Insights

A collection of philosophic and practical teachings given by Christopher Murphy

Public Lectures

A response to a student's question about energy and consciousness. This excerpt describes the mind as energy, and consciousness associating with boundaries. (Part of a lecture given on February 6, 2022)

https://www.3awakenings.com/

Association of Consciousness

The importance of cultivating an unwavering desire for the truth. (Part of a lecture given on January 30, 2022)

https://www.3awakenings.com/

An Overwhelming Desire For The Truth

In this talk, Christopher talks about the value of engaging in consistent spiritual practice and effort. (An excerpt from a lecture given on July 14th, 2024). 

https://www.3awakenings.com/

The Importance of Spiritual Practice

In this recording, Christopher Murphy addresses the common tendency to use spirituality as a means to dissociate from painful emotions and difficult life experiences—a process often termed spiritual bypassing. He contrasts this with a genuine approach to spirituality, which involves associating with and fully processing all aspects of life to achieve inner well-being, eudaimonia, and sophrosyne. Christopher emphasizes that true spiritual maturity comes from engaging with, rather than avoiding, the full spectrum of emotional experiences. (Part of a Q&A session given on January 12, 2025)

www.3awakenings.com

Disassociating or Associating with Life Experiences

In this lecture, Christopher explains that the key distinction between a novice and a master spiritual practitioner lies in the intensity, sincerity, and sense of urgency with which they apply themselves.

Sense of Urgency on the Spiritual Path

Christopher Murphy answers the question by a student "Can you speak about delusions and how to prevent the mind from morphing reality into something negative?" 

The mind is a shape-shifter, constantly forming identities, narratives, and perceptions. Spiritual practice often helps it take on more positive forms. Ultimately, all forms are delusions. True liberation means going beyond all shapes, identities, and desires into a formless, desireless awareness.

https://www.3awakenings.com/

Delusions and the Shape-Shifting Mind

Christopher Murphy responds to the question from a student: is disinterest equal to detachment or apatheia? Can overwhelming disinterest arise on its own on the course of the spiritual path?

Apatheia Versus Disinterest

Christopher emphasizes the importance of developing an inner gaze and self-awareness to counter the mind’s habitual movement from stillness to obsession and distraction. Instead of fixating on the contents of the mind, one should observe the mechanisms behind them, recognizing that enlightenment is a natural, unconditional state, while suffering is conditioned and self-created.

Undoing the Mind's Conditioning

Christopher Murphy describes how cultivating a curiosity and attentiveness to the mind in meditation may lead to a state of dharana, an effortless state of concentration.

https://www.3awakenings.com/

Taking an Interest in the Mind

Christopher Murphy discusses the process of stepping out of experience, to then witnessing the knower of the experience, to then stepping beyond association with knowledge. (Extract from a Q&A, March 23, 2025) 

https://www.3awakenings.com/

Photo attribution: 8th century Vishnu avatar Vamana taking one of three colossal steps at Virupaksha Shaivism temple, Pattadakal Hindu monuments Karnataka, Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Association with Thoughtless Awareness

Christopher Murphy describes the troublesome nature of the problem-making mind and how to practice radical acceptance. (Part of a lecture offered on November 8, 2020)

The Problem-Making Mind

A lecture on the 3 Awakenings of Deity, Energy and Awareness.

https://www.3awakenings.com/

3 Awakenings

Philosophy is the pathless path; our inborn search for Truth. It is the hope of Christopher Murphy that through his teaching endeavors he can remind others of this innate search for Truth and empower them to see the Eternal with their own eyes.

thethreeawakenings@gmail.com

The Problem-Making Mind

Three Awakenings