So I’m driving along when it hits me: “Belief systems are effects, not causes; everyone has the wrong end of the stick.” I think the paradigm of the last decade or so has been that by getting at one’s belief systems — programming packages from childhood and current environment — and examining, exposing, continuously and…
Category: Contemplative Exercises
Streams and Channels
… Ironically, I do hope many others will come to this kind of place too, no matter how proselytizing that sounds: uniquely personal practices, uniquely tailored expressions, and the patience to let the energy of those expressions and practices come forward before labeling, owning them, or making them permanent in any way.
finishing Harari’s lessons
The Play-as-Being book group is finishing up its reading of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century today. It’s been an interesting ride, but as I write this, I have the feeling that the book is already outdated. Which is scary, because I don’t think enough people are thinking yet about the range of questions he…
Romancing the Woo
I try to keep in mind the ‘decidedly non-woo’ when I write blog posts about meditation or insight, because there isn’t much out there aimed at secular practitioners of contemplative arts, aside from some (great) Zen practices like koan study and Just Sitting. That said, I think it shows sometimes, that I’m holding myself back,…
Forget monkeys, what about spider mind?
Although I’ve loved meditation for a while, I had begun to coast with it, keeping it as mostly a tool behind glass in case of anxiety emergencies. It wasn’t that I wasn’t sitting, but rather I’d stopped exploring with wide-eyed curiosity. No more. I’m having a great time again, like greeting a long lost best…
Comparing ‘Waking Up’ and ‘Insight Timer’
I stepped up meditation practice recently, beginning with using the new app from Sam Harris, Waking Up, but also continuing with Insight Timer. Along with just giving more time. Things I appreciate about the Waking Up app: It is NOT a social media app. There are no ‘rewards’ like stars or trophies for meditating more…
Holding/Not Holding
I couldn’t hold on to the sounds, but I would generate a trace memory of the sound that would trick me occasionally, that would seem to be me holding onto the sound…
Recovery
Flu. I feel so vulnerable during and just after illness, as though my will has failed in a small way, just to show me nothing is in my control…
sparking joy
To be organized feels like greeting a clean slate every time, feels like unearthing dormant potential. THAT is what “sparks joy” – which she over and over again describes as her central objective.
First Book of the New Year: Yuval Noah Harari’s “Lessons for the 21st Century”
Yuval Noah Harari is among my very favorite public intellectuals, even though some of his prophesies are terrifying! Listening to a talk he gave in India this last year, about the capacity of future algorithms and reach of AI, I was struck by just how close the future he describes seems. Indeed, it is already…
