My praxis begins with a simple but often overlooked question…

How do I understand reality itself?

A philosophical and spiritual tension exists within this inquiry. Before we can undergo authentic personal transformation, before we explore the relational, ethical, and moral questions that arise within human experience, something more fundamental deserves our attention.

Opening this inquiry begins to clarify our orientation to life. It shapes how we interpret experience, how we respond emotionally, and how we relate both intra-personally and inter-personally.

If reality is understood as a collection of separate individuals competing for advantage or survival, life often organizes around patterns of aggression, manipulation, and various forms of control. If reality is understood as a relational field in which beings participate, inspire, and influence one another, life takes on a different organizing principle, one rooted in respect, trust, and freedom.

From this perspective, spiritually infused living and ethics do not begin with fixed rules. It begins with inquiry and develops into a more complex relational understanding. Each of us, consciously or not, forms a sense of what reality is and how all beings exist within it. Some of us take this ontological development seriously and wrestle with the tensions between our personal understanding and those of family, community, culture, and global society. Some include a spiritual or supernatural dimension in this exploration.

In this way, our sense of self is not isolated. Our sense of Self is relational.

Modern Western thought has often favored an image of the individual as autonomous, a "Self" operating within an external world of objects and other people. Within this framework, relationships are interactions between separate individuals, each developing mental and physical capacities to influence, and at times control, their environment and the beings within it.

When these strategies fail, suffering often follows. In response, both psychological and spiritual traditions have developed methods which attempt to alleviate that suffering.

Other philosophical and contemplative traditions begin from a different place. Rather than imagining persons as isolated beings operating upon an inert world, relational ontologies describe existence as participatory. Beings arise interdependently within a complex and ever-changing field of awareness, meaning, and influence.

My praxis aligns with ancient mystical and contemporary animist perspectives that articulate this understanding of reality, not as a collection of separate objects, but as a field of inter-relational beings.

Within these traditions, humans, landscapes, animals, and unseen forces participate in mutual influence. Taoist philosophy describes a dynamic interplay of complementary forces rather than independent entities. Buddhist traditions question the solidity of separate identity, emphasizing interdependence as a fundamental condition of existence.

Although these traditions differ in language and metaphysical emphasis, they converge on a shared insight:

Separation is not primary.
Interdependence is.

When we explore transformation or transcendence, it can be helpful to pause and consider how we already participate in this interdependent field and why recognizing that participation can feel challenging and, at times, painful.

Ontology is not only a philosophical exercise. It can be explored through contemplative awareness practices such as breath-work, somatic awareness, mindfulness, sensory attunement, and meditation. For some, this exploration may also include modalities such as energy work or plant medicines, which can open perceptual and neurological pathways that shift how reality is experienced.

In my praxis, I support individuals through both preparation and integration when engaging these forms of exploration.

Yet even with these tools available, the question remains:

What understanding of reality am I living from?

And how has that understanding shaped the way I relate to myself, to others, and to the living world around me?