The following papers were produced as a starting point for study group discussions. They are mostly based around dialogues with Francis Lucille. For those who are new to Francis’s teaching some prior study is recommended, such as The Perfume of Silence or these YouTube videos of his core teachings. The most recent papers are at the top.
| 20251018 Ethics, Judgement and Responsibility | Does the concept of ‘right action’ make sense in relation to non-duality? How to define ethical behaviour. Is there personal responsibility? |
| 20250830 Realms of Experience, Interactions and Patterns | Exploring the path of the mathematician and its relationship with the path of the physicist. |
| 20250809 What is Meditation in the Direct Path | How to meditate. Rules for meditation. Is it wrong to fall asleep while meditating? |
| 20250705 Personality | What is personality? Does personality change after recognition of our true nature? The role of yoga in the dissolution of patterns that come from ignorance. |
| 20250531 Close Relationships, Love and Freedom | What are the requirements for a successful relationship? Can a close relationship with someone who has no interest in non-duality work? |
| 20250419 The Art of the Deal | Can we follow the Direct Path while engaging in a ‘non-spiritual’ occupation? Expressing love, truth and beauty in our interactions in the world. |
| 20250329 The Timeless Gap Between Perceptions | Discovering the timelessness of our true nature. How understanding happens. The last veil. |
| 20250301 From Higher Reasoning to Understanding | What do we mean by ‘understanding’? How to arrive at true understanding? What is higher reasoning? |
| 20250125 Plan A and Plan B | Exploring two approaches to understanding non-duality – starting from reality or starting from consciousness. |
| 20241228 Love and Devotion | What is love? How can we experience universal, unconditional love? Is the path of bhakti superior to the path of jnana? |
| 20241123 Consciousness, Sentience and AI | What is the difference between consciousness and sentience? Is a universe without consciousness possible? Could AIs become conscious? |
| 20241005 Death and Reincarnation | Exploring the possibilities of life after death and reincarnation. How to overcome the fear of death. |
| 20240907 The Path of Devotion | Is there a role for devotion on the Direct Path? Devotion to what? The convergence of the paths of devotion and knowledge. |
| 20240810 Discovering Our Borderlessness Through Yoga | What is the purpose of yoga in the spiritual path? Simple exercises to explore our borderlessness. |
| 20240713 Conflict and Violence in the World | How should we address conflict and problems in the world? Compassion and pseudo-compassion. Taking a global view. |
| 20240615 Living in the Now | What does it mean to ‘live in the now’? Is daydreaming a problem? Do we need to give up planning? |
| 20240518 Forgetting and Remembering | Is being lost in thought a form of ignorance? Forgetting and projecting. Does ignorance ever come to an end? |
| 20240427 Negative Emotions, Trauma and Non-dual Psychotherapy | ‘Me-feelings’ and ‘me-beliefs’. Welcoming negative emotions. Use of non-dual psychotherapy to help with trauma. |
| 20240330 The Natural State | The experience of consciousness without objects is just the beginning of the path. It leads naturally to sahaja, the natural state of peace in everyday life. |
| 20240217 Dealing with Conflict | Understanding and resolving conflict in our relationships in the world, and with other truth-seekers. Relationship with a teacher. Spiritual ego. |
| 20240106 Anandamayakosha | The veil of bliss. Why do we keep seeking happiness in phenomenal experience? Nobody becomes enlightened. |
| 20231125 Decisions | If we, as separate body-minds, don’t choose our thoughts, how are our decisions made? How can decisions be ‘personal’ if there are no persons? |
| 20231021 From Witness to Witnessing | Witnessing is not a practice. It is automatic and effortless. Dissolution of the witness in the understanding ‘I am not somebody’. |
| 20230722 Flowing with the Flow | How to flow with the flow. Guilt and responsibility. Impersonal action in line with the Tao. |
| 20230624 Memory | Exploring the connection between memory and ignorance. Functional and psychological memory. Dealing with past trauma. |
| 20230513 Realigning the Body-Mind | Does realignment happen automatically or is there something we need to do? Emotions as a starting-point for enquiry. |
| 20230416 Welcoming Thoughts and Feelings | What can we do if we forget what we are? Facing existential fear. Spiritual bypassing and the shadow. |
| 20230318 Two Conversations on Understanding | What do we mean by understanding? Does AI understand the answers it gives us? The difference between mind and consciousness. |
| 20230218 The Pearls of Perception | The flow of perceptions is discontinuous. But there is an invisible thread of reality that connects all things. |
| 20230121 The Joyful, Never-ending Path of Not-Knowing | Exploring the steps on the path of not-knowing. Nondualism vs. non-duality. Practice doesn’t end at enlightenment. |
| 20221217 Cut the Fluff | A detailed look at how mind, body and world can become aligned with our understanding. |
| 20221126 After the Glimpse | Debunking common myths about enlightenment. Using everyday life as help on the path to establishment. |
| 20221029 Science and belief | An approach to non-duality through science and mathematics. Mind can never access the ultimate reality, but we can find it in silence. |
| 20220903 Is There Anything We Can Do | The hot seat at the Gateless Gate to the Absolute. How to investigate and how to meditate. |
| 20220806 Follow Your Enthusiasm | The role of enthusiasm in the Direct Path. How to make the best use of our time. |
| 20220618 Listening | Listening to the totality of our experience. Listening to the body. The role of listening in teaching and understanding. |
| 20220604 Effortless Effort | Psychological and physical effort. Love of truth is the only prerequisite for the Direct Path. Ignorance requires effort. |
| 20220514 A Thorn to Remove a Thorn | Understanding and overcoming the limitations of language. Use of analogies, metaphors and models. |
| 20220416 Being Established in Peace | Steps on the spiritual path. How our understanding becomes stabilised. |
| 20220326 Silence | What is spiritual silence? Is sitting in silence necessary on the Direct Path? |
| 20220226 Surrender | What is surrender in the Direct Path? Is it something we can make happen? What triggers surrender? |
| 20220129 Non-duality and Forgiveness | Does forgiveness have a role in the Direct Path? How to deal with unkindness and betrayal. |
| 20220115 Chasing States of Mind | Everything that comes and goes is just a state of body or mind. True happiness is found only in that which is permanent. |
| 20211211 The Certainty of Uncertainty | Being certain that you can never be certain is enough. |
| 20211113 Our Real Body is the World | Distinguishing between the physical body and our direct experience of the body. The role of yoga meditations. |
| 20211023 What is Meditation | Different types of meditation. How to meditate. Meditation as an integral part of daily life. |
| 20211002 The Roots of Ignorance | Investigating the fear of death and the sense of lack. |
| 20210904 The Game of Ignorance | Why is there evil? No one is guilty. Ignorance is a choice made by awareness. |
| 20210717 Closing the Circle | Exploring the reality of ourselves and the universe. The intuition that there is only one reality. |
| 20210609 Do We Have Freedom | Freedom ‘from’ and freedom ‘to’. The body-mind has no freedom to choose. |
| 20210519 The Role of Yoga Meditations | Yoga meditations are designed for investigating the sense of separation in the body, not for getting rid of uncomfortable feelings. |
| 20210428 Does Time Really Exist | Investigating the possibility that time is an illusion and the past is not set in stone. |
| 20210317 The Teacher Within | Most of us need the help of an external teacher, but the real teacher is the teacher within. |
| 20210224 Exploring Idealism and Realism | Non-duality doesn’t imply idealism. Realism doesn’t imply materialism. |
| 20210203 What is Mind | Mind as a flow of thoughts, sensations, perceptions, and mind as a bio-computer. Artificial Intelligence. |
| 20210113 Experiments | The path of the physicist. Experiments to test whether awareness is universal. |
| 20201209 Being Open to the Openness | Openness to thoughts, sensations and perceptions. Being free from all beliefs. |
| 20201118 The Path of Love | Love is love of the objectless by the objectless. |
| 20201028 Glimpses of Truth | Partial and liberating glimpses. The role of investigation and experiments. |
| 20201007 Residues of Ignorance | Dissolving the sense of ‘me’ in the body. Downgrading feelings to bodily sensations. |
| 20200916 Post-enlightenment Sadhana | What does it encompass at the level of the mind and the level of the body? What is the energy body? |
| 20200819 There is Only One Reality | Exploring the universality of consciousness and reality. |
| 20200722 Ethics Conditioning and Responsibility | The role of ethics. Do we need to get rid of our conditioning? Who or what is responsible for what happens? |
| 20200701 Exploring the Sense of Otherness | From nothingness to everythingness. Why don’t I know other people’s thoughts? |
| 20200610 Exploring the Sense of Me | The process of deepening our understanding. The sense of me is not me. |