Posted inBooks Buddhism

Zen and Jack Reacher have this in common

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Black Butte Ranch in central Oregon, where we spent several days with my daughter's (Celeste) family -- Patrick (husband) and Evelyn (my granddaughter). They live in southern California and came up for Evelyn's orientation at the University of Oregon, where she'll be a freshman this fall. Yesterday we made a trip into Sisters for lunch and to browse Paulina Springs Books, a wonderful small town bookstore where I always find something to buy. Two of the three books I purchased were Lee Child's Make Me and Hiking Zen by…
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Posted inMeaning of life Taoism/Tai Chi

Do we really need life to have meaning? Here’s an argument for why we don’t.

It's a delight when I write a post on some subject and get a comment that makes me think, "Wow, good points; I've never thought of that before." This happened with my previous post, What's been most meaningful for me usually wasn't very pleasurable. I've always assumed that meaning is something that is universally valued by people. After all, we hear "That meant a lot to me" and "Doing _______ was one of the most meaningful experiences I've ever had." But I admit that I've never given much thought to what meaning really means. It's just been a word that…
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Posted inMeaning of life

What’s been most meaningful for me usually wasn’t very pleasurable

Not surprisingly, the older I get, the more often I'm confronted with deaths of friends and relatives. That comes with the aging territory at some point, a point I've definitely reached at age 76.  Recently a neighbor died who was a few years younger than me. His wife shared an obituary of sorts on Facebook, describing her husband's life -- his interests, hobbies, jobs, and such. I pay more attention to these life summaries than I used to, since I've been doing some pondering of what I'd like said about me after I die. Since I've been an avid writer…
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Posted inConsciousness Neuroscience

As an idea, the immaterial soul is dead

As I noted in my previous post about how belief in a human "essence" is almost certainly wrong, Julian Baggini goes on a search for such an entity in his book The Ego Trick: What Does It Mean To Be You? Everywhere he looks, using a blend of neuroscience and philosophy, the search comes up empty. He persuasively argues that an unchanging essence can't be found in the body and it can't be found in the mind -- since both body and mind are changeable with no sign of an essence. Then Baggini expands the search to include the religious…
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Posted inBuddhism Neuroscience

Belief in a human “essence” is strong, but almost certainly wrong

On the whole I agree with Amit Sood's view of things. He's an M.D. who has written a book about a more modern approach to mindfulness that I enjoyed reading. I decided to buy a recent book of his, It Takes You to Tango: Leverage the Science of Loneliness to Master the Art of Connection. It's turned out to be sort of a disappointment. I'm liking the book, but so far it hasn't really done much to inform or interest me. And when I came to several chapters about what Sood calls the Esse, an essence in every person deeper…
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Posted inBuddhism

Not knowing is most intimate — a Zen koan that I grasped instantly

Zen master Henry Shukman's The Way app, which I embarked on in January of this year and have been enjoying ever since, contains guided meditations that include koans.  Pleasingly, Shukman's view of koans isn't that they are a spiritual puzzle to be solved, but simply messages to consider and see what effect the koan has on us. A few days ago he introduced a koan that I was unfamiliar with: Not knowing is most intimate. Two Zen teachers meet; one is carrying his bags. “Where are you going?”, inquires the first teacher. “I’m going on a pilgrimage”, the other teacher…
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Posted inPolitics

U.S. bombs Iran. What happens next is unknown. But Trump is thankful to God.

Today B-2 bombers attacked Iran's nuclear sites on the order of President Trump. I'm no fan of Trump, to put it mildly, but this isn't the worst thing he has done.  Iran has been denying that it seeks to build a nuclear bomb. But it's been enriching uranium to levels that are far beyond what's needed for civilian nuclear purposes, such as generating electricity. Israel is justifiably concerned that if Iran did get a nuclear bomb, it could be used to destroy much of their country. Problem is, life is inherently unpredictable. Wars, even more so. At the moment there's…
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Posted inMystics Psychedelics

The “God Molecule,” 5-MeO-DMT, points to divinity residing in the physical brain

My wife is an avid reader of Apple News. Today she sent me a link to a story in New York Magazine that she correctly realized I'd be interested in, "Who will own the 'God Molecule'?" Subtitle: Psychedelic devotees are racing biotech entrepreneurs to turn 5-MeO-DMT into a pharmaceutical.  It isn't possible for me to share the entire lengthy story, so I'll just talk about some things that struck me in the piece, along with some excerpts.  I experimented with psychedelics (LSD and mescaline, primarily) while in college during the 1960s. They were a big part of the flower power…
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Posted inNeuroscience

Violent crimes have much to teach us about fast and slow thinking

In 2011 I bought, read, and enjoyed Daniel Kahneman's book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow." In a blog post I wrote about the book, I included some passages from Kahneman about System 1 (fast) and System 2 (slow) modes of thinking. Some years ago, the psychologist Timothy Wilson wrote a book with the evocative title Strangers to Ourselves. You have now been introduced to that stranger in you, which may be in control of much of what you do, although you rarely have a glimpse of it. System 1 [the fast brain] provides the impressions that often turn into your beliefs,…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Two 14-year old girls raped by Radha Soami Satsang Beas worker

For those who don't believe that sexual assault doesn't occur in Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), the India-based religious organization headquartered in India that I belonged to for 35 years, here's a story from October 2024 about the rape of two girls by a RSSB sevadar, or volunteer worker. There's a good chance this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sexual assault in the organization.  A shocking case of rape of two minor girls has come to light from Radha Soami Satsang Beas in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.The victims, who used to play in the premises…
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Posted inMindfulness Spiritual practice/meditation

Acceptance, says the Mindful Geek, is the key to real growth in meditation

I've meditated almost every day since 1969, when I became studying yoga during my college years under the instruction of a crazed Greek man who blended Christianity and Hinduism in a strange way.  Even so, I still consider myself almost as much of a beginner when it comes to meditation at my age of 76 as I was at the age of 20. (Guess that's why I like the book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.) I have no idea what produces real growth in meditation. But other people do. Like the author of The Mindful Geek, Michael W. Taft. I started…
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Posted inPolitics Radha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Why religious disillusionment can be more painful than political or work disillusionment

Today the Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted to move ahead with the investigation of a complaint against the Mayor of Salem and city councilors that I'd filed last March with the Commission. I wrote about this on my Salem Political Snark blog in "Ethics Commission approves investigation of my complaint against Mayor Hoy." That made me feel really good, as I'd put quite a bit of time and effort into researching and filing the complaint. I did this because it bothered me that Mayor Hoy appeared to have engaged in prohibited private "serial communications" with members of the City Council…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Why I removed the previous post

UPDATE: Because some of the comments on this post are wildly inaccurate, here's some additional context. I still feel bound by confidentiality to not state explicitly why the person who provided me with information about the Sabnanis asked me to remove the previous post. So I'll simply state some general observations about my experience with other religious "whistleblowers." After I started this blog in 2004, I've heard from many people disillusioned either with the teachings of their religious organization (usually, but not always, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, because I belonged to the group for 35 years) or with the behavior…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth

Got some good and bad news: I’m going to die on December 7, 2039

If you can't stand this heretical, ungodly, religion-bashing blog, I've got some good news for you. The Death Clock app says I'm going to die in December 2039. (I don't expect to be writing blog posts after I die, unless an atheist miracle happens.)  The bad news is that this is about 14 1/2 years from now. So you're going to have to put up with many more blog posts that you dislike. The Death Clock app calls their when-you're-going-to-die prediction "Save the Date." Church of the Churchless haters might want to start making plans for a Yay He's Finally…
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Posted inIndia Mindfulness

How Amit Sood escaped his Asian Indian spiritual traditions

Once in a while I enjoy picking up Mindfulness Redesigned for the Twenty-First Century, by Amit Sood, M.D. to remind myself why I liked the book so much when I first read it in 2019. Here's the blog posts I wrote about Sood's book back then. Mindfulness Redesigned for the Twenty-First Century -- my new favorite bookDalai Lama isn't big on single-pointed attentionDon't look within for inner peace. Look without. This morning I re-read the "Guilty and Back" chapter where Sood describes how the traditions he grew up with in India held him back from coming up with the modern…
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Posted inMeaning of life Reality

This is a great scene in Netflix’s The Four Seasons about emotions and reality

Sometimes I get more meaning and wisdom from a short television scene than from a long book. That was the case last night when my wife and I finished watching The Four Seasons on Netflix, a streaming series (not to be confused with the 1981 romantic comedy with the same name). I can't avoid giving away an important happening in the final episode, so consider this a spoiler alert. It really isn't necessary to understand what The Four Seasons is all about to appreciate the dialogue in a scene that I thought was really well written and thought-provoking. But here's…
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Posted inReality Science

Quantum theory is still largely unexplained, but that’s how science works

Quantum theory (or quantum mechanics) is the foundation of our modern world. Without it, we wouldn't have computers, the Internet, GPS, and so many other inventions that we've come to take for granted.  I'm fascinated by quantum theory. Though it is generally associated with goings-on at the atomic and subatomic level, not at the level of everyday life, since everything is made up of particles and energy, obviously the existence of we humans and all that surrounds us is dependent on quantum processes. This is where much of the mystery of quantum theory resides: how is it that the uncertain,…
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Posted inNeuroscience

You can feel better by giving yourself the advice you’d give someone else

Subjectivity is what separates us from other people. Meaning, each of us knows our self as a subject, a person we know from the inside, while we know someone else as an object, a person we know from the outside.  I recall that Sartre discussed this at some length in Being and Nothingness, a book that I devoured as a college student during my existentialism phase, but which, when I looked at it fairly recently, gave me more of a headache than inspiration. Still, Sartre was on the right track when he spoke about being the Other to a friend…
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Posted inGod Politics

If you’ve been looking for God’s Chosen One, his name is Donald

I'm aware that many people who visit this blog, notwithstanding its churchless nature, are either believers in God or are searching for a sign of God's presence in the world. Well, I've got some good news for you. There's no need to journey to India, no need to pray deeply, no need to meditate assiduously. For I learned today that God's Chosen One isn't hiding from view but is readily apparent. Way too readily apparent for my liking. But I'm biased, since I neither believe in God nor in God's Chosen One. So I'm pleased to share the name of…
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Posted inFundamentalism Politics

“Original Sin” book about Biden’s decline also has lessons about religious zealotry

When I first heard about the book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, I wondered why that title was selected. Not the subtitle, the main title, Original Sin. I bought the book recently and have read a bit less than a quarter of it. That's enough to tell me why it's called Original Sin. Since the title has religious implications, I figured sharing some excerpts from the first seven chapters would be an interesting exercise in how politics and religion often have quite a bit in…
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