Ending Suffering – When Enough is Enough: Part 1
His name is Gene Sprague. He paces the Golden Gate's walkway at its highest point, occasionally stopping to gaze down at the water more than 200 feet below. Immersed in their picture-taking, nearby tourists fail to notice him. His pacing stops, he brushes his long black hair from his face, pushes himself into a sitting [...]
The Forensics of “I” – Part 2
Every human being has a favorite subject: him or herself. This is only natural since it is the “I” who experiences the world and there is no subject that any of us know so well as ourselves. Right? But what if this conceit is, in fact, wrong? What if we know absolutely nothing about ourselves [...]
Beware the Snooze Button Labeled “Ego”
It is said that each of us is offered an endless number of opportunities to "awaken." That life is filled with these mini-alarm clocks, each tolling at different times and frequencies and each affording us an opportunity to stop, if only for a moment, and reconsider everything we believe to be true about ourselves and [...]
Life is Suffering
Virtually all of us exist in a state of chronic, low-grade suffering or, as Thoreau put it, we while away our days in “quiet desperation.” It is the first and perhaps most important of the Buddha’s four noble truths, this idea of life as suffering. Yet most who read these words will say something to [...]
Tender Mercies
Most days when I fetch my 8-year-old from school I arrive early, situate my car in the parking lot and pull out a book to read for a few calming minutes before, quite literally, all hell breaks loose as hundreds of elementary-aged children swarm from their hive. Depending on where I park, some days I [...]
Knowing Me, Knowing Me
A key conceit of spiritual study is that we don’t really exist – at least not in the sense most of us imagine, which is to say a distinct body, name, personality, history, beliefs, etc. There is no “me,” per se, just a share of the same total consciousness that permeates everything. At least that’s [...]
What Condition Am I In?
When you think about the sheer volume of conditioning each of us undergoes in this life it is a wonder anyone emerges into any semblance of consciousness. From the moment of conception the conditioning of “me” begins in the form of the biological predilections of mom (egg) and dad (sperm). In that instant the architectural [...]
Watching our Thoughts
It takes some discipline but I’ve discovered the home-brewed serenity possible in simply watching one’s thoughts vs. identifying with them. This is one of those recommended steps en route to awakening but is easily overlooked. Thoughts arise and disappear in an continuous flow, like rain striking a sandy beach. We have little control over these [...]
The “H” Word
There is nothing like a spiritual crash to teach a person the meaning of the word “humility.” Indeed, I think it safe to say that a man or woman cannot reach rock bottom unless the basic concept of humility has been forgotten (or never learned in the first place). A few years ago, when I [...]
Me Version 2.0
Three years ago today I lost the most lucrative job I’d ever known and hours later similarly lost the girlfriend of six years I imagined I’d one day marry. For months leading up to that day my world had been crumbling, courtesy a long and growing admixture of anxieties, outright phobias, and physical ailments. So [...]
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Ending Suffering – When Enough is Enough: Part 1
His name is Gene Sprague. He paces the Golden Gate's walkway at its highest point, occasionally stopping to gaze down at the water more than 200 feet below. Immersed in their picture-taking, nearby tourists fail to notice him. His pacing stops, he brushes his long black hair from his face, pushes himself into a sitting [...]
The Forensics of “I” – Part 2
Every human being has a favorite subject: him or herself. This is only natural since it is the “I” who experiences the world and there is no subject that any of us know so well as ourselves. Right? But what if this conceit is, in fact, wrong? What if we know absolutely nothing about ourselves [...]
-
Beware the Snooze Button Labeled “Ego”
It is said that each of us is offered an endless number of opportunities to "awaken." That life is filled with these mini-alarm clocks, each tolling at different times and frequencies and each affording us an opportunity to stop, if only for a moment, and reconsider everything we believe to be true about ourselves and [...]
Life is Suffering
Virtually all of us exist in a state of chronic, low-grade suffering or, as Thoreau put it, we while away our days in “quiet desperation.” It is the first and perhaps most important of the Buddha’s four noble truths, this idea of life as suffering. Yet most who read these words will say something to [...]
Tender Mercies
Most days when I fetch my 8-year-old from school I arrive early, situate my car in the parking lot and pull out a book to read for a few calming minutes before, quite literally, all hell breaks loose as hundreds of elementary-aged children swarm from their hive. Depending on where I park, some days I [...]
Knowing Me, Knowing Me
A key conceit of spiritual study is that we don’t really exist – at least not in the sense most of us imagine, which is to say a distinct body, name, personality, history, beliefs, etc. There is no “me,” per se, just a share of the same total consciousness that permeates everything. At least that’s [...]
What Condition Am I In?
When you think about the sheer volume of conditioning each of us undergoes in this life it is a wonder anyone emerges into any semblance of consciousness. From the moment of conception the conditioning of “me” begins in the form of the biological predilections of mom (egg) and dad (sperm). In that instant the architectural [...]
Watching our Thoughts
It takes some discipline but I’ve discovered the home-brewed serenity possible in simply watching one’s thoughts vs. identifying with them. This is one of those recommended steps en route to awakening but is easily overlooked. Thoughts arise and disappear in an continuous flow, like rain striking a sandy beach. We have little control over these [...]
The “H” Word
There is nothing like a spiritual crash to teach a person the meaning of the word “humility.” Indeed, I think it safe to say that a man or woman cannot reach rock bottom unless the basic concept of humility has been forgotten (or never learned in the first place). A few years ago, when I [...]
Me Version 2.0
Three years ago today I lost the most lucrative job I’d ever known and hours later similarly lost the girlfriend of six years I imagined I’d one day marry. For months leading up to that day my world had been crumbling, courtesy a long and growing admixture of anxieties, outright phobias, and physical ailments. So [...]