a huge range of esoteric and spiritual sources, including the writings of the most revered of the great mystics in human history.
One-to-One
We each travel our own unique journey in life...
There is our 'outer' life in the world, and our 'inner' life of thoughts, feelings, sensations and experiences...
And there is also another dimension - our inner 'spiritual' life.
One-to-One sessions look at the outer and the inner.
And with the greater understanding that results, comes more inner peace, happiness and purpose, which also unfolds into our outer life, where we find that conflicts and difficulties come to resolutions more easily - and we increasingly feel that we are flowing creatively and positively with all of life.
Here are a few things people have said about their One-to-One experience: What Others Have Said
In-person meetings are preferable but they can also be online. Please use the form on this page to ask any questions and arrange your session.
I do not ask for or accept a fee for my time, but when people wish to 'give back' I ask for a donation to the charity I support: Contribute.
There is our 'outer' life in the world, and our 'inner' life of thoughts, feelings, sensations and experiences...
And there is also another dimension - our inner 'spiritual' life.
One-to-One sessions look at the outer and the inner.
And with the greater understanding that results, comes more inner peace, happiness and purpose, which also unfolds into our outer life, where we find that conflicts and difficulties come to resolutions more easily - and we increasingly feel that we are flowing creatively and positively with all of life.
Here are a few things people have said about their One-to-One experience: What Others Have Said
In-person meetings are preferable but they can also be online. Please use the form on this page to ask any questions and arrange your session.
I do not ask for or accept a fee for my time, but when people wish to 'give back' I ask for a donation to the charity I support: Contribute.
Mind and the Ego
What is Mind? What is Ego?
Peaceful Mind
The nature of the mind is constant motion - but by stepping into the background - becoming aware of mind activity - we can find freedom from the turmoil - and this is the doorway to peace.
more...An Excitable Child
Like a child opening presents, our mind jumps on every thought, then the next, and the next...
more...Being In The Now
3-minute spoken contemplation on the difficulty of 'Being or living in The Now'.
more...Presence is the Background
It can be helpful to sit quietly with eyes closed...hope you enjoy it. ...Deep in the background behind thoughts-feelings-experiences - in the absence of the relative and transitory knowing of the body - the knowing of Oneness is realised. Behind even that lies a portal - 'the gateless gate' - through which we may begin to experience the in-flowing of the qualities of the 'Beyond' - peace, joy and love.
more...Thoughts and Feelings
Tools to help manage difficult thoughts and feelings.
Can we permanently escape depression?
Can we learn to overcome depression when it arises, or even permanently leave it behind?
more...Through The Clouds
To shine light on the causes of troubling thoughts and feelings, we need to rise out of the clouds - into the sun.
more...Stop Lighting Matches
We may not always be able to stop ourselves from lighting matches, but try to watch the flame and drop the match before getting burned.
more...Freedom From Suffering
Once we have had a first taste of this, we want it again. We want to experience it more often, and more deeply.
more...Eye of the Storm
14-minute spoken contemplation that offers a method that helps us avoid getting caught up in the energy of unwanted thoughts and feelings that arise in us, and energies from other people and situations.
more...Good Morning
5-minute guided meditation for when you first wake up in the morning, to connect to creativity, clarity, non-reaction - all the things we need for a productive day.
more...Refuge from the storm
9-minute spoken contemplation on taking refuge deep within when we're experiencing difficult thoughts, emotions and feelings.
more...Unwanted Thoughts and Feelings
17-minute spoken contemplation that offers a practical way of managing and resolving unwanted thoughts and feelings. Practised consistently, benefits will soon become self-evident.
more...Unwanted Thoughts and Feelings (practice reminder)
3-minute practice reminder for the non-connection method of managing and resolving unwanted thoughts and feelings. It is recommended that the full spoken 17-minute contemplation on this page is listened to first.
more...Grief and Loss
6-minute spoken contemplation to uncover what dies, revealing how pain can transmute into peace - and the warmth of remembrance.
more...Choices and Decisions
Looking at the topic of choice, decision making and free will.
I Know It In My Heart
Can you let your heart guide you? Does your heart know deeper answers than the mind?
more...Wave or Ocean
The wave is a temporary expression of the ocean, dancing on the surface, below which, powerful currents move.
more...Making 'Right' Decisions
It's always a balance between head and heart. Head = 'mind' = thinking (influenced by the ego aspect of mind). Heart = 'intuition' = feelings (inclined towards selflessness and kindness).
more...Choices & Decisions
5-minute spoken contemplation to help when we are faced with choices and decisions and are uncertain which way to go.
more...Seeking Meaning
4-minute spoken contemplation about answering questions like: Why are things the way they are? Why do we feel drawn to find deeper meaning?
more...Free Will?
5-minute spoken contemplation 'You Are Not The Doer' is a phrase commonly found in spiritual teachings. But does it mean that everything is predestined?
more...Relationships
Exploring the 'spiritual dimension' to relationships.
Meant To Be Together?
The awakening event in one partner creates a fundamental incompatibility between them which was not there before.
more...Astrology And Compatibility
Could astrology help in relationships? Wouldn't it at least be worth taking an open-minded look?
more...Meeting Mr (or Ms) Right
Every person is ‘right’, even if the initial rightness becomes wrong.
more...The Donkey, the Horse and Wise Owl
A TRUE STORY (I was told by someone who says they are an expert in understanding animal language, that this story sounded true, so it must be true!)
more...Acceptance In Relationships
5-minute spoken contemplation about when we create expectations in our minds of how other people should be, we can harm relationships - and how to break this habit.
more...Who Am I?
Exploring the profound spiritual question: Who Am I?
What is Self?
Is self the root cause of all that is not good, not truthful, all wrongdoing and self-ish-ness?
more...What Is Presence?
In the presence of what? Presence is not a thing; it is the space in which things arise.
more...Presence Is The Background
In the state of presence we are not lost in the experiences of our body or the thoughts in our mind - we are 'in the background' to them.
more...Can You Find Yourself?
Looking inward, our self, or at least what we had believed our self to be, is impossible to pin down.
more...Many Ways To Meditate
The goals and ways of meditation may differ, but once the benefits are felt, you know how truly valuable it is.
more...You are an aspect of all-there-is
The body/mind is believed to be separate from the world, from the ego's viewpoint.
more...Perceived understanding, prior to actual Knowing
Awakening progresses through innumerable subtle stages, and at a certain point comes to this...
more...Spiritual Beliefs
What is Belief? Is it helpful on the spiritual journey?
What is - and isn't Non-Duality?
In the experiential reality of Non-Duality, causing harm to others is hurting everything - including oneself.
more...Manifesting What We Want
Physical needs will always be our highest priority, but beyond these, what do we ultimately most deeply want?
more...Unacceptable!
You will never be able to accept anything that you perceive as unacceptable - so don't try!
more...Law Of Attraction
Have you seen the Law of Attraction at work in your own life? Was it intentional manifesting on your part?
more...Words Are Just Pointers
Words are needed on the Inner Journey - or are they? Words lead to more questions, more thinking - and isn't that just more mind-stuff?
more...What do we really know?
Only evidence, real evidence, should be considered a sound basis on which to accept something as true.
more...No Journey?
Some say there's no (spiritual) Journey because there is Nowhere To Go. What does this mean, and is it a helpful concept?
more...Happiness That Lasts
5-minute spoken contemplation on the three types of happiness - why the least known of these is the only one that lasts - and how to find it.
more...God Or Nothing?
5-minute spoken contemplation exploring what might have existed before the beginning of time, and all that we know.
more...Belief And Suffering
7-minute spoken contemplation looking at how beliefs arise and how to become free from the suffering they can cause.
more...About
'Spiritual seeking' began for me in my early 20's and, looking back, it is easy to see the synchronistic events that led into what I now call the 'Inner Journey'.
In the early years I explored the writings of Jung and the psychology of my own inner experience, then became interested in philosophical thought and the eastern wisdom teachings of Lao Tzu and the Buddha. Later I became involved in practicing meditation, studying karmic astrology and tantra.
Years later, during a traumatic period in my life, what is commonly called 'spiritual awakening' occurred. It was a shift in my consciousness - as if I had being woken from a trance - and the John I had believed myself to be - my psychological self - lost solidity. I became aware of an 'awareness' in the 'background' - an unmoving stillness behind all thinking and feeling.
From this 'place' of 'awareness' I became a 'witness' to what was arising into my conscious awareness, and could now see how my ego had previously been controlling my thinking, feeling and behaviour.
With this new 'perspective' and the new ability to 'sense' the selfishness of ego - and do something about it - my life quickly went from conflict, stress, discontent and unhappiness, to inner peace and a joyous sense of being connected with the flow of life.
As the years have passed I have explored many spiritual and religious traditions and teachings, and continue to do so. And through ongoing deepening, further 'realisations' and experiences of a mystical nature, I have come to realise that the first experience of 'spiritual awakening' all those years ago, was just the beginning of my Inner Journey.
John Foster
In the early years I explored the writings of Jung and the psychology of my own inner experience, then became interested in philosophical thought and the eastern wisdom teachings of Lao Tzu and the Buddha. Later I became involved in practicing meditation, studying karmic astrology and tantra.
Years later, during a traumatic period in my life, what is commonly called 'spiritual awakening' occurred. It was a shift in my consciousness - as if I had being woken from a trance - and the John I had believed myself to be - my psychological self - lost solidity. I became aware of an 'awareness' in the 'background' - an unmoving stillness behind all thinking and feeling.
From this 'place' of 'awareness' I became a 'witness' to what was arising into my conscious awareness, and could now see how my ego had previously been controlling my thinking, feeling and behaviour.
With this new 'perspective' and the new ability to 'sense' the selfishness of ego - and do something about it - my life quickly went from conflict, stress, discontent and unhappiness, to inner peace and a joyous sense of being connected with the flow of life.
As the years have passed I have explored many spiritual and religious traditions and teachings, and continue to do so. And through ongoing deepening, further 'realisations' and experiences of a mystical nature, I have come to realise that the first experience of 'spiritual awakening' all those years ago, was just the beginning of my Inner Journey.
John Foster
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A dangerously attractive proposition for the ego.
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“There is a vastness beyond the farthest reaches of the mind."
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The full truth of the saying 'You Are What You Eat'.
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Contact
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All time related to everything provided through this website, in One-to-One sessions and in the Inner Journey Facebook Group is offered as a service.
If you wish to give back in some way, please help me to support TreeSisters with their remarkable work via my JustGiving page John's Fundraiser for TreeSisters.
When people ask what contribution is appropriate my response is simply this : whatever you decide, will be exactly right!
All profit from the sale of paintings in my Online Gallery is also donated to TreeSisters.
TreeSisters is a UK registered reforestation charity that has so far funded the planting of over 26 million trees. In addition they actively seek to support a shift away from consumerism to a restorative culture by providing resources that inspire personal and collective action.