“Took me exactly 53 trips around the sun to realize that right now I’m as young as I’ll ever be, and as old as I’ve ever been, here in the honeyhole between already and not yet.” Matthew McConaughey When’s the last time you stopped in your tracks, completely absorbed with what was going on in […]
Spirituality for Skeptics The word “spirituality” is loaded. Typically it suggests religion, which misses the mark. While some religions can be spiritual, spirituality is NOT: religion, blind faith, belief in magic, mysticism, rules, or woo woo. Spirituality, in short, is embarking upon the never-ending journey to understand who you are and why you do everything […]
The most incredible joy- a complete and utter absence of hunger or desire, a total ease which needs no improvement whatsoever, can be discovered within. When one glimpses this, even only briefly, even only once, all subsequent behaviors and drives can be considered in relation. It becomes apparent, despite even the most Herculean skepticism, all […]
“The false needs time and what needs time is false. If you need time to achieve something, it must be false. You need not wait to be what you are. You must not allow your mind to go out of yourself in search.”– Nisargadatta Maharaj What is home? I don’t want to die tomorrow. But […]
My life has unquestionably changed over two years, leaving me simultaneously comforted and puzzled. Familiar desires, goals, and sense of identity, have melted away. While trying to explain this shift, I found Buddhism. I don’t mean becoming a Buddhist – I mean – discovering my own epiphanies apparently already laid-out in Buddhist precepts. “How bizarre.” […]
One of life’s greatest addictions is flight from boredom, in myriad ways, as opposed to embracing it. Sitting with it. Being with nothing. Inviting boredom as a dear friend, feeling its space, isn’t only rejuvenating but arguably THE greatest privilege. The pearl of all effort. That, is all.
And so Castles Made of Sand Fall in The Sea Eventually I’ve heard Jimi’s lyric countless times over many years. Today is the day I truly heard it, unlike any time in the past. As one commenter notes: “This is the inevitability of death, but also the beauty and fragility of life represented by a […]
I (whoever that is) accept there is no free will, in that everything that appears is a matter of prior conditioning and response to the environment, and innumerable physiological and psychological processes – all happening in the dark. Let’s say from the perspective of awareness, a person is observing in a nonattached manner, and some […]
Reality Is Not ‘True’ Reality as you perceive it, can never be reality itself. It might be “close”, in the sense that it feels consistent with other people’s versions, but at BEST, it is nevertheless distorted, fragmented, fabricated, colored with meaning and stories, and obscured, by subconscious processes, before us – as consciousness – ever […]
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comesas an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,who violently sweep your houseempty of its furniture,still, treat each guest honorably.He may be clearing you outfor some new […]
I find it helpful rather than to say, there is no self, to understand my existence as consciousness itself, enmeshed WITHIN a biological system, as opposed to OWNING one, with complete visibility and control. The latter being empirically untrue – further falsified by science. The mind and body seem like allies and collaborators, not our […]
We are a process enmeshed within regions or modules in the brain. We do not choose what arises, or, which module “speaks up”. That decision is concealed – a decision we can never see or control. Instead, we “experience” the process of responding to what arises. We are the feeling-and-reasoning process itself. Consciousness. Science suggests […]
My favorite example of one human being discovering peace. What Merle Antoinette Roberson, (Gangaji) describes here, I had tasted myself, months prior. Seeing this experience in another person changed me. After listening, I vividly remember walking to work that morning in an altered reality, which has only deepened with time. Her and I traveled different paths, […]
20 unfinished essays – some will be published – others will never escape the Darwinian gravity of “draft”. 50 books I’d love to read, which will invariably lead to 100 more. Podcasts that need a second listen. Places I want to travel. Photos I need to edit. People I need to have long conversations with. […]
From Luke: I have been following along your posts and essays for the last few weeks and they have become a wonderful daily read in my own journey of self-discovery (still catching up on your older posts). I believe what you have created is incredibly helpful and important. I instantly connected with your writing style, […]
This will change your life. Whoever steps away from this without grasping that – I have failed you. But, I hope I budge some part of you, even an inch. Whether it’s this, a Kandinsky painting, a time of crisis, a walk in nature, a monastery in Tibet, or staring into your oatmeal tomorrow morning, […]
You’re driving to a party in your car. You pull up to the spot – an attendant greets you warmly: “Name? … Ah, Yes! You’re VIP. We’ll valet your car for you. If you follow me we can avoid this long line. Here’s a bottle of water. And please, let me take your coat. Your […]
A horse suddenly came galloping quickly down the road. It seemed as though the man had somewhere important to go. Another man, who was standing alongside the road, shouted, “Where are you going?” and the man on the horse replied, “I don’t know! Ask the horse!” A poem, featured in Thich Nhat Hanh’s book about […]
Mindfulness “The purpose of mindfulness is to TRULY wake up, from the dream you call life. Not merely lower your blood pressure within that dream. It’s about confronting some of the deepest questions, for instance, how can we be truly happy, when all we experience, truly fades, and disappears? When every desire and goal reveals […]
I keep a list of coincidences in my phone. A few times per year I toss things in. I keep the bar high – there should be a real, “no f’ing way” aspect to whatever lives there. Otherwise, it doesn’t belong. One just happened. I’ll share. November 3, 2022 A housekeeper visits my place monthly. […]
For reasons shared previously, I don’t enjoy writing about spirituality using the word “spirituality”. It’s fraught with misunderstanding… hocus pocus and religion. But there is something simple and legitimate at its core – I see it as the following: Spirituality, in short, is embarking upon the never-ending journey to understand who you are and why […]
Spirituality for Skeptics The word “spirituality” is loaded. Typically it suggests religion, which misses the mark. While some religions can be spiritual, spirituality is NOT: religion, blind faith, belief in magic, mysticism, rules, or woo woo. Spirituality, in short, is embarking upon the never-ending journey to understand who you are and why you do everything […]
The same thing. Wait — no. Contrast. Feel it? Does merely asking this cast irrevocable doubt upon our special and unspoken harmony? Best proceed, the bell now rung. Do you want what I cannot offer? Biding for the day I can? Or, do you want what I want? Which is, apparently, very little, beyond our […]
Love is a feeling, routinely devastated under the weight of unbearable expectations. Sex is allure of primal appetite that refuses to be satisfied. What an absurd game we’re invited to play… More apt to say it plays us. The bleachers are quite lovely.
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