The Essence Podcast: Conversations with Ganesh
The deepest secrets of life in audio format: In the following podcast episodes you will learn how The Essence works in conversations with Ganeshyogi Joachim Bormann. You will be led deeper and deeper into the most fundamental themes of your existence. What is the difference between religion and spirituality? How are psychology, philosophy and spirituality connected? Is meditation and spiritual practice really necessary? Whether topics like Satsang, Awakening, Kundalini Yoga, Tantra or Enlightenment; from Advaita-Vedanta to Zazen. Just sit back, listen and experience what happens!
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Anyone who has ever attended an exciting seminar, retreat or spiritual workshop will be familiar with this phenomenon: During the break times, small groups form outside the actual event, in which interesting “side conversations” take place.
Wer schon mal an einem spannenden Seminar, einem Retreat oder einem spirituellen Workshop teilgenommen hat, dem wird dieses Phänomen bekannt sein: In den Pausenzeiten entstehen außerhalb der eigentlichen Veranstaltung kleine Gruppen, in denen interessante „Nebengespräche“ stattfinden. It can also happen that the instructors themselves are involved in such side conversations. Those present then take the opportunity to ask questions on certain topics or simply to be attentive. There is an atmosphere of extraordinary intensity, combined with a greatly heightened awareness. In such a transformative field – depending on the maturity level of the listener – a kind of transference of consciousness can occur. Suddenly, connections become apparent to the listener that would never have opened up to him or her in the usual way. In India, people are well aware of the potential inherent in this phenomenon. It is quite natural for the people there and is called Satsang. After there was increasing feedback during my event, such as: “It’s a pity that others couldn’t experience this now.” or: “It’s a pity that we didn’t record this.”, the idea arose to simply recreate corresponding events virtually. The podcast “Conversations with Ganesh” was born.
Episode 1: What is The Essence?
Part 1: Personality development redefined
“Psychology without spirituality is incomplete and very limited in its results”. This provocative statement introduces the first episode of the podcast series “Conversations with Ganesh”. If you want to seriously develop yourself, you have to leave the usual, conventional paths and open up to a new perspective: His own!
The introduction to a new kind of spiritual psychology.
Episode 2: What is The Essence?
Part 2: The fundamental misconception about your identity
We are in a deep error about our own identity. We think we are this person or that person. But we are not. All our personal problems are direct consequences of this fundamental misperception. The Essence is a modern path of consciousness development, of self-knowledge. A yoga of liberation.
Episode 3: What is The Essence?
Part 3: Who am I?
Man is a multi-dimensional being, incredibly complex, with unlimited potential – and he loves simple explanations. What does self-knowledge mean? What is the meaning of life? What is enlightenment? Who am I? Conversations with Ganesh provides the answers.
Episode 4: What is The Essence?
Part 4: What is spirituality?
What is spirituality? When it comes to this subject, our ideas are often very adventurous. The media inundate us with reports about meditation and self-realisation, about development of consciousness, satori, samadhi, enlightenment, self-realisation. Why? Because we feel a deep longing within us. We can deny it, repress it or suppress it. Once it has taken hold of us, there is no escape.
Episode 5: Religion and spirituality
Religion and spirituality are two completely different things. You can be religious without being spiritual and you can be spiritual without being religious. So what does religion mean, what does spirituality mean, are there similarities and how are the two related?
Episode 6: The Basic Forms of Spirituality – Part 1
Nature Mysticism – Episode 1
This podcast is a prelude to a series of further conversations that will demonstrate what spirituality really is and in what forms it manifests. Spirituality is not a question of faith or religious ideas. It is the living expression of our natural, human potential, in which our ordinary, limited ideas are overcome.
Episode 7: The Basic Forms of Spirituality – Part 1
Nature Mysticism – Episode 2
The third eye is a concept that we encounter in the writings of yoga and in other esoteric representations. This third eye or the so-called Anja Chakra is a subtle energy centre. An open third eye is the gateway to nature mysticism, the realm of the shamans and the yogis. This is where paranormal abilities usually appear.
Episode 8: The Basic Forms of Spirituality – Part 2
Subtle Mysticism – Episode 1
The subtle mysticism describes the entry into another clearly higher level of development, the level of the seventh chakra, the so-called Sahasrara Chakra. The forms of subtle enlightenment experiences that occur here are called Sarvikalpa Samadhi(s). Near-death experiences, for example, are typical phenomena of this level.
Episode 9: The Basic Forms of Spirituality – Part 2
Subtle Mysticism – Episode 2
Subtle consciousness – or superconsciousness – normally eludes our conscious access. If breakthroughs do occur, however, these insights are very spectacular and can change our lives profoundly. But there are also spiritually very developed people who are firmly anchored in this consciousness.
Episode 10: The Basic Forms of Spirituality – Part 3
Formless mysticism
Meditation involves three things: a meditator, meditation and an object to meditate on. In the scriptures one can read that through meditation the meditator and the object become one. But what if the object is the radical ground of being, beyond the subtlest, that precedes all creation? There is no real object here. So one cannot speak of meditation and the meditator would end up dissolving into the ground of being. Right?
Episode 11: The Basic Forms of Spirituality – Part 4
Non-dual mysticism
Although most spiritual traditions understand Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the formless extinction, as the actual awakening, there are also schools, such as Mahayana Buddhism or Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism, which point out that even the pure witness consciousness that remains afterwards still represents a final duality …
Episode 12: The Basic Forms of Spirituality – Part 5
Integral spirituality
Genuine spirituality occurs in various forms that differ significantly in their goals, orientations and practices. Approaches to unite these different forms into one method were already found in Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga and in the works of Ken Wilber. But now it was a question of putting all this into a simple, easy-to-understand form. Suddenly I had the solution – the idea for The Essence was born.
Episode 13: Meditation alone is not enough – Part 1
Whether it is vipassasna, zazen, transcendental meditation, mantra or yoga meditation – whatever these forms of meditation are called. Those who believe that these are methods that work simply by practising them are mistaken. Here is an explanation why.
Episode 14: Meditation alone is not enough – Part 2
Meditation – the ability to focus concentration on an object – can, if done regularly and correctly, lead to profound personal developments. It can teach us things about ourselves and the world that will never be revealed to us by other means. But there are also practices that go far beyond meditation and that can open doors to truly unimagined dimensions.
Episode 15: What is Self-Realisation?
Self-realisation is a term we use in everyday language without knowing what it even means. Every human being, every plant, every animal, every mineral – the entire universe itself – is the expression of a single underlying intelligence. Self-realisation means recognising our essential identity with this intelligence and ceasing to resist its action.
Episode 16: Why we cannot be happy without spirituality
The usual forms of self-awareness and personality work are incomplete and limited in their results if they do not include spirituality – in the sense used here. Human development takes place on different levels. If one of these levels is not taken into account, truly profound changes are excluded from the outset. Here is an explanation why.