Posted inReality

Live like this is your last moment (because it is)

Most of my life I've been searching for What Life is All About. A poem I wrote when I was thirteen is my earliest recorded pondering about the cosmos, but I'm sure my pre-teen mind also was looking for answer's to life's big questions. Having come to an age when my first Social Security payment is due to be deposited in our checking account this month, I can report that some fifty years of philosophical, religious, mystical, scientific, and spiritual inquiring has led me to a simple three word conclusion: This is it. You're free to disagree. I can understand…
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Posted inScience

Can one half of a brain achieve salvation?

Those who believe in the unity of consciousness or the oneness of "soul" need to watch a short You Tube video, "Split brain with one half atheist and one half theist." The neurologist making the presentation ends by saying If the person dies, does one hemisphere go to heaven and the other go to hell? I don't have the answer to that. Watch and see if you do.  
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Mindfulness is better than “spiritual” meditation

I used to believe that through meditation, I could realize ultimate reality/God. Now, having lowered my unrealistic expectations, I'd be happy if I could go through the rest of my life without losing another glove. A much-beloved glove, insofar as apparel can be loved. LIghtweight, waterproof, comfortable, thin. I'd been wearing it on rainy day dog walks here in Oregon (so I wore them a lot). Headed to the recycling center on a cold, wet, windy afternoon, I decided to take the gloves along. I walked to the car, tossed them on the front seat, and drove into town with…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Hallucinogens induce profound mystical experiences

Want a mystical experience? Got no time or inclination for meditation, austerities, guru-worship, or rituals? A shortcut is available: hallucinogens, such as psilocybin. This is no surprise to baby boomers like me who experimented with LSD, mescaline, and "magic mushrooms" back in the 60's. I was searching for the Meaning Of It All, so I was part of the flower children subset who looked upon hallucinogens not only as a good time, but as a doorway to higher consciousness. I figured that these trippy drugs had pretty much gone out of fashion. However, an article in the December 2010 issue…
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Posted inReality Science

Unconscious zombies and conscious thermostats

Comments on my previous post about David Chalmers' consciousness theories got me doing more pondering about zombies -- the philosophical variety. Personally, I resonate with Chalmers' notion that it is logically possible to conceive of beings who are identical to us down to the most minute subatomic particle, and behave exactly like us in even the most subtle fashion. The only difference betweeen zombie and human would be this: humans experience what it is like to be what we are; zombies don't. Admittedly this is a strange notion to wrap our minds around. For each of us, our entire life…
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Posted inGod

Talking trash with Almighty God

Ah, another enjoyable blasphemous Mark Morford column, "How to talk trash with Almighty God." I like the ending, after Morford blasts God for all the crap life continues to be filled with after many millenia of worship, reverence, bowing and scraping, and all that. But you know what? It doesn't seem to matter. Mock or no mock, praise or no praise, we get nailed, over and over again, no matter what. Sickened, crushed, bloodied, heartbroken, ruined, revived and rejuvenated, only to be ruined once again. We drop that damn ball, over and over again, every single day. So much for…
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Posted inReality Science

David Chalmer’s view of consciousness: naturalistic dualism

Consciousness. It's what we are and know, since reality doesn't exist for us if we can't experience it. Yet it's also the most mysterious thing in the cosmos. So mysterious, it can't really be called a "thing." Consciousness is utterly subjective. But without consciousness we wouldn't be aware of objective reality. So go figure... David Chalmers has done a lot of figuring on this subject. He's an Australian philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of mind/consciousness. I've had his book, "The Conscious Mind," sitting unread on my bookshelf for over a decade. A few days ago I picked it up,…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Pay attention to the world, not thoughts

I don't know why I didn't realize this a long time ago: The outside world is a lot more interesting than my thoughts about it. Well, I suppose I had realized it, since I find actually lying on a warm, sunny beach much more appealing than merely thinking about that prospect. Ditto with the pleasure of actually drinking coffee compared to pondering the notion of brewing a cup. But I've failed to pay attention to what I know. And that's a problem most of us have: paying attention in a proper way. The meaning of "proper," naturally, can be debated…
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Posted inComments Personal/Stories

Can’t resist some churchless thanksgiving’s

OK, I give up. I've tried my best to resist the onslaught of thankiness here in the United States. Today is Thanksgiving, a national holiday. It has something to do with being thankful (obviously), but even Wikipedia can't explain the origins of what often is called Turkey Day. For my wife and me, it's Wheat Gluten Day, as we're about to put a meatless Celebration Roast in the oven. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in a traditional fashion. However, there's nothing wrong with keeping "thanks" part of the day. So, that's what I'll do: say thanks to those who visit this…
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Posted inHumor Religions

Spiritual sadness and humor

Sad: a PBS video about the Devadasi practice in India -- religiously sanctioned prostitution. Funny: a graphic economic argument against the reality of supernatural phenomena. (thanks, Clare, for letting me know about these)
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Posted inReality Spiritual practice/meditation

Enlightenment made simple: it’s reality

Back in my true-believing religious days I looked upon enlightenment as something special, difficult to achieve, and rare. Now, I see it pretty much opposite: not unique, easy to attain, and commonplace. When you read descriptions of enlightenment in the world's spiritual, mystical, and philosophical literature -- and I've read lots of them -- some commonalities start to become apparent beneath all of the bewildering idiosyncratic descriptions. The basic one is this: loss or lessening of self-hood, egotism, sense of separateness. Supposedly enlightened people, such as the Buddha, talk about how "I-ness" isn't truly real. We humans aren't ego-encapsulated entities…
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Posted inBooks God

More bad arguments for the existence of God

Earlier this year I wrote a post about Rebecca Goldstein's book, "36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction," citing several arguments that religiously-minded visitors to this blog often like to use. Each has flaws, which Goldstein points out clearly and entertainingly in an appendix to her book. They can be read here in their entirety. (Scroll down past the book excerpt.) I'd been slowly making my way through "36 Arguments," not finding the story all that engrossing. I liked the philosophical discussions, though, so decided to jump to the climactic debate between a religious skeptic and…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism

Stuff happens — meaning of life in two words

I'm not sure what I'd make of me if that wasn't who I am: me. But isn't that true of everyone, you included? (Who is the "me" to yourself, whereas I'm your "you.") By which I mean, if I saw myself from the outside rather than the inside, I'd likely think, "Wow, that dude is weird." That indeed is how I often look upon people, both dudes and dudettes. Yet to them, they're normal and it's other folks such as me who are strange. Today I sent off an email to a neighbor. I added some lines that had little…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Focus… focus… focus… Happy!

Happiness, it seems, lies on the other side of a wandering mind. To enjoy life it doesn't matter so much what we do, as how focused we are on whatever we're doing. This is one of the conclusions of research I blogged about yesterday in a HinesSight post, "When mind wanders, happiness departs." A New York Times story said: Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or shopping, they tended to be happier if they focused on the activity instead of thinking about something else. In fact, whether and where their minds wandered was a better…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

A missionary’s deconversion by a “primitive” tribe

One of the most annoying aspects of Christianity is how this religion feels a necessity to try to convert people. Not every religion does. For example, by and large Judaism and Hinduism are content to let their faith speak for itself. So it's enjoyable when the tables are turned and a missionary finds himself deconverted by those who he sought to turn into Christians. Yesterday I learned about a You Tube video, "Christian missionary deconverted by tribe." (Thanks for the email, Clare.) Around the seven minute mark, Daniel Everett speaks of how his evangelizing to a South American tribe ended…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Is it possible to meditate and “go inside”?

For about thirty-five years I belonged to a spiritual group whose core teachings included the importance of "going inside." Not a house, or any other building, but one's self. When I was trying to do this by meditating several hours a day, I never gave much thought to what "going inside" really meant, or if it was possible. I simply accepted the notion on faith. Which entailed the belief that another realm of consciousness exists in addition to what we're already aware of. Supposedly a person could focus his or her attention solely on internal processes of the psyche and…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Thanking an unknown “God”

Neuroscientific researchers tell us that it's natural to personify impersonal phenomena. Our brains essentially are hard-wired for a "supersense" which discerns supernatural forces even when there is no evidence for them. As churchless as I am, and as science-loving as I am, I still find myself talking to the cosmos as if someone could hear me. (I also talk to our dog as if she could understand me, and when the #1 Oregon Ducks football team was gritting out a 15-13 victory last Saturday, I entreatied the television as if the players could hear me -- even weirder, I'd recorded…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Meditation makes your cells healthier

Good news for us long-time meditators: a study shows that meditation is linked to psychological well-being, which in turn is related to higher telomerase -- an enzyme that makes cells healthy. The study participants had one-third more teomerase in their white blood cells than controls. However, this was only after they spent three months in an intensive meditation workshop that entailed six hours of personal meditation a day plus a couple of group sessions. I have a feeling that this would drive me nuts, rather than healthy, but I could be wrong. Regardless, I'm hoping that my current 20-30 minutes…
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Posted inScience

Matter is as mysterious as spirit

Those who like to delve into the interface of science and spirituality should check out David and Andrea Lane's "Mysterium Tremendum." I haven't read it closely enough to be able to talk about the essay thoughtfully. But a quick look-through showed me that the Lanes' piece makes a lot of wise observations about the overwhelming mystery of matter. Often religiously inclined people think that science takes the magic, mystery, and wonder out of living. Not true. Attitudes like that simply show how little those folks know about modern science. Here's some excerpts from the the essay: Therefore, a very strong…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

Why politics and fundamentalist Christianity shouldn’t mix

Here's a great example of why personal religious beliefs should be kept out of public policy debates: Illinois Congressman John Shimkus citing Genesis in support of his contention that global warming is nothing to worry about.   He's standing by his remarks, made in 2009, that everything will be fine because God promised He wouldn't destroy the Earth after Noah's flood. The Illinois Republican running for the powerful perch atop the House Energy and Commerce Committee told POLITICO on Wednesday that his understanding of the Bible reaffirms his belief that government shouldn't be in the business of trying to address…
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