A friend recently asked if I ever prayed for anything. My response was yes, but not in the conventional way. I don’t pray for intervention in the world, but for intervention in my mind, for that’s where I most need help. We usually think of prayer as an appeal to some higher power. We might […]
Continue readingCategory: Meditation
Not Resisting Resistance
The building where I used to run a meditation group was on the same street as a fire station. One could almost guarantee that sometime during the meditation a fire engine would come rushing past, sirens wailing. Not surprisingly, people would afterwards complain. “How could I meditate with that noise?” How often have we felt […]
Continue readingEffortless Meditation
You may be surprised to hear that meditation should be effortless, that no striving or concentration is needed. I know I was. When I first became interested in meditation, back in the mid-sixties, I was repeatedly told that it took great mental discipline and many years of practice. Indian teachers had likened the mind to […]
Continue readingThe Paradox of Free Will
One of my earliest ventures into philosophy, back in high school, concerned the question of “free will versus determinism.” If the world unfolds according to fixed laws, then everything that happens is determined by events that have gone before. Since our brains are part of this world, their state is also determined by preceding events. […]
Continue readingThe Self – video
New cool video created by deaddrum1, sampling audio by Peter Russell on the Self. with added music and images.
Continue readingTwo New Videos
Here are a couple of talks from my April 2011 workshop at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Exploring the Mystery of Consciousness. I’ve turned them into videos with gentle images of water. Buddha, Dukkha, and The Journey to Now This looks at the parallels between Buddha’s spiritual journey and our own. I describe how the […]
Continue readingThe Easiest of Times; The Hardest of Times
Buddha had it easy. He was not distracted by television, the internet, news of disasters in foreign lands, or the latest shenanigans of stars and politicians. He did not need to return phone calls, respond to the emails piling up in his inbox, or catch up with the latest tweets and Facebook postings. He did […]
Continue readingHow do I pray?
Someone recently asked: How do I pray? I answered: I pray not for divine intervention in the world around, but for divine intervention in my mind, for therein lies the root of my discontent. We usually think of prayer as an appeal to God, or some other spiritual entity, to change the world in some […]
Continue readingThere’s No Such Thing as Ego
I don’t have an ego. And nor do you. That doesn’t mean you and I don’t get caught up in egocentric thinking and behavior, but that we are mistaken in thinking of the ego as some separate individual self. some “thing” in the mind. When I observe my own mind, I notice there is an […]
Continue readingFrom Hafiz:
It happens all the time in heaven, And some day It will begin to happen Again on earth— The men and women . . . . Who give each other Light, Often will get down on their knees And. . .with tears in their eyes, Will sincerely speak, saying, “My dear, How can I be […]
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