Posted inBuddhism

Killing the false Buddha, Gotama lives truly

As my churchlessness has evolved, I find myself interested in a steadily smaller portion of the spiritual landscape. I used to devour writings by (and about) Rumi, Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, and various Hindu/Vedanta mystics. Now, I mostly nibble at Buddhist and Taoist teachings when I feel the need for some "what's life all about?" philosophizing that isn't annoyingly religious. Only problem is, even with these offerings I have to be careful what I put on my reading plate. In the Buddhism category of this blog I've written about what I like and don't like about Buddhist…
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Posted inReality

Instant enlightenment. Guaranteed. Just read this.

Before I proceed to enlighten you through a few well-chosen paragraphs, side-stepping all those ridiculous disciplines, such as meditation, that usually are regarded as necessary to achieve this elevated understanding, my inner attorney demands that I add some metaphorical fine print to the title of this blog post: First, you should indeed soon be enlightened as to the ultimate nature of the cosmos. However, don't expect that this will be, well, what you expect. Second, my guarantee is related to my just-mentioned "first." Have no doubt that my words will take you to the furthest reaches of reality. But if…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism Science

Reality is the only guru we need

After many years of searching for spiritual truth, about forty, most of which were spent following the teachings of a supposedly God-realized guru,  I finally feel like I know what this truth is. Reality. Which isn't spiritual at all. Nor otherworldly. Or supernatural, mystical, mysterious, secret, hidden from the unitiated. In other words, the big "spiritual truth" is that there isn't any. Everything we need to understand how we relate to the cosmos is right before our eyes: everyday life. Whatever you did today, and whatever you're doing right now, contains the wisdom of the ages. We just need to…
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Posted inMorality Religions

Agnostics and atheists are better than believers

Since I turned churchless, I've become a way better person. So I can testify to this truth that has been been revealed to me by the grace of absolutely nobody but myself: Agnostics and atheists are better people than believers, by and large. Note the "by and large," which protects my truth from being challenged by someone pointing out that agnostic/atheist human X is a world class asshole, while religious human Y is a marvelous example of what us Homo sapiens can become. I shall now engage in one of my favorite blogging activities -- demonstrating with impeccable logic and…
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Posted inBuddhism Science

Susan Blackmore’s Zen’ish theory of consciousness

Combine a Zen master and a psychologist interested in neuroscience. Bingo! You've created Susan Blackmore, or someone very much like her. I've finished reading her Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction. I'm fascinated by consciousness, because it's what I am. All I am, really, since whatever I'm not conscious of doesn't exist for me. So whatever consciousness is, or isn't, seemingly would tell me a lot about who I am, or aren't. I used to believe in supernatural notions of consciousness, but now I'm much more interested in scientific theories. After all, I'm a body with a brain. Or a brain…
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Posted inHumor

Another great Duhism

I'm a daily reader of Duhisms. Here's a recent one that I enjoyed. The proof of spiritual attainment is shown by transcending "I." Is anyone else made a wee bit suspicious that "I" believe this? Along this line, after I watched about half of The Advaita Trap cartoon I figured out that the dark brown creature must have written most of the books that I've bought about non-duality. Check it out. I confess that once I got to the five minute mark my head felt like it was going to explode, so I didn't watch the rest.  
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Posted inBooks Spiritual practice/meditation

I’ve stopped having spiritual experiences

I can't remember the last time I had a spiritual experience. Well, more accurately, the last time I had an experience that I called "spiritual." I used to have lots of them. I've been to India twice, each time spending several weeks at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas headquarters in the Punjab. Seeing the guru, who is considered to be God in human form, seemed deeply spiritual to me. Ditto with having a feeling that I should take I-205 rather than I-5 just before crossing the Columbia River into Oregon -- I was driving home after seeing the guru give…
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Posted inHumor

God doesn’t appear at Rally to Restore Sanity

Well, what a non-surprise. At today's Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall in Washington, DC, God didn't make an appearance -- despite the implorings of not-exactly a Father Guido Sarducci. I watched the first half of the rally on C-Span, so got to see Father Sarducci's benediction. It was appealingly comedic, though not without some fairly serious philosophising at the expense of true believers. Noting that there lots of religions in the world, each of which believes that it knows the truth about God while the rest are mistaken, Sarducci asked God to send a sign to the…
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Posted inBooks Morality

Exploring the moral landscape with Sam Harris

This morning I finished reading Sam Harris' newest book, "The Moral Landscape." After blogging favorably about the first two chapters, I continued to enjoy Harris' neuroscientific, yet eminently readable, take on how human wellbeing can be expanded via facts rather than faith. Events in the world, and the brain, affect how we experience life. If we study the relationship between those events and our experiences, we stand a good chance of being able to climb higher on the "moral landscape" (individually and collectively). Harris says: Throughout this book I make reference to a hypothetical space that I call "the moral…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Raptitude is an inspiring Buddhist’ish blog

When I scanned through the Twitter tweets put up by the people I follow, a few days ago I saw a link to "9 Mind-Bending Epiphanies That Turned My World Upside-Down." Great title. I had to see what that piece said. Reading it on the Raptitude site, I was introduced to some excellent writing by David Cain. Here he describes how Raptitude came to be. I am a regular guy who has beat up his biggest demon. To make a long story short, I used to find life very difficult and now I don’t. For a while I was having…
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Posted inMorality Reality

People aren’t free to believe

Here in the United States, you often hear "It's a free country, so...[I can do such and such.]" Reflecting this attitude, I frequently say on this blog that people are free to believe whatever they want to, so long as they don't try to force those beliefs on others. But Sam Harris has caused me to see the caveats in this. In his new book, The Moral Landscape, a section in the "Belief" chapter is called Do We Have Freedom of Belief? Short answer: No. If you ask me to raise a hand, I can choose either my right or…
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Posted inBuddhism Science Wu Project

We all may be living selflessly

Usually we consider that being "selfless" means acting altruistically. This casts the word in a moral sense, which is how most religions see it. We're supposed to put God and others before ourselves. But there's a scientific side to selflessness that I'm finding increasingly intriguing: the notion that nobody has a self, so we're all selfless -- including the greediest, most egotistical, and me-centered among us. Recently I wrote about a book where noted thinkers talk about what they believe, but cannot prove. I quoted psychologist Susan Blackmore: It is possible to live happily and morally without believing in free…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Sam Harris doesn’t really believe in God

Wow, that was scary for a moment. I open up Newsweek and find an article with the headline, "Sam Harris Believes in God." My churchless brain started to scream, Noooooooo! Sam, how could you become a believer?! After all, Harris wrote a couple of great anti-religious books, "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation." It would have been disappointing for me to find that he had gone over to the dark side of blind belief. Fortunately, the very first paragraph of the story started to relieve my anxiety. Sam Harris, a member of the tribe known as…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism

Buddhism’s consensual core isn’t supernatural

What is the essence of a religion? That is, how can we tell whether someone is a "real" Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or whatever? What degree of supposed heresy is beyond the bounds of a belief system? These are tough questions to answer, in part because they are religion-specific. Hinduism seems to be a lot more accomodating of alternative viewpoints than Christianity is. Yet Mormons usually are considered to be Christian, even though they stretch the gospel truth (so to speak) in some far-out directions. I got to thinking about this after having a comment interchange with Todd on…
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Posted inBooks Death/Rebirth

Here’s a tale from the afterlives

I'm hugely enjoying David Eagleman's "Sum: forty tales from the afterlives." This is a marvelously creative and thought-provoking book, unlike anything I've ever read before.

Sum is a work of fiction (maybe). The back cover says:

With a probing imagination and deep understanding of the human condition, acclaimed neuroscientist David Eagleman offers wonderfully imagined tales that shine a brilliant light on the here and now.

There's no way to explain the book. So I'll simply share one of the tales that I especially enjoyed. Read on.

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Posted inBuddhism

Buddhist atheism irks B. Alan Wallace

Wow, I thought serious Buddhists were supposed to be full of compassion, empathy, and oneness with all sentient beings. Guess not. Because I just quickly read through a scathing critique of Stephen Bachelor's "Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist," which B. Alan Wallace hates. (Thanks to Ira for an email that turned me on to this essay in Mandala, a Buddhist magazine.) Wallace is a leading Buddhist thinker who tries to meld science and spirituality. According to Wikipedia: His life's work focuses on a deep engagement between Buddhist philosophical and contemplative inquiry and modern science and philosophy, with a special emphasis…
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Posted inBooks Science

What do you believe but cannot prove?

This is a great question. Seeing it on the cover of a book in Sisters' (Oregon) Paulina Springs Books made me instantly believe, "I'll be standing at the cash register soon with my VISA card in hand." I couldn't have proven that I'd end up buying What We Believe But Cannot Prove, yet I believed it. And it turned out that I was right. What I didn't know at the time, though, was that all of the mini-essays in the book are available for free online at Edge. So if you want to learn how some of the most brilliant…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Open Thread 8

It's been a while, but Open Thread has been resurrected. I got a few comments that didn't fit with a recent existing post, so it seemed fitting to give them a home here to start the OT 8 off. Here's another Open Thread (previous OTs are still open, of course). Leave a comment about anything you want to talk about. Comments on other posts need to be related to the subject of the post, or they will be candidates for deletion. So an Open Thread is the place for miscellany and whatever. Feel free. Just observe the comment policies (click on…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Mental “avalanche” can cascade you to a better place

If we're on the slope of a steep snowy mountain, it makes sense to be afraid of an avalanche. Bodies usually don't fare well by suddenly being ripped from their moorings in a violent manner. But minds/brains, they're different. Having our psyche turned upside down, twisted around, mixed up topsy-turvy... this can be marvelously interesting, productive, creative, truthful -- maybe even enlightening. A New Scientist article, "Disorderly Genius," describes how the brain operates on the edge of chaos. Have you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as…
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Posted inBooks Morality Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Sam Harris says morality can be scientific

I love Sam Harris' books. His "The End of Faith" came out about a year after I started this churchless blog in the fall of 2004. It provided me with a surge of faithless energy, validating my decision to do what I could to help rid the world of destructive religious dogma. "Letter to a Christian Nation" (2008) also was a winner, but didn't appeal to me quite as much. Never having been a Christian (aside from pretending to be one in my early elementary school years), I guess his focus on the ridiculousness of Christianity seemed self-evident to me.…
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