All the frantic energy of trying to figure it out, trying to understand and learn and practice–all of it left me in one fell swoop. I loved the whooshing sound it made on its way out, hehe! And here I am, empty and open, happily left with really only one insight, and it’s not a [...]
“So, you look. You bring your attention, for just a moment, to what it feels like to be you. Not to anything that you know to be the case, but to what it feels like to be you, just to touch it, just for a moment. And if you do that once, you’ll do it [...]
(edited) Dear -, Awakening is awakening in the dream and awakening out of the dream. I am at the first. What does it feel like? Well, I had anxiety and depression for twenty years. Anxiety is gone. The psychological unhappiness of depression is gone. I can operate in the world from a place of calm [...]
(Edited) I did the same–I wrote for myself for a long time before I started the blog. Writing gives us another mechanism to grow. The human mind is not always the best place to look from. Writing gives us the ability to look at arm’s length, which can sometimes be valuable. Atheism is interesting. It’s [...]
The most fundamental question of life is “Is there joy and peace in my life?” It’s the essential question, and yet most of us run away from it. We’re pretty good at not facing up to ourselves. I suppose most of us believe that life has to be the way it is. We buy into [...]
As you observe thoughts, without the effort to judge or analyze or change, you might notice that thoughts slow down. The gaps in-between expand. You notice also that many of our thoughts are of self-judgment. This may not be obvious at first–well the obviously self-judgmental thoughts are clearly self-judgmental, but you begin to notice that [...]
“We can understand only that which we have risen above.” –Vernon Howard Ah, here it is. Life has sweetness to it–an easy flow. After four years of seeking, and turmoil and confusion, here is the easy peace that was always here. The effort has fallen away. Go ahead and dive into self-discovery. Yes, it does [...]
Click here: Mother’s Day: On gold-smuggling, refugees, and the strength of women
When you see that the you you take yourself to be is a fiction–when you actually recognize this, not just agree with it–what happens is…nothing. Nothing actually changes. The old patterns of fear and emotions and delusions remain firmly in place. Well, not firmly. You still get caught up in fearful and self-ish patterns but [...]
What works What I talk about here I talk about from direct experience. There is nothing here which is based on beliefs or concepts. In the last four or five years of exploring, these are things I’ve found: -Most human beings operate from fear and desire. This is what the Buddha called dukkha, or discontent, [...]