Welcome

by L. Ron Gardner

Welcome to Electrical Spirituality, the website of spiritual teacher/mystic-philosopher L. Ron Gardner.  I named my website Electrical Spirituality because the spiritual Dharma I teach and write about is electrical in every way—radical and demystifying and correlated with Ohm’s Law. And because I’m an electrical guy (Sun conjunct Uranus in my natal chart), when I turn my attention to subjects other than spirituality--politics, culture, and health, et al.--my radical (gone-to-the-root) and sometimes revolutionary viewpoints can best be described as electrical. To learn more about me and this website, click on “About” on the menu bar.

Directly below this Welcome piece are my Current Posts. At the top of the right column are my books, which you can learn about and read samples writings from by placing the cursor on the titles under “Books” on the menu bar. Below my books are my Recent Posts (which, when no longer “recent,” can be accessed in “Archives”).

Feel free to comment on anything on this site, but please keep your comments civil and to the point. Site-readers are welcome to join my Facebook Group -- Meditation-Consciousness-Spirituality, which provides ongoing dialogue on spiritual matters.… Read the full article

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Why “Effortlessness” Alone Is An Incomplete Meditation Practice

by L. Ron Gardner


[This is an excerpt from my book Radical Dzogchen: The Direct Way to En-Light-enment, which is available in Kindle and paperback at Amazon and from other book sellers.]

But Dzogchen is about the Great Perfection, which is already the case prior to any attempt to attain Union. Hence, true Dzogchen practice is simply effortlessness.

There has never been, and never will be, a yogi who practiced/practices just “effortlessness” as the means to Enlightenment. The greatest Realizers, including Buddha, Ramana Maharshi, and Milarepa, all had to practice forms of conscious focusing in addition to utter letting go. And even utter letting go doesn’t amount to effortlessness, because one has to exert an effort to remain alert in order to remind oneself to resume “declutching” as soon as one notices oneself grasping. Prior to full Enlightenment, meaning permanent union with Light-Energy, or Spirit, conscious effortlessness for protracted periods of time is not possible.

But in Tilopa’s Song of Mahamudra, he “sings” that “without making an effort, but remaining loose and natural, one can break the yoke, thus gaining liberation.”… Read the full article

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The Four Worlds in Kabbalah

January 21, 2026
[This is an excerpt from my recently published book, Nonduality and Mind-Only through the Prism of Reality, which is available in Kindle and paperback at Amazon and from other book sellers.]


The Four Worlds are grossly misunderstood in conventional Kabbalah, which often, egregiously, conflates them with the four elements (fire, earth, air, and water). In fact, they have nothing to do with the elements but are the four primary dimensions of existence stemming from the Absolute, Ain Sof Aur. Whereas the Tree of Life pertains to our solar system, the Four Worlds are universal and describe the dimensional descent of Ain Sof Aur into the world of material forms.


The Four Worlds are commonly described as emanations, but from my perspective, as soon as a “World,” or dimension, enters space and time, it is, by definition, created and thus subject to destruction. Hence, strictly speaking, not all of the Four Worlds are emanations.


How about Adam Kadmon, the Original, or Primal, Man, often depicted as the fifth world in Kabbalistic metaphysics?


Adam Kadmon is not an emanated or created dimension, or “world,” hence he should not be considered the fifth world.
… Read the full article

The Prismatic Paradigm, Part 1

December 27, 2025
[This is an excerpt from my recently published book, Nonduality and Mind-Only through the Prism of Reality, which is available in Kindle and paperback at Amazon and from other booksellers.]

An Integral Mind/Manifestation Consideration

In our talks, we’ve considered unmanifest Mind (or God) in relation to manifest existence in the contexts of the Lankavatara Sutra, Huang Po’s Zen, Kashmir Shaivism, Kabbalah, and Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Now, I’ll attempt an integral Mind/manifestation consideration that combines parts of our previous discussions while adding a few new wrinkles. First, a confession: Because I’m a philosophical generalist involved in multiple projects, I have not, at this time, fully developed my Prismatic Paradigm. I consider it a work in progress that I will upgrade over time, and if at some point I’m satisfied with a “finished product,” I’ll publish it. And if I never manage to complete an upgrade, others are welcome to attempt one.


Why publish it now (as it’s presented in our talks) when it’s still in an embryonic stage?

Given that I’m probably the only living mystic-philosopher who could think up such a theosophical model (which I think many will appreciate, even if it’s raw), I’m moved to do so now because I’m 73, and men in my family line don’t live particularly long.
… Read the full article

Top-Down Monistic Idealism/Bottom-Up Dualistic Realism

December 4, 2025
[This is an excerpt from my recently published book, Nonduality and Mind-Only through the Prism of Reality, which is available in Kindle and paperback at Amazon and from other book sellers.]

Okay, this is the last of our discussions on nonduality and Mind-Only metaphysics, so you should summarize your view and how it differs from others.


My view, in a nutshell, can be classified as “top-down monistic idealism/bottom-up dualistic realism.” I contend that universal, timeless, spaceless Mind (or Consciousness), the Real, has become everything, the totality of space-time existents, which all are (phenomenally) real, because nothing unreal can come from the Real. In other words, whatever exists is real, but the ontological status of existents differs and must be hierarchically distinguished.


In accordance with Kashmir Shaivism (KS), I hold that once Siva (Mind, or Consciousness), via its inseparable Shakti, rolls out the universe of phenomenal existents, then duality—separate space-time entities and consequent subject-object relations—ensues, and this manifest, dualistic reality is real, not an illusion.
… Read the full article

Bernardo Kastrup’s Analytic Idealism, Part 2

November 26, 2025
[This is an excerpt from my recently published book, Nonduality and Mind-Only through the Prism of Reality, which is available in Kindle and paperback at Amazon and from other book sellers.]

Kastrup, laughably, says that the world’s “measurable physical properties do not exist before being observed” and that “observation boils down to perceived experience.”


Yep, a total joke. If the tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it fall, it still makes a sound. If you wake up in the middle of the night and, still half-asleep, unconsciously stumble into the wall (which you neither observed nor perceived) and crack your head open, that is proof the wall exists exclusive of your consciousness.


Where does Kastrup go wrong?


In numerous places—too many for us to consider them all in our brief analysis of his work—but in this case, where he errs is by not comprehending that existence (physical reality) has primacy over consciousness in Maya (measured-out phenomenal reality). Hence, manifest existence exists prior to, and independent of, observers. When someone can go to Vegas and, through their mind-power, control the roll of the dice, I’ll reconsider my POV.
… Read the full article

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