• Teaching Kids to Turn Within

    Published On: October 21, 2013

    From my son during a recent lengthy car trip: "Dad, what religion are we?" I answered that we are not religious or, more specifically, that I am not. Turns out that some of my son's friends had been poking into his background in that way newly-minted middle schoolers have of interrogating each other in order [...]

  • When All the Concepts are Killed

    Published On: August 24, 2013

    For as long as I can remember I've been looking for myself. You know, that fuzzy notion of a 'me' that seems to be experiencing something called 'life' on something called 'planet Earth' in something else called the 'universe.' Yet no matter how hard I look I can't find that dude. And if I'm honest, [...]

  • On Being Lived

    Published On: May 19, 2013

    Comes another day, awakening with no conscious prompting, a momentary pause until the mind reenters and brings with it thoughts of 'me' and 'my life.' Like an early-morning commuter station humming back to life, the eyes open, the lungs draw deeply, and thoughts come streaming in and out of a head not yet lifted from [...]

  • Regardless of What You Think

    Published On: April 9, 2013

    This video is well worth the 9 minutes it takes to watch. It is beautiful because in just 9 minutes it challenges all of those silly, stupid little judgments we make about ourselves, about others, about life. It reminds us that regardless of what we think, life happens. Or as the old saw goes, life [...]

  • The Illusory Safety of Concepts

    Published On: March 20, 2013

    One of my favorite (and sometimes most dispiriting) lessons from Robert Adams was his admonition that you can tell how far you've come in your spiritual growth by how you behave when life throws you a curve ball. Do you retreat into your shell, throw dishes against the wall, lapse into a depressive funk, reach [...]

  • Your Karma is the World’s Karma

    Published On: February 21, 2013

    Not so long ago I caught a snippet of a story about a U.S. drone attack on insurgents in Pakistan. Turns out we killed some villagers including a handful of kids. These things happen, right? The story explained that the U.S. government apologized and offered to pay reparations. A dead kid's parents would - at [...]

  • It’s Not Your Fault

    Published On: February 10, 2013

    In the cathartic scene of "Good Will Hunting," our hero is at last forced to accept that the abuse he endured as a child was not his fault. After a lifetime of marching to an invisible drummer, Will is at last so beaten down that the facade cracks and this truth is allowed in. It [...]

  • Emptying the Prison of the Mind

    Published On: February 1, 2013

    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 [...]

  • Forget Life’s Experiences and Instead Experience Life

    Published On: January 25, 2013

    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 [...]

  • Holiday Depression: A Call to Nonduality?

    Published On: December 30, 2012

    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 [...]

  • Teaching Kids to Turn Within

    From my son during a recent lengthy car trip: "Dad, what religion are we?" I answered that we are not religious or, more specifically, that I am not. Turns out that some of my son's friends had been poking into his background in that way newly-minted middle schoolers have of interrogating each other in order [...]

  • When All the Concepts are Killed

    For as long as I can remember I've been looking for myself. You know, that fuzzy notion of a 'me' that seems to be experiencing something called 'life' on something called 'planet Earth' in something else called the 'universe.' Yet no matter how hard I look I can't find that dude. And if I'm honest, [...]

  • On Being Lived

    Comes another day, awakening with no conscious prompting, a momentary pause until the mind reenters and brings with it thoughts of 'me' and 'my life.' Like an early-morning commuter station humming back to life, the eyes open, the lungs draw deeply, and thoughts come streaming in and out of a head not yet lifted from [...]

  • Regardless of What You Think

    This video is well worth the 9 minutes it takes to watch. It is beautiful because in just 9 minutes it challenges all of those silly, stupid little judgments we make about ourselves, about others, about life. It reminds us that regardless of what we think, life happens. Or as the old saw goes, life [...]

  • The Illusory Safety of Concepts

    One of my favorite (and sometimes most dispiriting) lessons from Robert Adams was his admonition that you can tell how far you've come in your spiritual growth by how you behave when life throws you a curve ball. Do you retreat into your shell, throw dishes against the wall, lapse into a depressive funk, reach [...]

  • Your Karma is the World’s Karma

    Not so long ago I caught a snippet of a story about a U.S. drone attack on insurgents in Pakistan. Turns out we killed some villagers including a handful of kids. These things happen, right? The story explained that the U.S. government apologized and offered to pay reparations. A dead kid's parents would - at [...]

  • It’s Not Your Fault

    In the cathartic scene of "Good Will Hunting," our hero is at last forced to accept that the abuse he endured as a child was not his fault. After a lifetime of marching to an invisible drummer, Will is at last so beaten down that the facade cracks and this truth is allowed in. It [...]

  • Emptying the Prison of the Mind

    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 [...]

  • Forget Life’s Experiences and Instead Experience Life

    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 [...]

  • Holiday Depression: A Call to Nonduality?

    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 [...]