Spirituality is often dismissed as the domain of fantasists, the reasoning being that if one can't touch, smell, hear, taste, see or think it, it's of no tangible benefit to those occupied by the 'real world.' Yet what most of our species thinks of as the real world - the one they're busy sensing and [...]

In the campy 1980 comedy, Caddyshack, disheveled groundskeeper Carl Spackler (played by a brilliant Bill Murray) relates a story about caddying for the Dalai Lama. As Spackler tells it, the game ends and no traditional cash gratuity is forthcoming. "Hey Lama," Spackler recalls saying to the holy man. "How about a little something, you know, [...]

The material world is not what we perceive it to be. This is the age-old message of the mystics, sages, and seers. But it's also become a central discovery of modern science. Assuming we're open-minded and humble enough to accept this bizarre idea, our lives can be improved for the better. Albert Einstein, who spent [...]

“Die Religion … ist das Opium des Volkes.” – Karl Marx Karl Marx’s famous dictum that “religion is the opiate of the masses” is based on the idea that we humans, haunted by fears of our own mortality and apparent insignificance, need some kind of drug to get us through life and so we invented [...]

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Jesus At the age of 13 something unimaginably humiliating happened to me in front of my entire military school cadet class. Racing back that night to my empty barrack’s room, certain my life [...]

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 [...]

I met a friend for a couple of beers today, commiserating with him over what, potentially, could be his second divorce. En route home I had the music blasting, a rarity for me these days what with the kids living with me. The slight alcohol buzz in addition to the music led to some real [...]

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 [...]