What a peculiar prison sentence is this thing we call life. Each of us appears to have been born into captivity, a death sentence hanging over us, only the actual date of our 'execution' unknown. We are shackled to these bodies - bodies that are not of our choosing (otherwise, I'd have chosen the Brad [...]

At dinner the other night came a conversation about the importance of experiencing all that life has to offer before, you know, it's too late. The basic idea being that we need to be out there scaling Mt. Everest or racing elephants in the desert or earning our first millon by 30 lest we fail [...]

If the season has you hurting, longing, or otherwise feeling out of sorts, I urge you toward nonduality. It's the only path to truth, because it is not a path at all and has no place for all the concepts I just mentioned. It has no room for anything, including self, time, or the universe [...]

"Why does the universe go through all the bother of existing?" - Stephen Hawking Am I living a life or am I a life being lived? Am I or am I not? And if I am not then why is there still this sense of being? You don't have to spend much time looking at [...]

"There is only one time when it is essential to awaken. That time is now." - The Buddha Have you noticed that 'you' really never age? That there is a timeless quality to you? In periods of silence it can be so obvious. The body ages, but I do not. The 'me' to which I [...]

"I am the miracle." - Buddha Do you wander through the typical day hurting or happy? Were you raised in a supportive, loving, stable family environment? Or was your parenting malignant, indifferent, nonexistent? Was the environment of your childhood safe, intellectually stimulating, devoid of material want? Or did you navigate a hostile, dangerous, uneducated world [...]

"In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning." - F. Scott Fitzgerald It's easy to blame the loneliness of the spiritual path on the reluctance (or refusal) of others to join in the journey. But it's more than that. It's lonely in part because it's so damned difficult [...]

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest." - Confucius When author David Foster Wallace gave his now-famous 2005 commencement address to Kenyon College, he suggested that "the real value of an education has nothing to [...]

Some of my earliest memories are of my brother and I clambering high up into trees - clinging to the uppermost branches and letting the wind and our weight carry us to and fro, the busy-buzzing world below altogether unaware of our presence. Even to the mind of a child the trees exemplified strength, stability - [...]

"Nearly all mankind is more or less unhappy because nearly all do not know the true Self. Real happiness abides in Self-knowledge alone. All else is fleeting. To know one's Self is to be blissful always." - Ramana Maharshi Waiting one morning for my car to be serviced, I work from the local coffee shop. [...]