Posted inReligions

Don’t experience life through your phone. Or religion.

I admit it. I look at my iPhone frequently. It's a good friend. Keeps me in touch with what's going on. Does what I want it to most of the time. Allows me to communicate with people I care about. But I saw some of myself in a viral video, "I Forgot my Phone." Shows what occurs when life is lived through the screen of a smart phone: a direct connection with what is happening right in front of us becomes diluted through a technological filter. Question is: how different is this from living life through the screen of religious…
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Posted inScience

Religionists get fact and opinion backward

I'm almost 65, but I like to think of myself as a modern with-it guy. Hey, I've got an iPhone 5; I ride five miles on my longboard/skateboard several times a week; I watched the entire freaking MTV Video Music Awards (and could even understand some of the song lyrics). But there's one thing I'm decidedly old-fashioned about: I believe in facts. This goes against the grain of some widely pervasive viewpoints. Like post-modern deconstruction. And pre-modern religiosity. Sorry, fact-deniers. I'm going to cling to my beloved facts. When I was a kid my mother used to buy the World Almanac…
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Posted inBuddhism

Dalai Lama is a celebrity who doesn’t have much to say

My wife is an avid reader of Psychology Today. She pointed out an interesting article in the September/ October issue, "Holy Celebrity," by Joachim Kreuger, a social psychologist. It's about the Dalai Lama. Basic theme is that if you're a celebrity, spiritual or some other variety, your vacuous statements take on an aura of meaningfulness that people wouldn't ascribe to those words if a non-celebrity said the same thing. All religions assume that certain individuals have special access to divine, esoteric, or transcendental knowledge, although they tend to be mute on just how this knowledge is transmitted. This view does…
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Posted inBuddhism Reality

Not only the devil, but also reality, is in the detail

Didn't know this: Wikipedia tells me that the familiar "the devil is in the detail" saying was preceded by "god is in the detail."  OK. So it looks like detail is really important whether we aim at hell or heaven. This is the intriguing premise of "Things Fall Apart" by Philip Kitcher, a philosophy professor at Columbia University.  In his Queries to the “Opticks,” Newton looked forward to a vision of the cosmos in which everything would be explained on the basis of a small number of physical principles. That Newtonian vision remains highly popular with many scientists who turn…
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Posted inScience

Consciousness, magic, and scientific rationalism

Here's a really interesting piece by neuroscientist Michael Graziano, "Consciousness and the Unashamed Rationalist." Naturally I just ordered Graziano's book, Consciousness and the Social Brain. His distinction between attention and awareness makes a lot of sense. As Graziano says below, his theory posits that awareness "is the brain's own fuzzy description of attention. A brain attends to thing X; the brain constructs the description, 'I am aware of thing X.'" Read the whole thing: Theories of consciousness are always a difficult sell because the topic is fraught with religious and spiritual issues. Almost all people who think about the question,…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi Vedanta/Advaita

Pink Panther and Alan Watts on nonduality

I'm reading a book about nonduality by David Loy that has a pleasingly appropriate title, "Nonduality." Loy is a Zen practitioner and a university professor.  I like his style. He thinks. He analyzes. He studies the relationship between substance philosophies like Vedanta (Self is real) and flux philosophies like Buddhism (nothing is immutable). Loy is helping me to realize that nonduality really isn't about oneness. It is about the rather obvious fact that this requires a that. And light requires dark. And self requires non-self. And life requires death. And so on and so on and so on. Oneness is…
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Posted inScience

Relativity “mysticism”: no time and no space at speed of light

Who needs spiritual/religious mysticism? Science has plenty of it. And here's the great thing: it is real! In the August 31 issue of New Scientist magazine I came across a letter to the editor that blew my mind. Repeatedly. Because every time I re-read the letter, I got the same Whhhhhaaaaaatttttt? sensation. Wilken Sporys from Christmas Hills, Victoria, Australia commented on a New Scientist story about the nature of reality that I blogged about last month. The basic notion of the story was "Something has to go -- reality, relativity, causality, free will. They can't all coexist as how they…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Guru Gurinder Singh Dhillon gets wild and crazy

Below is another interesting message from Osho Robbins. He relates how he saw the current Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru behaving in a way that is far from traditional. Here's my take on this: It is only when we put gurus up on an undeserved pedestal, viewing them as other-worldly beings rather than ordinary humans, that behavior like Robbins describes appears unusual. For many years I was a devotee of Gurinder Singh's predecessor, Charan Singh. People would be amazed at Charan Singh doing everyday things, like reading a newspaper. Likewise, in the early days of Gurinder Singh's realm, people would…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

Be like Keats: embrace your “negative capability”

The final chapter in Oliver Burkeman's marvelous book, "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking," is called Negative Capability. I liked it a lot.  Get your negative on! You'll feel better. Here's some excerpts from the chapter. That letter [by the poet John Keats] records what one Keats biographer has called a 'touchstone moment' in the history of literature: I had not a dispute but a disquisition, with Dilke on various subjects; several things dove-tailed in my mind, and at once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth

Our physical self dies; our symbolic self believes it won’t

When I'm in a complaining mood, I like to curse the cosmos for crap that particularly annoys me. Who asked for this stuff? We'd be better off without it.  For example... Fourteen billion or so years after the big bang, life on Earth has evolved to the point that we humans can envisage the possibility of our self existing forever, even though it is obvious that every single Homo sapiens who has ever lived, has died. This is totally fucked up. Whoever is in charge of the cosmos, and it seems pretty damn clear that nobody is, there's obviously hugely…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

More thoughts on being your own “religion of one”

I've been enjoying the comments that have been left on my previous post, "Become your own weird religion of one." Thanks particularly to commenters "cc" and "Willie R."  You've made me think. About my own thinking. And wonder. About my own wondering.  In the post I said that I found it difficult to believe that I believe what I believe. That's true, but "cc" correctly noted there still is an illogical intuitive consistency in the weird stuff that courses through my psyche. Yes, everyone holds irrational beliefs and most of us believe we're not irrational people, but no one can…
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Posted inReligions Spiritual practice/meditation

Become your own weird religion of one

I'm churchless. I don't belong to any organized religion. But actually I'm still religious. In a marvelously disorganized sense.  Meaning, I believe in a religion of one -- my own. It's all about me, myself, and I. There are no other members of my religion than moi.  And I seek no other members. In fact, it would be impossible for anyone else than me to believe in my religion, because not even I do.  Likely you're confused about what I just said. Join the club. I am also. Believe me, I find it difficult to believe that I believe what…
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Posted inBooks Spiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

Religions’ search for security is self-defeating

My last post was about an over-zealous "security" volunteer at a meeting of a religious organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas.  Coming across some quotes today from Alan Watts' marvelous book, "The Wisdom of Insecurity," in another excellent book -- "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking" -- made me realize that the problem with the irritating security volunteer was his attachment to a religious teaching which promises security in the form of god-realization, salvation, eternal life in a heavenly realm. Security. This really isn't the solution to our problems, but the problem itself. Watts cogently points out…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Sevadar egos gone wild at RSSB’s Haynes Park center

Below is a message from Osho Robbins about how cult'ish meetings of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) devotees have become.  I can relate to what he says, based on my own experience. In the 1990's I was a "security" volunteer at RSSB gatherings featuring the current guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon. I got carried away with my own supposed importance, just like the person Robbins encountered. After all, if the guru is God, and the chain of command emanating from the guru instructs you to perform certain duties, then... you're doing God's will! Sure, that's bullshit, but bullshit is what fuels religions.…
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Posted inScience Spiritual practice/meditation

Metacognition tip: don’t worry about your worrying

I used to believe in positive thinking. Now, that seems like way too much trouble. I've become a lot more accepting of myself the way I actually am, rather than setting up some sort of Ideal Me that I'd compare myself to unfavorably. This is one of the big problems with religiosity. Being human is viewed as not good enough. Divinity, perfection, enlightenment -- that becomes the goal of life. So when I was browsing in central Oregon's marvelous Paulina Springs Bookstore and saw a book called "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking," I had to…
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Posted inWu Project

How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest afterwards

This morning I rode my bike around a Camp Sherman, Oregon loop. Cabin to store to bike path to Lake Creek Lodge to trail-through-woods to gravel road to cabin. Along the way, which involved considerable pedaling, I came across a sign which led me to stop and do almost nothing -- except stand, pull my iPhone out, and snap a photo. This seems to be a Spanish proverb. Totally believable. Isn't the siesta a significant part of the Spanish lifestyle? (If not, don't tell me; I'm a habitual napper who enjoys feeling like I've got some Spanish heritage that impels…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Science

Near-death experiences could be hyperactivity of dying brain

Here's another nail in the near-death experience (NDE) coffin for those who believe that NDE's point to some sort of supernatural, non-physical, soulful, heaven'ish aspect of reality. The brains of dying rats show signs not of a lack of brain activity, but of hyperactivity. A last neurological gasp, so to speak.  A burst of brain activity just after the heart stops may be the cause of so-called near-death experiences, scientists say. The insight comes from research involving nine lab rats whose brains were analyzed as they were being euthanized. Researchers discovered what appears to be a momentary increase in electrical…
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Posted inReligions

Preachiness on my churchless blog is irritating

I'm pretty patient with people who want to leave religious'y comments on this blog. But eventually my patience wears thin.  I don't mind a few "I love [insert name of divine being] so much!" kinds of comments. Hey, I've been there and done that -- wanted to share my religious zeal with the world.  Eventually, though, the situation becomes akin to an alcoholic coming to a 12-step group where the members are dedicated to weaning themselves from a dependency on excessive drinking. And supporting each other in finding non-alcoholic ways of living life. The first question is: why is an…
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Posted inReality

Two poems by Mary Oliver and Wei Wu Wei

Mary Oliver: The Lilies Break Open Over the Dark Water Inside that mud-hive, that gas-sponge,  that reeking   leaf-yard, that rippling dream-bowl, the leeches' flecked and swirling  broth of life, as rich   as Babylon, the fists crack open and the wands  of the lilies   quicken, they rise like pale poles with their wrapped beaks of lace;  one day   they tear the surface, the next they break open over the dark water.  And there you are   on the shore, fitful and thoughtful, trying to attach them to an idea—   some news of your own life.     But the lilies are slippery and wild—they are devoid of meaning, they are  simply doing,   from the deepest spurs of their being, what they are impelled…
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Posted inScience

“Scientism” is a compliment, not an insult

I've never understood why so many people fear science. Science has never harmed me. In fact, I have no idea how I'd ever recognize this "Science."  Kind of difficult to be afraid of something that doesn't exist. Science isn't an actual entity. It is an abstraction. Likewise, nobody has ever listened to Music. They have heard actual pieces of music, compositions of one sort or another, but never Music with a capital "M." So when people criticize Science, I have no idea what they are talking about. Often their dislike is expressed through the supposedly perjorative word, "scientism." Another abstraction.…
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