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some thoughts


Stijn Smeets
Jan 163 min read
empowering surrender
What if you truly surrendered and committed to the truth that longs to reveal itself through your body?
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Stijn Smeets
Jan 141 min read
are you a spiritual materialist?
The Tibetan Buddhist tradition uses the metaphor of the three Lords to evaluate if you are slipping into spiritual materialism : Lord of...
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Stijn Smeets
Jan 143 min read
spiritual striptease
It is a petition to be without identity, to be nothing and nobody (or everything and everybody, if you prefer). It is a suspension of societ
68 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Jan 63 min read
is god a dominatrix?
Holding onto the concept of God as a benevolent father or mother will leave us bewildered and tossed about in the ocean of confusion, as our
104 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Nov 1, 20243 min read
feminist men: emancipated, not castrated
"Most men are unlikely to respond to what they may hear as a feminist call for guilt, contrition, submission and/or disempowerment, yet...
72 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Oct 26, 20244 min read
are you meditating or dissociating?
Meditation (and mindfulness-related processes) and dissociation can overlap. Both can help us become more present, still, grounded in the mo
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Stijn Smeets
Oct 24, 20243 min read
what's guilt but a second-hand emotion?
Feeling guilty means believing you've done something wrong and feeling bad about it. It can serve as a useful signal—a prompt to care...
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Stijn Smeets
Oct 23, 20241 min read
my prayer begins in the shadow
my prayer begins in the shadow most intimate lover of my pain destitute and abandoned I lift my eyes in gratitude broken and lost...
35 views1 comment


Stijn Smeets
Oct 22, 20243 min read
consciously blaming another is a contradiction: when you are conscious, there is no other.
Comment from a reader on this blog post ( existential kink: undoing ourselves with radically owned honesty ): “ How beautiful, and...
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Stijn Smeets
Oct 21, 20243 min read
pretending to be spiritual is worse than being ordinary
Comment from a reader on this blog post ( existential kink: undoing ourselves with radically owned honesty ): “I feel that a lot of zen...
69 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Oct 20, 20242 min read
forgiving means acknowledging my confusion
“What can be given to me is of no interest. I’m only interested in what no one can give me or take away from me. Everything else is...
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Stijn Smeets
Oct 12, 20242 min read
silent meditation is an erotic encounter with the self
“Eroticism is assenting to life up to the point of death” - Georges Bataille The erotic is a place where extremes touch. It is where...
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Stijn Smeets
Oct 6, 20244 min read
blissful ignorance: without political awareness spirituality is stultifying
"A spiritual practice is liberating when it deconstructs the external and internalized power structures that shape how we speak, act,...
64 views1 comment


Stijn Smeets
Oct 6, 20244 min read
existential kink: undoing ourselves with radically owned honesty
"Radically owned honesty means disclosing yourself completely while taking full responsibility for your experience." drawing by Kerry...
220 views0 comments

Stijn Smeets
Oct 3, 20244 min read
caring by not taking care
"Presence is care. To be witnessed in the fullness of your humanity is being cared for." Caring for each other creates community,...
143 views1 comment


Stijn Smeets
Oct 1, 20243 min read
stop colonising yourself
“Not pushing forward, finally going nowhere.” Most of us are, in some way, preoccupied with the “project” of our lives: becoming the best...
200 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Sep 30, 20244 min read
feeling violated means i reversed things
"If something bothers me, it means I reversed things. The problem is not out there. The problem is here." – Eric Baret In response to my...
130 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Sep 30, 20243 min read
humility as self-love
"Humility is the willingness to become undone. It’s about being available—without projecting my truth, consolidating my identity, or...
54 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Sep 26, 20242 min read
sexual ecstasy is a prayer
Sexuality is often seen as an act of pleasure, intimacy, stress relief, or bonding. But at its core, it can serve as a powerful engine...
92 views0 comments


Stijn Smeets
Sep 24, 20244 min read
undone by each other: friendship as a practice of liberation
“Let's face it. We're undone by each other. And if we're not, we're missing something.” Judith Butler At around 18, I found myself,...
225 views0 comments
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