Common sense might have you assume psychedelics are terrifying, and meditation is rather pointless. Rigorous science, on the other hand, is excavating another story- the emphasis being neither psychedelics nor meditation, but instead, the “important and transformative” question they irrevocably illuminate: Who the F, Are You? Below is one the most beautifully articulated 5-minute clips I’ve […]
For that matter, what is “progress”? Humanity’s been at this a while. We’re roughly ten thousand years beyond agricultural abundance, written language, the industrial revolution, and so on… but- where are we going? Surely there must be more to the Talking Heads’ prophecy? We can pose this from two angles: Where is the human species […]
Once upon a time in early adulthood, I was driving down the road with two friends during summer. It was a brief reprieve from full-throttle partying… a transitory moment between day festivities and night festivities. We were riding in silence, windows down, enjoying the golden hour breeze. My friend who was riding shotgun suddenly announced […]
Four years ago on New Years Day 2019, I wrote the following distress-email to a career-oriented therapist. As I re-read and reflect, the concerns feel foreign and distant. Dear Doctor January 1, 2019 Hi Dr Smith, After about 18 years of professional life, I have ascended into one of the best possible positions, and now […]
There you are, going about life. Just like any other day. If you’re fortunate – things are ok but something feels off – missing. You’re stuck with this never-ending yearning, an itchiness, that comes and goes. What now? What new goal can you find? What new pleasure can you obtain? What can you learn… who […]
If Sam Harris could leave one sentence behind for all humankind to lead their best lives, this would be it.
“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 […]
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 you do. If […]
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 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 experiences it. “We do […]
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. […]
This phrase – “spontaneous celibacy” – isn’t a “thing”. It’s an imperfect label that appeared when trying to describe my reality, to a someone. It’s the best I can conjure – bearing in mind the utter failure of “labels” to ever actually fulfill their obligation. “Spontaneous celibacy? Oh, you poor thing…” My imaginary mosaic of…
“YOU CAN’T EAT DONUTS UNTIL 1 HOUR AFTER COMMUNION!” My mom, to the nun: “F Off”. 7-year-old me: [watching… donut-in-hand — bewildered] I cherish this memory – the precise moment Catholic dogmatism collided spectacularly with my mom’s veteran pragmatism. There I was, just completed my “first communion” ceremony, in the church basement for coffee and donuts…
“You never stop getting angry about small things. In my case, it’s when my staff do something carelessly, then my voice goes high. But after a few minutes, it passes.” The Dalai Lama “Anger, best case: investigate.Anger, worst case: act it out.” I lost my shit 14 days ago. Was it justified? (is it ever?)…
Check the mail (e and non). Dryer vent cleaning. Car inspection. Delete that service (after you move your stuff). Read those articles. Read that note about reading those articles. Do that thing for that friend. Reply to that text (when you know what to say). Schedule that appointment. Put the appointment in the calendar (not…
“The moment we begin to see that there are infinitely many kinds of beautiful lives, we cease being captive to the myth of normalcy — the cultural tyranny that tells us there are a handful of valid ways to be human and demands of us to contort into these accepted forms of being” Maria Popova
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