Sam Harris on Spirituality without Religion, Happiness, and How to Cultivate the Art of Presence by Maria Popova “Our world is dangerously riven by religious doctrines that all educated people should condemn, and yet there is more to understanding the human condition than science and secular culture generally admit.” Nietzsche’s famous proclamation that “God is dead” is among modern history’s most oft-cited aphorisms, and yet as is often the case with its ilk, such quotations often miss the broader context in a way that bespeaks the lazy reductionism with which we tend to approach questions of spirituality today. Nietzsche himself clarified the full dimension of his statement six years later, in a passage from The Twilight of Idols, where he explained that “God” simply signified the supersensory realm, or “true world,” and wrote: “We have abolished the true world. What has remained? Sam Harris by Bara Vetenskap Harris writes: Our minds are all we have. Most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without acknowledging the underlying purpose of our search. Donating = Loving
Practice your personal Kaizen A fine article. But as a resident of Japan who's spent over half his life speaking Japanese, let me take this chance to address one common myth. "Kaizen" in Japanese does NOT mean "continual improvement", or have any mystical managerial significance. It's a mundane, generic word meaning "improvement" - any improvement, continual or not. (An aside: Leading Japanese companies like Toyota make continual improvement a core practice. Toyota and some of its contemporaries have indeed developed advanced, powerful methods for continuous operational improvement, within the context of their industries. Of course, if modern management gurus in the US (or wherever) want to latch on to the word "kaizen" as the new name for "continuous improvement", they're welcome to do so; words gain new meanings all the time.
Google © 2021 - Privacy - Terms Sam Harris on the Paradox of Meditation and How to Stretch Our Capacity for Everyday Self-Transcendence Montaigne believed that meditation is the finest exercise of one’s mind and David Lynch uses it as an anchor of his creative integrity. Over the centuries, the ancient Eastern practice has had a variety of exports and permutations in the West, but at no point has it been more vital to our sanity and psychoemotional survival than amidst our current epidemic of hurrying and cult of productivity. It is remarkable how much we, as a culture, invest in the fitness of the body and how little, by and large, in the fitness of the spirit and the psyche — which is essentially what meditation provides. In Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (public library), neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris argued that cultivating the art of presence is our greatest gateway to true happiness. Harris writes: We know that the self is a social construct and the dissolution of its illusion, Harris argues, is the most valuable gift of meditation:
How to Develop the Hireable Skills You'll Actually Need After College 20 Ways Sitting in Silence Can Completely Transform Your Life “Silence is a source of great strength.” ~Lao Tzu For over two years I spent one out of every four weeks in silence. At the time I was living at a Zen Monastery and every month we would have a week-long silent retreat. During this retreat we sat meditation in silence, ate in silence, worked in silence, and only communicated through hand gestures and written notes. At first living like this was hard, but over time I learned to grow to appreciate silence. What did silence teach me? 1. I used to think I needed to watch TV every night. Silence taught me to be happy with less. 2. When you can only talk by writing a note, you only say what’s important. Silence taught me that a few simple words well spoken have more power than hours of chatter. 3. Being able to speak makes life easy, but when I couldn’t talk I learned how much I relied on others. Silence taught me to appreciate the value of relating to others. 4. Several times at my first retreat I thought my phone was vibrating. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
zenhabits Realizing You're Enough Instead of Trying to Fix Yourself “If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~Oprah Winfrey Seven years ago I discovered a world of healing, energy, and spirituality. It came at a particularly hard time in my life. First, I picked up a bug while travelling, which left me unable to hold down food for over eight weeks, and doctors told me there was nothing more they could do. Then, there were secondary infections, which I learned I might have to live with for life. I was being bullied at work and then walked away from my friends. The first twenty-five carefree years of my life exploded in my face, and confusion set in. In a desperate quest to find answers, happiness, and peace again I went searching, and what an awesome world I found! It started with discovering kinesiology and developed into a learning of healing foods, chakras, and energy healing. And all for a good reason—each of these disciplines was quite literally changing my life. The problem was that I could not see it. Photo here
Fear of Silence I have the impression that many of us are afraid of silence. We’re always taking in something—text, music, radio, television, or thoughts—to occupy the space. If quiet and space are so important for our happiness, why don’t we make more room for them in our lives? One of my longtime students has a partner who is very kind, a good listener, and not overly talkative; but at home her partner always needs to have the radio or TV on, and he likes a newspaper in front of him while he sits and eats his breakfast. I know a woman whose daughter loved to go to sitting meditation at the local Zen temple and encouraged her to give it a try. The daughter told her, “It’s really easy, Mom. We can feel lonely even when we’re surrounded by many people. What are we so afraid of? Practice: Nourishing Coming back to conscious breathing will give you a nourishing break. Guided meditation has been practiced since the time of the Buddha. Breathing in, I know I’m breathing in. (In.
Thoreau’s Body of Knowledge Thoreau’s Body of Knowledge by Liam Heneghan Walking is a foundational practice, amounting in natural history to methodology. Charles Darwin in his Journal and remarks 1832–1836 more commonly known as The Voyage of the Beagle (1839) used the verb “walk”, or variants thereof, almost twice as frequently as the verb “sail” (walk, 94; sail 50). Darwin’s was more a journey on foot than a voyage by ocean. Thoreau’s walking is not, of course, mere exercise, nor is the essay Walking an instructional treatise though it does tell us something of the where (”the West”) and the how (“...shake off the village...”) of walking. For all of his talk of permanent leave-taking there is Thoreau claimed, a “harmony discoverable between the capabilities of the landscape and a circle of ten miles radius, or the limits of an afternoon walk, and the threescore years and ten of human life.” None of this is to suggest that Thoreau eschewed traditional scientific knowledge or theorizing.
Where’s Waldo? Last February, Harvard’s Belknap Press issued the final volume of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Collected Works, a project that had taken over 40 years. It was conceived at the beginning of what is now called “The Emerson Revival.” Before the 1970s, Harvard professor Lawrence Buell remarks, “even specialists could not be counted on to treat Emerson as anything better than an amateur warmup act.” Poststructuralism, however, provided a paradigm for “Emerson’s fragmentary, self-reflexive prose,” and as its star rose, so did Emerson’s. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1845) Interest in Emerson has been going strong ever since. But now that his Collected Works is complete, I’d like to suggest that we close the book on the Emerson Revival. Most people agree that Emerson is not a philosopher. It’s odd to think of “my own body” as “not me,” but let’s move on. How about Emerson’s much-lauded practical wisdom? Other sayings are downright troubling. His central idea, of course, is “Trust thyself.” Read that again.
Kahlil Gibran on the Absurdity of Self-Righteousness by Maria Popova A simple reminder that nothing undoes dignity like peevish indignation. Decades before artist Anne Truitt pondered the cure for our chronic self-righteousness, another extraordinary creative mind tussled with this human pathology. SAID A BLADE OF GRASSSaid a blade of grass to an autumn leaf, “You make such a noise falling! For a different side of the same existential coin, treat yourself to Mary Oliver’s beautiful reading of “Wild Geese.” Donating = Loving Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes hundreds of hours each month. You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount. Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. Share on Tumblr
The I Ching is an uncertainty machine – Will Buckingham I stepped into the dark of the ramshackle hillside temple. It was a hot day, and the climb had been steep. There were no other tourists around. The only people I passed on my way up the mountainside steps were two pious old ladies, pausing to catch their breath as they struggled through the afternoon heat. Inside it was cool, the air fragrant with incense. I had visited other temples elsewhere in China, in larger cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Wuhan; but there I had blended in among the hopeful devotees and noisy tourists. ‘England,’ I told him. He smiled. I told him I was writing a book. ‘A book about China?’ I hesitated. I was in China in pursuit of an obsession that, among certain of my more sober-minded and rational friends, was the cause of some alarm. ‘What is it about, then?’ My friend shrugged. I was momentarily silenced. There was a pleasing mathematical completeness to this series of symbols. It was in this way that I found myself becoming a diviner. 11 October 2013
27 Life Changing Lessons to Learn from Eckhart Tolle By: Luminita, PurposeFairy I love Eckhart Tolle. I remember reading his book,The Power of Now in 2010 and from that moment on, whenever I feel that my mind is drifting, making too much noise and keeping me from being fully present and engaged in the NOW, I immediately go back to reading his book. Enjoy ! 1. “People don’t realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.” “…the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. “Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. “Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.” “Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. “As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. 2. 3. “Accept – then act. 4. 5.