Flow is an ecstatic state of being first studied and later codified by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. His pioneering work has since been corroborated by neuroscientists, who have discovered that brains in a state of flow power down the prefrontal cortex, which establishes the sense of self and the memories that go with it. In other [...]

Ask the typical individual to describe meditation and they'll likely picture robed monks seated lotus-style in a shroud of incense smoke. Or, Lululemon-clad influencers gazing across a picturesque landscape next to their infinity pool. Or, a hall full of New Age types uniformly chanting 'ohm.' Any of these could be accurate. But if your understanding [...]

The French polymath, Blaise Pascal, said all of humankind's problems were tied to one behavioral deficit: our inability to sit quietly in a room doing nothing . What about you? How often on a given day or week do you sit in silence? If you're like most, your answer is rarely if ever. And that, [...]

The journey inward, if earnestly pursued, begins to reveal a hideous truth: that I, and all others, are one and the same thing. There, just at the edge of my perception, I begin to see that aside from the window dressing each of us calls 'my life,' there is nothing. All of the characters and [...]

Most of us are so busy living our lives - often feeling as if we can barely keep our heads above water - that there is little if any time left for contemplating what matters most: ourselves. Which is a tragedy, really, because there is a growing body of research demonstrating that self-awareness - and [...]

Seek and ye shall find. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. What all of these statements (and countless others) point to - at least to me - is this: seek God and God will ensure you find It. What I've found [...]

There are two well-known psychological phenomena that illustrate just how difficult it is for humans to properly understand themselves and the world around them: confirmation bias and its cousin, the backfire effect. Confirmation bias speaks to our habit of cherrypicking information that supports our previously held beliefs and rejecting any evidence that runs counter to [...]

It's said that we don't seek God but rather, when it's our time, God seeks us. I can't speak for the experiences of others, but that certainly holds true here. Truth be told I'm still routinely astonished to learn that almost no one thinks about God the way I do. (Mind you, when I speak [...]

'It's all about consciousness.' A line from a favorite long-dead teacher that beautifully sums up the entirety of existence. I can attest to the truth of that statement. Or, more precisely, consciousness can attest to it. Consciousness writes this blog and consciousness 'reads' it. And the consciousness that reads it is either in a state [...]

It is said that as our journey inward intensifies, that which we seek - God, Truth, etc. - goes ahead of us 'straighten the crooked places.' Part of that process is to remove relationships that distract from that journey. Not so long ago that loneliness would have disturbed me. It would have become a matter [...]