Happiness, via rest and relaxation

Today, Labor Day, is a national holiday in the United States.  Many people have the day off from work, myself included, and this resulted in a three day weekend.  A mini holiday of sorts.  Over these three days I’ve slept more than usual and done very little outside of eating and relaxing.  It has left… Read more »

Thoughts on the practice of mindfulness

Over the past several months I’ve been reading less and living more.  This doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped considering spiritual and philosophical matters – quite the contrary.  There have been seemingly endless discussions on these subjects with friends and family and I find that over and over again the ideals of Buddhism appeal to me more than… Read more »

A Secular Criticism of Sam Harris and Project Reason

In February of this year, Sam Harris spoke at the TED conference regarding his view that science can answer moral questions.  I was excited to hear what he might have to say on the subject, as he is a noted atheist with a degree in philosophy from Stanford and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. … Read more »

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Buddhist Selfishness & Pessimism

When I discuss the tenants of Buddhism with people unfamiliar with it, they are often quick to assess it as a selfish and pessimistic religion.  It’s easy to see why they think this way, as the first noble truth of the Buddhist path is that all things lead to suffering, and another core teaching is… Read more »

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Can you be lonely without believing in “self”?

The truth that there is no such thing as a permanent “self” rang true to me the first time I read it in Buddhist texts.  After all, when you ask a person who they are, they often give some conventional reply – such as “I am John,” which is a name, or “I am a… Read more »

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The impossible all-powerful God

Things have been very busy lately, which is why I haven’t posted here in some time.  I moved out of Pops’ house a few weeks after he passed away and I’ve spent the last two weeks settling in to my new apartment and working on other projects.  I did come across something interesting in a… Read more »

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Grieving without religion

How do you say that your grandfather has died?  It’s not easy to state.  It isn’t like saying “I had chicken for lunch,” or “the Cubs lost again last night.”  The statement is gloomy and most of us would simply rather not say or hear it, but he did die.  He is not going to… Read more »

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Reality in the delirious mind

What is reality?  There is probably no way to define it, since the concept is just that and is different for each of us.  Despite this, or perhaps because of it, we usually refer to reality as that which we can all agree on in the present.  That tree is there, and it’s brown with… Read more »

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Dying, slowly

Although all of us are dying, we often only refer to the process when it begins to draw to a close.  In my life I have been close to death numerous times, but never in such a way as I am now.  My grandfather is 82 years old and has come home from a two… Read more »

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Religious Morality

Morality as we understand it is a concept, and as such is an abstraction.  We say a person has good morals when they act in a certain way, and that they lack morals when they act in the opposite way.  Because these judgments of morality change from culture to culture, person to person, and even… Read more »

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Latest

  • You Are Not My Soulmate

    Today’s popular culture trumpets the idea that there is at least one person out there who is our ideal match.  That person is the one special individual who will understand all of your quirks and see through your shielded self to the truly beautiful person that you truly are.  They will “complete” us.  All you… Read more »

  • To Meditate or Not to Meditate

    Eastern religions put a great deal of emphasis on meditation, and especially sitting meditation.  Many schools say that one can only reach awakening through sitting, likely because many of the great teachers in the past were enlightened in this way.  You may find yourself in a situation where you are told that you should practice… Read more »

  • The Root: Nothingness

    Recently it seems that everything I’m studying points to one essential truth: nothingness.  Also known as shunya or “the void” by Hindus, this is not meant to say there isn’t anything – like one might imagine space or a black hole – rather the idea here is nothing as the opposite of something.  There cannot… Read more »

  • Thoughts on Religulous

    I am always amazed at how willing Bill Maher is to put himself out there, as he did in his recent documentary about the state of world religion named Religulous.  The first thought I had after watching the film was that it was strange that Bill decided only to discuss Western religions.  Buddhism, Hinduism and… Read more »

  • Thinking…

    I’m trying to figure out how to start this thing…