Finding the Real in Ecstasy: The Metaphysics of Joy

We need only reflect on our own daily experience to see that much of suffering, I mean the unnecessary and avoidable suffering, is the result of attachment to what’s pleasant and aversion to what’s unpleasant. Perhaps if we have a bad day where we don’t feel great, we’ve made it what it is in contrast … More Finding the Real in Ecstasy: The Metaphysics of Joy

What’s Mine & What’s Grace

Moreover, there are times that even the “I” is taken away from me without me being the one giving it away, and then returned to me without me being able to even ask for it, and that’s the state of dreamless sleep. So, even with regard to my existence, I’m neither its possessor nor its support. My existence, too, is given to me and present as transcendentally as any other thing such as a desire to do good or the power to carry it out. … More What’s Mine & What’s Grace

I Can’t Stand Musicals & More

Sinn, in German is to have meaning, to deploy intelligence forward and outward. Perhaps it’s the same thing: to sin is to sinn, to suppress one’s primordial and divine stupidity for the sake of a loaf of meaning; it’s to beat the innocent stupidity in the head by the hammer of intelligence and wisdom so that life finds some arbitrary and transient meaning. Man can’t tolerate meaninglessness and indeterminate being, that is, sheer stupidity. To bring things into form, into intelligible conceptions and limitations, this man elevates intelligence over and above stupidity and takes the fall and the subsequent suffering. … More I Can’t Stand Musicals & More

The Primordial Confusion: How to See Nonduality in Duality

When we realize that realness belongs to us rather than the things outside us, when we realize that we are that realness itself, it’s only then that we become fearless, for we know that realness can’t hurt itself. Realness just is and and it is us. And that’s why he said “that which doesn’t kills us makes us stronger,” for when we face realness with courage and open heart we become even more real, which is in truth a case of reclaiming our own reality which we had lent to things outside of ourselves. … More The Primordial Confusion: How to See Nonduality in Duality

Practicing Honesty

To take the practice of honesty to a higher level, we can be less selective about people’s imperfections and recognize that they have their own process. It’s more noble to give someone time with their imperfections and let them learn from their experiences than try to fix them. … More Practicing Honesty

Seeing With The Flesh: How our bodies tell us what to see and how to see it

The mind simulates situations and reads threats into them, quite innocently, to make sense of uncomfortable sensations and unpleasant feelings. As a result we end up seeing in our visual field more than what’s there. We may see a monster in our spouse, an enemy in our friends, etc., and we do so by projecting malicious intentions onto others’ behavior when we are bothered by our own sensations. In a sense, the bodily sensations warp our our visual field: we actually see the world not with the eyes but rather with the flesh. … More Seeing With The Flesh: How our bodies tell us what to see and how to see it

Wisdom: The Embodied Intelligence

Wisdom may be born in the mountains but it lives in the city; it blossoms only when Zarathustra returns from the mountains. Wisdom is not a thinking affair; it is a living being. Wisdom is not about perfection; it is about wholeness. Wisdom can’t be found in the books; it is through and through the heart’s business. Facts may become more complex, but wisdom always remains simple. … More Wisdom: The Embodied Intelligence