Posted inFree will Meaning of life

Forget God, forget prayer, forget magical thinking. There’s no path in life other than the steps already taken.

Back when I was a member of an Eastern guru-centered religion, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), there was a lot of talk among RSSB initiates about being on the Path. That word, path, came with capital letters because this was a very special spiritual path, one that supposedly led from the illusion of this dark material world to the ultimate reality of God and heaven, a.k.a. Sat Purush and Sach Khand. Now, thankfully, I've grown out of that magical thinking. I'm happy seeing things as they are, not as how I fantasized them to be. I realize that the only…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Long-time initiate explains why they lost faith in Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the RSSB guru

Here's another religious de-conversion story from someone who gave me permission to share their story of how they lost faith in the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), Gurinder Singh Dhillon (GSD). It always warms my heart to hear from people who came to realize that a supposed spiritual leader actually wasn't acting in a moral or upstanding fashion, so no longer deserved their loyalty. Hi Brian, I hope you are well! I have for years, checked in on your website for updates on all things RSSB - from a different perspective to that of the active sangat. I…
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Posted inAlan Watts Taoism/Tai Chi

Winter Olympics has a lesson for us: trying hard to succeed often leads to less success

Yesterday I wrote a post for my HinesSight blog about how an American ice skater fared in what was expected to be a gold medal performance. Here's some excerpts from "Ilia Malinin lost an Olympic ice skating medal, but he won the heart of people who also have screwed-up big time." For me the most tragic moment in this year’s Winter Olympics was Ilia Malinin, a hugely talented American figure skater, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory when he bungled a seemingly certain gold medal by falling twice in a performance where Malinin was so far ahead of his…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) now says the guru is just a guide, not a savior

Here's another guest blog post from the person who used to belong to Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a religious organization based in India headed up by a guru, until they realized the downside of RSSB and became a thoughtful critic. I'll share my thoughts about what they said after the post. RSSB has updated information on their website. See below. RSSB literature (containing RSSB beliefs) states: Guru is perfect living master, param sant (perfect saint) or Satguru (the true guru) Guru is one with God Guru takes responsibility for your karmas Guru reduces karmic burdens to a pinprick Guru…
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Posted inScience Universe

Evolution could be even more fundamental than physics

Religious dogmatists don't like evolution because it undercuts their fantasy that God brought into being the world and everything in it via a single act of divine creation. Of course, that goes against all the evidence of a big bang setting off a 14 billion year process in which the universe changed from a subatomic speck to the tremendous size it is now, with that size continuing to expand at a speed greater than that of light. I've finished a book by Mark Vellend that views evolution as being at the root of much more than biology, Everything Evolves: Why…
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Posted inAlan Watts Spiritual practice/meditation

This is It, by Alan Watts, is a compelling essay about how unordinary our ordinary life is

In my previous blog post, I shared a quotation from Anne Watts, one of Alan Watts' children, that included an excerpt from one of his books, This is It. Liking the excerpt, I turned to my collection of Alan Watts books so I could take another look at This is It. I was surprised to see that I'd never bought This is It. No problem, Amazon delivered a copy yesterday. I read the short 11 page essay this morning. The book also includes five other essays about Zen and how Watts views spirituality. Wikipedia says This is It was published…
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Posted inAlan Watts Spiritual practice/meditation

Why it doesn’t make sense to take the advice of spiritual gurus

"Guru" often is used in a way that goes against the original meaning of the word, a religious or spiritual guide. The literal translation apparently is dispeller of darkness. So I guess a lighthouse keeper would definitely be a guru. More broadly, guru can mean a skilled instructor. If a golfer benefits from some putting tips provided by the club pro, they might say "That guy is a real golf guru." We all need that sort of advice from someone knowledgeable about a particular area. When I contact my doctor's office about a health problem that has popped up, I…
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Posted inHappiness

Rather than trying to be happy, work on making other people happy (then you’ll be happier)

Sort of like a bank shot in pool/billiards, there's reason to believe that the best way to become happy isn't to try to make yourself happy, but other people. Then happiness likely will circle around and visit you through a back door. This fits with something I failed to mention in my recent post, "After prostate surgery, I try to get some philosophical implications from the experience." Even though I wanted to have the surgery, as the date for it grew closer I had increasing worries about what could go wrong with it, including the prospect that it could make…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) and human dignity

Here's another guest blog post from "Anon," an ex-RSSB initiate. RSSB, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, is a religious organization based in India that's headed up by a guru. I belonged to RSSB for 35 years before, like Anon, finding meaning in life elsewhere. Anon makes some cogent points about the lack of human dignity in RSSB that unfortunately also is the case in many other religious organizations. RSSB and human dignity "Human dignity" means that every human being should have dignity and respect. Human dignity is the worth and special value every person possesses simply by being human. We all deserve equality,…
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Posted inMindfulness Spiritual practice/meditation

Three meditation tips that go against what I did for many years

I've meditated every day since I was 21 years old. So I've put in a heck of a lot of cushion and chair time in the past 56 years. (Yeah, I'm old.) What keeps me going with meditation is feeling like I've always got something to learn from the experience. Like life itself, no moment in meditation is the same as any other moment. Something always is changing in my mind, my surroundings, my body. I used to believe that there was One Best Way to meditate. Namely, the way that my guru taught. Looking back, that was an absurd…
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Posted inConsciousness Science

Consciousness: the hardest problem in science

Consciousness fascinates me. As it does to everyone, because fascination and everything else we experience, without exception, requires consciousness. Without consciousness, nothing exists for us. So when the February 2026 issue of Scientific American arrived in the mail, and I saw that the cover story was "The Hardest Problem in Science: Will brain science deliver answers about consciousness or hit another wall?," I got excited. Soon I began to read that article, even though I had other science magazines in my reading pile. Here's a PDF document of the article, which is in two pieces. What is consciousness? Science faces…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

After prostate surgery, I try to get some philosophical implications from the experience

Last Monday I got the TURP surgery done on my prostate by a doctor from Eugene's Oregon Urology Institute. I learned on October 31 of last year that the procedure could benefit me, though this isn't completely assured. If you're crazy enough to want to know the details, they're in a HinesSight blog post. I figure that I might as well try to glean some philosophical implications about life from my surgical experience. So here goes... In the three months between when I got the go-ahead for the surgery, and the actual surgery, I thought about all the things that…
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Posted inUncategorized

Some guidance for how to undertake a RSSB “diet” (not of food, but of dogma)

This is Part 3 of a three-part series of guest blog posts from “Anon,” an ex-RSSB initiate. Part 1 is “RSSB trauma is an example of spiritual abuse.” Part 2 is "Here's thirty-five RSSB trauma issues." RSSB stands for Radha Soami Satsang Beas, a religious organization based in India and headed up by a guru that I belonged to for over three decades. I found a similar list a long time ago by ex Christians who struggled with their faith and left. Some of the struggles were relevant, as spiritual/religious trauma has some similar themes. The RSSB list is a…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Here’s thirty-five RSSB trauma issues

This is Part 2 of a three-part series of guest blog posts from "Anon," an ex-RSSB initiate. Part 1 is "RSSB trauma is an example of spiritual abuse." RSSB stands for Radha Soami Satsang Beas, a religious organization based in India and headed up by a guru. I belonged to RSSB for 35 years, so I can testify to the validity of the trauma issues shown below. At the time I didn't think of those issues as being in the realm of trauma. They were just part of what came with belonging to RSSB. But now that I can look…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB trauma is an example of spiritual abuse

Here's another guest blog post from "Anon," an ex-RSSB initiate. RSSB stands for Radha Soami Satsang Beas, a religious organization based in India and headed up by a guru. I belonged to RSSB for 35 years before seeing the light of spiritual independence, so I enjoy sharing messages from other critics of the organization. After the post I'll share excerpts from a web page about spiritual abuse to show that religious trauma is a real thing. This is the first of three messages I got about RSSB trauma. I'll share the other two messages in future blog posts. RSSB trauma…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Plotinus

Stuck at Lake Partway — I revisit my Plotinus analogy through atheist eyes

Today I came across a passage in Robert Saltzman's book, Depending on no-thing, that reminded me of how I ended my book about the teachings of Plotinus, a 3rd century mystic Greek philosopher, Return to the One. Saltzman wrote in reply to a question from someone: You seem to imagine that suggestion as "negative." I don't see it that way, although it is related to the so-called via negativa, the traditional process of neti neti [not this, not that]. If someone actually wants to awake -- many more say they do than actually mean it -- that begins, in my…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Reality

Why believe a guru can do supernatural bad if the guru can’t do supernatural good?

We humans aren't purely rational beings. Sure, we have our moments of rationality. We also have our moments of irrationality. Both are part of being human. Emotions are a large part of our humanity, but in no way are love, hate, anger, sorrow, and such rational. Nor would we want them to be. Still.... Sometimes it amazes me when a person makes what seems to be a blatant failure of reason, or critical thinking. Understand: I've been that person myself, so I have direct experience of this. I also have indirect experience. Here's a recent example. During the 21 years…
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Posted inFree will Neuroscience

Claude, my new AI friend, just wrote a guest blog post about intentions, regret, and free will

Showing my age, through all those years I still distinctly remember a central lyric from the 1965 Animals song, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." I'm just a soul whose intentions are good, oh lord, please don't let me be misunderstood Maybe that's because as a junior in high school, I often felt that I was being misunderstood. By friends, my mother, by teachers. That's part of teenage angst. The lyrics hold up well, as regret is a feeling that is timeless. Baby, you understand me now?If sometimes you see that I'm madDon'tcha know that no one alive can always be…
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Posted inMindfulness

Worrying about the future distracts us from enjoying the present moment

In my previous post, "Not-knowing is wise, because we know so much less than what we think we know," I said: But it seems to me that a major source of my customary feeling of knowing what’s going on in my life comes from self-talk derived from a basic assumption that what I think will happen, actually will happen. Meaning, I wake up, envision what is on the day’s to-do list, and have a comforting feeling that I know how things are going to happen today. Problem is, that rarely happens. There’s always surprises. Something else comes up. I change…
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Posted inMindfulness Reality

Not-knowing is wise, because we know so much less than we think we know

Way back when, Garrison Keillor said about his fictional locale, Lake Woebegone, "all the children are above average." This reflects the neuroscientific fact that most people consider themselves to be better drivers than average, more loving and compassionate than average, and in general, above average in lots of areas. Which is mathematically impossible, of course. For every person above average, there has to be another person below average. This seems to also apply to the general notion of how much we know. Most of us, me certainly included, like to believe that we know a great deal about many things.…
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