Posted inBuddhism

Now is the simplest place and time to be

Here's how I've come to look upon now: its the best place to live out my life, because it is the simplest and least complex residence my psyche can reside in. Also, my inescapable home. So I might as well embrace what is impossible to be separate from. During my waking hours, I always have to deal in one way or another with what is happening now. Even if I'm lying down doing nothing, that doing nothing is something. Question is, how much extra do I add to the inescapable now? Dealing with now is an irreducible minimum experience; adding…
18
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Sorting out your wantings with a thought cloud

Obviously I don't know how your brain/mind works. Heck, I don't even know how my brain/mind works, even though so far as I, neuroscience, and Buddhism can tell, there is no difference between me and my brain/mind. (From here on out I'll just say "mind" instead of "brain/mind," since the mind is the brain in action.) Nevertheless, what I feel when I ponder some subject is that thought clouds, for lack of a better term, start to form and float around within conscious awareness.  Each is a concept of sorts. But maybe more like a feeling. Or an intuition. Regardless, they…
No Comments
Posted inReligions Spiritual practice/meditation

Imagine how you felt when you still believed

Almost everybody has believed in imaginary things.  God. Angels. Bigfoot. Flying saucers. Soul. That the barista at the coffee shop is really attracted to you when he/she smiles while handing over your drink. The list is endless. Because it feels good to believe in things that we want to be real, but almost certainly aren't.  How do we tell the difference between reality and illusion, fact and belief, actuality and hope? By using an everyday form of the scientific method: predict what would happen if your belief really is true. If that prediction comes to pass, or if the experiment…
8
Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Make your own meaning… no validation required

I love the idea that life is meaningless. It fills me with joy to think that the cosmos doesn't give a crap about me, nor does the God who doesn't exist, nor the oft-mentioned "universe" -- in the sense of the universe is trying to teach me a lesson. No it isn't. Whatever lesson you or I are going to learn from an experience will come from us. Ditto for meaning. I used to believe there was an objectively real Meaning of Life. The main goal of life was to figure out what that truth was. But meaning isn't a fact…
14
Posted inReality

Reality is the only grace we need

Grace. An intriguing word.  It can mean smoothness of movement. But in spiritual and religious circles, there is a different meaning.  a :  unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctificationb :  a virtue coming from God c :  a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace This sort of grace implies mitigation of an undesirable state. God gives us the grace of salvation, enlightenment, or whatever because we need saving or enlightening. Or whatever. So God, usually considered to be the creator and sustainer of existence, makes the creation imperfect. Or at least produces the circumstances for sin, error, and…
1
Posted inHumor

Comic Jessi Klein’s story about her dream job

Here's something questionably/ definitely/ absolutely not (take your choice) spiritually significant. Click on segment 1. Listen. Smile. Laugh. Learn. Loved the ending. And comic Klein's attitude. More and more, I think comics are the wisest people on Earth. In addition to the funniest. Age old moral here: be yourself. Not the person you believe either you or someone else wants you to be. Bonus extra visual addition: if you listen to Klein's podcast and are intrigued by her mention of Blake Lively, here's a photo. (Klein speaks the truth.) Double bonus extra visual addition: if you listen to Klein's podcast…
No Comments
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Almost-65 me is asked “what best prepares for old age?”

Longer ago than I want to admit (I dislike procrastination, even though I engage in it frequently), someone who was reading my book about Plotinus, "Return to the One," emailed me a good question about growing old. More recently, he reminded me of the question that I hadn't answered. Here's part of his email. Have you got around to putting any thought into my last inquiry...  “In light of Platonism and maintaining good mental health, what would you say might prepare a person best for old age, as in the interval between old age and death?” Even though I may…
19
Posted inReligions

Religion Cheat Sheet — see what faith you believe in

When I got an email from someone representing Christian Universities Online who shared a link to their "Religion Cheat Sheet," I deleted the message after a quick lookover. But the next day this person said she was checking to see how I liked the infographic. If I did, was I going to pass it along to my blog readers? Well, Hailey, actually I do like the Religion Cheat Sheet. It's a clever and seemingly pretty darn accurate flow chart of what religion you end up with, given your answers to a few questions.  Give it a look-see below, or via…
No Comments
Posted inGod Science

God is as real as human consciousness

Below is a highly persuasive answer to the question, "Is God real?" I like the answer a lot, mostly because it is the answer I would have given to the question if I was as neuroscientifically wise as Michael Graziano, author of "Consciousness and the Social Brain," a book I've blogged about here and here. (Check out my Amazon review of the book.) Near the end of his book, Graziano asks Does God Exist? Here's extended quotes from that section. Graziano is such a good writer and thinker, I'm wary of paraphrasing this Professor of Neuroscience at Princeton University. Across all…
3
Posted inScience

A puppet is as conscious as you are

I'm back!... to writing about Michael Graziano's super-interesting book, "Consciousness and the Social Brain." It was the subject of my Awareness is a fictionalized sketch of attention, which encapsulated the central theme of his neuroscientific theory. Every time I pick up the book I'm challenged to look at myself and the world in a fresh way. A believable way. Yet sometimes, a rather disturbing way. Like when I read this morning, after Graziano described how a ventriloquist makes a puppet look like it is alive, he said: It seems crazy to insist that the puppet's consciousness is real. And yet,…
No Comments
Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

Finding joy in a meaningless life

A few days ago I was riding my bike in central Oregon. I was having a good time cruising around the dirt roads and nicely graveled bike paths in oh-so-charming Camp Sherman, where the Metolius River flows. Pedaling along, idly pondering the Meaning of It All, my brain ejected a marvelous thought that instantly struck me as having a great intuitive appeal. There's no meaning to life, which is absolutely freaking glorious! I felt like a weight had been lifted from my pondering psyche. Meaning is heavy, man. It isn't something you toss around lightly.  Even if you're no longer…
11
Posted inScience

Awareness is a fictionalized sketch of attention

The title of this post is a quote from p. 79 of Michael Graziano's highly persuasive and fascinating book, "Consciousness and the Social Brain." As noted in my previous post about neuroscientist Graziano's creative theory about what awareness is, I bought the book after reading an article by the author. I'm loving it. Probably the best book about the brain I've ever read, and I've read a lot. Graziano is an excellent writer (cover says he is "an award winning novelist). His take on awareness makes more sense than anything mystics, philosophers, meditators, or other scientists have come up with.…
8
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Missing dog food can shows power of false belief

"Where is the dog food left over from what you fed them last night?" My wife, Laurel, asked a simple question. It led to a fascinating insight into how our brains work. OK, how my brain worked after I heard the question. But my brain is pretty damn normal most of the time. And I've read enough neuroscience books to know that how I responded is a good example of how false beliefs that can seem absolutely true take root in the human brain. Laurel added, "I can't find it in the refrigerator." I told her, "It must be there.…
1
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…
1
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…
7
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…
3
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…
2
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,…
6
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…
10
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…
2