Culture
On Beyond Life and Career Advice (for Teens and Adults)
Reflecting on Life and Career Advice (for teens or adults): Last night I watched some old videos of a famous comic, brilliant, creative, very “successful”, but who eventually committed suicide. And so many of the celebrities have been in and out of drug rehab, or commit suicide, or become recluses, or go through strings of…
Read MoreOn Beyond the Body Mind World (or, Liberation for Whom?)
Happiness and Pleasure Happiness from objects makes no sense. Where is the happiness experienced? Let’s not even talk about happiness, for the time being, let’s just look at pleasure. Where is the pleasure experienced? If you’re thinking the pleasure is in driving a luxury car, or a woman’s company, or a man’s company, or making…
Read MoreOn Beyond (Academic) Philosophy
For a while when in school, I fantasizing myself to be a future professor. Then I realized no one (not even the world-class philosophers with huge grants, who I’d previously worshipped!) knew what the mind or intelligence was, or how the brain worked, or many other things they claimed to know, especially about consciousness (and…
Read MoreMy Personal Misery Trainer
A guy in running pants, with a clipboard, gets up in front the of a group in a hall. He’s taking the opportunity to make a little announcement. “OK. Hi, my name’s Larry Strong. I’m here to tell you about a new service. Because you know how they always say take a passion you have,…
Read MoreThe Enlightenment Contest
The scene: a non-duality spiritual retreat, led my a teacher named “Francis” and his wife “Laura”. Someone gets up, in the evening, after the meditation and dialogue, when announcements are made: “I have a little announcement. Since everyone here is interested in not only becoming enlightened—or perhaps thinks they already are—and furthermore would love very…
Read MoreOn Beyond Cause and Effect
In practical mechanical affairs, cause and effect thinking can have utility. For example, your car suddenly loses power on the freeway. Using reason and your senses in a troubleshooting capacity, you can trace down the cause. Does the starter turn? Yes. That means there’s juice in the battery. The cause is not a dead battery.…
Read MoreOn Beyond Spiritual Bypassing
This article is not about showing you how not to do spiritual bypassing (or telling someone else how not to do it) but will make a case that the concept has very limited usefulness and should probably be abandoned. I hope to communicate the fact that it’s a term we would do better to replace…
Read MoreKissing a Sweet Goodbye to The Three Principles
From a recording: “If you’re listening to this in your car and you find yourself in a beautiful feeling, roll down your window, pop the tape out of the tape player, and throw it out the window. Stay with the feeling, and it will teach you everything you need to know.” ~ Sydney Banks…
Read MoreNotes on Prophets, Mystics, Sages, Philosophers and All That Good Stuff
Last night I watched an entertaining musical from the 70’s, Jesus Christ Superstar. I saw it when I was a kid. Very enjoyable music and great lyrics. Then for something less dramatic and more meditative before bed, I read some of The Gospel of Thomas until I got sleepy. (http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html) My reflections this morning: In…
Read MoreIntuitive Intelligence
“Ordinary intelligence is a cerebral function. It appears as the faculty of adaptation and organization. It allows complex problems to be handled by bringing into play a large quantity of givens. Linked to heredity and to acquired conditioning of the brain, it operates sequentially, in time. This kind of intelligence is responsible for performing math…
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