Posted inPersonal/Stories

Life lessons learned on a Maui beach

I always feel pleasantly alive when my wife and I visit our favorite Maui beach, Napili. There's just something about a tropical beach that screams (or rather, murmurs) this is what life is all about.  It isn't just the warm air and water speaking. There's also something else. Elemental. Honest. Real. No need to try to name it. But I enjoy trying to talk about it. Last year I blogged about some life lessons I've learned boogie boarding.  -- You can't control the big things.-- You can control how you relate to big things.-- Change is the only constant.-- Don't be afraid of being the only one.-- Rushing…
10
Posted inBuddhism

Even Hardcore Zen is too softcore for me

I've come across Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen site several times. I know this, despite my sometimes bad memory, because I always look at the t-shirts for sale. So I remember a repeated feeling of "Seems like I should be the sort of guy to wear a Hardcore Zen t-shirt, but they don't appeal to me." Too Buddhist'y, even with the Buddhist dogmatism and religiosity supposedly removed. I have the same reaction to Warner's recent post, When You Reach Pure Awareness You Will Have No Problems.  He makes fun of Deepak Chopra, which I like. Chopra tweeted "When you reach pure awareness…
5
Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

Mitt Romney, you’re wrong: this isn’t a Christian nation

There are lots of reasons for people in the United States to vote for President Obama rather than Mitt Romney in November. Romney's sucking up to evangelical Christians is just one reason -- but an important one. In a recent speech at a hotbed of Christian'ist fundamentalism, Liberty University, Romney told the assembled believers in an imaginary God the untruths they wanted to hear. In the same week that President Obama galvanized his base by endorsing same-sex marriage, Mr. Romney’s message was that evangelicals could count on him to operate as president under “a common worldview,” including his position that marriage…
5
Posted inReality Science Universe

Physics knows more about “nothing” than theology or philosophy

It's amazing, how much can be said about nothing. Nothing always has been a favorite topic of theologians and philosophers. Now physicists are getting into the Nothing Game, big time (see here and here). There's a basic dispute between fact-focused scientists on one side, and concept-obsessed thinkers on the other: is "nothing" a something that can be investigated, or an absolute absence of anything? (including "absence") I've read a bunch of books and articles that argue both sides of this question, which is central to the classic Why is there something rather than nothing? question. More and more I favor…
6
Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

“Magic” of Sant Mat guru-hypnotists explained

Hypnotism works. Sadly. Otherwise I would have spent the past forty-two years believing that I looked just like a young Paul Newman. Below you'll find an email message I received a few days ago from someon who persuasively argues that what Sant Mat gurus do is take advantage of quasi-hypnotic suggestibility. Devoted disciples are told, over and over, that the guru has divine powers. They're also told, over and over, that they will experience certain mystical lights and sounds under the guru's direction. Not surprisingly, some disciples say they've had such experiences. Then those tales get added to the store…
39
Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

“Search Inside Yourself” — compassionate, scientific, businesslike

I've got a new favorite book: Chade-Meng Tan's Search Inside Yourself -- the unexpected path to achieving success, happiness (and world peace). It didn't take much searching inside myself to realize that I liked Tan's approach to mindfulness, meditation, and all that stuff. Just reading the forewords by Daniel Goldman and Jon Kabat-Zinn, along with Tan's first two chapters, had my inner self saying "Yes, yes, yes" this morning. Here's one Yes passage: In learning and teaching meditation, the good news is that mindfulness is embarassingly easy. It is easy because we already know what it's like, and it's something…
1
Posted inScience

Neuroscience says people aren’t things. We’re processes.

Who am I? That's a big question. For the ancient Greeks, and many others, it's the biggest question. "Know yourself." An imperative. Modern neuroscience is casting factual light on this philosophical issue. Well, not only philosophical. Religon, spirituality, mysticism -- they also have explanations of what essential human nature is. Usually, dualistic. Meaning, supposedly there's the human body, which includes the brain. Then there's a mysterious something else. Soul, mind, psyche, spirit, some thing which inhabits, connects with, or otherwise associates with the body while we're physically alive. But since that thing isn't physical, usually it is believed to survive bodily death.…
5
Posted inScience Wu Project

Great free will question: What do we want to be free from?

Having given up a belief in resurrection, physical immortality, eternal soul, or living on through my works, I've settled on another approach for dealing with my eventual demise: Not being me.  Now, some will say, "That's Buddhism 101." Sort of true. Anatta, not-self, is indeed a core Buddhist concept. But I'm lazy. Buddhists, including those of the Zen variety, go through a heck of a lot of effort to realize that the entity striving to become enlightened doesn't exist. My feeling is, why not simply begin and end with the nothing-much-of-anything that I am?  Done. Finis. Enlightenment trophy, please. There's no…
23
Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Profound significance of “blowing Willie Nelson” joke

Last night my wife and I saw humorist David Sedaris at Salem's oh-so-cool historic Elsinore Theatre. There's a lot to like about Sedaris. He's gay, liberal, funny, ironic, cynical, profane, and a really good writer. Also, thoughtful. Many of his jokes make you think. They've got layers of meaning. Here's my favorite joke, which I tweeted after the show, minus Sedaris' entertaining set-up to it. What's the last thing you want to hear while blowing Willie Nelson? "I'm not Willie Nelson." (Note to those who aren't conversant in American slang: "blowing" is synonomous with "giving a blow job," which is synonymous…
6
Posted inGod Religions Science

Analytical thinking weakens religious belief

This is one of those scientific findings that cause me to say, "Well, yeah, of course!": analytical thinking leads people away from religious believing. TIME magazine has a good summary of the not-unexpected research conclusions. We all fly both ways, on the complementary wings of intuition and analysis. These basically correspond to "fast thinking" and "slow thinking," the brain's System 1 and System 2 in the parlance of Daniel Kahneman (see my blog post, Don't mistake God for your intuitive brain speaking. Sometimes it makes sense to intuit; other times, to analyze. As the TIME article says, both brain capabilities…
2
Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

David Chapman: “There are no spiritual problems”

I knew I'd like David Chapman's most recent blog post when I saw the title. There are no spiritual problems.  Amen to that, brother David.  I don't usually say "brother," but it seems fitting here. Recently I was thinking bloggishly along the same lines in My new Major Life Project: don't have one. Except, as noted before after I first came across Chapman's writings... I've read several posts/chapters and am blown away by this guy. He's like a more intelligent, more scientific, more coherent, more wise version of me who also can write a heck of a lot better. And…
3
Posted inChristianity/Jesus Radha Soami Satsang Beas

What if Jesus had acted like a rich Indian guru?

A few days ago "Jimi" left a comment on my blog post, Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru makes $254 million. He/she said, in part: I've been reading this article and comments and I'm not sure what the issue is... It looks like BJ [Baba Gurinder Singh Ji, the guru] and family bought some shares and sold them and made a profit. What's wrong with that? Am I missing something? Is there something wrong with him being wealthy? I replied: Jimi, you are indeed missing something. Gurinder Singh got a special insider deal on the shares. He didn't buy them as…
28
Posted inPersonal/Stories

My new Major Life Project: don’t have one

For most of my 63 year-old life I've had what could be called a Major Life Project. Meaning, an overarching ambition aimed at transforming not just part of my life, but all of it.  "Mystical enlightenment." "God realization." "Knowledge of ultimate reality." "Soul travel." "Salvation." These are ways of saying what I aspired toward, though it's difficult to put into words. What propelled my Major Life Project since my college years was a feeling, an intuition, a drive.  I wanted to know... I wanted to experience... I wanted to be... What followed those ellipses...? I wasn't sure. I had some…
2
Posted inBooks Personal/Stories

Boxing up books reminds me of a beautiful book, freely-given

I just finished mailing off 87 pounds of books I once was deeply attached to. As related in my previous blog post, "Break free of the religious merry-go-round," I got an email from a woman in India who was looking for early editions of books published by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). I told her that I had plenty of them.  After a few additional rounds of messaging, it was decided that I should send the books to her two daughters, who live in the United States. They'll find ways to get the books over to her in New Delhi, such…
9
Posted inBooks Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Break free of the religious merry-go-round

I liked this image as soon as I saw it shared by someone in my Facebook feed. Horses running free, coming vibrantly alive after they escape from their wooden attachment to a merry-go-round (or carousel). It resonated with my irreligious non-soul.  Interestingly, Anne Wipf, the artist who created "Freedom - the Carousel," is big into fantasy. The image is posted on Elfwood, described as the world's largest sci-fi and fantasy community. Well, each to his/her own. I saw this image and thought free of fantastical religion!. Others look upon it and think free of restrictive reality! Fine. We're on the same…
14
Posted inDeath/Rebirth

How to live happily until you die

Religious believers have dogmas that comfort when death stares them in the face. Resurrection of the body. Eternal survival of the soul. Some secular "survivalists" hold onto equally unfounded hypotheses: that their body can be kept alive for a really long time through a health/medical breakthrough, or kept frozen and reanimated in some advanced technological future.  (Uploading of one's brain contents to a back-up brain or computerized alternative is another dream of those who desire immortality outside of religion.) In his "Immortality," a book I've blogged about recently here and here, Stephen Cave persuasively demolishes the efficacy of these three…
6
Posted inDeath/Rebirth

Cells, common ancestors, and Gaia — suggestions of immortality

Like I said in my post "We can never be dead (but we're not immortal," in his book Stephen Cave does an excellent job of describing ways we humans attempt to achieve immortality -- then showing why they aren't up to the job. Staying alive... we can try to make our years on Earth as many as possible, but it's obvious that everybody dies eventually. Resurrection... Jesus supposedly did it, but there's no solid evidence of this, and no proof anyone else has pulled off the trick either. Soul... nice idea, that a conscious non-physical aspect of us continues on…
4
Posted inDeath/Rebirth

We can never be dead (but we’re not immortal)

I've got some bad news and some good news for those who believe they have, or are, a soul. Bad news is, almost certainly the soul doesn't exist.  The good news is, no matter. Because we can never be dead. However, the good news doesn't mean we're immortal, which is the promise of soul. It just means, as Stephen Cave says in his fascinating book, "Immortality," that it is impossible for us humans to imagine our own nonexistence -- because whenever we try to do this, we're still alive. That's what I learned from a quote in the leadoff reader…
4
Posted inReality Science Taoism/Tai Chi

How humans perceive the cosmos isn’t how it really is

Really. A great word. It can be used, or said, so many ways.  Put a question mark on the end; add a note of sarcasm; and you've got an ironic Really? Or... Finish with an exclamation mark; make your tone confident; and you've got a declarative Really! I find it easy to swing both ways. To me, the scientific method is our best way of defending a Really! However, this only applies what can really be known by us humans. And what we can know is determined/limited by how we know -- using the human brain and sense organs. So when…
20